The husband-and-wife founders of Unwell claim to be champions of Gen Z feminists and young adults. But Vanity Fair reports they run roughshod over a workplace marred by ‘fear, anxiety, and paranoia.’
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For decades, outdated rules and regulations have constrained the ability of local television broadcasters — the providers of local news, the most trusted information available to Americans — to compete, grow, and invest in their own future. During that same time, a handful of Big Tech platforms have amassed unprecedented economic power, each one dwarfing all of traditional media and dramatically reshaping how Americans consume news and information.
Companies like Google/YouTube, TikTok, Amazon, Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, and Netflix now reach virtually every screen in every home and every device in every pocket. Their scale is staggering. Today, YouTube accounts for one-eighth of all television viewing in the United States. One in four young adults report getting their news from TikTok. The advertising numbers are just as stark: according to S&P Global/Kagan, YouTube alone billed more in video advertising last year than all of broadcast television combined. In 2026, one Wall Street analyst predicts that just five digital entities — Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and TikTok — will control 65% of the advertising market, worth $260 billion.
These companies are not built to prioritize fact-based journalism or civic discourse. Their business model rewards clicks, not accuracy or accountability. While their content competes with trusted, fact-based journalism in the commercial marketplace, it does not serve the same critical purpose in the marketplace of ideas that is so vital to the proper functioning of our democracy. That makes the threat these companies pose to local broadcasters and local news very real and very urgent.
If all of this sounds somewhat familiar, it should. Local newspapers were once indispensable — deeply rooted in their communities and widely trusted. Then, with the rise of online news and advertising, their economics began to unravel. New competitors emerged with a scale and reach local publishers simply couldn’t match. The consequences were severe. Thousands of newspapers closed. Many others were hollowed out. According to the Medill Local News Initiative, in the last 20 years nearly 270,000 jobs at local newspapers have been lost. Today, communities are lucky if there is a single paper left. When regulatory relief finally came for newspapers, the economics had already collapsed — a warning local broadcast cannot afford to ignore.
Local broadcast television now faces a similar inflection point. I have spent the past 30 years of my life building one of the country’s leading local television companies, Nexstar Media Group. I founded the company in 1996 with one television station in Scranton, Pennsylvania, located in the back of a converted Kresge’s department store. Today, with TEGNA under the Nexstar umbrella, we provide local news and programming to more than 130 communities across the country and employ more than 18,000 people, nearly 9,000 of whom are journalists.
Americans consistently rank local newscasts as their most trusted source of information. Across Nexstar stations, we produce more than 300,000 hours of local news and programming each year. And in an era of rampant misinformation and growing polarization, local journalists provide a critical counterweight — offering verified facts and a forum for civic engagement. Sustaining that mission in today’s environment requires scale — which is exactly why Nexstar pursued the acquisition of TEGNA.
This transaction is vital to the future of local television and local journalism. Without the ability to grow, local broadcasters will struggle to compete for audiences, attract advertising, and invest in the journalism that is vital to our communities. With it, we can expand our reach and preserve something no algorithm can replicate: trusted local news. Even combined, Nexstar and TEGNA represent just 15% of the more than 1700 full-power stations across the country and have no presence in 20% of the country.
The alternative is dire. A future where Americans rely on algorithm-driven feeds, viral content, and AI-generated summaries for information. A future where local voices are diminished or disappear altogether. A future where fewer institutions are dedicated to reporting facts, holding power to account, and fostering informed civic dialogue. No one wants their news from a chatbot or a rage-optimized social feed. And Americans deserve more than a shrinking set of national outlets that do not reflect the diversity of their communities. This deal offers us all a chance to preserve real news options for future generations of Americans.
The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.
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Nicolas Jabko (pictured top), a political science professor at Johns Hopkins University, said the challenge Warsh faces is not just political. The committee itself may not be on his side.
“He needs to basically sway the entire committee his way if he wants to lower interest rates,” Jabko told Mortgage Professional America. “And he may have a lot of trouble doing that because of the new inflationary pressures. The rising prices and inflation have just spiked once again.”
Jabko said Warsh’s reputation at the Fed was built during the 2010s, when he was among a minority of board governors who pushed back against the full scope of quantitative easing and ultimately resigned over it. That is where the hawk label comes from.
Warsh has been pushing for an overhaul of how the central bank thinks about and views data, which could help support future rate easing. In his confirmation hearing, he argued that the arrival of artificial intelligence will generate a supply shock significant enough to justify lower rates. Jabko said most economists are not yet convinced.
“He’s been taking the position that with the arrival of AI, you don’t really need to have a tight monetary strategy, because this arrival of AI will actually create a supply shock,” Jabko said. “It will basically increase the productivity of the American economy, and therefore, the Fed should lower interest rates. This is debated amongst economists. I think most economists are very skeptical of Warsh’s new argument.”
University of California faculty from the humanities, social sciences, arts, business, law, and education have published their own open letter backing their STEM colleagues’ push to restore standardized testing and they’re going further, calling for both the math and the verbal reasoning sections of the SAT/ACT to return to undergraduate admissions.
The new letter explicitly endorses the earlier letter from more than 600 UC math and STEM faculty, then broadens the argument: it’s not just calculus students who are showing up underprepared. Reading, writing, and quantitative reasoning gaps are surfacing across non-STEM fields, too.
When the original STEM letter landed, it was easy to frame the readiness debate as a math problem. This letter makes it clear that new college students are under-prepared across the board. By bringing in faculty from across the social sciences and humanities, the campaign now spans nearly the entire university and it shifts the ask from a STEM-only math requirement to a full restoration of the SAT/ACT, verbal section included.
That matters because UC’s test-blind policy currently applies to every campus and every major. These faculty argue that requiring all programs to ignore test scores is no longer defensible “in an era of K-12 grade inflation and the growing use of AI in admissions essays.“
The non-STEM faculty lean on UC’s own research — the Academic Senate’s Standardized Testing Task Force report, which found that test scores predict college grades and graduation rates. They point to Table 6 of that report, which shows reading and writing scores predict performance across fields, “especially in the social sciences and humanities,” and that SAT-math predicts grades in social science classes even after controlling for high school GPA and verbal scores.
A few of their core points:
The faculty frame the timing as urgent. Test-blind admissions are already locked in for the Fall 2026 and Fall 2027 entering classes. If UC doesn’t reverse course “in the next month or two,” Fall 2028 will be admitted test-blind as well and inaction through the 2026–2027 academic year would lock in Fall 2029, too. That’s three to four more years of what the faculty call a “failed experiment.”
Here’s the full text of the open letter from UC non-STEM faculty:
Dear Academic Senate leadership, UC Regents, UCOP, University of California colleagues, and the people of California,
We are University of California faculty from the social sciences, humanities, arts, business, law, education, and other non-STEM fields. We are writing to endorse our STEM colleagues’ earlier open letter regarding the math component of SAT/ACT and argue for also using the verbal reasoning component of SAT/ACT in undergraduate admissions.
We first want to thank our mathematics colleagues for explaining the harmful impact that a test-blind admissions policy has had on math and other STEM education at the University of California. Some of us did not sign the mathematics letter because it was framed as a statement from STEM faculty, but we agree with its conclusions. As a complement to their focus on STEM preparation, we would like to highlight concerns from our own fields.
While our STEM colleagues understandably focused on problems caused by the absence of SAT/ACT-math in undergraduate admissions, we emphasize that University of California undergraduate admissions would also benefit from considering the SAT reading and writing section or the ACT English and reading sections. As carefully documented in Section III and the various appendices of the Academic Senate’s Standardized Testing Task Force report, standardized test scores predict important outcomes like college grades and graduation rates. For example, Table 6 of the report shows that reading and writing scores predict performance across fields, especially in the social sciences and humanities. As artificial intelligence becomes more capable, it is arguably more important than ever for students to be able to think through and compose sound arguments on their own, to comprehend the texts they read, and to recognize weaknesses in the arguments of those texts. The growing use of AI also makes essays a less reliable indicator of these abilities. Without foundational literacy, students face difficulties across university disciplines. Eliminating the metrics that diagnose these preparation gaps imposed significant barriers for underprepared students and their instructors alike.
We recognize concerns about equity and access. However, no admissions criterion is uncorrelated with social background. Notably, the number of extracurricular activities that college applicants report and the writing style of essays are strongly associated with social class. Standardized testing can provide critical information about academic preparation and help identify talented students from underrepresented ethnicities and economically disadvantaged families and under-resourced schools whose potential may not be fully reflected elsewhere in their applications, including cases where school resources or grading standards vary widely.
The absence of SAT/ACT-math is felt well beyond STEM education. Many social sciences and applied fields, as well as some humanities fields, rely heavily on statistics and quantitative reasoning. Students without a solid grounding in algebra struggle in statistics, which affects learning across fields. Even some non-quantitative fields (e.g., analytic philosophy) require students to use forms of reasoning closely related to mathematical thinking. Not surprisingly, Table 6 of the Senate task force report shows that SAT-math predicts grades in social science classes, and to a certain extent in humanities classes, even after controlling for high school GPA and the verbal reasoning component of the SAT.
We support restoring the use of both the verbal and math aspects of SAT/ACT to undergraduate admissions. As our colleagues’ letter noted, SAT/ACT-math will benefit STEM education and we add that social sciences, humanities, and other fields will also benefit from the use of standardized testing in admissions, including the reading and writing components of the tests. Reasonable people can debate how much weight SAT/ACT should carry relative to other parts of applications and policies may vary by campus and degree program. However, it is unreasonable to require all undergraduate degree programs at all campuses to be test-blind in an era of K-12 grade inflation and the growing use of AI in admissions essays.
As faculty, we are best positioned to see the consequences of six years of test-blind admissions. It is also our decision to make under the principles of shared governance. These principles were respected when UCOP requested that the Academic Senate investigate the role of testing in admissions policy. The Senate Testing Task Force’s report called for the continued use of SAT/ACT in admissions and this was endorsed by the systemwide Assembly of the Academic Senate in a unanimous 51-to-0 vote. A month later, the UC Regents considered the Task Force’s research, but ultimately voted against the Academic Senate’s recommendation and discontinued the use of the SAT/ACT in undergraduate admissions.
The lead time in implementing a return to a sensible admissions policy makes it urgent to begin that correction soon. Test-blind admissions are already locked in for Fall 2026 and Fall 2027 entering classes. If the University of California does not reverse course in the next month or two, the Fall 2028 entering class will be admitted on a test-blind basis with all the problems that implies. If the University of California does not change policy in the 2026-2027 academic year, this will lock in test-blind policy for the Fall 2029 entering class as well. This leaves at least three to four more years of a system where underprepared students are accepted only to struggle with their academic goals, while qualified California students with high potential from diverse backgrounds may be squeezed out of the UC system and left with no choice but to attend alternative public segments, go out of state, or turn to private institutions instead. California families deserve an admissions process that considers all available evidence of academic preparation.
Therefore, we call for the UC Academic Senate and the UC Regents to give up the failed experiment of the last six years and return to including both the math and the verbal reasoning components of SAT/ACT as part of undergraduate admissions.
Sign the Open Letter from UC Social Sciences, Humanities, Arts, Business, Law, Education, and other non-STEM Faculty.
The College Investor reported in High GPAs And Test-Optional Mask Poor Math Skills At College that test-optional admissions combined with grade inflation has produced incoming students whose transcripts overstate their real ability — a mismatch that often only surfaces after enrollment, when remediation costs time, tuition, and degree-completion odds. We also covered the original STEM faculty letter demanding the SAT return for STEM majors. With most elite peers already requiring scores again (including all Ivy League colleges after Columbia reversed track this last week), UC is one of the last major holdouts and now the pressure is coming from inside nearly every department.
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The post UC Humanities And Social Science Faculty Join STEM Push To Restore The SAT appeared first on The College Investor.
President Donald Trump is trying to project brute strength as he turns 80, but mounting political problems at home and abroad are tarnishing his self-styled image as an all-powerful leader.
Trump will celebrate becoming an octogenarian as he hosts an extravagant, $60 million Ultimate Fighting Championship showcase on the White House South Lawn Sunday night.
He has made a habit of attending high-profile sporting events, including the NBA Finals in New York earlier this week. And he’s announced he will headline a rally on the National Mall to mark the US’s 250th birthday.
It’s an all-out effort to inject himself into nearly every corner of American culture. But political spectacle, and overseeing the body blows of mixed martial-arts fighters, can’t hide that Trump’s political capital is declining. He is struggling to end an unpopular war with Iran, some fellow Republicans have begun to resist his ideas and polls show his support outside his devoted base is waning.
In public, Trump has expressed nothing but confidence. But privately, he has become increasingly frustrated, according to a person close to the White House, who requested anonymity to discuss internal dynamics.
Some of Trump’s public appearances have instead revealed the depth of the public’s antipathy toward him. The crowd inside Madison Square Garden resoundingly booed Trump at the NBA Finals game when he was shown on the arena’s big screen, though he reported hearing “mostly cheers.” He announced his 250th anniversary rally plan only after musical acts pulled out of scheduled performances, citing the political nature of the celebrations.
On top of that, as only the second US president to turn 80 in office, he is facing questions about his age and abilities.
“There’s a feeling when you hear someone is 80 that they are incapacitated,” presidential historian Douglas Brinkley said. “President Trump is trying to show himself to the manosphere as being fit as a fiddle, golfing regularly. And he wants to associate himself with things like wrestling and race cars and the Knicks game to show he is out and about and at full capacity.”
The dynamic is playing out months ahead of the November midterm elections, which will determine control of Congress. If Democrats reclaim one or both chambers, it could erode Trump’s power in Washington even further. Republicans outside the White House are worried about the president’s polling and substantial midterm losses, according to the person.
The White House has publicly brushed aside that narrative and has boasted that Trump remains a kingmaker within the GOP. Allies have pointed to two sitting senators who lost their primaries after Trump endorsed their opponents.
On a few occasions, however, Trump has let his frustration show. He expressed regret for endorsing a candidate for governor in Iowa who lost the Republican primary. He blamed his political advisers, telling reporters Thursday that he would have supported the other candidate “had I been given the proper information.”
The president continues to make superlative statements about his health and negotiating abilities. On social media Trump recently posted a photo of himself with the headline: “President Trump ages in reverse!” So far he has spent little time publicly reflecting on the milestone. Asked by a reporter what he wishes for his birthday, he replied, “Peace for the world.”
Meanwhile, Trump advisers have aggressively pushed back against questions about Trump’s health after his recent physical examination. They have countered talk about his tendency to close his eyes during events by posting on social media pictures of reporters with their eyes closed. White House Communications Director Steven Cheung recently took to social media on a Saturday night to declare that Trump “It’s 9:30 PM on a Saturday night and President Trump is still in the Oval Office working hard for the American people.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted that the UFC event is nothing more than a pastime for Trump, saying “he is a sports guy.”
“The president naturally projects strength every day by leading the strongest country in the history of the world,” she said in a statement.
Intentional or not, the fight setup symbolizes Trump’s control over the White House. A massive venue — dubbed “the Claw” — has been constructed on the South Lawn soaring nearly 100 feet up, higher than the building itself, with seating for 4,300 guests. The event’s infrastructure totals 380,000 tons, according to organizers. ESPN reported earlier on the logistics.
So far, Trump’s alpha-male roadshow has largely focused on topics other than the economic impact of the war in Iran. When asked about those concerns, Trump has insisted oil prices will drop if a pending deal is signed in coming days. His public comments to reporters have heavily focused on his Washington renovation projects, such as the resealing of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Oftentimes, pocketbook issues seem like an afterthought.
Asked Wednesday about new data that showed inflation was at a three-year high, Trump told reporters, “I love the inflation,” comments he later told the New York Post were taken out of context.
Earlier in the week, he was glib when he and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin were asked if they would attend the next NBA Finals game in San Antonio. Zeldin said the White House was busy with “important stuff.”
To that, Trump added: “Like a war.”
The president’s approval rating has dropped consistently for months, forcing Republicans running in midterm elections to battle heavy headwinds with unhappy voters. A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll showed that 35% of adults approve of Trump’s performance, compared with 63% who disapprove. Polling shows persistent concern about prices and the cost of living.
“In his second term, the older he gets, the lower his job rating goes. It’s the reverse Benjamin Button,” said Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research. “He may be trying to project strength, Americans see weakness and that he’s not delivering on what he promised — lowering costs and ending military conflicts.”
Trump has nonetheless made clear he is doing things his way and has surrounded himself with a team that supports his every whim. That stands in contrast with his first term, when at times advisers sought to talk him out of drastic actions. He will try to keep flexing his muscles moving forward even if Democrats prevail in November, Brinkley said.
“Trump’s not going to allow himself to be perceived as a lame duck,” he said.
Trump has said he knows he cannot run for a third term — although he has continued to tease the possibility. He has escaped some questions about his age as a result, compared with President Joe Biden who was dogged with concerns about his advancing years, especially after he attempted to seek another term after turning 80.
Trump’s overall approach to his birthday is vastly different than that with past presidential celebrations, which have ranged from quiet family gatherings or celebrity-studded fundraisers.
Biden marked his 80th privately. Bill Clinton turned 50 while in office and had a giant fundraiser party at Radio City Music Hall, with performances by Bon Jovi and Aretha Franklin. When Ronald Reagan turned 70, his wife Nancy surprised him with a party in the East Room that was attended by Frank Sinatra and other Hollywood friends.
And of course at John F. Kennedy’s 45th birthday party fundraiser at Madison Square Garden, Marilyn Monroe famously serenaded him with “Happy Birthday.”
One of the advantages of Chase Ultimate Rewards is that you can combine points you earn from multiple credit cards. That includes personal and business Chase cards. You can also combine points with family members, but that got just a bit harder recently.
So for example you can earn 5X at office supply stores using your Chase Ink Business Cash card and then redeem for travel with Points Boost with your Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Sapphire Reserve for example.
So how can you combine your Chase Ultimate Rewards? The easiest option it to have all your cards under one login. To do that, you need to add your personal login to your business one.
Before going into the steps of how to do it, here are some reason on why you should do it:
Here’s how to link your business and personal Chase credit cards under one login:
There are some things to keep in mind:
They’re finally here. Deliveries of the much-anticipated Rivian (RIVN +7.85%) R2 fleet have begun, and so begins an extraordinarily important chapter for the electric vehicle (EV) maker. The R2 isn’t just another model. With a starting price of less than $47,000, it’s Rivian’s push into the mainstream through a more affordable option.
Today’s Change
(7.85%) $1.22
Current Price
$16.76
Market Cap
$21B
Day’s Range
$15.44 – $16.77
52wk Range
$11.57 – $22.69
Volume
31.9M
Avg Vol
29.5M
Gross Margin
-441.39%
The company’s ability to challenge Tesla‘s (TSLA +1.65%) dominance really hinges on the success and reception of the R2. Rivian’s previous models are luxury-oriented, with price tags starting at over $70,000. They are highly rated by drivers, but because of their price point, they are out of reach for most.
It hasn’t been an easy year for EV makers. The federal EV tax credit was eliminated, and demand for EVs has subsided in the U.S. Several legacy automakers have also downsized or canceled EV-related plans. While the environment is challenging for Rivian, there is an opportunity to reinvigorate the EV market and capture additional market share, especially from dominant rival Tesla.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Rivian’s business model is divided into two segments: automotive and software and services. The automotive division is still posting heavy losses, but software and services are profitable. Rivian’s total revenue for the first quarter of 2026 reached $1.38 billion, an 11% increase from the year prior. The company’s stock has decreased by about 20% in 2026 as of this writing.
Tesla still dominates Rivian in terms of market share. Combined, Tesla and China’s BYD account for about 25% of all EVs worldwide. Rivian has a very long way to go to overtake Tesla in the U.S. and then compete globally, but the first step is through the success and growing popularity of the affordable R2.
If this fleet is a hit among mainstream drivers in the U.S., it’ll help Rivian gain important ground in the U.S. I wouldn’t count on Tesla being dethroned for several more years, however.
Catie Hogan has positions in Rivian Automotive. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Tesla. The Motley Fool recommends BYD Company. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Switzerland votes on proposal to cap population at 10 million
