No one remotely familiar with how things work in Cuba can feel anything less than awe and admiration for the thousands of Cubans who have taken to the streets—first in San Antonio de los Baños and then in many parts of the island—to protest against the dictatorship.

There are few places on earth where the regimentation and control of the population are more suffocating than in that country of eleven million people that has been governed with an iron fist for 62 years by the Castro brothers and the Communist Party.

After nearly 20 years, U.S. troops exited Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan on July 2 as part of a near-complete withdrawal of U.S. forces from the country by September 11, ordered by the Biden administration. (A small force will remain in the country to protect the U.S. embassy.)

Reactions to the withdrawals have been mixed, but a U.S. Marine Corps pilot who was stationed at Bagram in 2012–2013 expressed a common perspective, telling Public Radio International’s The World, “[I’m] very disappointed. I think we need to stick with it. I think we need to honor the sacrifices that many of us have made going there and especially those that shed blood there.”

Joe Biden is tapping Health and Human Services secretary Xavier Becerra to send door-knocking squads to “educate” unvaccinated Americans. “The federal government has spent trillions of dollars to try to keep Americans alive during this pandemic. So it is absolutely the government’s business,” Becerra explains, and “knocking on doors has never been against the law.” Nobody said it was, but there’s more here than a straw-man argument.

Americans born between 1997 and 2012, otherwise known as Gen Z or zoomers, appear to be in a hurry to make money.

After witnessing millennials drown in debt over college, 67% of zoomers say their top concern is being able to afford higher education. Furthermore, one in every five zoomers say they want to avoid debt at all costs. Following a frightening 2020, in which members of Gen Z were the most impacted mentally and emotionally, the fear of being caught in another crisis without enough cash in hand may have helped them look at money with a new set of eyes.

According to a recent Barclays survey, young Americans are not wasting their time by using market opportunities as they arise. But in this thirst for making short-term profits, they are also picking up bad investing habits. As some learn the trade and get solid investment strategies down, however, some make a name for themselves as “finfluencers.”

Against all odds, zoomers are becoming more financially savvy than millennials, even among those who are open about their losses.

Black Widow may be the movie that brings audiences back into the theaters. While released simultaneously on Disney Plus, the movie’s action and immersive visuals simply will not translate as well or as viscerally on a small screen. Yet well-conceived themes combined with adept direction will also satisfy those unwilling (or unable) to make the trek to the local movie theater.

The on-screen chemistry between the leads – Scarlett Johannson (Avengers: End Game, Marriage Story, JoJo Rabbit), Florence Pew (Fighting With My Family, Little Women), David Harbour (Hellboy, Suicide Squad, Stranger Things), and Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener, The Bourne Legacy, The Favourite) – combined snappy heartfelt dialogue, and mocking Marxist propaganda and disillusionment with the State will keep audiences cruising through the action scenes.

The Covid-19 pandemic has killed millions of people and imposed enormous economic costs on the world. However, it would have done much more damage without the rapid development of Covid vaccines. The first effective vaccine was developed within nine months of the recognition of the pandemic by BioNTech, a startup based in Mainz, Germany. Recognizing the benefits of a division of labor, small BioNTech partnered with larger Pfizer to take the product to market. The entire process was bottom-up rather than top-down, and it began with research at an obscure start-up that never had before taken a product to market.

In the United States and many other high income countries, a large fraction of the population is now vaccinated. However, in low income countries, especially in Africa and parts of Asia, only small portions of the population have been vaccinated. Many observers now see the major problem related to the pandemic to be getting the vaccine to the vulnerable unvaccinated people. 

Millennials are on a tight budget, even those making six-digit figures. 

According to a new survey by PYMNTS and LendingClub, 70% of millennials are living paycheck to paycheck. Most baby boomers, on the other hand, are living the life, with only 40% claiming they are in the same conditions. 

In its analysis of the survey’s findings, Business Insider suggested that a lifelong of economic difficulties and job market hardships caused by the Great Recession have both heavily contributed to the bad luck of Americans between 25 and 40 years old. In addition, the publication suggested, the pandemic may have worsened an already difficult situation. 

But what might be the most incredible discovery from this survey is that 60% of millennials earning over $100,000 are struggling. Their difficulties lie in the fact that, as their income increases, so do their expenses. This is what researchers called lifestyle creep or the “phenomenon where discretionary consumption increases on non-essential items as the standard of living improves,” as Investopedia explains. But as millennials spend more money as they struggle to live up to their six-figure paychecks, they become less likely to save. 

President Joe Biden wants to increase government spending by a lot, but will that spending grow the economy by a lot?

A surprising source says it won’t. None other than President Joe Biden himself makes that claim in the economic assumptions of his budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2022.

Here’s the economic growth President Biden expects to buy with all the new spending loaded into his first budget proposal:

On June 24, Centers for Disease Control Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky extended the national eviction moratorium for tenants unable to pay rent through the end of July. First enacted last September, the moratorium hoped to prevent further Covid-19 spread by helping tenants avoid traveling to find new housing or becoming homeless.

Humans are an inherently tribal species. People have always lived and worked in groups. In primitive times, they recognized those in their group as allies and cooperated with them. Those outside their group were viewed with hostility. Strangers were potential predators and potential prey. Better to take their stuff when the opportunity presents itself than run the risk of having them take yours.

Those tribal instincts from primitive times remain, and institutions have evolved to channel those tribal impulses in less violent directions. Sports offers an example where people can compete with each other without endangering social cooperation. Those who are not competing directly can become fans of their favorite teams, feeling a tribal association with others who wear their team logos.