Cave Rescue, Sea Cucumbers, and Cheese Rolling

 Need To Know 

Laos Cave Rescue

Five villagers trapped for more than a week inside a flooded cave in central Laos were found alive yesterday (w/photos), a breakthrough in a rescue mission that drew comparisons to Thailand's 2018 cave rescue. Two others remain missing. 

The group entered a cave on May 19, reportedly searching for gold despite safety warnings, when heavy rain flooded the cave and blocked the entrance. Rescue teams from Laos and Thailand, including divers from the 2018 rescue, navigated over 900 feet of narrow, muddy tunnels and strong currents (see illustration). Video footage showed the five survivors huddled together on rocks and surrounded by floodwater. They remain inside as crews work to extract them through the same hazardous route. Watch GoPro footage from the rescue operation here.

The rescue echoes the 2018 operation in northern Thailand, when 12 boys and their soccer coach were trapped in a flooded cave for 18 days before a multinational diving mission (w/graphics) brought them out. 

Matthew Perry Assistant

A personal assistant to Matthew Perry was sentenced to three years and five months in prison yesterday for his role in the actor’s 2023 death. Kenneth Iwamasa pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death.

Iwamasa is the last of five people convicted in connection with Perry’s fatal overdose, including a drug dealer, two doctors, and a counselor. Iwamasa was hired as his live-in assistant in 2022. When Perry wanted a higher dosage of ketamine than his doctor allowed, Iwamasa helped secure and administer the drug illegally. In the week before Perry’s death, Iwamasa injected Perry with at least 27 shots of ketamine, including three the day he died. (See an interview Perry did with ABC the year before his death.)

Developed as an anesthetic in the 1960s, ketamine is a Schedule III controlled substance used to treat depression, anxiety, and pain. A study published this year found how it impacts specific receptors in the brain.

Sea Cucumber Parts Are Forever

Scientists have observed sea cucumber parts healing, absorbing nutrients, and functioning for years after detaching from the organism. The study is the first to document amputated tissue living long term in a natural setting. 

Marine invertebrates, including sea urchins and starfish, are known for their regenerative capabilities. In this case, researchers observed expelled limbs from the sea cucumber Psolus fabricii (see image) healing and growing for days. To investigate further, they amputated dozens of tube feet, ambulacra, and tentacles from three sea cucumbers, returning them to seawater. In the days after amputation, tissues healed at the site of detachment. They also absorbed dissolved amino acids and displayed immune activity, neutralizing pathogens and expelling dead and dying cells for upward of three years in seawater.

The detached parts showed no signs of degeneration. However, there was also no indication the tissue was on track to regrow the rest of the sea cucumber, unlike flatworms. 

Sports, Entertainment, & Culture

> New York, New Jersey subpoena FIFA officials for allegedly manipulating the price and seat location of World Cup tickets for games held at MetLife Stadium; average ticket costs over $1K per seat (More) | Tournament starts June 11, see group stage matchups (More)

> AI startup ElevenLabs strikes deal to use the voice and likeness of Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee; the cocreator of dozens of iconic characters, including Spider-Man and the X-Men, died in 2018 (More) | How to (try) to distinguish between real and AI voices (More)

> Broadway shows gross roughly $1.9B during the 2025-26 season with around 14.6 million attendees (More) | "Emily in Paris” star Pierre Deny dies at age 69 after battle with ALS (More) 

Science & Technology

> NASA reveals updated plans for its permanent lunar base, including three uncrewed trips this year to scout for sites, and contracts to build next-generation moon buggies (More) | Watch NASA's hype video for the program (More)

> New open-source model predicts the 3D shape of more than 1 billion proteins; platform developed by Biohub, a nonprofit launched by Mark Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chan (More) | Why is protein folding important? (More)

> Paleontologists discover new species of feathered bird that lived 121 million years ago; creature had tail feathers nearly twice the length of its body (More) 

Business & Markets

> US stock markets close up (S&P 500 +0.0%, Dow +0.4%, Nasdaq +0.1%) as oil prices fall more than 5% amid optimism over US-Iran truce (More) | South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix reaches $1T market cap, a day after Micron, on AI boom (More) 

> Lululemon settles proxy battle with founder Chip Wilson, agreeing to add two of his board nominees in June and a third by October; Wilson agrees to 18-month nondisparagement deal, among other provisions (More) | What is a proxy fight? (More) 

> Median pay for CEOs rose nearly 6% last year to $17.7M, per AP survey; median employee pay in the S&P 500 rose 4.7% to roughly $89K (More) | Compare your paycheck to the CEOs of top US companies (More) 

Politics & World Affairs

> At least two people are killed, with nine more still missing, as of this writing after a chemical tank ruptures in Washington state (More) | See the compliance history of chemical facilities in your area by ZIP code (More)

> Uganda closes its border with the Democratic Republic of Congo as number of suspected Ebola cases approaches 1,000 (More) | See maps and graphics (More)

> Iranians begin accessing the internet after 88 days, the longest nationwide blackout recorded (More) | Israel says it killed the leader of Hamas' armed wing earlier this week, days after killing his predecessor (More)

In-Depth

> A Family Secret No More

NY Times | Susan Saulny. Two brothers grew up in a 1910s New Orleans orphanage for Black children. One boy’s lighter skin occasionally allowed him to pass as white; he moved to Chicago and cut ties with his family. Decades later, a descendant traced both families across three generations and reunited them for the first time. (Read) 

> Is Your Phone Killing Birth Rates? 

Financial Times | John Burn-Murdoch. Birth rates began falling in the US in 2007, France in 2009, Mexico in 2012, and so on. Different cultures and economies, but the same reason—one housing costs, childcare, and careers alone can't explain. (Read) 

 1440 Topics: Civics Thursday 

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Historybook: Native American athlete Jim Thorpe born (1887); Volkswagen founded in Germany (1937); Singer Gladys Knight born (1944); Poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou dies (2014).

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