What's on Your Mind?

After months of uncertainty, some federal student loan borrowers will soon have their debt canceled. But there’s a hook: You must be enrolled in a very specific program and have made sufficient payments to qualify. Some borrowers have been receiving notices in recent weeks that read: “You are now eligible to have some or all of your federal student loan(s) discharged because you have reached the necessary number of payments under your Income-Based Repayment (IBR) Plan.” The IBR plan, first introduced in 2007, offers debt cancellation after 20 or 25 years of repayment, depending on the age of the loans. Nearly 2 million borrowers were enrolled in this program as o…

Tell me: Do things like this ever happen to you? You have clarity of purpose. You know what you need. You walk into another room to get it. Then, distraction hits, and you forget entirely what prompted you. Or else, you search the house for your car keys or your glasses, or your wallet. A good 10 minutes later, you realize they’ve been with you the whole time. You sit down to write an article about an intriguing study having to do with memory—if only you could remember what it was. Yes, these are highly personal anecdotes. But like all the best stories, I hope they’re simply the unique expression of universal truths. Perhaps second only to the fear of d…

David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance is seen as the top contender to buy Warner Bros Discovery, with analysts and experts saying the tech scion’s access to deep pockets and Washington ties give him an edge in what could be the media industry’s biggest merger in years. Fresh off the Paramount-Skydance deal in August, the newly minted media mogul is eyeing one of Hollywood’s prized assets that is home to HBO, Warner Bros Studio and a streaming unit with more than 120 million subscribers. His $60 billion approach was rejected by Warner Bros Discovery on Tuesday, Reuters first reported. But the company has put a for-sale sign and attracted other potential suitors includ…

Travelers through some of the busiest U.S. airports can expect to learn Thursday whether they’ll see fewer flights as the government shutdown drags into a second month. The Federal Aviation Administration will announce the 40 “high-volume markets” where it is reducing flights by 10% before the cuts go into effect Friday, said agency administrator Bryan Bedford. The move is intended to keep the air space safe during the shutdown, the agency said. Experts predict hundreds if not thousands of flights could be canceled. The cuts could represent as many as 1,800 flights and upwards of 268,000 seats combined, according to an estimate by aviation analytics firm Cirium. “I’m n…

Shares in language learning platform Duolingo, Inc. (Nasdaq: DUOL) are plummeting this morning. As of this writing, the stock is down a staggering 25% in premarket trading. That cliff edge comes after the company reported strong Q3 numbers yesterday. So what’s the reason for today’s fall? Here’s what you need to know. Duolingo reports a strong Q3 2025 By nearly every metric, Duolingo had a strong third quarter, which ended on September 30, 2025. Here are the key metrics the company reported for its Q3: Daily Active Users: 50.5 million (up 36% year over year) Monthly Active Users: 135.3 million (up 20% YOY) Paid Subscribers: 11.5 million (up 34% YOY)…

You may have seen warnings that Google is telling all of its users to change their Gmail passwords due to a breach. That’s only partly true. Google is telling users to change their passwords, but not because of a breach that exposed them. In fact, Google’s real advice is to stop using your password altogether. Here’s what I mean. The breach traces back to Salesforce, whose systems were compromised by the hacker group known as ShinyHunters (also tracked as UNC6040). Attackers obtained business-related Gmail data, including contact lists, company associations, and email metadata. No actual Gmail account credentials were stolen, but the nature of the stolen data makes ph…

Dole invented a new fruit. The Dole Colada Royale Pineapple is sweet and tangy with notes of coconut and, as the name suggests, piña colada. Unlike its golden yellow counterpart, the Colada Royale has a cream-colored pulp with a green-to-golden shell. It also took more than 15 years to get it just right. The suggested recipes the company released with the new fruit include snacks like a pineapple and coconut carpaccio and a basil-wrapped pineapple with pine zest. Clearly this is meant to be a luxury pineapple experience. The fruit, which is now available in select grocery stores in the U.S. and Canada, is 100% non-GMO and naturally bred. The company didn’t share i…

Senate Republicans are moving to try to end the government shutdown by preparing a new bipartisan package of spending bills and daring Democrats to vote for it, but it was unclear if their plan would work. Many Democrats said they would continue to hold out for an extension of expiring health care subsidies, which was not expected to be part of the legislation. Senate Democrats, who have now voted 14 times not to reopen the government, left their second caucus meeting of the week Thursday with few answers about whether they eventually could find a compromise with Republicans — or even with each other — on how to end the shutdown. A test vote on the new package, which h…

Ice cream maker Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream Company has issued a voluntary recall of select Häagen-Dazs Chocolate Dark Chocolate Mini Bars after discovering they might have wheat in them. An investigation is underway, but Dreyer’s believes that food with wheat was put in the wrong packaging at the start of a production run, according to its announcement, published by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). There are no related illnesses or injuries as of Dreyer’s announcement on Monday, November 3. As Dreyer’s states, “Those with an allergy or severe sensitivity to wheat run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they consume these product…

The United States has about 640 million acres of public land, covering national parks to conservation areas and wild rivers to lake shores. These lands contain resources like oil and gas reserves, or minerals like lithium and copper that could be mined. But they’re also home to hiking trails, camping sites, fishing spots, and all sorts of outdoor recreational activities—activities that contribute billions of dollars to our economy. Outdoor recreation specifically on federal public lands and waters generates $128 billion in economic activity every year, according to a new report by the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable (ORR), a coalition of trade associations and out…

Yesterday, Tesla, Inc. (Nasdaq: TSLA) shareholders overwhelmingly approved the controversial and historic pay package deal for the electric vehicle maker’s CEO, Elon Musk. That package is worth up to nearly $1 trillion in compensation for Musk—provided the company reaches certain milestones. But if those milestones are met, it would make Musk, already the world’s richest man, the world’s first trillionaire. Here’s what you need to know about the historic pay package and how investors and Tesla’s shares are reacting to the news. What’s in Musk’s historic Tesla pay deal? At Tesla’s investor meeting yesterday, over three-quarters of shareholders voted to approve M…

As the longest government shutdown in U.S. history continues, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has ordered flight reductions at 40 major airports, including Atlanta, New York, Boston, and Los Angeles. The move begins with affecting 4% of flights, with plans to ramp up to impact 1 in 10 flights at those airports, disrupting travel plans for thousands of Americans every day. But Patriotic Millionaires, a group of high-net-worth individuals who advocate for more progressive taxes in order to close the wealth gap, is suggesting an alternative that it says would spare commercial airline passengers and still offer relief for air traffic controllers: Just canc…

When fewer people belong to unions and unions have less power, the impact goes beyond wages and job security. Those changes can hurt public health and make people more unhappy. We’re economists who research labor and health issues. Those are two of the main findings of studies that we have conducted. More unionization, more happiness In the first study on this topic that we published in 2023, we found that increasing levels of union membership tends to make working-class people happier. We zeroed in on a question in the General Social Survey, which the University of Chicago makes available. It asks respondents to choose whether they are “very happy,” “somew…

Two months ago, Apple released iOS 26 for the iPhone. The new operating system includes several productivity and other enhancements, but the main feature is a new design language called Liquid Glass. The flat, minimalist look of iOS that lasted for more than a decade is gone, replaced by a transparent interface of toolbars and buttons that mimic how light bends and warps as it passes through glass. Those who appreciate the new look of iOS often praise Liquid Glass as refreshing and unique, saying it gives the iPhone’s software a sense of fluidity that other touch interfaces lack. Others argue that Liquid Glass’s transparent elements make the device harder to use, as t…

“You really have to stand up for yourself.” That’s the message Shark Tank star Barbara Corcoran sent loud and clear in a recent interview she gave LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky. The interview is full of powerful lessons from Corcoran’s life, but one story stood head and shoulders above the rest: The time Shark Tank fired her, before she taped a single episode. Corcoran said she received a call from a woman asking her to be on a new show called Shark Tank. Ecstatic, Corcoran agreed. She immediately went on a shopping spree, buying new outfits and autograph-signing materials. “I’m going to Hollywood!” she excitedly told her friends. Then, Corcoran got a dreadf…

A business owner I know tends to only hire people in their twenties, under the assumption they bring new life into his business: new ideas, new innovations, new skills. And he’s sometimes right, especially in the specific. But in general? Science says his hiring approach is probably wrong. In a review of studies published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, researchers found that the age at which scientists and inventors reach their moment of “genius” is increasing: while the average age used to be younger, the majority now make their biggest contributions to their field after the age of 40. As the researchers write: This research consiste…

This weekend, U.S. travelers began to feel the initial impact of flight reductions mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), a plan designed to help compensate for the understaffing of air traffic controllers due to the ongoing government shutdown. On Sunday, more than 13,000 U.S. flights were canceled or delayed, and things are only going to get worse this week as the total percentage of flights reduced each day is mandated to reach 10% of all U.S. air traffic by Friday. But the pain might not end there. Now, the U.S. transportation secretary has warned that air traffic could slow to a trickle ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday. Here’s what you…

With his tariff policies potentially under threat from the Supreme Court, President The President over the weekend took to Truth Social to float the idea of doling out a $2,000 “dividend” to every person in America who is not high income. Although experts have expressed doubt about the fiscal feasibility of such a proposal—and The President’s own treasury secretary conceded that he knew of no such plan to send out checks—The President’s post is likely to spark a fresh wave of unsourced news stories designed to induce clicks and raise false hopes among millions of Americans who could actually use a stimulus boost. Here’s what to know: What did The President p…

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a call to overturn its landmark decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. The justices, without comment, turned away an appeal from Kim Davis, the former Kentucky court clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples after the high court’s 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges. Davis had been trying to get the court to overturn a lower-court order for her to pay $360,000 in damages and attorney’s fees to a couple denied a marriage license. Her lawyers repeatedly invoked the words of Justice Clarence Thomas, who alone among the nine justices has called for erasing the same-sex marriage ruling. Thomas was a…

Think. Create. Change. These three verbs are the driving force behind the World Changing Ideas Summit, a first-of-its-kind event created in partnership with Fast Company and Johns Hopkins University (JHU). This November 19 at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center in Washington, D.C., the World Changing Ideas Summit will convene academics and senior business leaders for a day of immersive, thought-provoking experiences designed to advance America’s innovation ecosystem. From dynamic panels to interactive innovation showcases to hands-on breakout sessions, the World Changing Ideas Summit aims to go beyond dialogue and inspire action. “The World Changing…

In 2010, Phil Gilbert was a longtime startup entrepreneur when IBM acquired the software company he ran. The “slower, process-oriented culture” was a struggle for someone who was used to the faster pace of startup life, he writes in his new book, Irrestible Change: A Blueprint for Earning Buy-In and Breakout Success. When IBM tapped him to lead a transformation of the company, it was a daunting task. Over the next few years, Gilbert guided IBM’s shift toward design-thinking and re-trained thousands of employees to work differently, all without mandating a thing. Today, he sees corporate mandates as pointless: They don’t work, he says. And yet, they’re ubiquitous—take …

It looks more like a racing yacht than a cargo ship. But this new 100% wind-powered vessel will soon begin bringing goods from Europe to the U.S.—and could make deliveries faster than conventional cargo ships. Vela, a French startup, pulled technology from the racing world to make the vessel run as fast as possible. It’s a trimaran, meaning it has three hulls, which helps it cut through water efficiently. The wide, stable shape allows it to carry large sails. As in racing yachts, the mast is made from carbon fiber, and the sails are made of high-performance fabric designed for strength. The ship also uses navigation tech developed for racing to help route toward ideal…

A few years ago, when I was working at a traditional law firm, the partners gathered with us with barely any excitement. “Rejoice,” they announced, unveiling our new AI assistant that would make legal work faster, easier, and better. An expert was brought in to train us on dashboards and automation. Within months, her enthusiasm had curdled into frustration as lawyers either ignored the expensive tool or, worse, followed its recommendations blindly. That’s when I realized: we weren’t learning to use AI. AI was learning to use us. Many traditional law firms have rushed to adopt AI decision support tools for client selection, case assessment, and strategy developmen…

The longest government shutdown in history could conclude as soon as Wednesday, Day 43, with almost no one happy with the final result. Democrats didn’t get the heath insurance provisions they demanded added to the spending deal. And Republicans, who control the levers of power in Washington, didn’t escape blame, according to polls and some state and local elections that went poorly for them. The fallout of the shutdown landed on millions of Americans, including federal workers who went without paychecks and airline passengers who had their trips delayed or canceled. An interruption in nutrition assistance programs contributed to long lines at food banks and added emoti…

Circle Internet Group released its third-quarter earnings on Wednesday, November 12, announcing a 66% jump in revenue and reserve income year-over-year (YOY). The $740 million figure stemmed, in large part, from a 97% increase YOY of average USDC in circulation. USDC, Circle’s flagship cryptocurrency stablecoin, is pegged to the U.S. dollar. It’s also one of the largest stablecoins in the world. In August, Circle announced Arc, a public blockchain designed specifically for stablecoins, such as USDC. In the earnings report, Circle claimed that over 100 companies are taking part in the launch of Arc public testnet. Jeremy Allaire, cofounder, CEO, and chairman…