As a historian of the United States and the coordinator for the University of Richmond's Forging a New Nation initiative, which commemorates the Declaration of Independence's 250th anniversary, I have been thinking a lot about this phenomenon. Particularly during times of social and political upheaval, Americans have sought out the Declaration of Independence when they wanted to remedy contemporary problems and create new visions for the country's future. Many of the nation's greatest leaders have praised and memorialized its rhetoric and ideas in the promotion of their own. In his 1852 speech 'What to the Slave is the Fourth of July'' Frederick Douglass, the formerly enslaved abolitionist, used the declaration to set a standard for American society. As a Black American, Douglass insisted he was 'not included within the pale' who enjoyed the 'inalienable rights' articulated in the declaration. Nonetheless, the 'great principles of the Declaration' gave Douglass hope and cause for optimism. He predicted that the 'glorious hour' would soon arrive when all Americans would be defined 'by equal birth.'...

Good morning & happy Wednesday! Today's issue is really hot as we're diving into Kalshi, which just showed arguably the most aggressive valution jump in FinTech history (latest $1 billion fundraise & what it indicates, what to expect next + bonus deep dive into Robinhood and how it's building the Nasdaq of Reality), and Stripe's another M&A that signals its strategic bet on becoming the financial backbone of the AI economy (what the acquisition of Metronome is all about & how it stacks into Stripe's bigger strategy, why the FinTech giant wants to own the full AI stack of financial services + bonus dives into Agentic Payments/Finance & the ultimate list of M&A resources to save you $$$). So let's just jump straight into the finnovative stuff '' Led by Paradigm with participation from Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and CapitalG, the raise represents one of the most aggressive funding trajectories in recent FinTech history and further validates prediction markets both as a valid vertical and as an emerging asset class....

It is a truth universally acknowledged that William Shakespeare wrote Hamlet to memorialize his only son, Hamnet, who died of plague at age 11. This belief, which has reached near-mythic status, drew more adherents after the publication of Maggie O'Farrell's prize-winning Hamnet: A Novel of the Plague, in 2020. And now that her story has been adapted into a deeply moving film'Hamnet, directed by Chloe Zhao'the idea is sure to attract many more. O'Farrell and Zhao, who collaborated on the screenplay for Hamnet, employ a narrative that many Shakespeare biographers have promoted. Some key facts are indisputable. Hamnet and Hamlet were spelled interchangeably at that time. Parish records confirm that Hamnet, along with his twin sister, Judith, were baptized in 1585, likely named after neighbors'Hamnet and Judith Sadler. Records also indicate that 'Hamnet filius William Shakspere' was buried on August 11, 1596. And Shakespeare's Hamlet was staged a few years later, around 1600, and appeared in two printed editions by 1604....

Alleging a destabilization plot by unnamed politicians and drug lords, the military suspended the electoral process and blocked the results of a contest that both the now former president, Umaro Sissoco Embalo, and the opposition candidate had claimed victory in. General Horta Inta-a, the head of the presidential guard, was subsequently sworn in as 'transitional' leader and Ilidio Vieira Te, a close Embalo ally, was appointed prime minister. The timing of the development and Embalo's connection to the new government figures have led domestic opposition groups and some West African political leaders to claim the coup was staged to facilitate Embalo's continued rule by proxy. Whatever the veracity of such claims, the events point to both a deepening regional crisis of democracy and the inability of Guinea-Bissau to escape its coup-prone history. Indeed, as a scholar who has compiled and updated a dataset of coup types and documented their history in Guinea-Bissau since its independence from Portugal in 1974, I believe the country is caught in a classic coup trap whereby poverty and coups d'etat are mutually reinforcing....