The Wall Street Journal

🔗: https://on.wsj.com/42MwELu The little bean bags of hacky sack that once appeared relegated to the same cultural graveyard as mixtapes and Blockbuster have taken over high-school sports fields, hallways and sometimes classrooms seemingly overnight. Gen X and millennials couldn’t be more thrilled that a game they popularized is cool again, and that it’s getting kids off their phones. But they’re scratching their heads over its sudden ubiquity—and racing to keep up with new twists to the game. And teens are upping the ante as they try to earn their schools a spot on leaderboards published by dedicated social-media accounts.

Buying a home has always been a milestone of financial independence. For some young Americans caught in the least affordable housing market in decades, it has become a family affair—strings attached. 🔗: https://on.wsj.com/4fhE159 After years of annual moves in search of lower rent, Jennifer Gross had ended up with a roughly two-hour round-trip commute to work. Her father stepped in and offered to buy her a house. She gratefully accepted. Jennifer’s dad, Mark Gross, had a spending limit of $700,000, and one condition: She had to stay within 2 miles of him. The four-bedroom house they closed on last month was $625,000, and an 8-minute bike ride away. The mortgage is in her father’s name, and Jennifer pays him $2,200 a month to cover a portion of the payments. He bought her sister, Jessica Locati, a house nearby a few months earlier, fulfilling their mother’s dying wish that the family live close to each other. “Face value, there is immediate judgment, my dad bought me a house,” Jennifer said. But, she noted, her family didn’t grow up wealthy. The older generations saved and invested well, and are now in a position to help the younger generation. “This is the pinnacle of every sacrifice each generation has made to pay it forward to the next,” Jennifer said. At wealth-management firm AlTi Global, co-head of U.S. wealth planning Brittany Cook says her clients are more apt to ask about buying—and then actually buy—homes for their kids than they were in the past. Many are giving cash or short-term loans up front so that their kids can make their offers more competitive. Cook attributes the shift to increased housing market competition—“but also because wealth has grown, and people want their kids to enjoy it before their death.” Read more: https://on.wsj.com/4fhE159

Rising costs are spelling trouble for Florida, where people in their prime working years are moving to other states while new arrivals are shrinking. WSJ sat down with Florida Sen. Rick Scott to ask him about our readers’ concerns. Watch more: 🎥 https://on.wsj.com/4dw0xV7

Your first job holds promise and peril. Here’s how to protect your future self. https://on.wsj.com/4nJ7YNp

Two police officers who defended the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking to stop the Trump administration’s plan to create a nearly $1.8 billion fund for payouts to purported victims of “weaponization and lawfare.” In their lawsuit, former Capitol police officer Harry Dunn and Metropolitan police officer Daniel Hodges challenged the constitutionality of the compensation plan, calling it a “slush fund to finance the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups that commit violence” in President Trump’s name. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., could deliver answers to some of the questions hovering over the “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” including whether anyone has legal standing to contest it in court. The Justice Department will likely argue that the two officers don’t. Dunn and Hodges argued that the fund endangers their lives by galvanizing Trump’s supporters, encouraging those who committed acts of violence on Jan. 6, 2021, to continue to do so. Also, they argued, payments issued from the fund could “directly finance the violent operations of rioters, paramilitaries, and their supporters” who threatened their lives. 🔗 Read more: https://on.wsj.com/4dyAcpw

Jonathan Andic had it all. A thriving fashion empire, a beautiful young family and the means to frequent exclusive enclaves in sun-kissed Ibiza and snowy St. Moritz. On Tuesday, he was arrested at his home by Spanish police and taken away in handcuffs to be questioned on suspicion of playing a role in the mysterious death of his billionaire father. Isak Andic, the founder of fashion chain Mango, died in late 2024 after falling more than 300 feet into a gorge while out trekking with his son in the Montserrat mountains near Barcelona. A judge overseeing the investigation into the incident is now accusing Jonathan, 45, of being “criminally responsible” for Isak’s fatal fall, potentially motivated by a belief that he had learned that his father planned to change his will. Jonathan’s legal team say he is innocent and that the homicide allegation is unfounded. The investigation has put an unwelcome spotlight on one of Spain’s wealthiest families, and on the relationship between one of the country’s most celebrated entrepreneurs and his son. Read more: 🔗 https://on.wsj.com/4wWk61Y

Want to bypass the travel frenzy that is summer camp visiting day in the Northeast? Here’s how to turn the drop-in into a full, kids-free vacation.

Russia’s war against Ukraine has already shown the world a new type of warfare dominated by aerial drones. But on the ground, remotely controlled vehicles are the latest technological evolution. On the front lines of Ukraine's ground drone revolution: https://on.wsj.com/4nGcDj2

Musk’s big pay day hangs on human colonization of Mars. The secrets revealed in SpaceX’s IPO filing.

Where are data centers concentrated in the U.S.? How much water and electricity do they consume? Take our quiz to find out how much you know about these facilities.