🗞️New census ordered by Trump

August 7th, 2025

What happened today 🇺🇸,

• President Trump has directed the Commerce Department to begin work on a new U.S. Census that excludes undocumented immigrants from the population count, stating the census will be based on "modern day facts and figures" and will use data from the 2024 presidential election

• 22-year-old U.S. Army soldier, Taylor Adam Lee, was arrested and charged with espionage for attempting to leak classified information about the US M1A2 Abrams main battle tank to Russia in exchange for Russian citizenship

• President Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to allow 401(k) plans to include alternative assets such as private equity, real estate, and cryptocurrencies, aiming to expand investment options for retirement savers

• President Trump took to social media today and publicly called for the resignation of Intel CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, over concerns about his investments in Chinese technology firms and alleged links to the Chinese government and military

• OpenAI released GPT-5 today featuring significant improvements in accuracy, speed, and usefulness across a wide range of tasks

• Ultra-processed foods make up about 55% of the total calories consumed by Americans aged 1 year and older…read more here 

• President Trump has nominated Stephen Miran, currently the chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, to temporarily serve as a governor on the Federal Reserve Board replacing Adriana Kugler's who resigned last week

• The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage has dropped to 6.63%, down from 6.72% last week…this is the lowest level since early April

• For the week ending August 2nd, U.S. initial jobless claims rose by 7,000 to a seasonally adjusted 226,000 up from 219,000 last week and above the expectations of 221,000

• DOW down .51% / S&P down .08%

• Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has stated that Israel intends to take military control of the entire Gaza Strip with the primary goal of removing Hamas and ensuring security, but he also said that Israel does not plan to govern Gaza permanently

Plus: A cool post showing the most popular soda in every state

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Quote of the day: “I’m not going to continue knocking on that old door that doesn’t open for me. I’m going to create my own door and walk through that.” —W.P. Kinsella

Have a great night!

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