• ☝️ Tropical Storm Francine strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane last night in the Gulf of Mexico; Francine is projected to make landfall in Louisiana as a hurricane later today, bringing up to 12 inches of rain and potentially life-threatening storm surges.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with JadeYoga

• 💰 US markets closed mixed (S&P: +0.5%; Dow: -0.2%; Nasdaq: +0.8%).
• 🏦 The Federal Reserve halved its proposed capital requirement rise for large US banks. | 📉 JPMorgan Chase shares fell 5% after the bank tempered its guidance for earnings from interest payments. | 📈 Bank of America raised its US minimum wage to $24/hour.
• ☕ New Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol outlined his priorities for the coffee chain in an open letter. | ✈️ Southwest Airlines chairman Gary Kelly will retire in 2025; six board directors will also step down; the changes come amid pressure from activist firm Elliott Management.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• ⚖️ Sean “Diddy” Combs was ordered to pay $100 million to a man who accused him of a 1997 sexual assault after Combs failed to appear in court to contest the civil allegations; an attorney for Combs denied his client knows the accuser.
• 🎭 Peacock‘s follow-up to The Office – which has yet to receive a title – added three new cast members, bringing its running total to five.
• ⚽ The US Soccer Federation officially appointed Mauricio Pochettino as the USMNT’s new head coach; Pochettino was previously the head coach at Tottenham, Chelsea, and Paris Saint-Germain.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Caliber

• 🗣️🤖 Amazon invited some Audible narrators to train AI-generated clones of their voices, in exchange for royalties on the titles they allow their clones to narrate. | 🌐 Oracle announced a strategic partnership with Amazon Web Services.
• 🐟🦈 Researchers in Japan captured footage of Japanese eels escaping after being eaten by a predatory fish by traveling backwards through the animal’s digestive tract and gills; it marks the first known observation of such a behavior in nature.
• 🚀 SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission successfully launched US billionaire Jared Isaacman and three others into orbit early yesterday morning; its crew will attempt the first-ever private spacewalk at 2:23 am ET on Thursday, per SpaceX.

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MISCELLANEOUS

• ✈️💥 Two Delta airplanes collided while taxiing at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport yesterday; no injuries were reported, though both planes sustained damage.
• 🇮🇱 The Israel Defense Forces said it’s "highly likely" Israeli soldiers "indirectly and unintentionally" shot and killed a Turkish American citizen in the West Bank last week; the American was participating in a demonstration against Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territory.
• ⚖️🏥 Missouri’s Supreme Court ruled in favor of keeping a proposed abortion rights amendment to the state constitution on the ballot in November; the state is one of 10 across the country with an abortion-rights amendment on the ballot this year.

CLICKBAIT

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