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Today in Luxury Jumbo Jets: Trump’s Gifted Qatari 747 Would Take Years to Retrofit, Has Security Problems (Washington Post)
Retrofitting the 13-year-old aircraft to current Air Force One requirements would take years of work and billions of dollars, current and former U.S. officials say. Such a task would be impossible to complete before Trump leaves office.
Counterintelligence is also a concern, said former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall. “We would have to be sure nobody had planted bugs on the airplane,” he said.
Today in Saudi Arabia: Trump Faces $2 Trillion Hurdle to Win Money From Saudi Prince (Bloomberg)
Crypto Read of the Day: The Mystery of $MELANIA (Financial Times)
The Financial Times identified 24 wallets that bought $MELANIA in the minutes before the existence of the coin and its backing from the first lady was publicized (via Melania’s Truth Social account, naturally).
These people — who knew where to get the coins and were apparently confident it was not one of the hundreds of unofficial Trump family coins — bought $2.6mn of the tokens and flipped them within days for about $100mn. Read the full story on the Bloomberg terminal here.
Good News: Last Living US Hostage Released by Hamas Before Trump Visit (Bloomberg)
The US engaged with Hamas to help secure the release of Edan Alexander despite Washington designating the Iran-backed group a terrorist organization. Israel appeared to have little say over the negotiations and was informed of the outcome by the US on Sunday evening.
The 21-year-old is the first hostage to be released since a truce in the conflict expired in early March before Israeli air strikes on Gaza resumed.
Check Out Today's Edition of the Daily Read Podcast (Spotify)
Click here to listen to today's AI-generated audio companion to this newsletter. Be sure to 'Follow' the Sheekey Daily Read podcast on Spotify and
Apple Podcasts to listen and be notified when the latest are available.
India-Pakistan: 'Trump Truce' Leaves India Furious, Pakistan Elated as Risks Loom (Bloomberg)
President Trump's social media post on Saturday declaring a cease fire between India and Pakistan caught key Indian officials involved by surprise. In the Indian capital of New Delhi, many top officials were seething.
What really offended them was not simply the US efforts to de-escalate. It was Trump’s move to upstage Prime Minister Narendra Modi, undermine India’s longstanding policy to resolve the Kashmir territorial dispute through bilateral talks and — perhaps worst of all — put the sworn enemies on an equal footing, a move officials in New Delhi have resisted as the nation’s economy surges ahead of Pakistan.
Latest Pentagon Directive: Secretary Pete Hegseth Escalates Targeting of Race, Gender in Military’s Academic Settings (Washington Post)
The Pentagon on Friday directed the nation’s prestigious military academies to end consideration of race, gender and ethnicity in their admissions processes, and begin a purge — along with other Defense Department academic institutions — of educational materials focused on those “divisive concepts.”
The military is among the nation’s most diverse institutions, but it has struggled to recruit people — particularly in specialized fields such as cybersecurity and linguistics. To better compete with private-sector employers mining the same talent base, the Pentagon for several years sought to emphasize diversity and inclusivity, arguing that to do otherwise limits the military’s recruiting pool and therefore jeopardizes Americans’ safety.
Higher Ed Today: Harvard Hits Back at Education Secretary McMahon, Denying Political Bias (Bloomberg)
“I must refute your claim that Harvard is a partisan institution,” Alan Garber, Harvard's president said Monday in a letter to US Education Secretary Linda McMahon. “It is neither Republican nor Democratic. It is not an arm of any other political party or movement. Nor will it ever be.”
Garber sent the letter a week after McMahon cited ideological bias and mismanagement in declaring Harvard ineligible for new federal research grants.
NYC Primary in 6 Weeks: Anti-Trump Fervor Defining the New York City Mayor’s Race (Politico)
Only six weeks remain in the race to determine which Democrat will seek to replace Mayor Eric Adams, and Andrew Cuomo continues to dominate the primary field, Politico reports.
Five contenders — Andrew Cuomo, Brad Lander, Jessica Ramos, Adrienne Adams and Zohran Mamdani — made their case at a Saturday virtual forum where they all addressed affordability and public safety concerns that are driving the race. The Democratic candidates are signaling to voters they will stand up to Trump, who looms over his hometown’s mayoral election.
More Juice: Apple Plans AI-Powered Battery Management Mode for Devices in iOS 19 (Bloomberg)
To create the technology the company is using battery data it has collected from users’ devices to understand trends and make predictions for when it should lower the power draw of certain applications or features.
Talk of NYC Sports: Knicks Don't Quit, Seize 3-1 Series Lead on Boston Celtics with Game 4 Win (ESPN)
Offices in the Sky: NYC’s Tallest Tower Leases Its Highest Floors for the First Time (Bloomberg)
Some 1,100 feet in the air, almost as high as you can go anywhere in New York City, One World Trade Center is leasing office space for the first time — a striking milestone in Lower Manhattan’s long recovery.
Ten years after the skyscraper opened, the 89th and 90th floors are now available to the highest bidder searching for square footage in New York’s increasingly crowded commercial real estate market.
The new tenants will sit atop the sprawling group of skyscrapers that make up the rebuilt World Trade Center complex, overlooking the two vast 9/11 Memorial pools that mark where the original Twin Towers stood. Here's a rendering of the space from the Durst Organization, one of the developers on the project:
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