This has been a summer of extreme weather, so brace yourself—it looks like Mother Nature may have another curveball up her sleeve. As if we don’t have enough to worry about—from the apocalyptic-looking, yellow, smokey skies in the Northeast from the Canadian wildfires, to massive heat waves across the U.S. and Europe—there’s now a rare event brewing in the ocean that could bring on a destructive hurricane season. “A rare Atlantic Niña [not to be confused with La Niña] has appeared in the tropics, just as a powerful Super El Niño continues to build in the Pacific,” according to Severe Weather Europe. “These two ocean anomalies…
Author: Staff Writer
SpaceX’s mega Starship rocket came within a second or so from blasting off on a test flight Thursday, but some of the engines failed to ignite, triggering a launch abort amid billowing clouds of smoke and vapor.Elon Musk, the company’s founder and CEO, said two engines will be replaced “to be confident of a good flight” before sending Starship from Texas on a space-skimming journey halfway around the world. It will be the 13th flight for Starship, which at 407 feet (124 meters) tall with 33 main engines is the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket.SpaceX’s launch webcast showed the…
President Donald Trump’s teleprompter operator is on unpaid leave after reports that he used his inside knowledge to make bets about the president’s speeches on the online prediction market Kalshi, the White House said Thursday.The firm’s enforcement chief said Kalshi contacted federal regulators about bets allegedly made about what the president would say in public addresses.White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president is aware of the situation, which she described as “unfortunate” and “a disgrace.”“The White House has extremely strict ethical guidelines with respect to issues like this,” Leavitt told reporters, saying the aide is on unpaid leave.ABC…
The White House has now released a series of declassified election-integrity documents that the administration says expose what it describes as the largest compromise of American voter data in history. The release followed President Trump’s heated nationally televised address Thursday night, where he argued that China systematically acquired sensitive voter information during the 2020 election cycle and that intelligence surrounding the operation was buried inside the bureaucracy rather than presented honestly to elected leadership. For years, the focus has been on Russia while China quietly expanded its economic, technological, and intelligence footprint throughout the West. China does not think in…
Shoppers are letting go of lettuce, even though health officials haven’t confirmed it’s to blame for food poisoning across the nation, the Wall Street Journal reports. More than 30 states have reported parasitic cyclospora cases, with over 140 people hospitalized. The illness can cause explosive diarrhea and vomiting, and Michigan officials have pointed to lettuce and salad greens as a possible source. Nothing is confirmed yet, but that hasn’t stopped diners and businesses from steering clear. One Michigan catering company is already fielding requests to swap wedding salads for cooked vegetables. Growers are feeling it too. “People are calling in and…
More than 850 wildfires are currently burning in Canada—and the smoke is reaching cities thousands of miles away, from Chicago to New York City. Next week, it’s expected to reach Europe. If the sky is a hazy shade of yellow where you live, here’s what you should know about the potential health impacts. Even long-distance smoke is harmful Tiny particles of smoke called PM 2.5—20 to 30 times smaller than the width of a human hair—can easily enter your lungs and even your bloodstream. The effects can range from reduced lung function to increased risk of heart attack and stroke.…
In a classic experiment more than a decade ago, researchers in Japan gave a slime mold—a single-celled organism known for forming efficient networks—a “map” of the cities around Tokyo. They represented each municipality with an oat flake, the organism’s favorite food, and watched as it created a network that looked eerily similar to the Japanese rail system. The takeaway was clear: Slime mold is surprisingly good at creating complex and efficient paths. A startup called Mireta Urban Dynamics is now using the same basic approach in software designed for urban planners. [Image: Mireta Urban Dynamics] “Very early on in my…
Hello again and welcome back to Fast Company’s Plugged In. For the longest time, I used Siri for only two purposes. One was setting alarms, which it did flawlessly. The other was answering random questions about the world that popped into my head. Those ones I asked mainly because I was curious if it could answer them. Its success rate hovered around 50%. But recently, I’ve been relying on Apple’s AI assistant as if it were, you know, an assistant. That became possible only with Siri AI, which was made available this week as part of the public betas of…
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Key Takeaways Companies that prioritize team connection, psychological safety and communication create the foundation needed to scale sustainably. As businesses grow, leaders must protect their culture and relationships or risk turning growth into misalignment, burnout and turnover. Successfully scaling a business requires a strong foundation. The right processes must be in place because scaling a flawed process will only magnify its deficiencies. You need to have your finances in order to handle the increase in expenses that comes with any scaling effort.And perhaps most importantly of all, you need to have strong…
I have received numerous emails asking if Chuck Schumer and the Democrats are attempting to frustrate Trump to prevent him from exiting the Iran War to influence the Midterms by refusing to sign the defense bill for the first time in history. The Democrats under Schummer are clearly trying to prolong the Iran war to discredit Trump for the Midterms. Politics has become simply a political war. This is no longer about what is good for the country including the troops. If one side says the sky is blue, the other must argue it is red even when it is…