Today’s Big Story

Set-Jetting

Binge a show. Book trip. Repeat.

Everything looks better on the big screen or even from the small screen you're streaming a new favorite show on. But if you’ve ever found yourself Googling shooting locations while watching something, you’re definitely interested in set-jetting.

The relatively new travel term has been bouncing around for years, but the idea has certainly been around for a while. It’s what drove people to plan trips to the filming locations of the Harry Potter films. And now it has sent Yellowstone diehards to the rugged Montana wilderness and Bond fans up an Austrian mountain to a gleaming bar-restaurant perched in the Alpine peaks.

White Lotus is the poster child for set-jetting, says my friend and travel writer Natalie B. Compton. The world looked a lot different when the HBO murder mystery debuted in the summer of 2021. “Countries were beginning to reopen their borders for tourism as coronavirus vaccines became more widespread. But the surging Delta variant still kept many travelers on edge. The new HBO show provided a sexy distraction and wanderlust to the woes of the time. With it came an interest in the hotel where it took place: the Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea.”

During that first season, the resort saw a 425% year-over-year increase in website visits and a 386% increase in availability checks. After the second season, droves of White Lotus fans descended on Sicily. Hotels.com said that after the San Domenico Palace was announced as the season two “White Lotus hotel,” it was fully booked for six months. Now, the Four Seasons Koh Samui in Thailand is preparing for the fresh crop of fans.

Why has it become so popular? TimeOut says that in the streaming era, we have more amazing movies and TV shows at our fingertips than ever before—and we can always pause while we search “where was The Grand Budapest Hotel filmed?” Recently, Expedia picked ‘set-jetting’ as a key travel trend to watch. “We found it hard to believe people were actually booking trips to places they saw on a show. We commissioned research and sure enough, movies and streaming shows are now the top inspiration for travel,” the brand’s chief trend tracker, Melanie Fish, said at the time.

A Musk Backlash?

Agencies seek guidance on Elon-directed OPM email, with some urging employees to hold off responding

Multiple federal agencies appeared to be caught off guard by the Elon Musk-directed email from the Office of Personnel Management over the weekend that demanded employees detail their weekly accomplishments. By Sunday evening, leaders at the Pentagon, Federal Bureau of Investigation, State Department, Department of Homeland Security and Department of Energy had all instructed their staff not to reply to the email with the subject line: “What did you do last week?”

The Musk-directed email commanded federal employees to “reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager,” according to a copy obtained by the Washington Post. It gave employees a deadline of 11:59 p.m. Eastern time Monday. The email left many worried, others defiant and still others stunned. The resistance, which grew throughout the weekend, came even from some top administration officials selected by President Trump.

Musk, of course, posted the email to X—the leader of the DOGE initiative also said “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.” But most federal workers are covered by civil service protections that prevent them from being fired without cause, and the actual text of the email sent from an OPM address did not include the ultimatum. One person who was quiet about the controversy throughout much of the weekend was the president; after posting on social media on Saturday morning that he wanted Musk to be more “aggressive”. On Sunday, however, Trump posted a meme (which he said came from Musk), mocking federal workers who had to explain their duties and accomplishments, but he did not weigh in on the internal government conflict between his appointees.

Three Years of Ukraine-Russia War

Zelensky says he’s “ready” to resign if it brings peace or Ukraine joins NATO

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky praised three years of resistance against Russia’s war in Ukraine as the country marked the third anniversary of the invasion on Monday. The milestone comes as U.S. and Russian officials hold talks on the war ahead of a possible summit between President Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Zelensky said that he was “ready” to resign as leader if it meant it would bring peace to his country, suggesting he could swap it for NATO membership—while also pushing back against U.S. demands for Ukraine’s critical minerals and other natural resources as part of negotiations to end the war. "If to achieve peace you really need me to give up my post—I'm ready," said Zelensky, who was democratically elected in 2019, in response to a question during a briefing Sunday.

Today, a dozen leaders from Europe and Canada will gather in Ukraine for further talks on an end to the conflict—Zelensky said it would be a “turning point”. NATO’s most recent entrant was Finland, which broke a longstanding policy of neutrality to join the alliance following the outbreak of war between Ukraine and Russia, with which it shares a land border. However, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said Ukraine joining NATO would not be a “realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement” with Russia.

SAG Awards Snubs and Surprises

Despite its leading five nominations, ‘Wicked’ went home empty-handed as ‘Only Murders’ finally won

An audio issue or two aside, Netflix mostly didn’t act up. For the second year in a row, the Screen Actors Guild Awards aired live on Netflix from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Sunday’s ceremony honored TV and film performances. Going into the night, Wicked and Shōgun led the 2025 nominees with five nods apiece. Wicked was iced out, but FX's historical epic set in imperial Japan claimed the prestigious Best Ensemble in a Drama TV Series award while Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building claimed the Best TV Comedy Ensemble win.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus presented the Lifetime Achievement Award to Jane Fonda, who used her speech to urge Hollywood to fight these fraught times with empathy. “What we, actors, create is empathy. Our job is to understand another human being so profoundly that we can touch their souls,” said Fonda. “And make no mistake, empathy is not weak or woke. By the way, woke just means you give a damn about other people.”

Known as a predictor for the upcoming Academy Awards, SAG threw some surprises at us. In a stunning upset for the Best Actor category, Timothée Chalamet won over Adrien Brody, who had been running away with the category all season. Other big winners included Conclave for Outstanding Ensemble. All the momentum going into the Awards was with Sean Baker’s Anora, which had won with the producers, directors and writers guilds. Now, with Conclave winning with the actors and at the BAFTAs, what will nab Best Picture in a week’s time at the Oscars is, again, anyone’s guess.

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