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Good morning,

I was planning to take the fam to Europe in August, but I think we're gonna call it off and do something closer to home. These flights are bananas. A thousand bucks a pop just to get to Portugal? Thank you President Netanyahu and Vice President Trump for ruining my summer vacation.

The vibes are just bad all around right now. Can someone tell me if I need to care about this hantavirus outbreak? I guess that's my job, lol. But I don't have the mental load capacity to deal with a deadly pathogen at the moment. News Gods, if you're listening, please table this one until next year at the earliest. Nobody has time for another pandemic right now.

What are the Artemis astronauts doing these days? Can we send them somewhere? If I were POTUS I would just have those four going around solving various problems. Why is the Key Bridge in Baltimore still not rebuilt? That ship crashed into it over two years ago now, and they haven't even started construction yet? How is that not a national embarrassment? And the governor of Maryland wants to run for president? How about you build the damn bridge back, Gov. Moore, and then we can talk. If you can't get it done, send our astronauts in. Just to give people a reminder of what high levels of competence and teamwork look like.

Kamala Harris. I swear, these stories about how she's going to run in 2028 and is already leading the pack were designed to give me a hernia. I can't even read them or my blood might start to boil, and I am in a delicate position right now. Stop trying to kill me, Kamala. If she wanted to run for office, she probably could have cleared the field in the joke that is the CA gov race. Is that not good enough? Are you owed the presidency after already losing the world's most winnable election? Can we bring back public shaming of politicians? Karen Bass is trying to get reelected LA mayor after overseeing the utter destruction of one of the city's most beautiful and iconic neighborhoods. Seriously? And Kamala endorsed her! Thank God I don't live in California, I think having a front row seat to that state's dysfunctional politics would send me over the edge.

What else? Axios is reporting the US and Iran are "closing in" on a memo of understanding to end the war. Lemme guess: it's gonna end up looking like a dressed-up version of the Obama deal that Trump tore up, and then we'll spend the next two years arguing that it's actually better, or worse, or different in any way, while Iran rearms and then we can go to war again in a few years. And that’s best-case scenario at this point! What did Orwell say? "The war is not meant to be won. It's meant to be continuous."

Meanwhile, the president had a good primary night in Indiana, with his candidates knocking off most of the GOP state senators who dared to go against him on redistricting. The man can still get his base to turn out to punish his enemies, despite being more unpopular right now than he's ever been. Go figure!

Apropo of nothing, I wanted to highlight something that shows how the media works to obfuscate the news. As a parent who is going to have to deal with this issue eventually, I've been very closely following the stories about phones in schools. A growing number of school districts around the country have been passing phone/screen bans: either just during class, or so-called "bell to bell" bans where the students have to lock their devices up for the entire school day. The results have been a huge success. Talk to any parent, any teacher, even any kid, and they will tell you that the bans are helping their day-to-day quality of life. There are even some studies starting to come out giving some much-needed data to support this. Enter the media. Via the NYT (gift link): “The share of students using cellphones in class for nonacademic reasons declined to 13 percent from 61 percent in schools using the pouches… But test scores have not increased." This is from a story headlined Did School Cell Phone Bans Work? New Study Finds Mixed Results.

Mixed results? Because banning phones in schools for a year didn't miraculously reverse a decades-long trend in declining test scores? The issue with phones (screens, more broadly) in schools isn't about test scores. It's about handing over more of our childrens' lives to Big Tech. It's a spiritual issue, frankly. It's about protecting our kids and giving them the space to learn and have all the experiences we did, without the poisonous influence of Google, Meta and the rest of these blood-sucking, mental health-destroying companies that want to worm their ways into our kids' lives at every waking moment. 

But look at how the media shifts the goalposts. It's not just the Times. Even the hugely popular parenting influencer Emily Oster, whom we had on the show a while back, framed the results of these new studies as "underwhelming." Her own analysis of the data finds "significant" impacts when phones are banned, including "significant" decreases in phones being used in class, and "significant" increases in teacher satisfaction. Seems pretty whelming to me! But the data shows no or insignificant impact on test scores, or bullying, or attendance. So, banning phones in schools doesn't solve every single problem that has bedeviled public education for decades. But it does solve the problem of kids using their phones in class, and teachers not being able to teach. And that's "mixed results."

If you're Big Tech, you couldn't ask for better coverage than this. Because you know the Googles and Facebooks of the world are going to use these reports to push even more into classrooms. Phone ban? Give every kid a Chromebook. Google will hand them out for free. And if you have a personal, school-issued laptop, you're probably gonna need ChatGPT, right? Here's a version of Google's Gemini, built specifically for kids! Don't forget to install YouTube, while you're at it. The whole thing is sick, and the media finding religion on test scores — which they’ve been telling us for years now either don’t matter or are actively racist — to justify giving kids back their phones in class is particularly disgusting. 

I dunno what the hell I'm going on about today. I just woke up annoyed. We do have a great new podcast episode for you guys this morning, though. It's a spicy one. I brought on the writer Lisa Britton, a former feminist turned apostate who has become one of the leading voices on the internet raising the alarm about the crisis inflicting boys and men. She wrote that great Substack piece I recommended last week, titled The Demonization of Male Ambition. We talked about the education gap, the mental health/suicide gap, the manosphere, and why it's not true that men are becoming more conservative. Great convo with a great guest that I hope you enjoy. We'll record the mailbag later today so get those questions in if you haven't!

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Carlo Versano is Newsweek's Director of Politics and Culture. He has in-depth knowledge and experience covering a range of topics and stories over a 20-year career in the news business. Carlo joined Newsweek in 2024 after a stint at The Messenger. Before that, he was an Emmy-winning producer at NBC News. He is a graduate of the University of Richmond and the New School. You can get in touch with Carlo by emailing [email protected].

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Why Do We Hate When Men Succeed? With Lisa Britton

Are the dudes in crisis? Writer Lisa Britton joins Carlo to talk the "demonization" of today's men.

Watch the latest episode here. ⬅

"Welcome to D.C. politics in Indiana because this means that's what’s coming," said Travis Holdman after losing a Republican State Senate primary shaped by President Donald Trump's revenge campaign. 

Holdman had voted against Trump's failed Indiana redistricting push, and his defeat is another chapter in the familiar story that Trump still owns the GOP. 

But there's another story unfolding, one without a happy ending for Trump's Republicans.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared somewhat baffled by the chaos inside the White House briefing room as he stepped in for Karoline Leavitt, who is on maternity leave, and faced a packed room of reporters.

Despite not being a regular at the podium, Rubio handled it with authority. At one point, as journalists shouted over each other, he shut it down with a firm “not you.” The room quickly quieted, a level of control and respect that often contrasts with the dynamic seen when President Trump takes questions.

It is also notable that the White House chose Rubio over Vice President JD Vance to fill in for the first briefing during Leavitt’s absence. That decision could fuel speculation about Trump’s preferences looking ahead to 2028.

Vance was traveling Tuesday with stops in Ohio, Oklahoma, and Iowa. Still, if the White House had wanted him at the podium, the timing could have been adjusted.

As Carlo mentioned earlier, Indiana just showed that while polling isn't Trump's friend, his grip on the Republican Party absolutely is. Seven state senators defied him. He destroyed five of them.

His allied groups spent $8.3 million on advertising in low-profile primaries most voters never heard of. Five challengers won. One incumbent held on. One was too close to call. The message was clear: cross Trump and you lose.

These senators represented districts Trump won by 20+ points in 2024. Safe Republican territory. You don't lose a primary there. Unless Trump decides you do. The cruelty was surgical.

Governor Mike Braun didn't hesitate. He backed Trump's slate, called it an "America First" victory, and moved on. The Indiana Republican establishment didn't fight back. They joined him.

Every Republican watching Indiana right now should be asking hard questions. Yes, Trump's numbers with independents are tanking and he's scaring swing voters. But Indiana just proved that internal party control matters more than general election strength. You can lose the country and still own your party. That's the lesson Republicans are learning.

“You'll never compete against women in powerlifting. Did you see they had a man powerlifter and he decided to go the opposite direction? Do you think you can take me in a fight?"

— President Trump speaking to a young boy in the Oval Office during a ceremony reviving the Presidential Fitness Test.

Newsweek is part of the Trust Project, which focuses on honesty, accuracy and fairness in journalism. Read more about our best practices. To get in touch with our newsroom with suggestions on how to point out possible errors, please contact us at [email protected].