Monday, September 15
Headlines
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Charlie Kirk’s memorial is set for Sunday, and other updates. The conservative activist’s public memorial will take place at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, AZ, on Sept. 21. On Friday, President Trump confirmed that he would attend. Utah Governor Spencer Cox said the assassination suspect, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, is “not cooperating” with investigators. Cox said on Sunday morning news shows that a motive was still being determined, and that more information may come out when charges are filed and Robinson appears in court tomorrow. Vice President JD Vance announced last night that he will host The Charlie Kirk Show today from the White House at noon ET to “pay tribute to my friend.”
Utah governor calls social media “evil” and a “cancer.” Yesterday on NBC, Gov. Spencer Cox said, “I believe that social media has played a direct role in every single assassination and assassination attempt that we have seen over the last five, six years. Cancer probably isn’t a strong enough word.” He also called the executives behind social media companies “conflict entrepreneurs” and that it took decades “to realize how evil these algorithms are.” The governor also said that alleged shooter Tyler Robinson had a “leftist ideology,” and spent large amounts of time in the “dark corners of the internet.” The state of Utah passed some social media laws to protect minors, most recently in 2024, but they have not taken effect since a federal judge temporarily blocked them.
The Pitt, The Studio, took home top Emmy Awards. “Chaotic workplace shows” have not only become “comfort TV,” as the Wall Street Journal reported, but also award winners. Apple TV+’s The Studio won 13 honors, including Seth Rogen’s first Emmy for best actor in a comedy and best comedy series. HBO Max’s The Pitt won five awards, including the coveted best drama series trophy. Each episode covers an hour during one shift in an ER, which some viewers in the medical profession find hits too close to work. One of The Studio’s showrunners, Peter Huyck, told the WSJ before the awards ceremony, “What we’re all drawing on is our own personal experiences in this town [Hollywood], and the stress we carry every day.” See the complete list of Primetime Emmy Award winners here.—HVL
Robert Reich
It’s a last-ditch effort to discredit all Trump’s political opponents. It will fail.
Friends,
We are now witnessing the start of what might be seen as Phase 2 of Trump’s efforts to eradicate political opposition.
Phase 1 has centered on silencing criticism. It has featured retribution toward people Trump deemed personal “enemies” — not just Democrats who had led the criticisms and prosecutions of him in his first term but also Republicans and his own first-term appointees who subsequently criticized him, such as John Bolton.
Phase 1 also entailed an assault on universities that utilize so-called “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” harbor faculty members and students who speak out critically against Benjamin Netanyahu’s genocide in Palestine, or offer classes critical of the United States’s history toward Black people and Native Americans.
At A Glance
The African island facing a yearlong internet shutdown.
Tooth-in-eye surgery helps man regain eyesight.
How scientists created the first cloned yak.
Drone show recreates Michelangelo's works above the Vatican.
See photographs of a herd of happy elephants.
"The Conjuring" house heads for auction on Halloween.
World's tallest sunflower is over three stories high.
Man travels over 26 miles in a mushroom kayak.
Clickbait: Inside the world of fantasy coffins.
Historybook: Mystery writer Agatha Christie born (1890); Muhammad Ali defeats Leon Spinks to win heavyweight title for the third time (1978); Prince Harry born (1984); Google.com registered as domain name (1997).
Sovereign Oil Syndicate
What is OPECOPEC—the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries—was founded in Iraq in 1960 to coordinate oil policy among major exporters. Initially a reaction to Western dominance of global oil markets, it evolved into a powerful bloc capable of reshaping global energy prices, geopolitics, and development.
OPEC works by setting production quotas for each member country. By coordinating supply cuts or increases, the group can tighten or loosen global oil supply, pushing prices up or down.
Today, OPEC has 12 member countries spanning the Middle East, Africa, and South America—Algeria, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela—and works closely with nonmember oil-producing allies in the wider OPEC+ group.
... Read our full explainer on the group here.
Also, check out ...
> How OPEC first used oil as a geopolitical weapon in 1967. (More)
> Trace the rise of oil from early drilling to global power. (More)
> How does the broader OPEC+ group work? (More)
'Defence of Fort M'Henry'
What is the national anthem of the US?
“The Star-Spangled Banner” is the national anthem of the United States. The song is based on a poem written by Francis Scott Key 211 years ago, on Sept. 14, 1814, during the War of 1812, while watching American troops hold off British forces at the Battle of Baltimore. Written in the battle’s immediate aftermath, the original poem borrowed a melody from a popular British song of the time.
“The Star-Spangled Banner” grew popular with Americans. In 1931, President Herbert Hoover approved a bill that finally designated it the national anthem. Soon after, other sports leagues made its performance a regular feature before games.
It’s become an American tradition for artists to put their spin on the anthem when performing it (see Whitney Houston's iconic 1991 Super Bowl rendition).
The song is still popular some 200 years later, with Americans overwhelmingly saying they would not prefer a change.
... Read our full overview on the anthem here.
Also, check out ...
> How printers eventually changed the name of the national anthem. (More)
> The 1918 origins of performing the anthem at sporting events in the US. (More)
> Roughly 60% of Americans prefer to keep the existing national anthem. (More)
SOURCE: 1440 NEWS
Myrtle Beach
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When we retired in 2015, we took vacations every other month for a week until COVID hit, but we always found time to spend at least a week or two at Myrtle Beach.
Myrtle Beach is about six and a half hours from where we live in East TN, if we drive just a few miles over the speed limits. If we try to drive faster, we may get there in a tad under five hours, but we have burned more gasoline and increased our stress by looking out for highway patrol who have gotten more sneaky.
We may take open snacks with us along with ground coffee and filters but everything else we buy down there, knowing it will be more expensive. Our condo comes with a fully equipped kitchen, but we only use it for breakfast and lunch. We always go out to dinner, making sure that we eat at a nice restaurant at least half of the nights.
We always rent chairs and umbrellas and take beach towels that I place in the chair because my butts starts to hurt after a few hours.
Each morning, we are under the umbrella by 9:00 am and we leave when the lifeguards start taking down the umbrellas at 4:00 pm. During the day, my wife reads while I either write poetry or listen to audio books on tape. Sometimes, we walk along the shoreline and sometimes, we just sit and watch the waves.
Myrtle Beach, when I was growing up, was considered to be the POOR MAN's VACATION... which typically meant back then that uneducated families went to Myrtle Beach, not the educated, sophisticated ones. I would say that philosophy has changed substantially over the last 50-60 years.
A Glittering Stellar Nursery Shines In New JWST Image
Pismis 24-1 is in the Pismis 24 star cluster. The star is in the center of this image, where the filament of gas points upward.
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI, A. Pagan (STScI)
The JWST has a well-earned reputation for delivering incredible images of the cosmos. From its very first image, the powerful space telescope has regularly wowed us with images of galaxies, nebulae, star clusters, and other cosmic objects. One of the telescope's main science themes concerns the birth of stars, and in a new image, the JWST zoomed in on Pismis 24-1, a brilliant young star in the Pismis 24 cluster.
The Pismis 24 cluster an active star forming region more than 5,000 light-years away in the Lobster Nebula. Pismis 24-1 is the brightest star in the cluster, and it and the entire cluster represent one of astronomers' best opportunities to study the birth of stars.
Sunday, September 14
Apple has a chance to make foldable phones cool
Jung Yeon-je/AFP via Getty Images
The flip-phone smartphone could soon shed its reputation as the toe shoe of cellular devices, especially now that Apple is getting involved. The iPhone-maker is widely reported to be releasing its first foldable phone next year, capitalizing on a niche trend right as it’s gaining momentum.
Similar to the Galaxy phones you always see advertised but rarely encounter IRL, Apple’s foldable iPhone (code-named V68) will open like a book, transforming from a phone to a small tablet, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Since The Information broke the news about Apple’s origami foray last year, multiple analysts have predicted that it’ll launch in September 2026 for ~$2,000.
Androids greased the wheels. Apple’s foldable would come seven years after Samsung’s and Motorola’s respective first attempts, and three years after Google’s. Foldables—which now represent 1% to 2% of the smartphone market—have made major strides since the early, clunky days:Samsung’s new Z Fold 7 (pictured above) launched this year to the best types of reviews a foldable can ask for—it reportedly feels just like a regular smartphone, but with more screen.
A fast-growing Chinese smartphone manufacturer, Honor, just released the world’s thinnest book-style smartphone—it’s 0.1mm slimmer than the Z Fold 7.
Sign of the times: First-week sales for Honor’s Magic V5 in Western Europe and the UK roughly doubled that of its previous iteration, the company said, suggesting that the world may finally be warming up to foldables.
Where there’s opportunity, there’s Apple: The iPhone-maker isn’t afraid to be a follower. It pulled the rug out from Pebble, Garmin, Fitbit, and Samsung and ended up leading the global smartwatch market with a 20% share. But the wait-and-release tactic doesn’t always work—Apple reportedly slashed production of its Vision Pro headset after realizing barely anybody wanted a wildly more expensive version of the Meta Quest.—ML
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