The BFFs Break Up, Biden Gets Investigated, & A Breakthrough For HIV
June 6, 2025
Hello, readers – happy Friday! Today, we’ll be talking about the Trump/Elon breakup, an investigation into President Biden, Trump’s diplomacy, Japan’s birth rates, Trump’s travel ban, a Supreme Court decision, and an HIV breakthrough.
Here’s some good news: YouTube star Ms. Rachel, whose videos are watched by millions of children globally, said she is willing to risk her career to keep advocating for suffering children in Gaza. Also, a study found that cutting the horns off rhinos causes an 80% reduction in poaching, according to a new study, and it uses just 1.2% of the overall rhino protection budget.
It is with a heavy heart that we announce that Friday, June 13, will be the last edition of Daily Pnut. We’ve had a wonderful time sending you all the news every day, and we’ll miss you dearly.
“All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason.” – Immanuel Kant
The Real Housewives Of The White House
Everybody loves a bit of drama when it happens to other people. But when it happens between some of the most powerful people in the world? And when they’re broadcasting all the tea over the social media sites they own? Well, that makes it even more delicious.
Yesterday saw the strange marriage of Donald Trump and Elon Musk come to an end. After Musk’s departure from the White House earlier this month, the two sparred over Trump’s budget bill, which is expected to add trillions of dollars to the national deficit. Musk slammed the bill as a “disgusting abomination” on Twitter on Wednesday, and we all know that Trump couldn’t resist replying. After telling reporters that he was “very disappointed” in Musk yesterday, Trump went off on Truth Social, writing, “Elon’s upset because we took the EV mandate, which was a lot of money for electric vehicles and they’re having a hard time with electric vehicles and they want us to pay billions of dollars in subsidy.”
Musk then took to X to fire back – the billionaire claimed that Trump and the GOP would have lost the 2024 presidential election without his $250 million in donations and went on to claim that Trump hasn’t gone public with more information about the Jeffrey Epstein case – one of his many campaign promises – because the president himself “is in the Epstein files.” Trump was a known Epstein associate, and flew on the sex trafficker’s plane at least 7 times. Trump has denied any knowledge of Epstein’s illegal activities, but his limp reply to Elon’s “big bomb” was to claim that Musk “went crazy” after the president “asked him to leave” the White House. Oh, and Tesla stocks dropped 14% yesterday.
Leave The Old Man Alone!
Trump is dancing on the grave of Joe Biden’s political career. On Wednesday, the president ordered an investigation into his predecessor’s alleged mental decline and a supposed conspiracy aimed at covering it up. In his official statement, the president tasked Attorney General Pam Bondi with investigating “whether certain individuals conspired to deceive the public about Biden’s mental state and unconstitutionally exercise the authorities and responsibilities of the President.”
The investigation will reportedly center around Biden’s alleged use of an autopen (a machine that replicates signatures) to sign documents. Trump has questioned whether those orders are still legitimate if Biden didn’t physically sign them with his hands. Trump has used the autopen himself, and its use has become commonplace in the White House over the years.
Biden responded to the Trump investigation with an email (which doesn’t really help his case). “Let me be clear,” he wrote. “I made the decisions during my presidency. I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false.”
The Art Of The Inconclusive Meeting
- Besides beefing with a billionaire and bashing Biden, Trump had a busy day of diplomacy on Thursday. After a “very positive” Trump-initiated call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping yesterday, the president announced that Washington and Beijing would be resuming trade talks “shortly.” While Trump attempted to frame his ability to schedule a meeting with Xi as some sort of victory, one analyst said that the call “simply paused escalation on trade” but “didn’t resolve core tensions” between the two superpowers.
- After the China call, Trump hosted newly elected German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office. This time, instead of staging a televised surprise attack for the overseas leader, Trump pulled off the verbal equivalent of slipping on a banana peel, waving his hands in the air for a few seconds and falling hard on his ass. In recognizing that today marks D-Day, when Allied troops stormed the Nazi-held beaches of Normandy, Trump asked the German Chancellor, “That was not a pleasant day for you?” before adding, “This was not a great day!” Because apparently all Germans are Nazis in the president’s mind. As for actual policy results of the meeting, there were none, though the two men agreed to eventually work out the trade conflict between Europe and the U.S. and Trump appeared to enjoy speaking with Merz.
Short On Rice And Short On Babies
- Japan has broken a historic record… but maybe not in a good way. According to Japanese government data published this week, the country’s birth rate dipped to its lowest level in over a century last year, with just 686,061 births on record. That’s a 5.7% decrease compared to 2023, and is the lowest birth rate the country has seen since it began recording annual births in 1899.
- Fertility rates and deaths both went in the wrong direction as well last year. Fertility rates – the average number of children a Japanese woman has – dropped from 1.20 in 2023 to a record low of 1.15 in 2024, barely over half of the replacement rate of 2.1. Meanwhile, the country saw 1.6 million deaths in 2024, a 1.9% increase over 2023. At least that second number wasn’t a record-breaker.
More Mixed Nuts
- Russian strike kills 5 in Ukraine, including a 1-year-old, hours after Trump-Putin call (AP)
- Earth’s atmosphere hasn’t had this much CO2 in millions of years (NBC)
- New Zealand MPs who performed haka in parliament given record suspensions (Guardian)
- EU sounds alarm to China over rare earth export controls (CNN)
Middle East Mixed Nuts
- US vetoes UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate Gaza ceasefire (AP)
- Israeli military recovers two hostages’ bodies in southern Gaza (BBC)
Crime Pays, FIFA Knows
- On Wednesday, in the middle of a big fight with his best friend, President Trump signed a sweeping order banning travel from 12 countries and restricting travel from seven others. People from Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen will be “fully” restricted from entering the U.S., according to the proclamation, while Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela will be partly restricted.
- With the 2025 Club World Cup, the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and the 2028 Olympics all set to be hosted in the U.S., banning people from those countries would certainly throw a wrench in the plans. Yesterday, Trump clarified that the order contains an exemption that could apply to players, staff, or associated families with clubs participating in the competitions. FIFA President Gianni Infantino has been cozying up with Trump in recent months, so perhaps we have him to thank for the exception.
Right-Leaning SCOTUS Shoots Straight
- The Supreme Court unanimously sided with a woman in Ohio who claimed she was discriminated against at work because she is straight. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals had previously sided with her employer, but she now gets another chance to make her case to the lower court with a lower standard to prove discrimination.
- The woman in the case, Marlean Ames, said that the Ohio Department of Youth Services, where she had worked for 20 years, passed her over for promotion — and then demoted her — because she is straight. In both instances, the jobs were given to LGBTQ+ people.
More Nuts In America
- CDC official who oversaw COVID vaccine recommendations resigns (ABC)
- Judge blocks deportation of Boulder attacker’s family (NPR)
- Supreme Court rejects Mexico’s lawsuit against U.S. gun makers (NBC)
- Trump admin claims Columbia violated Jewish students’ rights, threatens school’s accreditation (NBC)
- Harvard calls Trump’s proclamation to block foreign students from attending university ‘illegal retaliatory step’ (ABC)
No Hiding For HIV
- HIV likes to hide inside human white blood cells, which makes it a particularly hard virus to treat. Luckily, researchers have figured out how to smoke the virus out of hiding. In a paper published in Nature Communications recently, researchers from the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity in Melbourne demonstrated a way to make the virus visible inside white blood cells, possibly paving the way for other scientists to develop a way to fully clear patients of the disease.
- Their method leverages mRNA technology to make the disease visible. The mRNA is delivered to the patient’s white blood cells encased in a fat bubble called a lipid nanoparticle, which is specially engineered to be absorbed by white blood cells in particular. Once the fat bubble is taken up by the blood cell, the mRNA can make the cell reveal the virus. With the correct tweaks, this technology could be adjusted to instead order other cells to destroy the HIV-infected cells, offering a potential cure to a disease that currently forces patients to take treatments for the rest of their lives.
More Loose Nuts
- Judge in Diddy trial warns he may be removed from courtroom after jury interactions (NBC)
- Missouri Senate passes plan to keep Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium (NBC)
- The original Hermès Birkin bag is going up for auction: How to bid on historic purse (USA Today)
- Federal judges rule in favor of NASCAR in lawsuit filed by Jordan-owned 23XI and Front Row (AP)
- 23andMe back on the auction block after former CEO makes 11th-hour bid (Guardian)
