Wednesday, September 3
Headlines
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Google doesn’t have to sell Chrome. That’s the big takeaway from the ruling that US District Judge Amit Mehta handed down yesterday, almost a year after he found that Google held an illegal monopoly in search. The Department of Justice had suggested that the search giant sell off its browser as recompense for the situation, but Mehta wrote, “Plaintiffs overreached in seeking forced divestiture.” Instead, GOOG can no longer broker exclusive search contracts, and it must share the data it uses to determine what search results to show. Google said it would appeal the decision, which would allow it to delay paying penalties.
President Trump said he would ask Supreme Court for expedited tariff ruling. Yesterday at the White House, Trump told reporters that his administration would be asking the Supreme Court for an “expedited ruling” as soon as today regarding last week’s finding by an appeals court that said most of the tariffs implemented by the Trump admin this year are illegal. The appeals court delayed its own ruling from taking effect until Oct. 14 so that the Supreme Court could weigh in and potentially overturn its decision. “If you take away tariffs, we could end up being a third-world country,” Trump said.
Anna Wintour’s successor at Vogue has been named. And the new head of editorial content at the storied fashion magazine is Chloe Malle, a 14-year veteran of the publication who was promoted from being the editor of Vogue.com. Malle is the daughter of actress Candice Bergen and the late French film director Louis Malle. For now, she’ll report directly to Wintour, who remains the global editorial director and chief content officer of Condé Nast.—HVL
Robert Reich
Several culprits
Friends,
We are in the midst of the worst public tragedy of my lifetime — the despoiling and destruction of America. The destruction is now extending beyond American democracy to encompass the American economy, American science and learning, and American culture. People ask me, in outrage or despair, “How and why is this happening?” I have my answers, as I’m sure you do.
Donald Trump is the proximate cause, but he cannot be the only cause, because one man, no matter how malignant or sociopathic, cannot do the damage that is occurring to so many dimensions of American life. Nor can the small group of twisted sycophants and lapdogs around him.
At A Glance
Why some say you can't wear white after Labor Day.
The time engineers turned off Niagara Falls. (via YouTube)
"Magic phrases" that make kids listen to their parents.
World's highest bridge to offer bungee jumping.
Ranking US colleges by the best dorm rooms.
Never-before-seen photos of Projects Mercury and Gemini.
"Toy Story" is coming back to theaters.
Clickbait: Starbucks is betting on protein-packed coffee.
Historybook: Treaty of Paris signed, ending American Revolutionary War (1783); Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Marguerite Higgins born (1920); Author Malcolm Gladwell born (1963); Football coaching legend Vince Lombardi dies (1970).
In The NEWS
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> Novak Djokovic advances to US Open quarterfinals, extending his record of reaching 64 Grand Slam quarters (More) | No. 23 Naomi Osaka upsets No. 3 Coco Gauff to advance to the quarterfinals; see latest women's bracket (More)
> Mark Knoller, longtime White House correspondent for CBS, dies at age 73 (More) | Lee Roy Jordan, five-time NFL Pro Bowler, dies at age 84 (More) | Randy Boone, actor best known for starring role on "The Virginian," dies at age 83 (More)
> College football week one wraps, highlighted by No. 3 Ohio State topping No. 1 Texas and No. 8 Alabama falling to unranked Florida State (More)
Science & Technology
> Chinese law requiring clearly identified labels on all AI-generated online content goes into effect; government says effort is meant to combat misinformation (More)
> Newly discovered tectonic activity may be responsible for historic but unexplained earthquakes in Portugal in recent centuries (More) | An 8.5 magnitude quake in 1755 is considered Europe's first modern natural disaster (More, w/video)
> Mars study reveals planet's interior contains mile-wide structures left over from massive collisions around 4.5 billion years ago (More)
Business & Markets
> US stock markets close lower Friday (S&P 500 -0.6%, Dow -0.2%, Nasdaq -1.2%) (More) | Core personal consumption expenditures price index rose 2.9% year over year in July as expected; figure is highest annual rate since February (More)
> World's largest food company Nestlé dismisses CEO Laurent Freixe after one year in the role over undisclosed romantic relationship with direct subordinate (More)
> Spirit Airlines files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for second time in one year (More) | More than 500,000 bankruptcies are filed in the US each year (1440 Topics)
Politics & World Affairs
> Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit kicks off in China's port city of Tianjin, with leaders from Russia, China, India, Iran, and six other nations in attendance (More)
> Federal judge temporarily blocks Trump administration from returning unaccompanied migrant children to Guatemala without deportation orders; Guatemala says it can accept 150 migrant children per week from the US (More)
> Antigovernment protests in Indonesia leave at least eight people dead; latest demonstrations focus on lawmakers' $3K monthly housing allowance, death of a motorcyclist during protests last week (More)
SOURCE: 1440 NEWS
Passing of Time
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There was a time when I thought...
- I cannot wait until I am 18 - to buy beer in WashDC
- I cannot wait until I am 2 - so that I can vote
- I cannot wait until I am 25 - my car insurance is the lowest
- I cannot wait until I am 50 - so I can say I've lived a half century
- I cannot wait until I am 60 - to qualify as a senior citizen
- I cannot wait until I am 67 - so I can retire with full benefits
Looking back at all of this from age 77, I can safely say that saying I cannot wait until... was one of the stupidest thoughts I ever had.
One should not wish for time to pass by just so a specific milestone can be achieved... time passes fast enough without wanting it to pass faster.
Sadly, one never reaches this level of understanding until one reaches an older age and by that time, it is far too late to wish life did not or had not passed by so quickly.
My advice is don't ever wish for time to pass by quicker than it needs to. Appreciate the fact that you can remain young and innocent for a very long time.
In 2019, Researchers Discover a Fungus Capable of Metabolizing Gold
In 2019, researchers at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia’s national science agency, discovered that a common soil fungus could do something no one expected: metabolize gold.
The fungus, a strain of Fusarium oxysporum, is usually known for decomposing organic matter. But in a study led by Dr. Tsing Bohu, scientists observed that it could dissolve gold particles in its environment and precipitate them onto its mycelial filaments, effectively coating itself in gold. “Gold is so chemically inactive that this type of interaction is unusual and surprising,” Bohu said in CSIRO’s statement.
This process—oxidizing and precipitating gold particles—doesn’t just involve passive contact. The fungus plays an active role in cycling gold from its environment, possibly contributing to how the metal moves through the Earth’s crust. This was the first time such a biological mechanism for gold cycling had been documented.
Tuesday, September 2
Headlines
Sergey Bobylev/Kremlin Press S./Anadolu via Getty Images
Putin, Modi, and Xi walk into a bar. Well, it was more of a security summit to challenge American dominance. Over the weekend, Chinese President Xi Jinping invited more than 20 foreign leaders, including India’s and Russia’s, to a regional security forum in a flex of economic cooperation to counter the US-led Western system. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi talked up his country’s energy relationship with Russia, which had prompted the US to slap punishing 50% tariffs on India. For decades, the US wooed India as an ally to counter Chinese influence in Asia—but after the surprise tariff hit, India has been increasingly embracing Beijing.
Trump says CDC is being “ripped apart” over Covid vaccines. The president waded into the turmoil at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, urging pharma companies to “justify the success” of their Covid-19 vaccines to quell growing unrest at the agency. Last week, Trump fired CDC Director Susan Monarez following disagreements between her and Health Secretary RFK Jr., resulting in four other top CDC officials to tender their resignations. Then yesterday, nine former CDC directors warned in a NYT essay that RFK Jr.’s meddling was “unlike anything we had ever seen at the agency, and unlike anything our country had ever experienced.”
Congress returns from summer break with a shutdown on the horizon. Lawmakers get back to work today in Washington, DC, following their August recess, and the No. 1 priority on Capitol Hill is keeping the government open for business. The federal government will shut down at the end of September if Congress doesn’t pass a short-term spending measure, but expect plenty of inter-party bickering since Republicans, who have the majority, still need Democratic votes for any funding bill. The Dems are planning to use that leverage to extract concessions from the GOP.
READ MORE...
Robert Reich
Who should decide what we see, read, and learn?
Friends,
“The Museums throughout Washington, but all over the Country are, essentially, the last remaining segment of ‘WOKE,’” Trump wrote recently on his Truth Social. “The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been — Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future.”
So, Trump has ordered that the Smithsonian replace “divisive or ideologically driven language with unifying, historically accurate and constructive descriptions.”
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