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Nvidia may backstop up to $250 billion in OpenAI borrowing to build the next wave of AI infrastructure, while mediators report meaningful progress toward ending the U.S.-Iran war after nearly two weeks of fighting.
Elsewhere, a deadly shooting at Seattle's Bite of Seattle festival raises new questions, Apple reclaims the world's top market valuation, and researchers revive one of medicine's oldest antibiotics.
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The Big Read
Nvidia May Backstop Up to $250 Billion in OpenAI Debt
Nvidia and OpenAI are talking about an arrangement worth as much as $250 billion that would let OpenAI borrow against Nvidia's credit rating. The cash would build a massive data center campus in Pike County, Ohio — one of several sites OpenAI needs for its next generation of models.
Here's the strange part. Nvidia would effectively be guaranteeing borrowing by its largest customer, a customer that will then turn around and spend the money on Nvidia chips. Critics have been muttering for months about AI's capital plumbing looping back on itself. This deal is the loudest example yet.
Court Papers Say Three Shooters Hit Seattle Festival
Court documents now say at least three separate shooters opened fire at the crowded Bite of Seattle festival near the Space Needle. Police confirmed three people died in the chaos, including one of the suspects.
Investigators are still piecing together how a sunny summer food festival turned suddenly deadly. Detectives have released no motive so far, and the surviving suspects remain at large.
Mediators See a Path to Halting the Iran War
Mediators reported real, tangible movement toward stopping the two-week war between the US and Iran, even as swarms of drones kept rattling the Gulf overnight. Qatari and Pakistani channels quietly pushed both sides back toward the negotiating table, aiming to head off a wider and far bloodier regional war.
Both militaries have now paused their strikes after nearly two weeks of relentless escalation. Oil markets exhaled almost at once, with crude sliding hard on the first genuine sign of de-escalation.
World View
Congo Ebola Death Toll Passes 1,400 as Vaccine Trials Begin
The Democratic Republic of Congo's Ebola outbreak has climbed past 1,400 deaths out of 3,200 confirmed infections — a fatality rate close to one in two. Scientists have begun testing the first vaccines against the rare Bundibugyo strain, for which no approved shot exists.
Vietnamese Cargo Ship Sinks in South China Sea, 15 Missing
Fifteen sailors are missing after a Vietnamese cargo vessel went down in heavily disputed waters, with China saying it rescued 47 crew members. It's one of the most militarized shipping lanes on earth, where every rescue quickly turns into a jurisdictional argument.
Asian Buyers Race to Cut Reliance on Imported Fuel
Developing Asian nations, burned by supply shocks from the Iran war, are scrambling to reduce their dependence on imported LNG and other Middle East–linked fuels. Bad news for LNG exporters that had been betting on Asia as their long-term growth market.
Need To Know
Charges to Be Dropped Against Labor Leader David Huerta
Federal prosecutors are moving to dismiss charges against labor leader David Huerta, whose arrest during a Los Angeles immigration raid last summer sparked weeks of protests against the Trump administration's crackdown. The case had become a rallying point for immigrant rights groups across California.
Transit Grants Approved by Congress Sit Unspent
Congress appropriated billions for major transit projects. The Trump administration has been slow-walking the approvals needed to release the money. Cities from Phoenix to Raleigh have shovels ready and no funding, delaying projects that were already years in planning.
Trump Account Signups Reach 7 Million Kids
About 7 million American children have been enrolled in Trump Accounts, the government-seeded savings vehicles created under last year's tax law, per a Treasury tally. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called it "the most successful launch in government history."
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Money & Markets
Apple Reclaims Title of World's Most Valuable Company
Apple is on track for its best month against the Nasdaq-100 in more than two decades, a rally that has vaulted the iPhone maker back to the top of the global market-cap leaderboard. A rare stretch of outperformance after two years of watching AI-heavy rivals steal the show.
Porsche to Cut One in Five Jobs by 2035
Porsche will eliminate roughly 9,000 positions by 2035 — about a fifth of its workforce — as slumping China sales and a bumpier-than-expected EV transition squeeze the sports-car maker. Management and labor agreed on 5,000 of the cuts while avoiding forced layoffs.
Cracker Barrel CEO Julie Masino Steps Down
Cracker Barrel CEO Julie Masino is leaving the company nearly a year after a rebranded logo triggered a political backlash and cries of "woke" from conservative commentators. The chain reversed the design within days, but the episode dented sales and never quite went away.
Future Frontiers
New Monkey Species Discovered in Congo Rainforest
A research team working deep in the Democratic Republic of Congo has identified a previously unknown species of monkey, a rare formal addition to the primate family tree. New primates turn up maybe once a decade — a reminder of how much of the tropics is still genuinely unmapped.
Old Antibiotic Vancomycin Made Lethal Again Against Superbugs
Researchers have engineered a small molecule that restores vancomycin's ability to kill resistant bacteria by blocking a key enzyme superbugs use to evade it. Reviving existing drugs is far cheaper than inventing new ones, and vancomycin resistance has been a slow-motion hospital crisis for years.
Quantum Heat Waves Observed at Room Temperature
Physicists have detected wavelike heat transport called phonon focusing at room temperature for the first time — something previously seen only in ultra-cold labs. Better control of heat at that scale could improve thermal management in chips and quantum computers alike.
The Score
Ronald Acuña Jr. Activated as Braves Chase NL East
The Atlanta Braves have activated Ronald Acuña Jr. from the injured list as the once-floundering club claws back into the NL East race. Atlanta has picked up three and a half games on Philadelphia since the All-Star break.
Andrea Pirlo Out of Italy Job Over Russian Betting Ties
Andrea Pirlo has been dropped from consideration for Italy's head coaching job after backlash over his links to a Russian betting firm. The Italian Football Federation returns to its coaching search after a third straight World Cup qualifying failure.
Buffalo Bills Unveil 'Nickel City' Alternate Uniforms
The Buffalo Bills have revealed a new "Nickel City" alternate uniform the team says honors Western New York's industrial past. Alternate jerseys are where NFL clubs do their loudest branding these days, and Buffalo just cranked the volume.
Life & Culture
Carly Simon Reveals Parkinson's Diagnosis
Singer-songwriter Carly Simon, 83, has disclosed that she's living with Parkinson's disease and also had surgery for basal cell carcinoma on her face. Simon said the procedures have made her self-conscious about being seen in public.
BuzzFeed to Lay Off 35% After Byron Allen Takeover
BuzzFeed is cutting roughly 35% of its employees and contractors on the heels of a deal to sell a controlling stake to entertainment mogul Byron Allen. The latest chapter in the long, slow deflation of the digital-media boom that once made BuzzFeed a category leader.
Tribeca Festival Data Leak Exposes Celebrity Contacts
A Tribeca Festival data leak has exposed hundreds of thousands of records, including personal contact information for Robert De Niro, Jennifer Lawrence, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and Angelina Jolie. A cybersecurity researcher found the trove, which appears to have sat unsecured for some time.
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Deep Dive
Why Restarting a Dead Nuclear Reactor Is So Hard
What it is: The first U.S. attempt to reopen a shuttered nuclear reactor — the Palisades plant in southwest Michigan — is running well behind schedule, exposing just how hard it is to bring a mothballed reactor back to life.
The detail: When a plant closes, its specialized workforce scatters, spare-parts pipelines shut down, and equipment quietly rots in place. The Palisades restart has been slowed by run-down hardware and a lack of advance planning for problems that only surfaced once engineers started inspecting the site. Engineers have also had to replace aging components, verify decades-old systems still meet modern safety standards, and recruit workers with expertise that has become increasingly difficult to find after years of industry contraction. Each unexpected repair has added time and cost to a project once seen as a model for quickly reviving retired nuclear capacity.
Why it matters: Reviving old reactors is central to the pitch that nuclear can quickly meet surging electricity demand from AI data centers and electrification. If the pilot drags on and blows through its budget, it complicates the case that dormant plants elsewhere can be flipped back on as a cheap, fast source of clean power. Utilities, investors and policymakers are watching closely because Palisades could become the blueprint — or the cautionary tale — for future restart efforts across the country.
What to watch: The Palisades timeline, its final price tag, and how federal regulators handle the inspections. Every delay makes the economics of restarts look shakier — and pushes utilities toward building new reactors or, more likely, more gas. A successful restart, however, could encourage owners of other retired plants to pursue similar projects, making Palisades one of the most consequential energy tests in the United States.
Extra Bits
"Dr Death" spent his life turning corpses into art — now, at 81, he's the museum's newest permanent installation.
A Dutch run club in Bali kept "forgetting" to invite Indonesians, so Bali gave them one final sprint: straight to the airport.
Cracker Barrel's CEO is rocking off into the sunset a year after a logo redesign so cursed it out-raged the entire internet.
Today’s Trivia
Mel Blanc voiced nearly every major Looney Tunes character — often appearing in the same cartoon, talking to himself. Which characters did he NOT voice?
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