Today's Headlines: Iran shot down a US Army helicopter yesterday, the US responded with strikes on Iranian air defense systems, both crew members are stable, and stock futures dropped immediately — so the ceasefire is going great. Meanwhile, the World Cup starts tomorrow and the Trump administration is already making it a disaster: the best male referee in Africa was denied entry despite a valid visa, the Iraqi team's vice captain was detained for seven hours at O'Hare, the team photographer was turned away entirely, and Trump is preemptively blaming Europe for any Ebola outbreaks despite zero confirmed cases there. Meanwhile, the House voted to give ICE and Border Patrol $70 billion more for immigration enforcement — $38 billion to ICE, $26 billion to Border Patrol, and a breezy $5 billion for "unforeseen costs." Anthropic's cofounder published a blog post asking leading AI labs to consider pausing frontier AI development, comparing it to nuclear nonproliferation — the response was a collective "no," with some calling it self-serving given everyone's upcoming IPOs — and this comes as Anthropic is reportedly preparing to release Claude Fable 5, a model it deemed too dangerous for public release just six months ago. Epstein assistant Lesley Groff testified before the House Oversight Committee claiming she "never saw anything improper" after two decades of keeping Epstein's entire schedule, which the committee found highly inconsistent. Tom Steyer conceded the California governor's race, Trump kept pushing election fraud conspiracies about California to the point that a congressman reported a friend canceling their voter registration over Spencer Pratt, and Ken Paxton's own former impeachment attorney endorsed Democrat James Talarico in the Texas Senate race, saying Paxton is too focused on appeasing Trump to be a good senator. And finally, NASA announced the Artemis III crew of four astronauts who will orbit Earth practicing lunar lander docking in preparation for a 2028 moon landing — assuming Blue Origin delivers its lander on time, which is uncertain after one of its rockets exploded during a test.
Resources/Articles mentioned:
AP News: US and Iran launch airstrikes after Trump blamed Tehran for downing Army helicopter
CNBC: Stock futures slip after U.S. launches ‘self-defense strikes’ against Iran: Live updates
NYT: U.S. Denies Entry to World Cup Referee From Somalia
NYT: Iraq World Cup star Aymen Hussein questioned for ‘seven hours’ by U.S. immigration officials
Axios: Scoop: Trump admin pre-blames Europe for any World Cup Ebola
AP News: House passes $70B bill to fund immigration enforcement for 3 years, sending to Trump
MS Now: Longtime Epstein assistant denies knowledge of his crimes to House Oversight Committee
Business Insider: What smart people are saying about Anthropic suggesting a global AI pause
WSJ: Anthropic Releases Fable 5, a ‘Mythos-Class’ AI Model With Guardrails
WaPo: Maine Senate primary election live results: Graham Platner runs
X: X | Ro Kanna
AP News: Ken Paxton's attorney in his impeachment trial endorses James Talarico in US Senate race
AP News: NASA unveils Artemis III astronauts to test technology for a future moon landing
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