Good morning, and a warm welcome to all our new subscribers. In today’s edition:

• 📺 ABC sues FCC over 1st Amendment
• 🤖 ChatGPT for Teens
• ⚖️ Gaining virtue through vice

…and much more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~3.44-minute read (915 words).

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"Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change.”

–Jim Rohn (1930-2009)

Disney-owned ABC sued the Federal Communications Commission yesterday, accusing the agency of violating its First Amendment rights by using regulatory authority to retaliate against the network’s speech.

The lawsuit asks a federal judge to halt an accelerated review of broadcast licenses for ABC’s eight local stations.

How we got here

ABC’s issues with the FCC began last year, when Chairman Brendan Carr launched an investigation into whether the network’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices violated federal workplace discrimination rules. In April, the FCC announced the early license-renewal review for ABC’s eight local stations several years earlier than scheduled.

• The agency is also reconsidering whether The View should retain its exemption from federal equal-time rules, which generally require broadcasters that give airtime to political candidates to provide comparable opportunities to their opponents.
• The View has held an exemption since 2002 under a carveout by Congress for "bona fide news interview programs."

The arguments

ABC claims the FCC’s investigations are part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to punish speech it dislikes, pointing to a series of clashes with the White House over the network’s programming.

• In April, talk show host Jimmy Kimmel made disparaging remarks about President Trump, prompting calls from the White House to fire him. Shortly afterward, the FCC announced its early review of ABC’s broadcast licenses.
• ABC also didn’t carry Trump’s July national address on election security on its broadcast network, with Carr later saying that decision could come up during the license review.

ABC says the scrutiny is already having an impact, with The View refraining from hosting a political candidate since the FCC began examining its equal-time exemption.

The FCC sees things differently. The agency rejects ABC’s allegations of political retaliation, saying its license review concerns potential illegal discrimination tied to Disney’s DEI practices, and noting that broadcasters are legally required to operate in the public interest.

When it comes to The View, Carr says the agency isn’t trying to control which candidates appear on the show, but rather determining whether it should continue qualifying for an exemption from equal-time requirements established by Congress.

Looking ahead…ABC is seeking an immediate court order pausing the FCC’s license-review proceedings while the broader lawsuit plays out. No hearing has been scheduled yet, with the FCC saying its investigations will move forward in the meantime.

📊 Flash poll: In general, do you side more with arguments from the FCC or from ABC in the network’s newly filed court case claiming political retaliation?

• FCC arguments
• ABC arguments
• Unsure/other

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BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🇺🇸🇨🇦 President Trump and Canadian PM Mark Carney are reportedly holding last-minute talks ahead of today’s deadline for new US tariffs of 50% on a range of Canadian imports.
• ✈️ Google acquires Spirit Airlines' business data—covering emails, calendar info, chats, documents, spreadsheets, etc.—to feed into its AI models, after winning a bankruptcy auction for $10 million.
• 💸 Yield on 30-year US Treasury bond rises again Tuesday to reach 5.323%, setting a new 19-year high; analysts say recent surge is tied to investors’ discomfort over persistently high future inflation.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 📺 Peacock to raise prices for all subscription tiers by up to $3/month, marking the streamer’s fourth fee increase in four years.
• 🎥 2026 VMA nominations announced, with Madonna earning the most nods (11), followed by Taylor Swift (9), Ariana Grande (7), and Sabrina Carpenter (7).
• 🙏 Frank Beard, co-founder of ZZ Top and long-time drummer of the band, passed away at 77. | Bill Rasmussen, who co-founded ESPN in 1979, died at 93.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🤖 OpenAI rolls out ChatGPT for Teens, a dedicated chatbot experience that includes “stronger built-in safety protections;” the feature includes age prediction and a number of parental controls, alongside a range of educational features like homework reminders, quizzes, and learning visualizations.
• 🌌 Our Milky Way galaxy swallowed a smaller galaxy some 11.8 billion years ago, when the universe was ~15% of its current age, new Nature Astronomy study finds.
• 📲 Dutch tech company Fairphone is bringing its owner-repairable Android smartphone to the US market; device ships with a small screwdriver, while users can order replacement parts—screens, batteries, cameras, etc.—directly from the company.

US, WORLD & POLITICS

• 🗳️ Primary elections took place yesterday in Alaska, Florida, and Wyoming, plus a special US House runoff in California.
• 🌲🏗️ US Forest Service aims to open 44+ million acres of national-forest land—an area roughly the size of Oklahoma—to logging and road construction, in reversal of federal rule made in 2001.
• 🎓 13 current and former Penn State students and one parent charged in a major cocaine trafficking ring; defendants allegedly cut and bagged the cocaine using frat brothers and pledges as labor, then distributed it to Penn State students.

☝️ A Wisconsin gaming store discovered nearly 100 copies of a never-before-seen version of Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt that had been in storage since 1993. The games could fetch millions of dollars at auction, after becoming the first NES cartridges ever to receive a perfect 10 from grading company Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA).

🤔 Did you know? During peak foraging season, the average worker honeybee lives just six weeks before dying. Over that lifetime, it visits thousands of flowers and produces a combined ~1/12 of a teaspoon of honey.

📰 Worth a read: Sometimes, the road to virtue comes by way of vice

🖱️ What we’re clicking:

• The most popular soda in every state
• Great Lakes giant may be older than the US
• You can bid on Steve Jobs’ 8th-grade science project

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1. 🐈 40 years: Lifespan of the world's oldest known cat
2. 🫁 25 minutes: World’s longest underwater breath-hold 
3. 🌊 10,000 meters: Depth of the deepest point on Earth

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1. 🐈 Under; 38 years
2. 🫁 Over; 29 mins and 3 secs
3. 🌊 Over; 10,994 meters

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