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President Trump is headed home from China. A California billionaire is paying influencers to boost his campaign. And we found the best advice for new grads. That's some of what we'll get to on the Seven from the Washington Post, I'm Hannah Jewell. It's Friday, May 15th. Let's get you caught up with today's seven stories. Number one, President Donald Trump left Beijing today after concluding a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. He's leaving without announcing firm commitments or developments on Iran or several other issues. But he said that he and Xi both want the Iran war to end.
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We did discuss Iran. We feel very similar. Iran, we want that to end. We don't want them to have a nuclear weapon. We want the streets open. We're closing it now. They closed it, then we closed it on top of them. But we want the streets open and we want them to get it ended. Because it's a crazy thing there, a little bit crazy when it's no good, can't have it.
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The carefully choreographed pageantry and gestures of friendship during Trump's trip produced an image of two superpowers on similar footing. Analysts say that's exactly what Xi hoped to project with the visit. It's a stance that China has long craved and the US has long resisted. Number two, the Supreme Court preserved male access to abortion pills for for now. Earlier this month, a federal appeals court in New Orleans ruled that patients must pick up the drug mifepristone in person. That's the most commonly used abortion pill in the US it's become a major battleground for legal fights over abortion rights. Since the fall of Roe v. Wade In 2022, providers in states without abortion bans have been sending the drug to people in states that do. The lower court's ruling blocked the ability to do that. But yesterday the Supreme Court paused that decision, once again allowing access to mifepristone by mail and telehealth while litigation continues. The justices did not explain their reasoning, but the decision came over the objections of conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. The ruling is a defeat, at least for now, for anti abortion activists. Number three Trump missed a deadline to disclose tens of millions of dollars in stock trades the president is required to publicly disclose stock transactions exceeding a thousand dollars within 45 days, but according to Trump's latest investment filings, he recently missed a deadline to do that by months. Disclosures filed last week show that Trump sold between 5 and $25 million each of Mic Amazon stock in February. Then he purchased millions of dollars worth of the two companies stock in March. Records show he was assessed a fee of $200 for missing the deadline. Before beginning his first presidential term in 2017, Trump reported that he sold his stock portfolio, but he opted not to do that when he began his second term last year. His assets are held in a trust managed by his children. The American public has long been critical of public officials trading stocks while in office. ICE is moving forward with plans to convert warehouses into immigrant detention centers. That's number four. The warehouse plan has emerged as one of the Trump administration's most controversial ideas in its push to deport millions of immigrants. Officials say housing people in warehouses will allow ICE to more efficiently process people by holding them in a smaller number of large scale hubs. But a broad base of critics have come out against the plan, calling it inhumane or alleging that it will overwhelm local infrastructure. Despite mounting legal challenges, the Post reported yesterday that the Department of Homeland Security is moving ahead with the plan. The department has bought warehouses in 11 towns nationwide, and in meetings this month, ICE officials said the agency was preparing to award contracts to oversee construction and operations at two warehouses in Texas. A California billionaire is paying influencers to boost his campaign for governor. That's our fifth story. Tom Steyer made his fortune at a hedge fund before shifting nearly 15 years ago to spending millions on climate change and progressive causes. Now the Democrat is pitching himself as a billionaire. Who cares? In the race for California governor online, some influencers seem to agree, like Jason Chu, who posted this video in February.
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Is Tom Steyer just using progressive language for public reinvention, or is he a guy that woke up to the damage his company helped cause, is now spending his money undoing it? I honestly don't know. I do like what he's saying and I'll be paying attention to the race this year.
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According to state election finance records, that opinion paid off. Chu got $2,000 for online communications from a media contractor on behalf of Steyer's campaign. The campaign's payments and the failure of some influencers to disclose them have prompted a state investigation into potential violations of a political advertising law. The California primaries are on June 2nd. Number six A severe weather outbreak is expected in the central US this weekend. The weather forecast in the middle of the country is not looking great. Severe storms and the potential for destructive hail and tornadoes are expected. The Great Plains and the Corn Belt are at the greatest risk. The National Weather Service Storm Prediction center issued severe weather forecasts for both Sunday and Monday. Usually the agency doesn't craft such aggressive forecasts so many days in advance, so if that's where you live, take note. On Sunday, anyone based in or traveling to parts of Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota should be cautious. Then on Monday, Kansas, Lincoln, Nebraska, Omaha and Des Moines should be on alert. And unfortunately, next week, from Tuesday onwards, could bring even more storms. And at number seven Our reporter Watched Dozens of Graduation speeches to Find the Best life advice Every spring, commencement speakers don square caps and offer their advice and inspiration to a fresh crop of college grads. The best ones sometimes go viral and reach millions of people, so Post reporter Maggie Penman spent a week watching speeches to find the best ones. She chose five. One was Shonda Rhimes, the creator of Bridgerton and Grey's Anatomy. In 2014, she advised students at Dartmouth College not to let their dreams derail them. She described how she had been too focused on her dream of becoming Nobel Prize winning author Toni Morrison, but then went to film school and learned how to tell stories her own way. Years later, she got to meet her idol.
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I had dinner with Toni Morrison and all she wanted to talk about was Grey's Anatomy. That never would have happened if I hadn't stopped dreaming of becoming her and gotten busy becoming myself.
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That audio comes to us from Dartmouth's YouTube channel. Other great speeches Maggie chose include the late Steve Jobs in 2005 talking about the unexpected benefits of taking a Caligula calligraphy class, and actor Steve Carell last year on Fighting the Urge to be Cynical. If you are a new grad or want to feel like one, you can find all of their inspiring advice at the link in today's 7 newsletter. That's the show for this week. The staff writers of the Seven are Jamie Ross, Izanakaba and me. Rennie Svirnoski is our producer. Special thanks to Rena Flores and Ted Muldoon. John Taylor is our editor. Copyediting by Kendra Nichols, Brian Molassics and Rebecca Branford. Mixing and sound design is by Jim Briggs and Justin Garish. Our theme music is by Edith Mudge. I'm Hannah Jewell. Thanks for listening and have a great weekend. I'll be off next week, but the rest of the team will meet you back here on Monday.
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