President Trump nominated Nick Adams, a self-styled "alpha male" MAGA influencer, to be the next ambassador to Malaysia.
Why it matters: Adams is a popular commentator in the MAGAsphere but is not exactly a household name the way other influencers are. The nomination shows how much attention Trump pays to his online base and works to keep it in the fold.
New Mexicans impacted by the Trinity Test are getting closer to receiving compensation after eight decades of health problems and rare cancers stemming from the world's first atomic explosion.
The big picture: President Trump's recently signed the "big, beautiful bill," which includes an extension of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) and, for the first time, covers victims of the Trinity Test.
President Trump's threat to put a 50% tariff on Brazil, the world's largest coffee producer, risks making your morning cup — already way more expensive than a year ago — even pricier.
Why it matters: Retail coffee costs have been surging for months on the back of record wholesale prices, but there'd recently been at least a little hope of relief.
The big question at Wednesday's Senate Banking Hearing on regulating digital assets was whether Congress can trust financial regulators to fill in the details from new laws for the crypto industry.
Why it matters: Americans will have to live for years with any law this Congress passes, if Republicans get something done.
President Trump's "big, beautiful bill" legislation hasn't hit the jackpot with gamblers and the wider gaming industry.
The big picture: Gamblers are angry over a provision that could see bettors lose money even when they come out ahead during tax time — something that lawmakers are already making moves to repeal.
Consumers are showing renewed interest in travel, according to Delta Air Lines.
Why it matters: It's a positive sign for the broader economy — several airlines, including Delta, had warned in March that travel spending was flagging.
WPP has named Microsoft executive Cindy Rose as its next CEO amid mounting pressure from big client losses and AI disruption.
Why it matters: The ad giant is in the thick of an identity reset, and Rose's Big Tech background underscores its bid to modernize and compete in the AI era.
Superman might've found romance with reporter Lois Lane, but the newest adaptation of the Man of Steel is getting no love from right-leaning media.
The big picture: The hero's origin story, arriving on Earth from a dying planet, has long been compared to the story of refugees or immigrants — a connection the film's writer and director, James Gunn, recently endorsed.
Breakfast cereal maker WK Kellogg on Thursday said that it has agreed to be acquired for $3.1 billion by Ferrero International, the Italian maker of Nutella.
The big picture: Kellogg has struggled recently due to healthier-eating trends and inflation, particularly since its 2023 split with a snacking unit that got renamed Kellanova.
Elon Musk's grand plans to turn Twitter into an "everything app" named X have evaporated as AI seizes the wandering attention of the world's richest man.
The big picture: X, once touted as a "global town square," has become a strip mine for AI training data instead.
Bond investors think growth is slowing, so they're pricing in imminent interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve.
But stock market leadership in cyclicals is indicating the opposite, that growth is accelerating, according to a chart from Torsten Slok, chief economist at Apollo.
Why it matters: As stocks and bonds disagree on economic outcomes, only one market can be right, and the winner could have implications for market leadership ahead.
The abrupt resignation of X CEO Linda Yaccarino calls into question the fate of the world's largest and most politically relevant real-time social discourse platform.
Why it matters: Yaccarino was hired to rehabilitate X's ad business and bring stability to the company, but even she — one of the most experienced leaders in the ad industry — struggled to rein in Musk.
Elon Musk unveiled the newest edition of xAI's flagship AI model, Grok, late Wednesday night in a livestream video that touted Grok 4's prowess at topping benchmark scores.
Why it matters: xAI is in an accelerating race with OpenAI, Anthropic and other players to deliver faster, more reliable AI and fulfill the wild expectations investors now have for the technology.
If there's one theme from the first wave of President Trump's tariff warning letters, it's this: You may pay a lot more for your next few pairs of shoes.
The big picture: Almost every shoe sold in the U.S. is imported, and the vast majority of those imports come from places like China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia and Bangladesh.
President Trump on Wednesday launched a multi-front trade assault on Brazil, threatening it with massive new tariffs and demanding the end of criminal charges against his ally former President Jair Bolsonaro.
Why it matters: Trump's tariff letter to Brazil is far more aggressive, with a much higher levy, than any other trade missive he's sent this week — and it prompted Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to push back on what he called "interference" in the nation's affairs.
President Trump said Wednesday he's directing Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to take on the additional role of interim NASA administrator.
The big picture: Trump two months ago pulled his nominee to lead the space agency, Jared Isaacman, a close associate of Elon Musk who has led SpaceX missions.
President Trump announced Wednesday he'll impose a 50% tariff on copper imports from Aug. 1 "after receiving a robust" national security assessment.
The big picture: Copper is the third most widely used metal globally and the U.S. imports almost half of the commodity that it uses — mostly from Chile, per U.S. Geological Survey data.
