Good morning. In today’s edition:

• 🏛️ Congress addresses Trump’s agenda
• 🏳️‍🌈 Support for same-sex marriage falls
• 🤔 Why humans crave company

…and much more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~3.61-minute read (959 words).

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"No great discovery was ever made without a bold guess."

–Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727)

Four Republican lawmakers broke from party leadership on Wednesday, joining Democrats in a 215-208 House vote directing President Trump to end US military involvement in Iran unless Congress explicitly authorizes the conflict.

• The House measure is largely symbolic and wouldn't force any immediate changes to US policy.
• The Senate is weighing a similar proposal, but would need a veto-proof two-thirds majority to enact any legislation into law without Trump’s support.

A pattern emerges

In recent weeks, a growing number of Republican lawmakers have raised concerns or voiced opposition to several new Trump administration priorities.

“Anti-Weaponization” fund: A proposed $1.8 billion federal fund created by a DOJ settlement with Trump’s personal lawyers has drawn strong opposition from Republicans in Congress. Sen. Ted Cruz said roughly half of the Senate GOP conference voiced concerns with the fund in a closed-door meeting with AG Todd Blanche, questioning its cost, oversight, and legal basis. The Trump admin has said the fund is dead, though Trump declined to commit to scrapping it permanently.

White House ballroom: Trump's proposed 90,000-square-foot White House ballroom has also sparked resistance among some Republicans, particularly over a related $1 billion security package tied to the project. Critics have questioned whether the administration has adequately justified the funding request as lawmakers continue debating federal spending priorities.

Cabinet nominees: Some GOP senators are pushing back on Trump’s recent picks of Bill Pulte as acting Director of National Intelligence and Todd Blanche for attorney general, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD).

Aid for Ukraine: Six House Republicans joined Democrats on Wednesday to push through a vote on military aid for Ukraine, after Republicans had previously halted efforts to provide additional support for Ukraine under Trump’s direction.

Zoom out: Some 40.3% of Americans currently approve of President Trump’s job performance, while 57.1% disapprove, according to RealClearPolitics' average of recent national polls.

📊 Flash poll: Do you approve or disapprove of President Trump’s job performance so far in his second term?

• Approve
• Disapprove
• Unsure/other

Americans argue about inflation and interest rates while a different financial shift takes shape behind closed doors.

No public vote or national headlines. A little-known move slipped through Washington with almost no attention.

Some investors think it could redirect where money flows next and widen the gap between the people who prepare early and the people who wait too long.

Here are five stats from this past week that made our team go “whoa.” Hopefully you will, too.

🏳️‍🌈 Support for same-sex marriage among Republicans has fallen from 55% in 2022 to 37% this year, with support among Independents going from 77% to 67% over the past year, per new Gallup polling. Overall, 65% of Americans support same-sex marriage, down from 71% in 2023.

📈 S&P 500 rose by 16% across April and May, in a two-month surge that’s been matched only four other times since 1950—and each time, the index was also higher six months later (by a median 17%).

🏀🎟️ The cheapest tickets to the NY Knicks home games at Madison Square Garden for the NBA Finals—aka the “get-in” price—currently stands at $7,100+, according to Gametime.

🏢 Average CEO compensation in S&P 500 rose ~6% in 2025 to $17.7 million, while the average employee pay rose ~4.7% to just over $89,700, per new AP survey.

🇬🇪🍷 Georgian government recently unsealed Josef Stalin’s 40,000-bottle wine cellar for the first time, with plans to auction off the collection to fund a wine education school.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🌎 Trump admin proposes tariffs of 10%-12.5% on 60 countries it says have failed to ban goods produced with forced labor.
• 💰 Population of global millionaires surged by 7.9% in 2025 to reach 25.3 million, per the Capgemini World Wealth Report.
• 🤖 Anthropic publishes blog post asking top AI labs to consider slowing their pace of development; Anthropic suggests AI systems are advancing so rapidly they could soon improve themselves without human intervention, in ways that could pose significant societal risks.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🎾 French Open: The men’s semifinals later today will feature #2 Alexander Zverev v. #26 Jakub Menšík and #10 Flavio Cobolli v. Matteo Arnaldi; on the women’s side, unranked Maja Chwalińska becomes the first-ever qualifier to make the French Open final, where she’ll face 19-year-old #8 seed Mirra Andreeva.
• 🙏 Marjane Satrapi, author of acclaimed graphic novel Persepolis and leading champion for women's rights in Iran, dies at 56.
• 🏈 Green Bay Packers sign WR Christian Watson to reported four-yr, $110.5 million contract extension.

Many veterans carry injuries you can’t see. No signal to the outside world. Only long nights, short tempers, and distance from the life they once had.

WarriorWOD gives them a way back through training, nutrition, and mentors who’ve lived it. The six-month program helps veterans rebuild routine and community through partner gyms and Battle Buddy support systems designed to keep them moving forward.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🐦🧭 Pigeons may have a mysterious quantum compass hidden inside their iron-rich liver that aids their impressive navigation skills, per new Science study.
• ☀️ Sun erupts with a trio of major solar flares this week, likely increasing the odds of seeing the Northern Lights for residents across the US tonight.
• 🪱 Hookworms, intestinal parasites that can survive inside the human gut for years, were genetically modified for the first time to produce and deliver a therapeutic treatment in humans, per new study published in Nature Communications.

US, WORLD & POLITICS

• 🏛️ President Trump says he’ll formally nominate Acting AG Todd Blanche to succeed Pam Bondi as attorney general on a permanent basis.
• ⚖️ John Bolton, who served as national security adviser during the first Trump admin, pleads guilty to a single count of retaining classified information under a deal with the DOJ, per multiple reports.
• 🐄 Deadly cattle pest called New World screwworm discovered in Texas for the first time since 1966, raising fears of even higher beef prices.

☝️ You’re looking at some of the winners from the World Food Photography Awards 2026, which drew nearly 9,000 entries from 50+ countries

🤔 Did you know? An active volcano in Antarctica called Mount Erebus spews an estimated $6,000 worth of crystallized gold dust into the air every single day.

📰 Worth a read: Why human beings crave social interaction

🖱️ What we’re clicking:

• Successful people use 5 phrases to disagree with their boss
• 10 great innovations discovered by mistake
• The top drinks of summer 2026, per bartenders

NBA Playoffs just became more interesting… With Kalshi, trade on playoff outcomes, from series predictions to key moments, and turn every matchup into more than something you watch. Trade $10, claim $10 at Kalshi.

1. A phone battery is charged to 80%. After using 35% of the battery charge, the phone is plugged in and regains 20%. What percent of the battery is charged now?
2. A play begins at 6:40 PM and ends at 9:05 PM. There is also a 15-minute intermission halfway through the play. How long is the entire event?
3. If today is Wednesday, what day of the week will it be 10 days from now?

(keep scrolling for the answers)

📦 A Stanford University study helped adults with hoarding disorders part with some of their cluttered things in a healthy manner, by first doing it in a VR version of their home.

+Note: This story previously appeared in Positive DONUT.

1. 65%
2. 2 hours and 25 minutes
3. Saturday

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