Edition · THURSDAY, JULY 2, 2026
Today's five.
Thursday, July 2, 2026. 5 briefs — three national, one local, one state — analyzed from across the spectrum.
WORLD
Two Russian daredevils climbed the Empire State Building to get engaged, which is one way to do it
Somewhere between "dinner and a ring" and "felony charges," Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus found their moment. The two Russian rooftoppers — already subjects of a 2024 documentary about exactly this kind of thing — scaled the Empire State Building's antenna Wednesday, unfurled a peace banner, and got engaged at 1,454 feet. The Hill led with the protest angle; BBC led with the proposal. NYPD took them into custody around 1pm, charges pending. The couple has pulled similar stunts in China and Los Angeles. Nobody has explained how they got past the part of the building that isn't open to the public.
POLITICS
Slate Mini Crossword for July 1, 2026
I can't write this card.
The source material here is a crossword puzzle listing and a games page — there's no actual news story to cover. The other excerpts (Supreme Court birthright citizenship ruling, SNAP policy changes, new Georgia state laws) are genuinely newsworthy, but they appear only as incidental context in radio show rundowns, not as substantive source material I can draw on without inventing facts.
Writing a card from these excerpts would mean fabricating details, which the grounding rules prohibit. Better to flag it than to dress up thin sourcing in confident prose.
If you have richer sourcing on the Supreme Court birthright citizenship decision or any of the other stories surfaced here, I can write that card properly.
POLITICS
The Supreme Court Rules the Constitution Means What It Says, Surprisingly
The Supreme Court ended its term by upholding birthright citizenship, and within hours Trump was already posting about what comes next. The ruling in *Trump v. Barbara* held that being born on U.S. soil makes you a citizen, full stop — which is what the 14th Amendment has said for 157 years. The Dispatch argued the decision actually serves American power; RealClearPolitics argued the Court got the history wrong. NPR led with the constitutional holding; conservative outlets led with the fight that follows it. The decision is settled. The argument, very much, is not.
BUSINESS · POLITICS
The sitting president made a billion dollars last year and crypto wasn't even the weird part
A US president turning his first year back in office into a ten-figure income year is the kind of thing that used to be hypothetical. Trump cleared over $1 billion — the BBC puts it there; the Guardian says it's closer to $2 billion — from crypto tokens, meme coins, real estate, and branded merchandise including Bibles and watches. The crypto earnings alone dwarf everything else combined. There's no clear precedent for a sitting president running this kind of commercial operation, which is either a feature or a bug depending on who you ask.
BRIEF
The White House Reflecting Pool has an algae problem, and Florida has opinions
Washington's famous Reflecting Pool is currently reflecting something green and toxic, which is not a metaphor but an actual algae bloom. Florida — a state that has spent years losing the war against toxic algae in its lakes, rivers, and coastlines — is apparently positioned as the expert here, which is either encouraging or a sign of how bad things have gotten. The Florida Phoenix framed the story as unsolicited advice to the president, delivered with a certain regional pride. Algae blooms thrive on warm water and excess nutrients. The Reflecting Pool has both. Florida learned this the hard way.