Hello, readers – happy Friday! Today, we’ll be talking about tariffs, making America “healthy” again, NATO rearmament, West Bank settlements, a railroad, the climate crisis, and a tattoo to track your stress.

Here’s some good news: Spain is preparing a law that will require wet wipe manufacturers to cover the costs of cleaning their product from the country’s clogged-up sewers and water-treatment plants (gentle reminder that “flushable” wipes aren’t flushable, folks!). Also, after years of absence, golden eagles are coming back to England from the south of Scotland.

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“What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.” – Saint Augustine

The Tariff Rollercoaster Never Ends

Ping pong diplomacy was Nixon’s thing, but playing ping pong with the American economy? That’s Trump’s thing. Over the past two days, the U.S. stock market was put in the blender by Trump and a few different judges as challenges to the president’s controversial tariffs were challenged in court.

Late Wednesday night, one U.S. trade court ruled that Trump’s tariffs were illegal. In the U.S., the ultimate authority to set tariffs in the U.S. rests with Congress, but Trump has leveraged emergency tariff powers by claiming that America’s long-held trade deficits with other nations amount to a national emergency. Markets opened to a short-lived rally in response.

A few hours into Thursday, those gains were wiped out when a U.S. appeals court issued a temporary pause on the decision. The freeze will keep the tariffs in place until an appeals hearing is held. The White House’s press secretary said that the trade court had “brazenly abused their judicial power to usurp the authority of President Trump,” and the White House has expressed its desire to bring the case all the way to the Supreme Court to keep its tariffs in place. 

A Healthy Aversion To Good Research

Last week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published a 73-page report – the “Make America Healthy Again” report –  investigating the causes of various chronic illnesses. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. described his study as the “gold-standard” for science, citing hundreds of other studies. 

Unfortunately for Kennedy (and the rest of us), it doesn’t look like his researchers did enough actual research. According to news outlet NOTUS, at least seven studies cited in the report don’t actually exist, and other citations don’t actually back up the claims made in the report. For example, the MAHA report claimed that one paper showed that talk therapy was as effective as taking psychiatric medication – when reached for comment, one of its authors told the Guardian that “we did not include psychotherapy” in the data review. 

While HHS has yet to make a move based on the MAHA report’s findings (that’s set to come in August), it’s already begun pushing RFK Jr’s anti-vax agenda. Yesterday, the Trump administration canceled a $600-million contract with drugmaker Moderna that would have seen the pharmaceutical company develop a human bird flu vaccine. The H5N1 avian flu has spread across the U.S. over the past few years, sparking worries that it might eventually mutate and spread to humans, but apparently, the Trump government isn’t worried about that.

Building Up Weapons, Tearing Down The Climate

• Countries around the globe are increasing their defense investments at record rates this year, and NATO is no exception. According to the Global Peace Index, military spending increased in 108 countries in 2023. European countries increased their weapons spending by 30% between 2021 and 2024, and this year the E.U. proposed a further €800 billion in defense spending after Trump pulled U.S. money out of Ukraine.

• What does this mean for the world? Well, billions of dollars are being poured into the next generation of murder drones and supersonic missiles instead of, say, feeding people. But also, a new study suggests that all this military buildup – specifically by NATO countries – will spew millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, worsening the climate crisis. 

• “There is a real concern around the way that we are prioritising short-term security and sacrificing long-term security,” one of the study’s co-authors told the Guardian. “Because of this kind of lack-of-informed approach that we’re taking, you’re investing in hard military security now, increasing global emissions for that reason, and worsening the climate crisis further down the line.” The research shows that up to 200 million tons of carbon could be added to the atmosphere as a consequence of the buildup – that’s the equivalent of the annual emissions from about 43 million passenger vehicles.

They Won’t Settle ‘Til It’s All Settled

• Israel approved 22 new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank yesterday as the IDF continues its conquest of Gaza. According to Defense Minister Israel Katz, the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank “prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger Israel” – at least he’s being honest?

• Israeli anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now described the massive expansion as “the most extensive move of its kind” in decades. There are roughly 160 existing Israeli settlements housing over 700,000 Israelis in the West Bank right now – settlers are defended by IDF troops even when they leave their settlements to attack Palestinians. “The Israeli government no longer pretends otherwise: the annexation of the occupied territories and expansion of settlements is its central goal,” said the head of Peace Now.

More Mixed Nuts

• Search suspended for a missing man in Swiss glacier collapse that destroyed 90% of an Alpine village (AP)

• How China Uses Work to Reshape Uyghur Identity and Control a Strategic Region (NYT, $)

• World faces new danger of ‘economic denial’ in climate fight, Cop30 head says (Guardian)

• Portugal's Chega party becomes the main opposition and joins Europe's far-right surge (NPR)

• Thousands flee wildfire in Manitoba (BBC)

• Argentina used as a ‘testing ground’ for eroding abortion rights, warns Amnesty (Guardian)

Middle East Mixed Nuts

• Controversial U.S.-backed Gaza aid group breaching rules for foundations registered in Switzerland, Swiss authorities say (CBS)

• Gaza ceasefire talks: Trump's envoy is optimistic but Israel and Hamas are deeply divided (AP)

• Hundreds of writers call for Gaza ceasefire and aid (NPR)

Suing For A Future

• 22 young Americans aged 7-25 have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, arguing that by boosting oil and gas production and slowing the transition to green energy, federal officials are violating their constitutional rights to life and liberty. They also say the government has violated the “danger doctrine,” a legal principle meant to prevent officials from inflicting injury upon their citizens. The plaintiffs are from extreme-weather-ravaged states like Florida and Hawaii. 

• Along those same lines, an analysis released yesterday found that more than $14 billion in clean energy investments in the U.S. have been canceled or delayed this year. The analysis, completed by E2 and Atlas Public Policy, estimates that the losses since January have also cost 10,000 new clean energy jobs. “The House’s plan coupled with the administration’s focus on stomping out clean energy and returning us to a country powered by coal and gas guzzlers is causing businesses to cancel plans, delay their plans and take their money and jobs to other countries instead,” E2 executive director Bob Keefe said.

Will This Be On The Next Season Of “Secret Lives Of Mormon Wives”?

• Yesterday, the Supreme Court handed down an 8-0 decision that will allow a multibillion-dollar oil railroad expansion in Utah. The project will quadruple oil production in the remote area, but the ruling will have sweeping impacts on National Environmental Policy Act reviews. 

• Environmental groups worried about increased wildfire risk, the effect of additional crude oil production, and increased refining in Gulf Coast states, but the justices felt that regulators were right to consider the direct effects of the project, rather than the wider ripple effects.

More Nuts In America

• On graduation day, Harvard's lawyers head to court to defend foreign students from Trump administration policy (ABC)

• Trump's Air Force One deal with Qatar not finalized, being reviewed by prospective legal teams (ABC)

• Rubio says U.S. will 'aggressively' revoke visas for many Chinese students (NPR)

• Sexual exploitation and domestic violence soared after Lahaina wildfire, report finds (Guardian)

• Trump’s clemency spree extends to ex-gangster, artist, former congressmen (WaPo, $)

Getting Tatted Up For Tracking

• Companies have moved on from tracking your computer’s mouse movements during work hours to tracking your general mental state. This week, researchers published a report in the journal Device, promoting a new prototype “e-tattoo” that can track users’ mental workloads. 

• The report’s authors say that the device can be used to raise safety standards in high-stakes professions like piloting and medicine where keeping a clear head is necessary to keep other people safe. “For this kind of high-demand and high-stake scenario, eventually we hope to have this real-time mental workload decoder that can give people some warning and alert so that they can self-adjust, or they can ask AI or a co-worker to offload some of their work,” said one of the study’s authors.

• The device isn’t really a tattoo but more of a long, flexible sticker that sits on the user’s face. The lines of the tattoos are actually conductive graphite material that connect a series of electrodes at key areas of the face. The electrodes monitor things like brain waves and eye movements, including when the user furrows their brow out of frustration. Each device is expected to cost less than $200, and the researchers are working on an app that can turn its readings into push notifications on your phone. While the technology is currently meant to increase safety in key jobs, this is maybe a few tweaks away from a brain-productivity tracker. Somebody had better get started on developing the brain activity equivalent of a mouse jiggler soon.

More Loose Nuts

• Turkey to fine airline passengers who stand up before plane stops (BBC)

• Chinese paraglider almost equals world record at 28,000 feet — by accident (NBC)

• Search for elusive "Planet Nine" takes surprising twist, astronomers say (CBS)

• The New York Times and Amazon ink AI licensing deal (TechCrunch)

• Why does Switzerland have more nuclear bunkers than any other country? (Guardian)

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Team Thoughts

Kayli - For those of us with a permanent frown, the e-tattoo sounds like bad news.

Marcus - Can’t we make the e-tattoo in cooler designs at least? Like…if an employer is going to track my brainwaves, I want to look like Mike Tyson.

Editor In Chief: Kayli Woods

Head Writer: Marcus Gee-Lim

Designer: Joe Stella