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As nasty tornadoes popped up from Kansas to Kentucky, a depleted National Weather Service was in scramble mode. The agency’s office in Jackson, Kentucky, had begun closing nightly as deep cuts by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency began hitting. But the weather service kept staffers on overtime Friday night to stay on top of the deadly storms, which killed nearly 20 people in the Jackson office’s forecast area. It’s a scenario likely to be repeated as the U.S. is on track to see more tornadoes this year than in 2024, which was the second-busiest tornado year on record. Forecasters said there was at least a 10% risk of tornadoes Tuesday for 10.6 million peop…

This week, the U.S. Tennis Association (USTA) announced that it’s putting the revenue from selling U.S. Open tickets and $23 signature Honey Deuce cocktails toward a new cause: Completing an $800 million renovation of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center (NTC), the sports complex that hosts the annual tennis championship. The renovation represents the single largest investment in U.S. Open history, according to a press release published by the USTA. It will encompass a full transformation of the Arthur Ashe Stadium, where championship games are played, as well as a luxe new player performance center on the NTC’s campus. The work will be spearheaded by the …

The world’s sources of critical minerals are increasingly concentrated in just a few countries, most notably China, leaving the global economy vulnerable to supply cutoffs that could disrupt industry and hit consumers with higher prices, a report said Wednesday. The Paris-based International Energy Agency’s report looked at the availability of minerals and metals that may be small in quantity — but large in impact when it comes to shifting the economy away from fossil fuels toward electricity and renewable energy. It found that for copper, lithium, cobalt, graphite and rare earth elements, the average market share of the three top producing countries rose to 86% in 2024…

Congress may stop California from implementing its first-in-the nation rule banning the sale of new gas powered cars by 2035. A Senate vote expected as soon as this week could end the nation’s most aggressive effort to transition toward electric vehicles as President Donald The President’s administration doubles down on fossil fuels. California makes up roughly 11% of the U.S. car market, giving it significant power to shape purchasing trends. Vehicles are one of the largest sources of planet-warming emissions. The Republican-controlled Congress is targeting three California waivers that set stricter emissions rules than the federal government. The House voted to block…

Workers are stressed over job insecurity with many concerned about the possibility of an impending job loss. And that worry may be taking a toll on employees’ overall mental health—especially for younger workers. According to the American Psychological Association’s 2025 Work in America survey, which recorded online responses from 2,017 employed adults, more than half of American workers are bogged down with worry over their job security. A whopping 54% said concerns about their workplace stability has a “significant impact” on their stress levels. Why workers are concerned The concern appears linked to recent policy changes under the The President administrat…

AI startups are the belle of the VC funding ball, and it’s coming at the expense of pretty much every other type of company. That’s a main takeaway from a report published by Silicon Valley Bank on Tuesday. That report found that roughly 40% of VC funding in the U.S. last year came from venture funds that “list AI as a focus. Those comprise more than 15% of U.S. VC funds—a number that has doubled over the past five years. “Put all together, this reflects not only the investor enthusiasm around the space, but also the funds required to properly deploy into capital-intensive hypergrowth AI startups,” the report reads. And with AI companies sucking up a good perc…

It was perhaps the worst kept secret in Silicon Valley. When he wasn’t running his design firm LoveFrom, Jony Ive was building another new company, just around the corner in San Francisco’s Jackson Square, called io. Focused on the future of AI hardware—what some have oversimplified as the iPhone of AI—io was rumored to be the physical side of OpenAI’s groundbreaking software. Now, the rumors are reality. OpenAI is acquiring io for $6.5 billion. From a news release: The io team, focused on developing products that inspire, empower and enable, will now merge with OpenAI to work more intimately with the research, engineering and product teams in San Francisco. …

Americans’ electricity bills tend to tick up each year in line with inflation. But upgrades to electric wires, reinforcing and protecting power lines from severe weather, and changing fuel costs – among other factors – are sending rates soaring. High electricity consumption from data centers and other sources of rising demand will likely cause further increases in the near future. The impact on consumers is particularly dramatic in Pennsylvania, where rate hikes are widespread. For example, the monthly bill for a PECO residential customer who uses 700 kilowatt hours of electricity monthly increased 10% – or US$13.58 – in 2025. These bills will go up anothe…

Google wants to give people access to its Gemini AI assistant with the blink of an eye: The company has struck a partnership with eyeglasses makers Warby Parker and Gentle Monster to make AI smart glasses, it announced at its Google I/O developer conference in Mountain View Tuesday. These glasses will be powered by Google’s new Android XR platform, and are expected to be released in 2026 at the earliest. To show what Gemini-powered smart glasses can do, Google has also built a limited number of prototype devices in partnership with Samsung. These glasses use a small display in the right lens to show live translations, directions and similar lightweight assistance. The…

When wood thrushes arrive in northern Mississippi on their spring migration and begin to serenade my neighborhood with their ethereal, harmonized song, it’s one of the great joys of the season. It’s also a minor miracle. These small creatures have just flown more than 1,850 miles (3,000 kilometers), all the way from Central America. Other birds undertake even longer journeys — the Swainson’s thrush, for example, nests as far north as the boreal forests of Alaska and spends the nonbreeding season in northern South America, traveling up to 5,600 miles (9,000 kilometers) each way. These stunning feats of travel are awe-inspiring, making it that much more tragic when …

If you’ve always wanted to donate to Wikipedia but needed an extra nudge to do so, a new capsule collection by the German fashion brand Armedangels could be that reason. To mark Wikipedia’s forthcoming 25th anniversary next year, Armedangels designed a 14-piece collection that turns design features from the Wikipedia user interface and experience into brand elements. Its signature bright cobalt blue, called “hyperlink blue,” is a key color, along with white and yellow core colors. One design, featured on a T-shirt and sweatshirt, uses an iconic 1972 image of Earth called “Blue Marble” that was taken during the Apollo 17 mission and is in the public domain. Armedan…

You sit down to tackle your to-do list, full of energy and ambition—but 20 minutes later, you’re bouncing between emails, Slack notifications, and random tabs about vacation deals. Another hour slips away. Sound familiar? In today’s distraction-saturated workplaces, focus has become one of the most valuable—and elusive—skills we can master. The good news is that the focus isn’t just a matter of willpower. It’s a rhythm that can be trained, like learning how to play an instrument. Drawing from decades as a professional musician and a consultant in neuroscience-based productivity strategies, I’ve seen firsthand how much the brain responds to rhythm, structure, and i…

It’s easy to forget how big a splash the first Roku box made when it debuted on May 20, 2008. At launch, the device worked only with Netflix, best known at the time as a mail-order Blockbuster rival that was just ramping up its streaming service. The 10,000 movies and shows you could watch skewed toward the random and musty: Back then, Netflix’s mail-order DVD service offered 10 times as many titles. But the $100 Netflix Player by Roku took a process that had been geeky at best—getting internet video onto a TV—and made it approachable and affordable. In the unassuming gadget, wrote The New York Times’s Saul Hansell, “I think you can see the future of video.” Hanse…

In June 2024, a team of divers sank a curious assortment of 24 sculptures off the northern coast of Bali. The sculptures look like works of art—and in many ways they are. But they are also memorial reefs that turn cremated ashes into structures that regenerate marine life. Over the past three years, a British startup called Resting Reef has been working to revamp the death care industry. Instead of keeping ashes inside an urn (which often ends up gathering dust on a shelf) or scattering ashes at sea (a fleeting gesture that leaves no lasting trace), you can have Resting Reef integrate them into an underwater memorial that can double as an artificial reef. Now, the…

When Apple removed the headphone jack from the iPhone 7 in 2016, the backlash was immediate and fierce. Tech reviewers called it “user-hostile and stupid.” Customers created petitions. Competitors ran ads mocking the decision. Yet today, wireless earbuds are ubiquitous, and the decision looks prescient rather than foolish. What Apple understood—and what most future-ready leaders eventually learn—is that meaningful innovation requires disappointing people strategically. This isn’t the leadership advice you typically hear. We’re told to inspire, to build consensus, to bring everyone along. But an uncomfortable truth lurks beneath these platitudes: as your impact gro…

In a small village in Senegal, almost no one has electricity, but that’s about to change. Last year, a 40-foot-shipping container rolled into town, unfolded an array of solar panels on its roof, and crews began running wires to connect the whole village to clean power. After final approvals from the local government, the new microgrid will soon switch on. The project had an unusual funding source: ChargePoint, the EV charging company known for its network of a million chargers in the U.S. and Europe, spent six figures helping get it built, working with a technology partner called Africa GreenTec. The EV charging company used money that it earned selling carbon cre…

Chinese automaker BYD sold more electric vehicles in Europe than Tesla for the first time, according to a report by JATO Dynamics, as an aging model lineup and CEO Elon Musk’s politics hurt demand for the U.S. EV maker’s cars. BYD, which also makes plug-in hybrid vehicles, registered 7,231 battery-powered electric vehicles (BEV) in Europe in April, while Tesla registered 7,165 units, the market research firm said. “This is a watershed moment for Europe’s car market, particularly when you consider that Tesla has led the European BEV market for years, while BYD only officially began operations beyond Norway and the Netherlands in late 2022,” JATO Dynamics’ global an…

MNTN Inc, the advertising technology company that counts Hollywood actor Ryan Reynolds as its chief creative officer, is expected to make its market debut on Thursday, in a closely watched initial public offering (IPO) that will test investor appetite for the rapidly growing segment of ad-supported streaming television. The Austin-based company priced shares at $16 on Wednesday, the higher end of its expected range, in an offering led by Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, and Evercore ISI. The stock will list on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the “MNTN” ticker symbol. Based on its IPO share price, MNTN—it’s pronounced Mountain—has an approximate valuation of $…