7/2/2025: Robot Workers & Drone Deliveries

PLUS: Tiebreaker; Partial Verdict; and Lia Thomas Who?

Today is Wednesday, July 2, 2025.

It is the 183rd day of the year.

182 days remain.

Photo by Masood Aslami on Unsplash

PROGRAMMING NOTE

REMINDER: Tomorrow will be a special Independence Day edition. There will be NO NEWSLETTER ON FRIDAY.

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WHAT’S ON TAP

NOTABLE & NOTEWORTHY: Bryan Kohberger takes a plea deal in the Idaho murder trial.

ROSIE O’DONNELL slams the Bezos-Sanchez wedding and KATY PERRY needs a rescue. More in SHOWBIZ.

The General Lee takes flight. Details in CASTING CALL.

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Vice President JD VANCE cast the tiebreaking vote as President of the Senate to pass the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” on Tuesday, the cornerstone of PRESIDENT TRUMP’s policy agenda.

“Republicans” LISA MURKOWSKI and THOM TILLIS rejected the bill because they apparently don’t believe that able-bodied men and women should have to even try to get a job in order to receive Medicaid coverage. Kentucky Senator RAND PAUL continued to express his frustration with ongoing debt accumulation.

Passage of the bill as-is cannot be guaranteed in the House of Representatives, where deficit hawks have expressed frustration in the Senate’s creative spending math. Trump has also signaled he’s flexible on his July 4 deadline.

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Accused killer Bryan Kohberger is expected to enter a guilty plea in court today that would send him to prison for life without a trial.

Prosecutors say that defense lawyers approached them for a plea deal last week, which now includes four consecutive life sentences and waiving all rights to appeal, functionally guaranteeing he spends the rest of his life behind bars.

At least one grief-stricken family of the victims has publicly expressed their frustration with the arrangement, calling it a “secretive deal and a hurried effort to close the case.” They had also lobbied Idaho’s government to re-implement the firing squad as a means of capital punishment, according to the New York Times.

Kohberger has been in police custody since December 30, 2022, about six weeks after the November 13, 2022 murder of four roommates attending the University of Idaho. [via Idaho Statesman]

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LIVING IN THE FUTURE: AMAZON will soon have as many automated robots as human workers across its fulfillment operations.

The Wall Street Journal reports exclusively that more than one million robots are now in operation, completing tasks that once required human hands. According to the company’s own stats, about 75% of all deliveries include automated robotics in some way, from grabbing items at warehouses to getting them boxed to putting them on delivery vehicles.

The growth in robotics has surged Amazon’s efficiency, too. A decade ago, Amazon shipped about 175 packages per employee. Now it’s up around 3,870, even as the number of employees per warehouse has dropped from over 800 to around 670 in that same time. [via WSJ]

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As people in southern China battle significant flooding, drones have played an essential role in bringing supplies and facilitating other logistics across hilly terrain. One drone operator directly saved a man’s life.

In a video that’s since gone viral across China, the remote-operated flying contraption was spotted whizzing a few hundred feet in the air, with a man dangling from a cable below. The operator was delivering construction materials when he spotted the victim stranded on the roof of a house.

The unnamed rescued man was safely set down on a clear roadway. [via NYT]

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