The Headlines - How A.I. Is Propping Up the Economy, and a Surge of ‘Swatting’ on Campus

Episode Date: August 27, 2025

Plus, why men aren’t going to the doctor. On Today’s Episode:The A.I. Spending Frenzy Is Propping Up the Real Economy, Too, by Lydia DePillisFull Weight of American Tariffs Slams Into Effect Against India, by Alex TravelliFEMA Suspends Staff Who Signed a Letter Criticizing Trump, by Maxine JoselowA Spate of Fake Shooting Calls Disrupts College Campuses, by Christina MoralesWhat Does It Take to Get Men to See a Doctor?, by Helen OuyangTaylor Swift and Travis Kelce Announce Their Engagement, by Madison Malone KircherTune in every weekday morning. To get our full audio journalism and storytelling experience, download the New York Times Audio app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter.Tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. 

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today is Wednesday, August 27th. Here's what we're covering. Last night, the pop star Taylor Swift and the football tight end, Travis Kelsey. I'm not going to do that. Okay, here we go, for real this time. Here's what we're covering.

Today, the world's most valuable company, the chipmaker, NVIDIA, is set to release its earnings report. Investors are expecting it to be big. The question is, how big, as it's become increasingly clear that spending on artificial intelligence is helping to prop up the entire U.S. economy. Nvidia, whose chips are the backbone of AI tech,

now accounts for almost 10% of the value of the entire S&P 500. And nine of the top 10 most valuable companies right now are tech companies that have gone all in on AI. A big chunk of the investment into the technology has gone into massive infrastructure projects, things like new data centers, semiconductor factories, and electric power facilities. This year, for example, there will be more money spent on those data centers than on traditional office buildings in the U.S. And while the projects are under construction, they can employ thousands of electricians, engineers, and other workers.

But when it comes to the AI tech itself, the chatbots, etc., that's not actually. a big moneymaker yet. While most companies say they now use AI to some extent, they also say it has still had no significant impact on their bottom line. This can be common with new tech developments, where there are huge upfront investments, sometimes for years, before a real payoff. With AI, experts say that the companies hyping up the tech will eventually need to generate enormous profits to make up for this current spending spree. Earlier this month, though, one of the industry's most prominent figures, Sam Altman, the CEO of Open AI, put some people on edge when he said the AI industry is, quote, overexcited and that he expects some companies to lose a lot of money.

Meanwhile, the AI industry is gearing up for a political fight. Meta, OpenAI, and other Silicon Valley giants have just pledged up to $200 million to two new super PACs designed to force out politicians who aren't supportive enough of the technology. The pro-AI packs, which are the first of their kind, are being launched as the companies are facing increasingly urgent questions about the impact of AI. That includes everything from whether the tech might eventually cause widespread unemployment, to concerns over utility costs skyrocketing as data centers gobble up electricity and water. The new groups are modeled in part on a cryptocurrency pack that successfully backed some pro-crypto-cessional candidates in last year's elections. This year, after those candidates took office, Congress passed a bill that was widely seen as friendly to the crypto industry. Now, two updates on the Trump administration.

As of 1201 this morning, the dramatic 50 percent tariffs on goods from India have kicked in. President Trump pushed the levies in part as punishment for India buying Russian oil. And now the country is up there with Brazil in facing the highest tariff rate of any U.S. trading partner. Times economics correspondent Alex Trevelli says that's expected to slow India's economy. And for Americans, they will likely start to notice the effect of the tariffs in the next few months, as U.S. companies run out of the products they've stockpiled. One of the world's big producers has essentially just been pushed out of the game of selling to America. stuff like clothes, fabric, furniture, gems, also industrial chemicals, lots of electrical equipment.

And that's really the tip of the iceberg. Soon pharmaceuticals from India, electronics might join the list also. Those things are going to have to become more expensive. And that's going to be felt by the American consumer. And the Federal Emergency Management Agency has suspended about 30 employees after they signed an open letter warning that the administration is gutting the agency's ability to respond to natural disasters. The letter was timed to the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and it accused the White House of undoing efforts that Congress took

to strengthen the nation's disaster response in the wake of the deadly storm. They said they hoped their warning would come in time to prevent, quote, another national catastrophe. More than 180 FEMA staffers backed the letter, though most stayed anonymous since they were worried about retaliation. The agency did not provide a reason for the suspensions. In the past week, students and staff at about a dozen colleges across the U.S. have been sent scrambling in fear after fake reports of active shooters on campus. The terrifying moments of Villanova University when a hoax led to a swarm of police. There was no shooter here on campus. Still, it sent fear and chaos across the...

Reports have happened at Iowa. State, the University of Arkansas, the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga. There were at least six on Monday, and there were several more yesterday. The FBI said it's been seeing an uptick in this kind of hoax called swatting. Experts say there can be all kinds of motives behind this. Sometimes students call them in as a distraction, hoping to disrupt a big exam or something. There are also serial swatters out there who are basically just trying to cause chaos. And while the reports are fake, the terror that they can create on campus is real.

There's an emotional toll for the people who think they're in danger. And in rare cases, the police response can create its own risks. An expert who tracks swatting at schools says there were at least two incidents in past years where responding officers fired their weapons. One student at Villanova University, which has had multiple fake reports in recent days, told the times he was worried it would turn into a boy's. who cried Wolf's situation for the police, saying, quote, I imagine if this happens 10 more times, on the 10th time, they're going to be slower, and each time I imagine the threat might be

taken with a little less seriousness. In the U.S. healthcare system, there is a well-documented and stubborn trend. A lot of men just don't go to the doctor. Research has shown that once they age out of seeing a pediatrician, they largely just fall off the map. And they often only go in once they're facing serious issues, at which point treatment is harder and outcomes are worse. This is a problem I see all the time in the emergency room where I work as a doctor. They often see patients when they have advanced disease, so they might have cancer that's spread

everywhere, or I've had a patient come in with a massive heart attack. And when you look at their medical charts, they're almost completely blank. because they haven't seen a doctor in years. Helen O'Yang is a practicing physician and a contributor to the Times magazine. In covering the issue, she says there are a lot of factors at play. Some involve how the system is set up. Unlike women who tend to go see a gynecologist regularly,

men have no clear equivalent. Other factors are cultural. Some men may feel the pressure of stereotypes about masculinity, like toughing it out and not asking for help. But Helen says that now a handful of providers around the U.S. are experimenting with how to encourage men to seek regular care, including the Cutler Center outside Cleveland. It was different from any clinic that I've ever visited before. There were pool tables and fuzzball tables and giant screen televisions. The medical

assistants were dressed in athletic wear. I shadowed one doctor who was a urologist. He was very casual of his patients. He made jokes. While he was doing prostate exams and biopsies, you can tell that the patients were treating the doctors more like their friends than the usual patient-doctor interaction. Another fascinating aspect of the center is a support team, which they call the Joes. They act as navigators for annoying healthcare stuff, like making appointments and scheduling tests, but they also help with life stuff. They'll text you on Mother's Day if you forget. They'll help you find a real estate broker if you need one or help you write a first-time resume. I think at the core, they're trying to make health care fun and easy and hope that that will

get meant to have an ongoing relationship with the clinic. That will get meant to go and keep up with appointments and tests everything they're supposed to be doing. Helen says the center is fully aware that if what they're doing doesn't produce results, then it's kind of just a superficial experiment in giving a clinic sports bar vibes. But there are some early signs it's working. Cutler patients are 40% more likely to have attended a doctor's visit in the last year, and 35% more likely to have well-controlled blood sugar, a sign that their approach could be translating to better health outcomes. One of the staff there said she'd also noticed a shift in men taking ownership of their visits, saying, quote,

When we first started, a lot of wives would call. Now, more guys are calling themselves. And finally, for real this time, the pop star Taylor Swift and football player Travis Kelsey announced their engagement yesterday in a highly produced post on Instagram. Because if it's not on Instagram, did it even happen? The couple wrote, quote, your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married. Both famous in their own right, ever since Swift and Kelsey got together roughly two years ago. Their relationship has become one of the most scrutinized, gossiped about, and obsessed over. Did you hear?

They're getting married. Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey she is a renter. Okay, we have some details about Taylor Swift's engagement. Taylor, I need answers. You cannot even escape this news on Google today. If you search for Taylor Swift, a bunch of confedict. just fills the screen. Those are the headlines.

Today on the Daily, more on President Trump's battle with the Federal Reserve. You can listen to that in the New York Times app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.