If there was a Hall of Fame for liars ... Adam Schiff would be Elvis.”
— Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a self-described “Trumpocrat” who tried to sell Obama’s vacant Senate seat. |
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Israel killed the top Hamas leader in Gaza. But there’s no sign that its mass killing of Palestinians will end — even as the White House aims to wind things down.
- Many close observers of international politics thought Israel might be on the verge of declaring victory in its war in the Gaza Strip last fall after the country assassinated Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, mastermind behind the October 7 attacks. Instead, Israel continued its war — killing more than 60,000 people, including 17,000 children, according to local health officials — while arguing that Hamas remained a major threat in the territory. Sinwar’s younger brother, Mohammed, took over as the new leader of Hamas.
- Months later, it feels like history is stuck on repeat: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced today that Israel had killed Mohammed Sinwar… and that the country would keep fighting. He pledged to continue the war until “total victory,” less than a week after vowing to take full control of the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, Israeli troops fired warning shots as Palestinians swarmed a new food center in Gaza, where residents have been pushed to the brink of famine.
- Will the latest assassination change Israel’s behavior? “I wish it [would] but I’m sure he’ll be replaced soon with another genocidal arch-terrorist,” Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, an Israeli politician currently serving as the country's special envoy for trade and innovation, texted What A Day. The thinking has long been clear: Israel won’t stop until Hamas is fully eliminated — even though the group has recruited up to 15,000 new members since the war began.
There’s still no clear end to the war in sight.
- “I’m just guessing here, but I think we'll be done by the summer,” a senior Trump official who works on foreign policy told What A Day. “And then you start to get into, what does the day after look like? How do we move the region forward? And then … really start trying to move the region forward within the first six months of the Trump presidency.”
- That may be wishful thinking, given recent developments. In February, the U.S. approved a $7.4 billion weapons package for Israel, which included bombs and missiles. In March, the U.S. announced plans to sell $3 billion in weapons and assistance to Israel — without Congress’s approval.
- Top U.S. officials are signaling that they disapprove of Israel’s handling of the war, even though the White House continues to support its overall efforts. “We’re not immune or in any way insensitive to the suffering of the people of Gaza,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last week. Vice President JD Vance reportedly skipped Israel on a recent trip to the Middle East to avoid giving the impression that the Trump administration supports Israel’s expanded military operation. Special envoy Steve Witkoff also chimed in recently: “We do not want to see a humanitarian crisis.”
Trump says he wants the war to end “as quickly as possible,” likely because it complicates his other goals in the region. But he’s still unwilling to hold Israel accountable for what many scholars describe as genocide. How does that make sense? Good question! |
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Elon Musk famously spent a decade promising that his company was on the eve of delivering “Full Self-Driving” cars. Instead, after a tumultuous few months in politics, he found another mode of transportation: Riding the rail out of Washington D.C., back to an embarrassing return to his struggling companies.
And, apparently, he’s feeling downright sorry for himself.
“DOGE is just becoming the whipping boy for everything,” he told the Washington Post, referring to his controversial so-called Department of Government Efficiency. “So, like, something bad would happen anywhere, and we would get blamed for it even if we had nothing to do with it.”
That’s rich, considering DOGE cut funds to USAID, which has left millions of vulnerable people around the world without much-needed food and medical assistance.
But that’s not all! He’s also frustrated that people don’t like Tesla electric cars anymore. The car company’s U.S. sales started this year in the toilet , and plunged in Europe nearly 50 percent last month, year-on-year.
“People were burning Teslas. Why would you do that? That’s really uncool,” he said, sounding like a angsty teenager.
Despite these frustrations, the centibillionaire seems relieved to be away from the city that despises him so much.
“I’m physically here,” Musk said from the SpaceX office, ahead of his Starship rocket test launch. “This is the focus, and especially around launch. Everything comes together at the moment of launch.”
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Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s conditions for ending the war in Ukraine include an end to NATO expansion and some sanctions relief, Reuters reports. But Trump has grown increasingly frustrated with Putin, privately considering even more sanctions and accusing the dictator of “playing with fire.”
Trump adviser Stephen Miller and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem recently demanded that ICE agents boost the number of immigrant arrests to 3,000 people per day. That’s three times the number of daily arrests during the early days of Donald Trump’s term. “Miller's directive and tone had people leaving the meeting feeling their jobs could be in jeopardy if the new targets aren't reached,” Axios writes. You’re really gonna let a dude who looks a bald Pee Wee Herman talk to you like that? Come on!
Trump is considering pardons for the men convicted of plotting to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) in 2020. “They were drinking and I think they said stupid things but I’ll take a look at that, and a lot of people are asking me that question from both sides actually,” Trump told reporters. “A lot of people think they got railroaded.” File this under one of the scariest things Trump could do.
Brainworm survivor Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he may ban the government’s scientists from publishing in top medical journals: “We’re probably going to stop publishing in the Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA and those other journals because they’re all corrupt,” Kennedy said on a podcast. To be clear: Those three journals began publishing in the 1800s and are some of the most respected and reliable institutions in the medical community. RFK Jr., on the other hand, thinks it’s safe to submerge himself in sewage-infested waters.
The annual Vietnam veterans’ ceremony won’t be held in Washington, D.C. for the first time since its founding more than 30 years ago — because of Trump’s birthday parade next month. (It’s officially a celebration for the Army’s birthday, but the parade was added to the event schedule earlier this year. Go figure!) Instead, the veterans’ ceremony will be held six miles away in Alexandria. “Our heroes are being shoved aside,” one veteran’s spouse said.
The outgoing Capitol police chief warned against trying to convince lawmakers to change their minds about the violent Jan. 6 riot conducted by MAGA diehards: “I don’t think it’s wise or necessary or useful to try and convince members of Congress what to think” about the coup attempt, he told Politico. A man saying we shouldn’t communicate our feelings to other men. Classic!
The coming years are about to be hot as hell, two of the world’s top weather agencies predicted. There’s an 80 percent chance that the record for highest annual temperature will be broken within the next five years, they warned. That means stronger hurricanes, droughts, and other climate dangers. Trump already makes it feel like we’re in the underworld, so I don’t think it’ll feel too much different!
Remember that extremely long speech Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) gave that drew applause from Democrats? Welp, he’s adapting it into a book. The rules: You have to finish it in one sitting, and you can’t use the bathroom. |
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LET'S MEET, IRL
Hey What A Day readers! What a Day the podcast will be live at the Cascade PBS Ideas Festival, on May 31 in downtown Seattle. That's this Saturday!
Jane Coaston will be interviewing former senator, comedian and Saturday Night Live writer Al Franken, and it’s a conversation you’re not going to want to miss.The rest of the lineup at the festival includes guests like CNN anchor Jake Tapper, former Republican Senator Jeff Flake, Washington’s own Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, plus Amanda Knox and a ton of other live podcasts like Criminal and Radiolab.
If you're in the area, come see What A Day! You can get tickets and find out more at cascadepbs.org/festival.
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A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration’s executive order against law firm WilmerHale — which aimed to suspend security clearances for employees and cancel contracts with the firm — is unconstitutional. “The cornerstone of the American system of justice is an independent judiciary and an independent bar willing to tackle unpopular cases, however daunting. The founding fathers knew this!” he wrote in an exclamation-point filled opinion. That’s the energy we love to see.
A federal judge said she would grant bail to Kseniia Petrova, a Russian scientist at Harvard University who has been imprisoned since February, because there “does not seem to be either a factual or legal basis” to strip her of her visa. Petrova failed to declare frog embryo samples she brought back from an overseas trip at the request of her supervisor.
Astronomers discovered a weird new object 15,000 light-years away, which is simultaneously emitting X-rays and radio waves every 44 minutes. It could be a star or a pair of them… or “something exotic” and unknown, the lead author of the study wrote. I think it could be an alien hitting snooze on his intergalactic alarm clock, but the experts haven't asked me.
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