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Factbox-How Trump's tax cuts affect federal student aid

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Factbox-How Trump's tax cuts affect federal student aid

July 9, 2025 at 5:16 AM

(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump's new tax and spending measures, which he signed into law on Friday, will hit some students in their pocketbooks when it comes to federal financial aid.

The law will affect the amount that students and their families can borrow, as well as eligibility for Pell Grants, designed to help low-income undergraduate students. It will also put colleges and universities on the hook if their students fail to earn more than they would without a degree. Most changes take effect on July 1, 2026.

Grad PLUS loans will be eliminated. They were created in 2006 to help graduate students cover the cost of attendance that exceeded the maximum $20,500 a year that graduate students received through unsubsidized Stafford loans. As of this year's second quarter, there were 1.8 million Grad PLUS borrowers, who had borrowed a total of $117.2 billion to pay for graduate school attendance, according to Federal Student Loan Portfolio data.

Unsubsidized graduate borrowing for master's programs will be capped at $20,500 per year ($100,000 lifetime); $50,000/year for professional programs such as law and medicine ($200,000 lifetime). Right now, borrowers can apply for a Grad PLUS loan up to the cost of program attendance if they need more to cover tuition or living expenses.

Parent PLUS loans will be subject to some changes. Parents can borrow if their student borrows the maximum limit of an unsubsidized Stafford loan and still has a remaining unmet need based on cost of attendance. Today, there is $114.3 billion owed across 3.6 million borrowers, according to Federal Student Loan Portfolio data.

Borrowers taking out loans after July 1, 2026, will have access to only two repayment plans: a standard repayment plan to be paid over 10-25 years, and a repayment assistance program where payments will be based on 1-10% of a borrower's income, with a minimum monthly payment of $10. The remaining balance will be forgiven after 30 years.

The law has eliminated both Economic Hardship and Unemployment Deferment programs, which are tools for borrowers with financial challenges. Economic Hardship Deferment pauses payments, but interest still accrues. Once payment continues, accrued interest is added to the principal. As of this year, 70,000 borrowers under economic hardship deferment had $2.7 billion of outstanding debt, according to federal loan data.

Under unemployment forbearance, borrowers can request to pause their payments, and interest accrues during the pause. Once payments restart, the accrued interest is added to existing interest, instead of the principal.

Under the new law, borrowers can claim forbearance for only nine months within a 24-month period. In the current system, they can request it for 12 months at a time, for a total of three years or 36 months.

Pell Grants are the first dollars awarded to low-income students who have yet to earn a post-secondary degree. Eligibility is based on household income, and 31.6% of undergraduate students received a Pell Grant in 2022, with an average award amount of $4,875. For the 2024-2025 school year, 2 million recipients received a total of $10 billion in Pell Grant aid, according to the federal student aid website.

With the changes, Pell Grants will be the last aid provided. If students are offered full or partial scholarships from their schools or receive any outside scholarships, their eligibility for Pell will be limited.

The new law has created an accountability system that requires colleges to maintain positive outcomes for students in order for their programs to be paid using federal student loans. So-called low-earning outcome programs, or programs where the median earnings of graduates are less than a comparable working adult, are not eligible for federal funding.

The law also makes changes to the gainful employment rule, an Obama-era regulation created to ensure that career training programs, mainly at for-profit institutions and non-degree programs at any institution, prepare students for jobs with adequate earnings to repay their student loans and to justify the investment in the program. It introduces a new standard based on graduate earnings that could have a similar effect on college program eligibility for federal funding.

(Reporting by Nicole Jeanine Johnson in WashingtonEditing by Heather Timmons and Matthew Lewis)

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Factbox-How Trump's tax cuts affect federal student aid

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Trump's previous tariff push terrified the world economy. He's betting this time is different

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Trump's previous tariff push terrified the world economy. He's betting this time is different

JOSH BOAK July 9, 2025 at 5:07 AM

President Donald Trump attends a meeting with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Blue Room of the White House, Monday, July 7, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Donald Trump last rolled out tariffs this high, financial markets quaked, consumer confidence crashed and his popularity plunged.

Only three months later, he's betting this time is different.

In his new round of tariffs being announced this week, Trump is essentially tethering the entire world economy to his instinctual belief that import taxes will deliver factory jobs and stronger growth in the U.S., rather than the inflation and slowdown predicted by many economists.

On Tuesday, he told his Cabinet that past presidents who hadn't aggressively deployed tariffs were "stupid." Ever the salesman, Trump added that it was "too time-consuming" to try to negotiate trade deals with the rest of the world, so it was just easier to send them letters, as he's doing this week, that list the tariff rates on their goods.

The letters marked a change from his self-proclaimed April 2 "Liberation Day" event at the White House, where he had posterboards with the rates displayed, a choice that led to a brief market meltdown and the 90-day negotiating period with baseline 10% tariffs that will end Wednesday. Trump, instead, chose to send form letters with random capitalizations and punctuation and other formatting issues.

"It's a better way," Trump said of his letters. "It's a more powerful way. And we send them a letter. You read the letter. I think it was well crafted. And, mostly it's just a little number in there: You'll pay 25%, 35%. We have some of at 60, 70."

When Trump said those words, he had yet to issue a letter with a tariff rate higher than 40%, which he levied Monday on Laos and Myanmar. He plans to put 25% tariffs on Japan and South Korea, two major trading partners and allies deemed crucial for curbing China's economic influence. Leaders of the 14 countries tariffed so far hope to negotiate over the next three weeks before the higher rates are charged on imports.

"I would say that every case I'm treating them better than they treated us over the years," Trump said.

Three possible outcomes

His approach is at odds with how major trade agreements have been produced over the last half-century, detailed sessions that could sometimes take years to solve complex differences between nations.

There are three possible outcomes to this political and economic wager, each of which could drastically reshape international affairs and Trump's legacy.

Trump could prove most economic experts wrong and the tariffs could deliver growth as promised. Or he could retreat again on tariffs before their Aug. 1 start in a repeat of the "Trump Always Chickens Out" phenomenon, also known as TACO. Or he could damage the economy in ways that could boomerang against the communities that helped return him to the White House last year, as well as hurt countries that are put at a financial disadvantage by the tariffs.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said Trump's letters had "extended his tariff purgatory for another month," essentially freezing in place the U.S. economy as CEOs, foreign leaders and consumers are unclear of Trump's actual strategy on foreign trade.

"The TACO negotiating tactic pioneered by Trump is making his threats less and less credible and reducing our trading partners' willingness to even meet us halfway," Wyden said. "There's no sign that he's any closer to striking durable trade deals that would actually help American workers and businesses."

So far, the stock and bond markets are relatively calm, with the S&P 500 stock index essentially flat Tuesday after a Monday decline. Trump is coming off a legislative win with his multitrillion-dollar income tax cuts. And he's confidently levying tariffs at levels that previously rocked global markets, buoyed by the fact that inflation has eased so far instead of accelerating as many economists and Democratic rivals had warned.

"By floating tariffs as high as 40% to even 100%, the administration has 'normalized' the 25% tariff hikes — yet this is still one of the most aggressive and disruptive tariff moves in modern history," said Wendong Zhang, an economist at Cornell University. "This gradual unveiling, paradoxically, risks normalizing what would otherwise be considered exceptionally large tariff hikes."

Others simply see Trump as a source of nonstop chaos, with the letters and their somewhat random tariff rates showing the absence of a genuine policy process inside his administration.

"It's really just a validation that this policy is all over the place, that they're running this by the seat of their pants, that there is no real strategy," said Desmond Lachman, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a right-leaning think tank.

Questions about how much money tariffs will generate

With Trump's 90-day tariff negotiation period ending, he has so far sent letters to 14 countries that place taxes on imported goods ranging from 25% to 40%. He said he would sign an order Tuesday to place 50% tariffs on copper and said at the Cabinet meeting that at some point pharmaceutical drugs could face tariffs of as much as 200%. All of that is on top of his existing 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum, 25% tariffs on autos and his separate import taxes on Canada, Mexico and China.

"The obvious inference is that markets for now are somewhat skeptical that Trump will go through with it, or alternatively they think compromises will be reached," said Ben May, a director of global economic research at the consultancy Oxford Economics. "That's probably the key element."

May said the tariffs are likely to reduce the growth in U.S. household incomes, but not cause those incomes to shrink outright.

Trump has said his tariffs would close U.S. trade imbalances, though it's unclear why he would target nations such as Tunisia that do relatively little trade with America. Administration officials say trillions of dollars in tariff revenues over the next decade would help offset the revenue losses from the continuation and expansion of his 2017 tax cuts that were signed into law Friday.

The federal government has collected $98.2 billion in tariff revenues so far this year, more than double what it collected last year, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.

At Tuesday's Cabinet meeting, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the tariff revenues could be "well over $300 billion by the end of the year." Bessent added that "we don't agree" with the Congressional Budget Office estimate that tariffs would bring in $2.8 trillion over 10 years, "which we think is probably low."

The governments of Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and South Africa have each said they hope for further negotiations on tariffs with Trump, though it's unclear how that's possible as Trump has said it would be too "complicated" to hold all those meetings.

Instead on Tuesday, Trump posted on social media that the tariffs would be charged as scheduled starting Aug. 1.

"There has been no change to this date, and there will be no change," Trump said on Truth Social. "No extensions will be granted. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"

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Trump's previous tariff push terrified the world economy. He's betting this time is different

- Trump's previous tariff push terrified the world economy. He's betting this time is different...

Supreme Court allows Trump to proceed with firing plans, federal government reorg

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Supreme Court allows Trump to proceed with firing plans, federal government reorg

DEVIN DWYERJuly 9, 2025 at 5:16 AM

The Supreme Court is allowing President Donald Trump to move forward with an executive order mandating a restructure of federal agencies and mass layoffs of federal workers.

In a two paragraph unsigned order, the court explained that it was lifting a preliminary injunction issued by a district court in California because "the government is likely to succeed on its argument that the Executive Order and [OMB] memorandum are lawful."

MORE: Supreme Court's expansive view of presidential power is 'solidly' pro-Trump: ANALYSIS

Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images - PHOTO: Supreme Court Police officers stand outside the Supreme Court in Washington, June 27, 2025.

The court noted, however, that the justices "express no view on the legality of any Agency RIF [reduction in force] and Reorganization Plan produces or approved" by the administration under Trump's direction. "Those plans are not before this Court," it said.

The decision, another victory for Trump at the Supreme Court, allows the government to begin taking steps to dramatically overhaul 21 agencies and departments, including the departments of Commerce, Health and Human Services, Energy, Treasury and State.

MORE: Supreme Court lets Trump fire heads of independent labor agencies for now

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a brief statement concurring with the court's decision, emphasized that the legality of the administration's plans themselves has not yet been answered.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the sole dissent in the matter. In a 15-page opinion, the junior justice called the decision "not only truly unfortunate but also hubristic and senseless."

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Supreme Court allows Trump to proceed with firing plans, federal government reorg

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Supreme Court clears way for Trump to move forward with mass layoffs

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Supreme Court clears way for Trump to move forward with mass layoffs

Melissa QuinnJuly 9, 2025 at 5:22 AM

Wesley Lapointe/For The Washington Post via Getty Images

Washington — The Supreme Court on Tuesday lifted a lower court order that blocked sweeping layoffs of federal workers at nearly two dozen agencies while a legal battle over President Trump's plans to drastically cut the size of the government moves forward.

The high court's order clears the way for the Trump administration to resume its efforts to reorganize and scale back the federal government, which has been led by the White House's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

The Justice Department turned to the Supreme Court for emergency relief after a federal judge in May ordered a halt to the job cuts and enforcement of other orders by DOGE to slash programs or staff.

In a brief unsigned opinion, the Supreme Court said that the injunction issued by the district court was based on its view that Mr. Trump's executive order and directives from the Office of Management and Budget and Office of Personnel Management implementing that action are unlawful.

"Because the government is likely to succeed on its argument that the executive order and memorandum are lawful — and because the other factors bearing on whether to grant a stay are satisfied — we grant the application," the court said. "We express no view on the legality of any agency [reduction-in-force] and reorganization plan produced or approved pursuant to the executive order and memorandum. The district court enjoined further implementation or approval of the plans based on its view about the illegality of the executive order and memorandum, not on any assessment of the plans themselves. Those plans are not before this court."

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from the court's decision and accused it of demonstrating an "enthusiasm for greenlighting this president's legally dubious actions in an emergency posture." Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a separate statement that while the president cannot restructure federal agencies in a way that is inconsistent with congressional mandates, the agency plans for reductions-in-force are not yet before the Supreme Court.

"[W]e thus have no occasion to consider whether they can and will be carried out consistent with the constraints of law," Sotomayor wrote. "I join the court's stay because it leaves the district court free to consider those questions in the first instance."

A coalition of labor unions, nonprofit organizations, cities and counties that brought the case said it is disappointed by the Supreme Court's order.

"Today's decision has dealt a serious blow to our democracy and puts services that the American people rely on in grave jeopardy," the coalition said in a statement. "This decision does not change the simple and clear fact that reorganizing government functions and laying off federal workers en masse haphazardly without any congressional approval is not allowed by our Constitution."

The legal battle

Mr. Trump began taking steps to shrink the government shortly after he returned to the White House. The president created DOGE, a cost-cutting task force that had been led by Elon Musk, and his administration began taking steps to dismantle agencies like the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

In February, Mr. Trump issued an executive order directing agencies to make plans to initiate "large-scale" reductions-in-force, the government's term for layoffs. On the heels of the president's directive, the Office of Personnel Management and the Office of Management of Budget issued a memo directing agencies to submit plans for two phases of job cuts.

Several department heads began executing their workforce cuts earlier this year, with thousands of federal employees losing their jobs. Other federal entities had planned to make significant reductions in the coming weeks and months. The reductions-in-force are separate from the mass terminations of probationary workers, who generally were in their positions for one or two years. But those firings, which took place in February, have also been the focus of lawsuits.

In response to Mr. Trump's executive order, labor unions, nonprofit groups and local governments sued nearly every federal agency to block the layoffs, arguing that the executive order exceeded the president's authority and violated the separation of powers. The Department of Education was not part of the unions' suit.

A federal judge in San Francisco agreed to issue a temporary restraining order that prevented the Trump administration from moving forward with its existing reductions-in-force or planning any future layoffs as directed by Mr. Trump. The order also bars administration officials from enforcing any further orders by DOGE to cut programs or staff in connection to the president's executive order.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston extended that block in May, finding that the president can restructure federal agencies, but only after obtaining approval from Congress. Her injunction applies to 22 federal agencies, including the Cabinet-level Departments of Agriculture, Health and Human Services, and State, among others.

"Presidents may set policy priorities for the executive branch, and agency heads may implement them. This much is undisputed," Illston wrote. "But Congress creates federal agencies, funds them, and gives them duties that — by statute — they must carry out. Agencies may not conduct large-scale reorganizations and reductions in force in blatant disregard of Congress's mandates, and a president may not initiate large-scale executive branch reorganization without partnering with Congress."

The Trump administration turned to the Supreme Court after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit declined to lift Illston's order. The appeals court said in a 2-1 decision in late May that Mr. Trump's executive order "far exceeds" his supervisory powers under the Constitution.

In arguing for emergency relief from the Supreme Court, Solicitor General D. John Sauer said the district court's order is "flawed" and rests on an "indefensible premise," namely that the president needs authorization from Congress to oversee personnel decisions within the executive branch.

"It interferes with the Executive Branch's internal operations and unquestioned legal authority to plan and carry out RIFs, and does so on a government-wide scale," he wrote. "More concretely, the injunction has brought to a halt numerous in-progress RIFs at more than a dozen federal agencies, sowing confusion about what RIF-related steps agencies may take and compelling the government to retain — at taxpayer expense — thousands of employees whose continuance in federal service the agencies deem not to be in the government and public interest."

Lawyers for the unions urged the Supreme Court to reject the Trump administration's request for emergency relief and warned that allowing Mr. Trump to move forward with his planned reorganization of the federal government before the merits of the case can be decided would do irreversible damage.

"[O]ffices, and functions across the federal government will be abolished, agencies will be radically downsized from what Congress authorized, critical government services will be lost, and hundreds of thousands of federal employees will lose their jobs," they wrote. "There will be no way to unscramble that egg."

The unions said that if the injunction remains in place, it would not prevent the president from going to Congress and securing its approval for a reorganization of the government.

Sneak peek: Who Killed Aileen Seiden in Room 15?

Everything we know so far about the deadly Texas floods

Search continues for dozens after Texas floods, at least 79 dead with more severe weather expected

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Supreme Court clears way for Trump to move forward with mass layoffs

- Supreme Court clears way for Trump to move forward with mass layoffs Melissa QuinnJuly...

Meta takes around 3% stake in Ray-Ban-parent EssilorLuxottica, source says

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Meta takes around 3% stake in Ray-Ban-parent EssilorLuxottica, source says

Elisa Anzolin and Juby BabuJuly 9, 2025 at 4:20 AM

By Elisa Anzolin and Juby Babu

(Reuters) -Meta Platforms has acquired a nearly 3% stake in eyewear maker EssilorLuxottica, a source told Reuters on Tuesday, amid growing consumer interest in AI-powered wearable devices.

Sprucing up its wearable technology with artificial-intelligence capabilities could help Meta attract new users as it invests billions of dollars in bolstering its AI infrastructure.

EssilorLuxottica declined to comment, while Meta did not immediately respond when contacted by Reuters.

Meta bought a stake worth around 3 billion euros ($3.52 billion) in EssilorLuxottica at the current market price and is considering further investments that could build its share to around 5% over time, according to Bloomberg News, which reported the development earlier in the day.

The social media giant teamed up with Oakley to release AI-powered smart glasses last month, expanding its push into wearable tech after the success of Ray-Ban Meta glasses, millions of which have been sold since their launch in 2023.

The "Oakley Meta HSTN" will feature a hands-free high-resolution camera, open-ear speakers, water resistance and Meta AI capabilities.

EssilorLuxottica planned to boost its production capacity for smart glasses and hopes to expand its collaboration with Meta to other brands, Chief Executive Francesco Milleri had said in February.

($1 = 0.8527 euros)

(Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Pooja Desai)

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Meta takes around 3% stake in Ray-Ban-parent EssilorLuxottica, source says

- Meta takes around 3% stake in Ray-Ban-parent EssilorLuxottica, source says Elisa Anzol...

The Dire Wolf Company's Next Target? A Giant Flightless Bird

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The Dire Wolf Company's Next Target? A Giant Flightless Bird

Jeffrey KlugerJuly 9, 2025 at 4:08 AM

An artist's rendering of a fully grown moa Credit - Colossal Biosciences

It has taken no end of imagination for Sir Peter Jackson, the Academy Award winning—and, not incidentally, knighted—director of the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films, to produce his entire body of cinematic work. It's a quality Jackson has had since he was a small child, when he would conjure up visions of the future. "When I was a kid [I dreamed of] personal jet packs and flying cars and things," Jackson said in a recent conversation with TIME. "One of those other things I always dreamed of was to be able to bring back extinct species."

No-go on the jet packs and the flying cars. But the business of de-extinction? That's very much happening. In April, the Dallas-based biotech company Colossal Biosciences announced that it had successfully brought back the dire wolf, an animal whose howl had not been heard on Earth since the last member of the species vanished more than 10,000 years ago. Three young dire wolves currently live on a 2,000-acre preserve in an undisclosed location to protect them from the media and curiosity-seekers, and Colossal aims to produce more of the animals, with the ultimate goal of perhaps rewilding the species.

Read more: The Return of the Dire Wolf

The company is not stopping there. Colossal also wants to bring back the dodo, the woolly mammoth, the Tasmanian tiger—or thylacine—and more. The goal is both to increase genetic diversity and to hone genetic editing techniques to fortify existing but threatened species. Now, Colossal has announced one more species to add to its growing menagerie: the emu-like moa, a giant flightless bird that stood up to 12 ft. (3.6 m) tall, tipped the scales at more than 500 lbs (230 kg), and once ranged across New Zealand, before it was hunted to extinction by humans about 600 years ago. Like the moa, Jackson is a native New Zealander; "I am a very proud kiwi," he says. He is also a Colossal investor and acted as intermediary and facilitator bringing the company into partnership on the moa project with the Ngāi Tahu Research Center, a group that was founded in 2011 to foster intellectual development and conduct scientific studies for and by the Ngāi Tahu tribe of the Indigenous Māori people.

"Some of those iconic species that feature in our tribal mythology, our storytelling, are very near and dear to us," says Ngāi Tahu archaeologist Kyle Davis, who is working on the moa de-extinction project. "Participation in scientific research, species management, and conservation has been a large part of our activities."

"This is completely a Māori initiative," adds Ben Lamm, CEO and co-founder of Colossal. "We feel like the Colossal team is an extension of the research center and the Māori."

Bringing back the moa would have implications not only for the species itself but for the environment it once inhabited and could again. The bird was what is known as a cornerstone species, one whose grazing and browsing helped prune and shape the jungle flora. Moas were also prolific dispersers of seeds from the plants they ate. The loss of the species not only eliminated that forest-restoring function, but also led to the related extinction of the Haast's eagle, which relied almost exclusively on the moa as prey. Restoring the moa would not bring the eagle back but could help at least partly restore the primal New Zealand woodlands.

Bringing back the moa is of a piece with Colossal's other work, which seeks not only to restore vanished species, but to prevent related ones from slipping over the event horizon of extinction. Genetic engineering mastered in the dire wolf project, for example, is being used to edit greater diversity into the genome of the endangered red wolf. Knowledge gained in the effort to bring back the thylacine could similarly help preserve the related northern quoll.

"There are some species of birds on the South Island of New Zealand that are endangered due to the fact that they have reduced gene pools," says Paul Scofield, senior curator of natural history at Canterbury Museum, author of 20 papers on the moa genome, and one of the scientists working on the de-extinction project. "Some of the technology that Colossal is working with is very applicable to them."

Read more: Scientists Have Bred Woolly Mice on Their Journey to Bring Back the Mammoth

That technology is decidedly challenging. De-extincting the dire wolf involved sequencing ancient DNA collected from fossil specimens and then rewriting the genome of cells from a gray wolf to resemble the extinct species with the lost ancient genes. The edited nucleus was then inserted into a domestic dog ovum whose own nucleus had been removed. That ovum was allowed to develop into an embryo in the lab and then implanted into the womb of a surrogate domestic dog, which carried the dire wolf pup to term."

Bringing back the extinct moa is harder since the incubating will be done outside the body, inside an egg. The first step in this work once again calls for sequencing the genome of the extinct target species and once again turning to a closely related living species—either the tinamou or the emu—for help. Colossal scientists will extract primordial germ cells—or cells that develop into egg and sperm—from a tinamou or emu embryo and rewrite their genome to match key features of the moa. Those edited cells will then be introduced into another embryonic tinamou or emu inside an egg. If all goes to plan, the cells will travel to the embryo's gonads, transforming them so that the females produce eggs and the males produce sperm not of the host species but of the moa. The result will be an emu or tinamou that hatches, grows up, mates, and produces eggs containing moa chicks.

"We've had some pretty big successes so far," says Lamm. "We have a breeding colony of tinamous but not emus, but have access to emu eggs through the many breeders out there."

None of this means that the work is remotely done. Lamm concedes it could be up to ten years before a moa once again walks New Zealand—though it could come sooner. "I'd rather underpromise and overdeliver," he says. For now, Colossal and the Ngāi Tahu Research Center are still working to sequence the moa genome, and to do that they have to get their hands on more DNA samples. Museum specimens of moa remains satisfy some of that demand, but DNA degrades significantly over the centuries and what can't be harvested from private collections has to be dug up in field excavations—with a special eye to long, DNA-rich moa bones like the femur and tibia.

"There are a couple of really significant fossil sites, particularly one in North Canterbury, about an hour north of Christchurch," says Scofield. "So far we've sampled more than 60 individuals." If those don't prove sufficient, he adds, "we will have to go out and dig some more holes."

None of this comes cheap, and while Lamm does not disclose the exact funding for the moa de-extinction project, he does say it is an eight-figure sum. "I saw the new Jurassic World movie and someone in it says it costs $72 million to bring back one animal," he says. "I was like, 'That's probably accurate.'"

That up-front expenditure could pay off handsomely down the line, boosting ecotourism to New Zealand and benefiting Colossal's basic research, which is already showing for-profit potential. So far, Colossal has spun off two new companies: One, called Breaking, uses engineered microbes and enzymes to break down plastic waste. The other, Form Bio, provides AI and computational biology platforms for drug development.

But it's the intangibles—the wonder of midwifing a long-extinct species back to the global family of extant ones—that is Colossal's and the Māori's most transcendent work. "This has an excitement value to it that movies don't have," says Jackson. "When I see a living moa for the first time I'm going to be absolutely amazed beyond anything I've ever felt."

Write to Jeffrey Kluger at [email protected].

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The Dire Wolf Company's Next Target? A Giant Flightless Bird

- The Dire Wolf Company's Next Target? A Giant Flightless Bird Jeffrey KlugerJuly 9,...

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