Good morning! Look, we don’t support robbing world-famous museums. But we can’t help but appreciate a successful Oceans-level heist. Thieves in Paris on Sunday robbed the Louvre, the world's most-visited museum, of a priceless collection of jewelry that once belonged to French royals. It took the crew just four minutes to scale the building, cut open a window, and make off with the goods. All in broad daylight.

• If museum robberies are your thing, Netflix has a four-part series on the famous 1990 theft at Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

• Thirty-five years later, thirteen empty frames remain hanging on the museum’s walls.

Speaking of theft, today marks Day #20 of Government Shutdown 2025. With no end in sight, we could be looking at a record breaker. The longest ever shutdown was 2018’s 35-day doozy.

POLITICS

👑 Round 2 of anti-Trump No Kings protests occurs

“I’m not a king.” That was President Trump’s response to the No Kings protests that took place nationwide on Saturday. Of course, he also posted an AI video of himself wearing a crown, flying a fighter jet, and dropping loads of poop on protestors.

The first round of No Kings protests took place back in June. Organizers said more than 5 million people attended more than 2,600 rallies. This time around, they say they had 2,700 rallies and 7 million attendees.

• Protestors gathered to oppose the Trump administration's position on, well, pretty much everything.

• Signs and speeches opposed his policies on immigration, tariffs, taxes, budgets, Ukraine, Israel, and more.

• At a protest in Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson called for a general nationwide workers’ strike to take a stand against "tyranny" and the "ultra-wealthy."

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R) slammed the event as one big "hate America rally" from the "pro-Hamas wing." Vice President JD Vance, meanwhile, spent the day at Camp Pendleton in California celebrating the Marine Corps' 250th birthday.

The group backing this whole thing is a well-funded political nonprofit called Indivisible. In the words of its cofounders, “millions of Americans stood together” on Saturday “to reject authoritarianism and remind the world that our democracy belongs to the people, not to one man’s ambition.”

Democrats are hoping to ride a swell of voter anger to victory in next year’s midterm elections. Trump's approval is slightly underwater (45% for, 48% against), and Americans are increasingly concerned about the job market and grocery prices. But that isn't translating to a Blue Wave. At least not yet. The average of recent polls has the public preferring a Democratic Congress by 1.6%. That number at this point in Trump’s first term? Almost 9%.

In other political news…

• The fight over Missouri's new pro-Republican congressional map continues. Protestors gathered 100,000 signatures for a ballot measure to repeal the new map, but the state elections official ruled them invalid.

• Hyatt Hotel billionaire heir and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is getting some strange headlines. His financial disclosure forms revealed that he netted $1.4 million from gambling last year, which he purportedly won playing blackjack.

• Sen. Mitch McConnell fell in a Capitol hallway last week. The former Republican leader, known for his 2023 freezing incidents, got up quickly and voted later in the day. McConnell, 83, is retiring next year.

GOVERNMENT

🌍️ President Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday. Trump appeared to shift in Ukraine's favor last month when he threatened Russia with heavier sanctions and said he thinks Ukraine can win back all of its lost territory. Ahead of this meeting, Zelenskyy had hoped to score some American Tomahawk missiles. The long-range bad boys would allow Ukraine to strike deep inside Russian territory. But that hope was dashed on Friday. Emerging from their meeting, the two men emerged with statements about avoiding escalation and making a deal to end the bloodshed. Next on the agenda? A Trump-Putin meeting in Budapest sometime in the next two weeks.

👮 Federal prosecutors at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) brought terrorism charges for the first time against two men accused of being part of Antifa. They're accused of attempted murder and providing material support to terrorists. The charges stem from a July attack at a Dallas-area immigration detention center during which a local cop was shot in the neck. In an executive order last month, President Trump designated Antifa a terrorist organization. He accused the loosely organized group of trying to overthrow the government via "a campaign of violence and terrorism nationwide."

🚤 President Trump said Sunday that the U.S. will slash its assistance to longtime ally Colombia. He accused Colombia's president of doing nothing to stop drug production, which the U.N. says has risen in recent years. Trump referred to the guy as "an illegal drug leader" and threatened that if he doesn't "close up" his country's drug operations that the U.S. will have to step in and do it for him. Also Sunday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced yet another strike against an alleged drug trafficking boat in the Caribbean.

LAW

⚖️ DOJ targets former Trump official John Bolton

The single reader of this newsletter who is familiar with John Bolton was probably shocked by this news. The name of a former Trump White House official was added late last week to the growing list of well-known political figures who have been indicted.

• Bolton served as Trump 1.0’s national security advisor from April 2018 to September 2019.

• Before that, he served as Dubya's ambassador to the United Nations from 2005 to 2006.

• Since leaving Trump World six years ago, Bolton has become a staunch critic of his former boss.

This is the third recent charge against a prominent Trump critic. Does that mean it’s political retribution? Or a legitimate case against a man who misused his position of authority?

• The other two: Former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

The charges: From 2018 to 2025, prosecutors say Bolton violated the Espionage Act by illegally retaining and transmitting “national defense information.” He’s facing 18 counts, each punishable by up to 10 years in the slammer. Not ideal for a 76-year-old.

• This investigation began on President Biden’s watch in 2022, but his team decided not to pursue charges.

Prosecutors say Bolton spent years sharing more than a thousand pages of secrets — including info from intel briefings, White House meetings, and more — with two relatives. The info was meant for possible use in a book he was writing.

For his part, Bolton maintains his innocence. He pleaded not guilty and said in a statement, "I look forward to the fight to defend my lawful conduct and to expose his abuse of power." In the words of his attorney, keeping a diary "is not a crime."

The most absurd part of this whole story? He was using an AOL email account.

Related: On the flip side, things are looking up for former Rep. George Santos (R-NY), who won the prisoner lotto on Friday when President Trump commuted his sentence. The accidental former “Jew-ish” congressman, con man, and Brazilian drag queen extraordinaire was just three months into a seven-year sentence for fraud.

TRIVIA

Congratulations to Prince Harry! Prince Andrew firmly solidified his place as the black sheep of the British royal family on Friday when Buckingham Palace announced that he would relinquish his remaining royal titles, including Duke of York. Turns out ole Andy was a wee bit closer to Jeffrey Epstein for a wee bit longer than he’d previously admitted.

The British royals get a lot more media attention in the U.S. than other European royals do. But the United Kingdom is far from the only European country that’s still a monarchy. After the United Kingdom, which country is Europe’s second most populous monarchy?

Hint: It’s not a Scandinavian country.

BRIEFS

● The landmark peace deal in Gaza is back on after a short lapse. Israel and Hamas accused one another of breaking the truce, which resulted in a flurry of attacks over the border in both directions. By late Sunday, they’d both recommitted to the truce.

● The Trump administration filed an emergency appeal asking the Supreme Court to overturn a ruling preventing Trump’s use of the National Guard in Chicago. Meanwhile, Trump confirmed on Sunday that he plans to send Guard troops to San Francisco.

● Nine senior Chinese military leaders have been ousted for alleged corruption in the latest leadership purge by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its leader, President Xi Jinping. The CCP will meet this week to discuss its next five-year plan for the country.

● The Secret Service is investigating a potential threat to the president in Florida. Agents found an elevated hunting stand in a tree with a direct line of sight to Air Force One’s landing zone at Palm Beach International Airport, three miles from Mar-a-Lago.

● Former Biden White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s plan to sell a truckload of books got a boost over the weekend. In a new excerpt from her upcoming tell-all, “Independent,” she says she can’t “stomach being in the Democratic Party anymore.”

● Student loan forgiveness is back on for some borrowers. The Department of Education agreed to begin processing loan forgiveness again for eligible borrowers under two old income-driven repayment plans that are set to be phased out in 2028.

QUOTE

ANSWER

There are 12 remaining European monarchies. Today’s hint eliminated the three Scandinavian countries of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. Aside from the United Kingdom, that leaves eight options. Five are lightly populated microstates (tiny countries), so we can count out Andorra, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, and the Vatican City. That leaves three options: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Spain.

Our winner today: Spain and its 49 million people. That’s ~2.7x the population of the Netherlands, Europe’s #3 monarchy. Fun fact: Spain dumped its monarchy in 1931 before reversing course and restoring it in 1975.