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Hegseth's growing isolation, Trump's voting loss and a macabre caterpillar

 
Today's DEFENSE story

Hegseth's chief of staff joins Pentagon exodus

What happened
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's chief of staff, Joe Kasper, stepped down yesterday. With his departure and the firing of three top Hegseth aides over leak accusations they deny, Hegseth's "circle of top advisers" has "shrunk in recent days to little more than his wife, lawyer and two lower-level officials," Politico said, leaving the inexperienced "first-time government official without trusted staff who understand Washington — just as he faces fallout from a series of scandals that have led to rampant speculation" about his standing with President Donald Trump.

Who said what
Defense officials describe Hegseth as "paranoid and increasingly isolated," The Washington Post said. He is leaning on a few trusted advisers and has become "keenly focused on daily news coverage dissecting his missteps and decision-making." His staff is "focused on building an aura around Hegseth by pushing out videos of his memo signings and early morning workouts," Politico said, potentially delaying "less photo-worthy" tasks like finishing the Pentagon's expected $1 trillion budget.

Hegseth "sees his videos and social-media posts" as "appealing to the current force and the MAGA base," but he's also "increasingly concerned about how Trump is perceiving the situation and the possibility of being fired," The Wall Street Journal said. The series of leaks — about a planned classified Chinese war briefing for Elon Musk, his wife's attendance at sensitive meetings and his sharing of secret Yemen attack plans in two unsecured Signal groups chats — have left Hegseth "rattled."

Publicly, Hegseth has come out swinging, blaming "disgruntled" former officials for the leaks and insisting he did not share classified information in the Signal chats. But "additional revelations have continued to emerge," the Post said. The Associated Press reported yesterday that Hegseth had an unsecured, or "dirty," internet line installed in his Pentagon office so he could use Signal on a second computer, raising the possibility that "sensitive defense information could have been put at risk of potential hacking or surveillance."

What next?
Trump has "indicated he will stand by the defense chief," the Journal said, but he has also "begun to ask people around him about Hegseth's performance, and his advisers have closely watched his recent media appearances."

 
 
Today's ELECTIONS story

Judge blocks key part of Trump's elections overhaul

What happened
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly yesterday blocked a significant portion of an executive order President Donald Trump signed to change how U.S. elections are run, ruling that the Constitution "entrusts Congress and the states — not the president — with the authority to regulate federal elections." Her decision temporarily bars federal officials from requiring Americans to prove they are citizens to register to vote.  

Who said what
A proof-of-citizenship requirement "is contrary to the manifest will of Congress," Kollar-Kotelly said in her 120-page ruling, and government lawyers provided "almost no defense of the president’s order on the merits." She declined to block the part of Trump's order aiming to force states to count only absentee and mail-in ballots that arrive by Election Day, saying that challenge was better dealt with in a separate lawsuit before a different judge.

Kollar-Kotelly's ruling was one of a "rapid-fire series of court losses" for Trump this week on "immigration, elections and its crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion programs in schools," The Associated Press said. 

What next?
The ruling "diminishes Trump's chances" of successfully changing voting forms ahead of next year's midterm elections, which will "determine whether Republicans maintain narrow control of Congress," said The Washington Post. While the House recently passed legislation conforming to Trump's executive order, it's "unclear if the Senate will act on it."

 
 
Today's NATURE Story

Novel 'bone collector' caterpillar wears its prey

What happened
Scientists in Hawaii yesterday announced the discovery of a carnivorous caterpillar they call the "bone collector" due to its practice of decorating its silk-spun shell with body parts from arthropods it eats or scavenges. The caterpillars use their carefully curated mélange of dead insect parts to hide from the spiders in whose webs they reside, the researchers said in the journal Science. 

Who said what
The few species of meat-eating caterpillars "do lots of crazy things, but this takes the cake," said study author Dan Rubinoff, an entomologist at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. "No other caterpillar is stupid enough to live in a spider's web," because "spiders eat caterpillars," and no others wear body parts. The bone collectors have only been found in spider webs in a six-square-mile area of Oahu, and Rubinoff's team has seen only 62 of them in 20 years of searching.

The caterpillars prefer to eat struggling insects trapped in their host web or parts left behind by the spider, but they will hunt if need be, even other bone collectors. "That's why we never find more than one caterpillar per web," Rubinoff told USA Today.

What next?
As the species awaits a formal scientific name, "its common name, 'bone collector,' will do" for now, The Washington Post said. But its "current slice of paradise may be at risk" from "invasive ants and parasitic wasps," The New York Times said. "Scientists worry the caterpillars are on the verge of going extinct just as they've been discovered," USA Today said.

 
 

It's not all bad

A survey across 125 countries revealed that 89% of people want stronger climate action from their governments. Many wrongly believe they are in the minority, and the 89% Project, a global journalism initiative, aims to spotlight this overwhelming support and help trigger a social tipping point. "The world is united in its judgment," said Teodora Boneva, a professor who was part of the team behind the survey. "Correcting these misperceptions could be a powerful intervention."

 
 
Under the radar

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has introduced new rules for next year's Oscars, and one of them allows for the use of AI in films. The new guidelines do not exclude movies made with artificial intelligence from being nominated for top awards and do not limit the extent to which AI can be used. 

The academy will take into account the "degree to which a human was at the heart of the creative authorship when choosing which movie to award," the organization said in a statement. The new rules come after "The Brutalist" and "Emilia Pérez," films nominated for top honors in this year's Academy Awards, received backlash for their use of artificial intelligence. 

AI's creep into creative ventures has become a hot-button topic. The technology's "ability to quickly alter or match the tone and style of an artist, or perform edits such as subtly changing someone's appearance, has helped it become more popular in the production of music and film," said the BBC. However, many actors and creatives vehemently oppose its use.

One of the main points of contention during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild of America strikes was the potential for generative AI to replace working actors and writers. To end the strike, unions "made protections against the technology a prominent part of recent contract negotiations," said The New York Times. Industry workers worried that studios "would seek to cut costs and save time by using tools like OpenAI's ChatGPT" for "researching, treatment and script writing, instead of humans," said the BBC.

 
 
On this day

April 25, 1953

Scientists James Watson and Francis Crick published a paper in the journal Nature revealing their discovery of DNA's double-helix structure. The pair's discovery, which was aided by Rosalind Franklin, helped change the fundamental understanding of DNA and has led to additional breakthroughs in biomolecular science.

 
 
TODAY'S newspaperS

"'Vladimir, STOP,' Trump tells Putin after Kyiv strike kills 12," The Wall Street Journal says on Friday's front page. "Trump issues rare rebuke to Putin" as "attack on Kyiv tangles up talks," The Washington Post says. It's a "'game of chicken' in which Trump is first to veer" as "hard line meets reality on tariffs, China and the Fed chief," The New York Times says. California "eclipses Japan in economic rankings," rising to No. 4, "amid concerns over tariff consequences," the Los Angeles Times says. "Tariffs, inflation create a surging secondhand marketplace," USA Today says.

► See the newspaper front pages

 
 
Tall tale

Bookstore chain

More than 300 people helped a Michigan bookstore move locations, forming a "human conveyor belt" to get 9,100 books from Serendipity Books' old stockroom to its new one around the corner, said NBC News. The line of volunteers stretched 350 feet, with customers, neighbors and passing pedestrians joining in. Seeing the turnout "truly just meant the world," said shop owner Michelle Tuplin. All of the books were moved, in alphabetical order, within two hours.

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Theara Coleman, Nadia Croes, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Devika Rao, Rafi Schwartz and Peter Weber, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images; David Paul Morris / Bloomberg via Getty Images; Matt Cardy / Getty Images; Santi Visalli / Getty Images