Trump's Epstein Meltdown, Israel Bombs Syria, & Meta's Manhattan Project

Hi readers, happy Thursday! Today we’re covering Trump’s “Epstein Files” meltdown, Israel’s strikes on Syria, the effects of Trump’s Russia threats, a water shortage in Ecuador, another Eric Adams lawsuit, Jerome Powell’s job prospects, and Meta’s massive data center plans.

Here’s the good news: Yesterday, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs announced that her administration, in partnership with nonprofit Undue Medical Debt, has erased $429 million in for more than 352,000 Arizonans. The announcement is part of a wider partnership between the state and the nonprofit which see them erase a total of $2 billion for over 1 million Arizonans.

“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.” ― John Lubbock

The File That Broke The President’s Brain

Has Trump’s flirtation with conspiracies finally come back to bite him? Will his years-long, well-documented close relationship with Jeffrey Epstein be the thing that turns MAGA against him? Probably not. Despite that, Trump isn’t taking the whole “Epstein Files” debacle very well, going as far as lashing out against any of his supporters who believe that federal documents related to Epstein’s case should be made public.

Here’s what the president wrote about any of his supporters who want the files released: “They haven’t learned their lesson, and probably never will, even after being conned by the Lunatic Left for 8 long years. Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats [sic] work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support any more!” He’s also called them 

Conspiracy theories about Epstein have floated around the internet since his death in 2019 – in short, people believe that the disgraced financier was murdered while in jail because powerful elites wanted to hide their involvement in his extensive sex trafficking case. Trump himself leveraged the theories to stir up his base, promising to “declassify the Epstein files” on the campaign trail last June. Now, the president is trying every method to avoid releasing the files, claiming they’re “boring” and were somehow fabricated by Democrats – Attorney General Pam Bondi also tried to help out, claiming that an Epstein “client list” doesn’t actually exist despite saying it was “sitting on my desk right now” in February. The claim that a client list doesn’t exist is actually probably true (why would Epstein keep such incriminating evidence in a single list?), but the president does seem to be losing real supporters over this debacle. “You’re losing your most loyal followers and voices Mr President,” wrote one person on TruthSocial. “Why are you protecting pedophiles?” asked another.

Going Ham For The Golan

Since Monday, Israel has been firing airstrikes into Syria. The attacks reached a crescendo yesterday when Israeli missiles hit Syria’s defence ministry in Damascus, collapsing four floors of the building. The Israelis have justified their three-day bombing campaign by claiming that the attacks are being conducted in order to defend Syria’s Druze minority group, which is clashing with the country’s Islamist (but U.S.-linked) regime in the country’s southern Sweida region.

According to one human rights monitor, at least 260 people had been killed in the clashes as of Wednesday morning, including 4 children, 7 women, and 138 militants linked to the regime in Damascus, but that’s not why Israel is bombing its northeastern neighbor. On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel has “a commitment to preserve the southwestern region of Syria as a demilitarized area on Israel's border.” Sweida, in his eyes, acts as a buffer zone for the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, a plateau that the country annexed from Syria in 1981. To Israel, keeping the Golan in its control is a crucial security priority as the region overlooks much of the country’s northern territories.

Luckily, it seems like the bombing might stop. Late yesterday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that Syria’s government and Druze fighters had agreed to a path to ending the fighting, writing, “We have agreed on specific steps that will bring this troubling and horrifying situation to an end tonight.” The U.N. Security Council is also expected to address the conflict today.

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Quite The Quandary In Quito

• Quito, the capital city of Ecuador, is facing its worst water crisis in 25 years. The water shortage began when a landslide damaged a pipeline that supplies water to Quito’s southern neighborhoods, filling it with sludge. Since then, over 400,000 people have been without water as officials struggle to fix the damaged pipeline. 

• While the city’s municipal government has mobilized dozens of water trucks to provide the affected areas with potable water, people have begun taking untreated water from  local springs because water deliveries are often hard to reach and don’t arrive on a reliable schedule. Quito Mayor Pabel Muñoz claims drinking water services should be available by Sunday, and has prodded the national government for its lack of help with the situation. 

They’re Not Russian To Stop The Strikes

• Russia continued its air attacks on Ukraine yesterday, firing off yet another wave of drones. According to Ukraine’s air force, Moscow sent 400 drones and one ballistic missile into Ukrainian airspace targeting Kharkiv, Kryvyi Rih, and Vinnytsia. The attacks were aimed at taking out Ukrainian energy infrastructure, and were relatively successful – though just 57 Russian drones hit 12 targets, Ukraine’s biggest power company reported that over 80,000 families were left without power when the dust settled.

• The fact that the Kremlin is still executing such bold strikes on Ukraine should tell you all you need to know about how Trump’s new hardline stance against Russia has been received in Moscow. If not, here’s another data point: after Trump threatened to slap Russia with tariffs if a ceasefire isn’t reached soon, the country’s stock market rose 2.7% the following morning, and it continued to pound Ukraine with yesterday’s air attacks. 

Additional World News

• Ukraine wing of US-founded terrorist group says it was involved in killing of intelligence officer in Kyiv (Guardian)

• As Iran Deports a Million Afghans, ‘Where Do We Even Go?’ (NYT, $)

• New pier completed at North Korea rocket launch site, satellite imagery shows (Reuters)

• A crowd surge at an aid site in Gaza run by an Israeli-backed group kills 20 Palestinians (AP) 

• Monks behaving badly: the sex scandal rocking Thailand’s Buddhist clergy (Guardian) 

• What Dead Birds Have to Do with the End of Europe (Free Press)

New York City’s Finest (At Being Corrupt)

• New York Mayor Eric Adams’ police department was just served its fifth lawsuit in two weeks. In the suit, a former police commissioner appointed by Adams himself accuses the mayor of running New York City’s government (and its police department) as a criminal enterprise. The former commissioner, Thomas G. Donlon, was appointed in 2024, and claims he “uncovered systemic corruption and criminal conduct being perpetrated by the N.Y.P.D.’s leadership” while on the job. When he brought evidence in front of Adams (a former cop himself), Donlon claims that the mayor “condoned the misconduct” and allowed it to continue. 

• “Mayor Adams dismantled the N.Y.P.D.’s chain of command and handed the department to a cabal of cronies and criminals,” said one of Donlon’s lawyers. “The result is a demoralized force where integrity is punished.” While the mayor’s lawyers have criticized the suit as “nothing more than an attempt to seek compensation at the taxpayer’s expense after Mr. Donlon was rightfully removed from the role of interim police commissioner,” it’s likely that the case(s) will further damage Adams' independent run for New York City Hall in November.

You’re Fired! …Just Not Yet!

• On Tuesday, Trump again semi-publicly toyed with the idea of firing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, reportedly waving around a draft of a letter telling the Fed Chair that he’s fired during a meeting with House Republicans. Trump has repeatedly threatened to oust Powell due to disagreements over monetary policy, but he’s unable to get rid of him unless he can prove that the Fed Chair is guilty of gross misconduct. The letter, according to the New York Times, was written by William J. Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

• When asked about the meeting, Trump denied having any plans to actually fire Powell. “I talked about the concept of firing him. I said, ‘what do you think?’ Almost everyone of them said I should,” Trump said, adding, “but I’m more conservative.” Later in the day, when asked to rule out the possibility of firing Powell, the president said, “I don’t rule out anything but I think it’s highly unlikely unless he has to leave for fraud.” However, he immediately pointed to ongoing renovations at the Federal Reserve building, saying, “I mean it’s possible there’s fraud involved with the $2.5 billion renovation.” 

Additional USA News

• After Northwestern scientist questioned for China ties died by suicide, family sues and speaks out (NBC)

• The Economy Seems Healthy. Were the Warnings About Tariffs Overblown? (NYT, $)

• Democratic senators raise concerns about a new Trump citizenship data system (NPR)

• Police officer who killed bystander after Pennsylvania shooting sentenced to probation (Guardian)  

• Liquids rule could be the next airport security screening change, DHS Secretary suggests (CNN)

• Senate Approves Trump’s Bid to Cancel Foreign Aid and Funds for NPR and PBS Stations (NYT, $)

Meta’s Own Manhattan Project

• What do you build for a man who already owns multiple mansions and a sprawling compound in Hawaii? A data center the size of a New York City borough, apparently. This week, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that his company is planning to construct multiple data centers: they’ll all have capacity to consume multiple gigawatts of electricity, and one will be almost as large as Manhattan. The borough-sized computer cluster will be used to support Meta’s “Superintelligence Labs” AI effort, which has already burned billions of dollars to buy out top AI workers and reshape the company’s struggling AI division.

• Meta’s first multi-gigawatt data center will be named Prometheus, and Zuckerberg has promised that it will be online by 2026. Its second data center – which will be partially completed by 2030 – will be named Hyperion, and will scale up to 5 gigawatts of capacity. “We're building multiple more titan clusters as well. Just one of these covers a significant part of the footprint of Manhattan,” Zuckerberg wrote in a post. “We have the capital from our business to do this,” he added. Last year, Meta raked in $165 billion in revenue, which will fuel the Zuckerbergs plans to “invest hundreds of billions of dollars... to build superintelligence.”

Additional Reads

• The Consulting Crash Is Coming (Free Press)

• Paranormal investigator dies on US tour with allegedly haunted doll Annabelle (Guardian)

• Now Is a Very Good Time to Buy a Used EV. Here’s Why (Wired)

• What Will Become of the C.I.A.? (New Yorker)

• Babies made using three people's DNA are born free of hereditary disease (BBC)

• 'It's just better!' Trump says Coca-Cola to change key US ingredient (BBC) 

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