Government/Security

Full Signal chat released as US officials testify over national security breach

TFW the group chat is discussing classified military operations without you. As intelligence officials began to appear before the House Intelligence Committee, The Atlantic published the entire Signal group chat between US national security leaders on Wednesday, offering additional information about the recent security breach.

Accidential addition

Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth disclosed future military strategies against the Houthi rebels in Yemen in a Signal group chat. The hitch came when National Security Advisor Mike Waltz unintentionally invited The Atlantic's Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg.

• After reading its contents, Goldberg published an article detailing his firsthand account of the Signal incident (see here).

• The group chat contained 18 high-ranking officials within the US government.

The incident sparked questions about the federal government's national security procedures, specifically when it comes to using the Signal app, an open-source encrypted messaging service.

What was in the group chat?

During a hearing on Tuesday, which was initially supposed to discuss international security threats, officials like CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard were grilled on the security mishap:

• Both refused to give specifics about the incident and denied that any sensitive material within the jurisdiction of US intelligence agencies was shared.

Senate Democrats have said that the new evidence (see below) goes against assertions made during Tuesday's testimony that the group never shared classified material. The White House disputed these claims, saying nothing classified was sent.

So, what was actually in the group chat? The screenshots of the chat show sensitive military intelligence, including detailed activity of military aircraft and weapon specifications for a strike against Houthi rebels. All war plans were sent before US personnel were airborne.

• Additionally, the WSJ reported yesterday that Israel supplied the US with sensitive information regarding the same attack on Houthi rebels that was detailed in the Signal chat.

Hacking threat: Shortly after the text messages leaked, a Pentagon-wide advisory claimed that "a vulnerability had been identified" in the Signal messaging app and that Russian hacker groups are trying to spy in on conversations.

Finance

Wall Street handed out a record $47 billion in bonuses

For the over 200,000 people who work for New York-based security firms, spring is off to a good start. According to the office of New York State Comptroller, the total bonus pool for Wall Street spiked 34% last year, up to a record $47.5 billion.

Big fat bonus

With an average bonus of $244,700, that is a nearly 32% increase over the year before. The surge came as a result of a bull market and a surge in dealmaking that led member companies of the NYSE to see profits boom 90% last year.

America’s largest financial center, better known as New York, has certainly reaped the benefits of last year’s wave of bonuses:

• The Big Apple is home to nearly 20% of the nation’s securities traders—33% less than in 1990—yet still the largest of any state.

• 1 in 11 jobs in the city are supported by Wall Street, which also provides 19% of the state's tax income.

  • It is expected that the bonuses from this year alone will bring in an extra $600 million for the state and an additional $275 million for the city.

Last year was great… what about this year? State and city budgets project bonuses will jump by 16% this year; however, New York’s comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli, said economic uncertainty “may dampen the outlook” for the rest of this year.

Space

The universe will (eventually) collapse, scientists say

Yet another world-changing cosmological discovery… yay. According to a recent analysis of data from 15 million galaxies, dark energy—the mysterious force thought to be responsible for the universe's accelerated expansion—has been weakening for the past 4 billion years.

The “Big Crunch”

Essentially, the new data posted by scientists with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey shows a 99.8% chance that everything we know about dark energy is wrong, which has massive implications regarding what we know about the fate of the universe.

Astronomers had thought dark energy was a “cosmological constant” but are now finding that it is unexpectedly changing over time:

• This means the widely believed theory of infinite expansion—the notion that the universe is constantly stretching—is the opposite of what is really happening.

Instead, the data set suggests that everything that started with the Big Bang will end with a “Big Crunch,” meaning the universe will eventually collapse into itself.

How did they figure this out? By measuring the positions of nearly 15 million galaxies in space, scientists were able to create a wildly accurate 3D model of the universe. That map was then utilized to obtain new data about the expansion history of the universe (and also dark energy).

Looking forward: Luckily, the catastrophic, cosmos-spanning event won’t happen for another 20+ billion years, so we have nothing but time to test more data and figure out if this theory holds up.

Grab Bag

Eggs are being smuggled into the US more than drugs

Just what we needed: a criminal egg syndicate. As the cost of eggs in the US has skyrocketed to as much as $10 per carton, border agents have reported that attempts to smuggle eggs from Mexico and Canada have spiked dramatically.

Going to egg-stremes

US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data shows that customs officials made 5,572 egg-related seizures in the first two months of 2025, an increase of 158% compared to the same period in 2024.

• That’s significantly more interceptions than illicit drugs like fentanyl, which has only seen around 413 seizures this year.

• This fiscal year, CBP recorded a 36% increase in egg seizures, with some border areas in Texas seeing a 54% jump and San Diego seeing cases more than double, per the WSJ.

The US Department of Agriculture forbids the importation of eggs because of the possibility of disease transmission. CBP says most individuals don’t know this and typically give up the eggs willingly.

• If they don’t hand them over or agents discover other chicken-related items, violators may face a $300 fine.

  • In Mexico, a dozen eggs can go for as little as $2, making them an easy item to flip for a profit.

Why the uptick in seizures? The smuggling coincides with a surge in egg prices due to the bird flu outbreak that has devastated the US poultry industry. Since the start of the outbreak in 2022, over 168 million birds have been culled.

Sesame Street’s future is looking bleak

Oscar the Grouch must be having a particularly bad day. The nonprofit studio that created Sesame Street, Sesame Workshop, is on track to lose $40 million next year in what execs are calling a “perfect storm” of issues.

Puppet problems

After the program got dropped from HBO’s lucrative streaming service contract, Sesame Workshop announced it would have to cut 20% of its staff to help address the deficit of $40 million.

• HBO has paid $35 million a year to keep the kids’ show airing on its service for nearly a decade.

  • The drop is part of a general shift in HBO’s priorities as they move away from children’s programming.

The change comes as children’s eyes increasingly wander to other programs (or YouTube), like the uber-popular shows Cocomelon and Bluey. Sesame Workshop said it needs to “reset” and will now focus on animation, humor, and music for its upcoming 56th season.

All is not lost: In an ongoing effort to find a new home for its beloved puppets, Sesame Workshop is in negotiations with several streaming platforms, including Netflix, YouTube, and Amazon Prime Video.

Fast Facts

Cob Cram: Georgia authorities closed all lanes of a major highway "because of corn across all lanes." A semi-truck carrying a massive amount of kernels crashed, completely blanketing the road in popcorn.

Random-ness: In a historic achievement, JPMorgan declared that it was the first to achieve "genuine randomness" by using a quantum computer to generate truly random numbers.

Pirate Plunder: The creator of Pirate's Booty cheese puffs, Robert Ehrlich, hailed himself the victor of the Long Island mayoral race in Sea Cliff, even though he only received 62 votes, falling short of the incumbent with 1,064 votes.

Report Card: The most recent American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) report, which is issued once every four years, gave US infrastructure a C grade, which is a little improvement from a C- in 2021.

Flight Failure: Two hours into a United Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Singapore, the plane had to turn around after a pilot realized they had forgotten their passport. It arrived nearly six hours late.