Good morning. In today’s edition:

• 🧰 Trade jobs drying up
• ✈️ Federal rescue for Spirit?
• ❓ New king of Jeopardy!

…and much more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~3.96-minute read (1,053 words).

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“I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took an excuse.”

–Florence Nightingale (1820-1910)

Younger US adults are increasingly turning in their laptops and morning Starbucks for bright-orange vests and gas station coffee, with a recent general shift in career paths towards trade jobs.

• At the Fashion Institute of Technology, a new tailoring program drew 190 applicants for just 15 spots.
• Nationwide, enrollment at vocational-focused community colleges is up nearly 20% since 2020.

There’s just one problem: the trade-job well is starting to dry up.

How we got here

The unemployment rate for recent college grads stood at 5.6% in December 2025, well above the national average. At the same time, companies are pulling back on hiring as they increasingly adopt AI into core business operations.

• New college grads make up ~7% of hires at US big tech firms, down more than half compared to pre-pandemic levels.
• Overall, 40+% of employers say they plan to use AI to cut headcount, with new hires and recent grads often being the first to go, per the World Economic Forum.

Enter the trades: For a lot of young workers, hands-on blue-collar jobs check all the boxes: solid pay, faster training, lower student debt, and lower risk of being replaced by AI.

But…The timing isn’t ideal. While interest in the trades is surging, the job market itself has been moving in the opposite direction after many blue-collar sectors hit a peak around 2022.

• Hiring across the manufacturing sector, which encompasses the trades, has declined roughly 40% in the last four years.
• Over the past year alone, jobs in sectors that include the trades have racked up an estimated ~150,000 net losses.

Bottom line: “There are jobs available, but right now, demand for blue-collar labor is not sufficient to meet the supply,” says Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist for accounting firm RSM.

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From retinol creams to ice rollers, the anti-aging playbook may eventually add a new step: a nasal spray.

Scientists at Texas A&M have developed an experimental nasal spray designed to reduce brain inflammation, a key driver of long term cognitive decline including dementia.

Let’s break it down

The spray delivers extracellular vesicles, or tiny biological carriers packed with microRNAs, to the brain to help regulate gene activity.

• These vesicles travel through the nose via olfactory nerves, bypassing the blood-brain barrier that’s a major hurdle for many traditional treatments.
• Once there, the microRNAs reduce inflammation that builds up in key brain regions tied to memory and learning as people age.
• This age-related inflammation has been linked to brain fog, slower thinking, and higher risk of diseases like Alzheimer’s.

Early results pass the sniff test: In animal studies, just two doses of the nasal spray restored cognitive function within weeks. The treatment also showed similar effects across male and female subjects, which isn’t always the case in neuroscience research.

The potential impact: Roughly 500,000 US adults over the age of 55 are diagnosed with dementia each year, with that figure projected to double to 1 million/year by 2026. All told, studies show the risk of developing dementia at any time after age 55 among Americans stands at ~42%.

Looking ahead…Texas A&M has filed a patent for their new nasal spray, though human trials are still years away.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• ✈️ Trump admin is reportedly in advanced talks for a Spirit Airlines rescue package, as discount airliner faces possibility of liquidation; deal would involve a ~$500 million loan in return for warrants for a potential significant stake in Spirit.
• 🏘️ Mortgage application volume rose by ~8% last week, after average 30-yr fixed mortgage rate (with conforming loan balances) fell to 6.35% from 6.42%; at this time last year, average rates were around 6.9%.
• 🤖 SpaceX strikes deal with AI coding tool maker Cursor that gives the space company the right to purchase the startup later this year for $60 billion. | 🚘 Tesla reports better-than-expected earnings, but missed slightly on revenue last quarter; shares rose ~4% in extended trading.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🏈 NFL Draft kicks off with Round 1 tonight; Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza widely expected to go #1 overall to the Las Vegas Raiders.
• 📺 MrBeast accused of sexual harassment by former employee; the YouTuber and Feastables owner rejects all claims, citing “extensive evidence” that refutes her allegations.
• 🙏 Dave Mason, co-founder of band Traffic and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, passed away at 79. | Alan Osmond, eldest member of the chart-topping family act The Osmonds, died at 76.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🦻 Landmark Nature study finds 90% of people who received experimental gene therapy for congenital deafness showed marked improvements in their hearing over several years; it’s the largest and longest trial of its kind, involving 42 participants.
• 🏓 Engineers develop table-tennis-playing robot capable of beating some of the world's top players.
• 💉 CDC cancels publication of study that found Covid vaccines significantly lowered the odds of hospitalizations and emergency visits last winter; HHS spokesperson says there were concerns about the "methodological approach estimating vaccine ⁠effectiveness."

US, WORLD & POLITICS

• 🚢 Iran war: Iran says it seized two container ships attempting to cross the Strait of Hormuz “without authorization” and fired on a third ship, which temporarily stopped in the water after sustaining damage; overall traffic remained relatively light, with ~6 ships transiting the strait.
• 🙏 Rep. David Scott (D-GA) passed away at the age of 80; his 23-year career in Congress includes becoming the first Black chairman of the House Agriculture Committee.
• 🗳️ Virginia voters approve plan to redraw the state's congressional map, in 51.5%-48.5% vote; result will likely shifting the state from a 6–5 Democratic edge in House Reps to roughly 10–1.

👆 NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is built and ready to launch in September 2026, the space agency announced. Named after NASA’s first chief of astronomy, the telescope will capture at least 100x more sky than the Hubble Space Telescope, with the goal of shedding new light on mysterious dark matter and dark energy.

🤔 Did you know? The world’s first photograph, taken in 1826 by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, took eight hours to capture because of the camera’s long exposure time. It then went missing for nearly 50 years, before being rediscovered by historians.

📰 Worth a read: Are corporate algorithms becoming our new moral authorities?

🖱️ What we’re clicking:

• The new king of Jeopardy! is the nicest champ ever
• Inside the world's only floating national park
• Brooklyn’s underground phone-free parties

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Yesterday we covered NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s plan to construct city-owned grocery stores across the Big Apple, as local food prices continue to soar.

❓ Our question to you: In general, do you support or oppose the idea of government-owned grocery stores?

• Support: 31%
• Oppose: 50%
• Unsure/other: 19%

Click here to read some of the most thoughtful longform responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 689 votes and 99 longform responses.

Devils Tower, the first-ever US national monument, is located in which state?

🐢 4,100+ endangered sea turtle eggs were recently relocated by Florida conservationists to shield them from beach restoration work, giving thousands of hatchlings a better shot at survival. 

Wyoming

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