The Brutalist Report

Fortune

Singapore has overhauled its baby bonus scheme. Will it work to boost birth rates this time? [12d]
The mayor of this desert city likens the U.S. West’s water crisis to planning for a meteor. ‘You can see it coming, but you can’t get out of the way’ [12d]
With ‘virtual speed bumps,’ these cities have reduced crashes by rewarding slower drivers with fewer red lights [13d]
Europe’s summer drought is so extreme that desertification is a growing threat [13d]
The Earth is sizzling, but ‘climate hushing’ is hot right now among Democrats. ‘People are increasingly freaked out about other issues’ [13d]
New U.S. sanctions will hit ordinary Iranians hard. That may be the whole point as the crashing economy stirs fresh protests [13d]
Key takeaways from the Fed’s annual Jackson Hole conference [13d]
Trump cannot deport students for criticizing Israel, judge rules, saying speech and press freedoms are ‘foundational to America’s enduring democracy’ [13d]
‘Long after President Trump is gone, it will still be called Lake Ontario’ — Premier Doug Ford fires back at ‘Lake America’ decree with giant sign [13d]
Wall Street used to worry that too much U.S. debt would crowd out the private sector. But AI hyperscalers are ‘reverse crowding’ the Treasury [13d]
The U.S. doesn’t have a state-owned oil giant. But in Venezuela, the federal government will control a company with the world’s 2nd largest reserves [13d]
Casey’s quietly became America’s fifth-largest pizza chain. Meet the Fortune 500 gas station Gen Z can’t stop posting about [13d]
ICE explores purchasing robot dogs in enforcement tech push [13d]
Trump backlash adds new risks to the stocks the government owns [13d]
Forget GLP-1 stocks, baldness drugs are Wall Street’s next goldmine [13d]
Russia is teaching its children to fight the wars of the future [13d]
For his latest tariffs, Trump used a statute so obscure many lawyers didn’t even know it still existed. ‘This law is literally a blank canvas’ [13d]
‘What is that saying about the applicant pool?’ The FBI will no longer treat experience with prostitution as an automatic bar against hiring [13d]
After 6 months of war, hardliners consolidate power in Iran, but there are ‘serious differences over the future path of the country’ [13d]
Former White House teleprompter operator must turn over more than $100,000 in profits and pay a $65,000 fine in insider trading settlement [13d]
IBM’s CEO disagrees with JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon’s disdain for texting in meetings: ‘Telling people they can’t use their technology would be weird’ [13d]
Dolly Parton once turned down a song request from Elvis Presley. That was just one business decision that helped build her $650 million empire [13d]
Tech billionaires and executives like Evan Spiegel and Peter Thiel are publicly shielding their children from the products that made them rich [13d]
The AI boom hasn’t stopped U.S. companies from hiring cheap offshore labor, and overseas call center employment is still skyrocketing [13d]
American Girl once captured U.S. history’s complexity. Why not now? [13d]
Richard Branson double-booked his own job interview. The candidate stuck in traffic with him for 2.5 hours is now Virgin’s CEO [13d]
College sports and ‘amateurism’ become the new ‘professional’ as an NFL player fights to return to school [13d]
ChatGPT said you’d lose your jobs right now — it’s more like 3% of workers [13d]
At 55, I became a rookie teacher after 3 decades in tech PR. Gen Z is teaching me a lot — and reminding me how to trust myself [13d]
Scientists are using AI to track permafrost thaw as Arctic lakes vanish in hours [13d]
Why the Fed is often slow, late … and wrong in reading inflation [13d]
Offshore nuclear barges could power ports and data centers—starting with California, where nuclear is banned [13d]
At the ‘Super Bowl of trucking,’ a driver who trained 14 years wins the golden belt buckle [13d]
The Strait of Hormuz crisis threatened Asia’s oil and gas lifeline. Here’s how the region is rewriting its energy playbook [13d]