Good morning. It's Thursday, Aug. 7, and we're covering an Army base attack in Georgia, a water and electricity crisis in Iran, and much more. First time reading? Join over 4.5 million intellectually curious readers. Sign up here.
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A gunman wounded five soldiers at Fort Stewart-Hunter Army Airfield in Georgia yesterday. The suspect—a 28-year-old male Army sergeant—was apprehended roughly 40 minutes later and remains in US custody. See live updates here.
The attack began at 10:56 am ET, when the assailant—a soldier from Florida who worked in automated logistics—used a personal handgun against members of his own unit. Nearby soldiers tackled him before law enforcement arrived to place him in custody. All five of the victims were transported to a nearby Army hospital in stable condition. An investigation is ongoing; authorities have not publicly disclosed a motive as of this writing. The assailant has no history of foreign deployments.
Fort Stewart houses 8,800 people and covers over 437 square miles. It is located about 40 miles southwest of Savannah. |
Iran closed government offices in over half of its 31 provinces yesterday, including Tehran. The decision—the second of its kind in weeks—comes as authorities work to manage a dual water and electricity crisis.
The country has experienced regular power shortages since December due to its aging power grid, among other factors. Iran is also in its fifth consecutive year of drought. Rainfall is down 40% from the long-term average—the lowest levels in 60 years. Eighty percent of the country’s reservoirs are nearly empty (see here, w/video). Exacerbating the issue is Iran’s water-intensive agriculture for crops like rice, accounting for 90% of the country’s water use. Meanwhile, a heat wave has sent temperatures above 122 degrees Fahrenheit in parts of the country.
Water pressure has been reduced by almost half in 80% of Tehran’s households, with faucets regularly running dry on the third floor and up. Authorities are encouraging people to leave Tehran to reduce strain and warn that Day Zero—when taps run entirely dry—could come within weeks. |
Vaccine Research Redirected |
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. canceled nearly $500M in funding for 22 projects aimed at advancing mRNA technology Tuesday. The money will be redirected to projects developing traditional, whole-cell vaccines. Watch Kennedy’s announcement here.
Vaccines have historically used weakened or inactive pathogens to trigger immunity (see more here). The more recent mRNA vaccines—including those developed in partnership with President Donald Trump’s Operation Warp Speed to combat COVID-19—teach the body to produce a virus fragment. That fragment prompts an immune response and preps the body to defend against a real infection. mRNA vaccines are quicker than traditional vaccines to develop and update, requiring only the genetic code for a virus piece as opposed to cultivating large quantities of virus. Among criticisms of the technology, Kennedy said the mRNA vaccines cause a process called “antigenic shift,” encouraging vaccine mutation. See scientists’ rebuttals here.
The news comes after HHS halted a nearly $600M contract to develop an mRNA-based vaccine targeting bird flu. The virus has infected 70 people in the US since 2024. |
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In partnership with Miso Robotics |
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Elon Musk: 'Robots Will … Do Everything Better' |
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And it’s already happening.
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Sports, Entertainment, & Culture |
> ESPN signs five-year deal with the WWE for streaming rights to WrestleMania and other major live events; deal averages $325M per year (More) |
> The PGA Tour's FedEx Cup Playoffs kick off today; read about the playoff format, including its bonus prize pool of $100M with the overall champion earning $10M (More) |
> "Hamilton" to get US theatrical release on Sept. 5, five years after its initial premiere on Disney+, which purchased the rights to the filmed version of the Broadway hit for $75M (More) |
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> Replenishing the brain's natural supply of lithium appears to reverse memory loss and neurological signs of Alzheimer's, new study suggests; researchers identify lithium orotate as potentially protecting against onset of the disease (More) | What we know about Alzheimer's (1440 Topics) |
> OpenAI to offer the enterprise version of ChatGPT to federal agencies beginning next year at a cost of $1; move seen as a bid to beat competitors in adoption into government workflows (More) |
> Ancient stone tools more than 1 million years old discovered on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi; suggests human relatives made a major sea crossing prior to the use of boats (More) |
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> US stock markets close up (S&P 500 +0.7%, Dow +0.2%, Nasdaq +1.2%) as corporate earnings continue rolling in and the Trump administration's new trade tariff deadline looms (More) |
> Apple to invest an additional $100B on domestic manufacturing; Apple previously announced plans to spend $500B in the US over the next four years (More) | How Apple became a $3T company (1440 Topics) |
> Accessories retailer Claire's files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for second time since 2018 amid debt load and changing consumer preferences; follows second bankruptcy of teen retailer Forever 21 in March (More) |
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In partnership with FinanceBuzz |
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> President Donald Trump imposes an additional 25% tariff on India over its Russian oil purchases, raising combined levies to 50%; takes effect Aug. 27 and comes as new tariffs kick in for dozens of trading partners today (More) |
> Texas Democrats who left the state in protest of a redistricting bill were temporarily evacuated from an Illinois hotel following a bomb threat (More) | US Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) enters race to replace outgoing Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R), pledging to push forward Trump's agenda (More) |
> United Airlines grounds flights nationwide for several hours amid technical issue with its weight calculation system (More) |
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> The Ancient Art of Artificial Eyes
MIT Press | Dan Roche. For millennia, artisans have handcrafted artificial eyes—from tar in ancient Iran to Venetian glass in Europe. Ocularists not only carefully restore a person’s appearance but also renew their identity. (Read)
> This Is Not Keanu
Hollywood Reporter | Rebecca Keegan. An inside look at the billion-dollar world of celebrity impersonation scams reveals how fraudsters are luring victims with AI-powered deepfakes and demanding bitcoin payments. (Read) |
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In partnership with Miso Robotics |
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The AI Restaurant Brands Are Demanding |
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Ketchup is the newest fruit smoothie.
Excessive screen time linked to poorer kids' heart health.
Instagram rolls out new map feature.
The 10 wealthiest US states by income.
... PS—1440's Business & Finance newsletter comes out this morning at 8:30 am ET and covers exchange-traded funds. Sign up here!
NASA's Curiosity rover celebrates 13 years on Mars.
College kids schedule everything on Google Calendar.
Ranking top college football coaches of the past 25 years.
How to get your beer-to-foam ratio right every time.
Clickbait: Is it a cat or a rat?
Historybook: Nobel Peace Prize winner Ralph Bunche born (1904); Operation Desert Shield preps the US to enter Gulf War (1990); US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania are bombed, killing 224 and wounding 4,500 (1998); Track and field star Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone born (1999); Journalist Peter Jennings dies (2005). |
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"The well-being and the hopes of the peoples of the world can never be served until peace—as well as freedom, honor and self-respect—is secure." |
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