Crypto News: ‘They don’t get paid unless they win’

Welcome to the weekend!

The collapse of Spirit Airlines last Saturday left passengers stranded and rival carriers scrambling to grab customers amid the fallout. What airline, which previously tried to acquire Spirit, offered $99 rescue fares? Find out with this week’s Pointed quiz.

This weekend we’re bearish on humanoid robots, Democrats’ chances of luring Trump voters and digital safety in the age of AI. But hey, we’re bullish on Bob Ross and bowling.

Watch Bloomberg This Weekend, airing from 7-10 a.m. ET on Bloomberg TV, YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. Don’t miss tomorrow’s Forecast on the Trump-Xi bromance. For unlimited access to Bloomberg.com, please subscribe!

Perception vs. Reality

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio swung by the Vatican this week after Donald Trump said Pope Leo XIV was “just fine” with Iran developing a nuclear weapon, a response to the pontiff’s comments on the war. The rift revealed the unique power the first American pope holds on the US stage — and the balancing act Rubio and Vice President JD Vance may face if either hopes to appeal to Catholic voters in 2028, Catherine Lucey writes.

Weekend Essay

Pope Leo’s American Roots Give Him a Unique Political Power

When the pontiff speaks, America’s Catholics listen.

If Pope Leo is as a new foil to Trump, Anthony Scaramucci is an older one. A “Scaramucci” once referred to his 11-day stint in the 2017 White House — but the Wall Street veteran and podcast host has proved more durable than the joke. Now he’s thinking about what it will take to defeat Trump in 2028. Democrats don’t “have the right leadership,” Scaramucci tells Mishal Husain. “The best thing Republicans have going for them are Democrats.”

Weekend Interview

‘My Wall Street Buddies Regret Voting for Trump’

Anthony Scaramucci talks midterms, MAGA and Sam Bankman-Fried.

Democrats have a credibility problem. Humanoid robots have the opposite. Building a walking, thinking humanoid has long captivated engineers, and recent AI advances have convinced some that a working model is finally within reach: Last year, humanoid robot companies raised over $6 billion, more than 300 times the 2024 total. But as with AI, genuine potential is being overshadowed by hyperbole, vibes and messianic promises, Peter Guest writes.

Weekend Feature

Humanoid Robots Are the Next Phase of the AI Hype Cycle

Turning today’s machines into workers remains difficult and expensive.

In tech, value is driven by scale. In art, it’s driven by provenance and scarcity. Bob Ross, the beloved TV painter known in the US for his serene landscapes, has a lock on both. Almost all of his work is controlled by Bob Ross Inc., and only a few paintings have come up for sale over the years. Now the company is auctioning off more works to raise money for public broadcasting, revealing what makes one Ross more valuable than another, Madison Darbyshire writes.

Weekend Edition

What Is a Bob Ross Painting Worth?

Works by the TV art instructor behind “happy little trees” are rarely sold.

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New Anxiety Alert!

Hantavirus
A deadly outbreak aboard the cruise ship Hondius is raising fresh concerns about disease spread in the age of extreme tourism. Expedition cruises — one of the fastest-growing corners of travel — promise close encounters with isolated ecosystems. They also create ideal conditions for carrying pathogens across continents before anyone realizes there’s a problem.

The cruise ship MV Hondius sits off Praia, Cape Verde, on May 3, 2026, after a hantavirus outbreak on board. — *Photographer: AFP/Getty Images*

AI identity theft
When Jennah Haque received a letter congratulating her on her enrollment at a Florida medical school, she knew something was wrong: She’d never applied. Someone had stolen her identity to apply to more than a dozen schools — and student loans — in her name, showing how AI is making every step of identity theft easier.

Optimizing your kids
Children were once valued for their immediate economic contribution to the family. Then they became sources of emotional meaning. Now, according to sociologist Nina Bandelj, many parents increasingly view them through the lens of human capital: future assets whose value lies in the skills, credentials and opportunities they accumulate.

*Illustration: Ula Zuhra* *for Bloomberg*

Conversation Starters

Centrists need their own Project 2025. The Heritage Foundation blueprint succeeded not just because of ideology, but because it treated governing as an operational challenge: staffing plans, policy roadmaps and a long-term strategy for wielding power.

You should be allowed to sell your kidney. In Moral Economics, Nobel Prize-winning economist Alvin Roth applies the logic of markets to morally fraught questions including organ donation, prostitution, surrogacy, recreational drug use, physician-assisted suicide and usury.

You shouldn’t book a trip without consulting your birth chart. Astrocartography maps the position of the planets at your birth to places where you’re more likely to thrive — an approach increasingly used to choose where to travel, move and invest.

To the Moon

“There’s tons of eccentric people in the mob. You know, if you’re called a mob, that’s going to happen.”

Tanner Ottaway

Sunk most of his life savings into AST

An obscure satellite company called AST SpaceMobile has become one of the most expensive stocks in the world, thanks to a 50,000-strong online community known as the SpaceMob.

Is It Worth It?

London museum memberships: Probably! Museums are reinventing themselves for the TikTok era, with immersive exhibits and social experiences made for younger visitors.

Whatnot livestreams: Only if you miss QVC and gambling equally. The shopping app combines social media, auctions and impulse buying. Users say it’s thrilling — and financially risky.

Travel insurance: Be sure to read the fine print. Travelers are discovering that war, fuel shortages, government shutdowns and airspace closures often fall outside standard coverage.

High-protein frozen dinners: If you’re on a GLP-1. Food companies are reinventing the TV dinner for consumers who want smaller portions, less effort and fewer side effects.

A $6,000 one-way business-class flight to Croatia: Maybe not? Sky-high airfares are pushing travelers toward “destination dupes,” vacations determined less by desire than by price.

A $71,200 Audemars Piguet Neo Frame Jumping Hour: If you can swing it. Jumping-hour watches are back as collectors embrace timepieces that signal engineering prowess.

The Audemars Piguet Neo Frame Jumping Hour watch features a sapphire face with black PVD coating and rose-gold “gadroons” along the side. It’s a remake of an art deco model from 1930. — *Photographer: Chris Rovzar/Bloomberg*

What Everyone’s Reading

Illegal Lotteries Are Beating Governments at Their Own Game

One Calf Shows Why Record Beef Prices Still Aren’t Coming Down

Forget Healthspan. Midlife Men Face Pressure to Extend ‘Hotspan’

Anthropic Unveils AI Agents to Field Financial Services Tasks

Trillions in Retirement Dollars Flow Into Opaque Trusts

China’s Unprecedented Defiance of US Sanctions Triggers Showdown

What everyone’s watching: Private Credit Is Facing Its Biggest Test Yet

One Last Thing

Bowling night at the McClean Bowl-O-Drome in Yonkers, New York, in the early 1940s. The bowling center closed in the 1990s.

“These bowlers live and die on every single roll of the ball. They don’t get paid unless they win.”

For decades, bowling has been treated as a symbol of decline — a casualty of lost “social capital” and the slow fade of communal life. But tens of millions still play. HBO’s Born to Bowl digs into how the sport remains deeply embedded in American culture even as its economics grow more precarious.