Friday, July 25
Headlines
Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
UnitedHealth confirmed it’s being investigated. The healthcare giant said in a securities filing that it’s cooperating with the Justice Department in civil and criminal investigations following recent reports from the Wall Street Journal that the DOJ was looking into the company’s Medicare billing practices. WSJ reported that UnitedHealth had added unnecessary diagnoses to Medicare patients’ records that increased payments. It’s the latest setback for a company that ousted its CEO in May after its stock price cratered.
TikTok could go dark in the US, commerce secretary warns. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said yesterday that TikTok will be banned in the US if China does not agree to cede control of the app to an American majority owner by a Sept. 17 deadline. “We’ve made the decision. You can’t have Chinese control and have something on 100 million American phones,” Lutnick told CNBC. President Trump has extended the deadline for a deal three times since taking office in January. CNBC reported that it’s unclear where talks currently stand, though Trump said in June that there was a group of “very wealthy people” ready to buy the app.
Hulk Hogan died at 71. The Hall of Fame wrestlerdied of cardiac arrest yesterday about two months after undergoing spinal fusion surgery. Considered the greatest professional wrestler of all time, Hogan, whose real name was Terry Bollea, signed with the WWE (then the WWF) in 1983, going on to win six championships. He also had a prolific acting career, playing the role of “Thunderlips” in Rocky III and appearing as himself in countless films and TV shows. In 2015, he was briefly dropped by WWE following reports that he had used racial slurs in a leaked sex tape. A year later, he was awarded $115 million after suing Gawker Media, which had published a snippet of the leaked tape, for invasion of privacy. Hogan also spoke at the 2024 Republican National Convention, where he endorsed President Trump before ripping his shirt off.—AE
Robert Reich
The silencing
Colbert, The Washington Post, Columbia University … and on it goes
Friends,
The latest casualty of Trump’s efforts to silence media criticism is Eduardo Porter, one of the most thoughtful and intelligent critics of this heinous regime.
On Tuesday, Porter wrote his last column for The Washington Post. In it, he criticized Trump’s attempt to dismantle the global trading system.
Porter didn’t stop there. He also explained why he was leaving the Post:
“Jeff Bezos and his new head of Opinion are taking the paper down a path I cannot follow, directed toward the relentless promotion of free markets and personal liberties…. I have no idea to what extent this is driven by Mr. Bezos’ fear of what Donald Trump could do to his various business interests, most of which are more valuable to him than The Post.”
Well, I do have an idea. Bezos stopped the Post from endorsing Kamala Harris. He made a huge contribution to Trump’s inauguration. And he stood directly in front of Trump at Trump’s swearing in.
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| Credit: Jackie Lay/NPR |
Friends,
The latest casualty of Trump’s efforts to silence media criticism is Eduardo Porter, one of the most thoughtful and intelligent critics of this heinous regime.
On Tuesday, Porter wrote his last column for The Washington Post. In it, he criticized Trump’s attempt to dismantle the global trading system.
Porter didn’t stop there. He also explained why he was leaving the Post:
“Jeff Bezos and his new head of Opinion are taking the paper down a path I cannot follow, directed toward the relentless promotion of free markets and personal liberties…. I have no idea to what extent this is driven by Mr. Bezos’ fear of what Donald Trump could do to his various business interests, most of which are more valuable to him than The Post.”
Well, I do have an idea. Bezos stopped the Post from endorsing Kamala Harris. He made a huge contribution to Trump’s inauguration. And he stood directly in front of Trump at Trump’s swearing in.
At A Glance
Time magazine ranks 100 best podcasts.
Company seeks to turn mercury into gold.
Man accused of running fake embassy for "Seborga" and "Westarctica."
Study finds evidence of multispecies dinosaur herd.
World's largest turtle nesting site contains 41,000 females.
Revisiting the short-lived game of auto polo.
See photo series showcasing connection, coincidences.
How to make banana boat s'mores.
Clickbait: Speed dumping is the new ghosting.
In The NEWS
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> Matthew Perry's former doctor, Salvador Plasencia, pleads guilty to four counts of ketamine distribution related to Perry's October 2023 fatal overdose (More)
> Venus Williams, 45, becomes the second-oldest woman in history to win a tour-level singles match with first-round victory at Citi Open in Washington, DC (More) | Kansas City Royals pitcher Rich Hill, 45, becomes oldest player since 2012 to start an MLB game (More)
> ESPN and NFL close to signing deal for ESPN to purchase NFL Network and RedZone for a reported $2B (More)
Science & Technology
> Google DeepMind releases AI tool that fills in missing words and phrases in ancient Latin texts, predicts date and location of writing (More)
> Physicists demonstrate gold can be superheated to 14 times its melting point while remaining solid; results challenge longstanding theory of how materials behave under extreme temperatures (More)
> Researchers use CRISPR to prevent mosquitoes from transmitting malaria; replacing a single molecule that stops the disease-causing parasite inside the insects from spreading (More) | CRISPR 101 (1440 Topics)
Business & Markets
> US stock markets close higher (S&P 500 +0.8%, Dow +1.1%, Nasdaq +0.6%) after the US strikes a trade deal with Japan (More)
> Tesla reports 16% quarterly drop in auto revenue, marking the second consecutive quarter of revenue declines (More) | Alphabet tops Q2 earnings estimates, raises spending forecast to roughly $85B (More) | Chipotle shares fall 9.8% in after-hours trading after the chain trimmed its forecast for same-store sales growth (More)
> US existing home sales fall 2.7% month over month in June, marking a nine-month low; median home price of $435,300 is up 2% from a year ago and the highest median home price for any June on record (More)
Politics & World Affairs
> National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard releases previously classified report, alleges Obama-era intelligence officials overemphasized evidence Russia preferred a Trump win in 2016 (More) | Florida judge denies Justice Department's request to unseal grand jury transcripts from the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein (More)
> Columbia University agrees to pay $200M to settle federal allegations the school failed to protect Jewish students; university also agrees to oversight of its hiring and admissions process, will share some information with immigration authorities (More) | State Department opens investigation into Harvard University's participation in foreign visa program (More)
> Ukrainian activists protest Zelenskyy-backed law weakening anticorruption watchdogs in first major antigovernment demonstrations since Russia-Ukraine war (More) | Over 100 aid organizations warn of mass starvation in Gaza, accuse Israeli government of restricting, delaying food deliveries (More)
SOURCE: 1440 NEWS
Other Life in the Universe
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According to GEMINI (AI for Android) the probability of other life in the universe is extremely high because of:
- vastness of the universe
- discovery of exoplanets
- ubiquitous ingredients of life
- universal physical laws
There are several other points that are not mentioned because it would require other knowledge that requires more detailed explanations. Suffice it to say these four points are sufficient to create doubt in our minds that we are the only life forms in the universe.
Where are these other life forms?
They could be very close or very far away. We have no way of telling as our knowledge is limited. Our knowledge is limited because we have yet to become space travelers.
If you want to give this a religious theme, then why would GOD create such a vast universe but only one race of people? Similarly, why would God create an earth with so many different kinds of people all over this earth without the means of contacting each other but only one true religious and many false ones?
Faith tries to reconcile these illogical beliefs... but faith cannot explain the rationale behind creating such a vast universe with only one group of human beings... on a planet that is not even in the center of the universe.
Why did God set into motion the creation of a universe that is still expanding if it were not to house dozens of different species?
God created Eve because he though Adam was lonely and needed a companion. Did God create of races of being because he thought human beings might get lonely too?
Something to think about...
Scientists think their biotech breakthrough could end plastic waste forever
Humans generated about 485 billion pounds of plastic waste in 2024 – an amount so large it’s incredibly difficult to comprehend. One quick drink or single shipment box often lingers for centuries, so researchers keep hunting for materials that disappear safely after use.
Now Maksud Rahman, a mechanical engineer at the University of Houston, and collaborators at Rice University report bacterial cellulose sheets that rival metal for strength yet compost like paper.
This biopolymer is spun outside the cell wall of species such as Novacetimonas hansenii, forming ribbons only a few nanometers thick that lock together like Velcro and can reach tensile strength values above 400 MPa.
Because the fiber network is pure, porous, and matches human tissue chemistry, clinicians already test it as a transparent wound covering that eases pain and speeds healing.
Thursday, July 24
Headlines
Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images
Trump unveils “massive” trade deal with Japan, including a 15% tariff. President Trump announced that an agreement had been reached Tuesday night that would impose “reciprocal” tariffs on Japanese goods entering the US at 15%. That’s lower than the 25% Trump previously threatened, but still high for a tariff on a major trading partner—and the lower figure includes tariffs on cars, which have been facing a 25% duty since April. The deal also calls for Japan to invest $550 billion in the US, with the US receiving “90% of the profits,” according to Trump. The news pushed Japanese markets to a one-year high yesterday, with automakers getting the biggest boost. US car companies, which have recently reported big losses due to tariffs, criticized the deal.
Elon Musk says Tesla could have a “rough” road ahead after sales slumped. Tesla’s profit fell 16% last quarter to $1.17 billion compared to $1.4 billion for the same period a year ago as sales of its cars declined. With sales down and the loss of US incentives for consumers to buy EVs due to the recently passed Republican tax bill, Musk said the company would eventually be buoyed by an expanding robotaxi fleet, but that it may not happen until next year. “We probably could have a few rough quarters. I’m not saying we will, but we could,” Musk told analysts yesterday.
Alphabet’s sales are up from AI, but so is its spending. Alphabet’s $96.4 billion revenue haul for Q2 exceeded expectations, boosted by a 32% year over year revenue growth in its cloud computing business. But the Google parent also reminded investors that you need to spend money to make money—especially in the red-hot AI race. The company bumped its expected capital expenditures for the year up to $85 billion, which is $10 billion higher than the amount it reported in February. The company said the extra cash was necessary to support the “strong and growing demand for our Cloud products and services.”—AR
Robert Reich
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| Illustration by Till Lauer for The New Yorker |
From Watergate to Epsteingate
Friends,
Here are the two contradictions lying at the heart of the contretemps over Trump and Jeffrey Epstein:
1. As early as May, Trump knew his name was in the Epstein files. Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy informed Trump at a meeting in the White House that his name appeared “multiple times.”
But on July 15, when a journalist asked Trump, “Did [Bondi] tell you at all that your name appeared in the files?” Trump responded, “No, no.”
2. Bondi said in February that Epstein’s client list was “sitting on my desk right now to review.”
But on July 7, the Justice Department stated that a thorough review had turned up no list of Epstein’s clients.
Neither of these is evidence that Trump was involved in Epstein’s activities with underage girls. But together they suggest a cover-up — which can kill a presidency.
Here are the two contradictions lying at the heart of the contretemps over Trump and Jeffrey Epstein:
1. As early as May, Trump knew his name was in the Epstein files. Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy informed Trump at a meeting in the White House that his name appeared “multiple times.”
But on July 15, when a journalist asked Trump, “Did [Bondi] tell you at all that your name appeared in the files?” Trump responded, “No, no.”
2. Bondi said in February that Epstein’s client list was “sitting on my desk right now to review.”
But on July 7, the Justice Department stated that a thorough review had turned up no list of Epstein’s clients.
Neither of these is evidence that Trump was involved in Epstein’s activities with underage girls. But together they suggest a cover-up — which can kill a presidency.
At A Glance
Uber rolls out feature connecting women riders with women drivers.
A look at the US Postal Service before its 250th birthday.
Feisty felines get their moment in front of the camera.
More than 70% of teens have used AI for companionship.
How crops across the Corn Belt make hot days hotter.
What happened to squirrel pot pie?
Experts say exercise in the morning for a healthier heart.
Lightning kills 320 million trees each year.
Clickbait: How germy is the public pool?
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