Tacos for everyone, por favor
Monday, June 23rd, 2025
What is going on with the state of pop music this year? By this time last year, we already had a whole cohort of breakout artists, from Sabrina Carpenter to Chappell Roan to Shaboozey to Benson Boone. This year, we have … Alex Warren? Whose sound is so “Ordinary” I can hardly hold onto it in my head shortly after listening to it.
More on this in a YOK Bonus issue coming later this weekend as we near the halfway point on my New Album Listening Project. But first, your morning meal:
Appetizers:
1. Operation Rising Lion and Operation True Promise III refer to military operations between what two warring Middle Eastern countries?
2. A federal appeals court has ruled that Donald Trump may continue to keep the National Guard deployed in what state to dispel immigration protests?
Answers
1. ISRAEL and IRAN have been exchanging military strikes in the last week, much to the consternation of global onlookers. Operation Rising Lion refers to Israel's military operation to dismantle Iran's nuclear infrastructure; Operation True Promise III refers to Iran's military operation against Israel.
On Saturday night, the United States became involved in the war when Donald Trump launched strikes on three nuclear sites. While top Republicans rallied around the flag and said the strikes were a necessary intervention to hobble Iran’s nuclear capabilities, Democrats called the move unconstitutional. In the coming week, the world will watch with bated breath to see if Iran accepts a forced peace or escalates hostilities further.
2. Los Angeles and its surrounding suburbs have protested mightily against the Trump administration's ICE raids. When Donald Trump rolled in the National Guard, it sparked immediate backlash over the legality of the move.
But last week, a federal appeals court ruled that Trump may continue to keep using the National Guard in CALIFORNIA, much to the dismay of Governor Gavin Newsom. On the heels of the LA conflict came a string of nationwide "No Kings" protests, coinciding with the day of Trump's military parade. Perhaps my favorite headline out of all this has been The Economist's: "When a radical performance artist has command of an army."
Entrees:
3. After six months of political turmoil, South Korea has finally resolved its presidential crisis by electing what Democratic Party candidate?
4. In June, Russia passed what milestone in its three-year old war with Ukraine, a staggering statistic of loss?
5. A stock trend known as TACO involves buying the dip after President Trump makes a crazy announcement, and then selling high after the market rebounds. What does TACO stand for?
Answers
3. Last December, former South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law over the country, leading to months of protests against Yoon's government. Yoon was eventually arrested and ousted, and in a presidential election held on June 3rd, LEE JAE-MYUNG was chosen to replace him.
Lee Jae-Myung of the liberal Democratic Party won a commanding victory over Yoon's conservative People Power Party. If the name is tickling something in the back of your brain, that's because Lee narrowly lost the 2022 presidential election to Yoon. Lee survived being stabbed in the neck by an extremist last year, and South Korean voters have definitively given him their mandate. Lee has cast himself as a pragmatic moderate, hoping for closer cooperation with Japan and stabilizing relations with China.
But the outside world will not give the new president much respite. Mr Trump imposed steep levies on industries in which South Korean firms excel, such as cars and steel, and threatened additional 25% tariffs on goods from South Korea (which has a free-trade agreement with America). A clash also looms over whether America should maintain its current troop levels on the Korean peninsula and continue to dedicate those forces to the defence of South Korea against its nuclear-armed northern neighbour—or divert them to broader regional goals, such as deterring China.
Many South Koreans will be happy to see an end to the Yoon era. But, even so, any sense of relief will be brief. As Mr Lee himself acknowledged in his inauguration speech on June 4th, “Unfortunately, we now face a complex web of overlapping crises in every sphere.”
4. I believe Joseph Stalin is attributed with the quote: "The death of one man is a tragedy; the death of a million is a statistic."
In June, Ukraine proclaimed that Russia had passed ONE MILLION CASUALTIES in their 3-year war with Ukraine. Russia has also said that Ukraine has suffered a million losses, but President Vlodomyr Zelensky has claimed their number is much lower. While the exact count could not be independently verified, the losses for Russia, which exceed those suffered in all their wars post-World War II, are staggering in a war that shows no signs of abating. Western intelligence services have confidence that the Russian casualty figures are as high as Ukraine estimates it to be.
The Economist analysis writes:
To put Russia’s losses into context, they are to date on a par with the entirety of Britain’s losses in the second world war of 264,000 killed. They are approaching America’s battlefield losses (292,000 killed) in the same conflict, when its population was similar in size to Russia’s today. The number of Russians killed in Ukraine is probably more than four times the 47,000 combat losses that America suffered in the eight years of its direct involvement in the Vietnam war, a toll that led to mass protests. Russia’s losses also dwarf the roughly 68,000 casualties (both killed and wounded) suffered by the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.
Whereas Ukraine is fighting a war of national survival, Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, has choices. Yet he appears to be under little domestic pressure to call it a day. Having lost much of the mainly professional army that set out to defeat Ukraine over three years ago, he has come up with an almost entirely novel way of replenishing manpower at the front without risking social destabilisation.
5. Donald Trump is no fan of TACO, a finance trend that stands for "TRUMP ALWAYS CHICKEN OUT." The trend involves buying the dip after Trump makes a crazy announcement, which causes the stock market to crash, only to sell high when he reverses his position days later.
For example, when Trump first threatened European Union tariffs of 50% on May 23rd, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell more than 39 points, or 0.67%, and the Nasdaq index fell 188.53 points, or 1%. A couple of days later, when Trump deferred the tariffs, or "chickened out," the S&P rose 118.72 points, or 2.05%, and the Nasdaq rose nearly 462 points, or 2.47%. TACO has proven to be a boon for investors this spring during the Trump tariff announcements, not least of which was the "Liberation Day" carousel.
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) tweeted on April 9 that Trump’s “constant gyrations in policy provide dangerous opportunities for insider trading. Who in the administration knew about Trump’s latest tariff flip-flop ahead of time? Did anyone buy or sell stocks, and profit at the public’s expense?”
Investors at large haven’t fully gotten their arms around the TACO trade, which is why the markets continue to shudder with every new tariff announcement and recover with every reversal. There may be a residual concern that this time the tariffs will stick.
Trump plainly resents the sentiment underlying the acronym. “It’s called negotiation,” he said when asked about it at a news conference Wednesday. “That’s a nasty question,” he added.
Sigh, I wish I had the foresight to know about these trends before they happened. Unfortunately, I am not savvy enough to capitalize on these gyrations. Instead, I'll be indulging in real LA tacos.
Dessert:
6. The Tonys came and went, and Oh, Mary! did not win Best Play, as YOK had predicted. Instead, what Pulitzer Prize winner won the Tony for Best Play? Additionally, what robot-fueled musical won the Tony for Best Musical?
Answer
6. PURPOSE, written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony for Best New Play this year.
Purpose follows a Black family over a weekend in Chicago, as the Jaspers fight and reconcile. I recently watched August: Osage County, which I had been steeling myself for since I knew it was a heavy DRA-MA, but found myself greatly enjoying the dysfunctional family dynamics. I have a feeling Purpose may therefore also be up my alley. Purpose ended up beating one of the frontrunners, Oh, Mary!, for Best New Play. Nevertheless, Oh, Mary! won Best Actor in a Play for writer and star Cole Escola.
On the musical front, MAYBE HAPPY ENDING about two helperbots who take a road trip together won the Best Musical prize. Darren Criss, who stars alongside Helen J Shen in the show, won the Tony for Best Actor in a Musical. Maybe Happy Ending comes from Broadway newcomers Will Aronson and Hue Park, and has become a musical sensation.
Other notable Tony wins include:
Nicole Scherzinger wins Best Actress in a Musical for her performance in a revival of Sunset Boulevard.
Buena Vista Social Club, a Cuban musical based on the 1997 hit album, won four Tonys, including Best Choreography and Best Featured Actress in a Musical for Natalie Venetia Belcon.
Stranger Things: The First Shadow, a play inspired by the Netflix show, picked up a few technical awards, including Best Scenic Design and Best Lighting Design of a Play.
Did you have any Tony favorites or are mad about any Tony snubs? Let me know in comments below!
Coming up this week …
On Tuesday, Latin American politics and business.
On Wednesday, a sports issue to catch you up on all the scintillating sport that has transpired in the last month or so.
On Thursday, European turmoil and crypto attacks.
And on Pop Culture Friday, you’ll learn the phrase that can be applied to Justin Bieber claiming he’s “standing on business.”
And over the weekend, a YOK BONUS issue on the state of pop music!
To ensure that you get to see all the content …
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