One book store owner noticed a sudden spike in book sales in April—between double and triple the weekly sales tally.
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| Ivan Pentchoukov
National Editor |
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| Ivan Pentchoukov
National Editor |
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Good morning. It’s Sunday. Here are today’s top stories. |
- For generations, booksellers have worked to preserve humanity’s writing. However, the recent revelation that millions of print books are being scanned to train artificial intelligence models and then destroyed presents an unprecedented challenge.
- Interest in three-year college degrees is growing nationwide.
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Right-wing commentator Milo Yiannopoulos was deported to the United Kingdom one day after being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport in New Orleans.
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The Trump administration says it has helped close 37 commercial deals worth $25.67 billion in Africa as Washington moves to compete with a much larger Chinese economic footprint across the continent.
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🍵 Health: Something in the environment could be driving up autism.
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(Spitzi-Foto/Shutterstock) |
“There is nothing wrong with pajamas, a bonnet, or a teddy bear. The question is whether every setting needs to accommodate whatever makes us most comfortable. “School is partly preparation for entering the world. Sometimes, that means learning that what is appropriate in your bedroom isn’t necessarily appropriate in a classroom or job interview.” Mollie Engelhart on the transformative power of manageable discomfort. |
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Limited-Time Offer: 7 days FREE, then $26 for one year. |
In times of crisis, it’s easy for your mind to feel bombarded—notifications, headlines, endless scrolling. It feels like information overload, but science shows it’s worse: shallow, fragmented content actually changes your brain, training it for distraction.
Stanford research proves the opposite is also true: deep, focused reading boosts blood flow in critical brain regions, providing a “truly valuable exercise of people’s brains.” And a study published in Neuroscience News shows that consistent cognitive engagement such as reading can even delay cognitive decline by years.
What you feed your brain defines how it performs. Shallow content trains distraction. Deep, quality reading trains focus and insight.
At The Epoch Times, we don’t serve you noise. We deliver intelligent, independent journalism—content that sharpens memory, enriches thought, and gives your mind the clarity it deserves.
If you’re ready for a real mental detox, stop scrolling and start reading news that strengthens your mind. |
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Charlie Becker, owner of Becker’s Books, in Houston on Aug. 8, 2026. (Mark Felix for The Epoch Times) |
Charlie Becker’s family bookstore in Houston has been connecting people with literature for more than 30 years. Becker said the family has “seen a lot of changes” since his dad opened the used and rare book store in 1993.
When he was 12 years old, Becker remembers his dad making one of the store’s first larger purchases. Another local business planned to get rid of its collection of books, but first called Becker’s father. “It was in their [company’s] last days, and they said my dad had to pick up the books. I went with him to the warehouse,” he said. Becker grew up with that story of rescuing books bound for a landfill with his dad. Over the years, he has watched the entire industry of acquiring and selling books change with the rise of the internet, digital cataloging, and the emergence of major sellers such as Amazon.
For generations, booksellers have worked to preserve humanity’s writing. However, the recent revelation that millions of print books are being scanned to train artificial intelligence models and then destroyed presents an unprecedented challenge. To make matters worse, book collectors and sellers say there’s no easy way to make it stop. The practice of what has been dubbed AI “book shredding” burst onto the scene after a 2025 court document revealed that AI tech giant Anthropic purchased millions of printed books, removed their bindings, then scanned each page into digital datasets. Afterward, Anthropic shredded and discarded the originals.
It was revealed that the project was part of an ongoing expansion of Anthropic’s central library, which has an aim to collect “all the books in the world” and retain them “forever.” The undertaking was called Project Panama. (More) |
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Entrepreneur Mark Cuban speaks at a campaign event for U.S. Vice President Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris at University Wisconsin-La Crosse in La Crosse, Wis., on Oct. 17, 2024. (Craig Lassig/AFP) |
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Billionaire Mark Cuban campaigned for Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful James Talarico on Aug. 29 to promote the candidate’s plan to break up healthcare monopolies.
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Enforcement actions carried out by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have stopped over $1.6 billion in potentially improper Medicare lab payments so far under the Trump administration.
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The Commodity Futures Trading Commission ordered a former White House teleprompter operator to pay more than $172,000 after finding he used nonpublic information from his White House job to trade event contracts for personal gain.
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Chinese artist Gao Zhen was recently sentenced in China to three years in prison over artworks he created nearly two decades ago, which insiders say illustrates how Beijing is expanding its efforts to criminalize criticism of the regime and its leaders. |
- Chinese artist Gao Zhen was recently sentenced in China to three years in prison over artworks he created nearly two decades ago, which insiders say illustrates how Beijing is expanding its efforts to criminalize criticism of the regime and its leaders.
- U.S. forces, on Aug. 28, sank a vessel in the eastern Pacific that the U.S. Southern Command said was serving as an at-sea refueling point for drug-trafficking boats.
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- Being Better Than Someone Worse Doesn’t Make You Good—by Joseph Quesnel (Read)
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The Himalayan Disaster and Beijing’s Infallibility—by Tamuz Itai (Read)
- A Republic Cannot Be Kept by Rules Alone—by Lamont Colucci (Read)
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(valkyrielynn/Shutterstock) |
Christine Beal Dunst gives us a simple, high-protein meal you can prepare once and enjoy throughout the week: Spinach Bolognese. Lean ground turkey or chicken support lean muscle, metabolism, and healthy blood sugar balance. Meanwhile, the spinach is packed with folate, iron, magnesium, vitamin K, and antioxidants.
The garlic, onions, carrots, and celery? They bring a good dose of healthy fiber—but most importantly, they are the foundation of that classic Italian homemade flavor. |
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“It is a wise father that knows his own child.” |
— William Shakespeare, "The Merchant of Venice" |
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— Simon Veazey, Ivan Pentchoukov, Madalina Hubert, and Kenzi Li |
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