Fighting ICE, Guantanamo, Elon’s Apology, & Labubus
June 12, 2025
Hello, readers – happy Thursday! Today, we’ll be talking about protests against ICE, the trade deal with China, Guantanamo, South Korea offering a truce, Elon’s apology, renaming forts, and labubus (don’t worry, we’ll explain).
Thank you all for the outpouring of support as we wind down Daily Pnut’s operations! Many of you have asked what’s next for us:
Kayli will keep writing about the news on her Substack, or you can connect with her on LinkedIn.
Marcus will also keep writing on his Substack, recording conversations with his grandmother.
“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” – Martin Luther
No Kings, One Governor
Things are getting even more tense in Los Angeles after a weekend of protests. After the National Guard and Marines were called in to suppress civilians in Los Angeles earlier this week, LAPD officers were spotted shooting rubber bullets at people point-blank, and the city has imposed an 8:00 p.m. curfew in its downtown areas. There are currently more active-duty U.S. troops stationed in Los Angeles than there are in both Iraq and Syria.
But while much of the crackdown has been focused on California’s largest city, anti-ICE protests have begun popping up elsewhere, including New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, and Dallas. The protestors are looking to counter ICE raids wherever they take place, as many of those snatched up by Trump’s immigration police are sent to prison camps without a single chance to appeal their arrests. ICE agents even abducted a nine-month pregnant, 23-year-old U.S. citizen.
“California may be first, but it clearly won’t end here,” California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a televised speech on Tuesday. “Other states are next. Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault right before our eyes — the moment we’ve feared has arrived.” Unfortunately, this is one of those “we have to side with Newsom” moments – sure, he’s been very transparently gearing up for a presidential bid in 2028, and is looking to raise his national profile even higher by taking Trump to court over his mobilization of the military against civilians, but he’s also correct. Meanwhile, progressives are organizing nationwide “No Kings Day” protests on Saturday, June 14, which will likely see hundreds of thousands of Americans turn out to protest Trump’s military crackdowns.
Want To Know More?
- Texas governor orders national guard to deploy for protests in San Antonio (Guardian)
- DHS spokesperson defends Trump administration’s use of military in LA (NPR)
- ICE raids meat production plant in Omaha, dozens detained (USA Today)
We Have Concepts Of A Framework For A Deal…
Trump has reached… some sort of deal with China after a few days of trade talks in London. Yesterday, the American president announced that Beijing would make it much easier for U.S. manufacturers to obtain rare earth metals from China in exchange for the White House dropping its attempts to revoke the visas of Chinese citizens attending U.S. colleges. He also claimed that U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods would be raised to 55%, while Chinese tariffs on U.S. goods would remain at just 10%. According to other sources, though, the deal is far less cut and dry than Trump wants you to believe.
Last month, the two superpowers agreed on a different trade deal in Geneva. U.S. tariffs on China were set at 30%, while Chinese tariffs on American goods were set at 10%. However, that deal fell through when China imposed export controls on rare earth minerals leaving its borders, and the U.S. blocked the export of semiconductor design software, jet engines, and other goods to China. While Trump has pushed this week’s deal as, well, a done deal, it’s anything but. “We have reached a framework to implement the Geneva consensus and the call between the two presidents,” said U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick yesterday.
Remove Your Data From Anywhere On The Web
- Privacy means having control over who can access your personal information. Scrubbing your personal data from the internet was nearly impossible, but then, Incogni came along.
- With Incogni Unlimited, dedicated privacy specialists handle everything for you—systematically removing your personal info not just from data brokers (including people-search sites), but from across the entire web where it might be exposed.
- Take back control of your privacy and greatly reduce the risks of harmful scams, identity theft, and online threats. Use code PNUTDEAL today for 55% off on unlimited removals from anywhere that exposes your data.
Saying No To Guantanamo
- As the U.S. is deporting thousands of immigrants to various offshore holding facilities (prisons), at least 800 Europeans and two Italians are among those rounded up by Trump’s immigration police. Italy’s right-wing government has promised that it will “do everything [it] can” to stop Italians from being deported to Guantanamo Bay, the notorious extrajudicial detention center where CIA agents waterboarded and abused prisoners for years. The White House has set up a migrant detention center at the Cuban prison at Trump’s behest.
- Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has warned against making the situation “dramatized,” noting that immigrants are only sent to the prison in Guantanamo if their home countries “do not accept repatriations.” Italy has told the White House that it’s willing to repatriate any Italians deported from America, Tajani said, so “there should be no possibility for Italians to be taken to Guantanamo.”
Some Peace And Quiet For Pyongyang
- South Korea has decided to be the bigger country in its trash-slinging, propaganda-blaring border dispute with North Korea. Yesterday, newly elected South Korean President Lee Jae-myung announced that he would be shutting down the loudspeakers on his country’s northern border that blare anti-Pyongyang propaganda into the DMZ each day. He’s also asked South Korean civilians to stop tossing anti-North Korean propaganda flyers into the country.
- According to Seoul’s Defense Ministry, these changes are part of Lee’s wider effort “to restore trust in inter-Korean relations and promote peace on the Korean Peninsula.” During his inaugural address last week, Lee also told supporters that he wants to reopen communication channels with Pyongyang. A genuine desire to re-establish relations with Pyongyang, or an attempt to shut down one of Seoul’s more annoying problems to focus on its sluggish economy and massive demographic issues? Probably the latter.
More Mixed Nuts
- Hong Kong police accuse mobile game of promoting ‘armed revolution’ (NPR)
- Hungarians declare resistance to Orbán’s government with a large protest (NPR)
- EU and UK reach accord on cross-border trade and travel in Gibraltar (ABC)
- May 2025 was second-hottest on record, EU scientists say (Politico)
- What to know after anti-immigrant violence flares in a Northern Ireland town (ABC)
- At least 49 people have died in flooding in South Africa with toll expected to rise, officials say (AP)
- Donald Tusk wins vote of confidence after Polish presidential election blow (Guardian)
Crawling Back To The Commander-In-Chief
- If you’ve been thinking about Elon Musk and President Trump and wondering when those two crazy kids were going to work things out, your answer is: maybe sooner than you think. Early yesterday morning, Musk took to X to say, “I regret some of my posts about President [Trump] last week. They went too far.”
- White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump “acknowledged the statement that Elon put out this morning and he is appreciative of it.” Sources say Musk spoke with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday, and then with President Trump on Monday.
Fort Bragg Is Back
- The Army announced earlier this week that the names of several bases will be reverting back to their pre-2023 names…the names that honored Confederate soldiers. Fort A.P. Hill, Fort Pickett, and Fort Robert E. Lee in Virginia, Fort Gordon in Georgia, Fort Hood in Texas, Fort Polk in Louisiana, and Fort Rucker in Alabama will all be renamed.
- Fort Bragg was the first to have its original name restored after the Army found another person with the same last name, and in March, Hegseth reversed the decision to change Fort Benning in Georgia to Fort Moore. All of this renaming has been accomplished by finding other notable people with the same names, so they’re not honoring Confederate soldiers…but, like, they still kind of are.
More Nuts In America
- Trump says his administration wants to “wean” states off FEMA aid after hurricane season (CBS)
- Southern Baptist delegates at national meeting overwhelmingly call for banning same-sex marriage (NBC)
- ‘America’s reputation is on the line’: Republican senators chide Hegseth over Ukraine (Politico)
- Democratic governors seek to roll back state-funded health care for undocumented immigrants (NBC)
- Gun Deaths of Children Rose in States That Loosened Gun Laws, Study Finds (NYT, $)
- Fulbright board quits due to Trump administration’s political meddling (Guardian)
- Appeals court to take up Trump’s challenge to his criminal hush money conviction (ABC)
A Loco Price For Labubus
- A 4-foot-tall Labubu has sold for $170,000 at an auction in Beijing. If you’re not on social media or don’t have kids, consider yourself blessed to not know what the hell a Labubu is. But we’re here to cram that unwanted information into your brain anyway. Sorry!
- Labubus are rabbit-like plush toys (a few inches tall and attached to a keychain) that people collect from “blind boxes” – sealed boxes which people purchase without knowing what’s inside. Their contents – which usually include a variety of Labubus dressed up in different costumes or colors – are only revealed when the purchaser opens them. People are willing to buy certain Labubu variants for significant chunks of money, up to thousands of dollars for the rarest ones, even though a blind box retails for under $30.
- Back to the Beijing auction, though: the most expensive item at the auction was a mint green, 4-foot-tall Labubu that sold for $170,000. Second place was a 5-foot-tall version, which went for $130,000, and third place went to a three-piece set of Labubus entitled “Three Wise Labubu,” which sold for $80,000. Pop Market, which sells Labubus and other blind boxes at brick-and-mortar stores across the globe, saw its overseas revenue jump 480% over the past year, with its revenues in the Americas alone rising 900%.
More Loose Nuts
- Bison gores man in Yellowstone after visitors get too close (NBC)
- Split verdict reached in Harvey Weinstein sex crimes retrial (ABC)
- Gold from legendary 1708 shipwreck holding billions of dollars in treasure is seen in new images (CBS)
- Fossils found in 1970s are most recent ancestor of tyrannosaurs, scientists say (Guardian)
- Sun’s south pole revealed for first time, in images from Solar Orbiter spacecraft (Guardian)
