Good morning, and a warm welcome to all our new subscribers. In today’s edition:

• 📲 Meta to pay billions in teen settlement
• 📈 Nvidia’s blockbuster earnings
• 🐈 29-toed kitten sets record

…and much more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~4.41-minute read (1,173 words).

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“The greatest work that kindness does to others is that it makes them kind themselves.”

–Amelia Earhart (1897-1939)

Teenagers may soon have to find a new midnight hobby besides scrolling Instagram and testing which filter gives them the best cheekbones.

Meta has agreed to pay up to $17.1 billion and overhaul how teenagers use Instagram and Facebook, settling a landmark lawsuit brought by US states over alleged harms to young users.

• The states had accused Meta of intentionally designing Facebook and Instagram to keep kids hooked, and knowingly hiding those risks from the public.
• The case also included claims from 29 states that Meta violated federal children’s privacy law by collecting personal data from users it knew were kids without their parents’ consent, and using that information to train generative AI models.

A teen makeover is coming

As part of the settlement, Meta agreed to implement a slew of restrictions for users under 18. These include:

• Setting a default daily time limit (2 hours) and blocking access between midnight and 6 AM.
• Silencing notifications during school hours and prompting users after every 15 minutes of consecutive use.
• Hiding like counts and disabling cosmetic surgery and makeup filters.
• Offering a “non-personalized feed” that isn’t driven by an algorithm, and doesn’t gear content towards individual users.

A total of 52 US states and territories have signed on to Meta’s settlement and are eligible for payouts, which Meta says will fund “youth online safety initiatives.”

There is a catch: The full value of Meta’s payout depends on whether other social media sites—specifically TikTok and YouTube—also settle with the states and agree to financial penalties and product changes. Meta will initially pay ~$12 billion over the next decade, with the remaining 30% of the settlement ($5+ billion) conditional on states settling with YouTube and TikTok.

Zoom out: Meta still faces numerous other lawsuits from school districts and individuals alleging the social media company’s platforms have harmed children, with some legal battles scheduled for trial in the coming months.

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Paying your car insurance every month is relatively easy. Getting your car insurer to pay you? Increasingly less so.

US auto insurers paid nothing on 45% of liability and medical claims they resolved last year, up from 35% of claims a decade ago, per a recent WSJ analysis of thousands of regulatory filings.

A peek under the hood

Liability and medical claims are intended to cover certain costs stemming from a car accident, like damage to another car when you’re at fault, or treatment for injuries.

Among the 10 largest auto insurers, the share of these claims closed without any payment has risen significantly over the past decade, with Liberty Mutual (29% → 54%), State Farm (26% → 47%), and Farmers (19% → 39%) seeing the biggest jumps.

What’s driving the trend? Short answer: it depends on who you ask. On one side, insurance companies say an uptick in fraud—driven in part by fake claims enhanced with AI tools—is triggering more denials, while also blaming attorneys for encouraging more consumers to sue.

• Meanwhile, consumer advocates argue insurers are intentionally making it difficult for customers to receive payouts in order to boost profits.
• Personal auto insurers paid out ~61 cents in claims for every dollar taken in premiums last year, their lowest net loss ratio since 2020.

Zoom out: The yearslong trend towards fewer payouts is similar to what’s been happening to US homeowners and their insurance coverage, the WSJ previously reported.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 💻 Nvidia reports better-than-expected earnings and revenue, including a record $96.2 billion in sales for the quarter ended in July; chip giant also projects 70% revenue growth for FY 2028; shares rise 4.5% in after-hours trading.
• 📱 Apple announces product launch event on September 9, its first under new CEO John Ternus after Tim Cook steps down at the end of August; analysts expect the launch of new iPhones and Apple Watches, including Apple’s first folding phone.
• 📈 PCE price index, Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation, held steady at a 3.7% annual rate in July, with core PCE—excluding food and energy—remaining at 3.3% year-over-year.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🏈 NFL to eliminate Pro Bowl as a standalone game, instead turning Pro Bowl honors into an individual performance award for 88 players, per The Athletic; move comes amid fading interest in the NFL’s all-star game, and a recent surge in player opt-outs.
• 🙏 Tim Curry, actor best known for starring in The Rocky Horror Picture Show and TV miniseries It, passed away at 80 years old. | 🎭 Rupert Grint to reprise his role of Ron Weasley in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway.
• 🎓 Big Ten, SEC, Big 12 each approve conference-wide bans on pro athletes returning to college to play; Big Ten’s rule only covers NFL players, while the SEC’s rule applies to basketball and football, and the Big 12’s covers all sports.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 💊 FDA approves first drug to treat advanced pancreatic cancer, which nearly doubled patients’ median survival length versus chemotherapy in a clinical trial; new treatment from Revolution Medicines, which costs ~$39,800/month, slows a cancer that kills 85%+ of patients within five years.
• 💉 Shingles vaccine Shingrix linked to 12% lower risk of heart attack, heart failure, and stroke, study finds; if confirmed in trials, researchers say it could prevent thousands of deaths each year.
• 🍫 Lower sugar intake during a baby’s first 1,000 days of life—from conception to age two—is linked to lower risks of several cancers and slower biological aging decades later, per new research.

US, WORLD, & POLITICS

• 🚢 US Navy has cleared all Iran-deployed mines from the Strait of Hormuz’s main shipping lane following months-long operation that found 100+ suspected mines, per President Trump; move is expected to allow significantly more oil tankers to transit the strait.
• ⚖️🗳️ Federal judge lifts nationwide injunction on President Trump’s recent mail-in voting restrictions, temporarily allowing rules requiring ballot barcodes and voter eligibility lists to take effect ahead of 2026 midterms. | Democratic-led states file new lawsuit challenging Trump’s mail-in voting restrictions after SCOTUS rejected their previous challenge as premature.
• 📸 Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) launches investigation into Flock Safety’s 120,000 AI-powered surveillance cameras across the US, requesting records on law enforcement access, data handling, accuracy, security, and suspected misuse since 2021.

☝️Meet Erebus Anomaly, a Wisconsin Maine Coon kitten who survived a perilous bout with pneumonia as an infant—and broke a Guinness World Record with 29 toes, instead of the typical 18 seen in cats. Erebus’ surplus of toe beans is courtesy of polydactyly, a genetic trait that causes extra appendages and is relatively common among Maine Coons.

🤔 Did you know? In 2012, twins Amy and Kate Elliot were born 87 days apart after Amy was delivered four months premature, while Kate was left to grow in their mother’s womb. It marks the longest interval of time between the birth of twins in recorded history.

📰 Worth a read: Three takeaways from Bill Gates’ 5,784-word warning on AI: ‘There is no plan’

🖱️ What we’re clicking:

• Are you richer than you think? How to find out
• Young people are making CDs cool again
• The best films to watch to celebrate Dolly Parton’s life

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Yesterday we covered a Supreme Court ruling that lifted one of two court orders blocking an executive order from President Trump, which seeks to enact a series of changes regarding how mail-in ballots are handled in federal elections.

❓ Our question to you: In general, do you agree or disagree with President Trump’s new executive order regarding the handling of mail-in ballots?

• Support: 28%
• Oppose: 64%
• Unsure/other: 8%

Read some of the most thoughtful longform responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 637 votes and 76 longform responses.

Which country has the most islands in the world?

(keep scrolling for the answer)

🐾 Petfinder is celebrating its 30th anniversary by helping shelter pets fetch a brighter future. Through mid-November, actions like favoriting a pet or submitting an adoption inquiry can help fund up to 6 million meals and a pair of rescue flights to relocate 100+ pets from overcrowded shelters.

Sweden, with 267,570 islands.

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