UK Scuttles Cuz Nuzzles
Plus: Bukele’s shady deals with MS-13, Vietnam slashes the number of voting districts & good luck with hurricane season when you don’t have satellites.
Ever since Henry VIII’s break with the Roman Catholic church, cousin marriage has been legal—nay! An institution in England. Because who can forget the romances of all the great, cousin pairings? Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. King George V and Queen Mary. King George IV and Caroline of Brunswick. King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra.
But one country can only tolerate so many weak chins and brittle bones. Conservative MP Richard Holden has introduced legislation to ban cousin marriage, citing problems like cultural integration, public health and terrible teeth. (Okay, he didn’t cite that one, but it will improve British smiles if passed.) The ban is likely targeted towards British Pakistanis and Irish Travelers, where first-cousin marriage is common. As far as the health risks go, first-cousin couples have a 6% chance of birth defects in their children, while the general population has only a 3% risk.
As far as not being a cultural fit with the British, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert might have something to say about that.
Welcome to the Gist List—a news round-up that is like a family of things you should know, and my thoughts leading up to today’s podcast episode.
Here’s what’s on my mind:
🇻🇳 Vietnam cuts its number of provinces in half.
🛰️ Good luck this hurricane season without satellite data.
🤝 The Art of the Gang Deal: Trump, Bukele and shady deals with MS-13.
💤 Is sleep advice all it is cracked up to be? (🔒)
🛶 Japanese researchers re-enact a Paleolithic journey to Okinawa.
The Gist List
Vietnam Approves Radical Consolidation of Provinces and Major Cities (The Diplomat)
Vietnam’s National Assembly has approved a measure to drastically cut down the number of provinces, eliminate around 250,000 government jobs, centralize political control and remove six cities. How are they going to remove six cities, do you ask? I’m a little afraid to ask myself.
Doing what Elon Musk could not, this is the brainchild of General Secretary To Lam, who wants to make the state “lean, compact, strong, efficient, effective, and impactful.” Classic To. Too To. To also wants to consolidate power and shift the tides ahead of the 2026 Party Congress. It’s effectively the Vietnamese analog to American gerrymandering, but in their case, a Totoad.
Hurricane Forecasters Lose Crucial Satellite Data, with Serious Implications (Scientific American)
It’s hurricane season, and as of today, forecasters are losing access to crucial satellite data that helps detect rapid hurricane intensification. The Department of Defense shut down civilian access to the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program satellites—the only ones that can see inside storms from space—citing vague security concerns. The timing could not be worse. This is happening amid 79,000+ government job cuts and other NOAA/NWS resource reductions, and in a season where hurricanes could easily be swirling about anywhere off the coast of Florida.
Trump Vowed to Dismantle MS-13. His Deal With Bukele Threatens That Effort (NYT, ProPublica)
A ProPublica report revealed that the U.S. quietly dropped major cases against MS-13 leaders as part of a covert deportation deal between President Donald Trump and El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele. The deal was that El Salvador would incarcerate hundreds of deported Venezuelans and accused MS-13 members at CECOT (many of whom have not been convicted) in exchange for the U.S. looking the other way when it came to the country’s shady dealings with MS-13.
The truth is that murder rates have been going down in El Salvador, and it is no accident. U.S. investigators discovered evidence that Bukele’s administration offered financial and political favors for reduced violence and electoral support. USAID funds may have also been funneled to MS-13 via Bukele’s government.
This is certainly ONE way to reduce murder, and on its surface, it does look like a solid crime crackdown, but there are obviously some glaring tradeoffs. This could derail years of work by Task Force Vulcan, a federal initiative staffed with highly logical law enforcement officers launched in Trump’s first term, directed at dismantling MS-13’s leadership. This has prosecutors worrying that the threat of returning people to El Salvador will silence potential witnesses and derail future cooperation. This is also textbook corruption. Murders are reduced now, but how long can Bukele’s government hold that off?
Why Can’t Americans Sleep? (The Atlantic)🔒
For years, Jennifer Senior never had any problems with sleep. Then, suddenly at the age of 29, she was hit with chronic insomnia for no apparent reason. She wrote this great, long-form essay for The Atlantic, revealing the strange culture we have around sleep and how she tried everything to get some shut-eye: sleep medications, sleep hygiene, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I), and beyond.
What she learned (and what, I’m sure, many of us suspected) is that a lot of the sleep hacks out there are a racket. We don’t need a solid eight hours of sleep (6.5–7.4 are just fine), fancy mattresses don’t tackle the core causes of insomnia, and naps aren’t bad for you. Of course, it doesn’t help when the internet is full of sleep gurus giving advice like sleeping in a cold room or not letting your pets sleep on your bed, but let’s be honest, I live in Gnocchi and Matzo’s house. They will sleep on the bed whenever they please.
Weirdly, Jennifer Senior is my favorite magazine writer I've never had on the Gist. Adam Gopnik is my favorite magazine writer I have had on The Gist, and HE TOO has written about his bouts with Insomnia. I think great writers who can't sleep probably stay up all night jotting down ideas for phrases and aphorisms. It tortures them, but is’s great for the reader!
45-Hour Voyage in Replica Canoe Tests Paleolithic Migration Theory (Ars Technica)
How did early Okinawans get to that remote Japanese island? Researchers—or as I like to call them, hobbyists—recreated the Paleolithic tools used to recreate a Paleolithic boat to recreate a Paleolithic journey. Are they making some interesting archeological discoveries? Sure. But I can’t help but notice the tell in the name “recreate” that not only indicates that they were participating in a re-enactment, but also maybe having a little bit of fun sponsored by the University of Tokyo.
The video of them testing, and subsequently capsizing, in a canoe is worth watching:
Yesterday on The Show: The Wars We Carry
Jim O’Grady and Thomas Brennan discuss Reveal’s episode on the Marines who fought in Fallujah, exploring how the battle’s brutality and moral injuries still haunt them 20 years later.
This newsletter was put together in collaboration with Kathleen Sykes. All mistakes belong to Mike Pesca.
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