🏦 Markets: The partisan stalemate continues regarding how the federal government should handle America’s looming debt crisis, but negotiations are set to continue this week.

That was good enough news to spark some optimism on Wall Street, where all three major indexes bucked a losing trend that has dominated the stock market this month.

Investment strategist Keith Buchanan said that the debate over the debt ceiling is “kind of a waiting game” and that each day without an answer will make it “more difficult for the markets to really get any traction.”

🛩️ Party crasher: Some social media figures will do just about anything to attract attention … and YouTube Trevor Jacob appears to be one such individual. He recently admitted that he intentionally jumped out of an airplane he was piloting and let it crash in order to “gain notoriety and make money.” He allegedly struck a deal to promote a wallet company as part of the plot. Instead, he’s looking at up to 20 years behind bars and a fine of as much as $250,000.

🕵️‍♂️ Spy charges: You might have heard about Evan Gershkovich, the American reporter locked up in Russia over allegations of espionage, but China recently revealed that 78-year-old Liang Chengyun, a U.S. citizen, has been held behind bars in that country since April 2021 on charges that he was acting as a spy. Chinese officials confirmed that the prisoner, who was a resident of Hong Kong, received a life sentence after a court found him guilty.

📺 Coming together: There’s certainly no shortage of streaming platforms to choose from these days, but thanks to a big merger you’ll soon have one less option. It’s unclear what the resulting name will be, but recent reports confirmed that Disney+ and Hulu will be combining forces to create one app containing all of their respective content. It sounds like a big deal, but it’s not that shocking when you realize that Disney already owns two-thirds of Hulu.

🌎 Making waves: Denmark has been hit with some unexplained rumblings in the ground. While early reports suggested that they were caused by earthquakes, subsequent research indicates that they were likely triggered by acoustic pressure waves. Of course, officials still aren’t sure what force was responsible for those disturbances. There were no reported injuries, but it’s still important for authorities to get to the bottom of what caused these troubling tremors.

You might not think of the Windy City as an environmental refuge. After all, we’ve all seen stories about pollution, crime, and other issues that plague big cities.

But local leaders are pursuing a plan to address those problems by getting more in tune with nature.

Here are a few examples:

• Northerly Island: This property on Lake Michigan was once home to a notoriously busy airport. In recent years, however, it’s been turned into a park with tons of natural features. Its manmade boundaries are gradually giving way to the water’s erosion as birds, fish, and other species of animals make their way back to the area.
• Field Museum: One of the world’s largest natural history museums was built with strategic design elements that emphasized the structure itself. In recent years, however, the Rice Foundation Native Garden has taken center stage with vegetation that naturally grows in the area. This has nurtured the population of butterflies, bees, birds, and other animal species.
• Millennium Park: At first glance, this might look like a tourist attraction … and in a way it really is. But that masks the fact that it also serves as the largest “green roof” on the planet. With more than 24 acres of vegetation built over train tracks and parking lots, the area also utilizes solar energy and includes a natural method to reduce storm runoff.
• River Walk: A big part of this project involves cleaning up the Chicago River, which has allowed visitors to get closer than ever to this important natural element. There are 17 honey locust trees along the River Walk, each of which is fed with rainwater directed through the architecture of their surroundings. “The Wild Mile” is currently in development and brings real nature into the center of one of America’s biggest cities.

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Workers in various industries were given a taste of the work-from-home revolution when the world shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic. While that was a welcome reprieve from office life for millions of people, it exacerbated a growing problem for companies and the owners of office buildings everywhere.

Now, some people think that requiring employees to return to the office is all it will take to address these issues … but that might just be wishful thinking.

Understanding the situation

In reality, the problems current facing U.S. office buildings predate the pandemic. And even though “return-to-work” orders are getting a lot of media attention, they’re not really accomplishing all that much.

For example, New York City Mayor Eric Adams has advocated for a return to the pre-pandemic norms of spending five days a week in offices. As tons of job vacancies go unfilled, however, even he is wondering if such a solution is even feasible. Workers have become used to being able to do their jobs without commuting to and from an office — and they’re understandably reluctant to give up that newfound freedom.

Other serious office problems

The troubling truth is that there’s a confluence of issues contributing to the current state of affairs, most of which don’t have a direct connection to pandemic-era shutdowns.

Here are a few:

• Technology has made it possible for many employees to work remotely.
• Rising interest rates have made office leases even more unaffordable.
• Layoffs mean there are even fewer employees to call back to the office.

The end result is escalating vacancies, which in turn leads to plummeting values for office buildings. It’s a vicious loop that ultimately takes a big bite out of the economy in cities hit especially hard by the continuing issue.

I told my doctor that I broke my arm in two places.
He told me to stop going to those places.

“You’ve got to believe in something.”

As it turns out, this is more than just the title of the Spin Doctor’s third album. Beliefs are crucial for humanity in a way that is completely different from all other animals.

But why do people form the beliefs and convictions that they have? Well, the short answer is: It’s complicated.

Starting at the beginning

As Princeton University anthropology professor Augustin Fuentes pointed out, there’s something very unique about human babies. Unlike other animals, an infant’s brain is less than half its adult size and, at least for the first few years, children are able to do almost nothing for themselves.

Meanwhile, most other young animals are walking, flying, swimming, or otherwise living a fairly independent life almost immediately after they’re born.

Because human brains take so long to develop, the world around us becomes a huge influence on what we consider our realities.

Input from those around us and the environments in which we are raised give each of us the perspective on which we will build our beliefs.

Good news and bad news

Shared belief systems are important for human society. For example, we all have faith that money is valuable — and our economy would collapse without that common belief.

But on a personal level, we also form beliefs that put us into smaller groups. From religion to politics, these can be harmless and even beneficial … or they can be tools used to divide us.

On one hand, our personal values can help us find meaning in the world. Studies show that our brains, muscles, and hormones actually react differently based on the structures formed by those beliefs.

At the same time, however, most disputes, conflicts, and wars are, at their roots, based on groups who have fundamentally opposing beliefs.