Good morning. In today’s edition:

• 🏛️ America's “public charge” policy
• 📱 Apple to launch iPhone leasing program
• 🐦 All the cool kids are birding

…and much more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~3.50-minute read (931 words).

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“Quality is not an act, it is a habit.”

–Aristotle (384 B.C.–322 B.C.)

The Trump administration is in the process of expanding a policy known as the "public charge" test, which allows the US to deny immigrants’ applications for green cards (and other benefits) if they’re deemed likely to rely on government support.

Quick background: The new rule will restore a policy largely similar to one introduced during President Trump's first term, which was replaced by a narrower Biden-era rule in 2022.

Under the Biden-era public charge policy, immigration officials were generally only allowed to consider applicants' use of cash welfare payments for basic living expenses, as well as any government-funded long-term institutional care.

But the Trump admin’s rule allows immigration officers to consider other areas of an applicant's background to determine whether they’d be a public charge who primarily relies on the government for support.

These include:

• Age, health, education, income, and assets.
• Family status and financial resources.
• Use of certain means-tested public benefits, including Medicaid, SNAP food assistance and housing assistance.

Officials note that receiving public benefits doesn't automatically disqualify an immigrant’s application, with each decision based on overall circumstances rather than any single factor.

Lawmakers are split on the rule’s merits

White House officials say the rule restores a long-standing expectation that immigrants be financially self-sufficient while protecting taxpayer-funded resources.

DHS estimates ~580,000 adjustment-of-status applicants each year will be subject to public charge review, with the policy projected to reduce federal transfer payments by ~$13 billion annually.

On the flip side: Some Democratic lawmakers and other critics say the policy's biggest concern is whether eligible immigrant families avoid necessary healthcare, food, or housing assistance because they fear using those programs could hurt future applications.

While DHS reported only five public charge denials or intent to deny notices while the 2019 public charge policy was in effect, the agency estimates ~950,000 people in immigrant households could disenroll from or forgo public benefits due to a "chilling effect" from the new rule.

Looking ahead… The Trump admin’s updated public charge rule, which will likely face legal challenges, is on track to officially take effect September 18.

📊 Flash poll: In general, do you support or oppose the Trump admin’s move to expand the “public charge” test to identify which immigrants would likely rely on government support?

• Support
• Oppose
• Unsure/other

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BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 💉 Novo Nordisk sues Eli Lilly in federal court, accusing the rival drugmaker of false advertising in claiming weight-loss medicines Zepbound and Mounjaro outperform Novo’s drugs.
• 📱 Apple is partnering with Klarna to launch Apple Upgrade, a new leasing program for iPhones and other gadgets, per Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman; subscription-like program will reportedly launch next Tuesday with 24- or 36-month leases, depending on the device.
• 🤖 OpenAI is adding two new independent board members ahead of a planned IPO later this year: Nubank CEO David Vélez, and Bank of New York Mellon CEO Robin Vince. | Anthropic’s $1.5 billion settlement with authors over claims of copyright violations receives approval from federal judge; it ends the largest copyright class-action ever certified, and awards the largest copyright settlement ever reached.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 📺 ESPN announces layoffs tied to recent NFL Network acquisition, including longtime baseball broadcaster Karl Ravech, NFL analyst Ryan Clark, NFL Network insider Tom Pelissero, and former NFL MVP Cam Newton. | 📄 Disney also confirms wider entertainment job cuts, mostly focused at Pixar and National Geographic.
• 🙏 Kaylee Hottle, 18-year-old actress known best for her roles in the Godzilla vs. Kong films, passed away in a car accident.
• 🚨 Preliminary hearing begins in Los Angeles for singer D4vd, who’s facing a first-degree murder charge over the death of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🚀☢️ NASA estimates its ambitious plan to build a nuclear-powered spacecraft and fly it to Mars will cost $2+ billion.
• 🩸 MIT researchers publish new study detailing how to grow artificial blood vessels, a feat scientists have struggled to achieve due to their microscopic size.
• 🛰️ SpaceX launches first-of-its-kind satellite repair drone from Northrop Grumman featuring a pair of robotic arms.

US, WORLD & POLITICS

• 🗳️ New Jersey is removing ~6,600 non-US citizens from its voter rolls, with officials blaming a software error that automatically registered them to vote when applying for driver’s licenses in 2023-24; officials say ~400 of the people have voted since they were registered.
• 🏥 Trump admin is freezing $1+ billion in Medicaid funding for California and Minnesota in an effort to prevent fraud; HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says the two states can access the funds if they provide documentation for some claims flagged as suspicious.
• 🇺🇦 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky removes armed-forces chief Gen. Oleksandr Syrskiy in major reversal, after initially siding with Syrskiy and firing defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov last week; it follows days of street protests over removing Fedorov, who has drawn praise for expanding Ukraine’s drone campaign against Russia.

☝️ A Monterey Bay captain captured a rare hunt between a group of killer whales and long-beaked dolphins during a whale tour last weekend. The animals cleared more than 15 feet above the water’s surface during the chase, in a spectacle one researcher stressed is extremely rare, exciting, and exceptional.

🤔 Did you know? Homer’s The Odyssey started as a podcast of the ancient world, passed down orally for hundreds of years by performers called aoidoi, who used repeated lines and set epithets to help memorize the story. The epic wasn’t transcribed into the book adaptation we know today until somewhere between the late 8th or early 7th century BCE.

📰 Worth a read: ‘They remind us of youth, summer, and fun’: the return of the ringer T-shirt

🖱️ What we’re clicking:

• All the cool kids are birding
• The music festival for people who hate music festivals
• Something weird is happening beneath the stock market’s surface

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Can you name the three highest-rated movies directed by Christopher Nolan? (According to IMDb)

(keep scrolling for the answer)

👠 Rachid Lazraq has owned her London shoeshop, Rich Collection Italia, for over 30 years. The store was about to go out of business when his daughter posted about a cute pair of heels on TikTok, hoping to draw in a few customers. Now, the shop has lines out the door.

1. The Dark Knight (2008); 9.1 out of 10
2. Inception (2010); 8.8
3. Interstellar (2014); 8.7

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