Good morning. In this edition:

• 🏫 Public schools are increasingly hiring consultants
• 🌉 The world's longest suspension bridge
• 📊 Poll data on Trump's firing of top BLS official

…and much more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~3.82-minute read (1,016 words).

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"It is your attitude, not your aptitude, that determines your altitude."

–Hilary "Zig" Ziglar (1926-2012)

ESPN and Fox just pulled the streaming equivalent of showing up to the group chat with matching save-the-dates.

Yesterday, ESPN revealed its flagship streaming service will go live on August 21—the exact same date that Fox is launching its new “Fox One” streaming service.

Both services include a boatload of content

ESPN’s new direct-to-consumer offering, ESPN, whose name was apparently chosen by George Foreman (who named all of his sons George Foreman), features two plans:

• A $30/month unlimited subscription that features all of ESPN’s live games—including newly acquired WWE content—along with programming from its other networks like ESPN2, the SEC Network, and ESPN on ABC. Current ESPN cable subscribers will have access to this plan at no additional cost.
• A $12/month select subscription, which is just ESPN+ under a different name. All ~25 million current ESPN+ members will automatically be transitioned to this subscription.
• These offerings will soon be bolstered by the new ESPN-NFL deal, under which ESPN receives rights to the NFL Network, NFL RedZone, and other NFL properties in exchange for the league taking a 10% stake in ESPN.

Meanwhile, Fox’s $20/month Fox One service will grant viewers direct access to its Sunday NFL coverage, Saturday college football content, MLB postseason games, and all other live sports or news on its broadcast and cable TV networks.

They’re joining a crowded market. Streaming services have multiplied in recent years, with subscriptions—sometimes multiple—now required to tune-in to key matchups. Watching every NFL game this season requires six-plus subscriptions, totaling ~$800–$1,500.

Big picture: US cable operators have relied on live sports to maintain subscriptions for years, as viewer interest in other programming has plummeted. But by the end of this month, sports fans will have two fewer reasons to keep paying for cable.

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First came declining birth rates. Then came vouchers. Now public schools are losing students—and the money that comes with them. With budgets on the line, some districts are doing what any startup would: hiring professional help to chase leads.

Enrollment as a service

Public districts are increasingly partnering with consultants who specialize in enrollment recovery, a niche that didn’t exist a decade ago.

• In cities like Memphis and Newark, consultants have been reported to “aggressively woo parents” back into the system with texts, calls, and door-to-door outreach.
• The nation’s fourth-largest school district, Houston ISD, is considering a $2.25 million outreach deal; Orange County pays up to $935 per returned student.
• These consultants don’t get paid unless enrollment happens—think: commission-based school recruiting.
• Some firms claim to bring in thousands of students per year, with returns reaching into the millions for school systems.

Why families are walking: The exodus isn’t just about politics or preference—it’s about fit, trust, and voice. Families cite safety worries, lack of individualized support, and feeling "disconnected and unheard," prompting a switch to a more attentive alternative.

Big picture: Public K-12 enrollment is expected to fall to ~46.9 million by 2031, an ~8% drop from 2019 (minus ~4 million students), according to projections from the National Center for Education Statistics.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🏢 McDonald's tops analysts’ expectations for Q2 earnings and revenue; same-store-sales grew 3.8% compared to the same period last year. | Uber beats analysts’ expectations for Q2 revenue and meets expectations on earnings; authorizes $20 billion stock buyback.
• ✈️ United Airlines temporarily grounds all mainline US flights due to technical issue; mirrors similar United grounding late last month due to a fire alarm at its Chicago operations center.
• 🇺🇸 President Trump doubles US tariffs on India to 50% for importing Russian oil. | Trump also announces future tariffs of 100% on computer chip imports, excluding companies that are “building in the United States.” | Apple to invest add'l $100 billion in US companies and suppliers over four years; comes on top of Apple’s previous $500 billion US commitment in February.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

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• 📝 Jen Pawol, a minor-league umpire since 2016, to make her MLB debut Saturday; will become the first woman to ever ump a regular-season game in league history. | NFL bans teams from providing smelling salts to players, though they can still use their own.
• 🎬 Star Wars: Starfighter (2027) snags villain in Matt Smith, aka Daemon Targaryen from House of the Dragon; he’ll star alongside Ryan Gosling.
• 🏀 WNBA sees third incident in the past week involving dildo thrown onto court during game; the first alleged offender was arrested last week, with police searching for another.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🏥 Health Secretary RFK Jr. is winding down agency’s mRNA vaccine development activities to focus on "safer, broader vaccine platforms"; new order covers 22 projects worth ~$500 million.
• 🤖 Illinois bans AI chatbots from acting as therapists, limits how mental health professionals can use the tech; it marks the first state law to regulate AI mental health services.
• 🚁 FAA proposes new rule to make it easier for companies to use drones over longer distances and beyond the visual line of sight of the operator.

US, WORLD & POLITICS

• 🏭 New Jersey reaches $2 billion settlement with chemical giants DuPont, Chemours, and Corteva over “forever chemical” pollution; marks the largest environmental settlement ever won by a state.
• 🚨 Violent crime fell in every category across 68 major US cities over first half of this year; includes homicides (-19%), robbery (-18%), aggravated assaults (-10%), and rape (-9%).
• 🏛️ President Trump again calls for federal takeover of Washington, D.C., following attempted carjacking and beating of former DOGE staffer.

☝️ The Italian government has greenlit construction of the world’s largest suspension bridge, which will link the Italian mainland with Sicily via the Messina Strait. The massive $15.5 billion project has been postponed multiple times in the past due to fears of earthquakes, environmental impacts, and possible mafia interference.

🤔 Did You Know? Babies are born with 270 bones, which gradually fuse together as they grow—resulting in the typical adult having 206 bones in total.

📰 Worth a Read: How the Grand Ole Opry put uniquely American music at center stage

🖱️ Clickbait: Your ear wax might hold clues to early Parkinson's

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Yesterday we covered President Trump’s firing of the top official at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), in a move that came after the agency published a weaker-than-expected July jobs report with significant downward revisions in data from previous months.

❓ Our question to you: In general, how do you feel about President Trump’s decision to fire the top BLS official after the agency published a weaker-than-expected July jobs report?

• Support: 19%
• Oppose: 66%
• Unsure/other: 15%

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

+Note on sample size: We received 1,726 votes and 141 longform responses.

The Galápagos Islands are located in which country?

👑 Kennedy Johnson was only 15 when she gave birth to her baby girl in a foster home for teen moms. Now, she's considered a queen in Ghana. Read her incredible story here.

+Note: This story previously appeared in a Dec. 2024 edition of Positive DONUT, our weekly newsletter surfacing all the good things you don't hear about in the news.

Ecuador

+Clue for the Games newsletter: You’ll need to know what a can of corn is to ace today’s Conjoiner sequence.