Good morning, it's Thursday, June 25. Europe is in the midst of an especially severe heat wave.
Also in today's Digest: Grand Theft Auto VI purchases begin (Need To Know), "Supergirl" hits theaters (Sports, Ent., & Cult.), how wars end (Civics Thursdays), America's favorite cheese (Etc.), and much more. |
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Urgent heat warnings are in effect across more than a dozen Western European countries as the region grapples with a severe and unusually early heat wave.
Europe is warming more than twice as fast as the global average, driven in part by shifting air circulation, less smog, and proximity to rapidly warming Arctic waters (see charts). Western Europe is currently trapped under an Omega block—a stubborn high-pressure system resembling the uppercase Greek letter Omega (Ω). The block, expected to persist through the weekend, has already pushed France to its highest-ever national average temperature Tuesday, with some regions exceeding 110 degrees Fahrenheit. At least 40 people have drowned seeking relief, and heat-related power grid failures have left more than 60,000 homes without electricity.
Unlike in the US, most buildings in Europe lack central air conditioning, forcing people to take unusual measures. Last year, a British researcher suggested coating windows in 10% fat Greek yogurt. |
Camp Mystic Files for Bankruptcy |
The owner of Texas’ Camp Mystic filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection yesterday, estimating total debts at $10M-$50M. The proceedings come nearly one year after flooding killed 25 campers, two counselors, and the camp’s co-owner and executive director.
The all-girls Christian summer camp had inadequate emergency evacuation plans, state investigators revealed in findings this month. Adults were unprepared to evacuate the campers in the early hours of July 4, 2025, when waters from the Guadalupe River rose over 27 feet in under two-and-a-half hours. Although at least 39 adults were present, only three rushed to get hundreds of girls to safety: the camp’s owner, his son, and a security guard. The others were not given instructions, and there were no emergency plans in the event of a flood. Read the report.
A state criminal investigation is ongoing. Although the camp sought to partially reopen this summer, it remained closed amid pressure from victims’ families. See an interactive map of how the flooding occurred here. |
🫶 Humankind: Graduating high schooler gets surprise visit from the doctor—and "second mom"—who helped him defy the odds and beat stage 4 kidney cancer. (More) |
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Preorders begin today for Grand Theft Auto VI, with the standard game priced at $79.99 ($99.99 for the premium edition, with added vehicles, weapons, and clothing). The video game will be released on Nov. 19.
Grand Theft Auto V, released in 2013, is the second-best-selling video game of all time, after Minecraft (which has sold 350 million units). Players engage in dangerous heists, with the latest installment following two protagonists in the US’ fictional Vice City. See a trailer here.
The gaming industry is bigger than the movie and recorded music industries combined. In 2022, gaming generated $184.4B compared to $26.2B for music and $26B in box office revenue. While growth slowed in the years after the COVID-19 pandemic, the industry still broke $200B in revenue last year; much of the growth in recent years comes from mobile and PC games (see chart).
Does violence in video games translate to real life? The American Psychological Association says the evidence is insufficient. |
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Sports, Entertainment, & Culture |
> "Supergirl" releases in theaters nationwide tomorrow, with some early screenings tonight; the $170M DC Studios-Warner Bros. feature is projected to earn upward of $40M this weekend (More) | Watch the trailer (More) |
> Motion Picture Academy invites "Wuthering Heights" actor Jacob Elordi, "One Battle After Another" actress Teyana Taylor, Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro, and 526 others to become Oscar voters (More) |
> Switzerland stuns Jesse Marsch’s Canada 2-1 in Vancouver, winning Group B (More) | USMNT battles Turkey at 10 pm ET in Los Angeles, after Germany meets
Ecuador at 4 pm ET and Japan plays Sweden at 7 pm ET (More, w/schedule) |
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> OpenAI debuts Jalapeño, its first custom chip optimized to run its large language models (More) | Our editor-in-chief explains how LLMs work (More, w/audio) | Chinese supercomputer crowned world's fastest, taking top spot from the US (More) |
> Archaeologists are perplexed by a South African cave with only female skeletons from a 300,000-year-old ancestor of modern humans; some hypothesize it may have been a sex-specific burial site (More) |
> mRNA vaccine that delivers antibodies directly to the gut may provide immunity to norovirus, or the stomach flu; there are currently no drugs or vaccines for the highly contagious stomach bug (More) | How mRNA vaccines work (More, w/video) |
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> US stock markets close mixed (S&P 500 -0.1%, Dow +0.4%, Nasdaq -0.4%) (More) | Bitcoin falls below $60K, hitting lowest level since October 2024 (More) |
> Chemours agrees to $450M settlement over alleged "forever chemicals" pollution in waterways; marks first federal settlement against a PFAS manufacturer (More) | What are PFAS? (More) | Explore a map of contaminated water near you (More) |
> Agility Robotics to go public through a $2.5B SPAC merger, potentially becoming first publicly traded US company focused solely on humanoid robots (More) | SPACs, explained (More) | See Digit the humanoid robot in action (More, w/video) |
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> President Donald Trump cancels plan to sign bill aiming to reduce housing costs by building homes, restricting investors' home purchases; says he won't sign until Congress passes the SAVE America Act (More) | What's in the bill? (More) |
> France logs its first Ebola case—a doctor who had traveled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo; no indication of local spread as of this writing (More) | What makes Ebola so dangerous? (More, w/video) |
> House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D, NY-8) weighs in on New York House primary races this week, in which democratic socialists backed by NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) defeated House incumbents (More) | Who are the newcomers expected to win in November? (More) |
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In partnership with USAFacts |
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Why Should You Care About Public Data? |
If the government is spending taxpayer dollars and making major policy decisions, Americans should be able to measure whether those decisions are working.
Without reliable public data, it's harder to understand what's happening in our communities, harder to assess whether taxpayer dollars are being used effectively, and harder to make informed decisions about the future. Public data helps make government more transparent, accountable, and effective—and that's something every American benefits from.
Support public data and sign the open letter. |
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> AI Adaptations of Pompeii Victims
Popular Science | Margherita Bassi. Researchers have released an AI video imagining the final moments of a Pompeii victim. The technology holds promise for helping new audiences appreciate the value of archaeology. (Read) |
> Bring Back the Gatekeeper, Please
The Walrus | Jason Guriel. In an era where anyone can post anything, the author makes a case for curators, tastemakers, and authority figures who protect writers from bad takes—and preserve the public's attention. (Read) |
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Challenging Big Pharma at a $560B Game |
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Big Pharma companies spent $1B trying to cure osteoarthritis (OA). They couldn’t. Cytonics, on the other hand, developed what could be the first potential cure for OA. Their first-gen therapy has treated 10,000+ patients. Now, they’ve engineered a new version that’s 200% more potent. And it’s just cleared Phase 1 clinical trials. Now it’s moving on to the next phase.
With 500M+ people afflicted worldwide, a $560B opportunity is waiting. Join 7K+ people and invest before the next phase begins.* |
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1440 Civics: How Wars End |
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The US and Iran have signed a ceasefire—but what does that mean, and how do conflicts normally end (or not)?
> A ceasefire is an informal agreement to halt fighting. They also tend to be the least durable means of ending conflicts.
> An armistice is a formal agreement between warring parties to stop fighting while peace terms remain unresolved. Because of this, North and South Korea technically remain at war.
> Peace treaties formally end wars. The 1783 peace treaty with Britain ended the Revolutionary War and nearly doubled the size of the US.
... and why are modern formal agreements so rare?
> Unconditional surrender is when one side lays down arms, no strings attached (think Germany and Japan in WWII). Watch the official Japanese surrender in September 1945.
Explore the rest of our favorites at 1440 Civics. |
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Historybook: Anne Frank's diary published for first time (1947); Korean War begins (1950); Celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain born (1956); Actress and model Farrah Fawcett dies (2009); Michael Jackson dies from drug overdose administered by his physician, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter (2009).
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"The extent to which you can walk in someone else's shoes or at least eat their food, it's a plus for everybody." |
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*Disclosure: This is a paid advertisement for Cytonics Regulation CF offering. Please read the offering circular at https://invest.cytonics.com/. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties. There is no guarantee of performance. Past performance does not predict future results. All investments involve risk, including loss of principal. Phase 1 clinical trials are designed primarily to assess safety and tolerability and do not establish efficacy. Clinical trial results are preliminary, and there can be no assurance that future trials will be successful or that any product candidate will receive regulatory approval. |
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