Which ICE News did You See?

Plus: Trump goes from TACO to TART, a West End show lets you reenact Jan. 6 & the IVF business is booming in South Korea.

Over the past week, two major events concerning Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity made the news. Or some of the news, depending on which news you watched. They were

1. A surprise federal immigration raid at MacArthur Park in Los Angeles, complete with armed officers, National Guard troops, and even armored vehicles, left residents stunned and civil rights groups denouncing it as a deliberate act of intimidation.

2. In Texas, ten assailants were charged with attempted murder after a coordinated ambush on an immigration detention center. One police officer was shot in the neck. An 11th suspect is still on the run.

The second story had the more substantive effect on human life. It was a planned and premeditated attack: assailants dressed in tactical gear vandalized the facility, launched fireworks, spray-painted anti-ICE messages, and then opened fire on unarmed officers. One suspect shot 20–30 rounds with an AR-style rifle at two unarmed corrections officers. Another shot the police officer. Authorities later recovered tactical gear, body armor, radios, and a flag reading “Resist fascism, fight oligarchy.”

The MacArthur Park raid had high symbolic importance, which is presumably why the Federal Government chose to mobilize forces that included about 10 mounted border patrol agents in a high-profile Los Angeles park.

You probably know which one got more attention and was the cause for more thought pieces and considerations about immigration policy.

It was the tough-guy parade through a nearly empty park.

In an attempt to quantify total media reach, consider these data points: the MacArthur Park operation produced 14 pages of Google News results, covered repeatedly by outlets like AP, the LA Times, WaPo, CNN, CBS, and ABC. Meanwhile, the detention center ambush earned four and a half pages of results, largely from local news or blips on national outlets.

To better grasp the coverage, I also asked ChatGPT to run a comparison on the broadcast coverage. The MacArthur Park story had long spots dedicated to it, while the Texas story got a few seconds, if it was covered.

What about print media? USA Today ran ONE story about the ICE Ambush, but ran four about the MacArthur Park incident. The New York Times ran two articles about the Ice Ambush and three about MacArthur Park.

YouTube? The most watched video on the MacArthur Park exercise got over 1 million views, but the most watched video of the ambush got under 300,000.

Oh, by the way, 3 days after the ambush at the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, there was another attack at a Border Patrol facility in McAllen, Texas. This time, a man armed with an AR-15 and tactical gear was killed after exchanging fire with and wounding law enforcement officers. The gunman, who had graffitied Cordis Die on his car, was described by his father as mentally ill. This story did get more attention, as there was a body.

Welcome to the Gist List—a roundup of impactful news and media criticism, things you should know, and my thoughts leading up to today’s podcast episode.

Here’s what’s on my mind:

🕯️ Marilyn Monroe’s candles were LITERALLY in the wind.

👶🏻 The IVF business is booming in South Korea.

🌮 From TACO to TART, Trump is accumulating acronyms as fast as he’s doling out tariffs.

🇲🇲 Disgraced Burmese leader accepts Trump’s backhanded compliment.

🎭 West End show lets you reenact Jan. 6.

The Gist List

Marilyn Monroe's Candlesticks and Rediscovered Rubens to Go on Sale at Sotheby's (Semafor)

Marylin Monroe’s candles were literally in the wind until they went up for auction recently, along with a rediscovered clock by Paul Reubens. I had no idea he was such a Renaissance man… hold on—it was Peter Paul Rubens, an actual Renaissance man. (Well, Baroque. But we at the Gist List like to write in service of the joke.) They will be on sale as part of a $16 million Sotheby’s charity auction.

South Korea Has the World's Lowest Birth Rate, But Fertility Clinics Are Booming (BBC)🔒

The IVF business in South Korea is booming as people in the country with the lowest birth rate are looking to have families. In Seoul, 1 in 6 babies are now born with fertility assistance. In fact, over 50% of South Koreans want children but don’t feel like they can afford them. However, after years of decline, the birth rate rose slightly in 2024, from 0.72 to 0.75—the first increase in 9 years.

Why is the birth rate so low? Among some of the more obvious reasons that most countries are facing, like the high cost of IVF and living, there are still huge pressures in the workplace and a social stigma around fertility leave despite having official fertility treatment leave policies. Jang Sae-ryeon started treatments at 35, and her colleagues asked her to delay treatment.

From TACO to TART? US Stock Futures Sink as Trump Threatens Blanket 15-20% Tariffs (Sherwood)

President Donald Trump is back on his tariff campaign, handing out new tariffs like Oprah, “You get a tariff, and YOU get a tariff!” He is also accumulating new acronyms. TACO, which stands for Trump Always Chickens Out, has now evolved to TART, Trump Always Raises Tariffs. Which, according to this graph, is technically true, but it’s also fair to point out that the last bit of the graph representing the last few months is definitely not normal.

Via Sherwood

That being said, I think the TART acronym is a bit of a stretch, and we can all come up with new ones. Look, I can do it too! TERRINE:

Trump

Eventually

Rationalizes

Reckless

Initiatives,

Needlessly

Expensive

Shunned Myanmar Leader Thrilled at US Contact After Trump Tariff Letter (The Guardian)

After receiving a tariff threat letter from President Trump, Myanmar’s disgraced military leader Min Aung Hlaing responded with, “Thank you, sir. May I have another?” Despite the slap in the face, he actually interprets it as Washington’s first public acknowledgment of his regime since the 2021 coup. He ALSO thanked Trump for cutting funding to Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, which have been a thorn in his side for the inconvenience of reporting on his human rights abuses.

Hlaing is under U.S. sanctions for leading the 2021 coup and for his role in the Rohingya genocide, but it looks like he’ll take the win where he can get it.

In London, Theatergoers Reenact Storming of the U.S. Capitol (Washington Post)

Insufferable, experimental theatre where the audience is a part of the play has reached new heights: The Jan. 6 riots. A new interactive West End production called Fight for America has turned the riot into a politically charged, tabletop-style strategy game—complete with dice, action cards, and 10,000 hand-painted miniatures. While it may seem insensitive, the purpose was to, hopefully, get the audience to reflect on democracy and how quickly people can get to a “win at all costs” mentality.

During the game, you can even vote on whether to “hang” or “save” Mike Pence. In 18 of the 24 performances, people voted to hang him. Weirdly, no one complained that the vote was rigged.

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Not Even Mad: Trump's take on Putin & ICE Raids Flood The Headlines

Boston Globe columnist Carine Hajjar and five-time Emmy-winning comedy writer and proprietor of the I Might Be Wrong Substack, Jeff Maurer, join to discuss the flood of ICE agents and President Trump’s growing suspicion that Putin isn't on the up-and-up.

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This newsletter was put together in collaboration with Kathleen Sykes. Mistakes belong to Mike Pesca.

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