🗞️Flag burning crackdown

August 25th, 2025

What happened today 🇺🇸,

• President Trump signed an executive order targeting American flag burning, the order does not outright criminalize burning the American flag but directs the DOJ to prioritize enforcement against cases of "flag desecration" where existing laws were violated including violent crimes, crimes against property, illegal discrimination and other violations.…however the Supreme Court ruled in 1989 that flag burning is protected speech under the First Amendment, therefore this executive order is likely and expected to face legal challenges

• The House Oversight Committee has issued a subpoena to the estate of Jeffrey Epstein seeking a wide range of documents including his birthday book prepared by Ghislaine Maxwell, address books, flight logs, financial records, and his will

• President Trump said he wants to rename the Department of Defense back to its former name, the Department of War, a title that was used until 1947

• The U.S. has confirmed its first human case of the flesh-eating New World screwworm parasite, it was detected in a Maryland resident who recently traveled to El Salvador

• The Trump administration is reportedly preparing to remove the COVID-19 vaccine from the U.S. market “within months”…read more here

• Elon Musk’s companies, X and xAI, have filed a lawsuit against Apple and OpenAI alleging that the two collaborated to suppress competition in the AI market by giving special treatment to OpenAI's ChatGPT in Apple's App Store

• Perplexity AI has launched a new program called Comet Plus, which will share money with publishers…under the plan, publishers whose content is used by Perplexity’s AI and search engine to answer questions will get 80% of the subscription revenue

• Keurig Dr Pepper is acquiring JDE Peet’s, the parent company of Peet’s Coffee, in an $18 billion all-cash deal

• DOW down .77% / S&P down .43%

• South Korea’s new president, Lee Jae Myung, met with President Trump at the White House today to discuss trade, security, and regional issues…Lee presented a $150 billion initiative called “Make America Shipbuilding Great Again” to revitalize U.S. shipbuilding through South Korean investment…watch the press conference here

• An Israeli airstrike hit the Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, killing at least 20 people, including several journalists from Reuters, Al Jazeera, and the Associated Press

• France has summoned U.S. Ambassador, Charles Kushner, to Paris after he wrote a letter to President Emmanuel Macron accusing the French government of not taking action to combat rising antisemitism…the French Foreign Ministry condemned Kushner’s allegations as "unacceptable," stating they violate international diplomatic norms and strain the transatlantic relationship, while emphasizing France’s strong commitment to fighting antisemitism

Plus: A look at U.S. business growth by industry from 2019-2024

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Quote of the day: “People tell you the world looks a certain way. Parents tell you how to think. Schools tell you how to think. TV. Religion. And then at a certain point, if you’re lucky, you realize you can make up your own mind. Nobody sets the rules but you. You can design your own life.”— Carrie Ann Moss

Have a great night!

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