EllisItems

News Items is distributed 6x weekly (not Sundays), covering finance, political disruption, scientific and technological advance. Test drive by clicking on this link: newsitems.substack.com/7e69fd09

“News Items is the first thing I read every morning”. — David Brooks. by @EllisItems open.substack.com/pub/newsitems/…

The Latest Escalation. The same escalation trap. News Items is up on the internets. by @EllisItems open.substack.com/pub/newsitems/…

Weekend Edition is up on the internets..... by @EllisItems open.substack.com/pub/newsitems/…

I stay at the same hotel (near Rockefeller Center) when I'm overnight in NYC. I figured that in the run-up to the World Cup final next weekend, the hotel would be sold out. Nope. And the rates were roughly the same. nytimes.com/2026/07/10/bus…

Cheap gas, promoted by the White House, funded by mystery corporation. This is one weird story. politico.com/news/2026/07/1… via @politico

A podcast featuring Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan discussing their new book: “Regime Change”. @nytimes @maggieNYT @jonathanvswan open.substack.com/pub/politicali…

🇪🇸🤩 This drone shot of Spain fans in Zaragoza celebrating their win over... youtube.com/shorts/iBBZrYj… via @YouTube

US strikes Iranian railway bridges on route to city of Khamenei’s burial ft.com/content/4b1df8… via @ft

AI-2040. A new regime: Mutually Assured Compute Destruction. And a lot more in today's News Items. by @EllisItems open.substack.com/pub/newsitems/…

Big thanks to NYT exec editor Joe Kahn for saying (on Peter Kafka's podcast) that News Items is a daily read. He calls it News Nuggets. My wife now calls it News McNuggets. The team that works for me (and I) are grateful for the mention. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wer…

Bumble Bees. Broad. And much more. News Items is up on the internets.... by @EllisItems open.substack.com/pub/newsitems/…

Imagine a job posting: $174K salary, four hours of cold calls daily, your family loses their privacy, and just applying costs a couple million dollars. That's Congress. The leaked orientation deck for new members recommended four hours of donor calls per day against two hours of actual committee and floor work. Maxwell Frost, the first Gen Z congressman, maxed out his credit cards to win, tanked his credit score, and struggled to rent an apartment in DC after taking office. Anyone with the skill set politics demands, persuasion, coalition building, thriving under public pressure, clears double that salary in law, tech, or finance. Without surrendering their privacy or spending afternoons asking strangers for money. So the pool self-sorts. People who weigh costs and benefits normally exit at every stage. What survives is people for whom power itself is the compensation. The job pays badly in money and extravagantly in status, which means it selects for people who price status above everything else in their lives. Economists call this adverse selection. Plato called it the reason the people most fit to rule never volunteer. Sherrod Brown raised $100 million for one Senate race and still lost. Run that job posting past any normal, caring, intelligent person you know and count the seconds before they decline. The pipeline screens out everyone who does the math honestly. What remains is whoever wanted power at any price. Then we act surprised at who governs us.

🚨🗣️ José Mourinho on the refereeing in Argentina's 3-2 victory over Egypt: "When you play against this Argentina team, being 2-0 up is never enough, because you are not just trying to beat eleven men on the pitch. You are trying to beat the whistle. You are trying to beat the VAR room. You are trying to beat the entire script of the tournament. Salah was through on goal and the referee blows his whistle for a foul against Egypt for Paredes failing to get the ball. Cristian Romero almost snaps Mohamed Salah’s leg in half, and the referee suddenly goes blind. No card. Egypt scores a beautiful goal, and VAR rewinds the game back to the Stone Age just to find a reason to cancel it. And then, in the 93rd minute, they foul Salah in the box, a clear penalty that would win Egypt the game and they let play continue so Enzo can go down the other end and score the winner. It is not football anymore. It is a movie, and the ending has already been decided before the players even walk out of the tunnel."

EXTRAORDINARY Records of Hottest night in history smashed allover Oceania again Min 29.3 Yap HOTTEST NIGHT IN MICRONESIA HISTORY Min 29.0 Majuro HOTTEST JULY NIGHT IN MARSHALL ISLANDS Over 180 countries and territories are smashing heat records in every Continent.

Belgium has a big problem: Lamine Yamal, Spain’s teen superstar, makes impact in first World Cup start wapo.st/4vneX0W

Global ocean surface temperatures have reached unprecedented levels entering uncharted territory. Average sea surface temperatures for June 2026 set new records peaking at approximately 21 degrees Celsius or 70 degrees Fahrenheit on June 21. Data from the European Union Copernicus Climate Change Service and Copernicus Marine Service confirm that this warmth surpasses previous peaks from 2023 and 2024. Experts attribute the surge to the combination of long term human induced climate change and the emergence of a strong El Niño event in the equatorial Pacific. The effects extend well beyond surface warming. Elevated ocean temperatures intensify storms raise sea levels through thermal expansion and generate marine heat waves that harm fish populations and coral ecosystems. Oceans have absorbed about 90 percent of excess heat from greenhouse gases serving as a major climate regulator. Scientists caution that current conditions push these natural buffers toward critical limits. [Copernicus Climate Change Service and Copernicus Marine Service. Sea surface temperature records June 2026]

The J-Space. It emerged on its own. News Items is up on the internets. by @EllisItems open.substack.com/pub/newsitems/…

Intriguing Similarities. News Items is up on the internets. by @EllisItems open.substack.com/pub/newsitems/…

We're back from vacation. They're making a movie of Space and Time. , by @EllisItems open.substack.com/pub/newsitems/…

Have weather forecasts seemed less accurate lately? There's a major contributing factor: nearly half the morning weather balloons in the Lower 48 are "missing." This is an ongoing crisis that is degrading critical severe weather forecasts that we all rely on. It's having real, tangible impacts on degrading forecast quality. If you work in transportation, agriculture or commerce, this should matter to you. Regardless of the causes, this negatively affects people of ALL political backgrounds. Weather affects everyone. And it's impacting ALL of us negatively. We can't look at weather balloon data that doesn't exist. We can't pump nonexistent data into models. We can't rely as heavily on models that don't "know" what's happening above our heads. This is especially concerning for severe weather forecasts. We can't go 18 hours without ascertaining how the atmosphere is layered, how much storm fuel has built up and if severe thunderstorms are going to erupt. The Storm Prediction Center has even acknowledged forecasting frustrations in at least one public bulletin. As an atmospheric scientist myself, I can say firsthand – the forecasts I'm able to offer you are less accurate than they would otherwise be. I'm not able to predict severe weather with the confidence I normally would. That is extremely concerning. The United States is "supposed" to launch balloons at 0Z and 12Z ideally – a.k.a. around 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Eastern time. That's not happening. Many sites, due to staffing issues stemming from broader political and organizational issues, have pushed to 18Z, or early afternoon. That's not helpful for morning severe weather forecasts. In other words, you get less lead time. Less advanced notice. Quicker ramp-ups and ramp-downs to the forecast. We're not able to get jet stream, temperature, moisture or wind profiles of the atmosphere each morning like we otherwise would. Moreover, the World Meteorological Organization encourages 12Z soundings; that data is shared via the Global Observing System (GOS) under the World Weather Watch (WWW). That's not happening.