Elon Musk’s business relationship with the Pentagon is going strong. SpaceX just scored its first defense contract from the U.S. Space Force, giving Musk more control over on-off switches (see: Ukraine). We’ll get into the potential consequences of having a single private citizen like Musk so entangled in geopolitics. Plus, welcome home, astronaut Frank Rubio, and bye-bye panda cams?

Here’s everything we talked about today:

- “Elon Musk Wins US Space Force Contract for Starshield” from Bloomberg

- “Elon Musk’s Shadow Rule” from The New Yorker

- “Retail theft isn’t actually increasing much, major industry study finds” from CNBC

- “Target says it will close nine stores in major cities, citing violence and theft” from CNBC

- “NASA astronaut Frank Rubio is home after a year in space” from Ars Technica

- “US Won’t Have Any Pandas for the First Time in 50 Years” from Bloomberg

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Musk and the military industrial complex