Plus: NASA Is Already Prepping To Build Trump A Nuclear Reactor On The Moon |
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Let’s get into the headlines, |
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| Shares of Eli Lilly plummeted 14% on Thursday, marking the company’s steepest single-day loss since August 2000. The poor performance comes after the company released data for its obesity pill, orforglipron, which found the medication helped overweight patients without diabetes lose just over 12% of their body weight in a late-stage trial, falling below analyst expectations and trailing late-stage trial data from Novo Nordisk, which reported average weight loss of 15% among patients who used an oral version of its Wegovy treatment earlier this year. OpenAI released GPT-5 on Thursday, its new flagship language model that the company says can answer questions more quickly, and is less prone to hallucinations. The rollout comes amid reports that OpenAI is in early talks with investors about a stock sale that values the AI firm at $500 billion, up from its $300 billion valuation in March. |
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 | | ILLUSTRATION BY MACY SINREICH FOR FORBES; IMAGES BY SADAJIWA; ALEX LS; 6381380 VIA GETTY IMAGES |
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| This week, NASA administrator Sean Duffy declared the Trump Administration’s intention to land a working nuclear fission reactor on the moon by the end of the decade. And while that might sound like the plot of a James Bond movie, Duffy’s atomic directives aren’t that outlandish. In fact, the stated five-year timetable might not even be too aggressive, especially when you consider that NASA and its many contractors have been relying on atomic power for a long time. Since the 1960s, NASA has powered Apollo missions, space probes and Martian landers using radioisotopic batteries that turn the heat emitted by Plutonium-238 and other decaying isotopes into electricity. Still, nuclear fission reactors like what Duffy is talking about are far more complicated—you need a lot of energy to power a moonbase. That’s where the Fission Surface Power Project comes in. In 2022, NASA gave $5 million grants to three consortia—made up of companies including Lockheed Martin and Westinghouse—to create a system that weighs just 6 tons, can fit into a cylinder 13 feet in diameter and 20 feet long, and can work for 10 years, self-regulated, with no maintenance or refuelling required. “On Earth, reactors are not designed to be low mass and small. In space you need as little mass as possible to fit on a rocket,” says Sebastian Corbisiero, the national technical director for space reactors at the Idaho National Lab. |
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| Corbisiero believes a lunar reactor is an important and necessary first step to developing systems that could sustain a Martian colony. As his research group found in 2023, “Surface nuclear power is required for a sustainable lunar presence.” |
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| President Donald Trump urged Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan to resign “immediately,” after Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) questioned the company over Tan’s ties to Chinese firms, citing “concern about the security and integrity of Intel’s operations and its potential impact on U.S. national security.” Intel’s share price fell about 3% Thursday following the president’s post. Firefly Aerospace, a space technology firm founded by a former SpaceX engineer whose lunar lander touched down on the moon earlier this year, jumped more than 50% during its IPO on the Nasdaq on Thursday, trading at over $70 per share before settling closer to $60 by market close. The company, which initially priced shares at $45 and was valued at over $6 billion prior to its opening, saw its value peak as high as $9.8 billion. |
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| In the past year, Americans filed 50,000 complaints with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that were related to credit card disputes. For customers, filing a dispute can be a slog. But startup Casap—which just raised $25 million in new funding at a $105 million valuation—is using AI to help banks make the experience better for honest customers. Casap also aims to flag potential instances of first-party fraud, which costs businesses a reported $100 billion per year. Instagram rolled out a new map feature this week, allowing users to share their location with a select group of followers. While users need to opt in—and they can customize which of their followers can view their location—the response on social media has been mixed. Some in Congress have also expressed concern over earlier iterations of a location-sharing feature that could expose young Instagram users to danger, among other privacy issues. |
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| Construction at the so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention facility in Florida has been temporarily halted by a federal judge over potential environmental violations, though the facility can remain open and hold detainees. The decision comes amid a now monthslong lawsuit filed by environmental groups and the Miccosukee Tribe that alleges the Department of Homeland Security, Florida’s Division of Emergency Management and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement permitted the site’s construction “without conducting any environmental reviews.” |
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| The United States Tennis Association announced that the 2025 U.S. Open, which begins August 18, will offer the largest purse in tennis history, marking the first tennis event to reach $90 million in total player compensation. The total amount is a 20% increase of 2024’s then-record purse of $75 million, and this year’s men’s and women’s singles champions will each earn $5 million, the largest winning payout in the sport. Skydance Media officially closed its $8 billion merger deal with Paramount on Thursday, capping off a tumultuous bid to win regulatory approval just two weeks after the FCC finally greenlit the deal announced in July 2024. CEO David Ellison promised to turn Paramount into a “tech-forward company that blends the creative heart of Hollywood with the innovative spirit of Silicon Valley.” |
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| Japan’s top trade negotiator said the Trump Administration would revise its tariff order to eliminate the stacking of multiple tariffs on Japanese goods, correcting an error and ending confusion caused by varied interpretations of the trade deal between the nations. This is similar to the arrangement with the EU, and the U.S. also agreed to refund any excess tariff collected due to the “extremely regrettable” error in the administrative process. |
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| President Donald Trump said he directed the Commerce Department to no longer include undocumented immigrants in the U.S. census, a change that would likely impact the number of House seats for each state. When Trump made attempts toward the same goal in his first term, California, Florida and Texas would have each lost a House seat at the time, while Alabama, Minnesota and Ohio would have each held onto a seat. |
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| While the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 technically allocated $79.5 billion to the IRS, Congress has clawed back more than half the original funding, which had been earmarked to be spent over 10 years. A recent inspector general report took a look at how the remaining funds have been spent: |
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$41.8 billion | The amount of supplemental IRS funding Congress has rescinded, all of which were designated for enforcement | |
| $204 billion | The estimated revenue from IRA-funded enforcement through 2031, per a 2022 estimate from the Congressional Budget Office. For every $20 billion clawed back from enforcement, the CBO estimated $44 billion in decreased revenues. | |
| 25% | The share of IRS workers who took deferred resignation so far in 2025, though this report doesn’t yet factor in this reduced spending |
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| As the writers of this newsletter would tell you, an engaging hook is the most important part of any text you write—especially when that text is for online audiences with decreasing attention spans. But if writing isn’t your day job, consider using an AI chatbot like ChatGPT to perfect the opening line of your next email pitch or social media post. Here are five prompts to help optimize your writing for instant audience engagement. |
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