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Happy Tuesday, N2K reader!

Madeliene Rae won last week’s world-famous news haiku competition™, with this beauty about how to AI-proof your job:

Congratulations, Madeliene! Here’s your congratulatory gif:

And here’s how y’all voted on our other finalists:

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ G.uess I’ll become a | P.lumber to save my job from | T.oxic AI s**t? ~ Kristen (59)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ I walk dogs, pet cats | They spot fake humans quickly | Leashes, love, trust earned ~ Marissa (99)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Protect my job please. | Sorry Dave I can’t do that, You work for me now. ~ Madeliene Rae (148)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ Bring it on, AI | You think you can do my job? | Good luck digging holes ~ Richard Brown (85)

🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨 Machines learn fast,  But they can’t hold trembling hands—  Empathy wins work. ~ Patricia Larson (145)

 🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ AI took my job | I'm doing something it can’t! | Gonna sell my body ~ Lodro Rinzler
 (45)

581 Votes via @beehiiv polls

This week’s world-famous news haiku competition™ is about how we can most appropriately honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in America today. As we all know, MLK dedicated his life fighting for equity and justice. He taught us that even in the face of intimidation and discrimination, we must never stop working toward a better future, and I believe that you, yes, you, dear reader can craft a spectacular haiku on the subject. So: Send me your entry — to our spiffy new email address, haiku at cheddar dot com — by noon ET today for consideration by your Cheddar peers!

And now for something completely different. Or perhaps related…

Matt Davis — Need2Know Chedditor

News You Need2Know

• Greenland impasse spooks markets

• Well, there goes the metaverse!

• Gov’t wants tech companies to buy $15B of power pl …

• Regular people like you can make ap …

• Smart home tech you’ll actually want

• Poll of the day: Reflecting on things past…

What’s the stock market up to, eh?

$SPX ( ▼ 0.2% ) $DJI ( ▲ 0.63% ) $NDX ( ▼ 1.24% )

Companies mentioned in today’s newsletter

 $DAX ( ▼ 0.84% )  $CAC40 ( 0.0% )  $SP_F ( 0.0% )  $XAUUSD ( 0.0% )  $META ( ▼ 3.32% )  $AAPL ( ▲ 3.04% )  $GOOGL ( ▼ 1.89% )  $MSFT ( ▲ 0.69% )

Greenland impasse spooks markets

Perhaps less than famous for standing up to injustice, the leaders of the Catholic Church in the United States condemned [checks notes] American foreign policy on Monday, writing that America’s “moral role in confronting evil around the world” is in question for the “first” time in “decades.” Citing recent events in Venezuela, Ukraine and Greenland, the cardinals called for a “genuinely moral foreign policy” in which “military action must be seen only as a last resort in extreme situations, not a normal instrument of national policy.”

Denmark, meanwhile, has deployed additional troops to Greenland as U.S. President Donald Trump continues his controversial pursuit of the island, linking his ambition to [checks notes again] missing out on the Nobel Peace Prize.

In a text message on Sunday to Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, Trump wrote: "Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America."

Trump threatened 10–25% tariffs on Denmark and other European nations opposing America’s bid for control of Greenland, arguing it was essential for U.S. security. Norwegian Prime Minister Støre revealed Trump’s message on Monday, called for de-escalation, and of course, emphasized Nørway's lack øf influence øver Nøbel decisiøns.

European leaders are scrambling to avoid a transatlantic trade war while resisting Trump’s aggressive tactics. U.K. prime minister Keir Starmer criticized the threats as "completely wrong" and pledged a pragmatic but firm response: “Being pragmatic does not mean being passive,” he said, then rolled over and took a nice long nap. Meanwhile, the EU is exploring countermeasures, including retaliatory tariffs and the anti-coercion tools that have worked so well so far. German finance minister Lars Klingbeil said, “We are not prepared to be blackmailed.” Someone tell Lars that blackmailers don’t wait for you to get ready. I should know!

Markets are reacting, let’s say, negatively as investors are turning away from the U.S. dollar and Treasuries — historically viewed as safe havens — in favor of gold and European assets. European stocks fell sharply yesterday, with Germany’s DAX dropping $DAX ( ▼ 0.84% ) 1.3% and France’s CAC 40 $CAC40 ( 0.0% ) sinking 1.9%. U.S. stock futures also declined with S&P futures down 1% yesterday, on a federal holiday, $SP_F ( 0.0% ) and Denmark’s national index was down 2.75%. Gold surged 1.8% agains the U.S. dollar $XAUUSD ( 0.0% ) .

Analysts warn that Trump's actions, including alienating allies and overlooking market trust, threaten the U.S.’s long-term financial stability. Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management told the Associated Press, “The willingness to recycle capital indefinitely into U.S. assets becomes less automatic. This is not a short-term liquidation story. It is a slow rebalancing story, and those are far more consequential.”

Well, there goes the metaverse!

Ladies and gentlemen, let’s all take a moment to remember the metaverse — Facebook’s (oops, I mean Meta’s $META ( ▼ 3.32% ) ) grandiose vision of a digitally immersive future. Or should we call it Mark Zuckerberg’s most expensive hobby? After pouring a cool $73 billion (yes, billion with a “B”) into its pretend world of legless avatars and virtual high-fives — not to mention renaming itself based on the idea — Meta has decided to abruptly wake from its metaverse dream.

Remember when Zuckerberg boldly proclaimed the metaverse would host “a billion people” and generate “hundreds of billions in digital commerce”? Investors certainly drank the Kool-Aid, but the rest of us were too busy laughing at his viral “metaverse selfie,” which resembled a first-year graphic design project gone wrong. Spoiler alert: None of this panned out. Turns out, nobody wanted to strap on a $500 face computer to experience virtual harassment at low-polygon dance parties.

Instead, Meta’s RealityLabs division hemorrhaged money, burning through cash so fast you’d need to spend $1 million a day for 200 years to catch up. Game studios making titles inside the metaverse were shut down, while “Horizon Worlds” — Meta’s flagship metaverse app — became a ghost town. Oh, and let’s not forget they charged developers 47.5% in taxes for anything they sold inside said ghost town. Nothing says “developer-friendly” like gouging creators before the platform even gains traction.

In the end, Zuckerberg has pivoted to AI and the world’s least successful smart glasses while sweeping this legless avatar-shaped embarrassment under the rug. The metaverse might be toast, but Mark Zuckerberg’s hubris, it turns out, knows few bounds, and his company’s stock is up 125% over the last five years, so one could even say the markets reward this kind of behavior. If only the market rewarded my dumb ideas with as much enthusiasm (and cash)!

Song of the Day: Charlie Puth, ‘Beat Yourself Up’

“Beat Yourself Up” is brassy, bass-y, catchy, and could’ve stepped right out of a time when the Detroit Pistons were beating everyone up in the NBA. Bill Laimbeer, baby! Bad Boys!

Gov’t wants tech companies to buy $15B of power plants they may not use

The Trump administration is urging the largest U.S. power grid, PJM Interconnection, to add $15 billion worth of new generating capacity — targeting tech companies to foot the bill. The catch? These companies may not even need the additional power.

Under the proposal, PJM would auction off 15-year contracts for new capacity, with the logic that surging energy demand from data centers (expected to triple in the next decade) calls for significant investment in fossil-fuel plants. However, the push has been met with resistance from both PJM—serving over 65 million people across 13 states—and tech firms like Apple $AAPL ( ▲ 3.04% ) , Google $GOOGL ( ▼ 1.89% ) , and Microsoft $MSFT ( ▲ 0.69% ) , which are already committed to energy-efficient, renewable solutions.

“We don’t have a lot to say on this,” PJM spokesman Jeffrey Shields explained, highlighting the grid operator’s apparent reluctance, adding that they weren’t involved in planned discussions about the proposal.

Tech companies are unlikely to embrace this plan, particularly given their reliance on renewables like solar and batteries. These solutions are faster to deploy, cheaper, and align with flexible, modular timelines for data center construction. By contrast, fossil fuel plants require years and hundreds of millions to build, carrying enormous risks if future energy demand doesn’t materialize. Whether the administration can force its vision through remains, let’s say, an open question.

Regular people like you can make apps now

Rebecca Yu was tired of the never-ending group chat debates about where to eat. So, armed with determination — and tools like ChatGPT and Claude — she built Where2Eat, a dining app that simplifies restaurant decisions by recommending spots based on her friend group’s shared interests. The only catch here is that Yu isn’t a coder. She was just bored AF.

“Once vibe-coding apps emerged, I started hearing about people with no tech backgrounds successfully building their own apps,” Yu shared with TechCrunch. “When I had a week off before school started, I decided it was the perfect time to finally build my application.”

Yu is part of a growing trend of “vibe coders,” individuals using AI-powered tools to create personal, hyper-specific apps. These micro apps, often dubbed “fleeting apps,” aren’t built for mass production or sale — they’re tailored solutions for the creator’s unique needs.

This new era of app-building blurs the lines between tech professionals and enthusiasts. Jordi Amat, for example, created a personal gaming app for family holidays, while Shamillah Bankiya uses vibe coding to build podcast translation tools.

With reduced barriers to entry and endless possibilities, “vibe coding” is making app development accessible to all — ushering in what one expert called "a thrilling era of hyper-personalized software solutions."

Can somebody please vibe-code me a world famous news haiku competition™ app?

Should you check your 401(k) today?

👎️ 

No.

Smart home tech you’ll actually want

The smart home of the future is no longer a concept. It's here! At the Consumer Electronics Show 2026 in Las Vegas, innovations focused on automating tedious tasks and boosting security, starting right at your front door.

DOMA is completely reimagining the entry point with intelligent doors and windows. The firm’s smart door integrates a lock, video doorbell, and facial recognition, automatically unlocking and opening for you. Furthermore, it guarantees security with no batteries, using an electric motor to ensure the door is always closed and locked. Their AI-powered windows can even manage air quality, opening to let fresh air in when external conditions are better.

Inside the home, Cozyla's Calendar Plus Max is replacing your Google calendar household chaos with a stunning 55-inch interactive Google calendar family hub. This rotatable, 4K display features color-coded calendars for the whole family, a voice-activated AI agent, and a dynamic meal planning system that automatically generates a purpose-driven grocery list. Too bad the thing won’t also cook for you, eh?

And the robots are taking over the chores. SwitchBot’s Onero H1, a humanoid robot with a local AI model, is designed to handle complex tasks like laundry, identifying clothes and operating appliances. (But not cooking, for some reason.) For the hated chore of window cleaning, the Ecovacs Winbot W3 Omni uses powerful suction and an automatic cleaning pad washer. Finally, the Robotin R2 is the world’s first modular robot to wash and dry your carpets, using AI to detect and reprocess food stains and beloved animal urine for a deep clean.

The future of a cleaner, smarter, and more secure home is moving in this year… Or maybe that’s just your mother-in-law?

Poll of the day: Reflecting on things past…

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