Harvard Hearing, Four-Day Workweek, and Optimistic Brains

Good morning. It's Tuesday, July 22, and we're covering a Harvard funding clash in federal court, the findings of a large four-day workweek trial, and much more. First time reading? Join over 4.5 million intellectually curious readers. Sign up here.

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 Need To Know 

Israel Expands Operations

Israel expanded its ground operations into the previously spared city of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza for the first time yesterday. Deir al-Balah is one of the area's primary humanitarian hubs, where displaced Palestinians have been sheltered, and contains aid warehouses, health clinics, and critical water infrastructure. Nearly 88% of the Gaza Strip is estimated to have been evacuated or classified as military zones, with roughly 2 million Palestinians displaced.

The Israeli military advance comes as officials believe some of the 50 remaining hostages, abducted during Hamas' cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023, may be held in Deir al-Balah. At least 20 of the hostages are thought to be still alive. 

Meanwhile, the UK, Canada, Japan, and 25 other countries issued a joint statement yesterday criticizing Israel's approach to, and restrictions on, aid delivery in Gaza. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry reported more than 1,000 Palestinians have died since late May while attempting to access aid, and the UN has said nearly 800 casualties have occurred en route to or at aid sites operated by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. 

Harvard Funding Hearing

Lawyers for Harvard University and the Trump administration appeared in federal court yesterday over whether Harvard can recoup roughly $2.6B in research grants. 

The administration cut the grants in April after accusing Harvard of antisemitism; a letter last month from the Education Department found Harvard guilty of violating Jewish students’ civil rights (read here). Harvard says the cuts were retaliatory after the Ivy League rejected demands by a federal task force to end all diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and rework its faculty hiring and admissions process, among other changes. 

Harvard is the world’s largest academic research institute with a $53.2B endowment, and is responsible for more scientific output than any other university. Since the Trump administration began cutting funding, the university has paused hundreds of research projects, including on tuberculosis, ALS, and chemotherapy. 

The federal judge yesterday appeared poised to rule in Harvard’s favor. If so, President Donald Trump has pledged to appeal. 

Four-Day Workweek Study

Results from the largest trial of four-day workweeks, published yesterday, revealed the shortened schedule—without any pay cuts—boosts job satisfaction, reduces burnout, and improves well-being. 

Nearly 2,900 workers from 141 organizations in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand shifted to 32-hour four-day weeks for six months. Companies had two months to restructure workflows, largely by trimming unnecessary meetings. At the end of the study, employees reported improved performance, better sleep, and less fatigue. Over 90% of participating companies kept the truncated schedule, suggesting output and profit weren’t harmed, though the study didn’t measure company-wide productivity.

While many Americans view the five-day workweek as standard, it only became commonplace after the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938. Interest in shorter workweeks has grown since the COVID-19 pandemic reignited conversations about work-life balance, with 22% of national survey respondents reporting their employer offered four-day weeks in 2024, compared to 14% in 2022.

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