Some Photos of My Cat to Cheer Your Long Weekend Up
Our unofficial mascot, Hudson the cat, is adjusting to new life 8,000 miles away from where he was born and raised.
Dear Reader,
Unbelievably, this is the first time I have penned our weekly newsletter since November last year. Thank you, Laasya, for holding down the fort!
If you haven’t heard, I recently returned to Hong Kong, where I was born and raised:
I Have Departed the United States on a One-Way Flight • Buttondown
Alex is leaving the US after Trump's USCIS wrongfully denied his work permit renewal
Thank you to nearly 300 of you who have stood in solidarity during my #GiveInMay fundraiser so far, as well as those helping KC pick up the pieces after her camera equipment was damaged by a Russian missile strike. It’s been a long week, but I’ve been adjusting well to my new (old) environs.
Since both the U.S. (Memorial Day) and Hong Kong (Buddha’s Birthday) have long weekends, I thought it’d be a good idea to switch things up. Here are some photos of Hudson the cat, our unofficial mascot. He is soaking in the extra attention from my parents and learning how to open their closet’s sliding doors:
We’ll be back for more next week. Stay tuned!
Best regards,
Alex Ip
Publisher and Editor
👀 ICYMI
Jasmine Clark Is Poised To Be the First Black Woman Ph.D. Scientist in Congress
Longtime readers might remember that I spoke to Dr. Jasmine Clark, a Georgia state representative and Ph.D. microbiologist, in Atlanta’s “Stand Up for Science” Protest last year. This week, she won the Democratic primary to represent a safely blue House seat in Georgia.
Our colleague Grace Panetta of partner newsroom The 19th has the deets about Clark’s groundbreaking win. Read more here.
Democracy, Meet Extreme Heat: The End of Summer Elections?
Across India and beyond, voters are being asked to go to the polls in dangerously high temperatures, with democracy as well as their health at risk.
This article is a collaboration between The Xylom and Dialogue Earth. Read more here.
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Subscribe now✨ NEWS BEHIND THE NEWS
🥈 We are excited to announce that our team received an Honorable Mention from the Asian American Journalists Association Journalism Excellence Awards in International Reporting, for our three-part series "A Tale of Three Sudans"! Read the full awards announcement here.
⭐ We recently earned Candid’s 2026 Platinum Seal of Transparency, the highest level attainable. This way, we commit to holding ourselves to the same standards as when we “follow the money” of the wealthy and powerful.
📚 ICYMI: Celebrate Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month with us; check out our staff-curated reads on our Bookshop featuring Ed Yong, Karen Hao, Alice Wong, Atul Gawande, Joseph Lee, and more!
🍑 A SOUTHERN FLAIR
VANCEBURG, Ky. — Thomas Massie Has Always Been a Pain in the Ass (Stephanie Mencimer, Mother Jones)
“People are already starting to question the wisdom of this cleansing effort,” Massie told me. “By the time we get to November, we’re going to have a hell of a problem when they realize they’ve alienated a third of the people who got [Trump] elected — MAHA, libertarians, young people.”
FORT GIBSON, Okla. — Oily sludge is flooding their dream home. Oklahoma regulators say they can’t help. (Nick Bowlin, The Frontier, and Katie Campbell, ProPublica)
Around 5 a.m., Mitch’s uncle turned to him. “I think this is oil,” he said. The family called the fire department, and Kara rushed their three children, including their infant, to her grandmother’s house.
“And that’s the last time we got to be in our home,” Mitch said.
SAVANNAH, Ga. — Savannah woman works through injuries as health insurance costs soar (Ariel Hart for The Current)
“Georgia Access, like all ACA marketplaces, ranks insurance plans into tiers. Silver plans, the mid-tier coverage option, used to dominate the state marketplace. In 2025 70% of policyholders had such plans, while 24% chose a bronze plan. In 2026, only 57% of plans were silver, and 39% were bronze,” writes Ariel Hart.
WOODSDALE TOWNSHIP, N.C. — The Data Center That Didn’t Exist (Diara J. Townes for The Assembly)
“It’s David and Goliath, but sometimes it seems like David is wooed by the power of the companies and is less focused on the needs of the people.”
— Susan Jacques, Person County resident
🗺️ WHAT ELSE WE'RE READING
BUNIA, Congo — Residents burn an Ebola treatment center in Congo as anger grows over the outbreak (Justin Kabumba, Monika Pronczuk, and Gerald Imray, The Associated Press)
Deputy Senior Commissioner Jean Claude Mukendi, head of the public security department in Ituri Province, said the youths had not understood the protocols for burying a suspected Ebola victim.
“His family, friends, and other young people wanted to take his body home for a funeral even though the instructions from the authorities during this Ebola virus outbreak are clear,” Mukendi said. “All bodies must be buried according to the regulations.”
HONG KONG – Hong Kong International Airport 6th most polluting hub in the world, 2nd in Asia-Pacific (Tom Grundy, Hong Kong Free Press)
“The study, based on 2023 data from the International Council on Clean Transportation, concluded that the fossil-fuel dependent aviation sector would be the fifth-largest emitter if it were a country.”
Japan is gripped by mass allergies. A 1950s project is to blame (Nithin Coca for BBC)
"After World War Two, many of Japan's mountains became barren, causing disasters in various regions," says Noriko Sato, a professor and forestry researcher at Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan. "Large-scale afforestation was carried out by public works, funded by tax revenues, to prevent soil erosion."
China and Europe Form Carbon Alliance as US Bets on Fossil Fuels (Ewa Krukowska, Bloomberg)
“We still believe that in the US, lots of local governments, states, companies and organizations are committed to efforts to adjust climate change and we would like to work together with them,” said Li Gao, China’s deputy minister of ecology and environment. “This coalition is very important.”
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