Happy Friday, September 4th! And happy long weekend!
FYSA, every Tuesday and Friday, I’ll be in your inbox with the latest in politics, tech & social media, culture, and other relevant topics – and I’ll share some notes and tips on what I’m keeping my eye on.
I’M ALSO LOOKING FOR MORE PEOPLE TO DO MINI INTERVIEWS like the one below :) Tips, thoughts, concerns, good jokes, bad jokes, tea, etc?
And finally, if you enjoy this newsletter and want to share it with your network (and/or your chronically online friends), or buy me a matcha, that would be so appreciated 🙏
Speaker Johnson, in reversal, cancels House votes, leaving few days in session before midterms
The House is scheduled to return on Sept. 14 for four days of legislative business -- leaving on Sept. 17 for six full weeks of campaigning ahead of the midterm elections. The sparse floor schedule is not particularly unusual for an election year -- but is a reversal of House Speaker Mike Johnson’s position earlier this week when he told reporters that he did not intend to cancel any scheduled legislative business this month. (ABC News, 9/3)
Lucy’s note: 👀👀👀👀👀 it’s giving getting nervous
Global warming will exceed limit, UN says in a report that maps path to get back below danger zone
So instead of preventing warming of 1.5 degrees, now the U.N. said it wants policymakers to “prepare for and navigate a future’’ in which the globe crosses that limit and then corrects course and cools temperatures. The report envisions that global temperatures will pass 1.5 “within the next few years,” follow a hump-shaped path of more warming, peak, then gradually cool to below the 1.5 mark, ideally by the end of the century. The report and experts call it “overshoot.” (AP, 9/2)
TikTok comments are getting more interactive with voice comments, polls, and more
TikTok’s comment sections are getting an upgrade. The social network announced on Thursday that it’s rolling out new features for its comment sections, including voice comments, comment polls, photo carousel comments, and Live Photo comments. (TechCrunch, 9/3)
Four major AI models suffer rare overlapping downtime
While the affected frontier models go down occasionally, having all four experience interruptions in the same short period is practically unheard of. Claude reports 99.4 percent uptime for its services over the last 90 days and last reported a similar three-hour “partial outage” on August 24. OpenAI reports 99.63 percent uptime for ChatGPT and 100 percent uptime for ChatGPT Codex in the same period. ChatGPT’s so-called “Work Mode” reported an hours-long period of “elevated latency” on August 31. (Ars Technica, 9/3)
Lucy’s note: not to go all tin foil hat, but WHAT is this about
Most Americans Consider Themselves ‘Working Class,’ Pew Says
Some 60% of American adults consider themselves “working class,” including those who have college degrees and higher incomes, according to a new report from the Pew Research Center. While people without a four-year degree and middle-income adults are most likely to identify as working class, about half of college graduates and upper-income adults do as well, according to a Pew survey of about 8,500 adults released Monday. (Bloomberg, 9/2 – free version)
The ‘Gen Z stare’ — and the decline of saying things out loud
An analysis published in July in Perspectives on Psychological Science of more than 2,000 people found that Americans and people in several other countries are speaking roughly 300 fewer words a day, or about two to three minutes’ worth, with each passing year. The drop — a 28 percent decline from 2005 to 2019 — was especially pronounced among people younger than 25. (WaPo, 9/3 – free version)
Bad Bunny Scores Major Victory as Judge Reverses Course in Sprawling Reggaeton Lawsuit
In the new ruling obtained by Rolling Stone, the judge said lawyers for Bad Bunny persuaded him that he erred in a decision last July when he found that a jury should decide whether an estimated 1,800 reggaeton songs by more than 100 artists infringed the composition copyright held by Cleveland “Clevie” Browne and the heirs of Wycliffe “Steely” Johnson for the 1989 song “Fish Market.” (Rolling Stone, 9/2 – free version)
Colin Jost and Pete Davidson finally found a use for the Staten Island Ferry they regret buying
On Thursday, September 17, the pair will turn the John F. Kennedy into the “Snapple Island Ferry,” a free, floating comedy club docked at Pier 17 in Lower Manhattan. Together, the duo will host the one-night-only event, which will feature a 60-minute show with sets by a lineup of rising comedians. (Entertainment Weekly, 9/1)
Starbucks Refreshed Its Menu. Chai Fans Are Losing Their Minds.
They’re complaining on Reddit and store sites, and signing petitions to bring back the old recipe. They’re calling headquarters, emailing executives and taking out their angst on customer-service chatbots. They’re even becoming part-time sleuths, trying to figure out the original recipe—and get the bottom of the “Great Chai Incident of 2026.” (WSJ gift link, 9/4)
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Extra Credit 🤓
Substacks That Really Substacked This Week 🤌
Are brands sleeping on the state fair? from Allie Walker of Seemed Like A Good Idea
Democrats Who Are Still Afraid of Supreme Court Expansion Need to Grow Up from Jay Willis of Balls & Strikes
How brands make culture from Ana Andjelic of The Sociology of Business
Cool chart alert!
Sneaky Links
TL;DR I’ve inexplicably started receiving codes to stuff… here are the things I actually like :)
My BNTO code for August is 8Y8R4F for $20 off (if you know me IRL, you know my rant about the Nuulification of the 20-something city dweller)
I also have a code for CampSnap??? And I do love my CS8 camera from them but like I don’t think I said that online? Either way, it’s LUCYR10 for 10% off (we got bumped up from 7% woohoo!)
That’s all for now – I’ll see you on Tuesday!
Nicely done! You made some really interesting points here.