Red flags for the economy, redefining ‘sex,' Coke's new direction: Catch up on the day's stories
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👋 Welcome to 5 Things PM! Amazon MGM Studios is taking creative control of the James Bond franchise. The team that brought the 007 films to theaters for more than 60 years is handing over all future production to the Jeff Bezos-founded company.
Here's what else you might have missed during your busy day:
1️⃣ Red flags: Shoppers usually flock to Walmart for groceries and clothing, looking for good deals on essentials. But the retail giant said 2025 will be trickier as consumers grow increasingly frustrated with inflation and President Donald Trump's tariffs. That's a bad sign for the economy.
2️⃣ Redefining terms: In one of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s first moves as secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, the agency issued new definitions of words like 'sex,' 'man' and 'woman.' Critics say the new guidance ignores science.
3️⃣ Back to basics: People have been drinking less sugary soda, signaling to Coca-Cola a need to diversify its offerings. Thanks in part to social media popularity in the health and wellness space, milk could be the next big thing for the beverage giant.
4️⃣ Faux masterpieces: Italy's arts and culture police uncovered a workshop in Rome that had been used to produce hundreds of fraudulent works sold online. They said the fake Picassos and Rembrandts were part of a 'clandestine painting laboratory.'
5️⃣ Me me me! Narcissists tend to be excluded in social situations because of their polarizing behavior. A new study suggests that if they feel left out, their arrogant and aggressive ways will only intensify.
🔥 Fiery rescue: A police officer freed a trapped driver whose truck was engulfed in flames after a crash in Chandler, Arizona. Officer Brian Larison said the accident happened right in front of him — an example of good timing.
• Senate confirms Trump loyalist Kash Patel as FBI director• Sen. Mitch McConnell won't seek reelection in 2026• How Trump turned so dramatically against Zelensky in just 48 hours
👻 Chasing ghosts: In his new book, photographer Michael Kenna captures the peaceful vibe of Venice, where architecture and nature merge into one.
I feel like the cruelty is the point, if I am being honest.
A federal worker who was fired
Targeted for termination: For many employees who were fired because of Trump's government cutbacks, the way they were let go made things much worse.
👟 Nike is in a slump, so it's partnering with which celebrity on a new brand called 'NikeSkims'?A. Selena GomezB. Taylor SwiftC. Kim KardashianD. Jennifer Lopez⬇️ Scroll down for the answer.
⭐ All in the family: Turns out Mayberry was smaller than we knew. Ron Howard just revealed that he was related to his 'Andy Griffith Show' co-star Don Knotts.
👌 Hands-on approach: Imagine a language tutor who is available anytime to teach you new words or check on a student's progress. Nvidia just launched a platform, called Signs, to do just that for people learning American Sign Language. It uses artificial intelligence, featuring a 3-D avatar to demonstrate signs.
🧠 Quiz answer: C. The new Nike collection is based on Kim Kardashian's popular shapewear line. Test your knowledge with CNN's weekly news quiz in tomorrow morning's 5 Things newsletter.📧 Check out all of CNN's newsletters.
5 Things PM is produced by CNN's Chris Good, Meghan Pryce and Kimberly Richardson.
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Yahoo
13 minutes ago
- Yahoo
How ICE Raids Have Impacted Texas Rapper HOODLUM's Hometown
HOODLUM in 'Just Left Walgreens,' directed by DGreenFilmz. Graphic by Chris Panicker. One of the best Texas rap songs of the year isn't as easy to find as it should be. There are two ways to listen to HOODLUM's 'Better Dayz (Freestyle)': directly on his Instagram page or hidden on the second half of another video called 'Just Left Walgreens.' 'As soon as I posted the song, YouTube banned it right away,' claims HOODLUM, on FaceTime from the front porch of his crib in Houston, where he's moved from his hometown of San Antonio. 'They said I was interfering with votes or some shit, and it was the second time, so they took it down.' 'Better Dayz (Freestyle)' rolls in at the 1:50 mark of 'Just Left Walgreens' with a news clip from earlier this year: 'The president, in his first week in office, is already enforcing an immigration crackdown that has instilled fear in some major cities.' (The video also features him flexing a Cybertruck.) Then, backdropped by a woozy instrumental moving at half-speed, HOODLUM, in his cracked voice that sounds like he just got done ripping an entire carton of cigarettes, vents about the terror and community division that has been caused by the surging presence of ICE—the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency conducting mass raids across the country—in San Antonio, where a sizable portion of the population, including HOODLUM, is Mexican. 'My dawg kid got no papers, she might die 'cause a fever/They could run in the church, so don't be trustin' the preacher/They could run in the school, so don't be trustin' the teacher,' he raps with a heavy heart. It's a really good song, not only because of the strong message, but also because HOODLUM's mumbly, leaned-out rap-sing sounds naturally chopped and screwed and gives his memories the feel of a melancholic dream sequence. On his standout tapes, such as 2023's Southside Story and last year's Brown in America, with the simmering, sample-heavy Texas funk of his go-to producer, bigtexjohnny, as the backbone, HOODLUM uses his flow—which, on occasion, is nearly inaudible—to dig into nostalgic, hardened scenes of hustling, getting high, and hanging with friends and family amid fears of death and going broke. And 'Better Dayz (Freestyle),' isn't the first or last time HOODLUM has tackled political turmoil head on. A few years ago, after the end of the the first Trump administration, he wrote 'B.I.A (Brown in Amerikka),' where, in a groove that recalls the heyday of G-funk, he sang, 'And it was all good 'til ICE started rolling through the hood,' alongside stories of drug deals and crooked cops. The song's video apparently got him his first YouTube strike. Then, this week, following the protests against ICE in Los Angeles that led to President Trump sending in the National Guard, and ICE's ongoing sweeps at court hearings and on college campuses in San Antonio, he dropped a snippet of new song 'Burn It Down' on his Instagram account. 'Say they coming for us, they can't take us all,' he says, fired up, over a gloomy piano riff. It's not a protest anthem, just a moment of rage and confusion that comes from watching your hometown get torn apart. One evening, earlier this week, I had a FaceTime conversation with HOODLUM. He smoked and spoke candidly while kids played in the background. We chatted about Texas rap, the effect ICE has had on San Antonio, and his role as a marquee rapper from a city that doesn't have too many, especially in a social media climate where information is buried by algorithms looking to push and normalize the ultra-conservative political agendas of Silicon Valley and the Trump administration. HOODLUM: Houston is more mixed. In my neighborhood, there's only, like, one other Mexican family. Everyone else is white, Black, Arab, or Asian. Where I'm from on the southwest side of San Antonio, it was either Black or Mexican. It's small and big at the same time, and everyone is really together. Not really, but there was some. There was this guy named There was King Kyle Lee and Liveola. Sometimes Chamillionaire would come down from Houston and go to the flea markets on the southside, sign people, and throw them on CDs. But it was never a big scene; it was always on the backs of Houston. Some, but my first CDs were probably OutKast's Southernplayalistic and that one AZ album [Doe or Die]. I always wanted to go to New York. I liked 2Pac. Wayne. Bankroll Fresh. A lot of Latin music, too. I liked stuff with a lot of samples. I always wanted to sample stuff like Curtis Mayfield, the Isley Brothers, and Sunny Ozuna. Probably Frank Sinatra, 'Jesus Is a Rock.' There's this one part that I feel like me and John [aka producer bigtexjohnny] could make really dark, turn it into some 'I Feel Like Dying' type shit. Z-Ro, because of the melodies and beat choices. He would rap on fuckin' Sade or whatever. Devin the Dude, I'd always listen to his Greatest Hits (Screwed). He's the one person I really want on my next album. At first, it kind of just happened and I started just pushing it even further. But I was really into Wayne and I just started trying to drag my voice out as long as possible over all these Curtis Mayfield samples or whatever. One of my favorite Waynes is when he rapped on 'Dear Summer,' or the era when he was really into New York. That's part of why I liked New York so much. It's just all I knew. I didn't know anything outside of San Antonio until my music started blowing up and, all of a sudden, I was in, like, Europe and shit, Norwegian kids rapping my lyrics, tripping me the fuck out. I'm just documenting my life, and people don't always pick everything up because I'm rapping so slow, but, if you catch it, I'll be saying some shit. Like 'Brown in Amerikka,' I wrote that years ago just because they [ICE] would just be in the neighborhood everyday from the morning 'til 4 o'clock. We would know not to answer the door. At first, not really, because it was never something I did intentionally. I would just be writing what's going on in my head. Like, I remember we couldn't even have holidays—Thanksgiving, Christmas, July 4th—because those are the days they would come gather up your whole family. It was just fucked up. I liked how Wayne did it when Katrina hit. Like 'Georgia… Bush' isn't just rapping your ear off about it the whole time. It's still a Wayne song. So now whenever I do get into politics, I make sure that it still sounds like my songs. It's always felt like everyone has looked at us Chicanos as less than, and we never cared, but it's weird now. You feel it now. It could be a white person, a Chinese person, a Black person, even though in San Antonio the Black people and Mexicans have always been together. It's the internet and this Trump shit. Everyone is feeling bolder about it. Like, bro, what are we doing? They're hunting kids. Yeah, they're getting money to capture kids. It's kinda been this way since the beginning, though. My dad is 73; I heard the stories of when it was cool for the Navy men to come and take girls and cut their hair and rape your girlfriend. In high school, I would get paid to help bring kids to their families, and they would be so grateful to make it. All of this gets swept under the rug, like when I rapped, 'Kids askin' mom, like, 'Is Trump gon' take you?'' that shit is really happening. Yeah, they're taking good people, bro. Like, the part at the beginning of 'Brown in Amerikka,' that happened in San Antonio. A bunch of people in a 18-wheeler just tryna come here for a better life and the cartel left them there and they all suffocated and died. And they're going harder at certain people. It's fucked up, man. And they're really tryin' to divide us. Online, they're accounts telling Black people to not stand with us, but this is about all of us. Like, when those protests happened a few years ago, the Mexicans that knew it was the right thing to do were there. I think it's good. I don't know if the government would try all that military shit in San Antonio; we're really the majority. They would have to take everybody. But you never fucking know; they're close to the majority in L.A., too. Right now, they still try to keep it under the radar; they're real sneaky about it. It could 'cause people are finally tired of it. I'll see an old Mexican man and he'll never ever tell you everything he's done in his life. But I just know he's worked his ass off. All these families worked their ass off. No one ever told them thank you for helping keep this country alive. They never asked for any credit and this is what they get. Speaking out more is good. I don't know; I would share it even if I wasn't a rapper. I don't even know if people really even want to hear that shit from us. Nobody wants to hear disturbing shit all the time. Life's really hard, bro. But sometimes you need it to fuel the fire. Honestly, what they're doing in L.A. Every person actually standing up and saying something. There's no other way. Because no one is going to see you if you don't make yourself seen. Originally Appeared on Pitchfork
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
The Assault on Good-for-You TV: C-SPAN and PBS Teeter as Trump Attacks
When money flowed more freely in television, public-service programming was seen as a means of giving back. From educational TV and supporting public broadcasting to cable operators providing C-SPAN, spaces existed where ratings weren't the yardstick — instead, this was TV intended to be good for you. On Thursday, Congress took a major step toward undermining all of that, as the House narrowly approved a rescission bill that would claw back $1.1 billion in funding to the Corp. for Public Broadcasting, which helps support PBS stations, in addition to cuts to other programs. The bill passed by the slimmest of margins, 214 to 212, with a few GOP legislators switching their votes to get it through. The funding was part of a larger $9.4 billion allocation that lawmakers had already approved for foreign aid and public broadcasting. Senate still has to weigh in on the matter, and has five weeks to decide. With PBS and NPR besieged by the political right, with C-SPAN's funding via cable and satellite fees strafed by cord cutting, higher-minded alternatives have been hit by hard times. The whole point of PBS and National Public Radio was that they would be unfettered by commercial demands, allowing them to offer programming — from children's programming like Mr. Rogers and 'Sesame Street,' devoid of toy commercials, to lower-key news, documentaries and public affairs — that didn't have to justify its existence on a balance sheet. Ditto for C-SPAN, which cable operators carried for a small licensing fee simply because of the perceived value in allowing subscribers to see what their elected representatives were doing and saying, unfiltered and unedited. Public broadcasting has found itself swept up in the Trump administration's war against the media, with the perception that any unflattering reporting about the president — whether from PBS' 'NewsHour' or 'Frontline' or NPR's 'All Things Considered' — reveals 'invidious' bias and a liberal agenda, to use FCC chairman Brendan Carr's favorite word. Conservatives have long argued that public broadcasting represents an unnecessary expense given the abundance of choices available to most consumers. But in its latest incarnation, 'Defund PBS' overtly translates into being less about fiscal responsibility than leveraging the government's underwriting role to silence otherwise-independent media voices by labeling them progressive propaganda. On the left, the response was unambiguous. The Writers Guild of America East (WGAE) condemned the House vote as 'a radical right-wing ideology that aims to destroy a non-partisan public service despite all evidence of its wide benefits.' The group quickly turned its attention to pleading with the Senate, which holds a GOP majority but has exhibited a bit more restraint than the House in prosecuting the MAGA agenda. The CEO of PBS, Paula Kerger, remained silent in the wake of Thursday's vote, but she has been lobbying intensively to save PBS, warning that Trump's push to defund public broadcasters would spell the end for a number of local stations, and the service they provide to their communities. In a recent interview with Katie Couric, Kerger contemplated the end of public funding for the network, which only relies on the government for a portion of its funds. 'I think we'll figure out a way, through digital, to make sure there is some PBS content,' she said. 'But there won't be anyone in the community creating local content. There won't be a place for people to come together.' Kerger was referring to the fact that the campaign against PBS and NPR disproportionally harms smaller and more rural communities that voted for Trump (even if many listeners and viewers didn't), which lack the same menu of local-media options as major markets. In a sense, Sesame Workshop — the entity behind 'Sesame Street' — has provided an unlikely poster child for the financial pressures on public TV, having undergone layoffs before losing its streaming deal with Warner Bros. Discovery's Max. Netflix has since stepped into the breach, joining with PBS Kids in providing access Elmo and his pals. As for C-SPAN, its challenges stem primarily from evolving technology, which has dramatically undercut the financial model upon which the network was founded in 1979. With viewers shifting to streaming and dropping cable and satellite subscriptions, the number of homes receiving C-SPAN has sharply dropped to a little over 50 million, meaning the nonprofit enterprise — which costs operators just $7.25 a month, a fraction of what they pay for channels like Fox News and CNN — is running at a significant deficit. One proposed solution would be for entities with streaming subscribers, like YouTube or Hulu's live-TV package, to carry C-SPAN. Indeed, YouTube's 8 to 10 million subscribers alone would provide enough income to offset most of the shortfall in its roughly $60 million annual operating expenses. Thus far, however, those companies have balked, prompting a rare bipartisan push in the Senate on C-SPAN's behalf, with Republican Chuck Grassley and Democrat Amy Klobuchar among those joining in a resolution calling upon streaming services to carry the network. 'For tens of millions of Americans who have cut the cord and get their content from streaming services, they should not be cut off from the civic content made available by C-SPAN,' the senators stated. It's a welcome development for C-SPAN CEO Sam Feist, who joined the network a little over a year ago from CNN. Feist noted that 'cord cutting' doesn't accurately characterize what's transpired — since old cable subscribers have generally moved to new delivery systems — meaning the case for carrying the network remains as simple as the public-service ideal that inspired its launch. 'We're the only network that provides what we provide, which is this unfiltered view of American government,' Feist told TheWrap, adding in regard to the streamers, 'It is good for the country for their customers to have access to our product.' The campaign regarding C-SPAN carriage has seemingly gained some momentum over the last year, with former Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler and the Washington Post's Karen Tumulty among those joining the aforementioned senators in taking up the cause. Wheeler called YouTube's decision not to carry C-SPAN 'baffling and anti-democratic,' writing in The Hill that the company is depriving viewers of 'an unfiltered window into the goings-on in Congress, the White House and other parts of the government.' As Sen. Ron Wyden told Tumulty, carrying the network would only cost YouTube about $6 million a year — 'crumbs,' he suggested, for a streamer that rakes in billions in ad revenue. YouTube has stated that its subscribers 'have not shown sufficient interest in adding C-SPAN to the YouTube TV lineup to justify the increased cost' to their monthly bills, although as Wyden noted, that would amount to a relative pittance of 87 cents a year per household. The two situations aren't completely analogous, especially with the fate of PBS and NPR having become embroiled in politics, as opposed to corporate stubbornness. More fundamentally, though, both situations speak to the question of civic responsibility, and whether the government and private interests acknowledge such obligations. Because even if C-SPAN and PBS reach smaller audiences in a fragmented world, certain things are worth keeping around not because everybody watches them, but rather for what they offer, symbolically as well as tangibly, thanks to the staid sobriety they provide by being available to the people that do. The post The Assault on Good-for-You TV: C-SPAN and PBS Teeter as Trump Attacks appeared first on TheWrap.
Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
Walmart Unveils Bold Ad Campaign To Update Its Image Starring Walton Goggins
"Walmart, Who Knew?" ad campaign with Walton Goggins Walmart is intent on changing its image from the familiar discount retailer you thought you knew to what it is becoming: a cutting-edge, digitally driven retail leader, all while staying true to its humble, middle-American roots. It does that brilliantly in a new ad campaign, entitled 'Walmart. Who Knew,' featuring The White Lotus star Walton Goggins, whose name makes him the perfect fit for the role. In another custom-made pairing, its soundtrack is The Who's classic rock anthem, 'Who Are You.' 'Walmart's new ad campaign is designed to make consumers rethink their perceptions of the brand,' GlobalData's Neil Saunders shared with me. 'It hits all the right notes. It is funny and engaging, uses great actors and its message actually makes people pause and think.' Walmart began the year with a logo refresh that included a wordmark inspired by founder Sam Walton's original trucker cap, along with a bolder custom font. The change, considered ever so slight by numerous social media commentators, hardly lived up to the promise expressed in a statement by chief marketing officer William White: 'Walmart aims to be an inspirational, digital retailer that provides all the products, brands and services our customers need and want. This update, rooted in the legacy of our founder, Sam Walton, demonstrates our evolving capabilities and longstanding commitment to serve our customers of today and tomorrow.' With the 'Walmart. Who Knew?' campaign, White and his Walmart team have made good on that promise. The one-minute commercial includes a series of four vignettes, starting with Goggins in a sauna he bought from Walmart – 'Who knew?' Next comes a Big Foot tracking adventure, where he orders bear spray online, and a honky-tonk bar scene, where he plays the piano and uses the Walmart app to settle a brewing bar fight. The commercial ends with Goggins and a group of folk dancers clogging, an homage to Walmart's country heritage, spotlighting that Walmart has all the necessary equipment for a folk dance, from dancing shoes, bullhorns to call out steps and accordions for musicians – 'They should call you Walton 'Cloggins.'' A final voiceover says, 'The Walmart you thought you knew is now new.' The commercial succinctly and humorously gets the point across. Walmart carries over half a billion items online and it offers express delivery in as little as one hour. It very effectively invites new and established customers to take a second look at Walmart. The commercial drop also coincides with the launch of a GenAI assistant called Sparky. The 'Ask Sparky' button on the app aids in search, provides product comparisons and synthesizes customer reviews. And more Sparky features will follow – 'It will be multi-modal: able to understand text, images, audio and video.' According to The Little Black Book, Publicis Groupe's Leo Burnett NY, Fallon, Digitas and Contender agencies created the spot, including a Spanish language version headlined by Stephanie Beatriz. Spanish-language "Walmart. Who Knew?" commercial starring Stephanie Beatriz The commercials are available now online and will extend to TV, out-of-home ads and paid social media, including TikTok TopView. It is also inviting Reddit aficionados to post user-generated 'Who Knew' Walmart moments. With a Walmart store now within ten miles of 90% of American consumers, its ubiquitous presence makes it easy to overlook or take for granted. This commercial sends a powerful invitation to consumers to give it another look. 'The wider point is that the ad is not produced in isolation. It is part of an ongoing mission to broaden the appeal of Walmart and it highlights tangible changes the company has made on the ground,' GlobalData's Saunders noted. 'A low-price message is still at the heart of Walmart, but it is now so much more than this. When it comes to online shopping, Amazon is often the default. Walmart is trying to break this habitual thought pattern and is saying, 'Look, we're here – give us a try,' he concluded. See also:
