Next Chancellor of Germany?

Poland is reportedly fortifying border crossings with Ukraine after Russian drone strikes hit just miles from its frontier guard posts.

South Korean court orders North Korea to pay $32.5 million for blowing up an inter-Korean liaison office in 2020.

Treasurt Sec. Scott Bessent to meet with Chinese counterpart He Lifeng in New York ahead of the Trump-Xi summit.

House overwhelmingly approves the Tax Relief for Fraud Victims Act.

DOJ charges 5 alleged members of a Russian intelligence network accused of plotting assassinations in the U.S. & financing terrorism abroad.

New Hampshire man returns a magazine 132 years overdue after learning his library had frozen late fees, sparing him a $12,055 fine.

Mark Zuckerberg reveals Meta delayed its Muse AI agent for months over safety concerns.

Chinese company unveils a lifelike robotic fish that could blend in with real fish during underwater surveillance.

Scientific study reveals more experienced ayahuasca users report lower depression scores, lower alcohol use, & greater spiritual wellbeing.

Boston dumps Flock cameras, vows to never use its services again after a vendor error exposed license plate data to police nationwide.

Co-inventor of ChatGPT launches new AI startup which claims to be up to 200x faster, plans to forever charge $0 for output tokens.

Looksmaxxer Clavicular takes the stage at the All-In Summit, addressing an audience of tech founders, business leaders, and investors.

Meta reportedly plans to launch camera-free “Luna” smart glasses this fall.

Senate votes 74-24 to advance a bipartisan bill regulating college sports, including athlete compensation & transfers.

Dario Amodei attends Salesforce’s Dreamforce conference to discuss AI’s business potential, days after warning of existential risks from the technology.

Only 18 House Democrats vote to kill a resolution to impeach President Trump.

OpenAI is reportedly weighing a funding round at a valuation of roughly $1,200,000,000,000.00 ahead of its IPO.

Howard Lutnick & Pentagon CTO Emil Michael reportedly met virtually with Anthropic executive Tom Brown to discuss AI safety risks.

Bernie Sanders urges Trump to negotiate an AI superintelligence ban with China’s Xi.

U.S. announces new visa restrictions targeting foreign nationals involved in race-based discrimination against Afrikaners & other minority groups in South Africa.

Nvidia’s Jensen Huang to reportedly attend Trump’s state dinner for Xi Jinping next week.

CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou stuns in his New York Fashion Week runway debut.

Haitian gang member with 17+ convictions who went viral shouting “I’m not going back to Haiti!” during his ICE arrest has reportedly been deported to Haiti.

Zohran Mamdani becomes the first New York City mayor to march in Sunset Park’s Mexican Independence Day Parade.

9-year-old boy reportedly spends $118,000 on YouTube ads promoting his Minecraft videos using his dad’s company credit card.

Trump now projected to meet with Venezuelan Interim President Delcy Rodríguez by end of year. 69% chance.

DOJ charges 12 people in an alleged $10+ million California daycare fraud scheme, with defendants from Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan, Iraq, and Somalia.

Finneas, Lukas Graham, Aaron Rowe, & Beoga drop out of Ed Sheeran’s tour in solidarity with Macklemore after his removal over pro-Palestine remarks.

AI agents lied, stole, & voted to “kill” another AI to survive during a 16-day simulation conducted by startup Emergence.

NATO fighter jets shoot down a drone over Lithuania that “probably originated from Russia,” according to Italy’s defense minister.

Trump administration plans a $2,800,000,000.00 weapons sale to Israel, the largest single sale of the munitions in years. — WaPo

U.S. data centers are projected to consume more natural gas than all of Germany & Japan combined by 2035.

Coinbase stock plunges -9%.

U.S. Senate fails to advance the Clarity Act. Now just a 7% chance it becomes law by end of year.

SpaceX announces Starship will attempt to orbit Earth for the first time on September 22.

Michael Burry accuses OpenAI & Anthropic of pushing calls to slow AI development because “slowing benefits incumbents.”

Chinese robots have begun building other Chinese robots, as a new factory capable of producing 1 humanoid every 10 minutes comes online.

Saudi Arabia cancels oil shipments to Europe after drone attacks damaged its key East-West pipeline.

New FBI files reveal Thomas Crooks repeatedly accessed 4 encrypted email accounts hosted in Belgium before the Trump assassination attempt.

Elon Musk reveals he’s currently living in an Airstream trailer while personally overseeing SpaceXAI’s massive data center buildout in Memphis.

UK’s Chester Zoo blames a computer error after its booking system briefly advertised tickets for a “Child Predator Tour” — instead of a child ticket for its predator experience.

New historical research reveals the phrase “all roads lead to Rome” was effectively a myth, with Constantinople far more central to the Roman Empire’s vast road network.

FAA requests $16,000,000,000.00 from Congress to modernize air traffic control.

Trump weighs in on the Flock camera debate, declaring “I like them.”

Two Robinhood engineers are reportedly charged with commodities & wire fraud for allegedly insider trading on Hyperliquid.

The number of single young men in the U.S. has surged to a record high, as the “male loneliness epidemic” intensifies.

Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent backs Trump’s proposed $5,000 checks for American adults, saying there are ways to do it “that would not affect the deficit.”

Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud invites Macklemore to perform a free city-sponsored concert, telling him “you’re always welcome in Dearborn” after his removal from Ed Sheeran’s tour for anti-Israel remarks.

Justin Bieber emerges as the frontrunner to perform at the 2027 Super Bowl, edging Harry Styles. 41% chance.

Japanese giant Hitachi Energy announces a $528 million Mississippi manufacturing expansion, its largest U.S. investment ever, creating 654 jobs.

Trump alleges the Butler assassination attempt was part of a “Democrat Plot” to remove him from the 2024 election.

James Talarico surges to an all-time high in the Texas Senate race, as Democrats seek to flip a seat Republicans have dominated for decades. 56% chance.

Brother of the Lindsay Clancy holdout juror reveals the family “cannot leave the house” after being relentlessly harassed by true-crime fanatics & reporters.

Meta launches “Meta One,” subscription service offering enhanced AI features across Instagram, Facebook, & WhatsApp, starting at $2.99 per month.

FDA holds major public hearing on psychedelic medicine, weighing how treatments like psilocybin & ibogaine could be safely approved and administered.

Investor George Noble warns AI could trigger “the biggest reallocation of capital in history” as spending surges across the technology sector.

AG Todd Blanche rejects “regulation by prosecution” for AI, saying the DOJ will only pursue companies or executives when there is a clear violation of existing law.

SpaceXAI begins livestreaming a demo of building an entire company from scratch with Grok Bot.

Married couples who keep separate surnames are about 50% more likely to divorce & tend to split around 30% earlier. — Institute for Family Studies

Miami Int'l Airport unveils a new private terminal where travelers can pay thousands for separate security, luxury suites, and BMW rides directly to their commercial flight.

Memphis crime plunges 36% year-over-year, with murders down 44%, robberies down 43%, & vehicle thefts down 57%.

Bitcoin plunges below $76,000 as investors brace for a key Senate vote on the Clarity Act.

Sam Altman teases major OpenAI releases this week & at DevDay later this month, despite rapidly growing calls for the industry to slow frontier AI progress.

Villagers in India allegedly tied a technician to a cell tower and refused to release him, demanding that years of bad phone service finally be fixed.

Federal records reveal an "anonymous donor" paid for attempted Trump assassin Thomas Crooks' cremation after the 2024 Butler shooting.

U.S. housing affordability falls to its worst level on record, with the income needed to buy a median-priced home surging to roughly $123,000.

OpenAI reveals it has been working with Anthropic & Google DeepMind for "several weeks" on coordinated AI safety efforts.