It’s understandable if you haven’t been following negotiations around the debt ceiling—it is “negotiations around the debt ceiling,” after all.

But it might be time to start paying attention, considering that the clock for the US defaulting on its debts is getting dangerously close to midnight. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reiterated yesterday that the US likely wouldn’t be able to pay all of its bills beginning next Thursday, June 1, if Congress doesn’t raise the debt ceiling from its current $31.4 trillion level by then.

What would happen? No one is quite sure…since this has never happened before. But finance experts are sure it will be extremely damaging, with the potential consequences ranging from “guaranteed recession” to “global financial market meltdown.” The size of the blast radius depends on how long a default would last, the NYT reported.

How are negotiations going?

Not great, Bob. Despite the appearance of some progress last week, the White House and Republicans remain far apart on an agreement to raise the debt limit (though House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he and President Biden will meet again today).

The main sticking point: government spending.

• Republicans want a debt ceiling increase paired with a decrease in nondefense federal spending, including cuts to social services.
• Democrats have accused Republicans of cynically pushing the US to the financial brink to force through their cost-cutting agenda. Yesterday, Biden said the GOP’s proposal would put “food assistance at risk for nearly 1 million Americans,” calling it “extreme” and “unacceptable.”

The White House offered to freeze domestic and defense spending next year as a concession to Republicans, but they rejected that offer, according to the Washington Post. The GOP wants more than a freeze—it wants a reduction in nonmilitary spending.

The view from Wall Street

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said last week the US “probably” won’t default, but he’s assembled a “war room” of leaders who will begin to meet daily to plan contingencies just in case.

Investors seem to agree with Dimon that the bickering politicians will probably work out a solution before the deadline. The implied probability of a default in the credit default swaps market was 3.6% on Friday, compared to a peak of 6.9% during the debt ceiling standoff in 2011.

In just 604 days, a $10,000 investment in this opportunity would have secured an eye-popping $4,900 profit. That’s a 27.3% annualized net return—better than 470 of the world’s 500 largest stocks over the same time period.

What was it? A fractionalized painting from Masterworks, the blue-chip art investing platform. (It’s no wonder so many Morning Brew readers have already invested.)

While not every painting will see those gains, every single one of Masterworks’ 13 sales has returned a profit to investors, totaling more than $30m in payouts.

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Zelensky steals the show at the G-7. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a surprise visit to the G-7 summit in Japan to bolster support from the leaders of the world’s largest democracies. While at the event, Zelensky denied claims made by a Russian mercenary group that they had captured Bakhmut, a city of symbolic value to Russia, given the immense resources it’s poured there. However, Ukraine’s top commander in the region said that his forces have effectively lost control of the devastated city.

Jeffrey Epstein reportedly blackmailed Bill Gates over affair. The late financier found out about an affair Gates had with a Russian bridge player and seemingly threatened to reveal that information unless Gates maintained his association with Epstein, according to the Wall Street Journal. Gates’s relationship with the convicted sex offender has come under scrutiny: The Microsoft co-founder acknowledged that he met with Epstein several times to chat about philanthropic projects, which he’s called a mistake.

I cried while watching golf. And it wasn’t because Brooks Koepka won his third PGA Championship, though that was indeed impressive. Things got emotional because of the inspiring performance of Michael Block, a club pro who teaches at a public course in California. A massive underdog, Block went up against the world’s best and finished tied for 15th place, all while winning over fans with his down-to-earth personality. Block dunking a hole-in-one yesterday will go down as one of the most epic moments in the sport’s history. His $150 hourly rate is about to go way up...

Earlier this month, a group of three orcas began to ram a yacht off the coast of Spain, eventually piercing its rudder and causing it to sink.

It was not an isolated incident. This was the third boat sunk by orcas on Europe’s Iberian coast since 2020, and appears to be a part of a growing, coordinated effort by the killer whales to attack ships in the area, according to Live Science.

Why? In a surprising discovery, scientists think the behavior started with one orca and spread across the population. It’s believed that a female orca named White Gladis experienced a “critical moment of agony,” such as getting tangled in illegal fishing gear, which turned her against boats. Because orcas are social creatures that imitate each other (relatable), other killer whales in the population started to copy White Gladis and ram into boats, specifically to damage the rudder.

Big picture: Since 2020, when the orca attacks started to ramp up, the vast majority of their encounters with boats in the region have been harmless, biologist Alfredo López Fernandez told Live Science. Still, the increasing frequency of ramming attacks threatens the safety of sailors and the subpopulation of orcas off the Iberian coast, which are critically endangered.

DeSantis will enter the race: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the Disney archnemesis seen as a formidable challenger to former President Trump in the GOP primary, is expected to announce his candidacy for the White House this week. If you want to role-play being a campaign manager, you can track his travels with the @DeSantisJet Twitter account.

It’s just Max now. Tomorrow, the streaming service HBO Max will be renamed to just Max to highlight the addition of a bunch of Discovery content (HGTV, Food Network) to the platform. If you’re an HBO Max subscriber already, you don’t have to do anything besides complain.

MDW: Come Friday, Americans will be booking it to the nearest body of water for Memorial Day Weekend—the unofficial start of summer.

Everything else…

• Disney’s live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid will be released on Friday.
• In the sports world, the NBA and NHL playoffs continue throughout the week, while on Sunday, the Indianapolis 500 will be held and the French Open (sans Nadal) will kick off.
• Turkey’s runoff presidential election takes place on Sunday.

Stat: Imagine dropping $200 million on a single house. Okay, you’re Jay-Z and Beyoncé. The power couple bought a mansion in Malibu for $200 million, according to TMZ. That’s the most ever paid for a house in California and the second-highest price for a home in US history, after Ken Griffin’s purchase of a New York City apartment for $238 million. So, what do you get for $200 million? A 30,000 square-foot mansion overlooking the Pacific Ocean with a minimalist design resembling a supervillain’s hideout.

Quote: “Just being able to hear my national anthem, see my flag, I definitely wanted to stand.”

Phoenix Mercury star Brittney Griner explained to The Atlantic why she stood for the US national anthem before her team’s WNBA season opener on Friday night. Since 2020, Griner chose not to stand for the anthem to protest racial injustice against Black Americans. But after her experience being locked in a cage in Russia, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” Griner said, “just means a little bit more to me now” and represents the freedom Americans have to speak out.

Read: The quest to see 10,000 bird species. (Outside)

Career advice: Why you should give up on your dreams.

The history of the world…where every dot is an event from Wikipedia. It’s very cool.

Mind-blowing TED Talk: The disappearing computer.

Why are teens in crisis? One psychologist says the evidence points to social media.

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Animal group names

The orca story gives us a launching-off point for trivia on animal group names. We all know that a group of whales is called a pod, but let’s see if you can figure out what these other animals are called in a group.

1. Lions
2. Penguins
3. Crows
4. Porcupines
5. Owls
6. Lemurs
7. Stingrays

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1. A pride of lions
2. A colony of penguins
3. A murder of crows
4. A prickle of porcupines
5. A parliament of owls
6. A conspiracy of lemurs
7. A fever of stingrays

Check out the full list of animal group names here.