Energy costs are rising this summer, and it’s not entirely because you’re sitting in front of your air conditioner for 16 hours a day wondering why people prefer this season over winter.

No, it’s mostly due to the prevalence of AI data centers, the power-sucking buildings that allow users to ask generative AI bots like Grok if something is true:

• PJM Interconnection provides electricity to 13 states and Washington, DC, and is considered a bellwether for the rest of the US.
• Its customers are seeing a spike in energy bills as high as 20% this summer. The boom in AI data centers is the main culprit.

Why are residents paying for Big Tech’s power needs? PJM conducts a yearly capacity auction, during which utilities in the states it serves pay to ensure they have enough power to cover peak usage days. Last year, capacity prices at auction rose by 833%, and the impact is now being felt. An independent monitor attributed three-quarters of those increases, which are eventually passed onto customers, to the demand from existing (and impending) data centers.

But it’s not just data centers

In addition to a supply/demand imbalance and inflation, factors causing the monthly double take at your energy bill include:

• The heat dome that has hovered over parts of the US this month, which was found to be a result of “human-caused climate change,” per the climate impact nonprofit Climate Central.
• Costly upgrades to modernize and solidify the grid against climate disasters. Those expenses are often recouped by companies through higher electricity rates.
• Interconnection queues, aka the time it takes for approval to connect more power generators that would decrease costs to the grid, can take up to five years.

Bottom line: Relief may not be coming any time soon. President Trump promised to cut energy costs in half during the first 12 months of his administration, but a report from a nonpartisan think tank foresees prices rising due to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.—DL

An 8.8-magnitude earthquake hit Russia, prompting widespread tsunami warnings. The quake, one of the four largest of the 21st century, struck Russia’s Far East early Wednesday, triggering tsunami waves that impacted Russia, Japan, and Hawaii. No major damage has been reported thus far. Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said he was monitoring wave activity near the Big Island before he would lift emergency precautions, but that he expected to declare “all clear” in a few hours, according to the New York Times. Tsunami waves also reached the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a tsunami threat alert for Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu, urging US citizens there to be prepared to evacuate. The National Tsunami Warning Center in Alaska told the Associated Press that tsunami impacts could last for hours or up to a day in some places.—HVL

NYC mass shooter was reportedly targeting NFL headquarters. The gunman who killed four people and then himself inside a midtown Manhattan office building on Monday was “focused on the NFL,” Mayor Eric Adams said. The building houses the league’s corporate offices, as well as those of other major companies, including the investment firm Blackstone. Officials believe the shooter, identified as Shane Tamura of Las Vegas, took the wrong elevator and ended up on a floor belonging to a real estate company. A three-page note found in Tamura’s wallet criticized the NFL and alleged that he had the degenerative brain disease CTE (which is only diagnosed posthumously) as a result of playing football. Among those he killed were NYC police officer Didarul Islam and Blackstone executive Wesley LePatner, who was one of the company’s highest-ranking women.—AE

The historic transcontinental railroad merger is a go. That sound you’re hearing is every AP US History teacher racing to update their syllabus. Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern officially struck a merger deal to create the country’s first coast-to-coast railroad, the companies announced yesterday, less than a week after they were reported to be in talks. If approved, the merger would mark the first time in US history that a single company controlled rail shipments across the US. Three private companies built the first transcontinental railroad in the 1860s, but that only stretched from Iowa to California. The Wall Street Journal reports that regulators have been suspicious of rail mergers in the past due to worries that they will hike prices and lower safety standards.—AE

Boeing is pulling out of a nosedive after years of safety failures and a particularly chaotic 2024.

The planemaker reported yesterday that it made $22.7 billion in revenue last quarter, a 35% jump from the same quarter a year earlier. And:

• Boeing shipped 280 commercial airplanes in the first six months of 2025, the biggest delivery number for the first half of any year since 2018, when it was last profitable.
• It slashed its losses to $612 million last quarter, down from $1.4 billion a year prior.

The earnings altitude gain represents a win for CEO Kelly Ortberg. The industry veteran inherited a mess worse than a lavatory after a 14-hour flight when he stepped into the role last summer, amid regulatory scrutiny over safety lapses and just before a nearly two-month strike in the fall that hampered assembly lines and, consequently, Boeing’s cash flow. But Ortberg said recently that 2025 can be the company’s “turnaround year.”

In Q2, Boeing ramped up production of its best-selling 737 Max aircraft to 38 per month—the legal limit set by federal regulators—and it aims to get permission to bump that to 42 soon.

Looking ahead…to convert its $522 billion order backlog into more revenue, the planemaker needs the government to green-light more of its plane models, but the target for getting the new Boeing 737 Max 7 and Max 10 certified was pushed back from this year to 2026. Boeing’s stock dropped 4% yesterday, possibly due to a looming strike in its defense division.—SK

Men only want one thing: chunky shoes. Deckers Outdoor’s sales last quarter crushed expectations, the company said, driven by its Ugg brand and especially its men’s shoes.

Sales of Uggs—which account for roughly 51% of annual sales for Deckers—jumped to $265 million in the quarter, up 19% compared with the same time last year. The brand’s men’s division grew almost 38% during the same period:

• Ugg’s primary audience is still women, but it has made an effort to attract men in the last few years, highlighted by a collab with Post Malone.
• Execs also credited the success to the brand pushing its ugly-but-cute footwear year-round with new sandals and sneakers, rather than sticking to cold-weather wares.

Big picture: The shoe industry is riddled with upstarts and long-dormant underdogs inching toward upsetting the big names. New Balance outfits the NBA’s No. 1 overall draft pick, Cooper Flagg. And Hoka, also owned by Deckers, has snagged market share from Nike in the running category. The chunky running shoe brand posted a 20% revenue jump last quarter.—MM

If only Regis Philbin were around to see this. Roughly 1 in 10 adults in America has a net worth of at least $1 million, the Associated Press reported.

In total, the US boasts ~24 million individual millionaires, the most of any country and nearly four times as many as second-place China. That’s also 15 times more millionaires than the US had 30 years ago.

But it’s a bit of a mirage. It takes twice as much cash today to equal the buying power of three decades ago, while most “millionaires” have much of their wealth tied up in long-term investments that they don’t access. “It’s no longer a backstage pass to palatial estates and caviar bumps,” one expert told the Associated Press.—AE