Americans are spending less time socializing than they did 20 years ago — and the trend cuts across every generation, Axios' Erica Pandey writes from the new American Time Use Survey.

• Why it matters: Our growing isolation is a fundamental shift in the way we live with implications for everything from what we believe to how long we live.

🚨 By the numbers: Average time spent socializing per day has fallen from 45 to 35 minutes over the last 20 years.

• The decline is steepest among young people: 15- to 24-year-olds went from spending an hour a day hanging out with others to 35 minutes.

Between the lines: Sociologists and psychologists point to several trends driving this phenomenon in what Substack writer Derek Thompson dubbed "The Anti-Social Century."

1. We're all on our smartphones, often interacting through screens instead of face-to-face. Teens spend an average of 4.8 hours a day on apps like TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat, according to Gallup.
2. The shift to remote work — and life — during the pandemic has persisted.
3. Longer-term trends are reshaping daily life in ways that make retreat easier. Homes are bigger and more comfortable, with larger TVs. Most restaurants are on food delivery apps, making it easier than ever to stay in.

☕ What to watch: Also contributing to the trend is the decline of gathering spaces, Axios' Avery Lotz writes.

• In a 2025 report, University of Colorado Boulder researchers uncovered widespread closures of all kinds of hangout spots — from libraries to coffee shops to museums — in the last decade or so.
• Churches are also shuttering at unprecedented rates, Axios' Russell Contreras reports.

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President Trump told Axios' Barak Ravid yesterday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked for a White House meeting that could take place as early as next week after Trump returns from the NATO summit.

• "We get along very good. [Netanyahu] knows who the boss is," Trump said in a brief phone interview, referring to himself.

Why it matters: This would be the first meeting between the two leaders since their dramatic Situation Room meeting in February, when Netanyahu presented his plan for launching a joint war against Iran.

• People in Trump's orbit have grown increasingly skeptical and disillusioned with Netanyahu in the months since their February meeting.
• "Many of Trump's closest advisers think that Bibi was wrong about everything," a U.S. official said.

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Small business owners in tourist hotspots say they're seeing more Americans sticking closer to home this summer — trading overseas travel for road trips.

• Why it matters: Today's economic and tourism trends help funnel spending to small businesses, including regional restaurants, local attractions, Airbnb hosts, and roadside businesses along routes that serve budget-conscious and close-to-home travelers, Tarik Dogru of Florida State University's Dedman College of Hospitality tells AP.

⛽ Zoom out: The reported boost to domestic tourism, though anecdotal, comes as higher airfares and gasoline prices have made vacations pricier.

• If the trend holds, it could reduce a travel and tourism trade deficit the U.S. has run since the pandemic. Each year since 2020, Americans spent more on foreign travel than international visitors spent on travel-related goods and services in the U.S., according to government data.

🚤 Case in point: Ron Williams of South Lake Tahoe, Calif. — owner of Tahoe Sports, which rents powerboats and jet skis — says he's seeing a 10% bump in bookings, mainly from visitors driving in from cities along the West Coast.

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Fireworks mark the nation's 250th anniversary over the National Mall in Washington.

Crowds gather on the National Mall as fireworks close out Washington's Salute to America 250 celebration.

The Macy's Fourth of July fireworks light up the Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan after the show began early because of severe weather.

The Treasury Department officially launched Trump Accounts, including an app that lets parents and kids securely access their accounts, see funds in real time, and contribute from a phone or tablet.

• Why it matters: Advocates argue the accounts, an IRA-style investment vehicle for kids, represent the broadest upgrade to America's social contract in a generation — starting infants with the financial infrastructure to invest for the rest of their lives.

The accounts provide U.S. citizens born between 2025 and 2028 a government-funded investment of $1,000 that families can build on, with the aim of promoting investing and financial literacy from birth. (Reuters)

• What to know about Trump Accounts ... Get the app ... Read the announcement.

Bruce Mehlman, in his "Six-Chart Sunday" Substack post, notes today: "If you fear America's best days are behind us … fear not. Americans have always worried that we're in decline. So far, we've always found a way to improve, innovate & overcome."

• The great David Ignatius writes in a Washington Post column that the U.S. is "glowing and decaying all at once … The country still dazzles the world. But it no longer leads it the way it did."

🇺🇸 Ignatius concludes: "[H]ow lucky we are, still, to be part of the American story." (Gift link)

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Nearly a million investors have lost $3.8 billion on President Trump's memecoin through the end of June, the N.Y. Times reports from an analysis by the crypto analytics firm Nansen (gift link).

• Trump walked away with a $636 million payout from the same crypto bet — part of a haul that last year brought him over $1 billion in crypto gains and $2.2 billion from his businesses overall.

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Big brewers are betting on tiny beers.

• As more Americans cut back on drinking and spending, "pony" beers — 7–9 ounce cans instead of the typical 12–16 ounce — are gaining popularity, The Wall Street Journal reports (gift link).

"We're bullish on what ponies can add ... Consumers don't have to make a 12-ounce decision," Craig Purser, chief executive of the National Beer Wholesalers Association, told the Journal.

• Go deeper: Axios Denver's John Frank reports on craft beer's decline.