Wednesday, August 6
Scott Bessent. Magnus Lejhall/Getty Images
Scott Bessent will not be the next Fed chair. That is according to President Trump, who ruled out nominating the US Treasury secretary to be the next central bank leader because “he wants to stay where he is.” Bessent, who’s taken an active role in defending Trump’s trade policies, had been widely floated as a potential replacement for current Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whose term ends next year (and whom Trump has repeatedly threatened to fire for not lowering interest rates). Other contenders for the job reportedly include Trump-appointed Fed Governor Christopher Waller, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, and former Fed official Kevin Harsh. “Both Kevins are very good,” Trump told CNBC.
Trump says pharma tariffs could be as high as 250%. The president revealed that he plans to formally announce tariffs on the pharmaceutical industry “within the next week or so” in an attempt to force drug manufacturing to the US, he told CNBC yesterday. It would start with a “small” tariff, Trump said, before rising to 150% in a year to a year and a half, and eventually to 250%. Pharma companies have argued that tariffs could drive up costs and threaten their ability to fund research for new medicines. Trump also said he will soon unveil tariffs on semiconductors, most of which are made in Taiwan.
Google’s new AI model can generate 3D worlds in real time. According to the tech giant, its Genie 3 model can create interactive virtual worlds at 24 frames per second for up to a few minutes—significantly longer than previous versions. Google says the model is a key step toward achieving AGI (artificial general intelligence, aka humanlike intelligence) because it will allow the company to train AI agents in its simulated environments. For instance, AI-powered robots could be taught how to navigate a warehouse using its 3D replica, which uses realistic physics. However, Google cautioned that Genie 3 is still being researched and is not yet available to the public.—AE
Robert Reich
And what do they provide him, in turn?
Friends,
I don’t believe in conspiracies, but I’ve heard a number of theories about whom Trump is really working for that seem reasonable to me. You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to believe at least one of them is sufficiently credible to merit more investigation. Trump fires the commissioner of labor statistics because the job news is bad, he says Obama ought to be convicted of treason, he’s obviously mixed up in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, he openly takes bribes, he imposes import taxes on Americans, and he cuts Medicaid in order to make room for a giant tax cut for the rich.
Why? For whom is Trump the pawn? Here are the leading theories:
At A Glance
What the "marshmallow test" got wrong about child psychology.
You don't need a credit card on Greece's bartering island.
Forget Elvis, Hellmann's Mayo officiated this Vegas wedding.
Threatened birds top the Mangrove Photography Awards.
Ranking America's most dangerous beaches.
Meet the World Surf League’s youngest contender.
Orca moms teach their babies how to drown prey. (w/video)
... and a Danish zoo seeks small pet donations—for feed.
Clickbait: Find love on Switzerland's "Mountain Tinder."
Historybook: Actress Lucille Ball born (1911); Pop artist Andy Warhol born (1928); "Little Boy" atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, killing more than 70,000 (1945); Actress Michelle Yeoh born (1962); Voting Rights Act signed (1965); Curiosity rover lands on Mars (2012).
In The NEWS
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> President Donald Trump to sign executive order today creating an intergovernmental task force related to 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles (More)
> The New York Post is set to launch new daily newspaper, The California Post, in early 2026 (More) | Sean "Diddy" Combs denied release on bail, will remain in jail ahead of Oct. 3 sentencing (More)
> South Korean star Son Heung-Min to join Los Angeles FC from the English Premier League's Tottenham Hotspur for an MLS record transfer fee of $26M (More) | Texas and Ohio State top preseason college football coaches poll (More)
Science & Technology
> AI startup Perplexity accused of using techniques similar to those of malicious hackers to evade instructions not to crawl and scrape webpages (More) | OpenAI's ChatGPT nears 700 million weekly users, up 400% from March (More)
> Paleontologists discover new species of long-necked plesiosaur dating to roughly 180 million years ago; creature lived during a mass extinction known as the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event (More) | Climatology 101: Our next Science & Technology newsletter comes out at 8:30 am ET today (Sign up here)
> Researchers discover RNA virus responsible for a mass die-off of British Columbia oysters in 2020; strain is a "mega" virus, with one of the largest viral genomes on record (More)
Business & Markets
> US stock markets close up (S&P 500 +1.5%, Dow +1.3%, Nasdaq +2.0%) after losses Friday (More) | European Union delays countermeasures against US tariffs for six months as trade talks continue (More) | American Eagle shares surge 23.7% after President Donald Trump praises Sydney Sweeney ad campaign (More)
> Elon Musk conditionally awarded roughly $30B in Tesla shares by the company's board to keep him as CEO through 2030 as litigation continues over his 2018 compensation package (More)
> AI company Palantir tops $1B in second quarter earnings for first time and raises full-year revenue forecast after striking $10B, 10-year US Army deal last week (More) | About 3,200 Boeing defense workers in Missouri and Illinois strike after rejecting a contract offer; it's the aerospace company's second strike in less than a year (More)
Politics & World Affairs
> Justice Department to launch grand jury probe into how Obama administration officials handled intelligence about Russian interference in 2016 election (More) | Rep. Nancy Mace (R, SC-1) launches campaign for South Carolina governor (More) | New Hampshire becomes first state in the Northeast to ban medical interventions for transgender minors; joins 27 other states (More)
> Israeli government votes to fire attorney general amid ongoing corruption trial against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; country's Supreme Court freezes the decision to consider legality (More)
> Canada wildfires prompt air quality alerts throughout the US Midwest and Northeast; see map of affected areas (More)
SOURCE: 1440 NEWS
Discarding the Past
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In 1967, I purchased a red convertible Barracuda for $2,500 as I recall maybe less because we (my dad and I) purchased two at the same time.
I put 100,000 miles on that car in five years, and after 200,000 miles, I had the engine rebuilt, repainted using 1967 paint pigment, and replaced the top that included a glass window. The interior was still in excellent condition.
All of that cost me another $2,500 and I was willing to invest that money because I was never planning to sell the car. After 25 years, I purchased antique license plates and was told that an antique car was worth $1,000 for every year of age, if in pristine condition.
In 1997, I found myself in financial straits and was forced to sell the Barracuda. Needless to say, I made quite a profit, and mourned being forced into that situation for several years before I simply stopped thinking about it and began looking forward instead of backward.
In 2015, my wife and I retired; she was 62, I was 67. My first task to me being retired, was trashing all the remnants of my 45-year career. I made 15 trips to the landfill with my 2015 Venza loaded even with the back seat down and boxes in the passenger front seat.
I had no remorse at all over discarding my previous life.
Eight years later, my wife and I downsized our home and what we gave to Habitat for Humanity filled three of their large trucks, leaving us with plenty of items for a yard sale. Several more trips to the landfill even after the yard sale to get down to the size we needed to be.
Two years later (10 years of retirement) we have missed nothing.
Famous double-slit experiment holds up when stripped to its quantum essentials
CaptionSchematic of the MIT experiment: Two single atoms floating in a vacuum chamber are illuminated by a laser beam and act as the two slits. The interference of the scattered light is recorded with a highly sensitive camera depicted as a screen. Incoherent light appears as background and implies that the photon has acted as a particle passing only through one slit. Credits:Credit: Courtesy of the researchers
MIT physicists have performed an idealized version of one of the most famous experiments in quantum physics. Their findings demonstrate, with atomic-level precision, the dual yet evasive nature of light. They also happen to confirm that Albert Einstein was wrong about this particular quantum scenario.
The experiment in question is the double-slit experiment, which was first performed in 1801 by the British scholar Thomas Young to show how light behaves as a wave. Today, with the formulation of quantum mechanics, the double-slit experiment is now known for its surprisingly simple demonstration of a head-scratching reality: that light exists as both a particle and a wave. Stranger still, this duality cannot be simultaneously observed. Seeing light in the form of particles instantly obscures its wave-like nature, and vice versa.
Tuesday, August 5
Headlines
Chesnot/Getty Images
Tesla awards Elon Musk $29 billion worth of stock to keep the CEO focused. The electric car maker granted Musk 96 million restricted shares, saying it was a “first step, good faith” gesture toward retaining its CEO and keeping his focus on the company amidst his other projects. Musk had previously threatened to turn his attention to developing AI elsewhere if he didn’t get more control of Tesla. The company said Musk, who is currently the world’s richest person, hadn’t been paid in years because of legal disputes over his $56 billion 2018 pay package (which a Delaware court tossed out as improperly granted twice, prompting Tesla to appeal), noting that the company’s value on the stock market has gone up by $735 billion since 2018. The shares will be forfeited if Tesla prevails in getting the earlier compensation package restored. The big payday comes despite Tesla’s recent falling sales amid Musk’s public turn to politics.
AI pushes Palantir’s quarterly revenue up to $1b. The data analysis software company beloved by both retail traders and government spies is on a roll: Palantir’s revenue rose 48% last quarter, hitting $1 billion for the first time, which its CEO Alex Karp said was thanks to “the astonishing impact of AI.” Palantir also upped its guidance for the year, saying it now expects to make $4.14 billion to $4.15 billion. While some on Wall Street have warned that the company’s shares are overvalued, Karp said, “The skeptics are admittedly fewer now, having been defanged and bent into a kind of submission.”
Trump threatens India with high tariffs for buying Russian oil. He hasn’t revealed an exact number, but with President Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff headed to Russia this week to try to encourage it to negotiate a ceasefire with Ukraine, Trump said he plans to “substantially” raise tariffs on India’s goods. Last week, the president said he would impose a 25% tariff on Indian imports, but this would likely be on top of that since he has threatened “secondary tariffs” on Russia’s trading partners. India called targeting it “unjustified and unreasonable,” saying the US and the EU had also traded with Russia.—AR
Robert Reich
Friends,
I’m in New York today, peddling my new book. It’s officially out today.
I loathe book tours.
The first book tour I ever went on, in the early 1980s, brought me to a bookstore in Madison, Wisconsin, where they sat me in the window under a spotlight next to a sign “Come In and Have Your Book Signed By Robert Reich.”
No one came in. For two hours, people passed on the street, a few gazing at the pathetic author in the window. I felt like a piece of merchandise, which I was.
That’s what you are when you go on a book tour: merchandise. A traveling salesperson selling a book. But not just any book — it’s your book. It’s something you’ve worked on and sweated over for several years. It’s your baby. And now you have to flog it like a can of dog food.
At A Glance
The wild origins of the word "dude."
Inside North Korea's new beach resort.
What's the difference between hot sweat and cold sweat?
How a coding flaw led to a billion-dollar crypto heist. (via 1440 Topics)
What to know about flesh-eating bacteria and brain-eating amoebas.
Classify clouds with AI—or draw and find shapes in the clouds.
See lifelike reconstructions of two Stone Age sisters.
Miniature therapy horses play keyboards in hospitals.
The drink of the summer: a "billion-dollar smoothie."
Clickbait: Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson are wolves’ nightmare fuel.
Historybook: Space pioneer Neil Armstrong born (1930); Marilyn Monroe found dead in her Los Angeles home (1962); The US, the UK, and the Soviet Union sign Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (1963); Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison dies (2019).
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