Good morning. In this edition:

• 📝 Buying now, not paying later
• 🏫 Trump admin blocks int’l students from Harvard
• 🪼 The “immortal jellyfish” species (for real this time; see note below)

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~4.37-minute read (1,162 words).

+Note: Our "Tidbits" section was missing yesterday due to a mistake by the ham-fisted editor writing this note. Apologies for any poor experience it caused.

P.S. We'll be off on Monday for Memorial Day. See you back here bright-and-early on Tuesday!

"Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy."

–Howard W. Newton (1903–1951)

A coast-vs-coast battle is brewing like the Tupac-Biggie days of yore: The Republican-led Senate voted yesterday to revoke several Biden-era waivers that allow California to set its own vehicle emissions standards, a move that blocks the state’s first-in-the nation rule banning all new gas-powered cars by 2035.

Quick background: California has a waiver under the 1970 Clean Air Act allowing it to set stricter air quality rules than the federal government—which, up until now, also included regulations for vehicle emissions. Other states are allowed to opt-in to California’s air quality regulations, but they can’t set any of their own.

Why it matters: These laws have significant power to shape purchasing trends. The Golden State’s new gas-powered vehicle ban would have applied to ~40% of the US auto market, when including the 11 other states who joined the measure.

To EV, or not to EV?

Republican lawmakers, along with many US carmakers and auto dealers, argue that California’s gas-powered vehicle ban and similar vehicle-emissions measures could cripple America’s auto industry and harm the overall economy by forcing sales of cars the public doesn’t want.

They cite data that shows EV sales currently make up just ~7% of the US car market, and have experienced a recent downward trend while the broader auto market is growing.

On the other hand: Supporters of California’s waivers argue the state, which has long struggled with high air pollution, has a right to impose stricter regulations on vehicle emissions because they’re one of the largest contributors to air pollution and smog.

• Congressional Democrats also claim Republicans set a dangerous precedent by overruling the Senate parliamentarian—a nonpartisan staffer in charge of interpreting the chamber’s rules—and revoking California’s waivers with just 51 votes, instead of 60.

Looking ahead…The measures now head to President Trump, who’s expected to sign them into law shortly. California lawmakers have pledged to sue the federal government in response.

📊 Flash poll: Do you agree with Congress’ decision to revoke waivers allowing California to set its own vehicle emissions standards?

• Yes
• No
• Unsure/other

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Buy now, pay later (BNPL) giant Klarna’s users are increasingly passing on the second part.

The fintech company, which allows users to pay for hamburgers and other items in installments, reported this week that its consumer credit losses in Q1 widened to $136 million, a 17% jump from Q1 2024.

It comes as the BNPL industry is showing signs of both stress and growth:

• In a survey conducted by credit platform LendingTree last month, 41% of users said they paid late within the last year, up from 34% the previous year. At least a quarter of BNPL users took out loans to pay for groceries, up from 14%.
• Klarna’s comparable revenue in Q1 rose by 15% to reach $701 million, while its customer base swelled to 100+ million people.

The company says it isn’t sweating the rise in unpaid balances, since its loan volume widened and these losses only represent a tiny portion of what’s been lent out (0.54% globally).

Though it still made the decision to get paid later…While Klarna recently inked partnerships with DoorDash and Walmart, it postponed a $15+ billion IPO planned for earlier this year amid trade wars and the resulting economic uncertainty.

…and to keep embracing AI (🫂🤖): An AI avatar of CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski presented the company’s quarterly earnings on Monday, following a push in which the company released ~40% of its staff largely due to investments in artificial intelligence (though this plan is being slightly scaled back).

S/o science: two of Predator’s advantages over humans are about to go away. Chinese scientists have developed new infrared contact lenses that allow humans to identify heat signatures and see in the dark, according to a study published yesterday in the journal Cell.

How they work: The contact lenses feature nanoparticles thousands of times smaller than a grain of sand, which are able to identify infrared light—a band of the electromagnetic spectrum invisible to the naked human eye—and convert it to visible light.

• Essentially, the lenses are a smaller version of infrared goggles used to detect heat signatures and provide visibility in complete darkness—except the contacts don’t require a power source.
• The scientists found humans wearing the contact lenses could detect flashes of otherwise invisible infrared light—and were also better at doing so with their eyes closed, since infrared can penetrate eyelids more effectively than visible light.

Looking infrared ahead...While researchers still have some kinks to iron out before the lenses can be widely used, potential future applications include aiding first responders in fires or dense fog, helping people with color blindness perceive more wavelengths, and military use.

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BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🏡 Home sales in April fell from March; the ~4M units-sold figure represents the slowest pace for April since 2009.
• 🍏 Apple plans to debut its first pair of smart glasses next year, according to Bloomberg; the tech giant also reportedly scrapped plans to develop a camera-equipped smartwatch.
• 🪙 The Treasury Department will stop putting new pennies into circulation by early next year; also said that afterward, there won’t be enough pennies to use in everyday cash transactions and businesses will need to start rounding up or down to the nearest 5 cents.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

in partnership with Four Leaf Rover

• 🧑‍⚖️ Rapper Kid Cudi testified in the Sean “Diddy” Combs trial; among other things, Cudi said his car was torched and his home broken into after Combs found out he was dating an ex-girlfriend.
• 📝 The College Football Playoff voted to adopt a new seeding model. | The WNBA's New York Liberty sold an equity stake in the team at a $450 million valuation, a record high for a women's pro sports franchise.
• 📺 Lilo & Stitch and Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning are projected to open with a combined $485 million worldwide box office haul, potentially a record for Memorial Day weekend. | The Dept. of Homeland Security and producer Rob Worsoff are pitching a reality TV show centered around immigrants competing for US citizenship.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🤖 OpenAI is partnering with the UAE to build a massive new AI data center in Abu Dhabi; the deal includes ChatGPT Plus subscriptions for the entire UAE population.
• 🦥 Sloth species’ historical size discrepancy—ranging from several pound tree-dwellers to 8,000-lb behemoths on land—can largely be explained by the types of habitats they lived in, per a new study.
• 🌉 An MIT-linked startup created a new manufacturing process that significantly reduces the corrosion of steel rebar; the company says it can triple the average bridge lifetime to 100 years.

US, WORLD & POLITICS

in partnership with Meru Health

• 🎓 Harvard University was blocked by the Trump admin from enrolling any international students amid an escalating political battle; US officials said thousands of current Harvard international students must transfer to other schools or leave the country. | 🇰🇵 North Korea’s newly built naval destroyer—the second in its fleet—was severely damaged after capsizing during the ship’s launch event in front of leader Kim Jong Un.
• 🙏 Two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington, D.C., were shot to death while leaving an event at a Jewish museum Wednesday night; the suspected gunman, who was arrested and charged with murder, reportedly told police: “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza.” | Security guards at the CIA’s headquarters near D.C. shot and injured a woman who drove toward the HQ gates and refused to stop, before taking her into custody.
• 🏛️ The House voted 215-214 in favor of Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” centered around tax cuts; the bill now heads to the Senate, where some changes are expected. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

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☝️ MIT physicists recently captured the first images of individual atoms freely interacting in space, confirming a long-predicted hypothesis that had never been directly observed.

🤔 Did You Know? ⁠Turritopsis dohrnii, aka the "immortal jellyfish,” is a species that can revert its cells back to an earlier stage of life and start its life cycle all over again—essentially hitting a biological reset button. It’s the only known animal that can do this repeatedly (under the right conditions).

📰 Worth a Read: Thousands of people have embarked on a virtual road trip via Google Street View

🖱️ Clickbait: The 30-second rule for conversations

Here are five stats from this past week that made our team go “whoa.” Hopefully you will, too.

• 💔 Over half of Americans say they’ve been cheated on (53%), while just 33% say they’ve cheated, per a new YouGov survey.
• 📚 66% of books on the Chicago Sun-Times’ recent summer reading list were made-up titles attributed to real authors.
• 🎽 A Michael Jordan jersey from the 1992-93 season—the Chicago Bulls’ first three-peat—sold for $2.6 million at auction.
• 🍿 AMC Theatres is cutting movie ticket prices for adults by 50% on all Wednesday evenings starting July 9.
• 🔮 3 in 10 Americans use astrology, tarot cards, or fortune tellers at least once or twice a year, per Pew Research.

Our weekly news quiz is live. Test your knowledge here.

Below are three lists of ingredients. Your job is give us the completed dish they make.

☝️ Recipe #1:

• Chocolate chips
• Heavy cream
• Brewed coffee/espresso
• Powdered sugar

✌️ Recipe #2:

• Chicken chunks
• Egg white
• Salt
• Cornstarch
• Pineapple chunks
• White vinegar
• Ketchup
• Brown sugar
• Cooking oil
• Bell peppers
• Ginger

3️⃣ Recipe #3:

• Butter
• Milk
• Flour
• Eggs
• Sugar
• Vanilla extract
• Cinnamon
• Salt
• Nutmeg

🐸 Kermit the Frog delivered his first commencement speech in 30+ years last night at the University of Maryland.

🪸 Miami Beach will soon host The Reefline, an underwater art installation and snorkeling trail designed to help coral reefs thrive. 

🐦 New York City's High Line is hosting its first ever Pigeon Festival on National Pigeon Appreciation Day. The fest will include pigeon-themed carnival games, art workshops, a Pigeon Impersonation Pageant, and a concert in collaboration with the Birdsong Project.

☝️ Recipe #1: Mocha mousse

✌️ Recipe #2: Sweet & sour chicken

3️⃣ Recipe #3: Dutch baby