A Secret Service agent patrols outside Madison Square Garden before game three of the NBA Finals, between the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs. Trump is attending, meaning increased security and the cancellation of a watch party outside the stadium, infuriating New Yorkers. (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP via Getty Images)
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President Trump has dispatched a federal prosecutor to the LA County Ballot Processing Center to investigate voter fraud. All because Spencer Pratt has fallen to third place in the Los Angeles Mayor’s race. The Associated Press’ highly regarded decision desk just declared Nithya Raman the second place finisher, knocking out Pratt.
Predictably, the bright stars of conspiracy land have assembled. The President: “Not possible for Spencer to have lost.” Elon Musk: “The level of fraud here is mind-blowing.” Ron DeSantis: “Count until you get the result you want?” Even a (Musk-invested) Sequoia partner — a person paid to understand risk and probability — offers: “It takes a conspiracy theorist to believe California’s election is secure.” Nothing says “legitimate legal concern” like announcing fraud before the prosecutor has reviewed a single ballot.
Here’s what’s in short supply: anyone willing to explain how California elections actually work. I’ll do it.
California mails every registered voter a ballot — all 23 million of them. Counties have 30 days to count and certify. Ballots postmarked by Election Day can arrive up to 7 days late and still count. The Secretary of State certifies by Day 38. This is not a glitch. It’s the law. Written down. Publicly available. And somehow still treated as evidence of a shadowy cabal.
In 2024, two House races took nearly a month to call. Nobody stormed the ballot processing center. Which suggests this week’s investigators are less about finding fraud and more about laying groundwork to blow up mail voting before November.
The math: LA County is roughly 85% non-Republican. The red mirage is real and predictable — Election Day votes go red, mail ballots close the gap. Pratt is already above the GOP registration ceiling.
The system is a mess. As I’ve said, it seems designed by someone who genuinely hates voters. That’s not fraud, it’s bureaucracy. Counting continues. So does the noise.
In today’s newsletter: The World Cup kicks off — and it’s already a mess. Spencer Pratt is channeling his inner Trump. In Texas, Ken Paxton’s defense attorney switches sides. Trump rage-quits an interview. Kevin O’Leary humbled in Utah. Iran: ceasefire or mirage? And the Pope goes viral in Madrid.
Beautiful Game: The World Cup, the most important soccer competition and arguably the planet’s largest sporting event, kicks off this week. And for the first time in over three decades, it’s happening here. The US, Canada and Mexico are jointly hosting the tournament. It’s already broken records — not all of them good — and is generating significant controversy. Here’s what you should know.
The Basics: The World Cup is held every four years. This time, the US, Canada, and Mexico are joint hosts, though it’s mainly the US: 11 of the 16 stadiums hosting 78 of the 104 total matches are in the US. Forty-eight countries have qualified — it’s the largest World Cup in its nearly century-long history. For context on how much the rest of the world cares: 1.5 billion people watched the last final. That’s more than ten Super Bowls combined. Soccer is the most popular sport in over 150 countries — and interest in the US is growing fast.
Golden Boot: This World Cup is shaping up as the most expensive — and lucrative — in history. FIFA, the competition’s notoriously corrupt governing body, expects to rake in $11 billion. FIFA rolled out a new “variable pricing” system for tickets, driving prices into the tens of thousands of dollars, while somehow still leaving empty seats. Trump said he “wouldn’t pay” for a pricey ticket to the US team’s opening match, a relatable position. FIFA is also pushing fans to use its new resale platform, where it takes a 15% fee from both the buyer and seller. (Ticketmaster, taking notes). New York and New Jersey issued subpoenas to FIFA to investigate its ticket pricing and alleged misleading sales practices.
Not Welcoming: So far, a tourism windfall isn’t materializing in the host cities. US hotel owners warned that the Trump administration’s travel bans and visa restrictions — plus a political climate foreigners perceive as hostile, and horror stories of legal visitors detained by immigration enforcement — are “significantly suppressing” international demand and undermining an expected tourism boost. Already, US officials reportedly turned away a referee from Somalia at the border and denied visas to many of the Iran team’s support staff.
How Does it Work: For those of you as soccer illiterate as Jessica, here’s a little more info. The 48 soccer teams are divided into 12 groups of four. The US Men’s team, for example, is in Group D, and it will play Paraguay, Australia, and Turkey. Of those 48 teams, 32 will advance from the group stages to a knockout round that culminates in the final, on July 19 in New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium.
Red Mirage: Progressive LA city councilmember Nithya Raman has defeated Republican former reality TV villain Spencer Pratt in the Los Angeles mayor’s primary race. With 93% of the vote counted, incumbent Mayor Karen Bass leads with 34.3%, Raman sits at 28.6%, and Pratt 25.8%. Bass and Raman will advance to the runoff. Republicans across the country are crying foul. Pratt said he didn’t understand the city’s vote-counting process and suggested that Raman’s surge is driven by some kind of fraud involving the city’s unhoused population. Trump calling the election “rigged” and claimed it was “not possible” for Pratt to have fallen behind. CNN’s chief data analyst called this the “dumbest conspiracy theory … ever,” noting that “the Democratic establishment and Karen Bass wanted Spencer Pratt in the runoff.” Polling shows Bass easily defeating Pratt but losing to Raman in a general election.
Stop the Spread: Health officials in Africa are warning that the current Ebola outbreak is spreading at an unprecedented rate. There have been 534 confirmed cases and 93 deaths so far. The CDC warns that the outbreak, if not contained properly, could rival the worst Ebola outbreak in history, which killed more than 11,300 people. Some good news: A US doctor who tested positive for Ebola and was evacuated to Germany for treatment has been discharged, having been being free of the virus since May 30. Doctors called it “a significant therapeutic success.”
Triggered: Trump stormed out of an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press after anchor Kristen Welker pressed him for evidence of his election conspiracy claims. He called his slush fund is a “great idea,” repeated baseless claims that Jan 6 was a set up, and insisted the FBI and “crooked cops” framed J6ers. He claimed, without evidence, that the 2020 election was “rigged” and that Democrats are “cheating” in California’s elections. When Welker asked for evidence, Trump erupted, attacking her, NBC, and Democrats. “You’re either crooked or you’re stupid,” he said. “Let’s call it quits, because I’ve had enough. Thank you, darling.” Trump later blamed the weather.
Telling: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s defense attorney, who helped him defeat impeachment and criminal charges, has endorsed his challenger, state Rep. James Talarico. Dan Codgell donated to Paxton’s Senate campaign last year, but now he says Paxton is too deferential to Trump, while Talarico “believes in unity over division … and we need that right now.”
Data Down: Kevin O’Leary agreed to scale down the controversial Stratos data center project in Utah. It would have been the largest in the world. He said he had “no choice” but to accept Utah’s senate president’s request to shrink the project by 75%. O’Leary said “we really screwed it up” by assuming “people would be excited” and not consulting them first.
Poor Taste: Land that a farming family all-but-gifted to a Texas city for use as parkland will instead become a data center. In 1999, the Griffin family gave 87 acres of land to the city of Taylor for a nominal $10, on the condition it be used “as parkland.” In 2025 the city sold it to a data center developer for $10 million.
Do Your Job: A federal judge struck down a series of Trump administration policies targeting millions of immigrants and asylum seekers. The judge wrote that the changes, enacted last year, threw “countless immigrants” into “indeterminate legal limbo.” The judge accused the US Citizenship and Immigration Services of ignoring the law and hiding behind “pretextual concerns of ‘national security’ that mask anti-immigrant sentiments it is forbidden from letting influence its decision making.”
Make It Rain: OpenAI announced it has filed confidentially to go public. The company said it “may be a while” before it actually happens, “because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company.” It’s not alone. Last week rival Anthropic also filed confidentially for an IPO. Elon Musk’s SpaceX is going public on Friday for $135 a share, valuing it at $1.77 trillion — the largest (and potentially most unusual) IPO in history.
Deep Breath: Iran and Israel have pulled back from a round of retaliatory strikes that threatened to plunge the region back into war after Trump insisted they “stop ‘shooting.’” Here’s how it escalated: on Sunday, Israel struck Beirut, which it said was retaliation for Hezbollah strikes on northern Israel. Iran responded with its first barrage of missiles at Israel in two months. Trump reportedly pushed Netanyahu not to respond, but Israel struck Iran’s largest petrochemical facility, prompting another wave of Iranian missiles; Iran also threatened to target regional energy assets. Trump says five countries in the Middle East asked him to stop Israel, and he called Netanyahu, telling him, “You better be careful or you will be on your own very soon.” Trump said he told Netanyahu that “we have to use sense” and argued a deal with Iran was days away, apparently convincing Netanyahu to call off a major attack on Iran. Trump declared both sides wanted a ceasefire — though Iran said it would resume strikes if Israel continued targeting southern Lebanon, which Israel is doing.
Blockade: The US military fired on and disabled an oil tanker that was heading for Iran. Trump says the US blockade “will remain in place” until a final deal. He claimed it has “been extremely effective” — but analysts warn Iran can outlast the blockage longer than the world can tolerate Iran’s chokehold over the Strait of Hormuz.
New Player: The Houthis, the Iran-aligned Yemeni militia that has largely stayed out of the conflict, fired missiles at Israel. The group also announced a “complete and total ban on Israeli maritime navigation in the Red Sea,” and warned that “any state that becomes involved will be targeted.”
What’s a Promise: Asked about his promises of “no new wars,” Trump told NBC’s Kristen Welker he “didn’t guarantee no war. Why would I have built the strongest military in the world?” He said he calls the conflict “a military exercise because people would rather have it called that.” (Possibly because war requires congressional authorization.)
Bunny and Dove: Pope Leo XIV is in Spain, the country’s first papal visit in 15 years. Already he’s touched on some major issues, including respect for migrants and the need for peace. He’s also weighed in on some less pressing matters, like which of Spain’s two biggest soccer teams he supports. “The Pope is for all teams,” he said, “but Prevost” — his birth name — “is Real Madrid.” Little wonder, then, that 80,000 people packed into the club’s stadium to pray with him. But the Pope was far from the only global superstar drawing crowds in Spain’s capital. Bad Bunny, the reggaeton sensation who headlined this year’s Super Bowl, happens to be in the middle of a 10-concert residency in Madrid. The Pope acknowledged that many young people, if forced to choose between the two, “will see Bad Bunny. But I think there will also be a few here to see the Pope.” A few is an understatement: half a million people, many of them young, attended an evening vigil, and 1.1 million packed into the streets for an open-air mass. While riding in the Popemobile, Pope Leo appeared to do the viral “6-7” hand gesture, drawing cheers. He urged the crowds to dedicate themselves “to families, to the poor, to those who suffer, to those who have lost hope.”
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