Good morning. Ten years ago today, Neil Armstrong, the first man to step foot on the Moon, passed away at the age of 82.

Neil, made famous by the 1969 Moon landing that was viewed live by half-a-billion people, found the spotlight extremely tiresome, only remaining with NASA for another two years after the Apollo 11 mission. He lived out the rest of his life as an engineering teacher in Ohio, but will always be remembered as a space pioneer – and for the famous words he uttered after first setting foot on the Moon: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

In today’s edition:

• 🎓💰 The student loan announcement
• 🤔 How droughts and treasure are related
• 🙅‍♀️ California is banning gas-powered vehicles

… and more.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 3.72 minutes to read.

“Not how long, but how well you have lived is the main thing.”

–Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 B.C. – 65 A.D.)

President Biden announced plans yesterday to cancel $10,000 in federal student loan debt for all borrowers earning less than $125,000 per year, or couples making less than $250,000/year. Those who received federal Pell Grants, which are for college students with “exceptional financial need,” and who fall under the income levels mentioned above will have $20,000 forgiven.

🎓📝 More deets… Biden’s decision covers an estimated 43 million of the 45+ million Americans who owe around $1.6 trillion in federal student debt, per a White House fact sheet. It’s also projected to completely wipe away the remaining balance for some 20 million borrowers.

• The White House’s plan will end up costing the federal government ~$300 billion, per an analysis from the nonpartisan Penn Wharton Budget Model.

☝️ One more thing… In addition to forgiving debt, Biden announced more changes to the federal repayment system, like cutting monthly payment caps in half. The ongoing payment pause on most student loans has also been extended “one final time” through December 31, its seventh extension since the start of the pandemic.

🏛️ Pushback: Republican lawmakers and some centrist Democrats criticized Biden’s decision, saying Americans who already paid back their federal student loans, never took on debt in the first place, or didn’t attend college are being left out. And on the flip side, progressive Democrats and certain civil rights groups who've been pushing for $50,000 in debt cancellation say $10,000 isn't enough.

👀 Looking ahead… The Education Department will release more details on how borrowers can claim relief in the coming weeks. It also plans to make an application available before payments resume at the end of the year.

+Flash poll: Do you agree with Biden’s decision to cancel some federal student loan debt?

Yes

No

Unsure/other

Even when that cloud is… well… not there. Case in point: 113 million-year-old dinosaur tracks were discovered at Dinosaur Valley State Park in Texas due to severe drought conditions, the park revealed earlier this week.

And it isn’t the first time something like this has happened. Drought conditions around the world have been so extreme this summer that many rivers and lakes are drying up at a record pace, exposing previously undiscovered relics from ancient (and modern) eras.

☀️🌎 A few examples…

• The “Spanish Stonehenge,” a rare megalithic monument from as early as 5,000 B.C., fully emerged this month from the Tagus River in Spain; it’s only been visible four times since 1963.
• A fleet of 20+ Nazi warships carrying tons of explosives and ammunition were exposed last week in eastern Serbia, as the Danube – Europe’s second-longest river – fell to its lowest level in a century.
• An entire lost city from the Bronze Age was temporarily uncovered in Iraq earlier this year after an extreme drought lowered the Tigris River.
• A submerged island containing three statues of Buddha believed to be at least 600 years old was revealed last week due to plunging water levels of China’s Yangtze River.

📸 Big picture: The number of global droughts has jumped 29% since 2000, per UN statistics. China is currently experiencing its longest and most severe drought on record, while Europe is facing its worst drought in 500 years.

And it’s not just us saying it. Average US life expectancy fell by 1.8 years from 2019 to 2020, per a new CDC report published Tuesday, reaching its lowest level in nearly two decades (77.0 years).

🦠💊 Driving the trend… The pandemic and “unintentional injuries,” a category that covers overdose deaths, were the two biggest factors per the CDC. Covid was reported as causing ~375,000 US deaths in 2020, while roughly 92,000 Americans died of a drug overdose.

🔢 Some more numbers: All 50 states plus D.C. saw average life expectancy decrease in 2020. Collectively, it represents the biggest annual decline since World War II.

• New York suffered the largest yearly decline of any state, at minus 3.0 years.
• Washington, D.C. (-2.7), Louisiana (-2.6), New Jersey (-2.6) and Arizona (-2.5) rounded out the top five.

📊 Highs and lows… It turns out Peter Bretter from Forgetting Sarah Marshall had the right idea. Hawaii had the highest life expectancy overall at 80.7 years, while Mississippi had the lowest at 71.9 years. And it also turns out that “girls rule, boys drool” has a bit of accuracy.

American women had a higher life expectancy than men, both overall (79.9 years vs. 74.2 years) and across every single state plus D.C.

Consumers care more than ever about what brands are doing behind the scenes…

🤯 Did you know?… 70% of people now want to know what companies are doing to address social and environmental issues.

And also, 1,800 businesses are started per day in the US by women. But what’s disappointing is only 2.4% of venture capital funding goes to companies with all-female founding teams.🤔

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Buckle up, cuz this is one for the books. The chief communications officer at Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, is claiming that scammers successfully created a deepfake of him to trick contacts into taking virtual meetings.

🤔 Wait, what?... Binance exec Patrick Hillmann published a blog post last week saying he received five different messages over the past month thanking him for taking the time to meet – which was odd, considering he’d never met with any of them before.

After doing some more digging, Hillmann discovered a “sophisticated hacking team” had used video footage of his interviews and TV appearances to create a fake persona of him.

• The scam reportedly involved using a hologram of Hillmann to approach leads of up-and-coming crypto projects, then ask them to pay a fee in exchange for being listed on Binance’s platform.

✋ Yes, but… The only direct evidence Hillmann provided to back up his claim was a screenshot of a conversation with an anonymous individual who said they’d been on a call with the hologram. Hillmann later told The Verge he was advised by investigators that “specific details of the deep fake being made public might result in further copycats.”

📸 The big picture: While the potential for deepfakes to impersonate people in video calls has been widely discussed, there haven’t been any confirmed cases to date – until maybe now.

💬 Quoted…​​ “I am also human.”

Sanna Marin, Finland’s prime minister, gave a public speech yesterday. The 36-year-old – who until recently was the world’s youngest head of gov’t – has been under fire since a video showing her dancing and partying leaked last week, with some accusing her of taking drugs.

• The PM denied the last accusation (she took a drug test, which came back negative Monday), saying she only drank alcohol and just partied "in a boisterous way."

🍿 Stat of the Day: By this date in 2019, seven Hollywood films had collected more than $100 million at the Chinese box office. So far this year, that number stands at one. (Jurassic World: Dominion.)

🤯 Did You Know?... Americans are reportedly holding ~$21 billion in unused gift cards.

📖 Worth a Read: The architect who became the king of bank robberies → (The Hustle)

📊 Poll results: Yesterday, we asked if ​​you agreed with social media platforms’ decision to deplatform Andrew Tate.

• 76% of y’all said yes, 15% said no, and 9% were unsure or had a more nuanced opinion.

See the full 360° view here.

• ☝️ A ~130-foot superyacht valued at $7.8 million sank off the coast of Italy this weekend; the Italian Coast Guard rescued all nine people on board.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🔀 Tesla’s 3-for-1 share-split takes effect today after market close; shareholders voted to approve the move at the company’s annual meeting earlier this month.
• 📱⌚️ Apple’s first in-person launch event since the pandemic will be held Sept. 7 in Cupertino, CA, the company announced yesterday; it’s expected to unveil the new iPhone and Apple Watch models.
• 🚗 California will ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035; the state’s EV targets will increase every year, hitting 68% in 2030 and 100% in 2035. | France is offering ~$4k to anyone who trades in their gas car for an electric bike, in hopes that 9% of the country will swap by 2024.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• ⛳️ Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy are forming TGL, a tech-infused golf league, in partnership with the PGA Tour, according to an announcement published yesterday.
• 📺 Amazon Prime signed a multi-year agreement with DirecTV to broadcast its Thursday Night Football games; they’ll air in more than 300,000 bars, restaurants, and other businesses as a result.
• ⚾️ The Los Angeles Angels are reportedly up for sale.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• ⌚️ Google announced three new Fitbit wearables yesterday.
• 🧱🌾🪵🐑 AR company Tilt Five is making a 3D holographic version of the popular board game Settlers of Catan.

EVERYTHING ELSE

• 💰 A jury awarded Vanessa Bryant $16 million in her lawsuit against LA County over the sharing of photos from the Kobe Bryant crash site.
• ⚖️ A federal judge blocked Idaho yesterday from enforcing a ban on abortions when pregnant women require emergency care, one day after a judge in Texas ruled against the Biden administration on the same issue.
• ✈️ 17-year-old Mack Rutherford became the youngest person to fly around the world solo in a small aircraft following his landing in Bulgaria yesterday; the journey took him around five months.
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We bring you the most unusual, off-the-wall and occasionally laugh-out-loud headlines from this week…

• Marines, sailors ate all of Greek town’s eggs, meat on port visit → (Navy Times)
• Indian gang ran fake police station out of hotel for eight months → (The Guardian)
• Dinosaurs hit the racetrack for Washington's T-Rex Race → (UPI)
• Man uses nose to inflate 10 balloons in one minute, setting new world record → (NY Post)

CROWDSOURCED

Have you ever encountered a glitch in the matrix, quirky animal behavior, or even just a hilarious first grader? Tell us about it here for a chance to be featured in next Thursday’s newsletter.

👩 Who: Sunita R. from Titusville, FL

💬 The experience: My dog has been present during virtual meetings often since working from home for over 2 years now. She never cares about the computer screen and seems to enjoy napping in the room while people are chatting on the computer screen. Last week, I had a virtual interview for a job from my home office and my dog sat behind me and started to growl at the interviewer on the screen. She's never done that before. A few days later, they called to tell me they decided to go with someone else. I was kind of glad about it though. If my dog doesn't like them I probably shouldn't work for them. I trust her judgement!

P.S. Don’t forget to share your odd or hilarious experience with us here.

Twenty-seven years ago, country superstar Dolly Parton started sending free books to children in her hometown of Sevier County, Tennessee.

🚂📚 All aboard... The movement was officially named "Imagination Library," with Dolly and her team sending children one free book every month. Imagination Library is now an international phenomenon, ensuring that children anywhere can have free access to quality literature. 

And with 186 million books delivered and counting, it's no wonder Dolly has been nicknamed "The Book Lady."

• "I'll be as proud of this as anything I've ever done," shared the superstar. "When they lay me down, I'll be thinking of the Imagination Library."

The country pictured above is actually the smallest in the world by both area and population. Can you guess it? (Hint: It's commonly referred to as an independent state or city)

(keep scrolling for the answer)

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

What to do: Copy your unique link below, then send it to anyone who you think would like the DONUT. Once you hit each milestone, you'll get an email with a link to claim your prize. (Pro tip: there's no need to ration points, you're entitled to a prize at each tier.)

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