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Good news: Vine might be coming back. Bad news: in AI form, courtesy of Elon Musk. “We’re bringing back Vine, but in AI form,” Musk announced on X on Thursday. He did not elaborate further on his plans. Were bringing back Vine, but in AI form— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 24, 2025 Reactions to the news were mixed. One X user commented: “Worst combination of words Ive ever seen.” Another added: No one wants this. Worst combination of words Ive ever seen https://t.co/dwclaLM1dE— j aubrey (@jaubreyYT) July 24, 2025 Others, however, were more open to the idea. Could be interesting to see what AI comes up with and evolves into, one X user wrote. Could be interesting to see what AI comes up with and evolves into.— Seth Pascale (@sethpascale) July 24, 2025 Before TikTok, there was Vine. At its peak, the app boasted 200 million active users and introduced the culture to classics like and they were roommates” and hurricane tortilla.” Vine allowed users to upload only 6-second clips, laying the groundwork for TikToks current short-form dominance. It launched the careers of many of todays biggest influencers and originated several of TikToks most viral trends, including LeBron James and the ALS ice bucket challenge. X acquired Vine from its founders in 2012 for $30 million, but shut it down just five years later, citing commercial viability. The Vine archive remained available for another two years until it was officially discontinued in 2019. Musk, who bought Twitter in 2022 and renamed it X, has long been vocal about potentially reviving the platform. In 2022, he posted a poll: Bring back Vine? with almost 70% voting in favor. Even MrBeast replied: If you did that and actually competed with tik tok thatd be hilarious. Bring back Vine?— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 31, 2022 Musk posted the same poll again last year, once more receiving an overwhelmingly positive response. YouTuber-turned-professional boxer Jake Paul, who got his first six seconds of fame on Vine, commented: Do it Elon Ill help however I can and round up all the og viners. Do it Elon Ill help however I can and round up all the og viners— Jake Paul (@jakepaul) April 17, 2024 In January, Musk confirmed that his team was “looking into it” at the same time TikTok was facing a potential ban in the United States. But now that fans have heard his plans, they might be reconsidering. What “Vine, but in AI form” actually means is still unclear. Best case scenario: perhaps an AI-powered algorithm. Worst case: an endless scroll of AI-generated slop. For now, Ill stick with classic Vine compilations on YouTube.
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The average rate on a 30-year U.S. mortgage eased this week, offering little relief for prospective homebuyers facing record-high home prices. The long-term rate slipped to 6.74% from 6.75% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.78%. Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, also eased. The average rate dropped to 5.87% from 5.92% last week. A year ago, it was 6.07%, Freddie Mac said. Elevated mortgage rates have been weighing on the U.S. housing market, which has been in a sales slump going back to 2022, when rates started to climb from the rock-bottom lows they reached during the pandemic. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes, which sank to their lowest level in nearly 30 years in 2024, have remained sluggish this year and slid last month to the slowest pace since last September. Sales of new single-family homes edged up 0.6% last month, but the sales pace for June and May have been the slowest since last October. While there are more homes on the market than a year ago, rising home prices and stubbornly high mortgage rates have made homeownership financially untenable for many Americans. Elevated mortgage rates are also discouraging many homeowners from selling because they locked in mortgage rates when they were much lower. The persistent risk of tariff-driven inflation, combined with a rising U.S. fiscal debt expected to grow further following the passage of the Big Beautiful Bill Act has helped establish a relatively high floor for interest rates, at least for now, said Jiayi Xu, an economist at Realtor.com. Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, from the Federal Reserves interest rate policy decisions to bond market investors expectations for the economy and inflation. The main barometer is the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans. The yield was at 4.41% at midday Thursday, down from 4.40% late Wednesday, following the latest signals that the U.S. economy seems to be holding up OK despite all the pressures on it from tariffs and elsewhere. Yields have moved higher for most of this month as traders bet that the Fed will hold its key short-term interest rate steady at its upcoming meeting next week, despite President Donald Trump demanding that the Fed to lower rates. A less independent Fed could mean lower short-term rates, which influence the interest consumers pay on credit cards and auto loans, but it could have the opposite effect on the longer-term bond yields that influence the rates on home loans. The average rate on a 30-year mortgage has remained relatively close to its high so far this year of just above 7%, set in mid-January. The 30-year rates low point this year was in early April when it briefly dipped to 6.62%. Economists generally expect the average rate on a 30-year mortgage to remain above 6% this year. Recent forecasts by Realtor.com and Fannie Mae project the average rate easing to around 6.4% by the end of this year. Alex Veiga, AP business writer
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E-Commerce
Tear a tanktop in half today for Terry Bollea, the entertainer better known as Hulk Hogan, who has died at age 71. Though he was a towering icon of the 1980s professional wrestling scene and seamlessly transitioned into celebreality TV in the aughts, Bolleas most lasting contribution to our culture may have been what he has done to digital publishing. Bolleas star had diminished considerably by 2012, when blog-era media giant Gawker published a brief clip from a stealthily recorded sex tape of Hogan and Heather Clem, then-wife of Bolleas then-best friend, radio personality Bubba the Love Sponge. The clip was featured in a post by former Gawker editor in chief AJ Daulerio, a meditation on celebrity sex tapes. Just days after the sex tapes publication, Hogan sued for emotional distress and invasion of privacy. For its part, Gawker defended its inclusion of the clip by arguing that the footage was newsworthy, considering Hogan’s celebrity status and past comments on his sex life. In March 2016, a Florida jury found in favor of Hogan, awarding him $115 million in compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages. The verdict ultimately bankrupted Gawker, hastening an end to digital medias freewheeling blog era. (The website was revived in 2021 under owner Bryan Goldberg, but shuttered again just two years later.) Perhaps more shocking than the verdict itself, however, was the revelation of who paid for the lawsuit in the first place: Two months after the smoke cleared, Forbes reported that tech billionaire Peter Thiel had been bankrolling Bollea. The former Paypal Mafia member spent roughly $10 million on the lawsuit, apparently with the aim of destroying Gawker, as revenge for outing him as gay in a 2007 post. Thiels involvement raised concerns that the victory over Gawker could become a playbook for extremely wealthy individuals to silence media outletsa First Amendment nightmare. The New Yorker, for instance, warned at the time that the verdict could pave the way for a war against the press. And those concerns have since proven well-founded. Within a year, the Gawker Effect, as coined by journalist Margaret Sullivan had cast a chilling pall over the media environment. Music reporter Jim DeRogatis said a number of publishers passed on his bombshell investigation into sexual abuse claims against singer R. Kelly, citing concerns over potential libel lawsuits. Reporter Kim Masters wrote in October 2017 about her difficulty trying to find an outlet who would touch her investigation into allegations that Amazon Studios executive Roy Price had made inappropriate sexual remarks. Even the weakest of legal claims, she recalled, triggered genuine fear among editors and lawyers, and Price eventually hired Charles Harder, the attorney who defended Bollea. (The investigations eventually ran in BuzzFeed and The Information, respectively.) Many more blockbuster lawsuits against media outlets have followed in the years since. Blackwater Founder Erik Prince has sued The Intercept multiple times over its coverage of his activities; while the cases were dismissed, they successfully drained the publication of time and money (and effectively diminished their capacity to expend resources on further investigations). In 2020, right-wing provocateur group Project Veritas sued The New York Times for defamation, over publishing legal documents describing the groups deceptive practices, tying up the Times in court for years. More recently, Elon Musks X filed a defamation lawsuit against the left-leaning Media Matters for America in 2023, claiming it manufactured images showing ads on X placed alongside neoNazi content on the platform, with the aim of driving advertisers away. The publication countersued in March, accusing Musk and X of bringing “abusive,” costly and meritless lawsuits to punish Media Matters for the crime of doing journalism. (Those suits are currently still winding their way through courts; in the meantime, the organization has laid off at least a dozen staffers, citing legal costs.) And of course, suing news organizations has become a cornerstone of Donald Trumps strategic response for unflattering coverage. Just since last winter, he has sued ABC over George Stephanopouloss on-air claim that Trump has been found liable for raperather than the more accurate term sexual abusesettling for $15 million plus legal fees, he has successfully sued CBS for $16 million, alleging a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris was unfairly edited, and just last week, he filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal and its parent company for a story linking him to Jeffrey Epstein. Any outlet that cant afford to defend itself in court now knows not to break any unflattering news about Trumpor any other public figure who might be backed by wealthy benefactors with an ax to grind. Whether Bollea would approve of all this or notand udging by his professed admiration for Trump, he certainly mightthe dire current state of U.S. media is his true legacy.Whatcha gonna do when Hulkamania runs wild on YOU? he used to ask wrestling opponents. Nearly a decade after Bolleas lawsuit destroyed Gawker, newsrooms across the country are still grappling with that question.
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