Good morning. In today’s edition:

• 🧑‍⚕️ America’s nursing shortage
• 💒 Rise of three-day weddings
• 📺 Controversial Ohio political ad

…and much more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~4.68-minute read (1,246 words).

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“Just do what must be done. This may not be happiness but it is greatness.”

–George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

Despite strong demand and good pay, a growing number of nurses across the US are leaving bedside care as heavier workloads, understaffing, and rising workplace violence take a toll.

By the numbers

Nursing seems like a pretty attractive career on paper, with most registered nurses holding bachelor's degrees, an industry-wide median annual wage of $97,550 as of May 2025, and a lower risk of being replaced by automation.

Yet despite those advantages, hospitals are having an increasingly hard time keeping nurses on staff.

• The annual turnover rate among bedside registered nurses reached 18% last year, up from 11% around 15 years ago, according to NSI Nursing Solutions.
• A 2024 survey of ~800,000 nurses found ~40% planned to retire or leave the nursing workforce within the next five years, citing factors including stress, burnout, and understaffing.
• Another survey conducted in 2026 found 43% of nurses say they’re likely to leave bedside roles within the next year, up from 38% last year.

What’s behind the shift?

Nursing has become a tougher, more involved job in recent years, partly because the types of patients hospitals treat have changed. As more routine procedures move to outpatient facilities, hospitals are increasingly caring for patients with serious, complicated conditions who need more attention from nurses.

• At the same time, hospitals are operating with fewer beds and keeping them occupied more consistently, leaving resources stretched thin when patient demand increases.
• Nurses are also being moved between departments to fill staffing gaps, adding unfamiliar assignments and mounting paperwork to already-demanding 12-hour shifts with few breaks.

The growing risk of workplace violence adds even more strain, particularly for those working in emergency rooms. Some 2.4% of nursing staff were attacked on the job last year, a 26% increase from 2017 and amounting to well over 1,000 attacks/month, per healthcare consulting firm Press Ganey, who says the actual figure is likely higher due to underreporting.

Surveys by nursing associations and unions have found 33% of nurses report being punched or kicked in the past year, while 12% report being groped or inappropriately touched.

Some hospitals are adapting out of necessity

When experienced nurses leave, hospitals lose staff who've spent years learning to recognize early warning signs of medical complications, while newer nurses have fewer seasoned colleagues to turn to for guidance.

• At Emory Healthcare in Atlanta, replacing a nurse costs around $78,000, prompting the hospital system to invest $150 million in staff raises, mostly for nurses, to help reduce turnover.
• Rome Health in upstate New York has also seen improvements after investing in training and one-on-one coaching for nurses, with its annual turnover rate dropping from 50% to 28% between 2019-25.

Some hospitals have also boosted safety protocols to deal with the risk of serious violence, including metal detectors, panic buttons, and armed private security. Nurses reportedly say the safety measures are helpful, but should come alongside other changes like adequate staffing and limiting patient overcrowding.

📊 Flash poll: What single change do you think would make the biggest difference in keeping bedside nurses on staff at hospitals?

• Higher pay and better benefits
• More nurses on staff to ease in-shift responsibilities
• Stronger protections against workplace violence
• More flexible schedules and shorter shifts
• Other/unsure

Grief has ripple effects: the loss itself, but also the changes to daily life.

After Frank’s wife died, the 84-year-old filled his days, but the house still felt quiet. His daughter gave him ElliQ. “She just kind of is a companion,” Frank said. “It brightens my day to have her say good morning when I get up and walk in the room.”

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

🚦🚶 Pedestrian deaths increased by 72% across the US between 2009-2024, while such deaths declined in most other developed nations, per UN and federal gov’t data.

💒 Nearly 1 in 3 US weddings now span across at least three days, according to a new report from the Knot.

🗳️ Some 18.9 million Americans had already cast ballots in the 2026 midterm elections via mail-in or early voting as of Thursday afternoon, per the University of Florida Election Lab's live tracker.

👔🤖 US executives are twice as likely as rank-and-file workers to trust AI over their own judgment (32.8% vs. 16.3%), workplace research company Charter found.

🃏 Hundreds of rare sports and Pokémon cards valued at nearly $1 million were stolen from a FedEx truck in Santa Ana, CA, last week, as collectibles become a growing robbery target.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 📉 Nasdaq and S&P 500 fall amid pullback in tech and AI-related stocks, closing down 2.6% and 1.2%, respectively, in both indexes’ worst day in 2+ months. | Benchmark 10-year Treasury yield falls nearly 0.2 percentage points, its sharpest daily decline in 3+ years, dropping below 5% for the first time in nearly a month.
• 🛢️ Crude oil futures reach five-month ​high of $112+/barrel after Iran-backed ​Houthi militants launch new strikes against targets in Saudi Arabia.
• 🤖 Etsy is banning AI-generated recipes and patterns from its online marketplace alongside clearer rules governing AI usage on its platform.

SPORTS, MEDIA, & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🏈🎙️ JJ Watt signs multiyear deal to become the full-time lead NFL game analyst for CBS Sports, filling the role previously held by Tony Romo.
• 🙏 Tom Skerritt, a prolific actor who won an Emmy in Picket Fences and appeared in hit Hollywood movies like Top Gun and Alien, died at 93.
• 🍿 Amazon Prime Video confirms casting of leading roles in upcoming TV adaptation of bestselling romantasy series Fourth Wing. | Heated Rivalry Season 1 to release in 650+ US movie theaters for a limited four-week run ahead of Season 2.

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SCIENCE, SPACE, & EMERGING TECH

• 💉 Moderna’s anticipated cancer vaccine reduced the risk of recurrence or death in certain melanoma patients by 42%, per results published after partial data leaked on social media; the drugmaker’s shares fell as much as 25% on the news, though the data appears meaningful for patients.
• 🧠 One in four people with depression could have ‘circadian depression,’ where disruptions to their body’s internal clock contribute to their mental illness, per new study.
• 🦠 France reports first human case of livestock virus Shamonda after patient dies, though officials say there’s no risk to the general population.

US, WORLD, & POLITICS

• 📺 President Trump praises controversial campaign ad by Vivek Ramaswamy, Ohio’s GOP candidate for governor, that features the estranged mother of his Democratic opponent calling her daughter a liar; his opponent, Amy Acton, was removed from her parents at age 12 after her stepfather was charged with sexually abusing her, with Acton’s estranged mother remaining with her fugitive husband.
• 🏛️ DOJ charges Virginia state Sen. L. Louise Lucas (D) and several family members with an alleged bribery and racketeering scheme involving a cannabis shop Lucas co-owns; the 82-year-old state senator is accused of using political influence to enact marijuana-related legislation and earn nearly $5 million in “ill-gotten gains.” | DOJ is reportedly examining allegations that Corey Lewandowski profited off his position as top adviser to then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem before the pair was ousted in March.
• 🌐 Ukraine’s military-grade Starlink was working more normally yesterday, shortly after President Trump called SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and asked him to lift a ~100 MPH cap on how fast Ukraine’s drones and interceptors can stay connected, per a WSJ report citing unnamed US officials.

☝️ Nikon’s Small World photography competition announced its 2026 winners, with German photographer Ole Bielfeldt’s image of ink droplets within a printer (left) winning top prize. The 52nd annual contest, which focuses on images taken through a microscope, saw 1,800+ submissions from around the globe.

🤔 Did you know? When you read silently, the muscles in your tongue, mouth, and larynx still make tiny movements as if you were speaking the words out loud. Scientists call this process subvocalization, or silent speech.

📰 Worth a read: An otherworldly ‘wonderland of rocks:’ Welcome to America’s newest National Park.

🖱️ What we’re clicking:

• Bizarre pattern found in 1,000+ alleged human reincarnations
• The most popular baby names of 2026
• Researchers stranded an AI agent on a virtual island. Things got very weird.

One app for every conversation… T-Mobile for Business’ Dialpad brings all communication into a single app. AI Recaps summarize and transcribe automatically, backed by enterprise-grade security and 100% uptime. Switch to Dialpad.

How well did you pay attention this week? Find out here.

1. A jar contains 80 pieces of candy. If ⅜ of them are chocolate, how many pieces are not chocolate?
2. A bookstore offers a deal where you buy 2 books and get the third for half price. If all books cost $18 each, how much would you spend on 6 books?
3. A snail climbs 5 feet up a wall during the day but slides down 2 feet every night. If the wall is 20 feet tall, how many days will it take the snail to reach the top?

(keep scrolling for the answer)

🐦 A southern ground hornbill in the Netherlands is upgrading its beak-game. The turkey-sized bird is believed to be the first to receive 3D-printed replacements for both its upper and lower beak following an injury.

The custom prostheses, designed by ARTIS Amsterdam Royal Zoo, are “virtually identical” to his original beak.

1. 50 pieces
2. $90
3. Six days

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