Speech fail; court defeats; back to the Moon; space toilet troubles; endless shrimp redux; good ol' Reese's recipe to return; Olaf crash.
It's National Burrito Day!
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The newsletter is published Monday through Thursday (holidays excepted).
—Kevin G. Barkes
(Most) everything you need to know for today:
April 2 is the 92nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 273 days remain until the end of the year. As of this writing, 1,023 days remain in Trump’s term of office.
Knee-deep in the hoopla:
The latest on the Iran war from the Associated Press.
FACT FOCUS: False claims Trump made as he addressed the nation about Iran. (AP fact check)
Maybe Trump should not have given this speech. His address raised more questions than it answered about the war in Iran. (The Atlantic gift article)
Humiliated Trump storms out of catastrophic SCOTUS hearing. He abruptly exited the Supreme Court after less than 90 minutes of watching several of his own handpicked justices tear his arguments apart. (Daily Beast)
Trump suffers his fourth—and worst—legal blow in just hours. A federal judge has ruled he can be held accountable for his actions on January 6. The ruling allows a lawsuit from police officers and Democratic politicians to continue—and opens the door to other similar lawsuits. (The New Republic)
Trump endorses Republican plan to end DHS shutdown. The plan would fund ICE and Border Patrol for three years without Democrats’ help while relying on Democratic votes to fund the rest of DHS. (Washington Post gift article)
Why doesn’t anybody realize we’re going back to the Moon? (The Atlantic gift article)
There was a bit of toilet trouble on NASA’s Artemis 2 mission to the moon. NASA confirmed astronauts could still use the space commode to poop, just not urinate, though engineers were working to restore it to full service.
Tech CEO Aravind Srinivas slammed after saying AI layoffs are fine because people hate their jobs anyway. “A man worth millions just told the single mother who lost her job that she should be grateful because now she can start a business using his product and called her unemployment a glorious future. This is what happens when you’ve never needed a paycheck to keep the lights on.” (New York Post)
Data centers causing huge temperature spikes for miles around them, study suggests. They’re spiking land temperatures for miles around them by up to 16 degrees Fahrenheit, new research suggests. The effect is so pronounced that the researchers say they’re creating entire “heat islands.” (Futurism)
Red Lobster to revive disastrous ‘endless shrimp deal’ — with one key change. The decision to offer it for a limited time comes after the permanent menu fixture caused Red Lobster to lose a whopping $11 million in a single quarter. (New York Post)
Hershey says it will shift back to classic recipe for all Reese’s products after criticism. Hershey said Wednesday it will use classic recipes for all Reese’s products starting next year, a change that comes after the grandson of Reese’s founder criticized the company for shifting to cheaper ingredients. (AP)
Video of ‘Frozen’ Olaf robot collapsing at Disneyland Paris goes viral. The Olaf robot at Disneyland Paris is seen speaking to parkgoers before it freezes up — in midsentence — and then collapses backward, with its detachable carrot nose bouncing onto the ground.(Variety)
Late Night:
The Daily Show: Desi Lydic tackles Trump's attendance at Supreme Court oral arguments on birthright citizenship as he pushes to end the constitutional right for "billionaires," and his insistence on continuing construction on the White House ballroom despite a federal judge's ruling to halt it. Plus, Trump unveils plans for a presidential hotel-brary. (Video)
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: An administration official insists that President Trump is playing “12-dimensional chess” with his Iran war strategy, the president reportedly had a very bad time at today’s Supreme Court hearing on birthright citizenship, and NASA’s Artemis II mission launched four astronauts towards the moon today. (Video)
Keep scrolling… lots of interesting stuff in Quote of the Day, Holidays, On This Day, Birthdays, and Deaths. I can pretty much guarantee you’ll learn something new.
History highlight:
2025 – Liberation Day tariffs: U.S. President Donald Trump announced sweeping worldwide tariffs.
Quote of the day:
One of the advantages of a great sorrow is that nothing else seems painful.
--Giacomo Casanova (Wikipedia link)
(More Giacomo Casanova quotes from the KGB Quotations Database)
Today’s holidays:
International Children’s Book Day, International Fact-Checking Day, National Burrito Day, National DIY Day, National Ferret Day, National Love your Produce Manager Day, National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day, Reconciliation Day, and World Autism Awareness Day.
On This Day:
2025 – Liberation Day tariffs: U.S. President Donald Trump announced sweeping worldwide tariffs.
2020 – COVID-19 pandemic: The total number of confirmed cases reached one million.
2015 – Four men stole items worth up to £200 million from an underground safe deposit facility in London’s Hatton Garden area in what was called the “largest burglary in English legal history.”
1992 – In New York, Mafia boss John Gotti was convicted of murder and racketeering and is later sentenced to life in prison.
1979 – A Soviet bio-warfare laboratory at Sverdlovsk accidentally released airborne anthrax spores, killing 66 plus an unknown amount of livestock.
1973 – Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" topped the Billboard 200, where it remained for 31 weeks. (Video)
1973 – The LexisNexis computerized legal research service was launched.
1972 – Actor Charlie Chaplin returned to the United States for the first time since being labeled a communist during the Red Scare in the early 1950s.
1971 – After 1,225 episodes, ABC’s gothic soap opera “Dark Shadows” concluded its run. It was replaced with a new version of the game show Password. (Video)
1968 – The film “2001: A Space Odyssey” premiered in Washington, DC. (Video)
1956 – As the World Turns and The Edge of Night premiered on CBS. The two soaps became the first daytime dramas to debut in the 30-minute format.
1932 – “Tarzan the Ape Man” was released in the U.S. It was the first of Olympic swimmer Johnny Weissmuller’s 12 Tarzan films. (Video)
1917 – American entry into World War I: President Wilson asked the U.S. Congress for a declaration of war on Germany.
1917 – Jeannette Rankin, first woman elected to U.S. Congress, assumed office.
1902 – “Electric Theatre”, the first full-time movie theater in the United States, opened in Los Angeles.
1792 – The Coinage Act was passed by Congress, establishing the United States Mint.
1513 – Having spotted land on March 27, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León came ashore on what is now the U.S. state of Florida, landing somewhere between the modern city of St. Augustine and the mouth of the St. Johns River.
(For more comprehensive lists of the day’s historical events, check here, here, and here.)
Some Birthdays:
2002 – Emma Myers, American actress
1988 – Renée Good, American writer, poet and shooting victim (died 2026)
1975 – Pedro Pascal, Chilean and American actor
1965 – Rodney King, American victim of police brutality (died 2012)
1962 – Clark Gregg, American actor (Video)
1961 – Christopher Meloni, American actor
1953 – Debralee Scott, American actress (died 2005)
1949 – Pamela Reed, American actress
1947 – Emmylou Harris, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1945 – Linda Hunt, American actress
1942 – Leon Russell, American singer-songwriter and pianist (died 2016)
1941 – Dr. Demento, American radio host
1939 – Marvin Gaye, American singer-songwriter (died 1984) (Video)
1927 – Kenneth Tynan, English author and critic (died 1980)
1923 – Gloria Henry, actress (died 2021)
1920 – Jack Webb, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1982) (Video)
1914 – Alec Guinness, English actor (died 2000)
1908 – Buddy Ebsen, American actor and dancer (died 2003)
1875 – Walter Chrysler, American businessman, founded Chrysler (died 1940)
1840 – Émile Zola, French novelist, playwright, journalist (died 1902)
1805 – Hans Christian Andersen, Danish novelist, short story writer, and poet (died 1875)
1725 – Giacomo Casanova, Italian explorer and author (died 1798)
(A more complete list of today’s birthdays.)
Some Deaths:
2022 – Estelle Harris, American actress and comedian (born 1928)
2015 – Robert H. Schuller, American pastor and author (born 1926)
2005 – Pope John Paul II (born 1920)
2003 – Edwin Starr, American singer-songwriter (born 1942) (Video)
1994 – Betty Furness, American actress, consumer advocate, game show panelist, television journalist and television personality (born 1916)
1987 – Buddy Rich, American drummer, songwriter, and bandleader (born 1917) (Video)
1966 – C. S. Forester, English novelist (born 1899)
1872 – Samuel Morse, American painter and academic, invented Morse code (born 1791)
(A more complete list of today’s deaths.)
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