This Sunday evening, I want to come to you with a personal message. (News updates follow below.) Tomorrow morning, when many of you wake up, you’ll have in your inbox a major exclusive report that I am beyond excited to share. But tonight, I need to level with you.

This week has been a whirlwind. I’ve spent it on the ground in Washington, D.C., tracking the National Guard’s deployment and covering—live—the protests that have erupted across the city. And while the streets have been filled with people demanding accountability, mainstream media has chosen silence. That’s why independent journalism matters more now than ever.

But here’s the truth: I can’t do this alone.

Independent reporting requires resources—time, travel, research, staff—and subscriptions are what make that possible. They are more than a financial model. They’re fuel. They’re freedom. Every paid subscriber gives me the capacity to dig deeper, to investigate the power structures behind the headlines, to track the paper trails, to amplify the voices mainstream media ignores.

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Because let’s be clear: we are living through a moment that future generations will study. And when they do, they’ll ask:

  • Did anyone speak up?
  • Did the media hold the powerful accountable—or did they fold?
  • Did they normalize corruption?
  • Did they look away?

    • Right now, too many in the press are choosing comfort over confrontation. Access over accountability. And while they do, Donald Trump is working overtime to rewrite history, manipulate memory, and bulldoze his way to more power—unchecked.

    This isn’t just about journalism. It’s about truth. It’s about democracy. It’s about all of us.

    This newsletter exists because I refuse to look away. I refuse to go numb. And if you’re reading this, chances are—you do too.

    If you’ve ever thought, “This story should be bigger,”—that’s exactly what I want to do more of. And with your help, I can.

    So if you can, please consider becoming a paid subscriber today. It doesn’t just support me—it sustains a kind of journalism that refuses to surrender, that refuses to normalize corruption, and that insists on telling the stories that matter.

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    Because if we don’t, who will?

    With that, here’s the news:

  • US envoy Steve Witkoff said Putin agreed at the Trump–Putin Alaska summit to let the US and European allies provide Ukraine with NATO-style collective defense guarantees, effectively offering Article 5-like protection as part of a possible war-ending deal, marking the first time Russia accepted such a concession.
  • Volodymyr Zelenskyy heads to the White House on Monday, this time joined by European leaders Keir Starmer, Friedrich Merz, and Emmanuel Macron, in a united bid to counter the pro-Russian tilt Trump adopted after his summit with Putin and to restore Ukraine’s security prospects.
  • Guests at an Anchorage hotel found eight pages of Trump–Putin summit documents left in a printer, revealing schedules, seating charts, staff phone numbers, and even Trump’s planned gift of a bald eagle statue, a leak critics called emblematic of the administration’s “sloppiness and incompetence.”
  • As politicians debated the future, crowds—many of them women with children—rallied outside the US embassy in Kyiv to spotlight the plight of Ukrainian prisoners of war.
  • Emmanuel Macron said ahead of Monday’s US peace talks that Ukraine must have a strong army, its territorial integrity respected, and full representation in negotiations, stressing the goal is to show a united front with European allies and warning that weakness toward Russia now risks future conflict.
  • After Trump’s military takeover of Washington DC, Democratic mayors nationwide vowed to resist similar federal overreach, warning his use of the National Guard to bypass local authority is unlawful and destabilizing, while stressing cities are reducing crime and preparing legal and operational defenses against further interventions.
  • Vermont Gov. Phil Scott rejected a federal request to deploy National Guard troops to Washington, D.C. under Trump’s crime crackdown, calling it an improper use of the Guard; his decision, praised by retired military leaders as a defense of civil-military boundaries, follows earlier refusals of similar requests while highlighting his case-by-case, apolitical approach to federal orders.
  • West Virginia, South Carolina, and Ohio pledged hundreds of National Guard troops to Washington, D.C. under Trump’s federal police takeover, sparking protests against what critics call a “political policing mission” as violent crime in the city hits historic lows and legal challenges mount over the president’s authority.
  • Ryan Wardwell, 46, of Long Beach, survived two days trapped behind California’s Seven Teacups waterfall after being swept off his rappel lines, before a highway patrol helicopter crew dramatically rescued him with only minor injuries in what authorities called a “stunning survival story.”
  • Three people were killed and eight wounded when multiple gunmen opened fire inside the Taste of the City lounge in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights early Sunday, with police recovering 36 shell casings but no suspects yet identified.
  • Air Canada suspended its planned flight restart after the flight attendants’ union defied a federal back-to-work order, prolonging a strike over pay and scheduling that has canceled hundreds of flights and stranded about 100,000 travelers, with operations now expected to resume Monday evening.

    • See you in the morning.

    — Aaron