Good morning. In this edition:

• 📝 Golden Dome plans
• 🎭 From Broadway → screen
• 🌊 The physics of big pool splashes

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~4.02-minute read (1,069 words).

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"Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well."

–Voltaire (1694-1778)

The US government wants to replicate Harry Potter & co.’s ability to create a forcefield—but instead of Hogwarts, it would cover the entire continental US.

President Trump yesterday unveiled plans for a Golden Dome missile defense shield, which would detect, track, and potentially intercept incoming missiles, including nuclear weapons. If realized, it would mark the first time that the US put weapons in space.

• Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Golden Dome will be made up of ground-based components—ex: missile interceptors—and space-based components—ex: tracking satellites—designed to protect the US (and potentially Canada).

The Golden question—is it necessary?

Some say yes…Trump admin officials say the US needs to shift its missile defense policy away from its current focus on shooting down a handful of slower missiles shot by rogue states like North Korea or Iran, and towards adversaries like Russia and China who have major stockpiles and advanced hypersonic/ICBM technology (including missiles that can travel from Moscow to New York in ~30 minutes). And since both countries are either increasingly issuing nuclear threats (Russia), or rapidly and vastly expanding their nuclear arsenal (China), the US should proactively defend itself.

Others say no…Critics of the Golden Dome express doubts about the plausibility—and immense cost—of providing full missile coverage for the entire continental US. They also argue the Golden Dome is unnecessary, since the US military has already invested in protection from any potential incoming missiles via radars and ground-based interceptors.

Big picture: President Trump has said the project would cost $175 billion (an initial $25 billion is set aside in his “big, beautiful bill”)—while a separate estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office pegged the cost at up to $542 billion over the next 20 years to build and maintain (though that figure could fall as launch costs improve).

Looking ahead…Trump has set what analysts are calling an ambitious target of having the Golden Dome operational before his second term ends.

📊 Flash poll: In general, do you support President Trump’s plan to construct a Golden Dome missile defense system?

• Yes
• No
• Unsure/other

For AAPI Heritage Month, Autio highlights vibrant stories of Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. Explore tales of resilience, cultural richness, and diverse contributions that shaped the landscapes you're passing through.

• Autio features 23,000+ location-based stories—including AAPI histories—often overlooked in traditional guides
• Professionally narrated content, including voices like co-founder Kevin Costner and more

Generation Lab, a youth polling company, yesterday launched Verb.AI, a new product that offers people $50 or more per month (depending on use and other factors) to download a tracker onto their phones.

The tracker will collect data on things like Amazon purchases, Netflix binging habits, how long you stay on Zillow looking at aspirational homes—basically anything you do online outside of moving money between bank accounts, for example.

The use case: Instead of relying solely on user surveys, Generation Lab hopes to offer companies access to this data via an AI chatbot portal—where organizations can ask specific questions like “where do young people get their news?” or “does Gen Z actually use Instagram or is it just millennials?” and receive more accurate answers.

It could work. Survey data shows younger Americans are more comfortable with the tradeoffs of being online than older generations.

• 88% of Gen Z is open to sharing personal information with social media companies, 20% higher than older generations, according to eMarketer.
• 33% of Gen Z agrees or strongly agrees with the statement “I don’t mind being tracked by websites or apps,” compared with 22% of older adults, per a 2023 survey.

But…Gen Z is also the most skeptical of all generations when it comes to companies’ ability to keep their info safe, and more likely to pay for increased security or delete data after they're done using a service.

The curtains are rising on Broadway—from the comfort of your own couch.

Live plays from the most famous street in America (sorry, Wall) are increasingly becoming a new target for TV networks and streamers, as the companies work to tap into cultural relevance and reach new audiences:

• CNN last week announced plans to air George Clooney's Good Night, and Good Luck on June 7, which the network says will be the first time in history a Broadway play is televised live.
• Disney, digging into its previous Hamilton release playbook, will publish a recorded version of its hit live play Frozen on Disney+ on June 20.
• Max began streaming a filmed version of Waitress: The Musical, starring Sara Bareilles, earlier this year.
• Filmed Broadway productions have also been seen on PBS, NBC, and Fox.

Broadway-ception: As live plays continue to expand their reach from stages to screens, the opposite phenomenon is also occurring—plays based on TV and movies are booming on Broadway. Netflix this year released a stage adaptation of Stranger Things, while Warner Bros. recently produced a musical version of Beetlejuice. Other upcoming plays include Disney’s Hercules (opens on the West End next month) and Beauty and the Beast (launching a North American tour this summer).

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BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🗣️ Elon Musk in an interview yesterday committed to leading Tesla for the next five years; also said he plans to pull back political spending.
• 👖 Authentic Brands is buying Dockers and its iconic khakis for $311 million; the purchase comes as previous owner Levi Strauss plans to focus on its core labels (Levi’s + Beyond Yoga).
• 🚗 Honda announced it’s scaling back its EV transition to refocus on hybrids; becomes the latest automaker to rethink previous EV commitments.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

in partnership with Beam

• 🎮 Nintendo is partnering with Samsung Electronics Co. to help make the main chips for the Switch 2, hoping to produce 20 million units by March 2026.
• 👥 Elle Fanning headlines the latest casting announcement for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. | George Wendt, Who Played Norm on Cheers, died at 76.
• 📲 Fortnite was approved by Apple; the Epic Games title will now return to the App Store for the first time in five years.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🔋 Scientists created a new battery that can stretch and bend while retaining its charge, per a new study; the discovery could open the door for new wearable tech.
• ⭐ Customers perceive visual star ratings for businesses as higher than ratings presented numerically, per a new study; in other words: 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 is seen as better than 3.5/5 “moons.”
• 💉 The FDA released a more stringent set of guidelines for approving Covid vaccines for healthier adults.

US, WORLD & POLITICS

in partnership with Particle

• 🏢 The city of Austin’s reign as a tech hub may be coming to an end, per a new report that found Big Tech and startup employment both declined last year.
• 🌍 Israel permitted some aid trucks to enter Gaza for the first time in nearly three months; the UK, France, and Canada later issued a joint statement calling the aid “wholly inadequate” and warning of sanctions against Israel over its renewed Gaza invasion.
• 🏛️ President Trump visited congressional Republicans on Capitol Hill yesterday to urge passage of his “big, beautiful” budget reconciliation bill; some GOP holdouts are urging larger Medicaid cuts, while others are seeking higher SALT deductions.

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☝️ A memorial bust of The Doors frontman Jim Morrison, which was stolen from his grave in Paris 37 years ago, was recently discovered by chance during a French police investigation unrelated to the original theft.

🤔 Did You Know? The City of London, a ~1-square-mile financial district in the center of the UK’s capital city, has just 8,600 residents compared to 678,000 people who work there.

📰 Worth a Read: ‘Manu jumping’: The physics behind making humongous splashes in the pool

🖱️ Clickbait: Inside a two-dimensional NYC restaurant

How it works: We provide an incorrect stat. Then you guess whether the actual number is over or under the given value.

• 🏙️ 30%: How much of the world's population lives in China and India
• 🦒 60 minutes: Average amount an adult giraffe sleeps per night
• ⚡100 million: Average number of volts in one bolt of lightning

🦏 A rare Indian rhinoceros calf arrived at the West Midlands Safari Park in the UK on May 6. The baby is already melting hearts.

🫂 Retired social worker Paul Jenkinson is traveling across Canada with his folding table and two chairs, setting them up wherever he sees fit—then listening to anyone talk about anything, free of charge.

🦈 Charity Clark rescued a shark (sounds like the start of a nursery rhyme) with her bare hands while paddleboarding off the coast of Big Pine Key in Florida. The shark was entangled in rope from mouth-to-tail and quickly swam away after being rescued.

1. 🏙️ Over; 35%
2. 🦒 Under; 30 minutes/night
3. ⚡ Over; 300 million volts