Up First from NPR - Federal Worker Email Confusion, UN On Ukraine, Colorado River, France Surgeon Trial

Confusion remains after the "What did you do last week?" email that federal workers received, the Trump administration's break with European allies over Ukraine was reflected in several votes at the UN, funds set aside to keep the Colorado River flowing have been halted, and a surgeon in France is on trial for abusing his young patients.

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The Intelligence from The Economist - Emmanuel dexterity: Trump and Macron chat

The meeting between France’s and America’s presidents had a familiarly chummy feel. We ask whether Emmanuel Macron’s charm offensive might have changed Donald Trump’s mind on security matters. Norway’s stocks of wild salmon are in trouble—owing in part to their farmed brethren (9:42). And how the Michelin Guide is trying to maintain its tastemaking primacy (17:20). Additional audio courtesy of @eatingwithtod.


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Headlines From The Times - Weather Woes and Corporate Moves

This episode explores the environmental and business shifts making waves. We start with fire debris washing up on LA's beaches, a concern for health officials and a call for caution among beachgoers. Then, we turn up the heat with  Southern California's record-breaking winter warmth. In the corporate world, Starbucks' layoffs of 1,100 employees, a strategic move under new CEO Brian Niccol to boost operations. Meanwhile, Apple's massive $500 billion investment in the U.S., promising to reshape the tech industry amidst ongoing trade tensions.

The Daily Detail - The Daily Detail for 2.25.25

Alabama

  • Sen. Britt says recent story by 1819 News supports the efforts of DOGE
  • Newly appointed FBI deputy director Dan Bongino has ties to Alabama
  • Governor Ivey sets date for special election for House District 11
  • An AL Healthcare company reaches settlement with DOJ & whistleblowers
  • FDA recalls frozen supplemental shakes used in nursing homes due to Listeria
  • Efforts underway to stop the sinking of the USS United States in Gulf waters

National

  • Trump defends the email demands of DOGE to government workers
  • Trump met on Monday with French president re: Ukraine/Russian war
  • EPA secretary freezes accounts within Citibank of $20B in climate spending
  • City Journal reports on NSA sex chatrooms being held during work hours
  • Woman on TikTok calls for death of Elon Musk, DC attorney takes note
  • TX congressman on hot mic says he will kill Tucker Carlson, backlash ensues

The Daily Signal - MAGA Foreign Policy: The Iranian Regime | Victor Davis Hanson

For the first time in decades, the Iranian regime is defenseless. Will President Donald Trump seize on the moment and finally depose of the brutal theocracy before it gets “the bomb” or instead pursue another “maximum pressure” campaign, cutting the ayatollah off from the rest of the world? Victor Davis Hanson lays out these options and what role the MAGA worldview may play in the Trump administration’s decision-making on today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words”

“Remember that fable of our youth when the mice got together and they say, ‘The cat is picking us off one by one. We need to put a bell around his neck so we could be warned.’ And everybody said, ‘That's a great idea.’

“The next item of business among the mice assembly was, who will bell the cat? What I'm getting at is the Europeans, I think even the Chinese and Russians, don't want on their border a nuclear Iran. The Americans, the Israelis, everybody knows they should not—that theocratic regime should not get the bomb. But who bells the cat? ...

“Maybe the correct stance of the incoming Trump administration is to go back to the maximum-pressure campaign of Mike Pompeo and Donald Trump and have strict sanctions on oil exports, maybe even a blockade, put the pressure on so the people then throw the theocracy out itself.

“But on the other hand, people are going to argue, ‘Wait a minute, there are no Iranian air defenses. For one of the few times in history, that regime is naked. There is no Assad. There is no Hezbollah. There is no Hamas. There is no Houthis that are capable of, as surrogates, attacking the Israeli state. 

“‘So, maybe you could attack Iran—just this brief window—because Israel, in a series of brilliant air responses, has destroyed its ability—Tehran's ability to defend itself.’”


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Honestly with Bari Weiss - German Elections, Antisemitic Nurses, and the Latest Hostage Release

Over the past year, right-wing parties across the West have been sweeping elections. Donald Trump in the United States, Argentina’s Javier Milei, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele, and now Germany.


On Sunday, 83 percent of Germans went to the polls—the highest turnout since the Cold War.


The Christian Democrats, the country’s center-right party led by Friedrich Merz, won. But that’s not the big story. The big story is that the right-wing populist party, the AfD, came in second place with nearly 21 percent, the strongest showing since WWII.


There is a single reason why. It’s not the economy. It’s not the war with Russia. It’s not climate change. It’s immigration. And I’m not talking about jobs or wage deflation. I’m talking about the fact that over the past decade, Germany has seen a net migration of 5 million people, with more than 1 million of the new arrivals coming from Syria and Afghanistan.


And the rifts have been palpable. And here, I’m choosing two examples from just last week: An Afghan migrant suspect rammed a car through a crowd of people. Thirty-nine people, including several children, were injured. Just the day before the election, a Syrian migrant became the lead suspect for a stabbing outside of the Holocaust memorial. This all fundamentally tests the limits of assimilation and multiculturalism.


The dynamic here is the same that has characterized many Western nations. The center-left and the left have ignored the problem. And the right has named it—and filled the vacuum. As Michael Sandel has put it: “Fundamentalists rush in where liberals fear to tread.” If there’s a line that captures the politics of our era, it is that.


Last week, the very question of whether migrants can adopt pluralism and Western ideals was also put to Australians, after two Sydney nurses went viral when caught on camera saying that they would kill Israeli patients that came into their hospital. One nurse was an Afghan refugee.


Here to unpack it all is Free Press columnist Batya Ungar-Sargon, Democratic fundraising powerhouse Brianna Wu, and the founder of Quillette, Claire Lehmann.


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Everything Everywhere Daily - The Mexican-American War

After several years of rising tensions, on May 13, 1846, the United States Congress declared war on the nation of Mexico. 

The war lasted only two years, and the conduct of the war was decidedly one-sided. 

The conclusion of the war resulted in changes to both countries, which can be seen on the map and felt on the ground today. Yet, despite being one of the most important conflicts in the history of both countries, it has been largely forgotten today. 

Learn more about the Mexican-American War, its causes, and its resolution on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.


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NBN Book of the Day - Giampaolo Conte, “A History of Capitalist Transformation: A Critique of Liberal-Capitalist Reforms” (Routledge, 2024)

A History of Capitalist Transformation: A Critique of Liberal-Capitalist Reforms highlights how, since the recent financial crises, the expression ‘liberal reform’ has entered common parlance as an evocative image of austerity and economic malaise, especially for the working classes and a segment of the middle class. But what exactly does ‘liberal reform’ refer to? The research analyzes the historical origins of liberal-capitalist reformism using a critical approach, starting with the origins of the Industrial Revolution.

The book demonstrates that the chief purpose of such reforms was to integrate semi-peripheral states into the capitalist world-economy by imposing, both directly and indirectly, the adoption of rules, institutions, attitudes, and procedures amenable to economic and political interests of capitalist élites and hegemonic states – Britain first, the United States later – between the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries. As such, the reforms became an active tool used to promote social-economical-financial institutions, norms, and lifestyles typical of a liberal-capitalist economic order which locates some of its founding values in capital accumulation, profit-seeking, and social transformation.

This book will be of significant interest to readers on capitalism, political economy, the history of the global economy, and British history.

Giampaolo Conte is Assistant Professor in Economic History at University of Roma Tre, Italy.

Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature. YouTube channelTwitter.

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Slate Books - Death, Sex & Money | I Was Ready to Write About My Domestic Abuser—Then Lawyers Said No.

When comedian Chelsea Devantez began writing her memoir, she knew exactly where to start: with a teenage relationship that spiraled into domestic violence. But when she submitted her draft, lawyers informed her she legally couldn't name her abuser or detail what happened.

"I threw the book in the trash for a few months," Chelsea recalls. After consulting friends and family, she decided to continue writing with a new approach. "Instead of telling my story, I would try to tell the story of how our systems are set up to silence."

In this episode, Chelsea and Anna also discuss how a complex PTSD diagnosis helped explain puzzling personality traits, friendship breakups, family secrets, and navigating a male-dominated, rich kid comedy scene.

Chelsea Devantez’s memoir is called I Shouldn't Be Telling You This: (But I'm Going to Anyway), and she has a podcast called Glamorous Trash: A Celebrity Memoir Podcast. 

Podcast production by Zoe Azulay and Andrew Dunn.

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What A Day - Will Republicans Slash Medicaid?

As House Republicans prepare to begin voting on their big policy blueprint this week, one of the programs they're targeting for major cuts is Medicaid. The federal healthcare program covers around 80 million Americans, mostly people living near or below the poverty line. While President Donald Trump has endorsed the House's budget plan, he has also said that Medicaid is 'not going to be touched.' Sarah Kliff, investigative health care reporter for The New York Times, explains what the proposed Medicaid cuts would mean for actual people.

And in headlines: Trump had an awkward meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron over Ukraine, Trump officials continued to sow confusion over an email demanding federal workers justify their jobs, and the president picked right-wing podcaster Dan Bongino as the next FBI deputy director.

Show Notes: