Today’s topics

• Saks Fifth Avenue acquired Neiman Marcus

• Google Maps has levelled up with new features

• Universe joins the Independence Day celebrations

• Epic lunar captures

  and more…

The U.S. stock markets took a holiday breather, closing early on Wednesday and remaining shut on Thursday for Independence Day. Despite lackluster economic data, the S&P 500 reached new highs, climbing 0.51% to close at 5,537.02, while the Nasdaq surged 0.88% to 18,188.30, fueled by strong performances from tech giants like Tesla and Nvidia, both hitting fresh record highs before the break.

Retail royalty: Saks snags Neiman Marcus, Amazon tags along. Saks Fifth Avenue's parent company, HBC, is splurging $2.65 billion to acquire Neiman Marcus, forming a behemoth of upscale retail in the U.S. This posh alliance, which includes Bergdorf Goodman, brings Amazon into the fold, adding its tech and logistics prowess. Salesforce is also hopping on the luxury bandwagon as a minority shareholder. Leading this lavish ensemble will be Marc Metrick, the current head of Saks, under the newly minted banner of Saks Global.

Bezos bags billions as Amazon soars. Jeff Bezos is cashing in on Amazon's success, offloading 25 million shares worth nearly $5 billion after the stock hit a record high. The Amazon founder filed with the SEC on Tuesday, taking advantage of the stock price reaching $200.43. This move follows Amazon's market cap surpassing $2 trillion for the first time last week. With the stock up 32% year to date, it's a lucrative moment for Bezos to make his move.

Mind-Reading AI: A Glimpse into Your Visual World

AI systems have reached a new milestone, now able to accurately recreate images of what someone is viewing by analyzing their brain activity. This breakthrough is even more impressive when the AI is trained to focus on specific brain regions, significantly enhancing the precision of the reconstructed images. Top row displays the original images. The second row showcases images reconstructed by AI using brain recordings from a macaque, demonstrating high fidelity to the original stimuli. The bottom row illustrates images reconstructed by the AI system without an attention mechanism, highlighting reduced accuracy and fidelity compared to the attention-enhanced reconstructions.

Chatting up Google Maps: new features redefine navigation. Google Maps has levelled up with a slew of dazzling new features that make it more interactive and user-friendly than ever. You can now chat directly with Google Maps, using AI to access comprehensive business details, photos, ratings, and reviews for trustworthy results. The Multi-Search feature allows you to combine words and images in innovative ways to find what you're looking for, tapping into data from millions of local businesses. AI-powered suggestions enhance your experience by offering on-the-go recommendations, like finding indoor activities when it starts to rain.

Starlight Spectacle: Webb Telescope's Celestial Fireworks

Just in time for the Fourth of July, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captures a dazzling display of celestial fireworks around a forming star. The image, taken with Webb’s MIRI, reveals a fiery hourglass marking the birth of a new star, with a central protostar growing amidst the cosmic pyrotechnics. As the protostar accumulates material from a thin protoplanetary disk, seen edge-on as a dark line, the cosmos lights up in a breathtaking show. Looks like the universe decided to join the Independence Day celebrations!

Moon mosaic: Darya Kawa's epic lunar capture. Kurdish astrophotographer Darya Kawa spent four days capturing over 81,000 images of the moon, resulting in a stunning 159.7-megapixel image that reveals intricate lunar topography. The project produced a massive 708-gigabyte image by stacking photos from different moon phases and shadow areas.

A cave drawing featuring human figures and a pig has been identified as the world's oldest known narrative art. This ancient depiction marks a significant milestone in the history of storytelling through visual art.

Greece's workweek divergence. While some countries are experimenting with a four-day workweek, Greece is considering extending its already longest average workweek in the EU to six days in certain cases, defying the growing trend towards shorter workweeks.

TikTok of the day: watch here

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