Good morning. It’s Thursday, June 26,  and yes, it’s hot. NYC is fully sautéing its citizens, and stepping outside feels like walking into someone else’s breath.

But don’t worry, July 4th is creeping up: fireworks, hot dogs, and fake patriotism incoming. Consider this your warning to stock up on SPF and excuses to avoid BBQs with people you barely tolerate.

Also, a moment of silence: on this day in 1977, Elvis Presley gave his last public performance at Market Square Arena in Indianapolis. He played a 19-song set, ending with “Can’t Help Falling in Love.” Just weeks later, the King was gone — but his sparkle lives on in Vegas impersonators and your mom’s record collection. 

Wishing you strong AC, weak obligations, and one guilt-free nap this week. Let’s get into it.

Today’s stories:

• Google Earth unlocks time travel nostalgia

• Bezos wedding triggers tax rage protests

• Space junk may become space treasure

• Amazon Prime speeds into small towns

• Claude’s training data gets legal pass

• Luxury plush toy craze goes viral

• East Coast melts in historic heat

• Rich Brits bolt as taxes tighten

• iPhones can now be your ID

  and more…

Futures barely budged early Wednesday, with the S&P 500 still flirting with its all-time high. The S&P ended yesterday’s session unchanged, the Nasdaq crept up 0.3%, and the Dow slipped 106 points. Despite the pause, all three indexes are still on track for weekly gains — and the S&P is less than 1% away from breaking its February record. Still, some on Wall Street are wondering if the rally’s running on fumes.

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UK Millionaires Are Fleeing the Country

An estimated 16,500 millionaires are packing up their tailored suits and tax loopholes and ditching the UK this year — the highest number ever. That’s twice the millionaire loss of China and ten times Russia, which says a lot. Thanks to a decade of limp economic growth and new tax crackdowns — including the end of the beloved non-dom status — rich folks are sprinting to friendlier playgrounds like Monaco, Malta, and the UAE, where golden visas flow and inheritance taxes don’t. The UK’s new plan: tax foreign wealth if you stick around too long. Rich people’s response: we won’t. Meanwhile, the US added 78% more millionaires since 2014 while the UK lost 9%. At this rate, the only millionaires left might be in Parliament.

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Nvidia CEO starts selling $865M in shares. Jensen Huang, the hoodie-loving overlord of Nvidia, is offloading up to $865 million in stock — and no, the sky is not falling. It’s part of a perfectly boring 10b5-1 trading plan, the legal version of “don’t freak out, I scheduled this months ago.” The plan lets him sell six million shares over time, and he’s already cashed in $14.4 million worth during a chill two-day dump last week. Nvidia disclosed the plan in its last quarterly report, so this isn’t some shady surprise. The company hasn’t said anything about it because, honestly, there’s nothing to say. Billionaires sell stock. That’s how they stay billionaires.

Labubu, the creepy plush toy influencers won’t shut up about. Labubu, a bug-eyed stuffed monster from Hong Kong, has become the latest must-have for the Birkin bag crowd. Originally sold in surprise blind boxes by Pop Mart, it now swings from the arms of Rihanna, Dua Lipa, and bored heiresses like some kind of luxury gremlin keychain. It looks like a cursed Furby and somehow costs as much as a weekend in Capri. Pharrell just auctioned a set of Labubus in designer onesies for $337,500. One sold for $31K — for a plush toy. The internet is now flooded with fake Chanel outfits for the dolls. Meanwhile, Pop Mart’s valuation has soared past Barbie, Hello Kitty, and everyone’s will to live.

Amazon expands Prime to the middle of nowhere. Amazon is pushing its same-day and next-day Prime delivery into 4,000 more small towns and rural areas across the U.S. by the end of 2025. Translation: faster toothpaste deliveries are coming to wherever there’s a mailbox and Wi-Fi. It’s part of a $4 billion plan to get country folks just as addicted to Prime as the rest of us. Apparently, when you give people in small towns fast shipping, they shop more — shocking. Amazon’s betting big on this, hoping Prime becomes as essential as coffee and complaining about gas prices. So now, even in the middle of cornfield country, you can forget something and still get it tomorrow. Progress.

Now You Can Cry Over Your Old Neighborhood in Google Earth

Google Earth just turned 20, and to celebrate, it’s unlocking historical Street View so you can virtually time travel and stalk the past from your couch. Until now, you had to go through Google Maps to see how your neighborhood looked in 2009. Now you can do it from Google Earth, with the added bonus of dramatic zooms and weird nostalgia. This update rides the wave of that viral trend where people used old Street View to see loved ones who’ve passed, or just admire how their favorite diner turned into a vape shop. It’s wholesome and slightly depressing, as all good Google features tend to be. Google’s also dropping AI-driven planetary insights for U.S. pros — like where cities need more trees or which parts of Austin are hot enough to fry an egg. Very cool, very climate-crisis-core.

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Anthropic wins copyright battle. Anthropic just scored a big legal win for training its AI, Claude, on copyrighted books — as long as it paid for them. A federal judge ruled the use was “transformative” and didn’t violate fair use laws, basically saying Claude is remixing, not copy-pasting. So, the whole “learning from books like a writer, not a thief” defense held up. But the party stops there. Turns out Anthropic also scraped millions of pirated books from sketchy sites, and that’s going to trial in December. Internal emails showed employees knew it was shady but did it anyway, like digital raccoons in a Barnes & Noble dumpster. They’ve since cleaned up, hired a former Google Books exec, and tried to look respectable. But let’s not pretend they didn’t fill Claude’s brain with contraband first.

iPhones are now IDs, but only if your state isn’t behind. Apple Wallet can now store your driver’s license, turning your iPhone into a digital ID — but only if your state isn’t stuck in the Stone Age. So far, just a handful of states (and Puerto Rico, naturally ahead of half the mainland) are letting residents ditch their sad plastic cards and swipe through TSA with a smug digital flex. You can currently add your license to Apple Wallet in: Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Maryland, New Mexico, Ohio, and Puerto Rico. The rest of the country is still fumbling around with paper and “coming soon” timelines. Some states support digital licenses but only through their own glitchy, sad little apps — looking at you, New York and Virginia. For now, digital IDs are mostly useful at TSA checkpoints, but Apple’s betting this will be your go-to ID in the future. Just don’t try to use it at a bar in Alabama — they’ll look at you like you showed up with a QR code tattooed on your forehead.

New space startup wants to recycle satellites. Most satellites either burn up in the atmosphere or get banished to graveyard orbits where they just vibe in eternal freeze. But Lux Aeterna, a new startup out of Denver, has a better idea: make satellites reusable instead of disposable flaming hunks of metal. Their first baby is Delphi — a satellite they plan to launch and land by 2027. If it works, it'll make satellite missions cheaper and more flexible, instead of the current “launch it once and hope for the best” model. The Pentagon’s already interested (because of course they are), and so are VCs, who just threw $4 million at the idea.

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Venice, Vows, and Very Pissed Protesters

Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez are saying “I do” in Venice with a wedding so opulent it makes Versailles look like a Motel 6. The price tag floats somewhere between $23–34 million, depending on how many yachts and Swarovski swans show up. And of course, the internet is foaming at the mouth. Protesters in St. Mark’s Square rolled out a massive banner of Bezos mid-laugh with a message that reads like a tax-themed diss track: “If you can rent Venice, you can pay more taxes.” Sure, it’s giving late-stage capitalism cosplay. Yes, it’s hard to stomach while rent is due and the ice cream costs $9. But also — let the man have his ridiculous wedding. Sometimes, people just want a lavish ceremony with a side of global contempt. And that’s fine.

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Heat wave sends Northeast into meltdown mode. The Northeast just had a collective hot flash. On Tuesday, cities like Boston and Philly hit triple digits, NYC broke a temperature record from 1888. It was the hottest day in over a decade for millions — the kind of heat that makes you question your life choices, your deodorant, and your electricity bill. Boston hit 102, Philly reached 100 for the first time since 2012, and NYC hit 99 — enough to knock out a 137-year-old record. Just outside the city, Newark hit 103 and JFK hit 102, proving the subway isn’t the only thing cooking.

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TikTok of the day: watch here

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