Today’s Big Story

Is U.S. High Speed Rail Finally on a Roll?

True high-speed rail has not yet made it to the U.S., but that will change soon

It shouldn’t have taken this long. We know that. Look at Asia and Europe, where sleek trains are smoothly zooming around at average speeds around 200 mph. And as anyone who’s ever been on a high-speed train will tell you, they are the quickest, most comfortable and convenient way of traveling across countries. And apparently, America has been ready for them since 1965.

That’s when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a law—the High-Speed Ground Transportation Act—that seemed to pave the way for a national high-speed rail system in the United States. “An astronaut can orbit the earth faster than a man on the ground can get from New York to Washington,” he lamented at the time. Sixty years later, it still takes about three hours to travel between the two cities—a period about twice as long as a single orbit of the International Space Station.

And, yes, true high-speed rail in the United States is still years away. But the New York Times reports that projects across the country suggest a growing enthusiasm for faster train service. These efforts are relatively modest in size, proposing to connect two or three cities at a time. But, this may be precisely what makes them feasible.

Last month, Amtrak revealed a first look at its new Airo trains, which come with panoramic windows, comfier chairs and higher speeds. They’ll launch later this year and are the first phase of its plan to expand America’s train system. Former Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner told Fast Company that the U.S. is essentially still operating “Victorian railways” in the 21st century. The company has been working to bring the country’s rail system into the modern era by expanding its routes, enticing younger customers, and, of course, upgrading its trains. So far, its efforts seem to be paying off. In 2024, Amtrak saw a record ridership of 32.8 million passengers, up from 28 million the year before.

Now, for the first time ever, two dedicated high-speed rail lines are being built from the ground up in California and Nevada, while more are being planned in Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, Oregon and Washington. As soon as 2028, riders may be able to travel between Las Vegas and Southern California in two hours and 10 minutes—twice as fast as the average drive.

However, under the Trump administration, high-speed rail is unlikely to receive additional support from the federal government. “There should be a federal program,” said Rick Harnish, executive director of the High Speed Rail Alliance. “But in the current circumstances, states need to do what they can on their own.” But that gets tricky since California’s projects are hampered by ballooning budgets, while the Texas bullet train has only secured about 25% of the land needed. But, still, we’re hopeful.

Liberal Wins Wisconsin Court Race

Conservatives were unable to topple the 4-3 liberal majority in the most expensive judicial contest in U.S. history

Liberal candidate Susan Crawford, a Dane County judge, defeated Brad Schimel, a Waukesha County judge and former Republican attorney general who embraced the president for a pivotal seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court Tuesday, the Associated Press reported. The contest became a kind of referendum on both Trump’s administration and Musk’s slashing of the federal government.

As you might’ve heard, Musk and groups affiliated with him invested more than $20 million in the race. He even handed out cash prizes to generate interest in the race. At a rally Sunday in Green Bay, Wisconsin, he cast the election as one that could chart the course of Western civilization because of what it could mean for Trump’s agenda. But Musk’s spending and hyperbolic framing weren’t enough to win the most expensive court race in U.S. history. The contest cost more than $100 million, nearly doubling the past record and putting it in line with top Senate races.

Why? Well, the state’s supreme court is expected to play a key role in several upcoming cases, including laws around abortion and congressional redistricting ahead of Midterm elections in 2026 and the next presidential election, in 2028. According to the BBC, the city of Milwaukee, which leans Democratic, temporarily ran into a shortage of ballots on Tuesday “due to unprecedented and historic voter turnout.” For Democrats, the result will definitely be felt as a jolt of momentum. Coming on the heels of Democratic triumphs in special elections for state legislative seats in Iowa and Pennsylvania and the defeat of four Republican-backed state referendums in Louisiana, Judge Crawford’s victory puts the party on its front foot for the first time since last November.

Substack Gets TikTok-ified

The platform’s new app update rolls out a familiar video feed

Substack continues to double down on video amid TikTok’s uncertain future in the U.S. The company announced on Monday that it’s rolling out a scrollable video feed in its app, making it the latest platform to introduce a TikTok-like feed.

According to Engadget, this update is technically a redesign of the existing Media tab that the company added to the app in 2024, but either way Substack's intentions are clear: It wants a piece of the short-video pie currently being shared by Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. “The feed features scrollable videos from creators you're subscribed to and others that have been algorithmically suggested. Multiple forms of short-form content can be included, like videos posted through Substack Notes, the company's Twitter-esque microblogging feature, clips from longer video posts and eventually previews of podcasts.”

After all, the demand for bite-sized video shows no sign of slowing down. Fast Company reports that 82% of the platform’s top-earning writers are using multimedia, up from around 50% last April. The platform hopes to continue building on this momentum. According to the company, creators who’ve adopted video and/or audio have seen their revenue grow 2.5 times faster than those who haven’t. The new scrollable feed is designed to boost visibility and discovery for creators experimenting with new formats, while also helping readers stumble across new voices beyond their inboxes.

MLB’s Controversial New Bats

Everything to know about the ‘torpedo bats’

The New York Yankees set a franchise record with nine home runs in a single game Saturday as they smashed the Milwaukee Brewers 20-9 at Yankee Stadium. Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Anthony Volpe were among the many Yankees to join the home-run party and viewers quickly noticed they used an unusually shaped bat. It looks almost like an oversized bowling pin, the bat is fatter where the label is and it tapers off slightly toward the end.

The idea behind the new bat design is actually pretty simple: Move more of the wood toward the sweet spot of the bat, where players try to make contact and where the bat will produce optimal results. According to Sports Illustrated, the Yankee’s had the bats custom-made to improve hitting for players, like Chisholm and Volpe, who tend to make contact closer to the label than the true barrel. The funky looking bats paid dividends immediately, and now, players across the league are desperately scrambling to get their hands on the creation while others question their legality.

The torpedo bat design is the brainchild of Aaron Leanhardt, an MIT physicist who was a professor at the University of Michigan from 2007 to 2014 before joining the Yankees in 2018. USA Today dug into the rulebook and found that MLB Rule 3.02 states: “The bat shall be a smooth, round stick not more than 2.61 inches in diameter at the thickest part and not more than 42 inches in length. The bat shall be one piece of solid wood.” When questioned about the new bats, MLB has stated that they do conform to all rules and are legal.

The Long Read

From New York to New Mexico, we talked with eight teenage girls living in America today

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