Good morning. It's Friday, Aug. 15, and we're covering President Donald Trump's planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a study on mind reading, and much more. First time reading? Join over 4.5 million intellectually curious readers. Sign up here.
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President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are set to meet at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, at 3:30 pm ET today to discuss the war in Ukraine. The talk—which will be conducted one-on-one with two translators present—will be followed by lunch with their delegations and a joint press conference.
While Putin and Trump have had several phone calls this year, this will be their first in-person meeting since 2018. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will not attend, though he did join Trump and other NATO leaders in a virtual meeting Wednesday. During that call, Trump affirmed his commitment to a ceasefire and agreed not to discuss peace deal parameters, including possible territorial divisions, without Ukraine present. Putin reportedly seeks to add US-Russia nuclear arms relations to today’s agenda. Trump told reporters his aim is to secure a meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy.
Watch live coverage here. |
Stanford University researchers have successfully translated patients’ inner monologues with up to 74% accuracy, according to a study released yesterday. Read here.
Brain-computer interfaces have become increasingly adept at helping people with neurodegenerative diseases communicate (see write-up). A team of researchers took this further by studying not just attempted speech but silent thoughts. They implanted microelectrodes in the brains of four participants with paralysis from either ALS or a brainstem stroke. They then instructed patients to speak or imagine a set of words. Both activated similar neural pathways in the brain’s motor cortex region (responsible for speech), with imagined speech showing weaker activity. The team used AI to interpret inner thoughts from a vocabulary of up to 125,000 words.
To initiate interpretation, patients were given a password (instructed to think “chitty chitty bang bang”) to prevent the computers from continually interpreting their thoughts. Researchers hope the study will help patients communicate more quickly. |
South Korea’s Supreme Court dismissed a US composer’s $21.6K lawsuit alleging the viral children’s hit “Baby Shark” was plagiarized, ending a six-year legal battle. The court ruled Jonathan Wright, also known as Johnny Only, lacked the originality needed for copyright protection in his 2011 version, as both his and Pinkfong’s 2015 adaptation were based on a traditional campfire song more than a century old. The ruling reaffirmed that the melody remains in the public domain.
“Baby Shark” became a global phenomenon after Pinkfong’s YouTube video exploded, boasting roughly 16 billion views by 2025 and standing as the most watched YouTube video of all time. It reached No. 32 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2019 and was the first YouTube video to cross 10 billion views in 2022. The song sparked social media trends, like the #BabySharkChallenge.
“Baby Shark” remains a major revenue driver for Pinkfong, earning $32.6M in the first half of 2025. The brand has grown into TV and Netflix series, films, apps, and even a collaboration with SeaWorld. |
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Millions Invested to Fix a Broken Food System |
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Sports, Entertainment, & Culture |
> The 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and Paralympics to sell naming rights to the competition venues, a first for the Olympic Games (More) | The challenge of hosting the Olympics (1440 Topics) |
> LL Cool J tapped to host 2025 MTV Video Music Awards (Sept. 7); will be simulcast on CBS, along with MTV and Paramount+, for first time (More) |
> The 2025-26 English Premier League season kicks off today; see predicted order of finish and previews for all 20 teams (More) | NBA approves sale of Boston Celtics to private equity mogul Bill Chisholm at a $6.1B valuation, a record price for an American sports team (More) |
Frank Lloyd Wright: Tomorrow's 1440 Society & Culture newsletter explores the life and works of the iconic architect. Subscribe here! |
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In partnership with GutterSafe |
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> Leaked internal Meta document reveals the company's AI chatbots were allowed to engage in "sensual" or "romantic" conversations with minors; company says it has since struck the guideline; see investigative report (More) |
> AI drug discovery platform helps researchers sift through tens of millions of potential drug compounds to identify new classes of antibiotics; two candidates cleared drug-resistant gonorrhea and staph infections in mice (More) | How superbugs evolve (1440 Topics) |
> Scientists create new stable carbon structure, the first such demonstration since "buckyballs"—ball-shaped arrangements of 60 carbon atoms—in 1990 (More) |
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> US stock markets close near flatline (S&P 500 +0.0%, Dow -0.0%, Nasdaq -0.0%) as US producer price index—key inflation metric tracking wholesale product prices—shows 0.9% rise in July, the highest monthly gain in three years (More) |
> Average US 30-year fixed mortgage rate drops to 6.58%, the lowest level since October (More) | Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway reveals roughly $1.6B stake in UnitedHealth (More) |
> Nearly 16% of venture-backed deals in 2025 so far have been down rounds, when a startup raises money at a lower valuation than in its previous funding round; figure marks a decade high, per new data (More) | Venture capital explained using Lego bricks (1440 Topics) |
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> California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) will call a special election Nov. 4 to vote on redrawn maps in an effort to secure five more Democratic House seats in midterms; follows Texas' plan to redistrict in favor of Republicans (More) |
> Florida announces new $6M detention center, "Deportation Depot," opening in two weeks; will house over 1,300 people (More) | Supreme Court allows Mississippi law requiring social media to verify children's ages to stay in effect for now (More) |
> Tropical Storm Erin expected to reach hurricane strength later today, with winds of at least 74 mph—first hurricane of 2025 Atlantic season; see path (More) | How we track hurricanes (1440 Topics) |
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> An Inside Look at Rationalist Cults
Asterisk Magazine | Ozy Brennan. A self-described rationalist investigates why so many who subscribe to the ideology succumb to isolated—and increasingly violent—groups. (Read)
> The Marijuana-Schizophrenia Connection
Smithsonian Magazine | Lillian Ali. Schizophrenia associated with cannabis use nearly tripled after Canada legalized the drug for nonmedical use in 2018. Does the mind-altering drug trigger psychosis, or are other factors at play? (Read) |
> Under Antarctica's Ice
SciShow | Stefan Chin. Land, liquid, and life have all been found under the continent's thick sheets of ice. Precious metals, too. Learn how scientists made these discoveries. (Watch)
> How Much for 'The Starry Night'?
The Economics of Everyday Things | Zachary Crockett. Vincent van Gogh's iconic painting has been at New York City's Museum of Modern Art since 1941. No one knows how much it's worth. Is there any way to put a number on it? (Listen) |
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Humanity’s Food Infrastructure Is a Trap |
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