The Global Wrap: America’s 250th Birthday, Trump’s Tech Threat, and the Million-Year-Old Deep Freeze

[air whooshing] Topic one, happy birthday, America.

Our first story takes us right here to a historic milestone happening in our own country.

On July 4th, the United States is celebrating its 250th birthday.

What does the start of a nation actually mean? 250 years ago, a group of regular people got together in a warm, humid night in Philadelphia.

We call them the Founding Fathers, and they were basically a team of historical underdogs.

You've probably heard of them.

George Washington, a quiet soldier; Thomas Jefferson, a brilliant writer; and Benjamin Franklin, a quirky inventor who loved flying kites in lightning storms.

They were totally fed up with being told what to do by a king across the Atlantic Ocean, so they did something incredibly inspiring.

They signed a paper called the Declaration of Independence.

They were starting a brand-new country completely from scratch.

They set up a nation based on a massive idea that everyone should have the freedom to chase their dreams, have a say at how things are run, and be treated fairly.

At its very heart, America is about ambition, the driving spark to think bigger, work harder, and reach for things that seem impossible.

Today, we call that the American Dream.

But the Founders didn't have all the answers on day one, and they certainly didn't make a perfect country right out of the gate.

By letting us vote, protest peacefully, speak up, and pass new laws, they gave every single new generation the power to fix the old bugs and upgrade the country.

We call this a democracy, and it means we get to continue building this country together.

As we look forward to the next 250 years, the frontier isn't about exploring wild forests anymore.

It's about exploring the future.

Your generation is gonna deal with some really complex, sci-fi level challenges.

Here are four massive issues that I think a lot about.

First is the dawn of artificial intelligence and how we figure out how to use super smart AI computers safely as tools to help us without letting them take over our personal privacy or make decisions for us.

Another is saving the planet and how we build massive clean energy grids across the country to power our gaming consoles and homes using the wind and sun without hurting the environment.

Another is the new space race.

This isn't just about planting a flag on the Moon anymore.

Our generation is gonna figure out how to turn the Moon into a cosmic gas station, mine rare earth minerals from passing asteroids, and launch the very first human footprints and permanent cities onto the red desert of Mars.