02:32 (IST) Jun 06

Amid a spiralling feud with US President Donald Trump on the latest US bill, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has claimed that Trump ‘s name is mentioned “in the Epstein files” and added that it is the “real reason they have not been made public.”

In a post on X, Musk stated, “Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT.”

Time to drop the really big bomb:@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.

Have a nice day, DJT!

In another post on X, Musk stated, “Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out.”

Names of powerful people previously related to convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein, who died by suicide in Manhattan jail in 2019, including Trump, Prince Andrew and former US President Bill Clinton, have been named in court documents associated with Epstein’s years of sexual abuse, The Hill reported.

Before being elected in November, Trump said that he would have “no problem” releasing files related to Epstein, something some lawmakers have demanded on social media following Epstein’s death.

In 2024, Trump denied any association with Epstein, The Hill reported. In a post on X, he stated, “I was never on Epstein’s Plane, or at his ‘stupid’ Island. Strong Laws ought to be developed against A.I. It will be a big and very dangerous problem in the future.”

Musk’s allegation came just minutes after Trump threatened to cancel government contracts with Musk’s companies. Musk stated that considering Trump’s cancellation of government contracts with Tesla, SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately.

Donald Trump sees himself as a world-class negotiator and deal maker — he will now need to bring all those skills to reach a ceasefire deal — not in Ukraine nor Gaza — but with Elon Musk.

Musk now presents a real crisis for the Trump presidency. He’s wealthy, powerful, unpredictable and he believes he’s been wronged. And he knows a lot about the president and his family.

This feud — carried out in real time on X — has captivated Americans. As one person posted on Musk’s own online social media platform on Friday morning, when there was a lull in the abuse between the two: “What time do Trump and Musk wake up?”

These are dangerous times for Donald Trump.

Like a married couple, for the past year Musk and Trump have been with each other when the guests have left the dinner party. As each world leader has left the White House, as each influential member of Congress has shaken hands and left, these two have been left to do their own private debrief in the Oval Office.

The relationship was so close that on one occasion when Trump was having a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump reportedly said to Zelenskyy words to the effect, “There’s someone here I want you to say hello to,” and handed the phone to Musk.

A puzzled Ukrainian president was suddenly speaking to the world’s richest man.

That’s how close Trump and Musk were during their political marriage. But now the divorce has come through and they’re fighting about their legacies.

Musk is trying to convince the world that he wanted to slash the US’s crippling budget but that Trump sold out America by pushing a bill — the bill Trump likes to call “One Big Beautiful Bill” — through the House of Representatives.

What is Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill? Photo shows Donald Trump points. A rift is brewing within the US Republican Party as President Donald Trump attempts to muscle his Big, Beautiful Bill through Congress.

Trump is trying to convince the world that Musk is an erratic and unpredictable character, and that he’s bitter because his bill cut subsidies to electric vehicles — which hit Musk’s Tesla business — and that Trump asked him to leave.

In recent weeks, Trump has had to have some fascinating calls — including with Russian President Vladimir Putin to try to bring an end to the war in Ukraine, and with Chinese President Xi Jinping to bring an end to Trump’s tariff war on the United States’s trading partners.

As wily as those two men are, he may need greater skills of persuasion — or threat — with Elon Musk.

Trump and Musk can severely wound the other — if not destroy each other

Within a few days of their split’s fallout, Musk was threatening to support the impeachment of Trump, to support Vice-President JD Vance taking over and to withdraw funding for Trump’s candidates in the mid-term election.

Trump, for his part, was threatening to end government contracts enjoyed by Musk’s Space X company.

It’s often said that information is power. If that’s the case, these two have unparalleled information about each other.

They have accessed each other’s lives for more than a year. They know each other’s families. They know each other’s family problems. They know each other’s business interests. They know each other’s vulnerabilities — personal and business.

On top of the power of information that comes with access, they both have raw power. Through his total control of agencies, Trump can access any tax or regulatory information on Musk and his businesses. Trump has shown he will use legal and regulatory powers to pursue his personal and political enemies.

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This makes Musk extremely vulnerable. Trump understands fully the power of his words from the Oval Office — this week, within five minutes of him saying that he thought his friendship with Musk was over, Wall Street started selling Tesla shares.

Then, when Trump began suggesting that he would end Musk’s various government contracts, Wall Street panicked. Within an hour, Tesla shares had dived 14 per cent.

Donald Trump had wiped billions off Musk’s wealth.

But Musk does not have the personality type to take this sort of thing calmly. He, too, has power — although his is not the ability to hit Trump’s many financial interests (that he knows of) but rather to damage him politically.

Like Musk, Trump is also vulnerable. Musk has the raw power that comes from being the world’s richest man. He has his mass distribution publishing platform, X. By spending so much time with Trump and his family in both the White House — and for a time seemingly to live in Trump’s Florida mansion, Mar-a-Lago — Musk would have knowledge of the Trump family’s business dealings.

Alliance between Trump and Musk was always likely to end badly

It appears as if Trump decided some weeks ago that Musk was not long for the White House — that it was a matter of how to extricate Musk from the Oval Office without too much pain.

Musk’s behaviour became erratic. Those wild images of him waving a chainsaw and shouting that this was what he was using to cut government spending went down badly with many of those who had voted for Trump, particularly veterans who were suddenly losing entitlements.

Also, Musk made what appeared to be a Nazi salute. This, coupled with his strong support for Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AFD) party, made many Americans concerned about Musk’s real views.

When Musk, in a reference to the Holocaust, told AFD supporters that there was “too much focus on past guilt, and we need to move beyond that” and that the party’s anti-immigration policies were “the best hope for Germany” it only heightened those concerns.

Then reports began appearing about clashes between Musk and senior members of Trump’s cabinet.

Whether they were authorised by Trump or the White House or were from disenchanted members of Trump’s cabinet is not clear, but what is clear is that a steady stream of leaks began appearing against Musk.

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One of the more damaging was that Musk had a blazing row in one cabinet meeting with Marco Rubio, the secretary of state. The report said Trump allowed the fight to go for some time, before intervening to stop it — by siding with Rubio.

Then came reports of a clash witnessed by many between Musk and Scott Bessent, the well-liked secretary of the Treasury. Musk had shouted at Bessent in a corridor that Bessent was not cutting enough staff from his department quickly enough, at which point Bessent reportedly shouted back: “F*** off!”

The leaks all appeared well sourced, and the White House did not vigorously deny them.

Someone, it seems, was out to get Musk, apparently preparing the ground for his political execution.

Then came perhaps the most devastating leak of all — details of Musk’s alleged erratic behaviour, and drug use, since joining Trump’s campaign to return to the White House.

The New York Times reported: “As Elon Musk became one of Donald J. Trump’s closest allies last year, leading raucous rallies and donating about $[US]275 million [$423 million] to help him win the presidency, he was also using drugs far more intensely than previously known, according to people familiar with his activities.

“Mr Musk’s drug consumption went well beyond occasional use. He told people he was taking so much ketamine, a powerful anaesthetic, that it was affecting his bladder, a known effect of chronic use. He took Ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms. And he travelled with a daily medication box that held about 20 pills, including ones with the markings of the stimulant Adderall, according to a photo of the box and people who have seen it.

“It is unclear whether Mr. Musk, 53, was taking drugs when he became a fixture at the White House this year and was handed the power to slash the federal bureaucracy. But he has exhibited erratic behaviour, insulting cabinet members, gesturing like a Nazi and garbling his answers in a staged interview.

“At the same time, Mr. Musk’s family life has grown increasingly tumultuous as he has negotiated overlapping romantic relationships and private legal battles involving his growing brood of children, according to documents and interviews.”

This was now going well beyond the narrative that Musk was difficult to work with. This was creating the impression that Musk was erratic and unpredictable.

Musk strongly denied The New York Times story: “To be clear, I am NOT taking drugs! The New York Times was lying their a… off,” Musk insisted. “I tried prescription ketamine a few years ago and said so on X, so this not even news. It helps for getting out of dark mental holes, but haven’t taken it since then.”

Whatever the truth of it all, Musk’s reputation was taking a belting — and however wealthy and powerful he is, Musk would have known his reputation was bleeding.

How many big investment houses want to put money behind somebody who, when they google his name, “ketamine” comes up?

So, the break-up was inevitable. Musk says it was his decision, that his role as head of DOGE — the Department of Government Efficiency — had come to a natural end. Trump has a different version — he says he asked Musk to leave.

Elon Musk took aim at Donald Trump on social media. (Reuters: Nathan Howard)

Whoever is telling the truth, the couple gathered in the Oval Office to announce their separation. Both tried to put their best face on it — not an easy task for Musk, looking dishevelled and with a black eye he claimed he received while playing with his son.

As part of this apparently amicable divorce, Trump opened a box and handed Musk a golden “key to the White House”. But, unmistakably, the chemistry the two had previously shared was gone.

It had all the authenticity of a married couple who can barely look at each other announcing their divorce and saying: “We remain good friends, we just grew apart, and we will always put the interests of the children first.”

That didn’t last long. Within days, Musk could not help himself. He began posting on X his concerns about Trump’s signature budget bill, which Musk says will push the United States towards bankruptcy by its massive increase in the country’s debt levels.

This was a direct challenge to Trump, who has pressured Republicans to officially name the bill “One Big Beautiful Bill”.

But Trump did something he rarely does: He sat back and did not take the bait. All Trump’s instincts are to lash out at anybody that he thinks might be criticising him, but with Musk he stayed quiet.

By the hour, Musk’s tweets gathered impact. Finally, he went so far as to urge Americans to contact their members of Congress to lobby them to “Kill the Bill”.

Some Republicans backed Musk, which would have concerned Trump. The Trump side began fighting back, initially through Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House of Representatives, who Trump nominated to ensure the bill went through the House — which it has — and now to try to shepherd it through the Senate.

Although the Republicans control the Senate, as well as the House, some of the more conservative senators agree with Musk that this bill — with its huge tax cuts for wealthy Americans — will push the US towards bankruptcy.

The Republicans hold the Senate by only a slim margin. It will only take three Republicans to vote against the bill to defeat it. This would be a huge blow to the centrepiece of Trump’s economic policy.

Johnson dropped something that would have outraged Musk. He suggested Musk was opposing the bill not because he was committed to the US cutting its deficit but because it cut subsidies to electric vehicles — the mainstay of the Tesla business — and was therefore hitting Musk’s business interests.

This went against everything that Trump and the White House had been saying for a year. Trump had often told his rallies that Musk was in fact losing money by concentrating on the political world and was doing it selflessly as he wanted to “make America great again”.

So now, through Johnson, Musk was being re-cast from the great American MAGA patriot to the selfish businessman only concerned about his own wealth.

Seemingly outraged by what he saw as an attempt to undermine him personally rather than address the issue of the deficit, Musk doubled down, calling the bill “a disgusting abomination”.

All this became too much for Trump. He finally entered the fight, repeating not just the claim that Musk was upset about losing the electric vehicle subsidies but that Trump had asked Musk to leave his position.

Trump was saying that he had essentially terminated Musk’s role. For someone with a sense of self-worth as large as Musk’s, the suggestion that Trump had essentially told him “you’re fired!” — for which Trump was famous on his reality TV show The Apprentice — would have outraged him.

Not many people can fire the world’s richest man. Donald Trump was now saying that he had.

And so Musk went ballistic. What he did next crossed a line beyond which he could never salvage any relationship with Trump or this White House.

He seems to have realised that himself, beginning his post on X with both a sense of threat and glee:

As far as the White House was concerned, Elon Musk was now a political terrorist — he had gone rogue and was out of control, seemingly prepared to push for the destruction of Donald Trump.

Signing off with “Have a nice day, DJT!” (Donald J Trump), Musk had linked Trump to an investigation into a criminal sex trafficking operation that involved many high-profile people and centred on Jeffrey Epstein, the now-dead US financier.

Trump had famously been photographed with Epstein, but so had many people who had been part of the New York finance and celebrity worlds of the 1980s and 90s.

Musk provided no evidence for his claim

Where this now goes is anybody’s guess. Neither of these two men operates according to convention of generally accepted rules. US media have reported that various mediators were trying to set up a ceasefire phone call, but Trump has failed in his phone call attempts to get ceasefires in Ukraine and Gaza and there’s no suggestion that he will be any more successful in ending this “war” with Elon Musk.

Musk has been on the inside of the Trump presidency — and the Trump family — for almost a year. He had access to moments with the family when the cameras were not around and nobody was recording what was being said.

If Donald Trump has personal, sexual or financial skeletons, Musk may well know what they are and where they are.

Donald Trump was photographed at several parties with Jeffrey Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s. (Getty Images: Davidoff Studios)

Trump, for his part, has had insights into Elon Musk that few others have. If the reports of Musk being erratic and drug-fuelled during Trump’s campaign are true, Trump would know about them.

Like Musk, Trump has had insights into Musk’s business and private life that few others would have had.

The reason this battle is epic is that both men have raw power. Both men have the ability to destroy or wound each other. Both men are natural pugilists. Both men believe backing down is for wimps, part of the modern curse of “woke” culture.

This is the ultimate clash of political power with financial power. In this modern age, which will win? Who will win? And which side does Vice-President JD Vance take? Does he show loyalty to his commander-in-chief, who hand-picked him to be his deputy? Or does he show loyalty to Elon Musk, one of the tech oligarchs with whom Vance has spent so much time cultivating?

After all, these tech billionaires, who famously sat in the front row of Trump’s inauguration in front of key figures who would sit in Trump’s cabinet, can bankroll a “Vance 2028” campaign. Can Vance somehow keep both men onside when those two men are now clearly trying to wound the other?

As to where this goes from here, Trump has become the most powerful man in the world — for the second time — by never taking a step back. Musk has become the most wealthy man in the world by overriding any obstacles put in his way.

The key question now is this: Does the natural instinct of each man in this Shakespearean drama to attack their opponents and exact revenge when they feel they have been criticised outweigh the reality that each man is flirting with mutually assured destruction?

US President Donald Trump threatened former close advisor Elon Musk with “serious consequences” if he sought to punish Republicans voting for a contentious spending bill. The president made the threat in an interview on US television Saturday days after the world’s most powerful leader and the world’s richest man became embroiled in a public bust-up.

US President Donald Trump threatened his former advisor Elon Musk with “serious consequences” Saturday if the tech billionaire seeks to punish Republicans who vote for a controversial spending bill.

The comments by Trump to NBC News come after the relationship between the world’s most powerful person and the world’s richest imploded in bitter and spectacular fashion this week

The blistering break-up – largely carried out on social media before a riveted public on Thursday – was ignited by Musk’s harsh criticism of Trump’s so-called “big, beautiful” spending bill, which is currently before Congress.

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Some lawmakers who were against the bill had called on Musk – one of the Republican Party’s biggest financial backers in last year’s presidential election – to fund primary challenges against Republicans who voted for the legislation.

“He’ll have to pay very serious consequences if he does that,” Trump, who also branded Musk “disrespectful”, told NBC News on Saturday, without specifying what those consequences would be.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Read more on FRANCE 24 English

Read also:

‘Can’t be good for either side’: Allies fear fallout from Trump–Musk feud

Musk accuses Trump of being named in Epstein files as public row worsens

Trump and Musk’s ‘carnival’ is a ‘dogfight’ distracting voters from crisis threatening America’s future

An expert weighs in on how the Trump-Musk “carnival” is shifting focus from key issues.

An expert weighs in on how the Trump-Musk “carnival” is shifting focus from key issues. (Image: AFP via Getty Images )

A day after tensions between Elon Musk and President Donald Trump erupted into a “carnival” of blame and accusations, an expert said that the event shifted focus from more important issues at hand.

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“This is a natural billionaire Battle royale. You’re seeing the carnival unleash in front of the world with two men with a very strong sense of self,” Eric Schiffer, a well-known author, entrepreneur, and political pundit, told The Mirror US. “When you have two powerful personalities who are used to getting what they want, when one may feel hurt, you can get this dogfight.”

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It all started after the tech titan went on an explosive rant on Twitter, calling the president’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ a “disgusting abomination,” a few days after he formally left the role of a special government employee heading the Department of Government Efficiency.

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The Trump-Musk feud began after Musk criticized the president’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ (Image: AFP via Getty Images )

Trump bade farewell to the billionaire last Friday at the White House after Musk led DOGE for 130 days, aiming to reduce federal spending.

Musk has been a trusted Trump ally after he donated about $275 million during the 2024 presidential campaign.

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Days before the spat erupted into a “dogfight,” Musk said on X that he “can’t stand it anymore.”

“This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it,” he added, claiming that it will “massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion and burden American citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt,” he wrote.

Musk’s criticism of the cornerstone of Trump’s legislative agenda marks a significant rift in a partnership that was formed during last year’s campaign and seemed set to transform American politics and the federal government.

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Musk criticized the bill as a “massive spending bill” that balloons the federal deficit and “undermines the work” of DOGE. “I think a bill can be big or it could be beautiful,” Musk said.

This erupted into a feud online where the duo “flexed this 280-character biceps,” Schiffer said.

Trump bade farewell to the billionaire last Friday at the White House in his role at DOGE (Image: AFP via Getty Images )

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While Trump recently disagreed, Musk posted on X saying, “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate.”

“Saying he’s made Trump is the PR version of lighting a cigar in a dynamite factory. Never punch a heavyweight champ on his home turf. Elon’s shadowboxing in MAGA country with the lights off,” Schiffer warned.

He also made a shocking claim while dropping the “real bomb,” alleging that Trump’s name appears in child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s files that are yet to be released by the Department of Justice. Musk also reposted a video that showed Trump partying with Epstein.

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Schiffer said Musk’s attitude towards Trump is quite disastrous. This was after Tesla shares plunged as the duo’s disagreement ballooned.

Stock prices dropped by about 14.2% as markets closed on Thursday, wiping off nearly $152 billion of the company’s value. Trump suggested on Truth Social that he could cut off Musk’s government contracts and subsidies, both of which Tesla and SpaceX are beneficiaries.

“From the market purge, I see a 900 billion EV empire gambling its revenue with the battle with the president,” he said.

Trump and Musk hurled insults at each other in a sharp shift from their close alliance (Image: AFP via Getty Images )

Trump told CNN and ABC News that he is done with Musk and wishes him well.

He told CNN that he is “not even thinking about Elon … The poor guy’s got a problem.”

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Schiffer pointed out the main point that this feud is distracting the American public from.

“Elon gets rockets to land upright, and yet we can’t land a budget upright in America. The Trump versus musk carnival masked the fact that Congress who slid another 300 billion Pork bomb under the radar,” he said, adding, “While the two have flexed this 280 character biceps, the national debt bench presses future generations and that’s the part that we need to get back in focus on.”

Musk also previously threatened to “fire all politicians who betrayed the American people” on X, referring to members of Congress who backed the bill.

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Schiffer previously told The Mirror US that Musk has “enormous resources and a track record showing that he will spend it to eviscerate the other side,” which could play a crucial role in the midterm elections next year.

“You don’t go after your bank account if you can help it,” Schiffer explained.

Musk has been a trusted Trump ally after he donated about $275 million during the 2024 presidential campaign. (Image: AFP via Getty Images )

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Musk also launched a poll asking netizens if there should be an alternative to the predominantly two-party system in the United States, which began an online discourse, thus making his next steps seemingly impossible to predict.

“We don’t know [about midterms]. What we do know is that it serves Musk at this point to be Less involved with the administration, and this has been true for months as Tesla sales have been massacred over the ties to the president’s agenda,” he said.

“We don’t know what move he’s gonna make. I suspect that what you’ll see next year is an attempt to get members of Congress… with ties to the bill to make greater pledges as to how they will handle the debt in the future,” Schiffer predicted.

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He had previously issued a warning stating that any member of Congress who does not consider Musk’s threat potent is “asking to be potentially disfigured career-wise and is sitting on a powder keg that will go off very soon next year.”

Trump and Musk’s breakup. And, ICE detention centers face serious overcrowding

Good morning. You’re reading the Up First newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox, and listen to the Up First podcast for all the news you need to start your day.

Today’s top stories

President Trump and Elon Musk, a duo that once seemed inseparable, are going through a breakup. Disagreements over the GOP budget bill erupted yesterday. The two men used their respective social media platforms to hurl personal attacks at each other. After Trump threatened on Truth Social to eliminate billions in federal subsidies and contracts to Musk’s companies, Musk responded by asserting, without evidence, that the president is mentioned in government documents regarding convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

toggle caption Brandon Bell/Getty Images

🎧 This is a remarkable break because of the way Trump has elevated Musk, NPR’s Danielle Kurtzleben tells Up First. Musk spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars to help Trump get elected and has made it clear he feels he deserved even more in return. The disagreement started over the “big, beautiful bill,” which Musk has loudly criticized for days due to its cost. Trump says Musk is angry over how the bill would cut tax incentives for people buying electric cars and he believes Musk missed the power and attention he had in government.

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Trump has claimed that his tariffs will lead to greater prosperity for America, and there is now evidence supporting this assertion. Reports from the Treasury Department indicate that the tariffs have generated nearly $70 billion in revenue so far this year. A new forecast from the Congressional Budget Office says that if the tariffs continue, they could shave $2.8 trillion off the federal debt over the next decade.

🎧 The tariffs could help fill the hole that congressional Republicans have been digging, but it’s important to keep in mind that this revenue is mostly being paid by Americans, NPR’s Scott Horsley says. Patrick Allen, a wine importer in Columbus, Ohio, says the tariff revenue is a tax on the backs of people who are importing raw materials and eventually will be built into the price everybody is paying for goods. “Say if I order $100,000 of wine from France. If there’s a 20% tariff, I’ll have to pay $20,000 to get the wine out of customs before I sell a bottle,” Allen said.

Migrant detainees staged a protest at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement-run facility in Miami yesterday. The protests were captured by local news helicopters showing demonstrators lined up in the courtyard of the Krome Detention Center, spelling out “SOS” with their bodies. Krome is currently experiencing severe overcrowding. Detainees have reported illnesses and limited access to medication.

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🎧 NPR’s Jasmine Garsd reports that one of the first tips received about Krome came from Maria, a woman whose brother is inside the facility. Maria said they have been sleeping on cement floors, they are not being fed, and the food is spoiled. Garsd says there is evidence that this is a national issue. ICE detention centers are seemingly at 125% capacity. ICE says the overcrowding is temporary, but the Trump administration has promised more arrests. Overcrowding is one of the reasons a major goal for the administration is self-deportation.

Today’s listen

toggle caption Autumn de Wilde/Verve Label Group

Seth MacFarlane, best known for creating American Dad! and Family Guy, has another passion: singing. The five-time Grammy nominee has released a new album of songs that came to life from a trove of previously unheard arrangements written for Frank Sinatra. Lush Life: The Lost Sinatra Arrangements features 12 of the songs recorded for the first time in full with an orchestra. Listen to snippets of MacFarlane’s new album and read more about what this music means to him.

Weekend picks

Enlarge this image toggle caption Murray Close/Lionsgate Murray Close/Lionsgate

Check out what NPR is watching, reading and listening to this weekend:

🍿 Movies: John Wick is back in the spinoff film Ballerina, which stars Ana de Armas as a ballerina-turned-assassin navigating the international criminal underworld.

📺 TV: From MobLand to Your Friends & Neighbors, TV critic Eric Deggans shares 10 of the coolest TV projects from this year you might have missed.

📚 Books: New arrivals at the bookstore this week include fiction from Susan Choi, essays from Evan Osnos and a memoir from Molly Jong-Fast. Here’s a breakdown of those books and more.

🎵 Music: Today is filled with new music from Lil Wayne, Addison Rae, Cynthia Erivo, Rascal Flatts and many more. Luckily, you can listen to the best song from each album in one place: this curated playlist.

🎭 Theater: She Who Dared is believed to be the first professionally staged opera written by two Black women. It showcases women who, alongside Rosa Parks — and in some cases before her — refused to give up their seats to white riders on segregated buses. (via WBEZ)

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❓ Quiz: So much happened this week, and luckily, I remember most of it as I got eight out of 11 right. Now, it’s your turn to attempt to beat my score.

3 things to know before you go

toggle caption Viken Kantarci/AFP via Getty Images

Divorce lawyers and researchers say that divorce filings show a seasonal pattern of spiking in early spring and late summer. Vietnam has eliminated its longstanding two-child policy to address a declining birth rate and a shrinking working-age population. Over 200 wildfires are raging across Canada, sending a thick blanket of smoke across the U.S. Midwest. Experts say climate change means the U.S. could get used to it, as we’re likely to see more frequent and severe wildfires.

This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.