Good morning. The good news keeps on coming: coral is moving back to the northern and central Great Barrier Reef, having just been recorded at its highest level in 36 years, per a new report from the Australian Institute of Marine Science.

As for the southern part of the reef? That’s for the fishes… starfishes, to be exact. Coral cover actually decreased by 4% in that region due to an outbreak of crown-of-thorns starfish. They’re the second-biggest starfish in the world, reaching up to three feet across, poisonous to humans and marine wildlife, and prey on coral.

In today’s edition:

• 📉 America doesn’t have enough teachers
• 🇺🇸🇨🇳 US-China relations are… strained
• 😍 The alternative wonders of the world

… and more.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 3.90 minutes to read.

"Success is more permanent when you achieve it without destroying your principles."

–Walter Cronkite (1916-2009)

Get out those apples, because maybe one per day will make the teachers stay. School districts across America are currently scrambling to deal with a nationwide shortage of educators for all levels that represents a “five-alarm crisis,” according to the president of the National Education Association.

While it’s hard to know exactly how short we are, since no national database precisely tracks the issue, here’s what we do know: there are 386,000 open teaching roles nationwide, per the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data. A decade ago, that number was 108,000.

🏫 Driving the trend… Experts point to a wide range of factors, including pandemic-induced exhaustion, constantly changing remote learning and other Covid protocols, low pay, worries about gun violence, staffing shortfalls, and contentious political battles over what they can or can’t discuss in the classroom. ~300,000 public-school teachers and other staff left the field between February 2020 and May 2022, per BLS data, representing a nearly 3% drop in the overall workforce.

Many schools across the country have turned to stopgap solutions to combat the shortage:

• In Texas, several districts switched to four-day weeks this summer and fall due to a lack of educators.
• Florida has asked qualified veterans to step in and teach classrooms.
• Arizona’s governor signed a bill allowing college students to simultaneously teach and pursue their degree.

👀 Looking ahead… A recent poll by the National Education Association found 55% of educators say the pandemic has made them more likely to leave or retire from education sooner than planned – up from 37% last August.

📊 Flash poll: The DONUT is being used across more than 15,000 classrooms on a consistent basis, so we wanted to take a different approach with today’s question. Instead of presenting options multiple choice-style, we’re switching to short answer:

How would YOU deal with the teacher shortage?

To respond, just reply to this email or click here. Please include your first name, last initial, and city + state with your submission.

The Department of Transportation proposed new rules on Wednesday aiming to “significantly strengthen” protections for consumers seeking refunds for airline tickets.

✈️ More deets… ​​Airlines are already required by law to issue refunds when they cancel a flight for any reason, or when they make a “significant change” – the definition of which has historically been left up to the airlines.

But the DoT’s new proposal, if approved, would take the option out of airlines’ hands, officially defining the term as:

• Domestic flights delayed at least 3 hours, or international flights delayed six or more hours
• Changes that increase the number of connections
• Changes to the departure or arrival airport, or changes to the type of aircraft flown – if it causes a significant downgrade in the air travel experience.

📸 Big picture: About 20% of US flights have been delayed so far this year, according to Transportation Department data, more than twice as many as in all of 2021. Over 3.2% flights have been canceled, compared to less than 1.6% last year.

+In the know: New data from online booking platform Hopper suggests the prices of domestic flights booked in August could fall 25% from May, while September and October will be the cheapest months to travel. *Runs to check PTO*

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi departed Taiwan on Wednesday afternoon after meeting with President Tsai Ing-wen and other high-ranking officials, despite repeated warnings from Beijing against her island visit.

One day later (aka yesterday), China deployed more than 100 planes in the Taiwan Strait, firing live missiles – including four that likely flew over the self-governing island nation – in its biggest military drills in the area in decades.

🤔 Why’s China so upset?... Beijing sees Taiwan as a breakaway province that’ll eventually be under its control again. And China probably doesn’t view Pelosi, the third-highest ranking US official, as an ordinary visitor, especially given the fact that she met with Taiwan’s president.

• The timing of the visit may have also added to the tensions. The CCP’s National Congress, held once every five years, is coming up – during which President Xi Jinping is expected to use a hard line on Taiwan to try to blunt domestic criticism on his handling of Covid, the economy, and other issues.

📸 Big picture: The Biden administration discouraged Pelosi from visiting Taiwan ahead of her trip, stressing to Beijing that the House Speaker isn’t part of the executive branch, and her visit represents no change in America’s “one China” policy towards Taiwan.

• Under the “one China” policy, the US doesn’t officially consider Taiwan a separate sovereign entity, nor does it consider the island nation to be under Chinese rule. This is how America has been able to establish official relations with China, while still maintaining unofficial relations with Taiwan. (In even plainer terms, think of it like Mac in Always Sunny: “I’m playing both sides so I always come out on top.”)

Geopolitics… fairly simple, amirite?🙄😅

Do you like learning about the latest and greatest tools that help you kick butt professionally AND creatively?

Obviously! The issue though…where do you find them? And how do you figure out which ones are any good? There could be a great resource out there to make your life better, but you would have no idea because you didn’t even know it existed…🤯💻

🍎 Jeremy Caplan, a former Time Magazine reporter— now Director of Teaching and Learning at CUNY’s Newmark Graduate School of Journalism— spends a LOT of time exploring new stuff and shares what he finds every week in a 3-minute read.🙌

One well-known reader wrote, “this is sincerely one of the most helpful emails… constantly finding incredible new digital tools that I would never have the time to find otherwise.”

Don’t miss out on the next thing that makes your job easier. The resources and websites Jeremy shares will save you time and help you be more creative. Plus, subscribing this week will get you a free one-page list of Jeremy’s favorite sites.

Level up today and subscribe to Wonder Tools, for free!

The Pac-12 may not have USC or UCLA for much longer… but what it does have, as of yesterday, is a new partnership with Twitter, NIL marketplace Opendorse, and sports tech startup Tempus Ex Machina that’ll enable some conference athletes to generate income by tweeting replays of their highlights.

📹➡️💰 Here’s how it works… During the 2022-23 sports season, Tempus Ex Machina will provide all Pac-12 football and men's and women's basketball players with a custom digital video after each game that includes their best plays and camera shots from various angles. Think: wedding photos, but for sports.

• When the players tweet these out, Twitter’s Amplify platform will populate the video with pre-roll ads, with the athletes receiving a payout + commission via Opendorse.

📸 Big picture: With this move, the Pac-12 becomes the first conference to provide athletes with the ability to monetize their own highlights… which may help 'em play catch-up on the recruiting front. 

• No conference team finished in the top ten of the 2022 football recruiting rankings, per 247Sports. And only USC, which is leaving for the Big Ten, ranked top-ten in the men's basketball recruiting rankings.

🤑 Zoom out: College athletes earned an estimated $917 million in the first year of name, image, and likeness (NIL) payments, which began July 1, 2021, per recent data from Opendorse. The NIL market is projected to produce $1.14 billion in NCAA athlete compensation over the next 12 months.

+One interesting NIL thing: When you subtract football, women’s sports are actually getting more deals than men’s sports.

💬 Quoted… “I couldn’t miss an opportunity to make the most expensive trash bag in the world, because who doesn’t love a fashion scandal?"

• Designer brand Balenciaga introduced "The Trash Pouch"... which looks exactly what you think it would look like. You can pick one up for $1,790, or just buy them in bulk for $10 at a local grocery store.🤷‍♀️

💼 Stat of the Day: 9% of tech workers are feeling confident in their job security, according to a June survey from anonymous networking site Blind.

🌎 Around the World: Brittney Griner was sentenced to nine years in a penal colony by a Russian court yesterday after being convicted on drug charges. The women's basketball star has been detained since February, when officials say they found vape cartridges containing less than one gram of hashish oil in her luggage while entering the country.

• The US released a statement following the ruling, which was largely expected (Russian courts have a 99% conviction rate), committing to pursue all avenues to bring Griner home.
• Moscow officials say the ruling is a precondition for a possible prisoner swap between Russia and the US. The exchange may include Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout and American Paul Whelan, who's been jailed on espionage charges in Russia since 2018. 

+Fun fact: Bout was the basis for the lead character in the 2005 Nic Cage film "Lord of War." 

🤯 Did You Know?... 68% of the world’s population has lactose intolerance, per a 2017 study in the peer-reviewed journal The Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

📖 Worth a Read: Meet the Lobbyist Next Door → (WIRED)

• ☝️ The above is a picture of Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet, taken off a thread by Twitter user @culturaltutor discussing alternative wonders of the world. Check out another 13 here.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🏠📉 The rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage fell below 5% for the first time since April 7; it currently sits at 4.99%, down from 5.3% the week prior, according to Freddie Mac.
• 💳 Goldman Sachs revealed in a securities filing that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is investigating several areas of its credit card business, including how the bank handles customer refunds and resolves billing disputes.
• 🏦🇬🇧 The Bank of England raised interest rates by 50 basis points, its biggest hike in 27 years; recent figures show the UK’s pace of inflation rose to 9.4% in June, its highest reading in 40 years.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 📺 HBO Max and Discovery+ will merge into a single streaming service, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav announced on a second-quarter earnings call Thursday; Zaslav didn’t reveal a name for the combined platform, which he said will launch in the US by Summer 2023.
• 🍿 Lady Gaga has officially signed on to be part of Todd Phillips’ Joker sequel, Joker: Folie à deux starring Joaquin Phoenix. (Fun fact: it’s labeled under the “Mystery” genre on Google.)
• ⚽️ The English Premier League season kicks off today.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🚗 Switchblade, a flying car developed by Oregon-based startup Samson Sky, just received FAA approval and is prepping for a US launch; buyers will still need permission from local authorities to fly the $150k vehicle, which reaches speeds of 200 mph.
• 🚀 Blue Origin launched six people into space on its sixth tourist mission yesterday.
• 🦠 The Biden administration declared monkeypox a public health emergency yesterday; the US has reported more than 6,600 cases of the disease to date, the most of any country; over 95% of cases have occurred among men who have sex with men, though the disease isn’t considered an STI.

EVERYTHING ELSE

• ⚖️ Alex Jones will have to pay at least $4.1 million in compensatory damages to the parents of one of the 6-year-old victims in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, a jury decided yesterday; the jurors will now deliberate over how much to award in punitive damages.
• 🚨 The DOJ charged four current and former Louisville police officers with several federal crimes in connection with the death of Breonna Taylor, more than two years after she was shot in her home during a botched raid; the charges include lying to obtain the warrant that was used to search Taylor’s home, then staging a coverup. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)
• 🏛️ Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended state prosecutor Andrew Warren yesterday for refusing to charge people who violated the state’s abortion laws. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

A mama elephant and her baby were strolling through Khao Yai National Park in Thailand last month when the baby fell into a deep manhole. 

Distraught and trumpeting for help, the mother had to be temporarily sedated as rescue workers tried to dig a tunnel for the baby to climb out of.

• With the baby stuck underground and the mama elephant sedated and stuck in the top of the manhole, the rescuers realized they had gotten themselves into a sticky situation. 

🐘❤️ Quick thinking... The elephant duo was eventually rescued thanks to a truck-mounted boom that safely lifted the mother, and a digger that cleared the way for the baby.

• It was "one of the most memorable rescues we’ve done,” said local veterinarian Dr. Chananya Kanchanasarak.

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:

• Espresso
• Golden rum
• Ladyfingers
• Egg yolks
• Sugar
• Mascarpone
• Whipping cream
• Cocoa powder

✌️ Recipe #2:

• Oreos
• Butter
• Cream cheese
• Flour
• Sour cream
• Vanilla extract
• Eggs
• White chocolate chips
• Heavy whipping cream
• Whipped cream

3️⃣ Recipe #3:

• Apple cider vinegar
• Mayo
• Potatoes
• Pickle relish
• Mustard
• Celery seeds
• Paprika
• Hard-boiled eggs
• Celery stalks
• Sweet onion
• Fresh chopped dill
• Salt & Pepper

(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.

1. Tiramisu
2. Oreo cheesecake
3. Potato salad