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

• 👕 Down size me
• 🌍 US expands Iran sanctions
• 🍪 Edible cookies from plastic

…and much more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~3.82-minute read (1,015 words).

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“When people speak ill of you, live so as nobody may believe them.”

–Unknown

The American consumer appears to have entered the “Do I really need this?” portion of the economic cycle.

Walmart last week reported its slowest comparable-sales growth in six years in the US, as high living costs and a softer job market caused shoppers to become more selective about where their dollars went.

US comparable sales, which track stores and digital channels operating for at least 12 months, rose just 2.6% last quarter.

It’s a major shift from recent years

Walmart’s Q2 US comparable sales rose 6.4% in 2023, 4.2% in 2024, and 4.6% last year. This quarter also missed analysts’ expectations of 3.8%.

But shoppers haven’t disappeared. Online sales are booming, with Walmart’s US e-commerce revenue jumping 24% last quarter while store-fulfilled delivery grew 40%. The company’s advertising business is also becoming a bigger growth engine, with Walmart Connect’s US sales rising 43%.

• The retailer says it continued gaining market share across income groups, with particularly strong gains among households earning $100,000+/year.
• Lower-income shoppers are still spending, but higher gas prices have caused some to make choices between necessities, CFO John David Rainey said.

Why it’s a big deal: Walmart’s earnings are closely watched for clues about the health of the US consumer, given the retailer’s enormous reach across American households. We’ll have more data later in the week, with the monthly Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index (today) and the University of Michigan’s August Consumer Sentiment Index (Friday).

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Fashion's latest shrinking trend has nothing to do with hemlines.

Major clothing brands are scaling back their plus-size offerings as GLP-1s reshape Americans' bodies, along with retailers' calculations about what sizes to stock.

America says: “Down size me”

New women's dresses added to H&M's website have noticeably shifted toward smaller sizes compared with last year, per a recent analysis from research firm Edited.

• 3XL and 4XL went from 2% of new inventory in 2025 to 0%.
  
• XXL fell by three percentage points to 10.3% of inventory, while XL declined by two percentage points.
  
• Meanwhile, sizes XS through L each increased by 3 percentage points on average over the same period.

H&M told The Guardian it discontinued 3XL and 4XL after seeing lower demand.

Other retailers are following the trend: Mango cut the share of new dresses offered in sizes 16-20 from 6.6% last spring/summer to just 0.5% this year. At Anthropologie, plus-size dresses fell from 10.5% of offerings in July 2025 to 9% this July.

Zoom out: The shift comes as GLP-1 use rapidly expands across the US. Some 11% of American adults currently take GLP-1 medications for weight loss, up from 3% in 2024, according to Gallup. Meanwhile, the US adult obesity rate, which had climbed for decades ahead of a peak of 39.9% in 2022, has now fallen to 36.4%.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🛒 New York City and Mayor Zohran Mamdani sued by local business group over the mayor’s plan to open five gov’t-owned grocery stores, arguing it would introduce unfair competition.
• 💼 Trump admin proposes ~$103,000 fee for most new H-1B visa applications; move is projected to raise ~$8.8 billion to fund America’s immigration system.
• 🎥 California’s AG cancels talks with Paramount Skydance to begin discussing the state’s lawsuit over its proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery; AG Rob Bonta accuses Paramount of leaking and misrepresenting the discussions ahead of time, which the media giant denies.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🏈 Tight end Dae’Quan Wright could become first player ever to rejoin college football from the NFL, announcing plans to join LSU after being waived by the Browns—if no NFL team claims him—under Louisiana judge’s temporary restraining order. | San Francisco 49ers owner Jed York arrested in Ohio on two misdemeanor charges; York was reportedly arrested for “engaging in prostitution” and had the charge amended to disorderly conduct under plea deal.
• 🎟️ President Trump intervened in late February to direct the DOJ to settle its antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation, allowing the world’s largest concert promoter to retain control of Ticketmaster and many of its best venues, per WSJ report.
• 🎭 Kit Harrington, aka Jon Snow from Game of Thrones, joins cast of HBO’s Harry Potter Season 2 as Professor Gilderoy Lockhart, replacing Nicholas Hoult; Season 1 is set to debut Christmas Day.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🧬 AI helps decode DNA initiator sequence, found in ~60% of human genes, which helps activate those genes; discovery will allow researchers to better predict how DNA mutations are linked to various disorders.
• 🐬 Scientists uncover mystery of how narwhal tusks acquire their unique twisted structure—though they’re still not certain what narwhals use them for.
• 🔗 First open-air quantum link in the US sends quantum states of light 13 miles through open air, rather than fiber-optic cables.

US, WORLD, & POLITICS

• 🚗 President Trump threatens to raise tariffs on Canadian cars and auto parts to 50% starting January 1, in response to Canada announcing retaliatory tariffs on US goods.
• 🌏 Trump admin expands “secondary” sanctions on Iran, covering companies and countries doing business with Tehran in digital assets, tech, gold, aviation, and shipping; Treasury Dept. also unveils new sanctions targeted nuclear and missile technology procurement, cyber operations, and oil smuggling.
• 🧑‍⚖️ Supreme Court sides with Trump admin in 6-3 ruling that says states have no legal right to challenge Trump’s executive order restricting mail-in voting, without ruling on the legality of the order.

☝️ Scientists created edible cookies made from recycled plastic and other waste as part of a NASA-funded project. Their research uses a portable system that could produce food on-demand in submarines, disaster zones, or space.

🤔 Did you know? If the Earth’s entire history was condensed into 24 hours, dinosaurs would show up at roughly 11 pm and go extinct around 11:39 pm, while our species Homo sapiens would show up just 1 min 17 secs before midnight.

📰 Worth a read: Where’s the beef? The lab-grown-meat revolution that wasn’t

🖱️ What we’re clicking:

• How to be indistractable
• Baby Boomers are smoking more pot. Their neighbors are fuming
• Stop telling kids they can do anything

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Yesterday we covered a fresh round of tariff disagreements breaking out between the US and Canada over the weekend, as new US tariffs of 50% on ~$20 billion worth of Canadian goods took effect Saturday and PM Carney pledged new dollar-for-dollar tariffs on US goods.

❓ Our question to you: In general, do you support or oppose the Trump admin’s new tariffs on Canada?

• Support: 12%
• Oppose: 84%
• Unsure/other: 4%

Read some of the most thoughtful longform responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 572 votes and 65 longform responses.

❓ Trivia: What do you call a group of owls?

🍞 True or false?...Bread is the most shoplifted food item in the world.

🤔 Riddle me this: It has keys, but no locks. It has space, but no room. You can enter, but can’t go inside. What is it?

(keep scrolling for the answers)

🚲 In 1979, Joel Greenia biked across the US with a stranger he met through an ad in the paper. Now, the two are reuniting nearly five decades after their cross-country trek.

❓ Trivia: A parliament

🍞 T/F: False, it’s cheese

🤔 Riddle: A keyboard

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