🌊 ET Files Released... to Crickets
Plus: VA map blocked, Starmer faces heat, & West Virginia's river towns
Hope all of you moms reading this…
…had a wonderful Mother’s Day. Moms are the glue that keep families and communities together. In fact, civilization would cease to exist without them. None of us would be here without moms and the years of sacrifice required to raise us.
So with all that considered, I hope all you moms enjoyed the “HMD” texts your kids sent you yesterday, just minutes before following up with “what’s the Netflix pw again?” Nice to see so many people still going above and beyond!
Virginia court blocks new map
Gov releases UFO Files
West Virginia’s river towns
-Max and Max
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VA Supreme Court Blocks Map
Virginia Democrats faced a major setback last week.
Virginia’s Supreme Court threw out a voter-approved redistricting referendum in a 4-3 ruling on Friday, invalidating a Democratic-backed map that would have reshaped the state’s congressional delegation ahead of the November midterms.
The map, which voters narrowly approved in an April 12 special election, initially shifted Virginia’s congressional split from 6-5 in favor of the Democrats to 10-1 before it was thrown out. Outside groups spent nearly $100M on the campaign, and the state spent an additional $5.2M to hold the special election.
But the court sided with Republicans – Virginia law requires proposed amendments to pass through two consecutive General Assembly sessions with an election in between. Republicans had argued that Democrats violated state law by advancing the constitutional amendment after early voting for the 2025 House elections had already begun.
The court’s four-justice majority found that the first legislative vote came after over 1.3M ballots had already been cast in early voting, roughly 40% of the total for that cycle. They wrote that the procedural violation “incurably taints” the referendum. The three dissenting justices disagreed, arguing that the majority was stretching the definition of “election” and that an election is Election Day itself, not the weeks of early voting that precede it.
Democrats immediately filed for emergency review at the US Supreme Court. Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones accused the court of letting politics drive the decision, while House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (NY) called it the first time in American history that unelected judges nullified a completed public vote.
The broader picture for Democrats is grim: Many Southern Republican-controlled states are redrawing their own maps, and the US Supreme Court recently weakened a federal voting rights provision that had prohibited redrawing districts based solely on race.
If Republican efforts are successful, they could come out of this redistricting cycle with a net gain of 10 or more House seats.
How a Country Can Make Babies
One of my biggest takeaways from reporting in Israel had nothing to do with war, occupation, or Iran. It had to do with babies, which are everywhere.
Israel is the only wealthy country with a fertility rate above the replacement rate, meaning that it has enough children to sustain itself without immigration. Israel has around 2.9 births per woman, versus 1.6 in the US, 1.25 in Canada, and 1.4 in the UK.
Part of this has to do with Israel’s ultra-orthodox (“haredi”) population – around 14% of Israel’s 10M people – who regularly have 6, 8, or even 10 kids. Yet, I learned, it goes much deeper than that.
One wealthy country after another tries, and fails, to raise its birth rates. So what’s Israel’s secret?
April Jobs Report Beats Expectations
The US economy added 115,000 jobs in April, topping Wall Street’s forecast of 65,000 and extending a two-month streak of better-than-expected results.
The unemployment rate held at 4.3%, with gains concentrated in healthcare, retail, and transportation, while federal government and tech sector employment declined.
The strong report came alongside a drop in consumer sentiment to a record low, as Americans grow increasingly concerned about rising energy costs tied to the US-Iran war.
Putin: War Ending Soon
Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested the war in Ukraine may be nearing its end, even after both sides accused each other of violating a US-brokered ceasefire over the weekend.
Speaking after Moscow’s Victory Day parade (which, for the first time in nearly two decades, featured no military hardware due to fears of a Ukrainian strike), Putin said of the conflict, “I think that the matter is coming to an end, but it is a serious matter.”
Putin added that he would only meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after a final peace agreement had been reached.
Hantavirus Ship Evacuated
Passengers from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius began disembarking on Sunday in Tenerife and were flown to their home countries for quarantine.
None of the 140+ aboard have shown symptoms, though three people have died since the outbreak began, and five former passengers are confirmed infected. While some American passengers have already returned to the US, the rest will first be flown to Nebraska to determine if they’ve come in contact with a symptomatic person.
The WHO urged the public not to panic, with its director general saying the situation is “not another COVID.”
Pentagon Releases UFO Files
After a crazy week of JPMorgan sex scandals, a hantavirus outbreak, and the release of Epstein’s alleged suicide note, the US government capped it off with… aliens.
The Pentagon released an initial batch of over 162 declassified UFO files on Friday, including old State Department cables, FBI documents, NASA transcripts, and military video footage. The release is part of a February directive from President Trump to make long-secret records public.
The files are currently posted at war.gov/ufo, with more expected to come out on a rolling basis. Some of the highlights include Buzz Aldrin’s 1969 debrief in which he described a “sizeable” object near the lunar surface; a military video of erratically moving objects over Iraq, Syria, and the UAE; and a 1947 account from a Pan Am flight crew who reported a bright orange object that vanished behind a cloud.
But Pentagon officials also acknowledged that many of the files have not yet been analyzed, and skeptics noted the release offered little new conclusive evidence.
Court Strikes Down Trump Tariff
A federal trade court drove another nail in the coffin for President Trump’s trade strategy, striking down his 10% global tariff on Thursday.
The court ruled that Trump had misused a 1974 trade law to impose the tariff. In a 2-1 decision, the Court of International Trade found that Trump had involved the wrong legal authority – Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which allows tariffs only to address “large and serious” balance-of-payments deficits, not the broader trade deficits Trump cited.
The ruling is the second major courtroom loss for Trump’s tariff strategy, following a February decision by the Supreme Court that ruled the president lacks the authority to impose any tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
The ruling applies narrowly, only blocking tariff collection for the two plaintiffs who brought the case – spice retailer Burlap & Barrel and toy company Basic Fun! – and Washington state. All other importers must pay until any appeal plays out, which the White House is expected to do.
Starmer Facing Pressure
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is under increasing pressure to resign following the Labour Party’s worst local election results in years.
Final results came in Saturday and showed Labour lost over 1,100 council seats across England, ceded control of several longtime strongholds, and was ousted from power in Wales for the first time in 27 years.
The biggest winner was Nigel Farage’s populist Reform UK party, which picked up over 1,300 seats in many working-class, post-industrial parts of England that Labour had held for decades. The left-wing Green Party also made significant gains in urban areas, capitalizing on Labour’s handling of the Gaza war to peel off progressive voters.
Starmer accepted blame for the losses but has refused to step down, calling his government a “10-year project of renewal” and vowing to stay on through the next general election, slated for no later than August 2029. Several Labour lawmakers pushed back, with former Deputy Leader Angela Rayner calling for “immediate action to cut costs for households and put money back into the everyday economy.”
Iran Responds to Ceasefire Proposal
US-Iranian ceasefire talks faced another test on Sunday as President Trump rejected Iran’s latest proposal as “totally unacceptable,” calling it a setback to efforts to end the war.
Iran sent its response via Pakistani mediators, with Iranian state media reporting that Tehran demanded war reparations, full sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, an end to sanctions, and the release of seized assets – terms Iran framed as the bare minimum.
Axios first reported the terms of the US proposal last week, which called for suspending Iranian nuclear enrichment and restoring transit through the strait. The standoff comes as the fragile ceasefire faces growing pressure: Over the weekend, drone attacks struck a ship near Qatar, and Kuwait and the UAE both reported intercepting Iranian drones.
The latest setback comes after the US and Iran exchanged missiles tit-for-tat last week, as Iran continues to warn that any attack on its tankers would trigger a “heavy assault” on US bases in the region.
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100-Year Legend
Sir David Attenborough turned 100 on Friday, drawing tributes from King Charles III, Prince William, and celebrities worldwide.
The milestone was marked by a Royal Albert Hall concert featuring the BBC Concert Orchestra, with performers including Bastille’s Dan Smith and Sigur Rós, hosted by Kirsty Young.
Mine All Mine
Miners in Myanmar unearthed an 11,000-carat ruby – the second-largest ever found in the country – near Mogok shortly after the traditional New Year festival in April.
Though half the weight of a record-setting 1996 stone, experts consider this gem more valuable due to its superior color and clarity. The find lands amid Myanmar’s ongoing civil war, where gemstone revenue funds both the military government and ethnic armed groups fighting against it.
Kirby's New Block
Marvel co-creator Jack Kirby will have a stretch of Essex Street in Manhattan’s Lower East Side renamed “Jack Kirby Way” beginning May 11.
Kirby, who grew up in the neighborhood, is best known for co-creating Captain America and the Fantastic Four. The honor has a fitting local connection; Kirby’s character, Ben Grimm, aka the Thing, grew up on the fictional “Yancy Street,” which was inspired by nearby Delancey Street.
EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts
In our latest video, we visited Mingo County, West Virginia. Mingo County is often defined by coal, poverty, and the opioid crisis, but life there is far more complex than the headlines suggest. In this video, we travel along the Tug Fork River through former coal towns and remote mountain communities to explore how the region has changed after decades of economic decline.
Hope you all enjoy this one. We have a few bangers — as the kids say — coming out this week. Stay tuned!
–Max and Max
Another great video. Great work!!!!!