A newly released study found that the biological age of a human brain plays a major role in a person’s longevity, even more so than the biological age of other organs or muscle tissue.
ECONOMIC UPDATE—MARKET OVERVIEW
As the old saying goes; “You can’t make this shit up.” But as we have detailed since Donald Trump won the race to the White House in 2024, with every passing day—from the Tariff War to the Israel War, to the Ukraine War to the Yemen War, to the Iran War—another day, another promise and another broken promise.
WE HAVE A BIG PROBLEM…AND I MEAN BIG
If you have been with me for any length of time, then you have heard me say this: NOTHING IS AS IT APPEARS TO BE.
SPOTLIGHT: CRYPTO GOES MAINSTREAM
Crypto services company BitGo, stablecoin issuer Circle, and Ripple, a crypto payments business, have applied to be chartered as U.S. banks, the Financial Times reported.
AI RULES FOR THEE
Google is set to begin enforcing new rules that will likely demonetize a significant amount of content on its YouTube video platform created with AI tools.
ISRAEL ACCELERATES DEMOLITION IN RAFAH TO PREPARE TO HOUSE GAZANS IN CONCENTRATION CAMPS
Israeli forces have ramped up the demolition in Rafah, the city in southern Gaza, to prepare for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new initiative to forcefully move 600,000 Palestinians there to create what he envisions as a “humanitarian city,” which critics have compared to a “concentration camp.”
RUSSIA’S LAVROV CONDEMNS THE U.S./ISRAEL FOR THEIR UNLAWFUL ATTACKS ON IRAN’S NUKE SITES
Russia spoke out against the Israel/U.S. war of aggression against Iran last month and condemned the use of military force as a “violation of the UN Charter and international law.”
Global Economy
SPOTLIGHT: BIGS GETTING BIGGER
Merck, the New Jersey drug giant, is paying $107 a share, or about $10 billion, to acquire Verona Pharma, a London company that makes a respiratory treatment that could bring $4 billion in annual sales in the next decade.
SPECIAL REPORT: TRUMP’S TARIFF WAR
Last week, Donald Trump posted new take-it-or-leave it tariff letters to more than 14 countries on his social media platform and warned Mexico and the European Union that they were in line for a 30-percent blanket tariff if Trump was displeased with the outcome of current negotiations.
SPOTLIGHT: CHINA’S ECONOMIC UPS AND DOWNS
In June, the prices China’s factories charge for their products fell the most in two years as the U.S.-China trade war continues and domestic competitors are locked in a vicious price war to hold their shares of a shrinking market.
The Israel War
AUSTRALIA TAPS ZIONIST LOBBYIST TO CENSOR FREE SPEECH
The Australian government raised concerns about free speech in the country after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese moved to crack down on what he sees as a surge of antisemitism by tapping a Zionist lobbyist as his Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism.
GAZA DEATH TOLL
Israel has killed at least 58,386 Palestinians inside Gaza, and 139,077 have been wounded since the start of the genocide after the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023. At least 11,000 people are missing.
DEMEANED AS “TERROR GROUP,” UK POLICE ARREST CITIZENS FOR PROTESTING ISRAEL GENOCIDE
London’s Metropolitan Police arrested more than 70 people who took part in a protest on Saturday in support of the Palestine Action group, which was recently named a terrorist organization after its activists broke into a base in Oxfordshire, England, last month and damaged two Royal Air Force planes using red paint and clubs, according to a report.
Trends in AI
EXACTLY WHICH JOBS WILL AI TAKE FIRST?
AI will slash Amazon’s white-collar workforce in the years ahead, CEO Andy Jassy wrote in a staff memo last month.
CHINA IS GAINING ON THE U.S. IN THE GLOBAL AI RACE
A growing number of businesses and universities in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East are adopting DeepSeek and other AI systems from Chinese developers and turning away from U.S. models, The Wall Street Journal reported.
MAJOR BANK FIELDS SQUADS OF “DIGITAL EMPLOYEES”
The Bank of New York Mellon (BNY) has “hired” dozens of AI bots as “digital employees” who work alongside humans as colleagues, Leigh-Ann Russell, the bank’s CIO, told The Wall Street Journal.
Hi-Tech Science
ONE-STEP METHOD GROWS AN ALTERNATIVE TO PLASTIC
Plastic’s drawbacks are well-documented: it’s made from crude oil, it’s troublesome to recycle, the rising tide of waste clogs our landfills, littering our waterways and endangering wildlife, and its microparticles make their way into our food, our bodies, and our brains.
ZAPPED BY WEAK ELECTRIC PULSES, PARALYZED RATS WALK AGAIN
At the University of Auckland in New Zealand, rats paralyzed by spinal cord injuries are walking again, thanks to a tiny control box they wear like a backpack.
TO END SCREWWORM PLAGUE, U.S. WILL BREED BILLIONS OF SCREWWORM FLIES
Flesh-eating maggots are chewing their way across Mexico and southern Texas. To fight them, the U.S. government is preparing to breed billions of flies and scatter them from airplanes across the affected landscape.
