today in tabs: dr. cristina yang would be so disappointed

ALSO: MAGA influencers are pushing "less burnout, more babies," Snapchat bought a super popular calculator app, and more

Jun 24, 2025

Happy Tuesday, June 24th, 2025. Fellow New Yorkers, don’t forget to vote!!!

Just a reminder: every Tuesday and Friday, I’ll be in your inbox with the latest in politics, tech & social media, culture, and other relevant topics – and I’ll share some notes and tips on what I’m keeping my eye on.

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A new war based on manipulated intelligence

The transcript of Gabbard's Congressional hearing reveals Vance's characterization of Gabbard's remarks is false and misleading. She did say that Iran was enriching Uranium, something that has been true for many years, and that its enriched uranium stockpile was higher than that of other nations without nuclear weapons. But she was clear that they had not taken steps to build a nuclear weapon, nor had such a program been authorized. (
Popular Information
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Judd Legum
, 6/23)

Crisis pregnancy centers told to avoid ultrasounds for suspected ectopic pregnancies

One of the largest crisis pregnancy center support groups in the United States is telling its member clinics to avoid performing prenatal ultrasounds on women who they suspect have ectopic pregnancies, according to recordings obtained by NBC News of a recent presentation by a legal group that advises the faith-based nonprofits. (NBC News, 6/23)

Lucy’s note: What I wish this headline conveyed was how very f*cking bad this is. As Grey’s Anatomy fans may well remember from the episode where the beloved Dr. Christina Yang almost dies from an ectopic pregnancy (as I vividly do, it scared the sh*t out of me)… this is a life-threatening condition, and it is highly concerning that anti-abortion centers may be putting vulnerable people in even more dangerous positions.

‘Less Burnout, More Babies’: How Conservatives Are Winning Young Women

“I’ll tell you this ladies,” said Dana Loesch, former spokeswoman of the National Rifle Association, as she paced the stage of a Dallas ballroom. “You cannot have it all — at the same time. Something will suffer.” (NYT, 6/23 – free version)

In America, Low-Wage Jobs Are ‘Homelessness Waiting to Happen’

“Today there isn’t a single state, metropolitan area, or county in the United States where a full-time worker earning the local minimum wage can afford a two-bedroom apartment,” Goldstone writes bluntly in the introduction. (Rolling Stone, 6/24 – free version)

What the algorithm feeds Gen Z

Axios reporters Erica Pandey and Tal Axelrod set out to experience the MAGA-verse online — in real time. We each created new accounts on TikTok — where Gen Z disproportionately gets its news — and followed a basic set of MAGA or MAGA-aligned accounts: Think Team Trump, Tucker Carlson, Charlie Kirk and Candace Owens. (Axios, 6/21)

Snap is acquiring Saturn, a calendar app used at thousands of high schools

A calendar app may seem like an odd choice for Snap, but there's clearly a lot of overlap between the two services' users. According to Snap, about 80 percent of US high schoolers attend schools that support Saturn (its App Store page says it's available at more than 17,000 high schools). (Engadget, 6/20)

The Global A.I. Divide

Only 32 countries, or about 16 percent of nations, have these large facilities filled with microchips and computers, giving them what is known in industry parlance as “compute power.” (NYT, 6/21 – free version)

The music industry is building the tech to hunt down AI songs

Detection systems are being embedded across the entire music pipeline: in the tools used to train models, the platforms where songs are uploaded, the databases that license rights, and the algorithms that shape discovery. The goal isn’t just to catch synthetic content after the fact. It’s to identify it early, tag it with metadata, and govern how it moves through the system. (The Verge, 6/21)

EmRata Is a Hot Girl for Zohran, Too

“This election is gonna be decided by young voters,” Ratajkowski said. “The average New Yorker is 38 years old. The last mayoral race was decided by 7,000 voters. That means that your vote really matters. Go ahead, get out there, we know it’s hot, but the time is now.” (The Cut, 6/24)

Lucy’s note: As you might already know lol, I think it’s been really cool to watch the Zohran Mamdani campaign push the boundaries and defy “expectations” on socials – and raise the bar for everyone who follows, both nationally and locally.

Why Cinnamon Toast Crunch is giving 2000s nostalgia a moody, deadly spin

While Cinnamon Toast Crunch ads from the beginning of the century featured anthropomorphized cereal eating each other, “Must Cinnadust” takes the cannibalistic squares to a new level, envisioning the cereal through the prism of serial killers and true crime. (Marketing Dive, 6/16)

Netherlands returns 119 looted artifacts known as Benin Bronzes to Nigeria

Olugbile Holloway, the commission’s director, said the return of 119 artifacts marks the largest single repatriation to date and that his organization is working hard to recover more items looted during colonial times. (AP, 6/22)

Flavour of gin and tonic could be impacted by climate change, study finds

The flavour of a gin and tonic may be impacted by climate change, scientists have found. Volatile weather patterns, made more likely by climate breakdown, could change the taste of juniper berries, which are the key botanical that give gin its distinctive taste. (The Guardian, 6/18)