Carry On

Anyone who’s ever tried to integrate an exercise routine into their daily life will tell you that while it may be hard at first, it gets easier over time.

You just have to stick with it.

The same goes for writing, or any other creative endeavor. While at first you may find yourself staring at an empty screen, or staring off into space, writing a few paragraphs every day can become one of those habits that gets easier over time.

Of course, that still doesn’t mean it is easy. Significant achievements rarely are easy.

My own commitment to myself and my readers is to try to write something every day. On days that, for whatever reason, I cannot, I still sort the news from major news outlets and post links to the headlines of those stories and call it a “mix,”

Some days I repost an old essay. Some 6,000 of those exist, as I’ve been doing this now for 20 years, but only the best are worth revisiting more than once or twice.

On the days I repost an old essay, I’m wearing my editor’s hat, rather than that of the writer. 

Overall, this daily routine of sorting the news, trying to write an essay, and editing what I will publish the following day has become one of my main habits.

Just like daily exercise, though I could get a lot better at that one…

Recommended reading: Stephen Marche’s guest essay in the Times from Toronto: “Friday, Aug. 21, may go down in history as Canada’s Liberation Day. It was the day America came for us, and we said no.”

HEADLINES:

• US and Canada plunge deeper into a trade war (AP)

• America Came for Canada. We Said No. (NYT)

• ‘No more!!!’: Trump lashes out after US-Canada talks devolve into trade war (Guardian)

• Trump accused of risking more pain for Americans with Canada trade war (FT)

• U.S.-Canada breakdown shows limits of Trump’s aggressive trade strategy (WP)

• Iran Warns Gulf States Against Joining Trump’s Economic War, or Else (NYT)

• Top Iran official says U.S. focus on economic warfare shows it has failed militarily (NPR)

• The USS Lincoln has been at sea for 270-plus days. Here’s why conditions on board fell apart (Independent)

• Zelenskyy says wartime elections could ‘destroy’ Ukraine (Al Jazeera)

• Dems turning more GOP Senate strongholds into midterm battlegrounds (Axios)

• Why Polling Chaos Could Create Big Problems for American Politics (NYT)

• Natalie Harp reportedly posted 150 pro-Trump tweets on day of Capitol riot (Guardian)

• Another Democratic rising star jibes at Trump over close aide Natalie Harp as her deleted Jan 6 posts revealed (Independent)

• Doctors say Trump’s weight poses a significant health risk (WP)

• NATO’s next nightmare: The French presidential election (Politico)

• Why some of America’s biggest brands are losing ground in China (CNBC)

• The creator of the 4% rule for retirement savings wants you to spend more (BI)

• Why College Enrollments Are Expected to Plunge (WSJ)

• Human-caused wildfire approaches Reno, Nevada, forcing thousands of evacuations (AP)

• California has forgotten how to fix things. Can these new Bay Area cafés help? (SFC)

• The modern parenting ‘throuple’ (BI)

• Texas Governor Abbott Says Data Centers ‘Dug Their Own Grave’ (Newsweek)

• Robot boxing, football and sprinting at World Humanoid Games (BBC)

• AI trained on simulated sites finds unknown features in lidar data (Archaeology News)

• David Attenborough Admits To Exaggerating Wonder Of Seals (Onion)

Sunday Mix

HEADLINES:

• ‘Attacked’ by Trump on Trade, Canada Is ‘at War’ With U.S., Carney Says — Prime Minister Mark Carney gave a powerful speech to Canadians on Saturday morning, hours after ordering negotiators to suspend U.S. trade talks despite President Trump’s punishing tariffs. (NYT)

• Trump accuses Canada of wanting ‘benefits of being a State, without being one’ amid trade war (The Hill)

• Ahead of tough new U.S. sanctions, Iran criticizes ‘extraterritorial sovereignty’ (CNBC)

• Iranian military leader vows Tehran ‘will not submit’ as US prepares further economic squeeze (CNN)

• Tehran says US sanctions ‘declaration of war’ on all nations (Al Jazeera)

• Persuasion, denial and bluster: Trump ‘stuck’ on Iran war ahead of elections (Guardian)

• USS Abraham Lincoln Leaves the Middle East After Almost 7 Months (USNI)

• Families of USS Abraham Lincoln crew upset over Trump, Hegseth remarks (USA Today)

• There Is Something Very Wrong With the U.S. Navy Right Now (Slate)

• Army Secretary Driscoll to Step Down This Year Amid Hegseth Friction: Report (Military.com)

• Men from Cuba and other countries describe being deported by the U.S. to a dangerous African nation: “We cannot leave” (CBS)

• Russian forces have begun equipping loitering drones with microphones for attacks on vehicles (UA.news)

• US Postal Service rule tightens mail-in voting despite court orders blocking changes (Guardian)

• ‘People are p***** off’: Black voters are turning out after Supreme Court guts Voting Rights Act (Independent)

• America’s college enrollment map is being redrawn (Axios)

• She’s a Trump acolyte. He’s a ‘gringo Sandinista.’ Meet the Harps. (WP)

• Deleted tweets show Natalie Harp’s zealous support of Trump on January 6 (CNN)

• What Natalie Harp Carries (New Yorker)

• Amid an August of mounting danger, a frivolous, oblivious president (WP)

• Sen. Adam Schiff on Israel, Impeachment, and Post-Trump America (Reveal)

• Trump falls short on foreign policy (Reuters)

• ​Hawaii’s Young People Are Fleeing Paradise. Can Tech Startups Keep Them? (WSJ)

• U.S. Forest Service, timber companies spraying record amounts of glyphosate in California (PBS)

• Why millions of people around the world will contract measles in 2026 (The Conversation)

• Some Americans are turning to Europe for help having a baby (WP)

• How an 18-month career break changed my life (BI)

• No more doom scrolling or Instagram Stories? A Meta trial loss could end the social media we know (CNBC)

• A.I. Is Everywhere in China. See For Yourself. (NYT)

• Chinese robot runs 100m sprint quicker than Usain Bolt’s world record (Guardian)

• Anthropic IPO filing will show AI backlash as a risk factor, sources say (CNBC)

• Would even an AI disaster on the scale of Hiroshima be enough to make humankind protect itself? I fear not (Guardian)

• White House Doctor Claims President Has Always Been Face Drawn Onto Cantaloupe (Onion)

 

Oh Canada

The Trump administration’s trade talks with Canada collapsed Friday, deepening the crisis between the U.S. and our neighbors to the north.

But I don’t have to look north to see Canada; all I have to do is look in the mirror.

I’m Canadian by virtue of my father’s birth there in 1916.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney “walked away,” in the words of the Times, “from what he thought was a bad trade deal with the United States. Many Canadians are behind him, but it will be costly.”

Trump has said that 50 percent tariffs will now go into effect on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods.

• “By walking away, Mr. Carney chose a road that no major U.S. ally has taken: With his country’s economy on the line, he stood up to President Trump and refused to accept the administration’s offer of a new trade relationship with tariffs permanently baked in. Britain, the European Union and other major U.S. trading partners have agreed to smaller deals that have been volatile and often left them worse off.”

• “Since he rose to lead Canada last year, Mr. Carney has put in motion a plan to help his country survive Mr. Trump’s presidency and, in the long run, thrive apart from the United States. One of his favorite lines is that “nostalgia is not a policy,” and he has told everyone who will listen that there is no going back to the old relationship with the United States — a close and familial, if lopsided, bond.”

• “Instead, Mr. Carney has been traveling to secure new partnerships in Asia and Europe, a generational shift away from economic dependence on the United States, although that is unlikely to bear fruit fast enough to cushion the blow of the breakdown of the two countries’ relationship.”

For me personally, this feels like a divorce. It’s a tearing-in-half of the self kind of feeling. If I’m going to have to take sides in this divorce, I’ll stand with Canada.

HEADLINES:

• Iran declares it has won the war as U.S. turns to economic warfare (CBS)

• Trump Warns of ‘Economic D-Day’ Against Iran, but Tehran Is Well Acquainted With Sanctions (Military.com)

• Tehran president says it is time to end war ‘in position of strength’ after Trump threatens ‘Economic D-Day’ (Independent)

• Trump’s ‘economic D-Day’ claims first victim: Not Iran, but US markets (Al Jazeera)

• The Iran War Is Eating the GOP’s Midterm Message Alive (Bulwark)

• Trump increasingly lashing out at allies as victory in Iran war proves elusive (WP)

• US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has warned militant Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank not to steal property owned by Palestinian Americans, describing such behavior as "a violation of God's law". (Reuters)

• U.S.-Canada trade talks collapse, setting new 50% tariffs in motion (NBC)

• Carney Stands Up to Trump in Trade War Despite the Risks (NYT)

• U.S., Canada fail to reach a tariff deal, deepening trade war (CNBC)

• Pentagon fires Stars and Stripes leaders who criticized DOD’s interference (WP)

• Supreme Court allows Trump’s ballroom construction to continue for now (NPR)

• Trump’s Ballroom Isn’t Just a Farce Anymore—It’s a Threat (Nation)

• Ken Paxton and the Curious Case of the Missing $1,000 Pen (NYT)

• Trump faces backlash over reports US navy carrier could be named after him instead of Black war hero (Guardian)

• Interior spares California, Arizona, Nevada from most dramatic short-term Colorado River water cuts (The Hill)

• Islamophobia’s Rise in Texas: ‘I Won’t Rest Until Every Muslim Is Gone’ (NYT)

• It now seems possible to vaccinate against cancer (Economist)

• Moderna, Merck breakthrough could usher in wave of cancer vaccines (CNN)

• US ramps up Cuba sanctions and detentions of Americans returning from the island (AP)

• Gun stash in German forest believed to be linked to Russia, say reports (Guardian)

• A Celebrity Death and a Murder Trial Shine Light on Postpartum Mental Health (WSJ)

• Argentina players, staff banned for combined 21 games after World Cup final brawl (NYT)

• L.A. Mayoral Candidate Nithya Raman Says Legality of Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger “Should Be Decided in Court” (Hollywood Reporter)

• Prince Harry and Others Told to Pay Daily Mail Publisher $13 Million (NYT)

• California set to ban ‘addictive’ social media features to protect teens (WP)

• From balloons to pans: in praise of useful tech (FT)

• TikTok Settles With U.S. Over Child Privacy Concerns for $400 Million (NYT)

• Scientists Revisited a Forest Experiment That Was Forgotten for 30 Years. What They Found Was Astounding (SciTechDaily)

• I Saw the Future of AI in a Robot That Can Learn on the Spot (Wired)

• OpenAI’s training pause is convenient. That doesn’t make it meaningless. (BI)

• The AI ‘death zone’ is here and most corporate AI strategies are standing in it (Fortune)

• How the A.I. Borrowing Binge Helps Drive Up Government Bond Yields (NYT)

• Every Commercial On ESPN Past Midnight Just Straight-Up Telling Viewers They Have Prostate Cancer (Onion)

Bringing Trump 'Joy'

In today’s news, the controversial relationship between the 80-year-old Trump and his 35-year-old aide Natalie Harp is back up top.

The Daily Beast published two letters allegedly written by Harp that indicate the unusual intimacy of their relationship.

I’m not going to characterize it any more than that. Read the report and draw your own conclusion.

HEADLINES:

• Natalie Harp’s Intimate Letters to Trump Revealed in Full (Daily Beast)

• Natalie Harp Worked At White House For Over A Year Without Security Clearance, Report Says (Forbes)

• The White House Freak-Out Over Natalie Harp (Atlantic)

• Trump increasingly lashing out at allies as victory in Iran war proves elusive (WP)

• Weary Aircraft Carrier Heads Home From the Middle East (NYT)

• FBI thwarts an alleged ISIS-inspired plot to bomb New York Capitol building (NBC)

• So About That Iranian Cyberattack on Our Water Supply (Slate)

• Huge Russian strikes on Kyiv leave 17 dead as attacks spill over to Romanian and Moldovan territory (CNN)

• Nato jets blow up suspected Russian sea drone near gas facility (Independent)

• Croatia orders detention of Ukrainian man wanted in Germany for Nord Stream blasts in 2022 (AP)

• FBI seizes former Congressman Eric Swalwell’s devices in sexual misconduct investigation (BBC)

• The End of the European Summer (New Yorker)

• Jennifer Hegseth’s Hands-On Role in Her Husband’s Pentagon (NYT)

• Tearing Down the Wall Between Church and State in Texas (Money Trail)

• More than 2,300 Mexicans sent to Guatemala and Honduras as Trump ramps up third-country deportations (AP)

• Kentucky Gov. Beshear Keeps Pushing for Info on McConnell’s Health. He Says He’s ‘Heard Absolutely Nothing Back’ (Time)

• ICE Arrests Captain in New York Boat Accident That Killed 2 (NYT)

• The housing market is on pace for its worst year since 2011 (BI)

• Paramount’s Purchase of Warner Bros. Could Cost 4,500 TV and Film Production Jobs and Hurt a Damaged Indie Film Biz (IndieWire)

• Harry and Meghan to return to the press ‘lion’s den’ they sought to escape (Reuters)

• The Hidden Debt That Apple Owes to the CIA (WSJ)

• As the Old Files Open, One Family Confronts Another’s Dark Nazi Past (NYT)

• San Francisco Bay Area dethroned as largest tech talent market (LAT)

• Former SpaceX engineers are building a robotic factory for making steel parts (ArsTechnica)

• When AI art has no author: Study finds generated images often can’t be traced to training data (MIT)

• Don’t mistake chatbot intelligence for consciousness (Economist)

• Texas student blew the whistle on a rogue AI hacking attempt. (Reuters)

• Dad’s Driving Directions Hinge On Where Old Shell Station Used To Be (Onion)

Sand Hill Road

The final hurdle to getting one of my jobs was for me to meet with a venture capitalist who backed the company. So I drove along Sand Hill Road until I located his office in one of the low-slung buildings that cluster like wildebeests on the African plain.

It was my first time venturing into the belly of the beast, though not my first time using mixed metaphors.

My interlocuteur was, like me, a middle-aged fellow, casually dressed with an easy smile and a ready sense of humor. As he thumbed through my resume, he brought up the obvious entries — Rolling Stone, Wired Digital, Stanford — and noted that the co-founders considering to hire me to work in their startup were about half my (and his) age.

“I can work well with Gens X and Y,” I replied, noting that is precisely what I did at Wired Digital, Stanford and elsewhere.

“These guys probably could use someone with experience,” he mused, more thinking out-loud than addressing me. We both appreciated the irony that these young men felt they needed the approval of one elder (him) to hire another one (me).

He said, “Do you have any questions for me?”

I did: “What do you think the chances are this one will make it?”

“Well, it’s an election year and that’s a good thing for their content. The problem will be how they adapt to the post-election period, when there will be a downturn in public interest.”

I nodded. As a career journalist, I was accustomed to ups and downs of audience interest around elections and I felt I knew something about how to adjust content strategies accordingly.

Leaving Sand Hill Road and heading back to my flat in the Mission, I knew that I had secured the VC’s blessing and that the job now would be mine.

Indeed it was; thus started one of those fast-moving spurts that characterized my career’s middle years. This time, I was able to forge one-off partnerships with several major media companies, as well as with some digital stars.

We quickly built a large following with our election coverage and all things looked rosy until the election passed. Then — poof! — our audience stopping growing and we had the awful feeling of being on an airplane stalling mid-flight, with nowhere to go but down.

Nothing we tried worked. So the co-founders abruptly laid me off one chilly wintry morning and soon after my departure, their startup crashed and burst into flames.

That particular VC knew what he was talking about.

HEADLINES:

• Donald Trump’s spying on leftwing groups recalls J Edgar Hoover’s Cointelpro (Guardian)

• A new Reuters/Ipsos poll finds most Americans, including nearly half of Republicans, think Trump has been improperly cashing in on his presidency. (Reuters)

• U.S. Eyes Lower Tariffs on Metals and Autos in Canada Trade Deal (WSJ)

• North Korea fires 10 missiles day after Trump curtails South Korea joint drills (Guardian)

• Trump threatens ‘Economic D-Day’ for Iran and ‘tremendous’ consequences for its backers (CNBC)

• USS George Washington Move a ‘National Security’ Risk for US: Ex-Admiral (Newsweek)

• Hegseth Covered Up the Real Reason the USS Lincoln Wasn’t Resupplied (TNR)

• Longtime publisher of Stars and Stripes to retire, citing differences with Pentagon leadership (AP)

• U.S. Debt Hits $40 Trillion as America’s Borrowing Binge Continues (NYT)

• Putin makes rare admission that Kyiv’s huge strikes are ‘causing us harm’ (Independent)

• ‘With All My Heart, Natalie.’ Trump’s Most Devoted Aide Emerges. (NYT)

• Unhinged White House response shows senator’s ‘Natalie’ barb struck a nerve (Guardian)

• Who is Natalie Harp, Trump’s right-hand woman? (BBC)

• Meet Natalie Harp, the aide so close to Trump she once rode in an SUV trunk to accompany him (CNN)

• Melania May Be Behind MAGA’s Natalie Harp Freakout (Bulwark)

• Cancer treatment could face landmark moment with promising vaccine (WP)

• COVID is ‘growing’ in nearly every state, CDC reports. Here’s where levels are highest (The Hill)

• Trump 2.0 has deleted or altered nearly 400 US datasets, endangering public health, education and more (Guardian)

• Why homes once banished to trailer parks are filling the suburbs (WP)

• Human-caused climate change was the main driver of recent record-breaking sea temperatures around Europe, scientists said on Wednesday, warning of severe consequences for marine ecosystems and coastal communities. (Reuters)

• Mamdani is going to town on the annoyance economy (BI)

• Harry and Meghan Will Move Back to Britain After 6 Years in U.S. (NYT)

• Lindsay Clancy’s trial puts postpartum psychosis in the spotlight (BBC)

• Scientists tracked kids for 8 years — the screen time result was unexpected (ScienceDaily)

• An AI boss just fired a worker in S.F. (SFC)

• OpenAI hit the brakes. Now what? (Verge)

• What Really Happens If China Wins the AI Race? (Atlantic)

• This may be the first academic profession to see its work taken over by AI (WP)

• Visit To Girlfriend’s Family Provides Illuminating Insight Into Why She’s Asian (Onion)

Sorting It All Out

What to remember; what to forget.

I think I’m at that stage of life when it’s time to sort things out. 

But then there’s this: Forgetting to remember; remembering to forget. It’s a blessing that I’m still able to make sense of my life, sort of, or at least those pieces of it I can still claim. 

On paper, the career is one thing. It is easy to retrace how I migrated from job to job, writer to editor, worker to executive, analog to web.

It was by most standards a successful career, although it didn’t really feel like it at times. But I was able to support my expanding family, while mostly doing work I believed in and was relatively good at.

Raising six kids was a challenge on many levels, but I think they know that I always tried to be there for them. I’m still learning things about how to be a better parent, if mainly through the process of watching them parent.

When to hold on; when to let go.

Love? Yes I fell in love more than once or twice and some of my relationships even lasted a while. But you never know with love. It can pop up all of a sudden in unexpected ways.

What to say; what not to say.

I never forget the friends I made along the way. I never forget the people who helped me. Most of all, I never forget my many, many mistakes. 

Now the challenge is to not forget to remember some and remembering to forget the others. That makes all the difference.

HEADLINES:

• Senator presses Hegseth, Caine for commitment to keep US military out of the midterm elections (AP)

• A Stunning Win for the Left in Florida: 6 Takeaways From Tuesday’s Primaries (NYT)

• S. Korea stresses US alliance amid confusion over Trump drill cut (NPR)

• Facing Quagmire in Iran, Trump Turns to a Familiar Face: North Korea’s Kim Jong-un (NYT)

• Trump says no talks with Iran taking place as standoff over Strait of Hormuz continues (CBS)

• U.A.E. Halts Trade Ties With Iran and Says It Was Targeted With Missiles (NYT)

• Iran is losing control of the Strait of Hormuz (CNN)

• Houthi Threat to Red Sea Shipping Rises (WSJ)

• Pentagon weighing smaller U.S. military presence in Gulf once Iran war ends (WP)

• The Moscow region is hit by a drone blitz as Russian missiles kill 10 in a Ukrainian village (AP)

• Russians pull billions from banks, fearing Kremlin will seize deposits for war (WP)

• Russia summons Japanese envoy following Putin's visit to disputed islands (AP)

• Preservationist group urges Supreme Court to keep White House ballroom paused (The Hill)

• Data centers, crypto, and tax revisions take center stage in Tuesday primaries (CNBC)

• White House Aide Natalie Harp Is at Center of Messy Brawl (WSJ)

• What to know about Natalie Harp, the Trump aide whom Ossoff put in the spotlight (WP)

• Trump’s Loose Grip on Reality Could Sink the Navy’s Ships (Nation)

• U.S. delays 50% tariff on Canadian imports. (NPR)

• US and Canada hold last-minute talks to stop Trump’s 50% tariffs (AP)

• Tariffs on Hold as Trump Claims Deal With Canada Is Near (NYT)

• National debt nears $40 trillion: How we got here and why it matters (PBS)

• White House Seeks to Lift Ban on Development in National Forests (NYT)

• Is big tech the new big tobacco? (Economist)

• Vaccine exemption rate for kindergarteners reaches record high: CDC (ABC)

• Nation’s Largest Reservoirs Are Drying Up, Threatening Life in the Southwest (NYT)

• President Donald Trump’s approval rating fell to the lowest level of his presidency, with an overwhelming majority of Americans concerned the U.S. war with Iran will last a long time [Reuters]

• Trump dwarfs his predecessors in the number of ultra-rich in his second White House, report shows (AP)

• California A.G. Rejects $1.88 Billion Paramount Bond, Says Company Wants a ‘Do-Over’ on Merger Delay (Variety)

• ABC sues FCC over challenge to its broadcast licenses, saying actions present ‘existential threat’ (AP)

• ‘The Daily Show’ faces uncertain future under Paramount (Semafor)

• White House attacks CNN reporter after Trump clash, invoking her children (WP)

• I’m a Psychiatrist. I’m Hearing Something New From Young Women. (NYT)

• The surprising ways reading fiction helps your brain (WP)

• Nicotine pouches have emerged as one of Big Tobacco’s most important bets on a future beyond cigarettes, offering rapid growth, attractive margins and, for now, lighter regulation than many rival smoking alternatives. (Reuters)

• Humans Love Having Pets. Seems Like Some Other Primates Do, Too. (NYT)

• The 25 most promising robotics startups in 2026 (BI)

• New data shows people are getting personal with AI (WP)

• Pete Hegseth Orders Military Blockade Of Woman Attempting To Walk Away From Him (Onion)

 

Fathers and Daughters

A subplot in the film Girls Like Girls is the relationship between 17-year-old Coley (Maya da Costa) and Curtis (Zach Braff), her father.

As the story opens, Coley and Curtis barely know each other, since he broke up with her mother when she was very young and apparently hasn’t seen Coley since.

Now that her mother is gone, Coley has moved in with Curtis and the two have an extremely awkward situation on their hands, characterized by his attempts to get close to her and her rebuffs, often with slammed doors and tears.

But Curtis, to his credit, doesn’t give up on his daughter, no matter how alienated she seems to become from him.

He doesn’t know what is going on with her emotionally, or about the strains on her new relationship with Sonya (Myra Molloy), but he finally breaks through to Coley through persistence and making clear he supports her no matter what.

“We can start by telling the truth,” he suggests.

That, I think, is the key during those torturous teenaged years — letting your daughter know you are there for her no matter what.

And although this father-daughter portrayal is secondary to the love story between Coley and Sonya, it’s one of factors that for me makes Girls Like Girls a great film.

HEADLINES:

• Dems plan Oman war powers push after Trump threatens bombing (Axios)

• Trump’s TACOs on Iran loom over his big threat to Oman (CNN)

• US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding expires: How and why it fell apart (Al Jazeera)

• U.S. and Iran Blow Through Deadline to Agree to a Broad Deal to End War (NYT)

• South Korea hopes for talks between US and North Korea after Trump downsizes military drills (AP)

• USS Washington to relieve USS Lincoln after concerns about the crew’s mental health (NPR)

• Supreme Court rebuffs Trump’s bid to overturn $5 million verdict in Carroll case (WP)

• Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) tore into President Donald Trump for botching the war on Iran, golfing, trading stocks and sleeping through meetings. But the one line that may have stood out most was a reference to aide Natalie Harp, who has grown so close to the president that he’s rarely seen without her nearby. [HuffPost]

• Blanche on whether DOJ will be independent: ‘I’m not going to pledge that’ (WP)

• Canada races to avoid new U.S. tariffs of up to 50% (NBC)

• Border Security Construction Paused at Big Bend National Park (NYT)

• Hundreds of migrants who recently entered Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta staged a protest on a popular urban beach, urging Spanish authorities to grant them asylum instead of sending them back to Morocco. (Reuters)

• CNN staffers brace for Paramount CEO’s potential plan to launch editorial board to oversee network (Fox)

• Prediction market traders see roughly 1-in-4 odds Paramount’s bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery fails (CNBC)

• Zuckerberg faces potential reckoning in court over Instagram’s effects on teens (WP)

• The first anti-AI protester to be jailed has a message for OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta: ‘Regain your humanity’ (Guardian)

• US to tell partners they must pick sides in AI race with China (Reuters)

• Trump aims to rebuild defenses against bioweapons as AI fears rise (WP)

• China Wants to Shape What the World’s A.I. Knows (NYT)

• Todd Blanche Vows To Remain Fully Independent Of The Law (Onion)