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Maybe the best way to describe Team Trump’s visit to China is by paraphrasing Michael Corleone’s famous Godfather quote. It’s not political, Sonny. It’s strictly business. The group photo of the U.S. delegation that stood at attention at the Great Hall of the People features a whole lot of CEOs looking to increase revenues from China, and not a whole lot of people, if any, with Chinese diplomatic expertise. Having business leaders negotiate deals may not provide the best possible geopolitical outcomes, but most would agree that it beats having a summit in which Trump is given free rein, and an open mic, to negotiate more complex issues. As Vivian Salama and Jonathan Lemire explain in The Atlantic (Gift Article), “the major goal of Trump and Xi’s meeting is to do no harm.” The Hippocratic Summit. “The delegation that arrived with President Trump in Beijing last night looked less like the diplomatic corps of a superpower and more like a Fortune 500 board meeting. On Air Force One were Elon Musk, Tim Cook (’Tim Apple,’ as the president calls him), and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Joining in Beijing were honchos from Wall Street and aerospace firms. The message was impossible to miss: This trip, billed as a high-stakes summit between the leaders of the world’s two most powerful nations, is about money first and geopolitics second—with differences in ideology trailing far behind.” While the summit was mostly friendly, no doubt, the experts on both sides were thinking of another Corleone quote: Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
+ While the US delegation was all about business, Xi was definitely focused on one very big political issue. China’s leader warns Trump that differences over Taiwan could lead to a clash. “Xi warned the U.S. ‘must exercise extra caution in handling the Taiwan question ... If it is handled properly, the bilateral relationship will enjoy overall stability ... Otherwise, the two countries will have clashes and even conflicts, putting the entire relationship in great jeopardy.” While Marco Rubio declared that US policy on Taiwan is “unchanged,” many were concerned that Trump would weaken America’s stand on Taiwan in exchange for China’s help getting him out of the Iran mess (which has resulted in Chinese gains). The Taiwan conflict is also a story about business. As much as the Strait of Hormuz has impacted the global economy, “these hiccups are nothing compared to the effects of a serious disruption to the flow of chips from Taiwan.” Rest of World: Taiwan’s chips power the global economy. China holds the leverage.
+ “’The idea is that when an established, great power is met with a rising power, conflict between the two is certainly likely if not inevitable,’ said Daniel Sutton, a classicist at the University of Cambridge who studies Thucydides, on Thursday. In Mr. Xi’s version of the analogy, an emboldened China is the Athens to an American Sparta.” Xi Warned of the ‘Thucydides Trap.’ What Is It? (There’s about as much chance that Xi’s guest of honor understood that reference as there is that the rest of us will come up with a definition for Covfefe.)
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Lethal Weapon
“The findings reflect the complex landscape in which medical decisions are now made. Patients can readily find health information — both accurate and inaccurate — on social media, in podcasts and from A.I. chatbots. A recent report from the Pew Research Center found that half of U.S. adults under 50 get health and wellness information from influencers or podcasters, many of whom are not health professionals.” NYT (Gift Article): More Cancer Patients Are Taking Ivermectin. Mel Gibson and Joe Rogan Might Be Why. “There’s this perfect storm of fear, urgency, uncertainty, information overload and then this desperate need for hope ... When somebody is offering you a magic cure for something and they give anecdotal examples, it can feel very hopeful.”
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We Aim to Please
At this point, we’re getting used to headlines like this one: Cisco posted record revenue on surging AI orders. It’s cutting almost 4,000 jobs. But technology isn’t just costing jobs in the tech sector. Everyone is affected. Even snipers. WSJ (Gift Article): Military Snipers Are Being Put Out of a Job by Drones. “A Ukrainian special-forces sniper claimed a world record in late 2023 with a shot that hit a Russian officer almost 2½ miles away. These days Vyacheslav Kovalskiy has a new job: supporting drone pilots. He hasn’t been out to shoot in more than a year and a half.”
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Olden State Warrior
Most mornings, I cringe as I wake up to brutal headlines written by questionable sources about bad people doing terrible things. So I was relieved and excited this morning to wake up to a great writer (Wright Thompson) writing about a great guy (Steve Kerr). From ESPN: The Warrior Still Remains. Yes, this is an article about my favorite coach and my favorite NBA team. But it’s much more than that. It’s about loss, politics, chronic pain, retirement, decision-making, community, family, and a lot more. To get something out of this piece, you don’t have to be into the NBA or the Warriors. You can be a road warrior, a keyboard warrior, a social justice warrior, or a weekend warrior, and you’ll relate.
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Extra, Extra
Getting Off: If you have the right connections and deep pockets, there’s really never been a better time to be a criminal. U.S. Set to Drop Charges Against Indian Billionaire Accused of Fraud. “The reversal came after the Indian billionaire, Gautam Adani, hired a new legal team led by Robert J. Giuffra Jr., one of President Trump’s personal lawyers.” You could be in pretty decent shape even if you’ve already been convicted. Donald Trump is thinking about celebrating America’s 250th birthday with 250 additional pardons. (At least he didn’t pick the number 1776...)
+ Bye American: Mike Banks, who led Trump’s border crackdown, resigned weeks after reports of prostitution allegations. “The resignation comes weeks after the Washington Examiner reported that six current and former border patrol employees had accused Banks of regularly paying for sex with prostitutes during trips to Colombia and Thailand over more than a decade, and bragging about it to colleagues.” (I’m sure the administration was just irritated that he didn’t spend his money on American prostitutes.)
+ Fraudian Slip: “Vice President JD Vance announced Wednesday that the Trump administration is withholding $1.3 billion in Medicaid payments to California and is threatening to suspend federal funding to all states if they don’t aggressively prosecute fraud in their Medicaid programs.” (I’m sure the targeting of red states is right around the corner.)
+ Developing Story: “The continuing crisis in Iran and the subsequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz have exacted a heavy cost worldwide.” Here’s the story in photos. (Luckily, we still have enough petrochemicals to develop photos...)
+ App-ly Yourself: “Software is built for the masses, designed not to be perfect for anyone but to be passable for everyone.” Vibe coding may not be the ideal way to build a scalable app for a huge customer base. But it’s incredibly empowering if you want to create an app for yourself. David Pierce in The Verge (Gift Article): You can make an app for that.
+ Coal Hole: Trump’s Push to Keep Coal Plants Open Is Costing Hundreds of Millions. (Other than that, it’s a great idea.)
+ I’m Gonna Harden My Heart: “For decades, heart health advice has focused on a few key pillars: Eat healthily, exercise, don’t smoke, and manage cholesterol, blood pressure and stress. But there’s a growing body of research that suggests there may be a less obvious factor that can influence cardiovascular health: optimism.” WaPo (Gift Article):