Unusual Whales

Inflation picks up again in June, rising at 2.7% annual rate

In recent months, critics of President Donald Trump’s tariff strategy have warned that an unwelcome uptick in inflation might be on the horizon. That moment may now have arrived. According to the Labor Department, prices rose 2.7% over the 12-month period ending in June, marking the highest year-over-year

Trump: I would say these files were made up by Comey and Obama, made up by the Biden

President Donald Trump claimed that the Justice Department’s files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were “made up” by former President Barack Obama, ex-FBI Director James Comey, and the Biden administration. Trump’s comments come as he continues to face backlash from many of his own supporters following the

Attorney General Pam Bondi has fired the DOJ's personal ethics adviser, Joseph Tirrell, after the Epstein files debacle

Attorney General Pam Bondi—who has been actively removing Justice Department personnel connected to the Jan. 6 prosecutions and the legal cases against former President Donald Trump—has now dismissed the department’s top ethics advisor, Bloomberg reported Sunday. Joseph Tirrell, a Navy veteran with nearly 20 years of federal

Elon Musk has launched an AI anime girl companion for SuperGrok subscribers

Based on posts shared by Elon Musk, it appears there are currently at least two AI companion options available: Ani, an anime-style girl dressed in a tight corset, short black dress, and thigh-high fishnets, and Bad Rudy, a 3D-rendered fox-like character. “This is pretty cool,” Musk commented, alongside a photo

Uno is reportedly being added as a table game to casinos in Las Vegas

For many Americans, the word casino may evoke glamorous visions of James Bond elegance or high-stakes poker drama—but a new gaming venue is flipping the script with a much more colorful twist: UNO. This week, the iconic family-friendly card game will take center stage at a new themed suite

Gen Z and millennials can’t afford to buy a house

The American dream of homeownership is barely hanging on for first-time buyers, according to new data—and things aren’t expected to improve anytime soon. More young adults are staying in their parents’ homes to save money, or leaning on baby boomer relatives for house swaps, just to get a

Over 75% of employers are now using personality and skills tests in hiring

Turning in a résumé and cover letter and crossing your fingers used to be the standard job-search playbook. But that old-school approach may soon vanish. By the time Gen Alpha enters the workforce, they might never endure the slog of listing every past duty on a résumé. Already, about 76%

xAI has has signed its first deal with the U.S. Department of Defense

Elon Musk’s AI company xAI has secured a Department of Defense contract worth up to $200 million, the Pentagon announced Monday, joining Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI in the effort to advance military AI capabilities. All four firms received contracts with identical ceilings from the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence

Trump has said: I go on tv and the stock market goes wild — I can move it just by talking

President Trump is stacking new tariffs on top of old ones—adding another 30% on imports from Mexico and Europe over the weekend. Yet, markets remain close to their record highs, largely on the belief that Trump will eventually back down. Investors are also betting that if the tariffs drag

Ghislaine Maxwell willing to reveal Jeffrey Epstein’s “client list"

Sources have informed the Daily Mail that Ghislaine Maxwell, now 63, remains the sole individual imprisoned in connection with Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged underage sex trafficking ring, even though Epstein himself was widely believed to have orchestrated a vast network involving underage girls. Epstein’s victims have long claimed they

Trump administration sues California over egg prices

The Trump administration has filed a lawsuit against the state of California, aiming to block animal welfare laws it argues are unconstitutional and have contributed to a spike in egg prices. However, the group behind those animal welfare standards is pushing back, pointing to the bird flu outbreak as the

Trump claims Obama and Hillary wrote the Epstein files and urges people to not care about them

Footage tied to Jeffrey Epstein’s death in federal custody appears to have been altered before it was shared with the public—despite being presented as unedited surveillance video—according to a joint investigation by WIRED and multiple independent video forensics experts. Here’s what the analysis uncovered: Hidden metadata

FBI Directors Kash Patel and Don Bongino reportedly consider resigning if Attorney General Pam Bondi stays

Footage tied to Jeffrey Epstein’s death in federal custody appears to have been altered before it was shared with the public—despite being presented as unedited surveillance video—according to a joint investigation by WIRED and multiple independent video forensics experts. Here’s what the analysis uncovered: Hidden metadata

US Director of Federal Housing, William Pulte, has said that Jerome Powell is considering resigning

US Director of Federal Housing, William Pulte, has said that Jerome Powell is considering resigning. President Trump’s public criticisms of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell have become so routine that Wall Street barely flinches anymore. But behind the scenes, his team is stepping up the pressure in ways that

The $7,500 EV tax credit and the $4,000 used EV tax credit are set to be defunct on September 30, 2025

If you're thinking about buying an electric vehicle, your window to take advantage of a generous federal tax credit — up to $7,500 — is closing fast. The Clean Vehicle Credit, which was revamped and extended through 2032 by the Inflation Reduction Act, is now slated to end after

Computer engineering graduates had an unemployment rate of 7.5%

Graduates in computer engineering are facing surprisingly high jobless rates—more than twice that of art history majors—according to the latest figures from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. While art history majors show an unemployment rate of just 3%, computer engineering grads are experiencing a 7.5%

Billionaires worldwide have gained $6.5 trillion in total in the past decade

Over the past decade, the combined wealth of the world’s 3,000 billionaires has grown by $6.5 trillion (roughly £4.8 trillion) in inflation-adjusted terms—an amount equal to 14.6% of global GDP, according to a new report from Oxfam. Zooming out further, the richest 1% of

Condo prices are dropping because homeowners have gotten fed up with high HOA and insurance fees

After the pandemic-era mortgage rates dipped below 3%, launching a surge of homebuying, aspiring homeowners now face a much tougher landscape: rates climbed as high as 8% in October 2023. That spike forced many would-be buyers—especially younger people—out of the market. But amid that broader affordability crisis, one

Google, GOOGL, DeepMind has grand ambitions to ‘cure all diseases’ with AI

Alphabet’s low-profile drug discovery company, Isomorphic Labs, is preparing to enter a new phase: testing its AI-developed drug candidates in human clinical trials. According to Colin Murdoch—who leads Isomorphic and also serves as Chief Business Officer at Google DeepMind—the company’s efforts are nearing a pivotal turning

Ford, F, CEO Jim Farley warns AI will wipe out half of white-collar jobs

At last week's Aspen Ideas Festival, Ford CEO Jim Farley sounded the alarm on what he calls the “essential economy”—the overlooked world of people who move, build, and repair things. According to Farley, the U.S. has neglected this backbone of American productivity by underinvesting in vocational

Trump says he will not fire Powell

President Trump’s public criticisms of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell have become so routine that Wall Street barely flinches anymore. But behind the scenes, his team is stepping up the pressure in ways that suggest markets may want to start paying closer attention. Trump’s advisers are now engaged

Metadata shows the FBI’s ‘raw’ Jeffrey Epstein prison video was likely modified

Footage tied to Jeffrey Epstein’s death in federal custody appears to have been altered before it was shared with the public—despite being presented as unedited surveillance video—according to a joint investigation by WIRED and multiple independent video forensics experts. Here’s what the analysis uncovered: Hidden metadata

US had a budget surplus of $27.01 billion in June, compared to a deficit of $71 billion, due to tariffs

The U.S. government logged a rare surplus in June, thanks in part to a jump in tariff revenues that gave federal coffers an unexpected boost, the Treasury Department said Friday. After running deep in the red all year, Washington pulled in a $27 billion surplus last month, a stark

The footage from Jeffery Epstein’s cell that was released by the DOJ was edited with Adobe Premiere Pro, stitched from 2 clips, and was saved 4 times

Footage tied to Jeffrey Epstein’s death in federal custody appears to have been altered before it was shared with the public—despite being presented as unedited surveillance video—according to a joint investigation by WIRED and multiple independent video forensics experts. Here’s what the analysis uncovered: Hidden metadata

The US dollar has suffered its worst first half of the year since 1973

The U.S. dollar is in steep decline—marking its worst performance in over half a century. Down 10.7% against a basket of major world currencies, the greenback just posted its sharpest first-half drop to a year since 1973. Back then, Richard Nixon was still president and the Vietnam