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Intelligence politics, overdose plummet and coffee couteur

 
Today's NATIONAL SECURITY story

Gabbard fires intelligence chiefs after Venezuela report

What happened
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard yesterday removed the top two officials at the National Intelligence Council, weeks after the council published an assessment that undercut President Donald Trump's legal rationale for using the wartime Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members without due process.

Who said what
The dismissal of Michael Collins, acting chair of the National Intelligence Council, and vice chair Maria Langan-Riekhof is "the latest purge by Gabbard, who has said she is fighting politicization of the intelligence community but has removed or sidelined officials perceived to not support Trump's political agenda," The Washington Post said. The NIC is the top "analytical group in the intelligence community whose job it is to understand and assess the biggest threats facing the United States," CNN said.

An April 7 "Sense of the Community Memorandum" from the NIC found a broad consensus among intelligence agencies that the Tren de Aragua gang was not being directed or managed by the Venezuelan government. That finding, released last week through the Freedom of Information Act, contradicted Trump's assertion that the gang had staged an "invasion" of the U.S. "at the direction of" the Venezuelan government. 

Gabbard is "purging intelligence officials over a report that the Trump administration finds politically inconvenient," Sen. Mark Warner (Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Community, told the Post. "Whatever the administration is trying to protect, it's not our national security."

What next?
Gabbard also informed the CIA she was moving the NIC and the office that produces the President's Daily Brief into her office. The move is part of her effort to "shore up the role of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence" as Trump "has openly mused to aides" about whether the office "should continue to exist," The New York Times said. Collins, a veteran senior CIA officer "known for his expertise on China," has "been sent back to the CIA."

 
 
Today's Health Care story

US overdose deaths plunged 27% last year

What happened
Deaths from drug overdoses dropped 27% in 2024, the largest one-year decline on record, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday. Nearly 30,000 fewer people died from overdoses, according to the CDC's preliminary numbers, though the 80,391 recorded fatalities still topped the total for 2019, before a spike in overdoses during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Who said what
Every state but Nevada and South Dakota recorded fewer fatal overdoses last year, and Ohio, West Virginia and New Hampshire saw declines of 35% or more. "No single reason explains the sudden drop in deaths," The Washington Post said, but experts cited a combination of the increased availability of overdose-reversing drug naloxone, expanded addiction treatment and prevention programs, shifts in drug use and supply and "the grim reality that fentanyl has killed so many regular users that there are fewer people at risk of overdose."

Drops in fatal overdoses "don't just happen overnight," Sheila P. Vakharia at the Drug Policy Alliance told the Post, and in this case "we can credit them to the Biden administration's work." President Donald Trump views illicit drugs as "largely a law enforcement issue and as a reason to step up border security," The Associated Press said.

What next?
Drug overdose "remains the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18-44, underscoring the need for ongoing efforts to maintain this progress," the CDC said in a statement. "I don't see how it can be sustained," given the Trump administration's "deep cuts" to "many of the programs that have been driving these reductions," Brandeis University epidemiologist Traci C. Green told The New York Times. "It seems ridiculous to cut that momentum so dramatically."

 
 
Today's LABOR Story

Starbucks baristas strike over dress code

What happened
More than 1,000 Starbucks baristas across the U.S. have gone on strike since Sunday over the company's new dress code, the Starbucks Workers United union said yesterday. The new policy, which took effect Monday, requires baristas to wear solid black shirts and khaki, black or blue denim bottoms under their green aprons.

Who said what
Starbucks Workers United, which represents employees at 570 of the company's 10,000 U.S. stores, said the new dress code should have been negotiated in ongoing collective bargaining talks. The new uniform "puts the burden on baristas" to "buy new clothes or risk being disciplined," union delegate Michelle Eisen told Bloomberg. 

Starbucks said it offered all its workers two free black shirts and suggested the new dress code would "make its green aprons stand out and create a sense of familiarity for customers," The Associated Press said. Starbucks is "focused on all the wrong things," Paige Summers, a shift supervisor in Maryland, told AP. "Customers don't care what color our clothes are when they're waiting 30 minutes for a latte."

What next?
The union predicted that "more walkouts by baristas are likely," said Restaurant Dive.

 
 

It's not all bad

Crop Swap LA is bringing fresh produce to a South Los Angeles food desert. The nonprofit has helped set up a dozen sustainable microfarms, growing organic fruits and vegetables, at local schools, churches and homes, and founder Jamiah Hargins even turned his own front yard into a farm with carrots, beets, tomatoes, apples and strawberries. He started Crop Swap LA to ensure his community has fresh food available at affordable prices, and now delivers fruits and vegetables to 80 families every week.

 
 
Under the radar

Moscow is using Telegram to recruit cheap and "disposable" agents to perform sabotage attacks in Europe, according to a European security official. Since Russia invaded Ukraine, the Kremlin has launched a campaign of "sabotage, arson and disinformation," sometimes focused on "specific targets" linked to support for Kyiv, but often "simply aimed at causing chaos and unease" in the West, said The Observer. Although Russian "subversion, sabotage and assassination" projects "long predate" the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the past three years have seen a surge in such attacks, said The Telegraph. 

The "shadowy" new unit running the operation is based in a "sprawling glass-and-steel complex," nicknamed the "aquarium," on Moscow's outskirts, said The Wall Street Journal. Euphemistically known as the Department of Special Tasks, it's overseen by Maj. Gen. Andrey Vladimirovich Averyanov, a veteran of Russia's Chechen wars.

Anonymous recruiters use Telegram and similar platforms to invite people in European countries to join the fight against Ukraine's Western allies. "On the ground," said The Observer, some of these recruits "know exactly what they are doing and why," but many don't realize they're "ultimately working for Moscow."

People with a criminal background are particularly attractive recruits, MI6 head Richard Moore told a Financial Times panel. This is, at least in part, because they can be used and then discarded. As the European security official told The Observer: "These people are disposable and Moscow doesn't care about them."

 
 
On this day

May 15, 1918

The first regular airmail route in the U.S. was established between New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. The U.S. Post Office Department initially used military pilots to fly its routes, before switching to civilian pilots and, in the 1920s, private carriers, fueling the U.S. airline industry. Airmail as a separate class of domestic mail ended in 1977.

 
 
TODAY'S newspaperS

President Donald Trump's "visit helps solidify Qatar's image makeover," The New York Times says on Thursday's front page, but his "opponents" are "getting wise" to his "pattern of blustering negotiating tactics ending in retreat." China "tariffs eased on news of pain to Trump's base," delivered by advisers who "saw chance to sway the president," The Washington Post says. Meanwhile, a new "Biden book stirs fresh trauma for Democrats." Lawmakers "keep RFK Jr. on defensive" as he offers "few answers on effect of widespread cuts," The Boston Globe says. "Kennedy, other U.S. officials clash over pesticides," The Wall Street Journal says. "EPA to roll back safety rules for drinking water," says The Minnesota Star Tribune.

► See the newspaper front pages

 
 
Tall tale

A little learning is a dangerous thing

A toddler who visited Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., now has a fear of John Wilkes Booth. Cassie Litton shared on TikTok that her 3-year-old daughter, Lainey, asked a lot of questions about Abraham Lincoln's assassin during a family tour, and now wonders if Booth, who died in 1865, is hiding under her bed and plotting to steal her stuffed animals. Lainey's fixation doesn't end there, as Booth tends to be mentioned in "our day-to-day conversations," Litton told People.

 
 

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

Image credits, from top: Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images; Michael Siluk / UCG / Universal Images Group via Getty Images; Jeffrey Greenberg / Universal Images Group via Getty Images; Illustration by Marian Femenias-Moratinos / Getty Images