• Several things surprised me about visiting Dublin for the first time.
• The Irish city was cleaner, kinder, and more vegetarian-friendly than I imagined it would be.
• I was surprised how lax local tipping culture differed from what I was used to in the US.

I've felt a connection with Dublin just about my entire life — and it's not because of ancestral history.

My last name (Dubin) is just one letter away, and most of my mail comes misspelled in the name of the city instead. True story.

Despite that similarity, and the fact that I've flown all around the world in my role as a travel writer, I'd never actually been to the Irish capital city until this year.

When I finally got the chance to visit, I was impressed and felt inspired to visit again. Here's what I was surprised to discover during my first trip to Dublin.

Multiple-time PGA Tour winner Billy Horschel shared his first impression of Rory McIlroy, revealing how their early rivalry casually turned into friendship.

The owner spent a half an hour searching for her Chihuahua.

Some political figures have spoken positively about the billionaire's proposed new political party.

After a dramatic final lap in Saturday's qualifying session, Max Verstappen secured pole position for Sunday's British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Americans live in separate economic realities: Those with a job are likely to stay employed, but those without one are likely to stay unemployed.

Why it matters: Welcome to the low-hire, low-fire labor market. Private-sector layoffs are at historic lows, but that masks a dreadful outlook for unemployed workers or those unhappy with their current positions.

---

Driving the news: The labor market surprised in June with a better-than-expected payroll gain of 147,000, the government said on Thursday.

• But a whopping 85% of those job gains came in just two sectors, according to calculations by Mike Konczal, a former Biden economic official: education and health care.
• Hiring in other sectors — including professional and business services, a catch-all category for white collar jobs — was little changed, the government said.

The big picture: That continues the "frozen job market" trend that has plagued the economy in recent years. The trend is being exacerbated by the rise of AI, as employers experiment with how to make their workforces more productive.

• Separate data released this week showed the number of layoffs fell by 188,000 in May, hovering above multi-decade lows.
• But the number of people hired into new jobs also fell by 112,000, to a rate significantly below its pre-pandemic levels.
• The number of workers continuing to collect unemployment benefits is at the highest level since 2021, a sign that it is taking jobless workers longer to find a job.

What they're saying: "We're in a complex jobs market —it's not falling apart but the lack of dynamism, the lack of churn and the lack of hiring has been punctuated in the first half of the year," says ADP chief economist Nela Richardson.

• "Many employers are loath to lay off workers until they see the whites of the eyes of a recession, having had such problems finding suitable workers in the first place," David Kelly, chief global strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, wrote in a recent note.

The bottom line: If you look only at how many Americans are losing their jobs, this appears to be a pretty terrific labor market. If you look only at how many are being hired for new jobs, it is the weakest in years.

• The question ahead is how it gets unstuck — with a pick-up in hiring, or a pick-up in layoffs.

Go deeper: It's still a no-hire/no-fire job market

More Americans are going hungry, per new data from Morning Consult.

The big picture: It's a shocking data point for the wealthiest country in the world, and comes at a time when the stock market is hitting record highs and President Trump just signed a bill slashing food benefits.

---

• The rise is like a slow-moving train wreck, says John Leer, chief economist at Morning Consult. "There's such a disconnect now between record highs on Wall Street and elevated levels of food insecurity."

Zoom in: The share of adults who tell Morning Consult in monthly surveys that they sometimes or often don't have enough to eat — or are food insecure — has been creeping up over the past several years.

• In May, 15.6% of adults were food insecure, almost double the rate in 2021. At that time Congress had beefed up SNAP benefits and expanded the Child Tax Credit driving down poverty rates, and giving people more money for food.

Zoom out: The rate appears higher than pre-pandemic levels.

• Morning Consult's data only goes back to 2021. However, federal data that measures food insecurity, and roughly lines up with Morning Consult's findings, shows the numbers were already above pro-COVID levels back in 2023.

Demand for food is up 120% from three years ago at the Philadelphia-area food bank network where George Matysik is executive director.

• As soon as the government support pulled back in 2022, "we started to see the numbers go up," says Matysik, who is with the Share Food Network, which serves hundreds of thousands of people.
• Demand just continued to rise from there, along with grocery prices.

Between the lines: Congress just passed a huge cut to food benefits, or SNAP, that is likely to make the situation far worse, says Matycik.

• The "big, beautiful bill" pushes states to provide more funding for SNAP, and tightens work requirements for benefits.
• Before, adults over age 54 weren't required to work; now the age limit is 64. And fewer parents are exempted from working, as well.
• It's expected that millions will lose benefits, and more would receive less.
• People will have less money for food, further driving folks to food banks, which had already been dealing with different spending cuts from the White House.

Reality check: Some of the cuts to SNAP, involving state funding, don't take effect until 2028 — raising the possibility that they might not happen.

• The data also looks a bit volatile, bouncing around quite a bit — it spiked at the end of 2024, and it's not clear why.
• It is likely a reflection of how precarious it is to make ends meet for folks at the lower end of the wage scale — some are in hourly jobs with fluctuating schedules, which can be rough on one's personal finances.

The other side: The White House and congressional Republicans argue that cuts to these benefits are a way to push more people into the labor market and reduce dependence on government assistance, as well as an effort to reduce waste, fraud and abuse.

The bottom line: Americans are increasingly struggling to afford food, and the situation is expected to worsen in the coming years.

A fighter jet carried out what is known as a "headbutt maneuver" to get the attention of one particular civilian pilot, the U.S. military said.

Max Homa is having his best performance of the season at the John Deere Classic, and not only because of the scores he's carded.

"They never put me on parties again … no idea why," the worker said alongside the video that has over 24 million views.

"I never truly felt a sense of belonging within my family, in some ways, I've always been very physically different from everyone else," Valerio told Newsweek.

Mass surveillance. Pre-emptive military strikes in the Middle East. Shipping people to domestic and foreign prisons. Citing national security to hide information from the courts. Labeling people as "terrorists" as a political and legal strategy.

Why it matters: Donald Trump became president in part by running against the legacy of George W. Bush, the last Republican in the White House before him. But now Trump is supercharging many of the post-9/11 legal, tactical and political strategies Bush used.

---

Driving the news: Trump's push to deport "millions" of unauthorized immigrants and his strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities in particular have many parallels to Bush's "War on Terror."

• Trump's sending unauthorized immigrants to high-security prisons in the U.S. and abroad — sometimes denying them due process.
• Bush sent alleged terrorists — including undocumented people in the U.S. — to prisons around the world and the U.S. military facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Trump administration is now using "Gitmo" for detainees it says have criminal histories.
• Trump preemptively, and unilaterally, attacked Iran with 14 bunker-buster bombs and launched missiles at an Iranian-backed proxy group in Yemen, killing dozens.
• He said he ordered the first attack out of concern Iran was close to gaining a nuclear weapon. Bush used a similar rationale for invading Iraq, though unlike Trump he got Congress' approval beforehand.

The similarities don't stop there:

• Surveillance: Trump has enlisted tech company and defense contractor Palantir to help surveil and track unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. Bush enlisted telecom companies such as AT&T and Sprint for most of his domestic surveillance in the name of stopping terrorists. Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" provides billions to expand such programs. (Palantir told Axios that its software doesn't proactively collect data, and said its work is in accordance with the law.)
• Executive orders: Trump's administration has invoked some of Bush's executive orders made after 9/11 to justify his immigration actions, as Semafor pointed out.
• Rhetoric: Trump has labeled alleged members of Latin American gangs as "terrorists" and "alien enemies" to justify expedited deportations. He has said his administration is focused mostly on "the worst of the worst" — the same phrase Bush's administration used in its anti-terror campaign.
• Courts: Trump and Bush's administrations both concealed information from judges and court hearings using the "state secrets privilege," claiming there would be a national security risk for transparency.
• Habeas corpus: Trump has floated suspending habeas corpus — suspects' right to use the courts to fight unlawful detentions. Bush tried to do that in 2006 before it was overturned by the Supreme Court.

Reality check: There are exceptions to the Trump-Bush parallels.

• Trump's immigration effort is far broader than Bush's, which focused largely on men suspected of having ties to terror groups. Trump's deportation efforts are targeted at millions more noncitizens in communities nationwide.
• Bush was also responding to the trauma of the 9/11 attacks and fearful of another mass attack.
• So far, Trump's attacks against Iran have been far more limited than the government-toppling invasions Bush embarked on.

What they're saying: A spokesperson for Bush declined to comment.

• Trump's team didn't respond to a request for comment.
• "Trump is saying out loud what the Bush administration did behind closed doors," said Vince Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, the first organization to represent detainees sent to Guantanamo Bay after 9/11.

Between the lines: Most Republicans have cheered Trump's aggressive immigration moves, while Democrats have been mostly muted in pushing back, recognizing that Joe Biden's handling of the border cost them politically.

• Some Trump supporters such as Tucker Carlson have criticized the president's military entanglements in the Middle East, given that Trump ran on a promise to avoid getting involved in wars such as those in Afghanistan and Iraq.
• Vice President Vance has said he understands such concerns and told NBC's "Meet the Press" last month that "the difference is that back then we had dumb presidents, and now we have a president who actually knows how to accomplish America's national security objectives. So this is not going to be some long, drawn-out thing."

Flashback: The Bush administration made mistakes in who it detained and accused of links to terrorism in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

• The Bush administration preemptively detained hundreds of Arab and Muslim immigrants in the U.S., and some men were sent to foreign prisons.
• An inspector general report in 2003 said: "Even in the hectic aftermath of the September 11 attacks, we believe the FBI should have taken more care to distinguish between aliens who it actually suspected of having a connection to terrorism," and those "who, while possibly guilty of violating federal immigration law, had no connection to terrorism."

The email has raised questions about partisanship at the SSA, which distributes benefits to tens of millions of Americans every month.

Eugenio Chacarra will join the list of former LIV Golf players returning to play under the PGA Tour umbrella at the Genesis Scottish Open.

Queen Elizabeth worried about Meghan Markle's relationship with Prince William and Princess Kate, her cousin said.

The owner shared how their rescue dog, Kairo, struggled with the upheaval of moving house.

Keanu Reeves is present at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix weekend, days after Cadillac revealed a big partnership with him.

• Last month, China unveiled a mosquito-like spy drone designed for covert military operations.
• The drone's size and weight could limit its uses on the battlefield, military analysts told BI.
• It could still prove to be an effective new surveillance tool, experts say.

Last month, China's National University of Defense Technology unveiled a new spy drone designed to look like a mosquito.

Showcased on the state-run CCTV-7 military broadcaster, the micro-drone appeared to be roughly the size of a human fingernail and featured tiny, leaf-like wings and thin, wiry legs.

While it may not look as impressive as some of the bigger unmanned systems coming out of Ukraine, its stick-thin body is said to be equipped for a range of covert surveillance and military operations.

"As a drone to surveil buildings, especially on the inside, I can imagine it being quite useful for video feeds," Herb Lin, a senior research scholar at Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation, told Business Insider.

But its small size may limit its uses on the battlefield.

"If it's real, and powered conventionally (with a battery), its longevity in the air will be limited by battery capacity," Lin said. "Also, it's very light, and therefore easily buffeted by winds. These factors suggest it isn't particularly useful for wide-area surveillance."

Drones can be highly sensitive to weather, in particular strong winds, rain, snow, cold weather, and fog.

And the smaller an aerial drone is, the more susceptible it is to such conditions, Samuel Bendett, an advisor with the Center for Naval Analyses and drone expert, said. "Even indoors, there can be conditions that could interfere with this drones' performance, such as even a slight breeze, an air flow from an AC, an open window, or other obstacles."

Communications are another issue to consider, Bendett continued, as the drone's size means it's unlikely to be able to carry much advanced equipment.

"While it is technically possible to build a tiny UAV like the one displayed by the Chinese developers, its actual performance is likely to greatly vary," he said.

Others say that the new drone is a sign of China's continuing innovation in the sector.

Michael Horowitz, a senior fellow for technology and innovation at the Council on Foreign Relations, said it showed "Chinese researchers in particular want to push forward technological innovation in drones."

It remains unclear how real the capability is, how soon China could field the tech, or the type of missions it could use them for, he added.

• After graduating from Yale, I moved back in with my parents in a low-income building in Brooklyn.
• When I was growing up, I became close with all my neighbors who struggled with poverty.
• Returning home after living on an Ivy League campus has been confusing.

Four years ago, when people asked me which part of college I was most excited for, I always said having my own room.

Yale's dorms were a welcome change from the living conditions in my Brooklyn neighborhood. On the outside, the place my parents rented looked like any other two or three-family house, but inside, every floor was leased out to multiple families.

My upbringing was many things: love and a chorus of voices that included a Vietnam War veteran, four children, and an expert crocheter. They were all my neighbors — many of them low-income. Every evening, we gathered for communal dinners, sharing stories and laughs. But privacy was never part of the equation.

I left that environment for the private world of the Ivy League, living in dorms that radiated privilege.

And then I blinked, and last May, I graduated. After four years, I stepped out of the privilege, access, and relentless ambition that Yale had afforded me and returned to my family's Brooklyn home.

Moving home after college was a jump back to reality

When I arrived at my apartment after graduation, the first thing I did was hug one of the younger tenants, a 10-year-old girl I consider my sister. She waited for me at the door with flowers — a belated graduation present, she said. Later that evening, with her mother's permission, we took the N train to her favorite spot: Coney Island Beach and Boardwalk.

We had to make a pit stop at Coney's Cones, of course. Inside, she stood on her tiptoes, squinting at the selection of gelato and sorbet. "Eyeglasses," I wrote in my notepad of things to buy for her. I leaned down and whispered, "Don't look at the prices. Get anything."

Once we were seated, I asked how things had been. She told me that they were the same. At school, she enjoys math but dislikes writing, and the staircases in the projects still reek of cigarettes, but at least the neighbor's cat comes by once in a while to play with her.

"It's kind of lonely without you here," she suddenly blurted.

I tried to explain that I had to leave for college, that it wasn't about her. I wanted to say something — to fix her loneliness, her abandonment — but my mouth was just a home for my teeth. I reached for her hand, and we exited the café, heading toward the line to purchase Ferris wheel tickets.

I couldn't help grow solemn. The sad reality of building relationships with other tenants is that there is nothing more we wish than to see each other leave the situation we find ourselves in. No one wishes to live in the projects forever. This means saying goodbye at some point — and leaving loved ones behind.

I'm now thinking more about what it meant to be at Yale

An elite education doesn't guarantee stability or a sense of belonging, especially not for first-generation graduates navigating the job market. We often lack a safety net and carry the weight of family responsibilities. What my Ivy League education does offer is a chance: the foundation to build a future for myself and my family.

Still, many of my neighbors and friends remain where they've always been, caught in cycles of poverty, domestic trauma, and systemic injustice. The pandemic only further crippled those living at or under the poverty line.

College was never the finish line. It was the beginning of a more complicated story — one in which I must navigate ambition with memory, privilege with purpose, and personal advancement with a renewed commitment to support others in my community through their struggles, especially those without access to open doors.

But the truth is, it took a village for me to get to Yale, and many of my greatest supporters were not related to me by blood.

I'm trying to reconcile my future with my family's and neighbors'

Inside the Ferris wheel gondola, just as we were about to reach the top, my apartment-mate proudly took out a fluffy purse that I had bought for her 8th birthday. It was heavy, full of coins. She told me that her mother began paying her 50 cents for taking out the trash or washing the dishes, and one of our neighbors occasionally hires her to water his plants.

"Wow, you're rich," I said, nudging her playfully.

We laughed, and the setting sun caught our faces. In the distance, the waves rolled back and forth, and I wondered how many more times I'd get to share these moments with her before the world pulled us apart again. I won't let it.

Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton was almost knocked out of Q1 during the British Grand Prix.