65,000 Evacuated in Spokane, a Shutdown Deal, and Spider-Man Breaks Every Record

MayaGreat. Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to the morning rundown.

DavidGood to have you back. It's a heavy one today, honestly.

MayaYeah, wildfires are still ripping through Spokane, and there's a drone strike on a Russian beach.

DavidPlus, Spain's Ceuta is overwhelmed after that border rush. Three fires, three continents, but they all end up on Washington's desk somehow.

MayaSpeaking of Washington, there's a shutdown deal in the works ahead of the midterms.

DavidAnd Blanche's confirmation is clearing even as Trump's tax audit immunity stays in place.

MayaPlus, Trump's weighing whether to remove Pirro now that DOJ dropped the reflecting pool charges.

DavidWe'll get into who that actually protects.

MayaOkay, and thankfully we end on something lighter.

DavidSpider-Man just set the biggest opening weekend in box office history.

MayaAnd Ariana Grande's announced she's stepping back from public life for a while. while.

DavidAll right, let's start where the day actually starts, with the fires out west.

MayaAlmost 65,000 people evacuated in Spokane County. Let that number sit for a second.

DavidYeah.

MayaI keep thinking about what that actually looks like. It's not like packing a suitcase. It's grabbing the dog, grabbing your kid's birth certificate, and just driving.

DavidCNN's live coverage of Briana Waxman and the team called it heartbreaking. Hundreds of structures gone.

MayaAnd the AP reported they arrested a guy, Aaron Farinacci, for allegedly... Should leave starting one of these fires the Old Trails Fire.

DavidOn purpose-that's the part that gets me.

MayaSparked Saturday-and by Monday it's a sixty thousand person evacuation.

DavidThe thing, though, once the smoke clears, the real fight starts-in insurance.

MayaOh, don't even.

DavidI mean it. Every fire season out West, carriers either jack up premiums or just leave the state. Non-renewals-you've seen it in California for years.

MayaSo the people who lost everything come home. Come home to a rebuilt bill and a company that won't cover them.

DavidThat's the cycle. Follow the money, insurers price risk, and after 700 buildings burn, Spokane just became a much riskier zip code on paper.

MayaWhich means higher premiums for everybody in the area, not just the people who got hit.

DavidExactly. It's a tax nobody voted for.

MayaOkay, moving overseas. This one's brutal. A Ukrainian drone hit a crowded beach in Russia.

DavidSeven dead around forty hurt—that's per the BBC's live reporting.

MayaA beach, David, not a bass, not a depot; people on towels.

DavidThe New York Times ran with basically the same toll and it wasn't isolated; Al Jazeera's tracking put the day's combined strikes near twenty two killed on both sides.

MayaWait, both sides trading hits like that in one day?

DavidThat's what's getting reported, yeah, and it's worth asking straight out: when a war drifts from the front line on toward the

Speaker 3population,

Davidonto a beach towel? What's actually being targeted anymore?

MayaI don't have a clean answer for that one.

DavidNobody does. The BBC's reporting doesn't make clear whether the drone was even intercepted before it came down near Crimea.

MayaAll right, third one, and I want to say this plainly, because I don't think it's just an American story.

DavidCeuta.

MayaCeuta, Spain's little enclave on the North African coast, thousands of migrants rushed the border, and now Reuters says the city's... These just overwhelmed not enough shelter not enough food distribution

DavidAnd Spain's already put up a sea barrier along the Morocco border, according to that same coverage.

MayaA country has a right to decide who crosses into it. That's not a controversial sentence anywhere else in the world.

DavidRight. And it's a reminder, despite over-enforcement, over what a border even means, that's not some uniquely American argument we invented.

MayaEvery country with a line on a map is having some version of this exact fight right now.

DavidSpain's just having it on a beach instead of a desert.

MayaSo, fires burning through a whole insurance market, a war spilling onto civilians, a border nobody can hold, all of it eventually lands on somebody's desk in Washington.

DavidSomebody's got to write the check or write the policy.

MayaSo who's actually sitting in that room right now? Oh, and are they even trying to solve it or just trying to survive the next election?

DavidFollow the money for a second. Senate leaders just struck a deal to keep the government open clear past the midterms.

MayaWait, past the midterms? Like all the way to November?

DavidYeah, Sahil Kapur and Frank Thorp V reported for NBC News yesterday that leadership on both sides locked in funding through the 2026 elections.

MayaSo nobody has to vote on a shutdown right before people go to the polls. That tracks.

DavidExactly. Nobody wants shutdown printed on a campaign. Campaign mailer three weeks before election day.

MayaRight, because I brought you a government closure is not a slogan.

DavidDeadlines get negotiated around campaign calendars way more than anyone in that building admits.

MayaSo this isn't them solving anything, it's them clearing their own schedule.

DavidKick the fight past the election, let voters weigh in first, argue about spending after. That's basically the play.

MayaWhich, fine, from a keep the lights on angle, I get it. But it's not leadership.

DavidNo, it's self-preservation with a press release stapled to it.

MayaSpeaking of self-preservation, what's happening with Blanche?

DavidActing AG Todd Blanche is clear to be confirmed. Axios reported he killed off Trump's fund first.

MayaThe one, the $1.8 billion fund?

DavidRight, meant for Trump's allies. Fatima Hussein at AP News reported he rescinded it Sunday.

MayaSo he crossed the boss to get confirmed?

DavidLooks that way, but the tax audit immunity for Trump, his sons, the whole Trump A full Trump Organization, that's still standing.

MayaWait, one part goes and one part stays?

DavidOne part goes, one part stays. Hussein's reporting says that immunity could wipe out over a hundred million in back taxes, and it only applies retroactively.

MayaSo the institution gave up the flashy piece and kept the quiet win.

DavidThat's usually how it goes. The visible thing gets sacrificed, the durable one survives.

MayaTranslation, the part that actually touches taxpayer dollars? Papers didn't move. Okay, and then there's Pirro.

DavidRight. Trump's reportedly furious enough to weigh removing her.

MayaJeanine Pirro, the D.C. U.S. attorney?

DavidYeah. Alayna Treene CNN reported he's considering it over the DOJ's Reflecting Pool filing.

MayaRemind me, that's the vandalism case by the Lincoln Memorial pool?

DavidThat one. Siladitya Ray at Forbes reported the DOJ dropped the charges against the remaining defendants.

MayaAfter Trump was already mad about it? Got it?

DavidHe called her out publicly, said she folded like an umbrella. But prosecutors walking away from a thin case, even an unpopular one, that's them doing the job right.

MayaEven when that makes the boss look bad.

DavidEspecially then.

MayaRight.

DavidYou don't want a justice department that only drops charges when it's politically convenient.

MayaSo if Pirro loses her job over that, that's a rough signal to send every prosecutor in the building.

DavidIt tells them bend to the mood or get fired for not bending. Not bending. Neither one's a good building to work in.

MayaYeah, that one's not close for me.

DavidThree stories, one shape. People deciding whether to fold or hold the line.

MayaAnd speaking of people deciding what to do under pressure, wait till you hear what's happening at the box office, and with Ariana Grande.

DavidVery different kind of pressure. Stick around for that one.

MayaShifting gears quick, this one's fun. Spider-Man brand new day just posted the biggest opening weekend ever.

DavidBigger than Endgame?

MayaBigger than Endgame. I did a double take.

DavidForbes Zachary Folk put the worldwide haul at 932 million, and Deadline's Anthony D'Alessandro ran through every record it broke.

MayaEvery single one.

DavidAnd this is what gets me. People have been calling theaters dead for years.

MayaRight, streaming killed it, blah blah blah.

DavidYet here we are. Turns out people show up when the movie's actually good.

MayaTicket prices, IMAX premiums, none of it mattered this weekend.

DavidNope. Sold-out shows opening night.

MayaWild concept.

DavidMaybe the real story, audiences show up for something worth the ticket price.

MayaSend that memo to every studio exec.

DavidFiling it away.

MayaOkay, different kind of story now. Ariana Grande stepping back from public life once her tour wraps.

DavidLike retiring?

MayaMore like disappearing for a while. The Hollywood Reporter's Carly Thomas quoted her saying, it's not reactive, not impulsive, she's been planning it. And the LA Times' Alexandra Del Rosario framed it as her choosing herself after what she called ongoing public scrutiny.

DavidThe body comments?

MayaYeah, BBC's Ian Youngs wrote she's had enough of people commenting on her body specifically. Honestly, fair.

DavidSo many years of that would wear anyone down.

MayaPeople don't clock how relentless it gets. Every red carpet, every zoom-in photo.

DavidAnd she still finished the tour first.

MayaSays a lot that she called it now, not after some blow-up.

DavidSo what were you watching this week? Spider-Man's second weekend hold, obviously.

MayaAnd whether Ariana actually goes quiet or just goes quieter.

DavidWe'll see.

MayaAll right, that's the rundown for today, folks. So that's the rundown, from Spokane's fires to Spider-Man breaking box office records.

DavidThe one that sticks with me is the shutdown deal: self preservation with a press release stapled to it.

MayaRight, right. Washington protects itself first. Always.

DavidThat's the takeaway today: watch what institutions protect, not what they announce.

MayaIf you liked this one, subscribe and leave us a review. It helps. It helps.

Speaker 4Mm-hmm.

DavidAnd share it with a friend who needs their morning news without the spin.

MayaThanks for spending your morning with us.

DavidWe'll see you tomorrow.