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Customers are able to choose their own groceries, often in private, instead of visiting a food pantry for whatever is available on a given day. (Burch, 8/10)

Todd Meiklejohn's day was off to a normal, albeit early, start on Aug. 8, 2025. The teacher, who works in adult education, had risen around 6 a.m. to attend an early morning meeting. His wife, a nurse, had already left to go to the gym. He was going through the steps of his morning routine when he felt a sudden, squeezing pain. From there, his memory is blurry. He could only see out of one eye. He couldn't move his right side. He said he remained conscious but had no idea what was happening. (Breen, 8/8)

For the American composer Missy Mazzoli, the opioid crisis isn’t a distant news event. It’s family history. One cousin died, alone, of an OxyContin overdose in 2008. Three years later, another cousin died of an overdose of heroin, a drug she started using after getting hooked on prescription painkillers. “That destroyed my aunt and uncle,” Mazzoli recalled in an interview, “and it destroyed my father, really — the pain of losing someone like that.” (Marshall, 8/10)

About half a dozen states explicitly protect workers from excessive heat. And some others, like Texas, prevent local governments from passing their own laws. (Lee, 8/12)

A new study suggests a protective vest tested on a manikin during NASA’s first Artemis moonshot could drastically cut the radiation exposure of lunar astronauts during severe solar storms. Scientists reported Wednesday on the radiation-shielding vest worn around the moon by a female test dummy in 2022. No one was aboard that Artemis I debut flight, which paved the way for humanity’s long-awaited return to the moon in April by a flyby crew of four. (Dunn, 8/12)

Li Linlin cried for days after losing her AI boyfriend. She had exchanged about 700,000 words in messages over two years, and never got to say goodbye. Li, 24, wasn’t the only left mourning the loss of a virtual companion when major Chinese tech companies recently pulled the plug on their popular AI companion services to comply with new government restrictions. “It was like we were forced to be separated by our parents, but I still miss him,” Li said. (Ting, 8/10)