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• Newark airport is falling apart.
• Save these outlets if you’re smart.
• AI addicts lose their heart.
• Merz is off to a rough start.

Tell me, reader, do you know anyone who still uses floppy disks? I don’t. In fact, I haven’t seen one of those babies in 20+ years. It seems crazy that anyone would still be reliant on a technology that came of age in 1978 and was phased out in 2010, right? Right.

Tell me, then, why we’re still using them TO DIRECT PLANE TRAFFIC??? I seriously wish I was kidding: “Air traffic controllers are working with equipment that is decades old, adding to their stress levels. Some of the systems are so dated that they still use floppy disks,” Thomas Black says. “This fragility of air safety was exposed by the scary 90 seconds of aircraft flying blind around the Newark Liberty International Airport on April 28.”

First of all: “Flying blind” is supposed to be an idiom, not reality. Second: Have you ever tried holding a plank for 90 seconds? That’s an incredibly long time to have pilots beep-bopping around the sky without communication! I don’t blame FAA employees for taking trauma leave after that nightmare.

Even more depressing, it’s not just Newark. Of the 138 air traffic systems in the US, Thomas says 75% are in need of repair and the waitlist is years long. “Taking six to 10 years to fix equipment on the brink of failure is absolutely unacceptable,” he writes. Transportation “Secretary Duffy needs to immediately overhaul how technology is procured and installed. Adopting private sector procedures for this process would be a good start.”

Read the whole thing. And, PSA, don’t forget to get your Real ID! Newark (and every other airport in this nation) will get even messier after the deadline.

Arthur. Teletubbies. Dragon Tales. These were the PBS shows that raised me in the early aughts.

Decades later, I can still recall the number I’d click on the remote control when I got home from school: 6. And I can even recall specific episodes — D.W.’s imaginary friend, Po not wanting to go to bed, the sand castle catastrophe — that left an indelible mark on my brain. Although the channel number and show titles may have changed since then — hello, Work It Out Wombats! — children continue to benefit from the network’s free programming in ways we often can’t see.

A.J. Bauer says it’s a true shame that President Donald Trump wants to take such a treasured experience away. “Our media is oversaturated with grifters and partisans with little commitment to facts and even less to serving the interests of the public at large. Outlets such as NPR and PBS, whose federally mandated mission is serving the interests of the public, provide crucial safeguards against scams and ideological excesses,” he writes.

The other day on Instagram, comedian Robby Hoffman, who won an Emmy for her writing on PBS’s Odd Squad, accused the administration of going after the lowest hanging fruit: “PBS doesn’t care who you voted for, they just care about your kids. Especially kids who can’t afford Nikes.” It’s why they refuse to advertise toys to kids, said Hoffman: “We got huge merchandising offers to sell costumes from our show. PBS said no. They made printable Odd Squad badges available for free on the website so that any kid, regardless of rich or poor, could print an official badge and color it themselves.”

Such inclusivity is likely a foreign concept to Trump, who shamelessly plugs merch and crypto at every turn, regardless of ethical concerns. As David M. Drucker writes, “politics and wealth accumulation are (almost) everything to Trump.”

As if the tab on the president’s taxpayer-funded birthday parade weren’t enough proof, his ill-considered plan for $5 million “gold visa” cards, which could make affluent outsiders US residents in mere weeks, bears that out: “Running immigrants through a wealth filter would cost us the drive, persistence and ingenuity that newcomers have brought to this country throughout its history,” says Patricia Lopez.

Indeed, ingenuity is in short supply these days, and we’ll have even less of it without NPR and PBS.

Bonus Entertainment Reading: With Trump now threatening tariffs on foreign films, should Europe try to launch its own version of Netflix? — Lionel Laurent

Here’s a tweet about the likelihood of AI wiping out half of humanity in the next 20 years:

And here’s an excerpt from Parmy Olson’s latest column about how young men are using AI to buy slim-fit chinos:

Edison Earl excels at his job as a graduate intern at Arts University Bournemouth in England. He’s produced more marketing content than ever for the school and doubled its Instagram followers in the last seven months. But he struggles to take credit, since the ChatGPT app did much of the work. In the last two years he’s gone from brainstorming on paper to talking to ChatGPT most of the day. “Can you rewrite this email for me?” he’ll ask it. “What do you think of this social media post and this event?” And not just work; the 23-year-old enlists its help in everything from choosing what to eat to what clothes to buy.

Eeeek! The end of humanity feels near, no? In December 2023, I said AI could eventually make our lives “planned, plotted and meticulously rehearsed, not unlike a Nathan Fielder show or a Black Mirror episode.” A year and a half later, we’re well on our way: There are AI therapists. AI toys. AI doggy dentists. Who knows what freaky stuff we’ll be using it for in 2045.

Bonus AI Reading:

• OpenAI’s nonprofit pledge looks like window dressing. — Parmy Olson
• Sam Altman runs a pretty normal Silicon Valley company now. — Matt Levine

Is Germany alright? Tuesday morning, the country’s chancellor-to-be Friedrich Merz was supposed to be sworn in to office. The process is considered a formality, really — but he didn’t get enough votes so they had to do a second round of voting. He’s confirmed now, but how embarrassing!! Katja Hoyer says Merz’s initial defeat is “a first for a new chancellor in German postwar history,” marking a “terrible start for Germany’s new government.” What’s worse, Chris Bryant predicts Merz’s troubles are just beginning: The 69-year-old chancellor’s plan “to promote the welfare of all Germans is falling on deaf ears among justifiably skeptical young people,” he writes.

Every week it seems like there’s a new, half-baked idea that spills out of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s mouth: Let’s create an autism database! Let’s open up a bunch of wellness farms! Let’s order placebo testing for new vaccines! Plenty of people see these headlines about the secretary of Health and Human Services and roll their eyes. But, as this alarming chart from Lisa Jarvis shows, once misinformation is out there, it’s impossible to shove the genie back in the bottle. “Kennedy has refused to state unequivocally that vaccination is the only way to prevent measles,” she writes, and “he is actively shifting the focus from vaccination to unproven cures.” Such dangerous rhetoric has helped trigger one of the worst measles outbreaks in three decades.

Trucks are essential to the 21st-century economy. Let robots take the wheel. — Bloomberg’s editorial board

As tensions rise between India and Pakistan, a conflict at sea grows increasingly likely. — James Stavridis

The “bullwhip effect” won’t buffer US companies from tariffs forever. — Robert Burgess

The Kohl’s saga is a wakeup call for boards that ignore the CEO’s personal life. — Beth Kowitt

The VIX is called the “fear index,” but a better name would be “uncertainty index.” — Nir Kaissar

Nuclear power is popular, but not enough to change Australia’s election outcome. — David Fickling

One ship, $417 million in new tariffs.

It’s easier to buy books from Jeff Bezos.

Sterile mosquitoes are curbing disease.

Well, well, well! NYC’s mayoral race is bleak.