Diplomacy, Disenfranchisement, Drilling, & Don’s Meme Coin
April 25, 2025
Hello, readers – happy Friday! Today, we’ll be talking about U.S. elections, Pakistan vs. India, the U.S. vs. China, the U.S. vs. the Middle East, ActBlue, fast-tracking drilling and mining permits, and Trump’s meme coin.
Here’s some good news: Three-time Olympic gold medalist Faith Kipyegon, the world-record holder for the women’s mile, will attempt to become the first woman to run a mile in under four minutes. Also, the Pentagon announced that it will resume gender-affirming care for transgender service members. Finally, four baby Galapagos tortoises made their public debut Wednesday at the Philadelphia Zoo – they belong to a pair of critically endangered Galapagos tortoises who have become first-time parents at the age of 100.
“I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning.” – J.B. Priestley
Executing Your Right To Vote
In March, Trump issued a sweeping executive order seeking to overhaul the U.S. election system, with policies including forcing people to show a passport or birth certificate to register to vote, making the Election Assistance Commission decertify all machines that are currently certified to count votes, and granting DOGE and the Department of Homeland Security unlimited access to voter files.
Yesterday, a federal judge blocked a significant portion of the executive order, stating that Trump does not have the authority to force voters to hand over documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote. “Our Constitution entrusts Congress and the states — not the president — with the authority to regulate federal elections,” wrote the judge, adding that Trump isn’t legally able to “short-circuit Congress’s deliberative process by executive order.” However, she didn’t block part of the order allowing the federal government to establish a hard deadline for absentee ballot turn-ins, though that section might be overturned by other lawsuits.
Meanwhile, members of the independent U.S. Election Assistance Commission met in North Carolina with the executive order at the front of their minds. “I can see on your faces there’s a lot of concern in this room for this process and other aspects of it,” said one commissioner – as a federal commission, the agency has to carry out Trump’s orders, but it hasn’t indicated any resistance to that idea so far.
The Water Wars Are Happening
It’s no secret that India and Pakistan are far from friends, and Tuesday’s terrorist attack on Indian-administered Kashmir, in which four gunmen opened fire on a group of Indian tourists, has only pushed them closer to conflict. Indian police have named three suspects in the shooting – two are from Pakistan, and a third is a Kashmiri local. Soon after the shooting, India closed down its main border crossing with Pakistan, cancelled visa services for Pakistani citizens “with immediate effect,” reduced the number of Indian diplomats in Islamabad, and ordered its defense advisers located in Pakistan to return to India by the end of the month. Meanwhile, Pakistan suspended all visas issued to Indian nationals, expelled some diplomats, and closed its airspace to Indian flights.
India has also threatened to pull out of the Indus Waters Treaty, a decades-old agreement that dictates how six rivers (the Indus waters) can be used by the two countries. Under its terms, India lets three of the rivers flow southward through its northern regions towards Pakistan untouched. If India leaves the treaty, it could begin damming or diverting the rivers as revenge. However, India has tried to leverage its participation in the pact many times since its inception without taking any action.
Is He Tired Of Losing Yet?
- Remember when Trump said, “We’re gonna win so much, you may even get tired of winning”? Well, when it comes to his attempt to start trade conflicts with China, it seems like the only thing he knows how to do is lose. Earlier this week, Trump claimed that the U.S. and China were involved in direct trade “every day,” adding that “everybody wants to be a part of what we’re doing.” Yesterday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun flatly denied the president’s claims, stating that the two countries had “not conducted consultations or negotiations on tariffs, let alone reached an agreement.”
- In a separate statement, Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesman He Yadong told the U.S. that it could remove all of its “unilateral tariff measures” if it “truly wanted” to solve the trade showdown, adding, “the person who tied the bell must untie it.” Didn’t expect to have a bit of poetry in the midst of a government tit-for-tat over some tariffs, but there you are!
And We’re Back In The Middle East
- Amidst all the hubbub about Signal group chats and Pete Hegseth’s possible unemployment, we wouldn’t blame you for forgetting about America’s ongoing bombing campaign in Yemen. But, well, it’s still ongoing – since March 15, the U.S. has conducted at least 250 airstrikes on Houthi rebel targets across Yemen, according to open-source data from the Institute for the Study of War and the American Enterprise Institute.
- Reports suggest that at least 500 Houthi fighters have been killed by the airstrikes, including a few senior commanders. Data from the Yemen Data Project also shows that the U.S. has killed more than 200 civilians since the bombing began. “With air strikes alone, you’re not going to be able to defeat the Houthis,” said one defense analyst, noting that the Houthis have survived a multi-year bombing campaign by a Saudi military force, which was supplied by the U.S.
More Mixed Nuts
- French PM calls for crackdown on knife crime after fatal high school stabbing (Guardian)
- US names Michael Anton to lead technical talks with Iran (Politico)
- Benin admits that 54 soldiers killed in attack by al-Qaeda group (BBC)
- In rare criticism of Putin, Trump urges the Russian leader to ‘STOP!’ after a deadly attack on Kyiv (AP)
- Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky meets South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa to counter Russia (BBC)
Not Acting Cool About ActBlue
- Yesterday, President Trump announced that he would direct the Attorney General to investigate ActBlue, a major fundraising platform for Democrats. Trump asked the A.G. to look into “concerning allegations regarding the use of online fundraising platforms to make ‘straw’ or ‘dummy’ contributions and to make foreign contributions to US political candidates and committees, all of which break the law.”
- The memo comes amid ongoing unsubstantiated claims on the right about the platform. Elon Musk has tweeted about ActBlue multiple times since Trump took office, and Representative Darrell Issa wrote to Treasury Secretary Bessent saying the department should investigate whether ActBlue facilitated donations from “terror-linked organizations and non-profits.”
He Yearns For The Mines
- Considering we’re in the midst of a climate crisis, it only makes sense that the White House would fast-track permits for fossil fuel and mining projects, right? Late Wednesday, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced that, in accordance with President Trump’s “energy emergency” declaration, it would do just that.
- The department said that reviews that currently take around a year would be reduced to just 14 days, and a full environmental impact statement that usually takes two years would now take less than a month. Officials are also considering scaling back at least six national monuments and considering drilling or mining in the areas.
More Nuts In America
- ‘Like a slap in the face’: Trump officials cut hundreds of millions to combat gun violence and opioid addiction (Guardian)
- Trump signs executive actions on education, including efforts to rein in DEI (NPR)
- Judge rules the Trump administration violated a 2019 settlement in deporting a man to El Salvador (AP)
- Lawyers warn clients of increased arrest risk at immigration check-ins (NPR)
- Trump asks Supreme Court to allow ban on transgender members of the military to take effect, for now (AP)
Pumping Up $TRUMP
- In the lead-up to January’s inauguration ceremony, President Trump launched a meme coin, $TRUMP, and it hit a peak of $75.35 on the day before the inauguration. The coin’s value has dropped precipitously since then (though the president has likely earned a tidy profit from it anyway), dipping to lows of roughly $7 at multiple points. Late Wednesday, though, Trump took another stab at milking the coin. The $TRUMP official website announced that the top 220 holders of the meme coin would be invited to an “intimate private dinner” with the president on May 22.
- The announcement sent the coin rocketing up to a maximum of $5.32 (+58%), peaking at $14.32. “The more $TRUMP you hold — and the longer you hold it — the higher Your Ranking will be,” the website states. The tracking will occur between April 23 and May 12, with a live leaderboard updated hourly on the coin’s site. In addition to the dinner, the top 25 holders will also be invited to “an Exclusive Reception before Dinner with YOUR FAVORITE PRESIDENT!” Now there’s a room we wouldn’t touch with a 10-foot pole.
More Loose Nuts
- Tapeworm in fox poop that will slowly destroy your organs is on the rise (Ars Technica)
- ‘The Last of Us’ star Pedro Pascal calls J.K. Rowling’s anti-trans social post ‘heinous’ (NBC)
- China launches 3 astronauts to replace crew on Chinese space station (AP)
- ‘Hell ant’ that impaled prey discovered in 113-million-year-old fossil (WaPo, $)
- Hidden magma cap discovered at Yellowstone National Park (ABC)
- R&B singer Kehlani barred from Cornell performance over pro-Palestine comments (Guardian)
