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Over the past few years, much of our political discourse has been focused on the roads that cross America’s Southern border, and the drugs those roads carry. But sometimes we forget the route between the US and Mexico is a two-way street. The traffic going the other way, the way we talk about less often, features a much more permeable border over which another dangerous payload is delivered at a relentless pace. And, in a twisted irony, the more the traffic coming up is slowed, the more the traffic going down speeds up. And you might be surprised by which country suffers the most from what crosses the border. The NYT(Gift Article) provides an in-depth roadmap toward understanding the delivery of the most American of exports. Inside the Supply Line Delivering American Guns to Mexican Cartels. “One smuggler said the border is so porous that cartel members sometimes tape gun parts and sometimes even entire firearms directly to their bodies and walk them into Mexico.”
2
Pushing a Fast One
Ai is reshaping our computing (and life) experience at a breathtaking pace. But quantum computing could make today’s advances seem like they’re coming in slow motion. And some experts say we’re only a few years away from this new reality. “When this point is reached, some problems that would take a traditional computer more than trillions of years to solve could take a quantum computer mere minutes, changing business as usual for industries involved with financial trading, shipping logistics, pharmaceuticals, scientific discovery, data encryption, insurance, internet delivery and more.” WSJ (Gift Article) with a good explainer to get you up to speed. How Quantum Computing Works.
+ Maybe no one has experienced the current computing advances more dramatically than the coders who helped create these new platforms. Actually, these days, they do less coding and more cajoling, ordering, and occasionally threatening. NYT (Gift Article): Coding After Coders: The End of Computer Programming as We Know It. “Many software developers these days berate their A.I. agents, plead with them, shout important commands in uppercase — or repeat the same command multiple times, like a hypnotist — and discover that the A.I. now seems to be slightly more obedient.”
3
Forced Retirement
It remains unclear whether Iran’s regime is losing its grip on the country. It’s much more clear that being a leader in that regime can be a dead-end job. “Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, and Gen. Gholam Reza Soleimani, the head of the Revolutionary Guard’s all-volunteer Basij force, were ‘eliminated last night,’ Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said. Larijani was considered one of the most powerful figures in the country since Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in an airstrike on the first day of the war.”
+ “Mr. Larijani, the head of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, was the de facto leader of the country after U.S.-Israeli airstrikes killed the upper echelons of government and the military early in the war. He was known to be trusted by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader who was killed at the start of the U.S.-Israeli campaign late last month. Mr. Larijani’s responsibilities had grown steadily over the past few months, including overseeing the brutal crackdown on antigovernment protesters in January.” But could the void his death leaves be filled by even more extreme hardliners? NYT(Gift Article): Israel’s Killing of Ali Larijani Could Allow Military to Tighten Grip on Iran.
+ Joe Kent, a Top U.S. Counterterrorism Official, Resigns Over the Iran War. Kent has a history of pushing conspiracy theories, has been a key advisor to Tulsi Gabbard, and is buds with Tucker Carlson. Still, his departure “bluntly exposes how the Iran war is expanding fissures in President Trump’s coalition.”
+ UK security adviser attended US-Iran talks and judged deal was within reach. “Powell’s presence at the talks, and his close knowledge of how they were progressing, was confirmed by three sources. One source said he was in the building at Oman’s ambassadorial residence in Cologny acting as an adviser, reflecting widespread concern about the US expertise on the talks represented by Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy on several issues.”
+ Jared Kushner Reportedly Seeks $5B From Middle East Governments for His Firm While Serving as Envoy. (He is charged with solving all the world’s most complex problems and he still has time to manage his investment fund. Now that’s multitasking.)
+ “The window for Donald Trump to end the Iran war by simply declaring victory and walking away is rapidly closing. Soon he will face a stark choice: He can take greater risks in pursuit of a decisive tactical success, prepare the country for a prolonged conflict that could last for many months, or seek a negotiated settlement that involves a real compromise with Tehran.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Disappearing Off-Ramp in Iran.
+ “President Donald Trump told reporters Monday that one of his predecessors told him he wished he had been the one to bomb Iran.” The only problem with that: He didn’t speak to any of the four former presidents.
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When Lightning Crashes
“A defibrillator delivers up to 1,000 volts to a patient’s heart; inmates executed by electric chair typically receive about 2,000. A typical lightning strike, by contrast, transmits 100 million volts or more.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): What 100 Million Volts Do to the Body and Mind. “The most fundamental consequences of being struck by lightning are often metaphysical, and not easily communicable. How does falling victim to one of the most notoriously unlikely of all misfortunes reorient your sense of chance, of fate? How does it feel, when you’re trying to describe the most transformative experience of your life, to be met, routinely, with disbelief?”
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Extra, Extra
Ballot Box Out: “Legislation that would require proof of U.S. citizenship for new voters has become a rallying cry for President Donald Trump, who claims that passage of the bill will ‘guarantee the midterms’ for his Republican Party in November. The bill, which the Senate will take up as early as Tuesday, would require voters to provide proof of citizenship when they register and to present approved identification when they go to the polls, among other new rules that Trump and his most loyal supporters are pushing as part of an effort to assert more federal control over elections.” What’s in the voting bill that Republicans are pushing to the Senate floor. (International strategies may never quite form, but election ones never waver.)
+ Who’s Got Next? “I think Cuba is seeing the end,’ Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on March 16, adding that he believes he’ll have the ‘honor’ of ‘taking’ the country... ‘Taking Cuba. I mean, whether I free it, take it. I think I can do anything I want with it.’” The Crisis in Cuba, Explained.
+ Your Money or Your Life? How’s this for a lede to define America’s current foreign policy? “The State Department is considering withholding lifesaving assistance to people with H.I.V. in Zambia as a negotiating tactic to force the government of the southern African country to sign a deal giving the United States more access to its critical minerals.”
+ Gamble Bramble: “Kalshi may brand itself as a ‘prediction market,’ but what it’s actually doing is running an illegal gambling operation and taking bets on Arizona elections, both of which violate Arizona law.” Arizona files criminal charges against Kalshi, accusing prediction market of illegal gambling.
+ Ready, Fire, Aim: “Our data on the USA goes back to 1789. What we’re seeing now is the most severe magnitude of democratic backsliding ever in the country.” ‘Trump is aiming for dictatorship’. That’s the verdict of the world’s most credible democracy watchdog. (In case you’ve missed the last few hundred editions...)
+ Whaling Away at Wind: NYT (Gift Article):