Monday, August 18
Headlines
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Hurricane Erin thrashes Caribbean on its way north. Erin, the first hurricane of the 2025 season, knocked out power to nearly 155,000 utility customers as a Category 3 storm with maximum sustained winds of 125 mph. Erin has undergone dramatic fluctuations in intensity: A Category 5 on Saturday, the hurricane weakened on Sunday but is expected to regain strength on Monday and Tuesday when it turns north to pass between the US and Bermuda. The East Coast is expected to experience dangerous rip currents and surf during the week.—NF
Debit-card spending grew more quickly than credit-card spending for first time in four years. People are either remembering their PINs or finally just requesting new ones. The Wall Street Journal, citing data from Visa and Mastercard, reported that credit-card spending has been growing more slowly than debit-card spending since late last year. Several factors in the current economic climate help to account for the change. Some credit card companies are being more exclusive with their offerings, and consumers are not as inclined to spend as they were in the pandemic era.—HVL
Duolingo CEO responds to AI backlash. The language-learning app has faced a wave of criticism since CEO Luis von Ahn issued a memo earlier this year saying the company would become “AI-first.” In a new interview with the NYT, von Ahn acknowledged he “did not give enough context” around the strategy shift, stressing that the intent was not to shrink Duolingo’s human workforce but instead figure out ways for AI to help the company “accomplish a lot more.” The criticism didn’t seem to impact Duolingo’s finances—when it beat earnings earlier this month, its stock shot up 30%.—NF
Robert Reich
Why Trump will fail
The iron law of grovelers and those to whom they grovel
Friends,
Monica Crowley, a former Fox News personality who is now Trump’s chief of protocol, apparently left behind in a public area of an Alaskan hotel documents describing confidential planned movements of Trump and Putin during their Friday meeting in Alaska.
That’s nothing compared to Emil Bove, Trump’s new nominee for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, who reputedly told subordinates at the Department of Justice that they should tell the courts “f*uck you” and ignore any court order blocking the deportations of Venezuelan migrants declared to be gang members.
Then there’s Billy Long, a former auctioneer and Republican congressman who Trump nominated less than two months ago to head the Internal Revenue Service, with little background in tax policy beyond promoting a fraud-riddled tax credit. Long has already been fired after clashing with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Long was the seventh person to head the IRS this year.
At A Glance
Catfish species filmed climbing waterfalls.
Thieves steal $2M in jewelry in 90 seconds.
Chimpanzees pick up communication styles from their mothers.
What if you fell into Jupiter's Great Red Spot? (via YouTube)
Library book returned after 82 years.
Things people in happiest relationships discuss daily.
Why was there no 2025 song of the summer?
Introducing the world's oldest chicken.
Clickbait: AI-powered stuffed animals.
Historybook: Actress Shelley Winters born (1920); Baseball great Roberto Clemente born (1934); Hollywood legend Robert Redford born (1936); Nobel Peace Prize winner and former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan dies (2018).
In The NEWS
The Sun's Rocky Belt
What are asteroids?
More than 1 million asteroids left over from the early formation of our solar system orbit the sun in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter (explore interactive map). Tens of thousands more orbit outside that belt.
They range in size and composition, from bus-length rocky bodies to metal worlds hundreds of miles in diameter. Researchers study asteroids for lessons on the solar system, their role in the development of life, and their small but dramatic potential to wreak havoc on Earth. Events similar to the Mount Everest-sized asteroid impact that pushed the dinosaurs to extinction are unlikely to happen in the next 250 million years.
The study of asteroids that have landed on Earth—dubbed meteorites—has hinted at their capacity to carry life’s raw ingredients. NASA’s NEO Observations Program has detected nearly 40,000 near-Earth asteroids orbiting within 30 million miles of Earth.
... Read our full explainer on asteroids here.
Also, check out ...
> Why NASA crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid. (More)
> Comparing the impact of varying sizes of asteroid. (More)
> Meet the "Celestial Police," the astronomers who sought asteroids. (More)
Female Founders
What is #girlboss?
The term “girlboss” has taken on a variety of meanings since it was first introduced in 2014. At the time, the word girlboss—first used by entrepreneur Sophia Amoruso as the title of her memoir—was used to describe a career woman who controls her life on her own terms.
After the memoir’s publication and 18 weeks on The New York Times Best Sellers list, the term came to represent a woman who used hustle culture tactics to get ahead in the workforce, becoming just as successful as her male counterparts.
The philosophy found a receptive audience in millennial women, who at the time faced a variety of socioeconomic concerns. During the mid-2010s, this group had recently graduated into the Great Recession’s dismal job market, facing limited wage growth and widespread layoffs.
Many of these budding “girlbosses” went on to start companies that they branded as by women, for women. Today, girlboss is used as an ironic insult or joke rather than a compliment.
... Read our full explainer on the phenomenon here.
Also, check out ...
> The rapid rise and fall of Sophia Amoruso, #girlboss extraordinaire. (More)
> What does millennial pink have to do with the girlboss? (More)
> The original girlboss doesn't use the word. (More)
SOURCE: 1440 NEWS
Divorcing or Not
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One of the issues that has always bothered me about Hollywood Stars is how many marriages, ON AVERAGE, they have. While there is no definitive and they may not have any more marriages, ON AVERAGE, that the rest of Americans have, it is PERCEIVED by me as more. No doubt, there is a handful of celebrities that marry and divorce a lot that gives Hollywood its bad reputation. However, it is still something that I cannot get off my mind.
I have friends that have been married 2-3 times, only 2 times, and only once, but none of that matters with what the data shows which is there is and has been a 50% divorce rate in the US for several years.
My sister has been married twice, I have been married twice, my daughter divorced once, and my brother married only once, but again that is data from just one subset or one family of Americans.
My first marriage lasted 23 years, my second marriage (is still ongoing) and have lasted 32 years.
My first marriage had me in the Navy for two years, using the GI Bill for college, and going through the birth of my daughter, affairs, along with a divorce.
My second marriage went through the death of her 21-year-old son, the incarceration of her other son, me becoming unemployed several times, my heart attack and cancer diagnosis, her hip replacement and arthritis, being scammed of money, and our retirement.
More trauma/drama in my second marriage than in my first, and yet, we have weathered all those storms and no divorce.
It is difficult to say why some people get a divorce while others don't but let it be known by someone who has been there, staying together is not as difficult as getting a divorce.
Archaeologists Discover Stone Tools Crafted by Unknown Species
Archaeologists determined that seven stone tools found on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi date back to somewhere between 1.04–1.48 million years ago and belonged to an ancient human species yet to be identified by researchers. The bombshell discoveries were recently published in the journal Nature.
The seven tools were originally excavated between 2019 and 2022 in a cornfield in the city of Calio. They were crafted with hard-hammer percussion techniques in which large pebbles cultivated from riverbeds were struck to form sharp-edged flakes, which would assist with cutting and scraping.
Professor Adam Brumm, of Griffith University's Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, co-led the international research team and described the tools as "simple, sharp-edged flakes of stone that would have been useful as general-purpose cutting and scraping implements."
Sunday, August 17
Tourism
Halbergman/Getty Images
Fewer people are putting themselves at risk of losing their home playing roulette or misplacing the groom after a debaucherous bachelor party. Las Vegas is experiencing a tourism slump, which experts attribute to larger American trends of a slowing economy and a decline in foreign travelers:
- Visitor numbers overall were 11% lower in June compared to the year before, after declining for six months straight on a year-to-year basis, per the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
- There were also 11% fewer networkers expensing $18 cocktails convention-goers visiting the city, compared to June 2024.
What happens in Vegas…has roots outside of Vegas
The vacant slot machines at Caesars Palace could be indicative of how Americans feel about their wallets, since it takes financial chutzpah to gamble. Experts say that economic anxieties are making Americans more guarded in their leisure spending, as evidenced by how they scaled back on their vacation budgets this spring, according to a recent Deloitte survey.
Rising labor costs and fewer gambling enticements like bargain steak tips may have diminished the bang for the buck of the entertainment mecca, prompting some to consider destinations without daily $50 resort fees and more hiking instead.
Plus, foreigners foregoing stateside travel is hitting Las Vegas harder than other places as it is the fifth most popular destination for foreign visitors to the US:
The vacant slot machines at Caesars Palace could be indicative of how Americans feel about their wallets, since it takes financial chutzpah to gamble. Experts say that economic anxieties are making Americans more guarded in their leisure spending, as evidenced by how they scaled back on their vacation budgets this spring, according to a recent Deloitte survey.
Rising labor costs and fewer gambling enticements like bargain steak tips may have diminished the bang for the buck of the entertainment mecca, prompting some to consider destinations without daily $50 resort fees and more hiking instead.
Plus, foreigners foregoing stateside travel is hitting Las Vegas harder than other places as it is the fifth most popular destination for foreign visitors to the US:
- The number of international tourists visiting Sin City declined 13% in June from a year ago—part of a nationwide trend that industry experts attribute to tightening border control and frustration with American politics.
- Canadians, who make up the largest group of foreign visitors to Vegas, have cooled on trips south of the border after President Trump imposed steep tariffs on the nation and referred to it as the 51st US state. Some of the dropoff might also be due to cost of living challenges within Canada, University of Ottawa economist Isabelle Salle recently told the Guardian.
But…Vegas isn’t ready to fold. Some Americans might just be postponing their Vegas vacations in anticipation of major events soon to be hosted by the city, including the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix in November, the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and concerts by Paul McCartney and the Backstreet Boys, casino industry consultant Oliver Lovat told NPR.—SK
Robert Reich
Friends,
People ask me almost daily: “Can he really do this?”
My answer: He’ll do anything he can get away with.
He believes he can get away with anything as long as his Republican lapdogs remain in control of Congress, as long as congressional Democrats remain wimpy and disunited, as long as the Supreme Court immunizes him from prosecution, and as long as he feels he can disregard lower-court rulings with impunity.
This is why it’s so urgent that We the People are rising up — making a ruckus at Republican town halls, phoning our senators and representatives so often we’re jamming congressional switchboards, joining our local Indivisible resistance groups, demonstrating, forming sanctuary communities, and boycotting corporations (such as Tesla and Target) that are caving to Trump.
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