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As Mike Bloomberg details in his Annual Letter on Philanthropy, which opens Bloomberg Philanthropies' Annual Report that was released this week: "Urgency is essential to getting big things done." 

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That message is also at the heart of Bloomberg Philanthropies CEO Patti Harris' Letter on Philanthropy.  

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Patti writes, "Every year, millions of people die – and millions more suffer – from causes we know how to prevent. So why do these problems persist? Often, it’s because of a lack of political will or a shortage of resources, but in many other instances, there is a deeper issue: The problems are so common and longstanding that they are largely dismissed or ignored."

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Patti continues, "Mike’s annual letter covers a pair of overlooked issues that are the focus of new initiatives we’re launching: lead poisoning and vision impairment. But those are just two examples of our efforts to take on solvable problems that too often go overlooked and unaddressed. (Read Mike's full Annual Letter on Philanthropy here.)

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"From our earliest days, Bloomberg Philanthropies has been committed to tackling issues that others have neglected, and there is no better example than tobacco control. Back in 2007, tobacco was a top global killer, and tobacco-related deaths were projected to climb to 10 million per year by 2030. Yet despite that staggering toll, the issue received only a fraction of the attention and resources directed toward other global health challenges. In New York City, the Bloomberg administration had pioneered a groundbreaking smoke-free law – but globally, only 10 countries had put similar protections in place.

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"That led us to jump in with a series of major investments in global tobacco control. We’re now nearly 20 years into this work, and we’ve seen remarkable progress. Today, 79 countries have smoke-free laws in place. Global cigarette sales per capita have fallen by more than 25 percent since 2007. And our efforts are saving an estimated 35.2 million lives. The extent of that progress hit home in June 2025, when we hosted hundreds of our partners at the World Conference on Tobacco Control in Dublin, Ireland, and recognized outstanding examples of leadership on the issue. Each of those examples was inspiring to hear – but just as powerful was our partners’ shared determination to go even further.

Since 2007, Bloomberg Philanthropies and its partners have supported the passage of laws in 94 countries to curb the global use of tobacco. In 2024, 649 billion fewer cigarettes were sold worldwide than in 2007. Click on the image above to learn more.

"That same sense of determination also drives our work on another frequently overlooked crisis that affects billions: the degradation of our ocean. Over three billion people depend on marine resources for food and livelihoods, yet we’re losing marine biodiversity at unprecedented rates, and ocean temperatures are rising faster than ever recorded.

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"Only a few weeks before the tobacco control conference, we joined our ocean partners at the United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice, France, to focus attention on the issue. Since 2014, Bloomberg Philanthropies has helped to secure dozens of new marine protected areas and stronger protections for millions of square miles of ocean. The countries where we work have now passed more than 230 national and local marine conservation laws. And the gathering in Nice was our latest opportunity to accelerate support for the ocean’s health – and with it, the health and economic security of billions of people.

Bloomberg Philanthropies' work in Fiji is helping to protect coral reefs and other ecosystems. click on the photo above to learn more. Credit: Emily Darling/WCS

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"For me, the convenings in Dublin and Nice were a powerful reminder of the importance of a strategy that lies at the heart of our approach to tackling unmet and overlooked needs: collaboration. At both conferences, it was inspiring to talk with impassioned longtime partners who remain so committed to these causes and to meet young people who are new to the efforts. We know that lasting change happens when we build and support networks of partners that span national boundaries and public, private, and nonprofit sectors, because we’re stronger together than we are apart.

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"This report is full of examples of how central collaboration is to everything we do, across all of our program areas.

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"In our education portfolio, we built first-of-their-kind partnerships between public school systems and hospital systems to address another long-overlooked challenge: Millions of well-paying healthcare jobs remain unfilled around the United States, even as students graduate without clear pathways to careers that don’t require a four-year degree. Together, we’re creating 10 U.S. high schools with a healthcare-focused curriculum and hands-on training in clinical settings, helping students to qualify for in-demand roles while enabling hospitals to better serve their communities.

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"Similarly, in our work with cities, we’ve drawn on the power of collaboration to address a persistent challenge: Local governments often struggle in isolation with challenges that others have already solved. As Mike often said during his time as mayor, there’s no shame in borrowing and adapting a good idea. To speed the spread of proven solutions, we created the Bloomberg Cities Idea Exchange, which provides an in-depth set of resources to help cities explore, adapt, and implement successful ideas – from deploying low-cost air sensors to reduce pollution to using summer programs to close academic gaps. More than 800 cities have now joined this growing network, accelerating the adoption of programs and policies we know can improve lives.

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"Our commitment to overlooked issues and partnership-driven approaches also extends to the arts, where cultural organizations are under increasing pressure to use digital technology to reach their audiences – but often do not have the resources or know-how to do so. We’ve built new partnerships that bring expertise to help them. Our free Bloomberg Connects app now offers digital guides to more than 1,000 cultural institutions globally, all in one easy-to-use place. And our Digital Accelerator Program is helping hundreds of cultural organizations implement digital strategies that grow their audiences, boost fundraising, and strengthen their operations. These groups are learning from one another, sharing best practices, and driving a sector-wide transformation.

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"Other recent investments we’ve made also feature partnerships with strong institutions, including new financial aid commitments to support the pipeline of future doctors at Johns Hopkins University and the country’s four historically Black medical schools.

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"Across all of this work – and throughout this report – one theme stands out: Lasting progress depends on collaboration and sustained effort. Time and again, we’ve seen that partnerships can drive meaningful results. It was inspiring to see that spirit in action in Dublin and Nice, and I look forward to the partnerships and progress still to come."

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If you haven't already, take a look at this video. It spotlights the great work explored in this year's Annual Report – work that is sustained in collaboration with the employees of Bloomberg LP. 

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Read the full Annual Report here.

AI in the Operating Room.

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AI Makes the Cut: Experimental Surgery Performed by AI-driven Surgical Robot (Ars Technica)

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Intuitive Surgical, an American biotechnology company, introduced DaVinci surgical robots in the late 1990s, and they became groundbreaking teleoperation equipment. Expert surgeons could operate on patients remotely, manipulating the robotic arms and their surgical tools based on a video feed from DaVinci’s built-in cameras and endoscopes.

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Now, John Hopkins University researchers put a ChatGPT-like AI in charge of a DaVinci robot and taught it to perform a gallbladder-removal surgery.

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To achieve this breakthrough, researchers co-led by Axel Krieger, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at John Hopkins University, created a new system called SRT-H (Surgical Robot Transformer). The system relied on two transformer models, the same architecture that powers ChatGPT. One was a high-level policy module, which was responsible for task planning and ensuring the procedure went smoothly. The low-level module was responsible for executing the tasks issued by the high-level module, translating its instructions into specific trajectories for the robotic arms.

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When the system was ready, the team put it through a training phase that looked a bit like mentoring a novice human doctor.

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Read the full story here.

What I'm Reading.

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Policing Climate Denial: World's Top Court Says Climate Inaction Can Breach International Law (Politico)

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In the first decision of its kind, the International Court of Justice held that existing international law obliges all countries — whether they are party to the 2015 Paris climate accord or, like the United States, quitting the treaty — to fight global warming. 

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Repealing Climate Science: E.P.A. Is Said to Draft a Plan to End Its Ability to Fight Climate Change (New York Times)

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The proposed Environmental Protection Agency rule rescinds a 2009 declaration known as the “endangerment finding,” which scientifically established that greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane endanger human lives. That finding is the foundation of the federal government’s only tool to limit the climate pollution from vehicles, power plants and other industries that is dangerously heating the planet.

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Inflation Nation: US Companies, Consumers Are Paying for Trump's Tariffs, Not Foreign Firms (Bloomberg)

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Import prices excluding fuel were up notably in June, suggesting foreign companies aren’t shouldering the burden by offering US firms lower prices — challenging the president’s claims that other countries pay the rate. While customs duties are giving a significant boost to US revenues, the data show that those coffers are being filled domestically.

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Consumers Bearing the Brunt: After Pledging to Keep Prices Low, Amazon Hiked Them on Hundreds of Essentials (Wall Street Journal)

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In the five months since Donald Trump first announced sweeping tariffs, Amazon quietly raised prices on low-cost products such as deodorant, protein shakes and pet care items, a Wall Street Journal analysis of nearly 2,500 items found.

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Record Highs: US Beef Prices Keep Going Up With No End in Sight (Axios)

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America's beef supply chain is being strained from multiple angles: climate, policy and economics. A multi-year drought shrunk cattle herds, and global imports are under threat — but consumer demand remains strong.

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Driving Off a Cliff: Tesla Braces for ‘Rough’ Quarters as US Ends EV Incentives (Bloomberg)

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“We probably could have a few rough quarters,” Elon Musk said. Tesla shares fell as Elon Musk spoke after the close of US trading. The move carried over into Thursday, with the stock dropping as much as 6.7% early in the premarket session.

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Don't Miss Today's Daily Read Podcast: Click here to listen to the latest episode of the AI-generated companion of today's newsletter on Spotify. It's also available on Apple Podcasts .  Take a listen today.

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New Revelation: Justice Department Told Trump in May That His Name Is Among Many in the Epstein Files (Wall Street Journal)

National Security Alert: Hegseth Signal Messages Came from Email Classified ‘SECRET,’ Watchdog Told (Washington Post)

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The revelation appears to contradict long-standing claims by the Trump administration that no classified information was divulged in unclassified group chats that critics have called a significant security breach.

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AI Executive Orders: Trump Urges Looser Rules, Wider Energy Access in AI Policy Plan (Bloomberg)

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The so-called AI Action Plan, recommends revamping the permitting process and streamlining environmental standards to speed AI-related infrastructure projects. The blueprint also seeks to make American technology the foundation for AI worldwide while enacting security measures to keep adversaries like China from gaining an edge.

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Plumbing Poverty: Why Access to Running Water Is a Luxury in Wealthy US Cities(Bloomberg)

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Across the world, access to clean running water has long been considered a key marker of economic advancement. Yet in several of the most prosperous cities in the richest nation on Earth, the share of households living without that critical service is climbing—a trend that researchers say demands attention, particularly as President Donald Trump moves to sharply pare back federal funding for water infrastructure.

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DC Arts News: Republicans Want to Rename Kennedy Center’s Opera House After Melania Trump (Politico)

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House appropriators voted to make most of the Kennedy Center’s funding contingent on the name change in their markup of the fiscal 2026 Interior-Environment spending bill.

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NYC Outdoor Theater Makeover: Free Shakespeare’s Central Park Home Gets an $85 Million Glow Up (New York Times)

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The Delacorte Theater, which reopens next month with a starry new version of “Twelfth Night,” recently completed an 18-month, $85 million overhaul. As the Delacorte prepares to welcome theatergoers, the Times says, "the renovation deftly fixes much of what ailed the city’s beloved home of free Shakespeare in Central Park."

Best of Late Night.

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On Donald Trump's demand that the Washington Commanders and Cleveland Guardians go back to using their old team names:

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“Trump said, 'I've felt strongly about this ever since I realized it could distract from the Epstein files.'” 

— Jimmy Fallon

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“Just to mess with Trump, Washington is renaming their team the Washington Gulf of Mexicos.” 

— Jimmy Fallon

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“Washington said they won't change [their name], but they will give Trump an entire suite just for his ankles.” 

— Jimmy Fallon

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And from The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Colbert takes on Trump's baseless claim that Barack Obama committed "treason." Colbert: "Trump insults Obama so much, he’s run out of real words to call him!" Click the photo below to watch.