Owning a home is part of the age-old American dream. But it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to do. For the first time in over a decade, it’s seemingly a buyer’s market, with housing stock finally exceeding those looking to make a purchase. And yet would-be homeowners—especially first-time home buyers—are still finding it challenging to secure an affordable home, often priced out of the market and forced to keep renting.

So rent-to-own homes would seem like the ideal alternative to the traditional path to homeownership—especially for first-time home buyers. And a recently-announced proposal to build as many as a million rent-to-own “Trump homes” would put federal backing behind a homeownership model that has long struggled to deliver on its promise.

But how exactly does it work? Architectural Digest says it’s a less straightforward way than most people traditionally take to get their dream homes, and you have to know exactly what you’re getting into before you sign a rent-to-own contract. The arrangement allows you to rent a home from a property owner, but with a twist: Part of your monthly rent payment also goes toward helping you meet the home’s purchase price. That means that paying your landlord every month is also part of the home-buying process. They warn that the agreements can vary a lot, from the amount of the option fee, the end of the lease terms and lease option, who pays the closing costs and property taxes, and so on.

Since Donald Trump returned to office last year, senior leaders from the nation’s largest homebuilding enterprises have been engaged—formally and informally—in discussions with the White House, federal agencies, and policy intermediaries. The industry is colloquially calling the proposal “Trump Homes” because it could give the president a signature program to address the housing shortage.

And while here has been serious strategic discussion among builders about a rent-to-own-style pathway, builders themselves have been the first to acknowledge how difficult such a model would be to execute at scale. Far from pitching this as a turnkey solution, builders have described it as high-friction, capital-intensive, and operationally fragile—particularly from coast-to-coast.

Let’s just get this out of the way. It’s not too late to get a flu shot. While early fall is ideal, the CDC and health experts recommend vaccination as long as the virus is circulating, often through May, as the flu season can last into spring. A late vaccination still provides crucial protection against severe illness, hospitalization and further viral complications. And apparently, we are “heading up a second peak of flu season,” one Johns Hopkins University epidemiologist tells USA Today.

So far, at least 19 million Americans have come down with the flu—and 10,000, including 44 children, have died from the illness—during the 2025-26 flu season so far, making it one of the most brutal in recent memory. Which is why it’s good news that the Food and Drug Administration has reversed its shocking refusal to consider Moderna’s mRNA flu vaccine for approval.

According to Politico, the decision to reverse course and review Moderna’s seasonal flu vaccine application followed a meeting in which President Donald Trump expressed frustration to Commissioner Marty Makary over the agency’s handling of vaccine issues. However, a White House official denied that Trump has raised any issues with the FDA’s posture on vaccines or influenced its reversal on the Moderna application.

Sharks prowl nearly every marine ecosystem on Earth … except one. For decades, scientists assumed the waters around Antarctica were simply too cold to sustain these predators, but a surprise sighting is now challenging that belief. Researchers just captured footage of a sleeper shark farther south than ever before.

According to Scientific American, the footage was captured in January 2025 by a baited deep-sea camera in a trench at about 490 meters beneath the sea surface off the South Shetland Islands. During the shark’s surprise appearance, one marine geoscientist can be heard asking, “What is that that sneaks on in the background?” The shark was recorded at 490 meters below sea level—where the temperature was a near-freezing 1.27ºC, or 34.29 ºF.

The slow-moving species of deepwater shark is well adapted to cold temperatures, but it’s still surprising to see this species venture into the frigid waters immediately surrounding Antarctica. While this is the first photographic evidence of a shark in this region, this specimen likely isn’t alone. Alan Lamieson, one of the researchers that made the discovery, told Gizmodo that other Antarctic sharks probably live at the same depth, taking advantage of warm layers of water to feed on whales, giant squid and other animals that die and sink to the seafloor.

Every Olympics, there are usually a few new sports or disciplines that get their time in the spotlight. Skimo, short for ski mountaineering, is the only sport making its debut at Milan Cortina, but it boasts a long and fascinating history that stretches back decades. In the brutal, high-altitude race, skiers scamper uphill wearing carpet-like skins on their skis or just their stiff boots, then barrel back down an ungroomed course.

The sprints are full of adrenaline, with races typically lasting around three minutes. The United States will compete in the relay, which starts with a section of skinning—essentially racing uphill with a free heel and climbing skins glued to the skis. Then the athletes rip off the skins and ski a short downhill portion before returning to climbing, this time with a combination of skinning and bootpacking (dashing uphill in their ski boots, with skis secured to a backpack). Finally, they descend to the base of the hill. With so little margin for error, there is huge pressure on nailing the transition of equipment.

Three skimo events will be held in Bormio, Italy: men’s sprint, women’s sprint, and a mixed relay with a competitor of each gender. According to CNN Sports, Skimo has roots in backcountry skiing, which, before ski lifts were invented, was the only way of getting around snowy mountains. The tradition still lives on today, with some national teams still sponsored by military organizations in their countries.

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