🌊 Mr. President, Another Boeing Whistleblower Has Gone Down

All aboard the “Big Nude Boat” cruise.

A clothing-free cruise will set sail from Miami to the Caribbean in February next year. The “Big Nude Boat” cruise will sell 2,300 tickets — or, now, 2,298 (sorry, mom and dad). There’s no way this would be fun though, right?

Also, since we won’t have a newsletter tomorrow….May the 4th be with you.

Fantasy-themed 20 Questions link!

–Max, Max, and Alex

KEY STORY

Second Boeing Whistleblower Dies

Joshua Dean, a Boeing whistleblower, died at 45

• Dean was a quality inspector at Spirit AeroSystems, which supplies much of the 737 Max to Boeing. In 2022, Dean had raised concerns about misdrilled holes on 737 Max planes. He was subsequently fired in what he alleged was retaliation

• Dean had been deposed in lawsuits about Boeing and filed a complaint with the FAA, alleging “serious and gross misconduct by senior…management of the 737 production line”

• Dean was healthy but contracted an MRSA infection that his family says “totally” overtook his lungs

Dig Deeper

• “Our thoughts are with Josh Dean's family. This sudden loss is stunning news here and for his loved ones,” Spirit’s spokesperson said

• Dean’s mother has asked for an autopsy, saying, "We know that he had a bunch of viruses. But you know, we don't know if somebody did something to him, or did he just get real sick."

KEY STORY

US: Russia Using Chemical Weapons

The US accused Russia of using chemical weapons in Ukraine

• Ukraine has alleged ~1,400 instances of chemical weapons use by Russia since February 2022. The frequency of alleged use has been increasing

• The US backed those claims on Wednesday by accusing Russia of using tear gas and chloropicrin – a soil fumigator that irritates the lungs, eyes, and skin and causes vomiting, nausea, and diarrhea – in Ukraine

• Russia called the claims “baseless.” In March 2022, Biden had said the US “would respond” if Russia used chemical weapons. He said, “The nature of the response would depend on the nature of the use”

Dig Deeper

• If true, Russia’s use of those chemicals would violate the Chemical Weapons Convention, which Russia signed. The convention bans countries from developing or acquiring new chemical weapons

• The US claimed Russia used chloropicrin to "dislodge Ukrainian forces from fortified positions"

KEY STORY

Huawei Secretly Funding US Research

Huawei has been secretly funding research at American universities, Bloomberg reported

• The US accuses China-based conglomerate Huawei of stealing intellectual property, evading sanctions, and creating technology that China’s government could use for its own interests

• On Wednesday, Bloomberg reported that Huawei has been secretly funding research by pushing funding through the Optica Foundation, a nonprofit in Washington, DC. By doing so, Huawei has funded millions of dollars of research at top US universities, some of which prohibit their staff from working with the company

Dig Deeper

• Optica gives out 11 “early career prizes & fellowships.” 10 of those are worth no more than $50,000 yearly and publicly disclose the funder; one prize is worth $1M annually and is funded anonymously – in reality, by Huawei, per Bloomberg

• An agreement between Optica and Huawei specifies that the existence of the funding agreement be kept confidential

• Optica denied any wrongdoing and said it's not unusual for donors to want to be kept confidential

KEY STORY

Seinfeld: TV Comedy is Ruined

Jerry Seinfeld accused TV executives of destroying comedy television and driving a resurgence in stand-up comedy

• In a new interview, Seinfeld said that through the 1990s, “You just expected there’ll be some funny stuff we can watch on TV tonight.” That era is done, he said, blaming it on excessive political correctness and how “when you write a script…it goes into 4 or 5 different hands, committees, groups – ‘here’s our thought about this joke’”

• He attributed the trend with driving a resurgence in stand-up comedy, which is “not policed by anyone”

Dig Deeper

• Seinfeld attributed the trend with driving a resurgence in stand-up comedy, where comedians “are not policed by anyone. The audience polices us”

• “It’s the stand-ups that really have the freedom to do it because no one else gets the blame if it doesn’t go down well,” he claimed

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

👨‍🎓 During a speech on recent campus unrest, President Biden said protesters have no “right to cause chaos” and that “people have the right to get an education, the right to get a degree, the right to walk across the campus safely without fear of being attacked”

🎤 Donald Trump accused Biden of allowing a “radical left revolution [to take] place” in the country, adding, “We’ve seen what happened when Europe opened their doors to jihad…Look at Paris, look at London…they are no longer recognizable and we can’t let that happen to our country”

🌊 The US completed the first full-scale test of its Manta Ray sea drone, an autonomous vessel designed to glide through the ocean with minimal fuel and hibernate on the seafloor

📱 TikTok and Universal Music – the world’s largest music company – struck a deal to bring Univeral’s music back to the platform. Universal had pulled its songs from TikTok in February after the sides failed to reach a deal about how TikTok should pay for them

💉 Novo Nordisk announced that it is prescribing weight-loss drug Wegovy to 25,000 new patients in the US each week, up from 5,000 in December

WE THE 66
The Pastor of the Hood

We released our newest podcast episode yesterday.

It’s an interview with Pastor Carl Day, better known as the “Pastor of the Hood.”

Pastor Day is an anti-gun violence activist in Philadelphia. He talked to us about growing up in the hood, what’s driving inner-city violence, and how he went from prison to meeting with the president.

The full episode is available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple.

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

🥡 Kung Fu Kenny: New Ho King – a Chinese restaurant in Toronto – has seen a surge in Google reviews after Kendrick Lamar mentioned it in his Drake diss track “Euphoria”

😩 Dine & Disbar: A court found a British lawyer guilty of two counts of fraud and expelled her from her profession after she refused to pay a delivery driver

🇯🇵 Poké-gone: Tokyo police arrested a 39-year-old yakuza lieutenant for breaking into an office and stealing 29 items – including 25 Pokémon cards – valued at ~$1,600

💀 New face just dropped: Archaeologists from the University of Cambridge reconstructed the face of Shanidar Z, a 75,000-year-old Neanderthal woman, using 200 skull fragments

🐊 Wallygate: Pranksters allegedly took Wally, the well-known emotional support alligator from Pennsylvania, resulting in animal control dumping him into a swamp

ASK AND TELL
20 Questions

Ladies and gentlemen, the Weeknd. In honor of May the 4th, today we are doing our first-ever "fantasy-themed edition" of 20 Questions. And no, not that kind of fantasy...

From Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings to Star Wars and Game of Thrones, you will have to tell us which worlds you prefer, which characters you prefer, which fictional foods sound better, and so much more.

Here’s the link. Have an amazing weekend.

Last Week’s 20 Questions:

To Kill a Mockingbird - 61.8%
1984 - 38.1%

Chemistry - 27.6%
Biology - 72.4%

12 Angry Men - 58.1%
Hamlet - 41.9%

Scarlett Letter - 68.7%
Dorian Gray - 31.3%

Dr. Seuss - 65.7%
Shel Silverstein - 34.3%

The Great Gatsby - 57.6%
Lord of the Flies - 42.4%

Civil War history - 31.8%
World War 2 history - 68.2%

Revolutionary War history - 69.7%
Cold War history - 30.3%

Quadratic formula - 30%
Pythagorean Theorem - 70%

Walt Whitman - 49.3%
Emily Dickinson - 50.7%

Regular teacher - 81.3%
Substitute teacher - 18.7%

PE - 49.1%
Study hall - 50.9%

Kickball - 54.7%
Dodgeball - 45.3%

Shakespeare - 26.6%
Mark Twain - 73.4%

Watching a movie - 39.4%
Going outside for class - 60.6%

State capitals - 68%
World capitals - 32%

Pride and Prejudice - 63.2%
Brave New World - 36.8%

Passing notes - 85.6%
Shooting spitballs - 14.4%

Present tense - 70.3%
Past tense - 29.7%

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

That wraps up another week. If you’ve got some free time this weekend, check out We the 66! We’ve been cranking out episodes as we experiment and figure out what works best. There’s something there for everyone.

Have a wonderful weekend.

— Max, Max, and Alex