25W31 WDW train x2, debrief laundry, COA NOT,
more of ME in THIS WEEK — scroll down
— eclectics ‘WE HEADLINES’ from this week’s media —
eclectic deriving ideas, style, or taste from a broad and diverse range of sources
“Isolation is horrible for your brain,” she added. “But once you get to a point where you are moving and eating healthy, your energy level changes, and I think you automatically become more social.”
As the study progressed, the researchers reduced check-ins to twice a month, then once a month, Baker said.
“We were trying to get people to say, ‘I am now a healthy person,’ because if you believe that, you start making decisions which agree with the new perception of yourself,” she said. https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/28/health/cognitive-decline-pointer-study-wellness?utm_source=cnn_Evening+Newsletter+-+Monday%2C+July+28%2C+2025&utm_medium=email&bt_ee=2lgZnMY%2FEYtAJVCotaq8UGkboR3VgkTS9V8nQ%2BPpmVbO6iuKxJt89q%2FhMtZOFxR8&bt_ts=1753738708283
Both metabolic syndrome and prediabetes carry an increased risk of heart disease and can be prevented — and countered — by weight loss, exercise and an optimal diet. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2025/07/28/science-prevent-heart-disease/?utm_campaign=wp_news_alert_revere_trending_now&utm_medium=email&utm_source=alert&location=alert
Trading partners from the European Union to Japan to Vietnam appear to be acceding to the president’s demands to accept higher costs — in the form of high tariffs — for the privilege of selling their wares to the United States. For Trump, the agreements, driven by a mix of threats and cajoling, are a fulfillment of a decades-long belief in protectionism and a massive gamble that it will pay off politically and economically with American consumers. https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariffs-europe-eu-trade-win-b702e8a29505f700a7462078d4d4535d
An artificial intelligence data center that would use more electricity than every home in Wyoming combined before expanding to as much as five times that size will be built soon near Cheyenne, according to the city’s mayor. https://apnews.com/article/ai-artificial-intelligence-data-center-electricity-wyoming-cheyenne-44da7974e2d942acd8bf003ebe2e855a
Donald Trump looked like the last king of Scotlan.
To the skirl of bagpipes, the president welcomed Keir Starmer to one of his Scottish golfing palaces in his mother’s ancestral homeland. The prime minister flew in Monday as a guest and a supplicant in a corner of his own United Kingdom.
Starmer was a mere extra as Trump held court in a mind-bending news conference that rollicked through topics like his hatred of wind power, the window frames in his ballroom and Windsor Castle.
Trump capped his protocol-reversing day by flying the PM across Scotland on Air Force One to another of his exclusive clubs, in another ostentatious show of US power optics.
A day earlier, the top EU official, Ursula von der Leyen, matched Starmer’s effusiveness after arriving at Trump’s windswept Turnberry links for an audience bearing a trade deal that some Europeans blasted as a surrender.
Events in America’s new temporary capital in southwest Scotland were an object lesson in how Trump flexes his indomitable personality and relentless sense of others’ weaknesses to impose personal power and rack up big wins for himself. https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/29/politics/trump-scotland-trip-russia-gaza-analysis
This means that a federal worker, according to the memorandum, “may engage another in polite discussion of why his faith is correct and why the non-adherent should re-think his religious beliefs,” but “if the nonadherent requests such attempts to stop, the employee should honor the request.” The memorandum lays out the caveat: “provided that such efforts are not harassing in nature.”
Federal law already offers some protections for religious expression in the workplace.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbids employers from discriminating based on religion. They are required to make reasonable accommodations for their employees’ religious practices and beliefs unless it would be an “undue hardship” to do so.
In a news release, Kupor said the idea is to make the federal workplace “not just compliant … but welcoming to Americans of all faiths.”
The memo, issued by what is essentially the human resources department of the federal government, is the Trump administration’s latest efforts around religion. In May, the president created a Religious Liberty Commission, and, in February, he signed an executive order forming a task force to eradicate anti-Christian bias.
“We’re bringing religion back to our country,” Trump promised at a prayer breakfast in Washington when he announced plans for the Religious Liberty Commission. https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/28/politics/federal-workers-religious-beliefs-memo
Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday called for a renewed commitment to diplomacy to resolve conflicts as he marked the 50th anniversary of the Helsinki Accords, the landmark Cold War-era agreement that ushered in a new era of security and human rights.
At the end of his general audience, history’s first American pope said that Aug. 1 marks the anniversary of the conclusion of the 35-nation summit in Finland that resulted in the Helsinki Final Act, which years later helped give birth to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. https://apnews.com/article/vatican-pope-helsinki-accords-peace-b7dffeb5d6342dc6e29f69e1b0bb4802
Notably, Trump argues that the Fed should cut because the economy is doing very well, which is a different viewpoint than nearly all economists, who say that a healthy, growing economy doesn’t need rate cuts.
“If your economy is hot, you’re supposed to have higher short-term rates,” Porcelli said. https://apnews.com/article/federal-reserve-powell-trump-rates-99d90bab1ba2faa0fc5d4a6106125da7
The U.S. economy grew by an annual rate of 3 percent in the second-quarter, a strong showing boosted by a slowdown in imports amid ongoing trade turmoil.
New data from the Commerce Department this morning shows a significant pickup from the first three months of the year, when the economy contracted by 0.5 percent.
Get a curated selection of 10 of our best stories in your inbox every weekend.
But economists warn that the latest figures, which were boosted by tariff-related swings in trade, is likely painting a more upbeat picture of the economy than is warranted. American businesses purchased far fewer imports — which ends up counting against GDP — in the second quarter, because they had already stocked up on foreign goods earlier in the year ahead of President Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs. A corresponding surge in overall exports made up the bulk of the economy’s recent strength. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/07/30/gdp-q2-economy-tariffs/?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=wp_news_alert_revere&location=alert
In Gaza, the terrorist group Hamas has had one core demand from the moment it invaded Israel and slaughtered over 1,000 people and stole nearly 250 people as hostages. That demand is to stay in power as the ruling authority in Gaza under cover of an internationally recognized and permanent ceasefire and reconstruction plan. Hamas to this day has not accepted even a discussion of handing security responsibility to another entity – such as a coalition of Arab forces, or other Palestinian forces – even as it’s militarily battered. https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/29/politics/trump-promises-gaza-ukraine-mcgurk-analysis
North Carolina, where former Gov. Roy Cooper jumped into the race for that state’s newly open seat with a vow to address voters’ persistent concerns about the challenges of making ends meet.
Cooper’s opening message that he hears the worries of working families has given Democrats in North Carolina and beyond a sense that they can reclaim their place as the party that champions the middle class. They think it’s a message that could help them pick up a Senate seat, and possibly more, in next year’s midterm elections, which in recent years have typically favored the party out of power. https://apnews.com/article/cooper-whatley-north-carolina-senate-election-6ff120ce8cc1fd8b462f27c2445d23bd
New Zealand, the smallest Five Eyes partner, has faced ongoing pressure to align with U.S. stances on China, its largest trading partner, while carefully balancing relations with Beijing. Analysts said the FBI chief’s comments could vex those efforts, although New Zealand has faced such challenges before.
“It’s in New Zealand’s interest to have more law enforcement activities to deal with our shared problems,” said Jason Young, associate professor of international relations at Victoria University of Wellington. “It’s perhaps not in New Zealand’s interest to say we’re doing this to compete with China.” https://apnews.com/article/kash-patel-fbi-new-zealand-china-pacific-10632b29f051039e1f220bcafce90721
U.S. employers added just 73,000 jobs last month and Labor Department revisions showed that hiring was much weaker than previously reported in May and June. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2%.
The unexpectedly weak report raises questions about the health of the job market and the economy as President Donald Trump pushes forward with a radical and erratic overhaul of American trade policy, imposing hefty tariffs on imports from almost every country on earth.
The Labor Department reported Friday that revisions shaved a stunning 258,000 jobs off May and June payrolls.
Manufacturers cut 11,000 jobs last month after shedding 15,000 in June and 11,000 in May. The federal government, where employment has been targeted by the Trump administration, lost 12,000 jobs.
The weak jobs data makes it more likely that Trump will get one thing that he most fervently desires: A cut in short-term interest rates by the Federal Reserve, which often -- though not always -- can lead to lower rates for mortgages, car loans, and credit cards.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell and other Fed officials have repeatedly pointed to a healthy job market as a reason that they could take time to evaluate how Trump’s tariffs were affecting inflation and the broader economy. Now that assessment has been undercut and will put more pressure on the Fed to reduce borrowing costs.
Powell signaled little urgency to reduce rates anytime soon. He said the “labor market is solid” with “historically low unemployment.” But he also acknowledged there is a “downside risk” to employment stemming from the slow pace of hiring that was evident even before Friday’s weaker numbers.
The current situation is a sharp reversal from the hiring boom of just three years ago when desperate employers were handing out signing bonuses and introducing perks such as Fridays off, fertility benefits and even pet insurance to recruit and keep workers. https://apnews.com/article/jobs-unemployment-economy-trump-federal-reserve-68a15f89d68793a6cf88a522ff33246c
The government told the organizations on Thursday via email that their experts are being disinvited from the workgroups that have been the backbone of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
The organizations include the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
“I’m concerned and distressed,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a Vanderbilt University vaccine expert who for decades has been involved with ACIP and its workgroups.
He said the move will likely propel a confusing fragmentation of vaccine guidance, as patients may hear the government say one thing and hear their doctors say another. https://apnews.com/article/vaccine-committee-cdc-cfbdcab84b2a919a6131d471959c3431
The Trump administration takes a very Orwellian turn
All of it reinforces the idea that Trump is trying to consolidate power by pursuing rather heavy-handed and blatant tactics.
But if there’s a week that really drove home how blunt these efforts can be, it might be this one. https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/02/politics/the-trump-administration-takes-a-very-orwellian-turn
— ME in THIS WEEK life.flow.productivity of 168 hours available —
— into Sunday
used 27 hours to