Good morning, curious minds!

Get ready for YouTube's billion-strong podcast stampede, a deadly outbreak in West Texas, and even the Washington Post's opinion pages upside down. Stick around for all the latest. Let’s dive in!

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You'll Know First:
​• Legendary actor Gene Hackman, his wife Betsy, and their dog were found dead inside their New Mexico home.
​• USDA reveals a plan to deal with bird flu and lower egg prices.
​• Another early loss: Buffy and Gossip Girl actress Michelle Trachtenberg has passed away at 39.

Connecting the dots for you, daily:

Jeff Bezos just dropped the mic on the Washington Post's opinion pages, ditching the paper's broad spectrum for "personal liberties and free markets." The fallout? A key editor's exit, staff turmoil, and editorial lines redrawn overnight. Collateral damage of this new, top-down dogma.

Jeff Bezos @JeffBezos I shared this note with the Washington Post team this morning: I’m writing to let you know about a change coming to our opinion pages. We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets. We’ll cover other topics too… https://x.com/i/web/status/1894757287052362088 10:31 PM • Feb 26, 2025 17992 Retweets 150407 Likes Read 28052 replies

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For anyone trying to track seismic shifts like this—well, that's exactly why The Core is here: in every unexpected pivot in the news landscape, sifting the hype to keep you in the loop.

Texas Connection

There's a tragic reminder that measles never indeed left: An unvaccinated child in West Texas has died—the first U.S. measles death in a decade. With 124 cases and counting, this outbreak hits a region where vaccination rates are low, leaving hospital wards struggling to treat infections, pneumonia, and now a funeral.

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The lesson? A single shot might mean the difference between a passing fever and an unthinkable loss.

Losing My Religion

Here's another twist in our national spiritual drama. It's been the same message for ages: American Christianity is in freefall. But a behemoth new Pew study says otherwise—growth of the “nones” has fizzled, and the Christian dip has leveled off.

Even young folks have stopped sliding out the church doors (especially young, conservative men). The notion that we’d catch up to Europe’s secular orbit? Maybe not so fast.

Lights, Camera, Podcast!

Seems radio's golden age may be fading to static. According to a new report, YouTube has over a billion podcast users a month, way more than Apple or Spotify. Sure, the radio's comfort crackle still hits some of us in the feels, but video might soon overtake AM/FM.

I am here at The Core (still broadcast-ready as ever) and cannot help but notice those massive digital audiences. After all, who can resist a good story, especially with a billion-viewer audience?

💬 Beyond the Core

NAE3SAT: Yes, lettuce is good for you, but you might be eating the wrong kind.

Rich vs. Really Rich:Meet 24 super-billionaires who are changing wealth as we know it.

Puppy Mountain: After a picture of Puppy Mountain went viral, tourists flocked to a lookout in China.

💡 Core Wisdom

📸 Lens to Life

Here are the 2025 Underwater Photographer of the Year winners.

🧮 Core Count: 7,250,000

USD amount awarded to a California woman injured on a Harry Potter theme park ride.

🗓️ Flashback:

1693 - First women's magazine, "The Ladies' Mercury," is published in London.

1814 - Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 8 in F major premieres in Vienna.

1900 - The Trades Union Congress and the Independent Labour Party (formed in 1893) meet in London, creating a Labour Representative Committee and then the modern UK Labour Party.

1933 - Nazi Germany's Reichstag is destroyed by fire, possibly set by the Nazis, who blame and execute Dutch communist Marinus van der Lubbe.

1940 - Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben discovered carbon-14 (radiocarbon dating) at the University of California Radiation Laboratory.

1957 - During the Supreme State Conference, Mao Zedong delivered the famous speech "On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People".

1996 - First appearance of Pokémon in the role-playing video game "Pocket Monsters Red and Green" for Game Boy in Japan.

I'm glad we could get together here. Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow!

​Fatih Taskiran​