Good morning! The government's about to drop a new version of its super influential Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and it just might blow the roof off. Rumors are swirling that the longstanding advice to limit yourself to one or two alcoholic drinks per day is about to go bye-bye. The fun-suckers aren’t going down without a fight, though, and some nerds are pushing the feds to emphasize “beans, peas, and lentils.” Whatever that means.

Now, some legitimate, serious news presented without comment: The 19-year-old DOGE operative known as “Big Balls” has resigned from government service.

WORLD

🌐 Trump reverses course, commits to NATO

NATO chief Mark Rutte swears he didn’t call Trump “daddy.” But we all heard it. Rutte defended Trump’s recent f-bomb with the line, “Sometimes daddy needs to use strong language.”

Background: After less than two weeks of war, Israel and Iran agreed to a ceasefire. In response to rumors that they were both violating the deal, Trump said they’d been “fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f*** they’re doing.”

• A leaked report, which the FBI is investigating, said the U.S. strikes last weekend only set Iran's nuclear program back by a few months.

• CIA Director John Ratcliffe said that report was preliminary. He claimed last night that new information showed Iran's nuclear program had been "severely damaged."

As of Wednesday, the ceasefire had held and Israel had lifted its state of emergency. Trump says the U.S. will meet with Iran next week to discuss the future of its nuclear program, which he says has been “blown up to kingdom come.”

• Over in Congress, an effort by progressives to impeach Trump over the strikes got smacked down by large majorities of both parties.

Back to Rutte. Trump Daddy spent his Wednesday in the Netherlands with Rutte and other world leaders for the annual NATO summit. The heart of NATO is the mutual defense agreement (an attack on one is an attack on all) between its 32 members (30 in Europe, plus the U.S. and Canada). That idea has long been backed by a promise that each member will spend at least 2% of its entire economic output on its military.

• Amid a bevy of new wars in Europe’s backyard — and tons of pressure from Trump — NATO leaders this week agreed to ramp up that spending to 5% by 2035.

• The agreement is a big win for Trump. He's spent the past decade savaging America’s NATO allies for not pulling their weight.

• Despite the new agreement, many have only recently reached the old 2% target. Others, like Spain, still can't manage that.

Changed man: Trump admitted that he attended the meeting out of obligation, but left “a little bit different,” with an understanding that “these people really love their countries.” He added that NATO is “not a ripoff, and we’re here to help them protect their country.”

GOVERNMENT

🤖 Tesla launched its big self-driving Robotaxi service in Austin this week, and the Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has questions. The NHTSA doesn’t pre-approve new driverless tech. Instead, car companies certify that each car meets normal federal safety standards. But videos show the Teslas randomly slamming on their brakes in the middle of traffic, driving the wrong way, and generally competing hard with humans for max chaos. So the NHTSA is investigating the safety issues. The Robotaxis are still in service, but the launch was limited to just 10-20 vehicles.

💰️ The Federal Reserve joined other banking regulators, including the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and dumped the idea of policing “reputational risk” for banks. Reputational risk was defined as anything that could garner negative publicity and hurt a bank’s business. The banking industry celebrated the move, as did many Republicans. Conservatives argued that the policy had caused a “debanking” crisis in which large banks refused to work with certain customers due to their political beliefs or work in disfavored industries, like oil, guns, or crypto.

IMMIGRATION

⚖️ Supreme Court eases deportation rules

Anybody up for a permanent vacation to Rwanda? In a 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to resume deporting people to random third countries they aren’t actually from.

The White House says the removals are needed because the illegal migrants in question have committed crimes so “heinous” that their home countries refuse to take them back.

• The administration is working out agreements with third countries to accept these people.

• That list includes El Salvador, Guatemala, Kosovo, and Rwanda.

The court’s question: The problem here wasn't the removals themselves. Though Trump has expanded its use, the third-country deportation process isn't new. At issue was a lower court’s ruling that the deportees were entitled to 15 days’ notice to challenge their removals.

• The high court obviously disagreed. Justices said the government’s preference for less than one day’s notice was legally up to snuff and did not violate the migrants’ due process rights.

Despite the win, the administration is still fighting with that OG lower court over whether war-torn South Sudan is an acceptable place to send people.

Related: Hundreds of thousands of immigrants have entered the country illegally, claimed asylum due to alleged dangers back home, and received low-tier legal status while the government decides their claim. The Trump administration is planning to dismiss many of those claims, making the claimants eligible for deportation.

TRIVIA

In light of last week’s successful bombing run against Iran, President Trump suggested on Wednesday that we rename the Department of Defense to its way cooler pre-World War II name. What was the Department of Defense called before 1947? 

Hint: If you want to get loosey-goosey with it, there are two correct answers here.

POLITICS

🗳️ Young socialist ousts old creep as Epstein beats Weiner

It turns out an unfortunate name might not matter to voters. New York’s election results are rolling in, and Harvey Epstein — who, per SNL, is totally not that guy or that guy — is handily beating ex-Congressman Anthony Weiner for a City Council seat in Manhattan.

• In a horrendous “living up to your name” situation, Weiner is a registered sex offender who spent time in prison after sending explicit images to minors using the alias "Carlos Danger." Yes, really.

Mayor: The Democratic nominee for mayor will be 33-year-old state lawmaker and self-described socialist Zohran Mamdani. He destroyed ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who, in keeping with a weird theme today, resigned in 2021 amid sexual harassment allegations. Mamdani is pretty far to the left, even by New York City’s standards, and has a wild history of potentially controversial political statements. That said, his campaign mostly focused on the city’s rising cost of living.

• He received major support from progressives, including AOC and Bernie Sanders, and is strongly favored to win November’s general election.

• But many mainstream Democrats are worried he’ll be used as a political weapon against them nationwide.

Sorry, son: One family’s Fourth of July barbecue in Florida could be awkward this year. A brother and sister ran against each other for State Senate on Tuesday. They’re both experienced politicians already, and their mom is also well-known. That’s gotta be awkward for mom, right? Apparently not. She not only endorsed her daughter but also straight up managed her (winning) campaign.

BRIEFS

● Pending a lawsuit, a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump's plan to ban tons of federal employees from unionizing. Unions are already banned for many national security workers, but Trump's order expanded that to hundreds of new agencies.

● The U.S. Dept. of Justice is suing Washington state over a new law that forces priests to report suspected child abuse they hear about during confessions. The feds say it violates freedom of religion, and the Catholic church has ordered priests not to comply.

● President Trump announced his picks for the 22-member Homeland Security Advisory Council. Most are normal, like CEOs and ex-ambassadors. But he also chose a conservative radio host, disgraced ex-NYC Mayor Giuliani, and other political picks.

● Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s newly rebuilt Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, part of the CDC, held its first meeting on Wednesday. The panel has promised to review existing vaccine recommendation schedules.

QUOTE

ANSWER

Trump this week suggested renaming the Department of Defense as the Department of War “because we feel like warriors” after the Iran mission. Because of history, we’ll also take Department of the Navy as an answer to our question.

Until the Department of Defense was created in 1947, the military was run by two departments. The Department of War ran the Army, while the Department of the Navy ran the Navy and Marine Corps. War was renamed “Department of the Army,” a new “Department of the Air Force” was created, and all three agencies were merged into the new Department of Defense.

Fun fact: The law in question here also created the CIA.