Good morning and congratulations for survivng Polar Vortex 2026. This has been a nice test run for America’s coming purchase invasion visit to Greenland.

Programming note: If you scrolled down before reading this intro and then, for some goofy reason, scrolled all the way back up, you might have noticed a major story missing from today’s issue. Our goal here is to give you an easy-to-read, only partially lame look at what’s going on in D.C. We think that’s important. But holding everyone’s attention enough so nobody leaves before finding out what NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office is up to sometimes necessitates avoiding partisan landmines. With that in mind, we’re sidestepping the whole situation in Minnesota for now. We’ll just leave you with a few small nuggets:

• Some Congressional Republicans want an investigation into the administration’s immigration enforcement tactics. Others, like Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, think Trump is getting bad advice on the issue.

• The federal budget runs out on Friday, and Congress is working on a new one. Democrats want ICE defunded, Republicans don’t. So we could be headed for a (partial) government shutdown.

HEALTH

🩺 Don’t worry, you’re (probably) not going to get Ebola

The United States has officially kicked the World Health Organization to the curb. Okay, technically, they’re based in Geneva, Switzerland. So we didn’t kick ‘em out of anything. But last Thursday, the U.S. officially completed its yearlong withdrawal from the WHO.

WHO? The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations. It’s the big daddy of tracking disease outbreaks, declaring health disasters, standardizing disease names, and collecting and sharing health data across all 193 member nations.

• Other specialized agencies of the U.N. include the World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the Universal Postal Union (UPU).

Why? A few reasons. First, the Trump administration thinks the WHO has "strayed from its core mission" and fallen prey to the "political influence" of some members. Second on the list is COVID. The U.S. says the WHO mishandled it by responding too slowly, claiming until 2024 that it wasn’t airborne, and criticizing Trump for shutting down travel so early in 2020.

• As with everything, cash is king. Trump thinks the U.S.’s annual payments of more than $600 million are way too much. And that other big countries, like China, aren’t giving enough ($87 million in 2025).

• The U.S. funds about 20% of the WHO’s budget, so the withdrawal is already forcing big cuts.

• Trump also thinks it’s unfair that despite our cash, none of the WHO’s eight directors since its 1948 founding have been American.

What now? We’re cutting out the middleman, basically. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) says it already has health relations with almost every country in the world, along with 2,000 staffers stationed in 63 countries. The plan is to share data directly with those countries instead of sending it to the WHO first.

California: There’s a lot of news going around right now that, in response to Trump’s withdrawal, California has joined the WHO. That’s not really true. Only sovereign countries can become members. What California did join, though, was the WHO's outbreak alert network.

In related health news: Dr. Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist serving as chair of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), says some vaccines should be optional.

GOVERNMENT

🏞️ The city of Philadelphia is suing the Department of the Interior and its baby, the National Park Service. Mayor Cherelle Parker says the feds violated a 2006 agreement that requires them to meet with the city before changing exhibits at Philly’s Independence National Historical Park. The park includes Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, and the surrounding areas. Until last week, it also included info on George Washington’s involvement with slavery. An Interior Department statement said the city’s lawsuit is “demeaning” to the Founding Fathers, and the Trump administration has blamed Biden for putting up exhibits like this one that needlessly insert race into everything. But opponents of the removal say Trump is “whitewashing history” and trying to hide the mistakes of America’s past.

📦️ Despite negotiating the United States—Mexico—Canada Agreement (USMCA) during his first term, President Trump says he doesn't "even think about" the free trade deal anymore. USMCA began taking fire during the 2025 trade wars. Now, Trump is threatening it further with a potential 100% tariff on Canadian exports to the U.S. His reasoning? Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is pushing for a "new strategic partnership" with China and a fancy new trade deal to match. If it's signed, Trump believes China will use the agreement to sneak its products into the U.S.

☮️ Speaking of Mark Carney, Trump has withdrawn his invitation for Canada’s leader to join his new Board of Peace. The Board of Peace is a new international organization. It’s meant to help rebuild Gaza after the war, but its mandate doesn’t technically have a limit. Trump chairs the group, and he’s invited about 60 other countries to join. Membership lasts three years, but a cool $1 billion payment will make your seat permanent. More than two dozen countries are on board. But many European allies have declined. They aren’t thrilled with the whole Greenland situation or the fact that Russia is on the invite list.

TRUMP

🏎️ Trump wants to stage a race around the National Mall

They grow up so fast, don’t they? It seems like just yesterday that a bunch of yahoos were throwing tea into Boston Harbor. But America’s 250th birthday is coming in hot this year, and celebrations are already underway.

President Trump is apparently not content with a UFC fight on the White House lawn being the only major sporting event on the birthday calendar. He and the Department of Transportation are now pushing for an F1 IndyCar race around the National Mall and U.S. Capitol.

• As we’re all well aware of by now, Trump can preeeetty much do what he wants at the White House.

• But he’ll have to get Congress on board with the race idea. Advertising is banned around the Capitol, which pretty much nixes anything associated with any breed of racecar.

This appears to be a priority for Trump, so the Department of Transportation is actively working to convince its "partners in Congress" that the race’s tourism impact — and overall dopeness — make it worthy of granting a waiver.

Elsewhere in TrumpWorld…

1. The president is suing JPMorgan Chase for $5 billion, alleging some of his accounts were closed in 2021 for “political and social” reasons.

2. Trump explained the big bruise on his hand is a side effect of taking “the big aspirin” after accidentally smacking a table.

3. He recognized the 457 U.K. troops who died in Afghanistan after the Brits took offense to his remarks that they’d stayed off the front lines during the war.

TRIVIA

We’re about seven months out from Election Day, so midterm news is heating up. This year's races will feature such luminaries as an explicitly anti-Republican third-party “spoiler” candidate in New Hampshire and a guy in Virginia primarily known for competing on the venerated “FBoy Island.”

Not on that list for the first time since the 80s? Eleanor Holmes Norton. The 88-year-old is retiring from Congress after serving 36 years as Washington, D.C.’s delegate to the House of Representatives. D.C. isn’t a state, so it doesn’t get an actual representative. Its delegate can’t vote on legislation, but she does serve on committees and introduce bills. And she’s not alone on that front. In addition to its 435 full members, how many non-voting delegates serve in the U.S. House of Representatives?

Hint: There’s one for D.C. and each inhabited U.S. territory.

BRIEFS

● The data is murky, but some officials believe Iran's regime has slaughtered as many as 30,000 people since anti-government protests erupted earlier this month. Trump has vowed to respond and said he’s still moving U.S. military assets into the region.

● For the first time since capturing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the U.S. military blew up another alleged drug trafficking boat. Meanwhile, the U.S. hopes to topple Cuba’s government, which could be nearing collapse without Venezuela’s cash.

● Following talks with the U.S. and Russia, Ukraine’s president said a deal for post-war U.S. security guarantees is "100% ready." If signed, it'll go to Congress for approval. Ukraine also hopes to join the E.U. by 2027 as part of an “economic security guarantee.”

● The U.S. government is taking a 10% stake in USA Rare Earth, an Oklahoma-based minerals company. The investment follows three similar deals from last year and aims to reduce U.S. reliance on China for critical minerals by building a domestic mining sector.

● Former Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith gave a fiery five-hour testimony to Congress on Thursday. He defended his efforts to prosecute Trump for Jan. 6 and said the president alone was to blame for the riots.

QUOTE

ANSWER

The House has 435 members from the 50 states and six non-voting delegates from D.C. and the territories. Since 2025, there have been three Democrats and three Republicans:

1. Washington, D.C. (D)

2. Puerto Rico (D)

3. U.S. Virgin Islands (D)

4. American Samoa (R)

5. Guam (R)

6. Northern Mariana Islands (R)

Five of them are called “delegates” and serve the same two-year terms as the rest of the House. Because it just has to be different, Puerto Rico sends a “resident commissioner” for a four-year term. The Cherokee Nation has spent the last seven years trying to bump that number to seven by sending its own delegate. Congress isn’t biting, though, and has repeatedly refused to seat her.