Extinction Can Wait

“Did you say something, Grandpa?”

There is a class of news reports that get lost in the never-ending political drama that constitutes the news cycle these days. These include the asteroid that could hit earth in 2032, discoveries about “mirror life” that could wipe out humanity, and ongoing concerns abut the existential threat posed by AI.

Though they often get drowned out by the noise, these are the truly scary stories, and the ones that we need our best and brightest young minds to focus on.

Yet sometimes when I’m driving one of my grandchildren somewhere I find myself turning the volume down when one of these stories come up.

It’s just that seeing an 11-year-old dressed up in one of her favorite outfits, with her hair in fancy braids, and anticipation all over her face brings out a protectiveness in me that I can’t quite suppress.

On the other hand, when it comes to Trump stories, I keep the radio on high. Those seem to me to be manageable for a young child, something we can talk about, share perspectives, but not the types of things that should give her nightmares and undermine her critical sense of safety in the world.

But when it comes to my 16-year-old grandson, I have a different instinct. Maybe he’s reached the perfect age to take the extinction-type issues head on. So it came to pass that I was listening to an episode of NPR’s always-excellent “Fresh Air” recently when I drove to Berkeley to fetch him.

The topic on the show was one of these planetary threats, I forget which one.

When he climbed into the car I left the volume on high as he settled in for the ride home.

Now he’s a young man of very few words these days so I didn’t think anything of the fact that we didn’t exchange words all the way home. Presumably he was focusing on the program. Meanwhile I was imagining my grandson among a future youth corps of scientific minds working to solve these challenges to humanity.

Once we reached the house, I turned to him and said, “That was interesting, eh?”

He turned and looked at me with a vacant expression. Then I saw his earbuds. Ah yes, music/sixteen, now I remember.

I guess extinction will have to wait.

(NOTE: The above cartoon is via courtesy of my friend, the Pulitzer-Prize winning cartoonist Mark Fiore, who is also a colleague here on Substack. Please consider subscribing to his feed.)

HEADLINES:

• Trump Proposes U.S. Takeover of Gaza and Says All Palestinians Should Leave (NYT)

• Elon Musk is shredding America’s government as he did Twitter (Economist)

• Billionaire Elon Musk, who has continued to spark outrage with his extreme proposals, has a "special" new job title, and it means he is "subject to most rules, although sometimes in a less restrictive way." [HuffPost]

• What Does Trump Really Want From Canada and Mexico? (NYT)

• Rubio says El Salvador offers to accept deportees from US of any nationality, including Americans (AP)

• Why the Supreme Court may be open to Trump’s push for expanded power (WP)

• Senate panel advances RFK Jr.'s nomination to be health secretary (NBC)

• Gabbard passes Senate committee vote to lead U.S. intelligence agencies, paving way to confirmation (WP)

• The Senate's vibe shift on Tulsi Gabbard (Axios)

• Trump preps order to dismantle Education Dept. as DOGE probes data (WP)

• E.P.A. Demotes Career Employees Overseeing Science, Enforcement and More (NYT)

• Gutting of USAID could cost thousands of American jobs (CNN)

• Trump and Musk demand termination of federal office leases through General Services Administration (AP)

• Congressional Democrats denied entry to USAID building (Axios)

• Since Trump's inauguration, federal workers have been swept up in chaos and fear, but they’re also mad. And they’re not going anywhere, HuffPost's Jennifer Bendery reports. [HuffPost]

• As Trump Attacks Diversity, a Racist Undercurrent Surfaces (NYT)

• Waffle House adds surcharge to eggs as massive bird flu outbreak leads to soaring prices (CNBC)

• FBI braces for deadline to turn over names of employees for possible firing (CNN)

• Trump says he wants Ukraine’s rare earth elements as a condition of further support (AP)

• Trump Said Palestinians Should Leave Gaza (NYT)

• Netanyahu in Washington for pivotal talks. (Reuters)

• The couple who want to make America procreate again (WP)

• Astronomers are tracking an asteroid that could hit Earth in 2032 (NPR)

• Confronting risks of mirror life (Science)

• AI Is an Existential Threat—Just Not the Way You Think (Scientific American)

• DeepSeek and the Truth About Chinese Tech (Atlantic)

• Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance (WP)

• As humanoid robots take centre stage in China, do androids dream of economic spotlight? (South China Morning Post)

• China plans to send a flying robot to search for water on the moon’s far side (CNN)

• What DeepSeek Revealed About the Future of U.S.-China Competition (Foreign Policy)

• Meta says it may stop development of AI systems it deems too risky (TechCrunch)

• AI is taking down T.S. Eliot. I blame us. (WP)

• Megachurch Conducts Successful Nuclear Missile Test (The Onion)