Today’s Big Story

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Trump is safe after a potential assassination attempt at his Florida golf course

What?! This was my reaction upon hearing that a man was in custody after shots were fired Sunday afternoon in what the FBI is calling an apparent “attempted assassination” of former President Donald Trump at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida.

This is just nine weeks after the Republican presidential nominee survived another attempt on his life. Trump in a post to Truth Social late Sunday praised the U.S. Secret Service and local law enforcement for doing an “incredible job” keeping him safe. It was a Secret Service agent ahead of Trump on the golf course who spotted the muzzle of an AK-style rifle sticking through the shrubbery that lines the course, roughly 400 yards away, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said during a news briefing. The agent "immediately engaged" with that person, who then took off.

A witness who saw the suspect leave the woods took a photo of the vehicle that included the license plate, aiding law enforcement in locating the car shortly after it fled the scene, according to officials. The Washington Post reports that police arrested Ryan Wesley Routh, a 58-year-old man most recently living in Hawaii who spent recent years trying to join the war in Ukraine. Routh has a criminal history including barricading himself inside a building with a machine gun in 2002, and was actually interviewed by the New York Times in 2023 for an article about Americans volunteering to aid Ukraine.

On Sunday, the FBI searched his car as officers looked for clues to a possible motive. According Martin County Sheriff William Snyder, Routh had a calm, flat demeanor and showed little emotion when he was stopped. “He never asked, ‘What is this about?’ Obviously, law enforcement with long rifles, blue lights, a lot going on. He never questioned it,” Snyder told the Associated Press. It was not immediately clear how the development would affect Trump’s schedule or campaign dynamics. The candidate was set to speak from Florida about cryptocurrency live tonight on the social media site X and had stops planned Tuesday and Wednesday in Michigan and on New York’s Long Island.

President Biden and Vice President Harris were briefed on the matter and each issued a statement condemning political violence. Harris’ added that she was “deeply disturbed” by the day’s events and that “we all must do our part to ensure that this incident does not lead to more violence.”

The FDA Wants New Food Labels

Here’s what warning labels could look like on your favorite foods

It worked with cigarettes. The Food and Drug Administration plans to propose labeling this fall for the front of food and drink packages to help Americans make healthier choices to address exploding obesity rates, years after other countries took similar action.

The labels are supposed to flag products containing high levels of sodium, saturated fat or added sugars—common features of ultra-processed foods that make up more than half of the calories Americans consume each day. One proposed design would include a color-coded low, medium, or high rating for each of those levels. The FDA’s proposed labels wouldn't include warnings for items based on caloric content alone.

According to the Wall Street Journal, most packaged foods in the U.S. already display a nutrition label, usually on the back or side. The new labels in consideration would be on the front of packages. Food makers are pushing back, naturally, while others say the new warnings don’t do enough. Some nutrition experts and lawmakers, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chairman of the Senate health committee, say the labeling options under consideration by the FDA are not clear enough to protect Americans’ health. Sanders has proposed a stricter system. “Other countries understand that childhood obesity is a major health crisis,” he said. “We’ve got to do the same.”

An Entire Man-Made Island Dedicated to Wellness?

It will also have AI-enabled self-driving cars

There’s a new wellness destination coming. And I don’t mean breaking into the mainstream consciousness after Goop makes it popular. I mean an entirely man-made island—materialized from earth and ocean—ready to focus on all things healthy and good for the soul. A modernday Eden, if you will.

Where is this place? Well, the United Arab Emirates, of course. And in true UAE fashion, InsideHook reports that the glamor and gargantuan construction is getting turned way up. "Bucking convention, it won’t be located right off the coast of Dubai though, but rather halfway between Dubai and Abu Dhabi along the Sahel Al Emarat Coast (a.k.a the Emirates Riviera). Part of a massive new development called AlJurf, “the world’s first healthy living island,” as they’ve dubbed it, will center around a hotel, clinic and spa from SHA Wellness, plus the first-ever SHA Wellness-branded residences.

An important distinction though, is that SHA isn’t a hotel with impressive wellness programing; it’s impressive wellness programming with a hotel. One interesting facet is that they’re working to initiate a sense of community (oft cited as one of the most important yet overlooked parts of living a healthy life). The entire island will be interconnected via bike and walking paths to make getting around a bit more healthy and encourage interactions with others. When you don’t feel like using your body, you can get into a fleet of self-driving cars that will be on hand to whisk residents around.

The Emmys! Again

The 2024 Emmys are back, and here’s what went down

Don’t call it a rerun. Last September’s 75th Primetime Emmys were delayed until this January by the Hollywood strikes, which resulted in the unusual quirk of two ceremonies in the same calendar year. (As if the eligibility period rules weren’t already confusing enough.) But here we are and here’s what went down.

Variety reports that there have been years when the Primetime Emmys telecast is riddled with surprise, out-of-left-field winners, and until the very last minute, this ceremony was not one of them. As the experts predicted, “Shōgun” pretty much ran the table, and it and “The Bear” both set records for the most awarded shows ever for a drama and a comedy, respectively. As the hosts Eugene and Dan Levy also noted in their opening banter, “Shōgun” actually set its record during the Creative Arts Emmys with 14 wins, and only furthered that record with four wins on Sunday. And “The Bear” set its record despite providing the one true shock of the night, its loss for best comedy to “Hacks”.

Another surprise might have been that despite going into the night with 21 nominations (the third most of any series this year), Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building” failed to win a single award. Four awards in the limited series or TV movie category were awarded to Netflix’s sleeper hit, “Baby Reindeer”. And, although he once proclaimed he was retiring, Jon Stewart took home an award for best talk series after having returned to “The Daily Show”.

The Long Read

Scientists are recording the sounds of the Amazon in a bid to better protect it

Spread the light.