Morning Report - Congress ends record-long DHS shutdown

TODAY’S IRAN WAR story

White House claims Iran war ‘terminated’

What happened
The White House yesterday argued that the War Powers Act deadline to either wind down the Iran war or get congressional authorization is not today, as Congress assumed, because the 60-day clock stopped when President Donald Trump ordered a ceasefire on April 7. “For War Powers Resolution purposes,” an official told reporters, the hostilities “have terminated.”

Who said what
“We are in a ceasefire right now, which our understanding means the 60-day clock pauses or stops,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a Senate hearing yesterday. His assertion “met with outrage from Democrats and skepticism from Republicans,” The Wall Street Journal said. “The U.S. military continues to enforce a military blockade,” which is “considered an act of war under international law.”

“Nothing in the text or design of the War Powers Resolution suggests that the 60-day clock can be paused or terminated,” said Katherine Yon Ebright, a war powers expert at the Brennan Center, to The Associated Press, and Congress needs to push back against this “sizeable extension of previous legal gamesmanship” over the law.

What next?
In yesterday’s hearing, ostensibly about the Pentagon’s $1.45 trillion budget request, Hegseth “did not say how long the war with Iran could continue,” The New York Times said. But he repeatedly "accused lawmakers of prematurely declaring the war a failure.”

TODAY’S PUBLIC HEALTH Story

Trump pulls surgeon general pick, vexing MAHA

What happened
President Donald Trump yesterday tapped radiologist Dr. Nicole Saphier to be U.S. surgeon general, withdrawing the stalled nomination of nutrition influencer Dr. Casey Means, an ally of Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. and the Make America Healthy Again movement. Saphier (pictured above) is Trump’s third nominee, after Means and Dr. Janette Nesheiwat.

Who said what
The “MAHA movement had pushed hard for Means’ nomination,” The Washington Post said, and it blamed its failure on Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and two other Republican senators skeptical of her qualifications and stance on vaccines.

Trump yesterday called Saphier, a former Fox News contributor, an “INCREDIBLE COMMUNICATOR” on “complicated health issues.” Kennedy called her a “longtime warrior for the MAHA movement.” But unlike Means, Saphier “does not appear to be a heroine” of MAHA, The New York Times said. The movement’s “leaders view her as too conventional” for her tempered praise of vaccines and criticism of Kennedy, though she’s “also embraced” some of f his agenda, including “flexible” immunization schedules.

What next?
Even as MAHA lost its “favored influencer for surgeon general,” it “notched a big win on pesticide regulation” in a House farm bill, Axios said. Yesterday’s events highlighted how MAHA retains “clout on matters related to the food supply” but “can be a political liability” on “vaccines and other public health matters.”

It’s not all bad

A Polish influencer raised $67 million for cancer research during a nine-day livestream. The 23-year-old, who goes by the name Latwogang, was joined by Polish musicians, actors and athletes, including speed skater Vladimir Semirunniy, who donated his silver Olympic medal to the cause. The initial goal was to raise $137,000 for the Cancer Fighters charity.

Under the radar

‘Freedom Trucks’ deliver AI-washed history

Ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary in July, six mobile museums are crisscrossing the U.S. to showcase the country’s history. But these “Freedom Trucks,” funded by the right-wing nonprofit PragerU, heavily feature artificial intelligence. And critics say they present a whitewashed version of the past.

The “traveling exhibition of touchscreen displays” and “Revolutionary War artifacts” is designed to teach children about America’s founding, said The New Yorker. The trucks, which “received a $14 million grant from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services,” feature AI-generated displays of early figures in colonial America, including George Washington, Betsy Ross and the Marquis de Lafayette. Each AI video includes a clip of President Donald Trump.

“Several Black luminaries are mentioned” in the trucks, among them Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, said The Guardian. But the majority of the exhibits are geared “toward the white men who led the charge to nationhood.” Christianity also features heavily in the displays. The AI-generated Washington proclaims that “our rights are a gift from God,” and a nearby placard states: “The foundational principles of America are rooted in the Western and Judeo-Christian traditions.”

At the same time, many dark moments in U.S. history are apparently downplayed. Slavery is “presented as a sort of wrinkle in America’s perfect design that was ironed out in time,” said The Guardian, and Native Americans are barely covered. The trucks are a “work of propaganda that promises to tell only one side of American history,” said Book Riot.

On this day

May 1, 1971

Amtrak officially began operations, six months after Congress authorized the consolidation of private U.S. intercity trains into a national passenger rail network. On its first day, Amtrak ran 184 trains compiled from the best equipment of the acquired railroads. The last of these “Heritage Fleet” train cars was retired in 2019.

TODAY’S newspaperS

‘Gas pains’

Gov. Janet Mills “pulls out of Senate race in Maine,” The Boston Globe says on Friday’s front page. “Popular area pastor enters Kansas Senate race as Democrat,” The Kansas City Star says. “Oil hits four-year high amid volatility,” The Minnesota Star Tribune says. “Trump: Blockade may last months,” the Detroit Free Press says. “Ohio gas prices spike again,” The Columbus Dispatch says. “Gas pains,” says the Chicago Sun-Times. “Economy has the nation in a funk,” USA Today says. “National debt now tops 100% of GDP,” The Wall Street Journal says. “Public rejects Trump’s ballroom,” The Washington Post says. “Iran war gives recycled plastics surprise boost,” says the Los Angeles Times.

► See the newspaper front pages

Tall tale

Ghost in the machine

A widow in Washington state surprised mourners at her husband’s memorial service by having a life-sized hologram of him participate in his own funeral. Pam Cronrath had promised Bill she would budget $2,000 for his “super wake” but ended up spending “at least 10 to 15 times” that, she told the BBC. She wrote Bill’s speech and a company created the hologram from old recordings. “People were aghast” when the hologram appeared, Cronrath said. “Some genuinely couldn’t understand how it was happening.”

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