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HIDDEN TAX BREAKS

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A jury in Oakland federal court began sifting through claims that Meta hooked a generation of children on Facebook and Instagram, in a trial expected to run six weeks. California lead attorney Megan O'Neill told the court "millions" of 11- and 12-year-olds were on Instagram and Meta "did little to keep them off"; Meta's counsel put the figure at just over 100,000 and argued that social-media addiction does not exist as a category.

Twenty-nine states filed the underlying suit in 2023 and are seeking billions in damages plus product changes including the end of like counts and infinite scroll. O'Neill built her opening around internal Meta documents, emails, and chat logs that reach Mark Zuckerberg himself.

South Korea's defense ministry said the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield joint exercise will end six days early on August 21 at the "proposal of the US side," days after Trump ordered the drills "substantially reduced." Foreign Minister Cho Hyun told a parliamentary hearing that neither Korean nor American officials were briefed in advance on Trump's decision.

The field-training portion of the drills will also be "partially reduced in scale," with specifics still being negotiated. US officials told the Wall Street Journal Trump is pushing his aides for a meeting with Kim Jong Un.

Florida voters set up three November headline races: Trump-endorsed Rep. Byron Donalds against Democrat David Jolly for governor, appointed Republican Sen. Ashley Moody against progressive Democratic state Rep. Angie Nixon for Senate, and — in a House upset — Republican Ryan Elijah defeating incumbent Rep. Cory Mills, who is under a House Ethics investigation over domestic-abuse allegations. Nixon beat centrist Democrat Alex Vindman in the Senate primary, and Democrats have not held Florida's governor's mansion since 1999.

Alaska sent Sen. Dan Sullivan into a general-election race against a challenger who shares his name — listed on the ballot as "Daniel J Sullivan, Jr" — while former Rep. Mary Peltola advanced in her Democratic bid to flip the seat. In Wyoming, Trump-endorsed Rep. Harriet Hageman ran for retiring Sen. Cynthia Lummis's seat, and three Republicans battled to succeed term-limited Governor Mark Gordon in a deep-red primary that functions as the general.

Nigeria's electoral commission formally opened campaigning for the 2027 presidential vote on Wednesday, with incumbent Bola Tinubu facing a fractured opposition. Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has moved to the African Democratic Congress, while Labour Party candidate Peter Obi remains a wild card among younger voters.

Prosecutors have identified more than 200 women who accuse French public servant Christian Nègre of covertly dosing them with diuretics so they would urinate on themselves. Two accusers spoke publicly Tuesday, in a case widening the debate over gender-based abuse inside the French state.

An early-morning fire in a Kolkata building that houses multiple hotels and guest houses killed at least nine people and injured six, West Bengal authorities said Wednesday. The death toll could rise as searches continue and firefighters clear structural damage.

Lala re-strengthened into a Category 3 hurricane late Tuesday with 125 mph winds, tracking west-northwest 335 miles south-southeast of Maro Reef. The storm has already knocked out power and damaged homes on the Big Island earlier this week and is moving away from the state.

American Airlines said Tuesday it will add 4K seatback screens across most of its narrow-body fleet, reversing a years-long strategy that pushed passengers to use their phones. First screens land in 2028 on new Boeing and Airbus deliveries, with retrofits to follow across every cabin.

Federal childcare assistance waitlists surged past 400,000 children in the second half of 2025, more than triple the 118,800 waiting in early 2024. The program is now serving about 1.6 million kids monthly, and its pandemic-era relief funding has fully expired.

Crypto exchange Kraken rolled out the Krak Card on Tuesday, a debit card offering up to 2% cash or bitcoin back paid directly as money rather than points. The rate scales with the balance a user holds on the platform, positioning Kraken against Cash App, Venmo, and the mobile-bank super apps.

Hims & Hers CEO Andrew Dudum defended the company against an FTC lawsuit alleging deceptive data and subscription practices, telling CNBC the company is now transitioning from compounded to branded GLP-1s. Dudum said cheaper compounded shots helped push weight-loss prices lower during the shortage.

JPMorgan initiated coverage of Nuvation Bio at overweight and told clients the stock could double as its cancer drug IBTROZI reaches market. Analysts flagged additional pipeline value on top of the initial launch.

OpenAI unveiled ChatGPT for Teens on Tuesday, an under-18 experience with stronger built-in guardrails around self-harm, romantic and sexual content, plus a Study Mode designed to teach rather than answer. Rollout lands amid the Meta child-safety trial and a June Florida AG lawsuit against OpenAI.

Startup Nome is running 80 to 100 diagnostic-plus-therapy reports a month for patients with ultra-rare diseases, and finds a matching programmable or existing therapy about a quarter of the time. The company oversees more than ten genetic-medicine programs and works with 80-plus partners, including La Jolla Labs and Dyno Therapeutics.

NASA engineers have reworked the power systems aboard Voyager 1 and 2, buying the interstellar probes another few years of science into the early 2030s. Not bad for spacecraft launched when Jimmy Carter was in the White House.

Fernando Tatis Jr. leapt above the right-field wall to pull back a Francisco Lindor would-be grand slam in the second inning, then homered twice off Zac Thornton to lead the Padres past the Mets 5-2. The leadoff shot went 452 feet into the second deck and marked Tatis's team-record 18th career leadoff homer.

Bryson Stott's two-run single capped a four-run sixth inning as the Phillies rallied past the Marlins 6-4 for a fifth straight victory. Philadelphia now holds the second NL wild-card spot after sweeping Minnesota and taking the first two from Miami.

Kelsey Mitchell dropped 29 and Caitlin Clark added 24 as the Fever beat the expansion Toronto Tempo 101-95 for their fifth straight win. Duo now has 16 games this season with both scoring 20 or more, breaking the WNBA record Diana Taurasi and Cappie Pondexter set with 15 in Phoenix in 2008.

New Orleans and Dallas' joint practice in Oxnard, California devolved into multiple fights Tuesday, with helmets tossed and Saints tight end Brock Rechsteiner — son of WWE Hall of Famer Scott Steiner — body-slamming a Cowboys player to the turf. Head coaches Brian Schottenheimer and Kellen Moore huddled to decide whether the session could continue.

Zak, Zelda, and Cody Williams reactivated their late father's Instagram account Monday, weeks after his 75th birthday, framing the return as a stand against "rampant AI abuse" of his likeness. "As technology evolves, we want this to be a safe, trusted place," they wrote in a joint statement.

British director John Irvin died August 11 at his sister-in-law's home in the UK at age 86, his producers said. Irvin amassed more than 30 features and three BAFTA nominations, including "Hamburger Hill," "Ghost Story," and the 1979 "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" miniseries.

Felicia Day and Wil Wheaton are launching a 10-episode board-game series called "Conludo", unlocked as fan content for the ongoing Kickstarter for a "Guild" reunion movie that has already raised $5.26 million against a $1.5 million goal. Each episode pairs a topic with a matching board game and invites celebrity guests to play.

What it is: Hangzhou-based Unitree Robotics closed up more than 460% on its Shanghai debut Wednesday, briefly jumping nearly 630% before easing to 845 yuan a share. Unitree raised about 6.1 billion yuan — roughly $905 million — in an IPO backed by Tencent and, at 140.8 million yuan, DeepSeek.

The detail: Unitree makes bipedal humanoid robots with dexterous hands as well as four-legged robots used for hazard detection. Two days before the listing, it unveiled a new humanoid called "Superman" that it claims can jump two meters from a standing position and run at 12.66 meters per second. Product line, backers, and price action all point at a company being treated as the Chinese flagship of the humanoid category.

Why it matters: Unitree is now the second Chinese tech IPO in as many months to explode on Shanghai's STAR Market — memory-chip maker CXMT jumped 466% on its debut in July. Pattern reflects a state-backed push to build hardware champions across AI-adjacent categories where China has long trailed Silicon Valley, and it comes as US-China tech rivalry moves squarely into the physical layer of robotics, memory, and factory automation.

What to watch: Watch whether Unitree can convert the pop into real overseas orders — the units are impressive, but export controls and buyer skepticism about Chinese hardware in Western workflows are open questions. Watch STAR Market for the next humanoid or industrial-robot listing that follows the same script. And watch how US robotics firms like Figure and Boston Dynamics price themselves if they head to market against a Chinese comp valued this richly.

That's today's Five Minute Daily — the essential developments, minus the endless scroll. Share this edition with someone who wants to stay informed, and subscribe to get the next briefing.

—The Five Minute Daily Team