Economics & Development
According to new data from the Census Bureau, US inflation-adjusted median household income reached a record high of $87,460 in 2025, surpassing the previous record of $85,320, set in 2019.
You may see some negative reporting about US poverty. According to the Census Bureau's Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), the poverty rate was 13.1 percent in 2025. That was statistically unchanged from 2024 and above the pre-pandemic level of 11.7 percent. However, that figure requires context, as the SPM is not a fixed yardstick. Unlike a fixed absolute poverty measure that adjusts for inflation, the SPM’s poverty thresholds are based on what middle-income households spend on food, clothing, shelter, and utilities, so they can rise when living standards rise, not just when prices do. Because the threshold can rise in real terms, a family can become materially better off while its position relative to the poverty line stays the same or even worsens. Indeed, a Census Bureau working paper finds that, if poverty thresholds had been adjusted only for changes in prices, the SPM poverty rate would have declined in 2025 rather than remaining stable.
American Poverty Is a Measurement Problem
Bad measurement choices dramatically distort the picture of poverty and inequality in the United States.
So far, the AI boom appears to be adding far more American jobs than it is eliminating. An analysis by The Economist finds that industries and occupations closely tied to AI and data centers have added about 1 million more US jobs than broader employment trends would predict. Around 320,000 of those above-trend jobs are in data-center-related construction and manufacturing, and 730,000 are in the occupations closest to AI development, such as engineering, software development, mathematics, and data science. By comparison, The Economist counted roughly 200,000 layoffs attributed to AI since mid-2023.
China has opened the Pinglu Canal, a new waterway that shortens the shipping route from parts of southwestern China to the sea by over 560 kilometers.
Energy & Environment
Conservation & biodiversity
Nepal’s critically endangered white-rumped vultures are making a rapid comeback. A new analysis of roadside vulture surveys estimates that the population has grown by an average of 12.7 percent per year since hitting a low in 2012. The recovery follows Nepal’s efforts to eliminate veterinary use of diclofenac, a livestock painkiller that poisons vultures when they feed on the carcasses of treated animals.
When the Joro spider, an orb-weaver from East Asia, was first recorded in the United States around 2014, many feared it would threaten native spiders. However, a new study suggests that Joro spiders are not strongly competing with native spiders for food. After analyzing the stomach contents of more than 200 Joro spiders and 140 native orb-weavers across Georgia and South Carolina, the researchers found that the two groups' diets differed significantly, with Joros eating a different set of prey than the native orb-weavers. They also found no detectable difference in native spiders’ diets between sites with and without Joros.
The Northern cod stock off Newfoundland and Labrador has officially recovered. After collapsing in the early 1990s, the stock has now returned to what Canada’s fisheries department classifies as a “healthy zone.” The commercial fishery reopened in 2024 after a 32-year moratorium, and this year officials raised the allowable catch by 55 percent, from 38,000 to 59,000 tonnes.
Conservationists are reestablishing bison herds in northern Mexico. According to reporting in Yucatán Magazine, the effort began in 2009, when 23 bison were brought from South Dakota to establish a conservation herd in Chihuahua. That population has since grown large enough to seed additional herds, including two in the state of Coahuila and one in Sonora.
Energy production
A recent report from the World Nuclear Association found that nuclear reactors generated a record 2,702 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2025, up from 2,667 terawatt-hours in 2024, the previous record. The vast majority of that growth occurred in Asia. China is engaged in a particularly large nuclear buildout: the country has connected five gigawatt-scale nuclear reactors to the grid during the past year and is home to 38 of the 80 nuclear reactors currently under construction worldwide.
According to a new report from the Solar Energy Industries Association, the United States added 11.4 gigawatts of solar capacity in the second quarter of 2026, up 45 percent from a year earlier. The report estimates that installed US solar capacity can generate as much electricity annually as more than one-third of American households consume.
The Energy Information Administration predicts that US crude oil production will average a record 13.8 million barrels per day in 2026, with high crude oil prices and new offshore projects contributing to the increase.
Food & Hunger
A fully automated lettuce farm in Norway is delivering lettuce to supermarket shelves. Phys.org quotes a researcher at SINTEF, a Norwegian research nonprofit, who says that no one touches the lettuce from the moment it is sown until the customer opens it at home.
Recent research from Colorado State University quantified the land-sparing impact of US irrigation systems. The researchers estimate that irrigation raises US crop production by 3 to 39 percent, depending on the crop, and that without those productivity gains, around 32 million hectares of forest and 7 million hectares of other natural vegetation worldwide would need to be converted to cropland or pasture. Combined, that’s an area slightly larger than the state of Montana.
Health & Demographics
The FDA has approved the first treatment for Sanfilippo syndrome type A, a rare but brutal neurodegenerative disease most aptly described by its nickname: “childhood Alzheimer’s.” The one-time gene therapy delivers a working copy of the SGSH gene, which is faulty in people with the disease.
Papua New Guinea is starting to vaccinate girls against HPV. The first phase of the program will offer a single dose free of charge to around 60,000 girls aged 9–14, before gradually expanding across the country.
Definium Therapeutics reports that its LSD-based drug has now succeeded in three phase 3 trials: two for anxiety and one for major depressive disorder. In the latest anxiety trial, 32 percent of treated patients saw their anxiety scores fall by at least half, compared with 14 percent of placebo recipients.
Kindred Companion Sciences, a biotech company, reports that it has created two hypoallergenic beagles. Researchers at the company used CRISPR to disable the gene that produces Can f 1, a major allergen produced by dogs, and subsequent tests found no detectable Can f 1 in their saliva or dander.
Violence & Coercion
The NYPD reports that New York City enjoyed the safest summer in recorded history this year, with the number of shootings, shooting victims, and murders all reaching record lows between June 1 and August 31.
Nice round up, as usual :)