Good Morning!

It's Tuesday, May 19, 2026, and in today’s edition of Rise & Recap, we look at:

• Trump drops his $10 billion IRS lawsuit, but there’s a catch.

• French are obsessing over a gooey, low-fat cheese as ultimate gym fuel.

• Influencers claim zapping your vagus nerve cures brain fog overnight.

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Top headlines

SPILL THE NEWS

US News

New Immigration Crackdown Hitting US Citizens Hardest

A staggering new analysis reveals that over 100,000 children have been separated from their parents during the Trump administration’s interior immigration crackdown, with roughly 75% of those children holding US citizenship. The Department of Homeland Security claims only 60,000 children are affected, but researchers attribute the discrepancy to underreporting and fear.

The Brookings Institution study, shared with The New York Times, indicates the scale far eclipses the 2018 "zero tolerance" border policy, heavily impacting long-term immigrant residents. Federal agents have arrested roughly 400,000 immigrants nationwide, including seafood wholesaler worker Ledy Ordonez, who has been detained since last July. Her two-year-old US-born son remains with a friend. “I never wanted to be separated from my only child,” Ordonez stated.

Tech

Court Dismisses Elon Musk’s Lawsuit Against OpenAI

A federal court on Monday dismissed billionaire Elon Musk’s high-profile lawsuit against OpenAI and its top executives, concluding a three-week trial. A nine-person advisory jury deliberated for less than two hours, finding that Musk missed the statutory deadline to file his claims. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers immediately accepted the verdict, throwing out the case. Here’s all the juiciest evidence from the trial.

Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015, later accusing CEO Sam Altman of abandoning its nonprofit mission for a commercial "moneymaking mode". OpenAI's legal team successfully argued the suit was an "after-the-fact contrivance" meant to sabotage a business rival. Musk slammed the decision on X as "a calendar technicality", adding, "it's not OK to steal a charity". He has promised to appeal.

Business

NextEra to Buy Dominion Energy in Historic AI Power Merger

Renewable energy giant NextEra Energy announced a massive, all-stock acquisition of Dominion Energy on Monday for nearly $67 billion. The blockbuster merger aims to tackle the soaring electricity demands of the nation’s artificial intelligence boom, uniting NextEra's massive clean energy footprint with Dominion’s stronghold over Northern Virginia, the world's premier data center market.

The deal will forge the world's largest regulated electric utility, commanding a $249 billion market cap and serving 10 million customers. To ease regulatory approval, the companies are offering $2.25 billion in bill credits for Dominion customers. “Electricity demand is rising faster than it has in decades,” NextEra CEO John Ketchum stated, adding that the entities are uniting “because scale matters more than ever”.

In the know

DON’T MISS

🏛️ President Trump just dropped his $10 billion IRS lawsuit, but it’s costing taxpayers a cool $1.7 billion.

💪 The French are obsessing over this gooey, low-fat cheese that’s somehow becoming the ultimate gym fuel.

⚠️ Trump says he abruptly canceled a scheduled attack on Iran after pleas from three Middle East leaders.

🕊️ Two teenage gunmen killed three people outside the Islamic Center of San Diego.

📸 Trump just posted a wild AI image of himself with a shackled alien.

🌱 Everlane is reportedly selling to this fast fashion brand. Are we on the road to the end of sustainable fashion?

✈️ CDC just banned travelers from three African nations amid the Ebola outbreak; an American doctor tests positive in Congo.

⚖️ Indian billionaire Gautam Adani settles US corruption lawsuit for $18 million without admitting guilt.

⛪ Pope Leo just dropped a viral video partaking in the GenZ trend that many still don’t get and that has the internet talking.

🤒 In the 90s, parents used the early internet to coordinate "chickenpox parties". It might be making a comeback.

Health & Wellness

FOR YOUR WELLBEING

🧘‍♀️ If you’re constantly stressed, your body is permanently stuck in fight-or-flight mode. Experts say the trick to stopping this spiral is as simple as — pausing and taking a breath!

✨ Psychologists say being orderly and active (and possessing other traits) can actually add years to your life. Where do we get a personality update, now? 

⚕️ Head and neck cancers are on the rise, and it’s not because of smoking or drinking. A common virus is the likely cause, but there's an easy way to protect yourself.

🧠 Influencers want you to believe that zapping your vagus nerve with a trendy gadget will cure your brain fog. What even — we say in unison.

Fashion & Beauty

BEYOND THE MIRROR

👠 First, it was butter yellow, then blueberry milk, but fashion insiders have a new breakout color — and they're wearing it all over their shoes.

💉 LED masks are old news. A new wave of at-home beauty tools includes radiofrequency wands, microneedling, and even DIY injection pens. What could possibly go wrong?

👜 If you’re still wearing beige and oatmeal, we have some news: quiet luxury is dead. This summer, everyone’d rather channel their inner seven-year-old with some maximalist trends. 

🌼 This spring's crowd-favorite nail trend is part girly picnic, part puffy stickers you’d eagerly decorate your middle school notebooks with. Bug spray not required.

Hollywood

THE FAME FRAME

👶 Pete Davidson and ex Elsie Hewitt are already in a messy public feud over parenting and child support, just five months after having a baby.

💰 A Spanish court just cleared Shakira of tax fraud and ordered the government to refund her $64 million.

🔥 Christopher Nolan says he shot a whopping 2 million feet of IMAX film for ‘The Odyssey’, and he’s pretty sure he pushed the boundaries right to the limit. 

🪞 Meghan Markle shared a rare peek inside her closet, featuring a mirror selfie with four-year-old Princess Lilibet.

Interactive

WEIGH IN

The internet is debating “swag-gap relationships” — couples where one person is seen as noticeably cooler, more stylish, or more culturally tuned-in than the other. Some people say mismatched confidence, taste, and social energy eventually create insecurity and resentment, while others think chemistry matters far more than aesthetics or “aura”. The conversation is turning into a bigger debate about attraction, identity, and whether feeling understood includes feeling stylistically aligned too.

"The only people who never fail are those who never try."

— Ilka Chaset