Over the previous couple of weeks, one story has overshadowed each different, regardless of how vital they may be: Jeffrey Epstein.
Except you’ve been taking your summer season trip on Mars, you most likely know the contours of the story. (And in the event you don’t, my Vox colleague Andrew Prokop wrote a helpful abstract this week.) However what issues right here isn’t a lot the small print as it’s the sheer, unrelenting consideration it has commanded.
Between July 6, earlier than the story actually started to explode, and July 13, on-line searches on the subject elevated by 1,900 p.c, in accordance with a Newsweek evaluation. A CNN analyst famous that over roughly the identical time scale, Epstein was Googled 2.5 instances greater than Grok — this through the AI mannequin’s, uh, newsworthy launch — and 1.4 instances greater than tariffs.
The furor over the case has led to Congress primarily shutting down early for the summer season, a Republican effort to evade Democrats’ sudden and politically handy calls for for transparency. It’s not an excessive amount of to say that the enterprise of America has all however halted due to a years-old prison case.
I’m not saying the Epstein case is completely with out significance. The crime was horrific, the investigation particulars murky, and the political ramifications if the case shakes the president’s connection to his political base are clearly significant. (And if you wish to examine any of that, nicely, excellent news — you haven’t any scarcity of sources.) However there’s nearly no means we’ll look again in 20 years and assume that the relitigation of the Epstein case was clearly crucial factor taking place on the planet in July 2025.
Consideration is a finite useful resource, and you’re the place your consideration is. A narrative like Epstein is analogous to a senseless, out-of-control fireplace consuming all of the oxygen in a burning home. So I assumed I’d put collectively an inventory of 4 tales taking place proper now that matter much more for the nation and the world than the contents of the Epstein Recordsdata. And truthful warning — they’re not all excellent news tales, however they completely are price your consideration.
1) America’s harmful debt spiral
By the primary 9 months of the 2025 fiscal 12 months, which works as much as this June, america spent $749 billion on curiosity on the nationwide debt, greater than it spent on something aside from Social Safety. Not the debt itself — simply the curiosity. And our debt downside is accelerating: In accordance with the Congressional Funds Workplace (CBO), President Donald Trump’s lately handed finances invoice will add $3.4 trillion to the nationwide stability sheet over the subsequent decade.
You would possibly say: So what? Funds scolds have been warning in regards to the debt since at the least the Nineteen Eighties, and essentially the most dire predictions have but to return true. However because the economist Herbert Simon as soon as warned, referring particularly to unsustainable financial insurance policies: “If one thing can not go on ceaselessly, it’s going to cease.” Whereas “there’s no magic quantity at which the debt load turns into a full-on disaster,” as my colleague Dylan Matthews wrote final 12 months, nearly every part that’s taking place now — together with persistently excessive rates of interest, which make debt that rather more painful, as anybody with a current mortgage is aware of — signifies that disaster level is on its means.
And what’s going to occur then? The CBO warns that except finances patterns shift dramatically, the nation will face an unpalatable mixture of large tax hikes, extreme cuts to important providers, even default. And our debt downside intersects catastrophically with a few of America’s different generational challenges, just like the fertility and growing old disaster (see No. 3) and the nation’s potential to defend itself (No. 4).
2) A world starvation disaster
I’ve written earlier than in regards to the long-term enhancements in baby mortality and excessive poverty. These traits are actual, they usually signify among the greatest causes to really feel optimistic in regards to the world.
However optimistic long-term traits can masks durations of setback. On the subject of childhood starvation, the world is at risk of falling again. A new UNICEF report exhibits that after greater than twenty years of constant progress, baby stunting — early-life malnutrition that may result in much less progress and lifelong well being issues — seems to be rising once more. And whereas the humanitarian disaster that’s Gaza at the least has the world’s consideration, if not sufficient of its assist, starvation is spreading in different international locations that stay underneath the radar.
In Africa’s largest nation of Nigeria, practically 31 million folks face acute meals insecurity — nearly equal to the inhabitants of Texas. Ethiopia, Pakistan, and Yemen have all seen alarming reversals in childhood dietary well being. Add in surges in meals costs pushed by excessive climate, and the devastating results of cuts in US meals support, and you’ve got a recipe for an issue that’s getting worse on the very second when the willingness to assist is eroding.
3) An actual inhabitants bomb
On the subject of long-term, world-changing traits, local weather change will get a lot of the consideration (if not essentially the motion). However there’s one other problem unfolding in practically each nation on the planet that will probably be simply as transformative — and for which we could also be even much less ready.
That’s the inhabitants slowdown. In 2024, the US fertility fee hit an all-time low of lower than 1.6 births per girl, far under the two.1 required to keep up the present inhabitants degree. Whereas different international locations like Japan or Italy will get there sooner, the US is totally on a path to an growing old, shrinking future. As early as 2033, annual deaths are predicted to outpace annual births, whereas by 2050, one in each 5 People will probably be over the age of 65.
Given {that a} technology in the past, we had been worrying about world overpopulation, many individuals appear to assume a smaller inhabitants would largely be a great factor. Actually that’s what my emails counsel each time I write in regards to the situation. Effectively, let me let you know this: It won’t. (Even for local weather change, apparently.)
An growing old and ultimately shrinking inhabitants will put extra stress on every part from well being care to pension techniques to financial productiveness, in ways in which — absent some type of technological miracle — will make us poorer, and can change life in methods we are able to solely start to think about. And nobody actually has any thought tips on how to repair it, or if it’s even fixable in any respect.
4) A generational safety problem
The Chilly Warfare ended practically 35 years in the past. For all of that point, the US has loved a traditionally unprecedented place of world navy supremacy. People have lived with the background assumption that the US would by no means actually face a conflict with a real geopolitical rival — and definitely wouldn’t lose one. Of all our nationwide privileges, that may be essentially the most foundational one. However that basis is at risk of crumbling.
Geopolitical tensions — particularly with China — are escalating, but America’s navy readiness is quietly degrading. The US Navy’s present annual finances is over a quarter-trillion {dollars}, however the service nonetheless maintains in regards to the identical variety of ships as in 2003. Whereas the US builds about 5 industrial ships a 12 months, China builds greater than 1,000, and its naval fleet is already bigger.
On the identical time, America’s munitions reserves are dangerously low. In supporting Israel throughout its current battle with Iran, practically 14 p.c of the US’s important THAAD missile interceptor stock was expended — simply replenishing these shops might take as much as eight years. In the meantime, Pentagon authorities briefly paused shipments of Patriot missiles and different essential air-defense techniques to Ukraine amid world stockpile pressures. US air defenses now reportedly have solely 1 / 4 of the interceptors wanted for all of the Pentagon’s navy plans. Ought to a significant battle pop up in, oh I don’t know, Taiwan, important munitions might be depleted far quicker than manufacturing might exchange them. That’s the way you lose wars.
None of those tales are scandals, and none of them generate nice social media content material. They’re exhausting, long-term, wonky, even boring. However they’re vital. And so they deserve our consideration.
A model of this story initially appeared within the Good Information e-newsletter. Enroll right here!
