5/26 to 6/1, 2025

This week was a ride— from pop stars reclaiming their music catalogs to government vaccine shake-ups, historic elections, and yeah, even bathwater soap. I’m your host, Robyn Davies, and this is This Week Basically. Stick around — it’s gonna be fun.

Let’s start with Big legal news out of the Supreme Court once again this week. On Friday, the Court gave the green light—at least for now—to the Trump administration’s move to end a Biden-era humanitarian program. This program provided temporary residency to more than 500,000 immigrants from countries dealing with war and political chaos.
Justice Jackson dissented, joined by Justice Sotomayor, warning that this decision will have “devastating consequences” by upending the lives of nearly half a million people while their legal cases are still being sorted out.
Karen Tumlin, who runs the Justice Action Center, called it the largest de-legalization of immigrants in modern history, basically paving the way for mass deportation orders. This one’s going to have ripple effects far beyond the courtroom.

In a move that’s raising eyebrows across the public health world, the Trump administration just canceled a $600 million contract with Moderna that was meant to fund a bird flu vaccine.
The contract was already under review—but now it’s officially scrapped. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who’s been openly skeptical of mRNA vaccines, played a major role here. And yes, that’s the same mRNA tech behind Moderna’s Covid shot.
Why does this matter? Because bird flu has quietly been spreading—not just among birds, but to dairy cattle, with more than 1,000 herds affected across 17 states. Seventy people have gotten sick, mostly farm workers. And in January, the U.S. recorded its first human death tied to bird flu, after a person in Louisiana came into contact with sick backyard birds.
Right now, the virus doesn’t spread easily from person to person. But flu viruses mutate fast—and that’s what keeps scientists up at night. As Jennifer Nuzzo at Brown’s School of Public Health put it, without investment in new types of flu vaccines and more companies making them, we won’t have enough to go around when the next pandemic hits.
So, this isn’t just a contract cancellation. It’s a warning shot.

Big changes are coming to Mexico’s justice system—like, historic changes. For the first time ever, Mexican voters went to the polls this week to elect their judges. Not just a few of them—over 2,600. That includes Supreme Court justices and judges for federal, state, and local courts.
It’s a huge shift. Mexico’s judiciary has always been appointment-based, but this election moves the whole system to a popular vote. The change was proposed by outgoing president AMLO and backed by his successor, Claudia Sheinbaum. The goal? Shake up a justice system that most Mexicans agree hasn’t exactly been working.
Still, not everyone’s sold. There’s been intense debate over whether voters will know enough about these judicial candidates—especially when there are 7,700 of them running, and none were allowed to fundraise like politicians normally do. No private money, no public money, no campaign ads. Just names on a ballot. And speaking of ballots—Mexico votes on paper, and all those votes have to be counted by hand. Final nationwide results won’t be out until June 15th. So stay tuned.

In Myanmar, what felt like a major win for rebel forces suddenly flipped into a shocking retreat. Last month, thousands of resistance fighters from multiple rebel groups had taken Lashio , a key city near the Chinese border, even overtaking a military command center. But without firing a single shot, they quietly pulled out and handed Lashio back to the military junta.
So what happened? Rebel leaders say China stepped in behind the scenes, pressuring them to withdraw. Beijing’s got huge financial stakes in Myanmar — think pipelines carrying oil and gas from the Bay of Bengal all the way to China, plus big infrastructure projects tied to its Belt and Road Initiative.
To force the rebels out, China cut off border trade, shut down power and internet in nearby towns, and even reportedly detained the main rebel commander after he crossed into China. China’s official line? Noninterference. But their spokesman echoed the junta’s language about protecting Myanmar’s independence and territorial unity — a clear signal they’re backing the military government’s grip on power.

Back in 2015, Los Angeles pitched the 2028 Olympics with the tagline “Follow the sun.” The promise? Picture-perfect weather, a $1 billion Olympic Village, a sleek transit system, and enough venues to skip the whole “build everything from scratch” panic. But three years out, that vision is looking a lot more… pragmatic. After devastating fires earlier this year and ongoing supply shortages, the city’s had to scale back. That billion-dollar Olympic Village? Scrapped—too expensive. Instead, athletes will bunk at UCLA dorms. Santa Monica’s iconic beach won’t be hosting volleyball either; that’s been moved to Alamitos Beach in Long Beach after the city, facing a multi-year budget deficit, pulled out.

Even with the changes, the stakes are high. These Games are expected to cost nearly $7 billion, host over 10,000 athletes, and draw millions of tourists—all of whom need housing, transportation, and food across 40-plus venues spread over the sprawl that is greater LA. So will it be chaos or comeback? We’ll find out in three years.

Japan’s debt has officially crossed the $9 trillion mark—yes, with a T. That’s more than twice the size of the entire Japanese economy. For years, the country’s leaned on debt-fueled public spending to solve just about every problem: from supporting aging farmers and rural towns, to rolling out massive Covid relief, to expanding defense budgets and subsidizing inflation-hit households. Now, small businesses—especially ones hit by new U.S. tariffs—are asking for more aid. Households are pushing for tax cuts. But even as the bills pile up, most experts say Japan isn’t facing a financial cliff just yet. That’s because most of the debt is held safely at home—by the Bank of Japan and domestic banks—so there’s little risk of a sudden pullout.
Still, there’s growing unease about just how long Japan can keep spending like this without consequences. For now, the checkbook is still open—but the clock might be ticking.

Big moment for sumo—and for Japan’s sense of pride in its national sport. Onosato Daiki just became the first Japanese wrestler in eight years—and only the second in 27 years—to earn the title of yokozuna, the highest rank in sumo.

Why is that such a headline? Because Japanese wrestlers haven’t been running the sport lately. The only other active yokozuna right now is Hoshoru, a Mongolian who clinched the title back in January. The two grand champions will square off in Nagoya this July, and fans are calling it a referendum on sumo’s future in Japan. Tradition versus new era, homegrown talent versus global challengers—get your popcorn ready.

Taylor Swift just did what most artists only dream of—she bought her music back. On Friday, Swift announced she had officially regained ownership of the master recordings for her first six albums. If you remember the drama: back in 2019, her catalog was sold as part of a larger deal involving her former label, Big Machine. It ended up in the hands of music manager Scooter Braun, and then in 2020, to a private equity firm called Shamrock Capital. Swift was not thrilled. But instead of backing down, she took a different route—rerecording every single album and releasing them as “Taylor’s Version.” Now, five years later, she owns the originals too. The six albums include Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989, and Reputation.

Swift says she hasn’t finished rerecording Reputation yet—calling it the one album she’s hesitant to touch because the emotions behind it were so raw and real. But she has already finished her debut album’s rerecording. Release date? Still a mystery. She credited her fans for making the buyback possible, saying their support of the rerecordings—and turning the Eras Tour into a $2 billion phenomenon—gave her the power to take her music back. Honestly? Power move.

Alright, here’s one for the “wait, what?” files: Sydney Sweeney — from Euphoria and Anyone But You, in case you’ve been under a rock — is now the face of a soap bar made with a pretty unusual ingredient: her actual bath water. The soap, called “Sydney’s Bathwater Bliss,” is a collab with Dr. Squatch, a men’s personal care brand known for natural ingredients and “manly scents.” Sydney said the requests for her bath water were “weird in the best way”. Is that possible? I’m undecided.

Alright, that’s a wrap on this week’s episode. Thanks for hanging out. Hit me up with what you thought, and I’ll catch you next time for more stories you didn’t see coming but definitely need to know about. Until next week, I’m Robyn Davies, and this is This Week, Basically.