Alaska Study, CNN Founder Dies, and Civics Thursday

 Need To Know 

Tsunami Revisited

A tsunami last year in southeastern Alaska was the second-largest in recorded history, a study published yesterday revealed. Waves reached 1,578 feet high, second only to a 1958 tsunami in Alaska that produced up to 1,720-foot waves.

At 5:26 am on Aug. 10, 2025, a mass of rock measuring 83 million cubic yards—24 times the volume of the Great Pyramid of Giza—fell into Alaska’s Tracy Arm fjord (what is a fjord?). The study’s authors blamed climate change, saying the melting glacier next to the mountain left the rock unsupported and vulnerable to collapse. Waves sloshed in the fjord for days and produced seismic activity equivalent to a 5.4-magnitude earthquake, shaking the planet.

Three cruise ships pass through the fjord daily, but due to the early hour, no one was injured. See animated reconstruction of the event, from the perspective of a hypothetical jet skier (scroll for animation).

Chinese Agent Trial

The trial began yesterday for Lu Jianwang, a US citizen accused of illegally running a Chinese police station in Manhattan. Prosecutors accuse Lu of harassing Chinese dissidents abroad; a codefendant pleaded guilty in 2024.

Foreign police stations are not without precedent: The New York Police Department has posts across the world (see map). China reportedly has more than 100 stations across 53 countries, though it calls the posts “service centers,” and claims they provide consulate-style assistance to Chinese citizens abroad. Lu and his codefendant ran an office in Chinatown called “Fuzhou Police Overseas Service Station” that helped Chinese citizens renew their driver’s licenses. However, Lu also stands accused of harassing at least three pro-democracy activists since 2018. One accused Lu of warning him to return to China or his family would be harmed. Lu has pleaded not guilty to charges, including acting as a foreign agent.

Learn about China’s alleged service stations here.

Media Mogul Dies

Ted Turner, the media tycoon who created the 24-hour news cycle when he founded CNN in 1980, died yesterday at age 87.

The Georgia native transformed his late father’s billboard company into the media empire Turner Broadcasting System over roughly three decades. After going into debt buying a struggling local TV station, Turner revolutionized TV by using satellites to beam sports and entertainment nationwide. The station's success gave Turner the momentum to launch CNN, the first network to provide nonstop news coverage. Outlets previously aired updates for 30 to 60 minutes once or twice a day. CNN gained credibility during the Persian Gulf War as the only major Western network reporting from inside Iraq (watch coverage). Today, the network is generally more trusted by Democrats and viewed more skeptically by Republicans (see chart).

After selling TBS to Time Warner in 1996 for $7.5B, he became a major philanthropist, investing in land conservation and pledging $1B to the United Nations (read his why).

Sports, Entertainment, & Culture

> Paris Saint-Germain beats Bayern Munich in UEFA Champions League semifinal, will face Arsenal in the final May 30 in Budapest (More) 

> Stefon Diggs found not guilty of assault and strangulation after two days of jury deliberations; the former New England Patriots receiver was accused by his private chef (More) 

> Professional Women's Hockey League will expand to Detroit, growing the league to nine teams; up to three more teams may be added before next season (More) 

Science & Technology

> Google updates AI search to surface insights from web forums like Reddit and highlight content from users' news subscriptions (More) 

> CRISPR technology kills sick cells while leaving healthy cells untouched in a petri dish—a potentially revolutionary advance in disease treatment if results can be replicated in living organisms (More) | Watch CRISPR at the molecular level (More)

> Brains of singing mice suggest language is likely enabled by relatively subtle expansions of existing neural pathways; the gap between animals with advanced cognitive abilities and those without may be smaller than previously thought (More) 

Business & Markets

> US stock markets close up (S&P 500 +1.5%, Dow +1.2%, Nasdaq +2.0%) as investors anticipate possible US-Iran peace deal, tech companies report promising earnings (More) 

> Semiconductor company AMD shares surge 18.6% on strong first quarter earnings (More) | Uber and Disney shares rise 8.5% and 7.5%, respectively, as both report rising consumer spending on travel, entertainment, and local commerce (More)

> Anthropic inks data center deal with SpaceX to increase computing capacity of Claude Pro and Claude Max (More) | Nvidia invests $500M in Corning to boost manufacturing of fiber optics used to transfer data in AI data centers (More) 

Politics & World Affairs

> Federal judge releases alleged suicide note by late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, apparently found by his cellmate after a July 2019 suicide attempt, weeks before Epstein was found dead in his cell (More)

> Secretary of State Marco Rubio meets with Pope Leo XIV today at the Vatican amid disagreements between the pontiff and President Donald Trump (More) | See the latest on the dispute (More)

> FBI raids office of Virginia state Sen. L. Louise Lucas (D) as well as a cannabis dispensary she co-owns; details of the investigation were not publicly available as of this writing (More) 

In-Depth

> The Bomber on a Bicycle

The Guardian | Stephen Robert Morse. In 1982, a former national fencing champion walked into South Africa's flagship nuclear facility, planted four bombs, and rode away. He vanished for 13 years—and now he's finally talking. (Read) 

> How to Rule the World

The Atlantic | Theo Baker. Stanford has a secret school inside the school: The curriculum is money, power, and how to bend the rules. One graduating senior spent four years inside the system, then wrote down how it all actually works. (Read) 

 1440 Topics: Civics Thursday 

The mental trick helping people fall asleep faster.

Why the founder of Mother’s Day turned against the holiday she created.

NASA maps show which parts of Earth glow brightest at night.

These rainbow clouds over Indonesia aren’t AI.

Man discovers $1M worth of Yu-Gi-Oh cards in a dumpster.

A survival guide to modern slang.

Watch Denali’s sled dog puppies on a live cam.

Strange sea creatures are washing ashore in massive numbers.

In partnership: According to FOX Business, this is the “‘flying car’ set to revolutionize air travel.”*

Clickbait: What if color isn’t actually real?

Historybook: Edwin H. Land, inventor of instant photography, born (1909); Ishirō Honda, Japanese film director and cowriter of 1954 film "Godzilla," born (1911); German submarine sinks RMS Lusitania, killing 1,198 (1915); Eva "Evita" Perón born (1919); Sony Corporation founded (1946).

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