KELI From Inkwell, this is the Independent News Drop. It's Sunday, May thirty-first. The time is six a.m. Central. I'm Keli, with Hast.
HAST Morning. We're leading with the dispatch at Inkwell on what the president said about Cuba — and what the press did with it.
KELI From our Ground News desk: On May twentieth, the president told reporters there would be no escalation in the Western Hemisphere. Twenty-four hours later, he said of Cuba, "Other presidents have looked at this for fifty, sixty years, doing something. And it looks like I'll be the one that does it. So I would be happy to do it." Those two statements ran in separate news cycles. But his own words draw a line — Venezuela captured last month, Iran bombed in April, Cuba next. The structural question is whether the second statement reverses the first, or whether it's the clearer one. Most outlets treated them as separate news days. Watch the coming week: if there are concrete military steps toward Cuba, the press will have had the unambiguous warning in writing. If there aren't, we'll know the pattern was rhetorical. Either way, you have the on-the-record throughline now.
HAST Staying overseas. Voting in Ethiopia has been suspended in parts of the country due to security concerns. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's party is widely expected to dominate the election. It's the fourth time we've covered this one — the conflicts that have overshadowed the vote haven't eased, and now whole regions can't cast ballots at all.
KELI Different front: law enforcement has been monitoring people who post criticism of artificial intelligence data centers on social media. The Intercept obtained a police document showing the surveillance was systematic. It's part of a broader pattern of how police are using social media monitoring, but this one ties directly to a specific industry concern — the power-draw and environmental footprint of AI infrastructure.
HAST Sticking with oversight, but lighter footing here. The FDA missed its own deadline to ban electrical shock devices used on people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Disability advocates say the delay leaves the practice in legal limbo when the science and the ethical case for a ban are clear. The agency hasn't said why it missed the deadline.
KELI And one more: Indiana police have misplaced more than thirty thousand dollars that was seized during massage parlor raids. The raids themselves were launched after a detective on a human trafficking task force obtained four massages at one of those businesses. The missing money now has its own investigation running parallel to questions about how the original enforcement action was initiated.
HAST Before we close, one date marker. Twenty-three years ago today, Air France retired its last Concorde. The supersonic fleet that had carried passengers across the Atlantic at twice the speed of sound was grounded for good.
KELI That's the Independent News Drop. We'll be back this evening. From Inkwell.