Trump en route to “Regina George” his way through the 2025 NATO Summit

I can’t wait to see how he spins eating alone in the bathroom during their lunch break!

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Jun 24, 2025

It’s too hot for this shit

I’m gonna be honest, when I get an emergency alert telling me it’s too hot to leave the house, I don’t have trouble complying. My standards for “too hot” are a bit lower than those of the people who write those alerts (80+ is just unacceptable). But yesterday would have been a good day to put my phone down and take a walk outside, if only it weren’t a health risk! I’m in New York City, and while we’re not the only ones battling the heat wave right now, we are the only ones battling Andrew Cuomo at the polls. In today’s newsletter, we’ll get into the final moments of the NYC mayoral primary, as well as the will-they-won’t-they ceasefire between Iran and Israel, J6 legal battles, a doll panic in Brazil, stabbings at a music festival in France, and more.

To truce or not to truce

The biggest story of the day continues to be the war (conflict? strikes? war-like-edible-substance?) in Iran. Here’s the latest: after US strikes on Iran over the weekend, Iran vowed retaliation, and they wasted no time. It’s almost like they knew ahead of time the US was going to attack them…can we check Pete Hegseth’s Signal history? Yesterday, Iran fired missiles at a US military base in Qatar. Thankfully, Qatari leaders said they intercepted the missiles, with no casualties reported.

THEN, President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire on Truth Social, which Iranian and Israeli leaders later confirmed. The total relief was short-lived, though: several hours later, Israel accused Iran of striking them. Iran denied that the missiles were fired after the ceasefire went into effect. And then this morning, Trump said both Iran and Israel violated the ceasefire (though, to be fair, violating ceasefires in the first few hours is not wholly uncommon). Oh, and I should mention that there are still open questions about whether or not the US achieved its goals of destroying Iran’s nuclear program, which could impact the future of this conflict.

ALL OF WHICH IS TO SAY: while there’s been good news, we don’t know what’s going to happen. Nor do our allies. As French President Emmanuel Macron said, in defense of Europe’s goal of seeking diplomacy: “The last minutes have shown that the situation remains very fragile… I’m well aware that when weapons strike, when you don’t take part in these strikes, you can feel marginalized. I think that when you decide not to strike, but you remain steadfast in your positions, you win strategically and in the long term.” I’m a diplomacy gal myself, too, but I’m sure everything will be fine in this case. I mean, Trump Truth-Social-ed of the ceasefire: “PLEASE DO NOT VIOLATE IT.” Who would violate an order they read online? Read more.

NATO time

Speaking of diplomacy, Trump now heads to the 2025 NATO summit in the Netherlands. Despite the circumstances. I am still jealous of anyone escaping the East Coast heat! The main summit drama is about Trump’s demands that NATO members increase their defense spending from 2% of GDP to 5% of GDP. So far, it looks like he’ll get his way, although over the course of the next decade, not immediately. And Spain is negotiating an exemption. Classic Spain! Obviously, the NATO leaders have Iran and Israel on the agenda too. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed that the ceasefire holds, even if it means Trump gets to do a victory lap in front of all our allies. Read more.

“Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez are getting married tomorrow in Venice. Imagine your fiancé can afford to marry you on Mars but chooses the Earth instead…so offensive.”

Brazil and the Real Girl

And now for something completely different…a panic over EXTREMELY realistic baby dolls in Brazil. Allow me to explain: there is a type of doll – known as a “reborn” doll – that’s become popular in Brazil. And when I say “realistic,” I mean they have veins, mottled skin tones, milk spots, birthmarks, etc. In fact, the dolls look SO much like real infants that they can be used to get your mom off your back about when you’re planning to have kids (I assume).

The dolls aren’t new, but they’re getting a ton of negative attention right now. To be fair, the dolls do come with real risks. Earlier this month, for example, a man slapped a four-month-old, claiming he believed the infant was a doll. But the response may be a bit overblown. It’s not just a matter of social media mockery or making fun of the doll owners. No, things are getting legal. To date, Brazilian legislators have introduced approximately thirty bills to regulate these dolls, including one that would prohibit people from using the dolls to cut in line for public services. Okay, if any lady wants to carry around a realistic doll to use the public bathroom first, I say let her. Anyone who is that committed to public toilets deserves to go first!

Of course, like all things political, many believe that the panic behind the dolls is nothing more than opportunism. According to Isabela Kalil, a poli sci professor at the FESPSP University in Brazil, “If a topic is trending, [right-wing] politicians will propose laws about it even if they make no sense. So there is also an element of grabbing attention and pushing an agenda, especially when the right-wing camp is in crisis over [Jair] Bolsonaro’s trial and no one knows who will emerge as their new leader.” Okay, so these dolls are to right-wing Brazilian politicians what Sarah McBride’s genitals are to our right-wingers, got it. Read more.

ON OUR RADAR

Sunny Hostin revealed on The View that she recently had a terrifying health scare related to an allergy to walnuts. Honestly, I would, too, if I had to sit next to Meghan McCain's empty chair every day.
The Bear is back tomorrow. Time to take a break from reading news about men who refuse to go to therapy to instead watch a TV show about a man who refuses to go to therapy…but at least Jeremy Allen White looks amazing shirtless.
A jury ordered David Walls-Kaufman – a man who assaulted a police officer on J6, which the jury believed led the officer to kill himself – to pay his family damages of $500,000.
Priorities USA and Reproductive Freedom for All Foundation are investing $2 million in funding creators to highlight the impacts of the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
According to local officials, 145 people said they were stabbed with needles at a music festival in France. I believe them, too, since I’ve done a lot of Molly and it never had that effect.
It’s 100 degrees in NYC, but I’d still recommend getting out and voting in the Democratic primary if you can! Find your polling place here. But don’t necessarily count on getting results tonight – the last NYC mayoral primary (the one that delivered us Eric Adams) was called two weeks later.
Congrats @kylietcheung! Thank you for your service.

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