Good morning and welcome to Friday. Even if you’re headed to the super remote Idaho wilderness with no internet for “vacation” next week, find a way to open Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday’s emails from us – we have some exciting changes to announce. (P.S. If you need help getting internet, we hear Starlink’s pretty good.)

Some other things you’ll know after reading this email:

• 🤔 Where 90% of the Earth’s rare metals and alloys are produced
• ✌️🇬🇧 The latest on Boris Johnson’s resignation
• ⛽️ What’s driving the recent drop in gas prices

… and more.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 3.96 minutes to read.

🚨 BREAKING NEWS: Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the country's longest serving leader, has died after being shot while giving a campaign speech. Police say a man has been taken into custody.

“Whatever is begun in anger, ends in shame.”

–Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

On Wednesday, the EU voted 328-278 in favor of classifying some natural gas and nuclear energy projects as “green” in order to allow them to access hundreds of billions of euros in cheap loans and state subsidies.

⚡️ A deeper dive… The groundwork for this vote was laid in February, 22 days before Russia invaded Ukraine, when the approved plan was initially proposed by the EU.

• At the time, the European Commission argued that natural gas is a key part of the global transition towards renewable energy and away from more polluting fossil fuels like coal.
• Critics contended that more focus should go towards boosting renewable projects, rather than supporting ones that prolong the use of fossil fuels.

🇪🇺📈 Big picture: The price of natural gas in Europe has risen ~700% since the start of last year, as countries around the world lifted Covid restrictions and fully reopened their economies, boosting global demand (and prices).

• As a result, energy companies across Europe are finding it nigh impossible to operate under local laws limiting how high bills can rise. France’s government announced the nationalization of the remaining 16% of its largest power company yesterday, Germany this week moved to bail out domestic gas utilities, and Norway’s government on Tuesday intervened to stop a worker strike that threatened to cut the country’s gas exports by nearly 60%.

🇷🇺🇺🇦 The Russia/Ukraine impact: Around 40% of Europe’s gas was imported from Russia in 2021. Due to the war in Ukraine, the bloc is planning to cut ⅔ of Russian gas imports by the end of this year and all imports by 2027.

Heading into this past weekend, Minions: The Rise of Gru was projected to earn between $65 million and $75 million in its box office debut – a respectable total, but nothing to really write home about, especially coming on the heels of Top Gun: Maverick.

Instead, the Universal Pictures flick set an all-time July 4 weekend record, earning over $125 million in ticket sales thanks to… a TikTok trend?

🍿📈 If you meme it, they will come… Avid TikTok users have probably seen at least one of the 225,000+ videos (and counting) featuring teenagers, usually males, dressed in suits and ties and applauding in unison while attending showings of The Rise of Gru – all set to the same catchy rap track, called Rich Minion.

• The trend appears to have grown so large that it actually affected ticket sales. Per theater exit pollster PostTrak, 34% of The Rise of Gru’s opening weekend audience consisted of 13- to 17-year-olds, up from 8% for the last Despicable Me movie back in 2017.

📱 Bottom line: There’s a fine line between viral meme success and total failure – just ask Sony about Morbius. But if there’s one thing we know for sure, it’s that studios will keep trying to tip the social scales in their favor... and Universal did a pretty good job this time.

Turkey recently announced the discovery of a massive rare earth reserve, nearly as big as the world's largest in China, that would reportedly be able to satisfy global demand for decades on its own.

🤔 Demand for what?... Rare earth elements are a collection of 17 metals considered indispensable to the manufacturing of smartphones, cars, military weapon systems, etc. – or in other words, pretty much anything that uses semiconductor chips or lithium-ion batteries.

• The deposits in Turkey reportedly include 10 of the 17 elements and are close to the surface, simplifying extraction.
• Turkish officials anticipate the site will eventually have the capability to process 570,000 metric tons of rare earth metals annually. Global demand for rare earth elements is projected to reach ~315,000 metric tons by 2030, ​​per The Conversation.

✋ Yes, but… Turning rare earth deposits into financial success is easier said than done. Despite their name, the elements themselves are actually relatively common – but the process of mining and transforming them into usable materials is both expensive and damaging to the environment.

⛏🇨🇳 The big picture: As of 2019, China was responsible for producing ~90% of the world’s rare earth metals and alloys – though the market is relatively small compared to other commodities, at ~$1.15 billion worldwide.

🤔 Question!... Are you one of the following:

1. Super goal-oriented?
2. Not goal-oriented, but wanting to develop better habits?

🤩 Introducing… Jupiter Card: the first-ever credit card that rewards healthy spending.

⚙️ How it works…

• Get cash back for hitting Jupiter Goals (for example: spend less than you make for the month).
• As you complete goals, you gain points that contribute to your Lifetime Point balance. As this balance increases, you “Level-up” and get access to better interest rates and credit limits!🤑

If you answered #1 to the question above, this will be the first credit card you have that’s as goal-oriented as you!💪

And if you answered #2, Jupiter Card will not only help you establish targets to improve your habits but provide the incentive you need to meet them.👍

Join the Jupiter Card waitlist for free.

Average US gas prices dropped for the 23rd day in a row yesterday to reach $4.75 per gallon, representing the longest continuous downward streak since April 2020, per AAA data.

📉 Driving the drop… A decrease in oil prices amid concerns of an upcoming recession, combined with “demand destruction” – aka motorists buying less gas due to high prices.

• The price of gas is directly linked to the cost of crude oil, from which it's refined. Historically, every $10 increase in the cost of a barrel of crude adds roughly 25 cents to the price of a gallon at the pump.
• Prices reached an all-time high of $5.02 per gallon on June 14, and have declined ever since. Not so coincidentally (as we just learned), the price of crude fell below $100 per barrel three days ago for the first time since early May.

⛽️ The big picture: While prices at the pump are dropping, gas is still well above its $3.14/gallon average from one year ago, something the White House claims is almost entirely due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In a letter to oil producers last month, President Biden attributed a price increase of $1.70/gallon to the war.

+Dig deeper: Biden admin considers federal gas tax holiday | What’s the deal with gas prices?

• ☝️ You’re looking at a teaser image from the James Webb Space Telescope’s finder scope – not the actual high-powered scope, but a smaller one used to first pick out objects; NASA is set to release the JWST’s first full-color images on Tuesday, which are reportedly so beautiful they “almost brought [the scientists] to tears.”

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 📈 US jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, rose slightly to 235,000 last week, their highest level since January.
• 🏘️📉 The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell this week from 5.70% to 5.30%, the largest percentage-point drop since 2008.
• 🎮 GameStop replaced its CFO and laid off an unknown number of staff, according to an internal memo; the company’s shares closed the day up over 15%, one day after announcing a four-for-one stock split.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🎾 Rafael Nadal withdrew from his Wimbledon semifinal match scheduled for today, citing injury, putting Australian Nick Kyrgios in the final.
• 🏈 The Las Vegas Raiders hired Sandra Douglass as team president, making her the first Black female in NFL history to hold that role.
• 🏀 WNBA star Brittney Griner pleaded guilty to cannabis possession charges in a Russia court yesterday; she faces up to 10 years in prison, though her guilty plea allows the possibility of leniency from the judge or a future prisoner swap between Moscow and D.C.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• ⌚ Apple is reportedly planning to launch an extreme sports version of the Apple Watch this year along with the Apple Watch Series 8 and Apple Watch SE.
• 🌐 Meta has created a single AI model capable of translating across 200 different languages.
• 🤖🦷 Engineers at UPenn have developed a system of microrobots that can change shape to form bristles or floss and release antimicrobials to kill bad bacteria.

EVERYTHING ELSE

• 👶👶 Elon Musk reportedly had secret twins with a Neuralink executive in November 2021, according to court documents obtained by Business Insider.
• 🕋 1 million Muslim pilgrims from around the world have started the annual hajj in Saudi Arabia; it's the highest pilgrimage number since the start of Covid.
• ⚖️ A federal judge sentenced former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin to 21 years in prison – with credit for time already served – for charges that included violating the civil rights of George Floyd. (From the Left | From the Right)

+Fact check: Did a Warren Buffett-backed Chinese automaker really overtake Tesla in EV sales, as previously widely reported?

💬 Quoted… ​​ “Most prime ministers would have gotten the message sooner.” –Andrew Gimson, one of Boris Johnson’s biographers.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson officially announced his resignation yesterday, but said he plans to stay in office for up to three months until new Conservative Party leadership is elected.

• More than a dozen candidates have already announced plans to run; they’ll soon go through rounds of voting by Conservative MPs until only two remain.
• At this point, Conservative Party members nationwide will vote to officially select his replacement.

+Dig deeper: So, Boris Johnson resigned. What happens now?

🐦 Stat of the Day: ​​Twitter removes more than 1 million spam accounts from its platform every single day, executives told reporters yesterday.

🌍 Around the World: Spain's Bull Run festival is officially back after three years; the first race since 2019 took place in Pamplona yesterday.☝

🤯 Did You Know?... When you get a kidney transplant, surgeons typically leave both original kidneys in the body, meaning you end up with three kidneys.

📖 Worth a Read: Why Sports in Space Could Be the Next Big Thing → (WSJ)

We bring you the most unusual, off-the-wall and occasionally laugh-out-loud headlines from this week…

• ​​Penguins refuse to eat cheaper fish as inflation hits Japanese aquarium → (CTV News)
• Cannibalism study finds people are not that nutritious → (NatGeo)
• Quentin Tarantino calls Peppa Pig ‘greatest British import of this decade’ → (NY Post)
• Wavy, inflatable tube people set up in botanical gardens to deter flying fox population → (ABC News Australia)

Simba the goat is only one month old, but he's already being considered for a world record.

🐐 'Ear, 'ear... The Pakistani Nubian goat was born last month with ears that reached the ground, measuring a whopping 18 inches long from end to end. The youngster's ears actually drag on the ground sometimes, causing her to trip. 

• While there's no Guinness World Record for longest ears on a goat (yet), Simba's owner Muhammad Hassan Narejo is hopeful she'll be the first to hold the title.

Piestro is currently fundraising for its robotic kiosks that enable labor-free pizzeria ownership.🤖🍕

• The kiosks are the size of two vending machines, store fresh ingredients, and can service high-traffic areas like malls and airports 24/7.

😲 The result?... Slashed labor costs translating to TRIPLED profit margins for restaurants.🤯

• The cost of the kiosk is just a fraction of starting up a restaurant. Very timely given the surging costs of labor and real estate, which have made profit margins thinner than ever (5-10%).

📈 On the move… Piestro already has major pizza chains like 800 Degrees on board and has secured $580M in preorders. By selling the kiosks to restaurants and operating their own units, they are primed to take a serious bite out of the growing $155B pizza industry. 🍕

Learn more about investing In Piestro (open until July 27th, 2022).

Below are three lists of ingredients. All you have to do is give us the completed dish they make. Easy peasy! (The rules, at least.)

☝️ Recipe #1:

• Milk
• Sugar
• Yeast
• Butter
• Egg
• Flour
• Brown sugar
• Cinnamon
• Salt
• Icing

✌️ Recipe #2:

• Flour
• Salt
• Egg
• Sour cream
• Butter
• Potatoes
• Cheddar
• Shallots
• Onion

3️⃣ Recipe #3:

• Pizza dough
• Pizza sauce
• Yellow onion
• Green pepper
• Pepperoni
• Mozzarella
• Olive oil

(keep scrolling for the answers)

👆 Check out the referral prizes you can get just for introducing people you know to little old us. 

What to do: Copy your unique link below, then send it to anyone you think would like the DONUT.

☝️ Recipe #1: Cinnamon rolls

✌️ Recipe #2: Pierogis

3️⃣ Recipe #3: Homemade calzone