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Yahoo
41 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Smithsonian Fights Back Against $85 Million Space Shuttle Kipnapping To Texas
When President Donald Trump signed the "Big, Beautiful Bill" into law at the White House on July 4, he also set aside $85 million for a Congress-authorized heist of the Space Shuttle Discovery. The Smithsonian Institution isn't taking this lying down, stating that it maintains full ownership of Discovery and the Shuttle will remain at the National Air and Space Museum. The spacecraft's potential kidnapping to Houston faces several other hurdles, including the fact that $85 million is not enough to cover half the bill for the 1,200-mile move. After Discovery's retirement in 2011, NASA gave the Space Shuttle to the National Air and Space Museum. The spacecraft was then flown to Washington Dulles International Airport the next year. After the piggyback flight, Discovery was placed at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, the museum's annex just south of the airport, where it has been on display since. However, Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn weren't satisfied with the full-scale Shuttle replica at the Johnson Space Center in their home state. They wanted a bona fide spacecraft. The duo attempted to push through the "Bring the Space Shuttle Home Act" before sneaking the budget allocation into Trump's megabill. Read more: These Are The Best Tires For Your Car, Truck Or SUV, According To Consumer Reports The Federal Government Doesn't Even Own Discovery Anymore There are multiple issues with Cruz and Cornyn's plan. First, the federal government doesn't own the Space Shuttle Discovery. The Smithsonian sent a message to Congress reiterating that NASA's 2011 agreement transferred ownership of the spacecraft to the museum's collection, removing the spacecraft from government control. Chris Browne, director of the Air and Space Museum, told the Washington Business Journal: "Our position is that the Discovery is staying right where it is." Second, the plan's cost is astronomical. The move to Houston is estimated to cost at least $300 million, dwarfing the $85 million budget. It doesn't factor in that both Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, NASA's pair of extensively modified Boeing 747 planes, have been retired since 2012. The Shuttle can't be broken down into parts and must be transported intact, making the move's logistics a nightmare. It's like attempting to rob a bank by stealing the entire vault. Cruz and Cornyn haven't thought this through. NASA isn't in the magic business; otherwise, the Artemis Program would still be on schedule. Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox... Read the original article on Jalopnik.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Bottom Line Undercuts Hot Quarter for Top-Line US GDP
When a car's engine runs hot, it's best to take a look under the hood. When the country's economic engine does the same, peek at the underlying data. US gross domestic product grew at an annualized rate of 3% in the second quarter, the Commerce Department said Wednesday, a seemingly white hot turnaround from 0.5% in the first three months of the year. Economists anticipated a 2.5% rate, so the better-than-expected top-line figure was cause for celebration, right? READ ALSO: Big Tech Pulls Off a Very Big Earnings Week and Barnburner Figma IPO Offers Good Omen as Klarna Reconsiders Debut Don't Ignore the Core As ING Chief International Economist James Knightley noted Wednesday, the primary driver of growth in the second quarter was net trade whiplash. In the first quarter, companies went into overdrive importing as much as they could to beat President Donald Trump's tariffs. In the second quarter, those elevated import rates came crashing down. 'This meant that net trade contributed 5pp to the headline growth rate, but a run-down in inventories, as companies put their first-quarter imports to work, subtracted 3.2pp,' he wrote. That sort of dramatic trade reversal is not going to be a constant phenomenon, which is why analysts and investors looked especially closely at underlying data points. Take consumer spending — just 70% of the US economy, no big deal: On Tuesday, the Conference Board released its latest Consumer Confidence Survey, a closely watched gauge of Americans' financial attitudes. Among the data, the all-important Expectations Index, which measures how consumers view the short-term outlook for income, businesses and the job market, rose 4.5 points to 74.4, but that left it below the threshold of 80 that historically signals a recession in the next 12 months, for the sixth straight month. The underlying data from the Commerce Department released Wednesday aligned with the less rosy picture: Core GDP, which strips out volatile economic activity like inventory changes and net exports to give a better view of consumer spending and private sector investment, slowed in the second quarter to an annualized 1.2% rate from 1.9% a year earlier. Many economists consider core GDP a better indicator of the economy's health, and it registered the weakest since the fourth quarter of 2022. Nationwide Chief Economist Kathy Bostjancic put it succinctly in a note Wednesday: 'Headline numbers are hiding the economy's true performance, which is slowing as tariffs take a bite out of activity.' The S&P 500 taking a minor 0.1% dip on Wednesday suggests markets are taking the underlying signals seriously. No Reservations: Ridiculed by President Trump as a 'numbskull' and a 'moron' for not cutting interest rates, Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell and his colleagues on the central bank's monetary policy committee left rates unchanged on Wednesday for the fifth straight meeting. But two governors broke ranks in a 9-2 vote, siding with Trump's demands to lower rates and marking the first time there have been multiple dissents since 1993. On top of that, Fed officials downgraded their fiscal outlook, reasoning that 'economic activity moderated in the first half of the year' in a hint they're not far off from agreeing on interest rate cuts. Annex Wealth Management's Brian Jacobsen wrote they could soon regret that: 'The Fed probably wishes it waited until next Wednesday to have this meeting so they could have the employment numbers [scheduled for release Friday] to look at. It's setting up to be an awful lot like last year when, in hindsight, they wished they'd have cut in July and so they did a catchup cut in September.' This post first appeared on The Daily Upside. To receive delivering razor sharp analysis and perspective on all things finance, economics, and markets, subscribe to our free The Daily Upside newsletter. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
The Verge
an hour ago
- The Verge
Fujifilm just hiked camera prices by hundreds of dollars and Canon may be next.
US tariffs: how Trump's tax is hitting Big Tech and beyond See all Stories Posted Aug 1, 2025 at 7:04 PM UTC Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates. Sean Hollister Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Sean Hollister Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Cameras Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Gadgets Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All News Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Policy
