Illinois Primaries, Kabul Attack, and How We Spend Time

 Need To Know 

Prairie State Primaries

Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton (D) defeated Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D, IL-8) and Rep. Robin Kelly (D, IL-2) in yesterday’s competitive Democratic primary to succeed retiring Sen. Dick Durbin, who has held the seat since 1997 and is the No. 2 Senate Democrat. Stratton, Illinois’ first Black lieutenant governor and a key ally of Gov. JB Pritzker (D), will face former state Republican Party chair Don Tracy in November.

Stratton ran as a progressive, backing Medicare for All, a $25 minimum wage, and expanding abortion rights, while also calling to abolish ICE. She also supports the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and tighter gun laws, framing the race as a fight against “Trump-style” politics. The contest likely determines who will hold the seat, since Illinois is a solidly Democratic state in federal races and has not elected a Republican statewide since 2014.

The race was one of several statewide contests that drew a record $62M in combined spending, with over $50M spent on TV ads.

Afghanistan-Pakistan War

At least 400 people were killed and more than 250 wounded after an alleged Pakistani strike on a drug rehabilitation center in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul. Pakistan denied striking the civilian site; if confirmed, it would mark the deadliest incident since war broke out between the neighboring countries last month.

Pakistan launched airstrikes in Afghanistan's Kandahar and Kabul Feb. 26 after accusing Afghanistan’s Taliban government of supporting militants that carried out attacks on its soil. That includes a Feb. 6 suicide bombing that killed more than 30 people. Earlier this month, Pakistan targeted Taliban operations at Bagram Air Base, formerly operated by the US.

Separately, the US’ National Counterterrorism Center director, Joe Kent, said he would resign yesterday over the US’ war with Iran, asserting Iran posed “no imminent threat” and blaming Israeli pressure for the conflict. Israel, meanwhile, said it has killed Iran’s security chief, among other senior leaders.

A Smashing Discovery

Physicists probing the fundamental nature of matter announced the discovery of a new proton-like particle, shedding light on the forces that hold the universe’s smallest objects together. The newly made proton was observed after smashing particles together at nearly the speed of light at Europe’s Large Hadron Collider.  

Together with neutrons and electrons, protons are the constituent parts of atoms (the number of protons determines which element an atom is). Protons (and neutrons) can be further broken down into quarks—almost infinitesimally small particles that come in a wide variety of flavors (see chart). Regular protons are made of two “up” quarks and one “down” quark, while the new proton has its “up” quarks replaced by “charm” quarks. The result is a new proton four times heavier than its standard counterpart.

Measuring its short-lived behavior is expected to help scientists refine the strong nuclear force, responsible for holding subatomic particles together.       

Explore more fascinating science: The Standard Model, particle accelerators, quantum mechanics

Sports, Entertainment, & Culture

> FIFA rejects Iran's request to move its World Cup games to Mexico amid ongoing war with the US (More) | Two female Iranian soccer players who claimed asylum in Australia join training session with Brisbane Roar team (More)

> Charli XCX, Lorde, Smashing Pumpkins will headline this year's Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago from July 30 to Aug. 2; tickets go on sale tomorrow (More) 

> Second set of First Four games for men's NCAA tournament begin tonight; No. 11 Miami (Ohio), which went undefeated in the regular season but was criticized for a weak schedule, takes on No. 11 SMU (More)

Science & Technology

> OpenAI releases ChatGPT-5.4 mini and nano, focused on coding tasks and AI agents to perform simple tasks (More) | What are AI agents? (More)

> Astrophysicists determine the solar dynamo—the flow of hot ionized gas within the sun that generates its magnetic fields—sits roughly 125,000 miles below the sun's surface (More) 

> Three common anesthetics have the same mechanism in the brain, study finds; results could lead to a universal approach to monitoring patients while unconscious during procedures (More)  

Business & Markets

> US stock markets close higher (S&P 500 +0.3%, Dow +0.1%, Nasdaq +0.5%) ahead of today's Federal Reserve interest rate decision (More) 

> Prediction market Kalshi faces criminal charges as Arizona alleges the platform allows betting on political elections, is a de facto illegal gambling operation (More) | Heard about prediction markets but don't understand how they work? Tomorrow's 1440 Business & Finance newsletter digs into the issue (Sign up)

> Tesla to purchase $4.3B worth of battery cells from LG Energy; will be manufactured at a Michigan plant previously built for an LG-General Motors partnership (More)

Politics & World Affairs

> Senate votes to open debate on the SAVE America Act, which would require voters to provide photo ID to cast ballots and proof of citizenship to register for federal elections; debate is expected to last several days (More) 

> Suspected meteor falls over Cleveland, causing a sonic boom across northeast Ohio (More) | See video (More) 

> House Oversight Committee chair subpoenas Attorney General Pam Bondi over files related to deceased sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein (More) 

Explore how men and women in the US spend their time. (w/graphics)

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Clickbait: Cat got your hair tie?

Historybook: President Grover Cleveland born (1837); Actress and first Black Miss America Vanessa Williams born (1963); Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov becomes first person to walk in space (1965); Queen Latifah born (1970); Chuck Berry dies (2017). 

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