I'm Dame Brugler, I cover the NFL draft for the athletic.
Our draft guide picked up the name "The Beast," because of the crazy amount of information that's included. I'm looking at thousands of players putting together hundreds of scouting reports. I've been covering this year's draft since last year's draft. There is a lot in the beast that you simply can't find anywhere else.
This is the kind of in-depth, unique journalism you get from the athletic and in New York times. You can subscribe at NYTimes.com/subscrib. From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford.
Today's Thursday, April 2nd. Here's what we're covering.
It's been just one month since the United States military began Operation Epic Fury. Last night, in a prime time address, President Trump delivered what the White House had
“built as an important update on the war with Iran.”
Our objectives are very simple and clear. We are systematically dismantling the regime's ability to threaten America or project power outs. Walking away from this speech, there was really no revealing news. What stuck out to me is that President Trump essentially used this speech to almost plead with Americans to keep this war in perspective.
So, in Kano Young's covers the White House for the Times, he tacked through the lengths of other conflicts that America has been involved in. He talked about the length of the Vietnam War. Last year, for 19 years, 5 months and 29 days, Iraq went on for 8 years, 8 months, and 28 days. And then he compared it to this war, which is about a month in.
This is a true investment in your children and your grandchildren's future. But while the President tried to provide assurance to Americans, and make his case for
“why he believes the conflict is necessary, he did not provide something that's been missing”
from his messaging for weeks. And that's an articulate, clear strategy for the way formed with the war and how it will end.
Trump basically juggled between endorsing negotiations for an end to the war while also promising
an escalation of the type of violence that we've seen. We're going to bring them back to the snownages where they belong. One more takeaway as well. The President continued to distance the United States from the Strait of Orrus. He said that the United States didn't need the oil that goes through the Strait. And yes, while the U.S. does not import as much oil from the Gulf as other
nations, President Trump's comments ignore the reality that oil prices are set globally. And that a disruption like this in the Strait, it's going to have ripple effects across the globe, including on the United States. And the gas prices are showing it. Meanwhile, following Trump's claims in his speech that Iran's missile and drone systems
have been severely weakened. Iran's revolutionary guards corps released a statement this morning
denying that, saying that the United States and Israel, quote, "no nothing about our vast and strategic capabilities." Now, a few quick updates on other big stories we've been tracking. At the Supreme Court yesterday, the Trump administration defended the President's push to limit birthright citizenship.
We're in a new world now, just to lead a point out to where 8 billion people are one plain right away from having a child as a U.S. citizen. Well, it's a new world, this is the same constitution.
“But a majority of the justices appeared skeptical of their arguments. Key conservatives”
on the court raised doubts about the constitutionality of Trump's executive order, which calls for no longer automatically giving citizenship to the children of undocumented immigrant immigrants or some temporary foreign visitors. The order, which has been caught up in court challenges since Trump signed it, could affect an estimated 200,000 plus newborns every year.
The justices are expected to issue their decision in late June or early July. In an unprecedented move, Trump himself went to the court yesterday to watch the hearing. Something no sitting president has ever done before. Legal experts called it a show of power and potentially an attempt to intimidate the justices. Trump got up and left abruptly, as the lawyer challenging his order, was speaking.
Also in Washington, after six weeks in counting, lawmakers say they have a plan to end the partial government shutdown and reopen the Department of Homeland Security. It could get pushed through as soon as this morning. It's the same bipartisan deal that had been floated last week before President Trump and Republicans in the House angrily rejected it.
Since then, there have been behind the scenes talks at the White House and on Capitol Hill about how to break the stalemate. While Congress is technically in the middle of a spring
Break recess, there are special sessions today that could allow the measure t...
requires though that not a single lawmaker object and some hard-right Republicans could
“still throw a wrench in things. They see the deal as caving to Democrats because it specifically”
leaves out new funding for ICE and Border Patrol. At the moment, high above the earth. The integrity guidance converged performance nominal above stage OCS ready. NASA's Artemis 2 mission has now successfully begun its journey to the moon. "I'll stay next to him. We see the same. Then we have a beautiful moon rise. We're headed
right at it." It's at the very start of a mission that will take it 250,000 miles away from Earth,
as it passes all the way behind the moon. It's expected to make it there on Monday, before
we're using the moon's gravity to swing back to Earth without needing to use any power from its engines. Other than a brief hiccup with the comms and an undisclosed issue with
“the toilet on board that was resolved, the mission seems to be going well, though the head”
of NASA said yesterday that, quote, "We will hold our celebration until this crew is under parachutes and splashes down." In other news on the space front, the time has learned that space X, Elon Musk's rocket and satellite company, is quietly planning to go public. Yesterday, the company filed confidentially for an IPO, an initial public offering, according to two people familiar
with the plan. That could bring in a huge infusion of cash, possibly tens of billions of dollars, but it would also force the company to become more transparent. Musk has made big promises about the company's goals, like creating a colony on the moon, sending people to Mars, and launching floating AI data centers into orbit, many of which are unproven long shots, and going public would amp up the pressure to deliver. One investment
manager whose firm has a stake in SpaceX said he thinks it's a terrible time to go public right now, given the global economic upheaval, but he said Musk needs cash to fund the expensive ambitious projects he's pitched, SpaceX values itself at more than a trillion dollars, and it would be one of the most valuable companies ever to reach the stock market. Musk himself, of course, stands to profit, an IPO could put him on the path to becoming
the world's first trillionaire.
Finally, I went to an English class where the teacher gave students a choice. They could do the lesson on paper, or they could write it in their Chromebooks, but most of the kids decided to use paper. Most of students I talked to said it felt kind of good not to be on the devices all the time. My colleague Natasha Singer has been covering how schools have become a battleground in
the fight over screen time. It started with restrictions on cell phones, but now some districts are taking another look at laptops. For at least a decade, tech companies have urged schools to have one laptop per kid competing to get their products in the classroom. The idea was that laptops would help kids learn, prepare them for the workplace, and if everyone had one, it would love the playing field. But studies have found that digital tools have
generally not improved students' academic results or graduation rates, and they've sparked
“other issues, and were people sending each other mean messages?”
Yes, definitely. And how often was that happening? Natasha talked with students who said even things like Google Docs became tools to bully other kids. Some students just got super distracted by having a screen in front of them all the time. Faced with this, one middle school in Kansas recently asked all students to return the
laptops they'd been using freely in class and at home. Now, they're loaned out sparingly for specific activities assigned by a teacher. Like we're actually using it for school work, and no one's like messing around on them. I had students tell me that they're talking more to their peers because they're not bearing their faces in Chromebooks anymore. They're collaborating more. And so we're not
talking about a school that is like returning. It's like that the new lettism. It's not right. It's like they are moving to what they call more intentional, more purposeful tech use. And so it's no longer sort of this knee jerk. Oh, we have to write something. Let's get out to Chromebooks. Those are the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow with the latest and the
Friday news quiz.
