Today’s Big Story

Americans Are Moving Less

We’re now relocating at the lowest rate in decades

Are we stuck? Afraid to move forward? Too worried about the future or perhaps the costs of moving and securing a new home are just too damn high. But the share of Americans moving has reached its lowest point in history—and it doesn’t look like it’s climbing back up anytime soon.

To put it into perspective, migration around the country hovered at around 20% from just after World War II through the 1980s. But by 2022, that rate had dropped all the way down to fewer than 9% of Americans. And according to The Hill, new research suggests the rate will stay low for quite some time.

William Frey, a senior demographer at the Brookings Institution, tells Axios that several factors have collided to bring down the moving rate. For starters, younger people are living with their parents longer and delaying marriage, which prevents the need to move. Older people are less likely to give up their homes (even to downsize) these days, especially in homes that are paid off. Households are no longer typically comprised of one earner—and looking for two or more new jobs in a new city is harder than looking for one. What’s more, the rise of remote work means you don’t even need to move if you find a new gig.

Though there’s been a steep long-term drop in local moves—which make up the majority of relocations—interstate migration has actually ticked up in recent years, particularly since the pandemic, according to research by the Brookings Institution. The people moving to new cities and states are disproportionately college-educated. As the New York Times points out, less-educated workers don't benefit as much from moving to a city as they once did in terms of higher wages.

They say “restless mobility in search of opportunity is an American hallmark,” but it seems to be something of a dying art. It’s just that it’s still too early to tell if that’s a good or bad thing. But as someone who’s moved every few years for the past decade just to experience new cities and cultures, I have to say that there’s something to be said for gaining unique experiences from moving to a new environment. Even if packing and unpacking is a really hellish chore.

Hostage Deaths Pushed Israel to the Breaking Point

After Hamas killed six hostages, Israel erupted in protests over Netanyahu’s policies

Almost a year into a war that has left the country isolated and deeply divided, Israel seems to have erupted. A nationwide strike threatened to bring the nation's economy to a standstill Monday after six hostages held in Gaza since Oct. 7 were killed in Hamas captivity—news that fueled mass protests featuring hundreds of thousands of people in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and beyond.

In a rare, hour-long televised news conference Monday evening, Netanyahu said that he was sorry he was unable to bring the six hostages home alive but insisted that the Israeli military would remain along the strategic Philadelphi Corridor on the Gaza-Egypt border, a demand that many say has delayed the conclusion of a deal that would involve the release of hostages.

The Biden administration has repeatedly accused Hamas of holding up a deal, but NBC News reports that U.S. and foreign officials have recently said conditions introduced by Netanyahu also disrupted efforts. Biden told reporters Monday that Netanyahu was not doing enough to secure an agreement. After he spoke, Netanyahu told reporters that he didn't see Biden’s comments, but noted that in August, Secretary of State Tony Blinken said Israel accepted the U.S.-backed "bridging proposal" for a ceasefire and hostage release deal, and called on Hamas to join.

Should Female Athletes Be Earning More?

Growing fan interest hasn’t translated into better pay

Despite an influx of attention and investment in their leagues, many professional women athletes are still struggling to make a decent living. “We’ve come a long way, and we got a long way to go,” soccer legend and Bay FC co-owner Brandi Chastain told Axios. Thayer Lavielle, executive vice president of The Collective, which advocates for women in sports, echoes her thoughts. “What we found was that women athletes make 21 times less [on average] than men athletes on the field of play.”

Many of those women need to boost their income with second jobs or by playing overseas. When news broke that Caitlin Clark, the electrifying basketball point guard who was selected first in the W.N.B.A. draft, signed a deal worth $338,056 over the next four years, many were surprised it was a mere fraction of the $55 million contract signed by Victor Wembanyama, last year’s top N.B.A. draft pick. Clark’s popularity has helped usher in a new wave of popularity for women's basketball, with a rise in games that sell-out, a boom in merch and a trend of moving key matchups to larger arenas.

Of course, the pot of money for players’ salaries is based on a percentage of revenue: While the N.B.A. generates annual revenue of about $10 billion, the W.N.B.A. pulls in about $200 million a year. However, Lavielle said the forces behind some disparities are more entrenched. “The [N.B.A.] has had more time to build a fan base and corporate partnerships. Its player’s association has had more time to negotiate a 51% revenue-sharing deal, far beyond the roughly 9% of revenue that W.N.B.A. players receive in salaries.”

The Titanic Is in Trouble

New expedition yields high-resolution photos but discovers extensive damage

The Georgia-based company that holds the legal rights to Titanic just completed its first trip to the 112-year-old shipwreck since 2010 and released images from the expedition on Monday. The pictures show a site that continues to change and discovered new belongs along with substantial damage to iconic pieces of the legendary ship.

The bow of the ocean liner has greeted expedition teams over the decades as they ventured beneath the ocean's surface to study the ship. It, of course, served as a pivotal backdrop in James Cameron’s epic film, but the expedition team revealed that a 15-foot-long piece had broken off, leaving more of it exposed to rust and decay. “Over the course of the next few weeks and months, we’ll conduct a more thorough review of Titanic's condition and her changes over time,” the company’s website said. “Although Titanic's collapse is inevitable, this evidence strengthens our mission to preserve and document what we can.”

According to the Asssociated Press, the crew captured more than 2 million of the highest resolution pictures of the site ever to exist. The team also fully mapped the wreck and its debris field with equipment that should improve understanding of the site. The next step is to process the data so it can be shared with the scientific community, and so “historically significant and at-risk artifacts can be identified for safe recovery in future expeditions.”

Your September Reading List

From a fuzzy, supernatural cure-all to a well-reported tale of the Native American experience

As we head into fall, now’s the time to crack open a fresh book. Put down the beach reads and dig into something a little more substantial. But that doesn’t mean boring. From a fuzzy, supernatural cure-all and a well-reported tale of the Native American experience to the fast-paced and thrilling first novel from an unsuspecting rapper, these are the titles you shouldn’t miss this month.

Focus on creating your future.