Today’s Big Story

Tattoo Regrets on the Rise

And social media may be to blame

A tattoo is a serious decision. It’s not an impulse purchase. Anytime you’re sticking a needle into your flesh, you should always be confident that you’re making the right decision. But that’s not to say that years, maybe even decades, after that fateful decision, you can’t have a change of heart.

While it once haunted the Harry Potter, Disney and infinity sign tattoos of my fellow Millennials and the cheeky tramp stamps of the early aughts, “tattoo regret” has come for most generations, with Gen Z poised to be its next victim. Brooklyn-based tattoo artist Gabs Miceli categorizes the regret into “immediate regret” and regret that comes later on, like “when you start to hit certain milestones in your life.”

Celebrities—both male and female—have shared their eventual diappointment with their chosen ink. Some of the disliked tattoos are tributes to exes, others are spelled wrong and some are just… cringe. How have they handled the seemingly permanent mistakes? Some have come to live with their decisions, while many pay up and endure the painful (and often lengthy) process of having them lasered off.

According to USA Today, tattoo regret reentered popular conversation this summer after young women expressed concern over how their tattoos would look in their wedding gowns on TikTok. These videos often spotlight patchwork tattoos, a style that’s become increasingly trendy in the past five years and consists of clusters of uncoordinated flash tattoos rather than a cohesive sleeve.

Miceli says tattoo regret has always been around, but the ability to share and document these experiences on TikTok makes it seem more prevalent. And, of course, a recent survey unsurprisingly confirms that when it comes to the most-regrettable type of ink, partner’s names take the top spot.

Russian Missiles Kill Dozens in Ukraine

The country’s largest children’s hospital was hit

Russia blasted the main children’s hospital in Kyiv with a missile in rare daylight on Monday and rained missiles down on other cities across Ukraine, killing at least 41 civilians (including several children) and injuring around 200 more in the deadliest wave of air strikes in months.

In a post on X, President Zelenskyy said that the children’s hospital is one of Europe’s most important medical facilities. “Okhmatdyt has been saving and restoring the health of thousands of children.” People were killed and injured “practically in every district of the capital,” Andrii Yermak, head of Zelenskyy’s office, told NBC News. “It was an attack on civilians when there were many people on the streets,” he added.

The Washington Post reports that rescue operations across Ukraine were still underway late Monday. The Russian Defense Ministry deflected blame, saying it had carried out a major attack on Ukraine but denying that it had struck civilian infrastructure. Ukraine proclaimed a day of mourning today and said the attack demonstrated that the country urgently needed an upgrade of its air defences from its Western allies. Air defences shot down 30 of 38 missiles, the air force said.

Heat Continues to Grill America

And tourists still flock to Death Valley …

More than 146 million people around the U.S. were under heat alerts Monday—especially in Western states—amid a brutal heat wave that has shattered records and caused multiple deaths, according to the National Weather Service.

The Associated Press reports that dozens of locations in the West and Pacific Northwest tied or broke previous heat records over the weekend and are expected to keep doing so into the coming week. It’s actually somewhat early for these kinds of temps, but the news came as the global temperature in June broke the heat record for the 13th straight month and marked the 12th straight month that the world was 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than pre-industrial times, the European climate service Copernicus said.

While such sizzling conditions keep most of us indoors, one motorcyclist died Saturday in California’s Death Valley from heat exposure. The high temperature that day was 128 degrees Fahrenheit, according to preliminary data. Six motorcyclists were near Badwater Basin when they became sick due to the heat. In addition to the cyclist who died, one was transported to a hospital in Las Vegas and the other four were treated on the scene. Heat illness has specific stages and severities, one doctor told the New York Post, who also offered tips on how to avoid getting sick from sun exposure. Stay hydrated and stay safe, kids.

Nothing’s $200 Smartphone

‘Budget’ tech doesn’t have to mean ‘boring’

Budget gadgets are unfortunately usually stuck with drab designs and lackluster specs, but CMF—the affordable sub-brand Nothing announced last August—has officially unveiled a trio of new products. There’s a smartphone, a watch and earbuds, all of which seem to be modest in both price and features.

But it seems like everyone’s talking about the phone that comes with a modular approach to customizations. The concept is simple: it’s a phone, but the back panel comes off so you can swap it with a different one. Each replacement comes with everything you need for the job, including its own little screwdriver, screws and a color-matched SIM tray. As The Verge asks, “Why put a different case on your phone when you can put a whole new phone on your phone?”

Wired praised the simple, industrial design as well as the specs. The CMF Phone 1 has a 6.67 AMOLED display (2,400-by-1,080-pixel resolution) with an adaptive 120-Hz screen refresh rate, beating out the $200 Samsung Galaxy A15 already. It's powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 7300 processor with 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage.

Your July Reading List

Books you’ll want to show off by the pool

How has your summer reading been going? Maybe you haven’t started yet or perhaps you’re in need of a few suggestions. Either way, you’re in luck because July has a slew of amazing titles being released. From a thoughtful meditation on our collective fascination with looking good to two surprising books from Hollywood actors, there’s something to suit anyone’s literary tastes.

The lessons are never over.