Good morning and welcome to the end of September. Call us Rip van Winkle, cuz we're just waking up.

See you in October.😎

In today's edition:

• 🦣 The CIA's Colossal investment
• 🚲 Peloton is getting even more physical
• 🤔🛢️ Nord Stream sabotage: whodunnit?

… and more.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 3.92 minutes to read.

"Gather up your pity and turn it to ambition."

–Artis Leon Ivey Jr., aka Coolio (1963-2022 RIP🙏)

A majority of the companies participating in one of the largest four-day workweek pilot programs in history say they’ve experienced no loss in productivity at the halfway point of the experiment, per a survey published last week by nonprofit 4 Day Week Global.

🇬🇧 Background: 73 UK companies are signed up for the currently ongoing six-month trial, where 3,300+ employees across banks, marketing, health care, retail, hospitality and other industries receive a paid day off every single week.

📅 After three months…

• 36 of the 41 participating companies that responded to a survey said the experiment was going “well” (88%).
• 85% of survey respondents said they were “likely” or “extremely likely” to consider continuing the same schedule after the trial ends in late November.
• 46% said productivity stayed around the same level as before, while 34% reported that it "improved slightly," and 15% said it “improved significantly.” Overall, 39 of the 41 respondents reported no loss in productivity.

🌎 Zoom out: Similar experiments are currently being held by 4 Day Week Global on a smaller scale in other nations, including Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, and Sweden. In the US and Canada, 40 companies are in the midst of an ongoing four-day workweek pilot program, while another 80 companies have signed up for a second phase starting next month.

📊 Flash poll: Do you think a four-day workweek will ever become commonplace in America?

Yes

No

Unsure/other

NATO released a statement yesterday, saying the recent leaks on the Nord Stream pipelines between Russia and Europe were the result of sabotage. This comes one day after the EU also said it suspected foul play – though neither revealed how they arrived at their conclusions.

🧠 What we know so far… Swedish and Danish authorities yesterday confirmed they found a total of four leaks in the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 pipelines, which Danish officials attributed to a series of underwater explosions on Monday. The leaks don’t immediately threaten Europe’s gas supply, as both pipelines aren’t currently in use.

🤔 Who’s to blame?... Both NATO and the EU stopped short of publicly naming any suspects, but some of their member nations openly blamed Russia – which, in turn, pointed a finger at the US. Both Moscow and D.C. have issued statements denying any involvement.

• 🇷🇺 Russia: Experts say Moscow stands to gain since they can now legally cut off all gas exports to Europe without technically breaching contract (due to force majeure). Additional reasons include sending a message to the West, and driving up the price of natural gas (of which Russia is a leading exporter).
• 🇺🇸 The US: Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov said American natural gas suppliers were reaping “huge profits” from increased sales to Europe, which suggests the US was behind the sabotage. Russian news outlets also played clips of President Biden vowing in early February that if Moscow invaded Ukraine, “there will no longer be a Nord Stream 2.” In the West, some commentators argue a potential attempt to remove Russia’s energy leverage over Europe this upcoming winter would most benefit American interests.
• 🇺🇦 Ukraine or Baltic states: Ukraine, along with several other countries bordering the Baltic Sea, have long opposed the Nord Stream pipelines and advocated for Russian gas to flow through pipelines in their own respective countries.

The connected fitness company inked a partnership to sell its equipment through Dick’s Sporting Goods, the two companies announced yesterday.

Which means once everything is up-and-running, anyone can stroll right into a Dick’s Sporting Goods store and buy a hangar for their clothes Peloton Bike, Bike Plus, Tread, Guide, and/or other accessories.

🚲 More deets… We should probably rename this section to “not-so-many deets,” because they’re pretty sparse. But we do know:

• Dick’s has more than 700 locations across the US. 100 will be included in the initial rollout, scheduled to start ahead of the holiday season.
• The sporting goods store won’t stock the recently announced $3,195 Peloton rowing machine, which is currently only available for preorder.
• Dick’s is the first brick-and-mortar retailer outside Peloton's own stores to stock any of the fitness company’s products. And this partnership comes on the heels of Peloton announcing last month that its products would now be available on Amazon, a departure from the company’s D2C strategy up until that point.

📸 Big picture: After enjoying a surge in demand during the pandemic, Peloton has been fighting more recently to stem its losses and expand its monthly subscriber base.

🤯 Did you know?... Traditional dog kibble brands typically use feed-grade ingredients, synthetic nutrients, and artificial additives. And while better, human-grade dog food usually includes the hassle of refrigeration, prep, and clean-up.

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A woolly mammoth, dodo bird, and Tasmanian tiger all walk into a bar — who’s there waiting for them? The CIA… to do a business deal, of course.

According to the portfolio page of its venture capital arm, America’s intelligence agency has invested in Colossal Biosciences, a startup aiming to resurrect extinct animals using advanced genetic sequencing.

🤔 The CIA has an investment arm?… Yep. In-Q-Tel, a registered nonprofit venture capital firm wholly funded by agency/taxpayer money. And its mission can basically be summed up in two words: technological hegemony. Meaning its focus is on funding tech startups with the potential to safeguard national security.

🧬🦣 Which brings us to Colossal: The biosciences startup aims to revive extinct animals – like the woolly mammoth, Tasmanian tiger, and dodo bird – using CRISPR, a gene-editing tool.

But the agency’s focus here is less about the mission, and more about the tech being used and developed in its pursuit. Per an In-Q-Tel blog post, its investment in Colossal will help to:

• Enable US gov’t agencies to better understand – as well as read, write, and edit – genetic material (Captain America irl?🤔)
• Position the US “to help set the ethical, as well as the technological, standards” for its use
• Steer global biological phenomena impacting “nation-to-nation competition”

⚖️ On one hand… Colossal co-founder George Church says the research involved to resurrect the animals could help with conservation efforts and other things, like curing the herpesvirus in Asian elephants. But as anyone who's seen Jurassic Park can tell you, it could also have some pretty gnarly implications.

So you tell us: good idea or nah?

Yes

No

Don’t really care

💬 Quoted…​​ “We had to wait for California to take a step because there’s some federal requirement California had to go first.”

NY Gov. Kathy Hochul announced plans yesterday to ban the sale of all new gas-powered vehicles within the state by 2035, adopting regulations first approved by California last month.

• The rules also establish annual targets for EV sales, starting at 35% in 2026. Washington and Massachusetts have also announced plans to follow CA’s lead. (Background)

✈️ Stat of the Day: More than 5,000 “ghost flights” – with completely empty planes – have flown to or from UK airports since 2019, while an additional 35,000 flights operated with fewer than 10% of seats filled over that same period, per a new report from The Guardian.

🌎 Around the World: Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a signing ceremony on Friday to formally annex four areas of Russian-occupied Ukraine after local referendums condemned by Ukraine and the West as a sham.

🤯 Did You Know?... Domesticated rabbits can’t breed with wild rabbits in America, since they’re actually a different species.

📖 Worth a Read: The Science-Backed Strategies That Will Actually Help You Eat Better → (WSJ)

• ☝️ Recovery efforts are underway in Florida in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, which was downgraded yesterday to a tropical storm as it headed northeast, but strengthened into a hurricane again by the evening; over 2.3 million Floridians were without power as of 10 pm ET yesterday; at least 12 deaths have been reported thus far.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 📉📈 US stocks closed down across the board yesterday, with the S&P 500 setting a new record low for the year. (Dow: -1.5% | S&P: -2.1% | Nasdaq: -2.8%) | Weekly unemployment claims, a proxy for layoffs, fell to their lowest level in five months, the Department of Labor reported yesterday. | The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage rose to 6.7% yesterday, per Fannie Mac, its highest level since July 2007.
• ⚖️ Two former eBay execs were sentenced to prison yesterday for their involvement in a cyberstalking scheme against an e-commerce blog critical of the company; their actions included sending a box of live insects, as well as a fetal pig, to the bloggers’ home address.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🚫🎮 Google announced plans to shut down Stadia, its gaming service, in January 2023.
• 🍿 Amazon’s The Rings of Power debuted at No. 1 on the Nielsen streaming charts.
• 📺 Trevor Noah is leaving The Daily Show after seven years.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🚀 NASA and SpaceX announced a new six-month study to examine whether a SpaceX ship could visit and potentially extend the lifespan of the Hubble Space Telescope.
• 🚫🪳 Scottish scientists created an AI-powered laser turret that’s able to spot and kill cockroaches from within a yard.
• 🦷 A discovery of fish fossils in southern China reportedly contains the oldest teeth ever found.

EVERYTHING ELSE

• 🏛️ The Senate approved a short-term spending bill yesterday, sending it to the House; both chambers are seeking to avoid a gov’t shutdown before the Friday midnight deadline.
• 🎓 The Education Department announced a new policy change it said will exclude ~770,000 student loan borrowers whose debt is held and managed by private banks (but still backed by the federal gov't) from having some or all of their debt forgiven. | Seven GOP-led states filed lawsuits yesterday against the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness plan. (Background | From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

CLICKBAIT

• 👍 Gen Z’s favorite brands of 2022, according to Morning Consult.

Yesterday, we asked whether y’all had tried plant-based meat. 

57% said yes, and 43% said no.

• 👍 Among those who said yes: 51% eat it occasionally, 32% eat it consistently, 14% didn’t like it, and 4% had a different opinion.
• 👎 Among those who said no: 56% weren’t interested in changing their diet, 14% had health-related concerns, 13% had a different opinion, 11% thought they wouldn’t like it, and 6% said it was too pricey.

+Note: We received 9,523 total responses; 437 among those who said yes; 379 among those who said no.

🎺👑 Hear ye, hear ye... We now pronounce these corgis pawsitively adorable. 

A group of more than 50 corgis and their owners gathered in Langley Park, Australia, last week to honor the late Queen Elizabeth II. 

• The Queen had an affinity for the quirky breed, owning more than 30 corgis over her lifetime. They all descended from her first corgi, Susan, who was a gift for her 18th birthday. 

💬 What they're saying: “The event was organized on very short notice by the Perth corgi group, as soon as we heard the news,” said Tessa Vernstrom, who attended the event with her two pups. “It’s a tight knit community and we said we should do something to honor the Queen, so we organized this.”

PSA: Our weekly news quiz is live. Ace it, and we just might buy you a cookie.😉

Take the quiz here.

Below are three lists of ingredients. All you have to do is give us the completed dish they make.

☝️ Recipe #1:

• Potatoes
• Corn
• Carrot
• Celery
• Onion
• Bacon
• Chicken broth
• Milk
• Cream
• Cayenne pepper

✌️ Recipe #2:

• Pork tenderloin
• Soy sauce
• Cornstarch
• Sesame oil
• Red chile pepper
• Garlic
• Onion
• Green bell pepper
• Bok choy
• Broccoli
• Ginger

3️⃣ Recipe #3:

• Vegetable oil
• Butternut squash
• Brown sugar
• Eggs
• Evaporated milk
• Cinnamon
• Dough
• Nutmeg
• Ginger
• Salt
• Flour
• Butter
• Vanilla extract
• Whipped cream

(keep scrolling for the answers)

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Start referring.👇

☝️ Recipe #1: Corn chowder

✌️ Recipe #2: Pork stir fry

3️⃣ Recipe #3: Butternut squash pie