AI Pushes Older Workers Toward Exit as Goldman Warns of Lasting Economic Pain

States and Cities Rush to Block Data Center Construction

U.S. Healthcare Costs Soar as Medicare Boosts Insurer Payments

Artemis II Crew Swings Behind the Moon in Historic Lunar Flyby

Hopes Fade for Iran Deal as Trump's Tuesday Deadline Looms

AI Pushes Older Workers Toward Exit as Goldman Warns of Lasting Economic Pain

A new Goldman Sachs report tracking more than 20,000 Americans across four decades finds that workers displaced by technological shifts suffer lasting economic damage, taking a month longer to find new jobs and earning 3% less in real wages after reemployment. Authors Pierfrancesco Mei and Jessica Rindels warned that AI-driven displacement could worsen labor market outcomes for years. The findings land as some older workers are already choosing to exit rather than adapt, with the share of Americans over 55 in the workforce falling to 37.2% as of early 2026, the lowest level in more than 20 years, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Rising home equity and stock-market returns are helping cushion early departures, economists say. Luke Michel, a 68-year-old content strategist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, took an early-retirement offer last year rather than retool around AI, saying the time and energy required to learn a new skill set wasn't worth it.

Wall Street Journal

States and Cities Rush to Block Data Center Construction

Maine is poised to become the first state to freeze construction of new data centers, with legislation expected to pass this spring, as community backlash against the facilities spreads nationwide. Lawmakers in more than 10 states have proposed temporary bans on data center construction this year, and dozens of county and city governments have already enacted such measures. The current building boom is driven by demand for hyperscale facilities used to train and operate artificial intelligence systems. Virginia and Texas lead the country in data center construction, with 579 and 411 server farms respectively, according to the industry website Data Center Map.

Wall Street Journal

U.S. Healthcare Costs Soar as Medicare Boosts Insurer Payments

Americans spend more on healthcare than anyone else in the world, with family insurance premiums now approaching $27,000 a year, driven primarily by prices far higher than other countries for the same medical products and services. Rising use of costly hospital treatment and expensive new weight-loss drugs has pushed spending even higher. Separately, the Trump administration announced it will raise payments to Medicare Advantage insurers by 2.48% for 2027, a reversal after a preliminary proposal to hold rates steady drew fierce industry criticism and hammered shares of the largest companies. The final rate came in above some analysts' expectations, with several having projected an increase closer to 1%.

Wall Street Journal

Artemis II Crew Swings Behind the Moon in Historic Lunar Flyby

Four astronauts aboard NASA's Artemis II mission swung around the far side of the moon Monday, becoming the first humans in more than half a century to slip behind the lunar surface and reaching a distance of more than 248,000 miles from Earth. Crew members Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen passed within roughly 4,000 miles of the moon at closest approach five days after launching from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. At 6:44 p.m. Eastern time, video transmission cut out as the spacecraft named Integrity crossed behind the moon, leaving the crew out of contact for 40 minutes. When they reconnected, the astronauts watched a thin crescent of sunlit Earth reappear from their windows. Hansen, a Canadian Space Agency astronaut, urged the current and next generation to ensure the distance record does not stand long.

NYT

Hopes Fade for Iran Deal as Trump's Tuesday Deadline Looms

Negotiators are increasingly pessimistic that Iran will agree to reopen the Strait of Hormuz before President Trump's 8 p.m. Tuesday deadline, which could trigger U.S. strikes on Iranian bridges, power plants and other infrastructure that critics classify as civilian targets but the administration has characterized as dual-use. Trump called a cease-fire proposal from mediators a "significant step" but warned it was "not good enough," while Iran rejected any deal that does not include a complete end to hostilities. U.S. officials say the gap between the two sides' positions remains too wide to close in time, and Iranian officials have told mediators they expect continued American and Israeli attacks regardless of diplomatic progress. Trump has twice before set deadlines for a deal with Iran, followed through with military operations when they passed, and also extended deadlines on multiple occasions. Diplomatic talks coordinated by Pakistan and other regional countries were continuing, though there appeared to be little agreement on what a cessation of hostilities would look like.

Wall Street Journal / NYT

April 7 1950: Truman Signs NSC-68, Cementing America’s Cold War Containment Doctrine

NSC-68 locked in a long-term U.S. pledge to contain Soviet power through massive military buildup, nuclear dominance and far‑flung alliances, helping create a permanent national security state whose logic still shapes U.S. strategy. Then, a shattered postwar world was defined by a stark U.S.–Soviet bipolar standoff; today’s far more multipolar order—marked by overlapping U.S.–China and U.S.–Russia rivalries, assertive regional powers, and transnational threats like cyberwarfare and AI—makes any single‑adversary containment playbook incomplete.

Found a mistake? Have a news tip or feedback to share? Contact our newsroom using the button below:

citizen journal offers three flagship products: a daily national news summary, a daily Kansas news summary, and local news and school board summaries from 34 cities across 5 states. Use the links in the header to navigate to national, kansas, and local coverage. Subscribe to each, some, or all to get an email when new issues are published for FREE!

Brought to you by (click me!)

Sources

1. Wall Street Journal / Wall Street Journal
2. Wall Street Journal
3. Wall Street Journal / Wall Street Journal
4. NYT
5. Wall Street Journal / NYT