Good morning. Today is National Donut Day – and also our anniversary.

On this day six years ago, The DONUT sent out its very first newsletter. We’ve since grown to 175,000+ readers (almost all organically), won a Webby Award for the “Best Email Newsletter from an Independent Publisher,” and are about to make some major moves that we’ll share with you soon.

However, none of this👆 would’ve been possible without the support of you, our readers. We started The DONUT to bring people together – not divide them – and work tirelessly every day to provide an antithesis to what we see as the worst characteristics of the news media. And there’s nothing we’d rather be doing.

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for your support♥️.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~5.05-minute read (1,344 words).

P.S. First time reading? Subscribe here for free.

“The more you are grateful for what you have, the more you will have to be grateful for.”

–Hilary "Zig" Ziglar (1926-2012)

Former President Trump has begun the process of selecting his next apprentice, aka vice presidential candidate.

According to a series of new reports, the Trump campaign has requested information from a list of top potential VPs in recent weeks. And while the reports say the list is not yet complete, they identify four top candidates: Governor Doug Burgum (ND), Senator Tim Scott (SC), Senator J.D. Vance (OH), and Senator Marco Rubio (FL).

• Internal Trump sources also mentioned four candidates who are reportedly lower down on the list: Rep. Elise Stefanik (NY), Rep. Byron Donalds (FL), Senator Tom Cotton (AR), and former HUD Secretary Ben Carson.

The reports come amid a fundraising surge for Trump’s campaign, especially in recent days. Trump and the Republican Party reported raising $76 million in April, drawing ahead of President Biden and Democrats ($51 million) for the first time this election cycle.

Zoom out: Trump currently holds a 41.2%–39.6% lead over Biden in FiveThirtyEight’s latest national polling averages, with RFK Jr. earning 9.4% of the vote. All three of those figures have remained relatively consistent since the beginning of March, including in the aftermath of Trump’s guilty verdict.

• Trump is also ahead of Biden in six key swing states that experts say will likely decide the race (AZ, GA, MI, NV, PA, and WI). However, polls show Trump’s lead shrunk slightly in those states following his guilty verdict, from 48%-45% to 47%-46%.

👀 Looking ahead… Trump has said he will likely announce his running mate shortly before or during the Republican National Convention, which takes place July 15-18.

📊 Flash poll: If the November election were held today, who would you vote for?

• President Biden
• Former President Trump
• Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
• A different third-party candidate
• I’m too young/I don’t vote
• Unsure/other

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🇨🇦 Canada is facing a border guard strike. According to their union, Canadian border agents are preparing to begin strike action this afternoon unless the government offers a new labor agreement with increased pay. While most border agents are deemed essential, meaning they can’t technically go on strike, employees can adopt a “work-to-rule” process that involves doing no more than the required minimum. In 2021, a similar work-to-rule strike action caused hours-long delays for the ~$2.6 billion worth of goods passing through the US-Canada border each day.

🇪🇺 EU parliamentary elections kicked off yesterday. Over the course of four days, citizens across 27 EU member countries will elect 720 Parliament members to five-year terms. Polls project significant gains for populist and conservative parties, though the bloc’s governing centrist coalition is expected to remain the largest group. Analysts say the election could have major implications for EU immigration reform, as well as aid packages for Ukraine and Palestine.

💥 Israel-Hamas war: An Israeli airstrike hit a UN-run school in Gaza yesterday morning, with Israel’s government describing it as a targeted airstrike on ~30 Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters, and Hamas officials saying the strike killed at least 33 people sheltering there, including 12 women and children. Israeli officials say they’re “very confident” in intelligence that showed militants deliberately using the UN facility as an operational base, and accused Hamas of lying about civilian casualties.

The FTC is investigating whether Microsoft channeled Mr. Deeds’ butler and structured a deal with Inflection, an AI startup, to avoid a government antitrust review of the transaction, according to a new Wall Street Journal report (very sneaky sir).

The deal in question happened in March, when Microsoft hired Inflection’s cofounder and almost all of the company’s employees and agreed to pay the startup $650 million as part of a licensing fee to resell its technology.

• Companies are required to report acquisitions of more than $119 million to federal antitrust-enforcement agencies, which have the option to investigate a deal’s impact on competition.
• Simply speaking, the FTC is now investigating whether Microsoft purposely acquired Inflection without actually acquiring them (which would need to be reported).

In AI, funny business and conflicts of interest seemingly abound. A report broke earlier this week that Tesla CEO Elon Musk diverted a $500 million shipment of AI chips meant for the publicly traded automaker to X and xAI, both of which he privately owns. And OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has made investments in a growing number of startups that do business with OpenAI itself, putting himself on both sides of deals.

👀 Looking ahead… Last month, the DOJ revealed that it’s closely monitoring the AI industry for potential conflicts of interest stemming from the widespread presence of shared board members between AI competitors.

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SpaceX completed a test flight of its Starship rocket for the first time yesterday. Apparently, Starship was actually meant to fly.

The successful test, which followed three unsuccessful ones, was the first time SpaceX returned the rocket’s booster to the ground in one piece. This is key; a controlled return is essential for the company to launch and land Starship regularly, something that has now become routine with its Falcon 9 rockets.

Starship = the Shaq of rockets

Starship is both the tallest and most powerful rocket ever launched. Fully stacked on the Super Heavy booster, Starship stands 397 feet tall and ~30 feet in diameter.

• The Super Heavy booster is what allows the rocket to take off. It’s comprised of 33 Raptor engines that collectively produce 16.7 million pounds of thrust – or ~2x more than the world’s second most powerful rocket, NASA’s Space Launch System.
• And, given we’re talking eye-popping numbers, here’s another one: Starship’s full system requires 10+ million pounds of liquid oxygen and liquid methane propellant for launch.

👀 Looking ahead… SpaceX, as part of a multibillion dollar contract from NASA, is set to use Starship in the next few years to land the first astronauts on the Moon since 1972.

💬 Quoted: “No regrets.”

• A Phish fan’s recent celebration has earned him widespread recognition – and a major burn notice. Weeks ago, an Instagram user posted a video of himself taking what he described as the “first ever bong rip” in the Vegas Sphere, which came shortly prior to a Phish concert on 4/20. After the video blew up on social media, the user says he received a lifetime ban from the Sphere and all other Madison Square Garden Entertainment venues, though the company also sent him a plaque to commemorate his new claim to fame.

🏀 Stat of the Day: Following its new TV rights deal, NBA front offices now project the league will see its first player earning $100+ million/year by the 2032-33 season. For reference, NBA teams’ entire salary cap first crossed the $100 million mark in 2019.

🤔 Did You Know? The revenue earned by South Korean tech giant Samsung accounts for more than one-fifth of the country’s entire GDP.

📰 Worth a Read: How Apple Fell Behind in the AI Arms Race → (WSJ)

• ☝️ You’re looking at some of the best science images from May, as selected by the journal Nature’s photo team.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with Asutra

• 💰 US markets closed mixed yesterday (S&P: -0.02%; Dow: +0.2%; Nasdaq: -0.1%). | 🎮 GameStop shares rose 48% yesterday following news that meme-stock folk hero Keith Gill, aka “Roaring Kitty,” scheduled a YouTube livestream for today (his first in nearly four years).
• 🚘 Hertz is currently selling its used Teslas at a “no-haggle” average price of $25,000, per CNBC.
• 🏦 The European Central Bank cut interest rates slightly from its previous record-high level; it marks the ECB’s first rate cut since 2019.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🏹 A new Hunger Games book will be released in March 2025, author Suzanne Collins announced; Sunrise on the Reaping, set 24 years before the original novel, will also be turned into a film released in November 2026. | 🎡 Pat Sajak’s final episode of Wheel of Fortune airs today; the show’s longtime host (41 seasons and 8,010 episodes) previously announced his retirement last year.
• 🥎 Oklahoma softball swept Texas to win the Women's College World Series, marking the school's fourth straight national championship.
• 🏀 NBA Finals: The Boston Celtics defeated the Dallas Mavericks 107-89 last night in Game 1. | 🏀 Billionaire Michael Bloomberg has reportedly joined the prospective Minnesota Timberwolves ownership group of Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Spleash

• 🚀 Boeing’s Starliner capsule successfully docked with the ISS yesterday following a slight delay due to thruster issues.
• ☀️ Microsoft unveiled an AI platform capable of modeling global weather and air pollution, with the ability to provide precise predictions in under a minute.
• 🐶 University of Michigan researchers trained AI models to identify the emotion, gender, and breed of a dog based on its bark, per a new study.

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MISCELLANEOUS

• 🚬 The FDA rescinded its 2022 ban on Juul vaping devices, placing the products back under scientific review; the agency has yet to make a final decision on Juul’s legality.
• ⚖️ The fourth day of Hunter Biden's federal gun crime trial featured testimony from prosecutors’ witnesses including Hallie Biden, his widowed sister-in-law and ex-romantic partner. (Read more)
• 💰 A US appeals court suspended a VC-backed grant program created exclusively for Black women-owned businesses; the program will be placed on hold while a discrimination lawsuit plays out in court. (Read more)

CLICKBAIT

• 🦸🐄 Brazil unveils its $4 million supercow.

After discovering that the legendary Jack Black would be touring in Australia while their School of Rock production was running, students at Ringwood Secondary College in Melbourne made a desperate plea for the star to come see their production. 

• "Oh lord of rock Jack Black, please grace us with your mighty love!" the students dramatically declared in their video to the star.

🎸 Rock on... The actor, who starred in School of Rock over two decades ago, saw the video and replied overnight. While his touring responsibilities prevented him from visiting the school in-person, Black still made sure to hype up the students and remind them: "There's no way you can stop the school of rock!"  

Our weekly news quiz is live.

• How well did you pay attention this week?

This appetite-inducing game probably won't help. Below are three lists of ingredients. Your job is give us the completed dish they make.

☝️ Recipe #1:

• Chicken breasts
• Olive oil
• Italian seasoning
• Salt & pepper
• Ciabatta buns
• Pesto
• Mozzarella
• Beefsteak tomatoes
• Basil leaves
• Balsamic glaze

✌️ Recipe #2:

• Flour
• Baking powder
• Salt
• Butter
• Sugar
• Cherries
• Eggs
• Almond extract

3️⃣ Recipe #3:

• Waxy potatoes
• Canola oil
• Onions
• Bacon
• Butter
• Salt & pepper

👆 Check out the referral prizes you can get, just for introducing people you know to little old us. 

What to do: Copy your unique link below, then send it to anyone who you think would like the DONUT. Once you hit each milestone, you'll get an email with a link to claim your prize.

Start referring.👇

☝️ Recipe #1: Grilled chicken caprese sandwich

✌️ Recipe #2: Cherry cake

3️⃣ Recipe #3: Bratkartoffeln (aka German cottage fries)