Good morning and welcome to Tuesday.

Terror / ter-ror

Noun: the feeling that washes over you after accidentally emailing your boss “thanks you” instead of “thank you,” and wondering if an HR meeting is in your future.💀

Some things you’ll know after reading this email:

• 💰 Which streaming service owns the most market share (for now, at least)
• 🇨🇳🏘 Why China’s housing market isn't doing so hot
• 🎶🌌 Who’s giving the first musical performance at the edge of space

… and more.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 3.41 minutes to read.

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”

–Mark Twain (1835-1910)

British Open-winning golfer Cameron Smith, who matched the lowest score to par in major championship history (-20), is Australian – not American, as we wrote yesterday.🤦‍♀️

China is reportedly considering a new rule that would allow homeowners to temporarily halt mortgage payments, as thousands of disgruntled buyers have staged a boycott across the country.

🤔 What’s going on?... In China, real estate firms are allowed to sell homes before completing them, meaning customers have to begin mortgage repayments before they actually possess the new property. Developers typically use these funds to finance construction of the new homes.

• A growing number of real-estate projects have been delayed or stalled in recent years due to a lack of cash among Chinese developers, most notably property giant Evergrande.
• In response, many buyers have stopped paying mortgages on homes that aren’t being built, impacting at least 230 projects across 80 Chinese cities as of Friday. Stalled projects account for $296 billion in mortgage payments, all told.

✋ But wait, there’s more: Finance-related protesting in China appears to be all the rage. In addition to mortgage boycotts, residents of the Henan province have staged mass demonstrations since May over the country’s biggest-ever bank scam.

• Authorities arrested several suspects and froze customers’ deposits at five rural banks in April after accusing their private shareholders of siphoning off several billion dollars in funds by falsifying loans and data reporting.
• Last week, Chinese regulators promised to repay affected customers with deposits of up to ~$7,500.

Move over Stranger Things, Snap is also bringing retro back. After more than a decade of only being available on mobile devices, the Evan Spiegel-led company launched Snapchat for Web yesterday.

💬💻 More deets… The new platform allows users in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand to send messages and make video calls from their computers.

• The company said its new web offering represents a more stripped-down version of the mobile app, primarily focused on messaging features as opposed to Stories.
• It’ll initially only be made available to users of Snapchat+, the company’s premium subscription service, in the US, UK, and Canada – and they’re only able to access the site using Google Chrome (for now, at least).

🧠 In the know: Nearly 80% of Snapchat users are older than 17, with the 18 to 24 demo accounting for ~40% of its total audience. As of May, the picture messaging app was the sixth-most popular social media app in the US, right after TikTok.

+Elsewhere: Snap isn’t the only social company ch-ch-ch-changing with the times. Instagram announced some additional e-commerce features yesterday, including the ability to track orders and pay for products directly in messages.

On the backs of our team streaming It’s Always Sunny episodes, Hulu has been Disney’s fastest-growing US streaming service over the past two years, outpacing even Disney+, per new data shared exclusively with the WSJ.

Put another way, more Americans have subscribed to Hulu than Disney+ in 18 of the past 24 months – including each of the last six quarters.

🔞📈 Driving the trend… The demand for mature content, per the WSJ: one platform has it, and the other doesn’t.

• Disney+ houses the company’s family-friendly offerings from Marvel, Star Wars and Pixar, along with nature films from National Geographic and new animated kid’s shows.
• By contrast, Hulu centers around more adult-oriented content like Pam & Tommy, corporate drama The Dropout, and reality shows such as The Kardashians and Dancing With the Stars.

📸 Big picture: Netflix, which reports earnings later today, is currently the largest streaming platform in the US with a 23% market share, per data from JustWatch. Amazon’s Prime Video (19%), HBO Max (14%), Disney+ (13%), and Hulu (11%) round out the top five.

+One interesting thing: When Disney acquired a controlling stake in Hulu in 2019, then-CEO Bob Iger struck a deal giving Disney the right to buy the remaining 33% stake in Hulu from NBCUniversal at “fair market value” starting in January 2024.

⚙️ A real gear grinder… you get home after an exhausting day of work, and, for once, actually have the energy to learn something new. You hit the web, and try to find quality information only to be polluted with clickbait articles written by some jerk trying to sell you something.😠

Before you know it, you’ve learned nothing, your free time is up, and it would’ve literally been more productive to do nothing at all and rest.😒

Free time is far too precious to waste. So if you want to :

• Save time
• Stay up to date
• Dive deep into your interests

Then visit Refind.com. It's saving more than 50,000 people hours every day – both in the search for interesting articles and in making sure they don’t waste consuming low-quality content.

Every morning in your inbox you’ll receive a curated list of links to intelligently written content you’re actually interested in.👍

The more you rate the articles, the more the Refind zeroes in on your preferences, and will provide quality recommendations to expand your reading ecosystem.🤯

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There’s a roughly 1 in 10 chance that a falling piece of rocket debris will kill someone over the next decade, according to a new peer-reviewed study published in Nature Astronomy.

📚 Background: Rockets generally use various stages to get their payloads to space, parts of which get left in orbit. Most of the leftover debris burns up in the atmosphere, but potentially lethal pieces can still come hurtling back towards the ground.

🚀💥 Heads up, seven six-to-ten-percent up… After crunching 30 years of public records to calculate the possible risk of rocket debris to human life, the study’s researchers found there’s a 6–10% chance of at least one person dying before 2032.

• As far as locations go, people in the global South (i.e., Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania) face the greatest risk. This is due to most launches taking place closer to the equator.

📸 The big picture: Rocket launches have steadily increased in recent years, with 134 successful launches happening in 2021 alone – the most ever in a single year.

• ☝️ Nationals outfielder Juan Soto – who last week turned down a 14-year, $440 million contract extension – won the MLB Home-Run Derby last night, beating Mariners rookie and fellow Dominican Julio Rodriguez in the final round. The All-Star Game starts tonight at 8 ET – and if it's tied after nine innings, there'll be another mini-Home-Run Derby.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 💰 Christie’s auction house is launching a venture-capital firm focusing on art-related tech startups.
• 🛍️ Macy’s announced an expanded partnership with WHP Global to bring the “Toys-R-Us” brand to every Macy’s store in America by this holiday season.
• 🏘️📉 US homebuilder sentiment dropped 12 points last month to reach 55; it's the largest single-month drop in history going back 37 years (outside of the first month of the pandemic, that is).

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🪐🎤 The Chainsmokers announced plans to become the first musical artists to perform at the edge of space, in a pressurized capsule some 20 miles above Earth.
• 🎭 Peter Dinklage is starring in the The Hunger Games prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (ETA: November 2023).
• 📖✏️ Applications for America’s Next Great Author, a reality TV show pitting six novelists against each other as they each try to finish a book, are now available.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🇨🇳🚀 The Chinese National Space Administration plans to launch a rocket at an asteroid in 2026 to test a potential planetary defense technique; the experiment is similar to NASA’s DART mission.
• 💧⛏ Groundwater collected deep in an underground mine in South Africa is estimated to be 1.2 billion years old, leading researchers to believe it’s some of the oldest on the planet.
• 📡🌊 Submarines may not be able to elude detection by 2050 due to advances in AI-based technology that can make the oceans effectively transparent, per a new Australian study.

EVERYTHING ELSE

• 🇺🇸✈️ Lt. Amanda Lee became the first female fighter jet pilot ever selected to join the US Navy’s Blue Angels.
• 🏨 The world’s 100 best hotels, according to Travel + Leisure.
• ⚖️ Uber reached a settlement with the DOJ yesterday over accusations of overcharging passengers with disabilities.
• 🍕🔒 Piestro has already locked in $580M in preorders for their robotic kiosks that 3X profit margins for pizza restaurants – including 3,600 units for 800 Degrees! Here's how to invest in Piestro (Campaign closes on July 28th)!*

*Sponsored post

💬 Quoted… ​​“It is extremely [likely] — in fact, for sure — that I am not going to be here beyond January 2025.”

• After five-plus decades under seven different presidents, NIAID director Dr. Anthony Fauci, 81, revealed yesterday that he plans to step down by the end of Biden’s first term.

+Dig deeper: From the Left | From the Right

🏃‍♀️ Stat of the Day: In 2016, 35 men competing in NCAA indoor track meets ran the mile in less than four minutes. In 2022, that number climbed to 90.

• The cause? A “revolution” in racing-spike shoe design, per a recent WSJ analysis.

🌎 Around the World: An unprecedented heat wave is hitting Europe. But UK residents are channeling Dunkirk and doing anything they can to combat it – including wrapping bridges in foil and slathering sunscreen on pigs.☝️

🤯 Did You Know?... During the Great Depression, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt held press conferences where only female journalists were allowed.

📖 Worth a Click: This interactive website aligns images created by Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope.

📊 Poll results: Yesterday, we asked who y'all would vote for if the 2024 presidential election was held today. Here are the results:

• DeSantis: 21%
• Other: 16%
• Too early: 15%
• Harris: 14%
• Trump: 10%
• Pence: 10%
• Newsom: 8%
• Biden: 7%

See the full 360° view here.

Today is the first edition of our weekly mailbag, where we take the time to answer reader-submitted questions, big or small. Curious about something related to the news, money, the DONUT, or the workplace? Just reply to this email or submit a question here.

Today's question: Who’s behind the newsletter?

👆 This was the most-asked question of the past week by far… and y'all have got a point! It’s about time we introduce ourselves.

• 🧗‍♂️🤓 Peter Nowak (Austin, TX): DONUT founder, CEO, and Professional Curious Human. Obsessed with climbing things and delivering informative, enjoyable news. Michigan State alum.
• 🏈🎰 Kyle Nowak (Plymouth, MI): Lead Editor, researcher, and fact-checker extraordinaire. Former (mediocre) professional gambler. Biiiiiiig Michigan fan.
• 🎶🏙 Kailyn Toussaint (New York City): Positive DONUT creator, writer, and all around good-news lover. Currently living on a cruise ship and traveling the world as a professional vocalist. Very proud cat mom.
• 🏌🏽‍♂️🔨 Ryan Wittler (LA): Writer, research lover/law school alum, and willing to die on the hill of Oxford commas. Strong belief (like, weirdly strong) that only cowards avoid semicolons. Sticks to vegan food, plays golf, and is an amateur woodworker (who literally writes inside a workshop).
• 🏄🏻‍♀️🤘 Jullea Powell (Silicon Valley): Researcher, writer, lover of rock 'n roll. Is probably surfing or running right now.

🤔 Have a question you’d like to ask us (and our rolodex of contacts)?... Just reply to this email or submit it here.

When Bonnie the beagle escaped out of the backyard gate of her West Sussex home, devoted owners Peter and Paula Closier feared the worst. 

• The couple did everything they could to find their girl, including calling the police, a dog warden, and searching high and low around their UK neighborhood. 

They were surprised and confused when Bonnie finally came home wearing a third place ribbon from a nearby dog show.

🔎 Mystery solved... John Wilmer was on his way to the dog show with his own two pups when he spotted Bonnnie on the side of the road. 

• After safely scooping her up, the dog dad decided to enter the beagle in the competition while he found her owners – and Bonnie came home a champion!

❓ Trivia: How long was the American Civil War?

🐴 True or False?... Vacuums were originally horse-drawn.

🤔 Riddle Me This: In 1990, a person was 15 years old. In 1995, that same person was 10 years old. How can this be?

(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.

❓ Trivia: Four years

🐴 T/F: True

🤔 Riddle: Because it’s 1990–1995 B.C.