March 2: What Really Happened Last Week

Ukraine, organic farmers, mass resignation from DOGE

Hello friends.

Photo via domini_anne

It’s my beginning-of-the-week paywalled post! Copy this and send it to a friend who says they are “tuning out the news.”

I’m a journalist with two decades of experience. I’ve covered technology and policy in depth, and I have a special interest in media literacy and mental health—how we experience the news, and what it does to us.

For at least the first 100 days of this Trump term, this will be a weekly, highly curated list of relevant news, bright spots, and action steps, focusing on the topics of this newsletter: caregiving, youth, climate change, human rights, mental health.

I’m also going to be answering your questions, so please let me know if you have any!

Don’t worry and please don‘t hit unsubscribe: my Friday essays will remain free for all. And if you want a paid subscription but can’t afford it, just hit reply and ask! For a limited time, when you upgrade you will also get a paid one-year subscription to

The Auntie Bulletin

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To claim your freebie if you’re already a paid subscriber, there is a special link RIGHT AFTER THE PAYWALL.

Here’s my criteria for this news roundup:

• Real events that have real consequences for real people now.

• I’m trying to avoid pseudo-events, purely symbolic gestures and speculation. That means I’m leaving out some stuff you’ve probably seen elsewhere.

• I am presenting impacts alongside responses and solutions.

• I want to model healthy, balanced news consumption. I don’t know that I can become the only news you read, but I can at least point the way to a better news habit. I believe this is going to be crucial to our mental health and our ability to show up for others, including our kids, in this accelerating polycrisis.

In this edition:

1. Ukraine’s leader shows what it means to have self-respect, while our former allies process our faithlessness

2. Starving kids wait around for Musk and Trump to obey judicial orders

3. House moves forward with plans to take away food and health care and give the money to rich people

4. Farmers sue over climate info and grants

5. Good news/wild card

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1. Ukraine’s leader shows US leaders the meaning of self-respect, while our former allies process our faithlessness

Trump wants to end the war in Ukraine, but on Putin’s terms. The US officially sided with Russia in a new UN resolution. The rapey, unqualified drunk in charge of our military said that Ukraine would have to give up territory in any peace deal and could not join NATO (maybe let’s call that a “surrender deal”.)

Then Trump invited Zelenskyy to the Oval Office, like a mob boss, to force him to sign an agreement giving up mineral rights. JD Vance and Trump started lecturing him, berating him and talking over him until he got up and left without signing. This was on live TV.

Response: