Good morning. We’ve got a packed newsletter today, so just let’s rock ‘n roll.

In today’s edition:

• 🪙📱 Kim Kardashian settles with the SEC
• ⚖️ The Supreme Court is back in action
• ⚽️ Systemic abuse in pro women’s soccer

… and more.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 3.88 minutes to read.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”

–Margaret Mead (1901-1978)

SCOTUS has officially begun its new term, coming out of the gate faster than Secretariat. As of yesterday, America's highest court agreed to hear a pair of cases in which families of terrorism victims allege that Google and Twitter should bear some responsibility for recent ISIS attacks.

🤔 Why's that a big deal?... At issue in these two cases is Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, one of the most important laws governing how the Internet works in America today. (Background)

And the big cases don't stop there. The justices must've been listening to Rihanna before this term, cuz they're going to work, work, work, work, work.

• 🗳️ Elections: Republicans from North Carolina are challenging a state supreme court ruling that threw out congressional districts drawn by the GOP-led state legislature due to partisan gerrymandering. The justices will consider whether state courts can order changes to federal elections in response to violations of their state constitutions.
• 🏳️‍🌈 LGBTQ rights: A Colorado web designer is challenging a state law preventing businesses from discriminating against customers on account of several factors, including sexual orientation. The plaintiff alleges that Colorado's law violates her First Amendment right to refuse to design wedding websites for same-sex customers.
• 🎓 Affirmative action: Two cases involving the University of North Carolina and Harvard University could end the practice of considering race in the admissions process, across public and private schools.

👀 Looking ahead… The Supreme Court typically ends its term in late June or early July, so you can expect to see final rulings in all these cases (and more) by then.

Stay tuned.

Sexual misconduct, verbal abuse, and emotional abuse have "become systemic" in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), the top pro league for women's soccer in the US, per an investigative report published yesterday by the US Soccer Federation. (TW: this story contains details of SA.)

⚽ A deeper dive… The independent probe was run by former acting Attorney General Sally Q. Yates. It began last October, after a report from The Athletic detailed allegations of sexual harassment and coercion dating back a decade against an NWSL coach who was still active in the league.

• Yates’ investigation also uncovered numerous instances of abuse, carried out by two other coaches. These included sexual misconduct, coercive tactics, and "manipulation that was about power, not improving performance."
• The report describes consistent missteps by team executives, league officials, and the US Soccer Federation after they were told about – and provided with evidence of – abuse allegations. "Abusive coaches moved from team to team, laundered by press releases thanking them for their service, and positive references from teams that minimized or even concealed misconduct," it said.

📝 Bottom line: Yates' report concluded the league was more concerned with the risks of drawing negative attention than player safety and well-being. Alongside its publication, the US Soccer Federation announced it'll immediately begin implementing the recommendations included within, including forming a safety task force consisting of at least one-third membership of athletes.

Kim Kardashian, of KUWTK and online fame, agreed to pay $1.26 million to settle charges of promoting a cryptocurrency without the proper disclosures, the SEC announced yesterday morning.

By mid-morning, the story was on the front page of more than ten publications we regularly check. Which begs the question: did Kris Jenner orchestrate this, too?🤔

🪙📱 All jokes aside… The SEC’s charges stem from a June 2021 Instagram story Kardashian shared to her then-225 million followers. In it, the billionaire influencer and reality-star touted EMAX tokens, a coin minted by crypto company EthereumMax – but failed to properly disclose she was paid $250,000 to promote the project (which dropped ~95% soon after her post).

• Under US law, people promoting a certain stock or crypto security need to disclose not only that they are getting paid to do so, but also the amount, source, and nature of those payments. (So just putting “#ad” at the end of the story – like Kim K. did – isn’t sufficient in this case.)
• Kardashian didn’t admit or deny wrongdoing as part of the settlement.

🚗 Driving the fine: "This was really to protect the investing public… that's at the core of what this is about," SEC Chair Gary Gensler told CNBC. Translation: the regulatory agency wants to send a message. Because as experienced deal-seekers and HODL’ers know all too well, influencers and crypto scams aren’t exactly strangers.

📉 Zoom out: Like many other areas of the economy, crypto hasn’t been doing so hot. Its overall market cap has dropped ~70% over the past year or so, from a peak of $3.2 trillion in November 2021 to less than $1 trillion currently.

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Nobel week officially kicked off yesterday, with the Prize in Physiology or Medicine being awarded to Sweden-born geneticist Svante Pääbo for his discoveries related to the genomes of extinct human groups. (Is it just us, or does he look exactly like Bill Nye?☝️)

🧬 More deets: The Prize committee said Pääbo completed a task in 2010 that was previously thought to be impossible: sequencing the genome of the Neanderthal, an extinct relative of early humans, using the degraded and contaminated genetic material available to him.

• Pääbo ultimately discovered Neanderthals are distinct from both modern-day humans and chimpanzees – and that some of their DNA was passed on to us through interbreeding ~70,000 years ago.
• He also discovered a previously unknown human relative called the Denisovans in 2012, after analyzing a 40,000-year-old bone fragment.

👀 Looking ahead… Nobel Prizes will continue to be awarded this upcoming week, with the Peace Prize set for Friday and the final award (in Economics) scheduled for next Monday.

+In the know: This year, each winner will receive a cash prize of ~$900,000 after exchange rates.

💬 Quoted…​​ "End productivity paranoia."

One of three suggestions from a recent Microsoft report on remote/hybrid work, which uncovered a… slight disconnect between managers and workers.

• 87% of workers say they're productive at work – while just 12% of leaders say they're confident that their team is productive.

💔 Stat of the Day: Nearly one-in-five single Americans are going out on fewer dates because of inflation (19%), per a new LendingTree survey.

🌎 Around the World: Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blamed the US and Israel yesterday for ongoing protests throughout his country, which broke out following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran’s morality police. 

• At least 41 people have been killed in clashes between demonstrators and security forces over the past three weeks, with local officials reporting an additional 1,500+ arrests. Though – outside of the fact that protests are still ongoing – confirmed reports are hard to come by, since Internet access within the country has been largely shut down.

🤯 Did You Know?... 16% of Americans say they aren’t afraid of anything, according to YouGov (via Harper’s).

📖 Worth a Read: I Uncovered an Army of Fake Men on Hinge → (Wired)

• ☝️ Shen the T. rex, a 43-foot-long skeleton from Montana, is expected to sell for up to $25 million in Asia's first-ever T. rex auction.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 📈 US stocks closed up across the board on their first day of trading in Q4. (Dow: +2.7% | S&P: +2.6% | Nasdaq: +2.3%)
• 🚲🏨 Peloton is placing its bikes in all 5,400 Hilton-owned hotels across the US, thanks to a new partnership between the two companies.
• 🏘️ Median US house prices during July and August saw their biggest monthly falls since 2009; the drops come as rising mortgage rates have driven housing affordability to its lowest point since the 1980s.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 📺 Disney’s suite of 20 TV channels are back on Dish Network and its Sling TV service after the two companies reached a tentative renewal deal late Sunday.
• 🎶 Apple Music just surpassed 100 million songs; that's about 20 million more than Spotify.
• 🎣 New cheating scandal just dropped: The Ohio fishing scene was thrown into chaos over the weekend after officials discovered the winning catches at a local tournament were stuffed with lead weights and fish filets; the team behind the weighted fish stood to win ~$30,000, and had previously placed first in three similar events this year.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🚀 NASA confirmed the launch of its Artemis I mission has been pushed back until at least mid-November.
• 🐟 Fish evolved to have jaws millions of years earlier than previously thought, per new peer-reviewed research published in Nature.

EVERYTHING ELSE

• 🌀 Florida officials had linked nearly 100 deaths to Hurricane Ian as of late yesterday; rescue efforts are still ongoing across the state; the total economic damage from the storm is projected to be north of $100 billion, per new estimates published yesterday.
• ✈️ London’s Heathrow Airport will lift its 100,000-passenger-per-day limit starting October 29.
• 🪖 ​​The US Army fell short of its recruitment target by 15,000 soldiers this year, representing 25% of its overall goal.

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• 🥇 The No. 1 perk that will bring Gen Z and millennials into the office, according to Microsoft.

Yesterday, we asked everyone if they feel better or worse off financially than they were a year ago, all things considered (employment situation, stocks, inflation, etc.).

• 21% said they were better off, 68% said they were worse off, and 11% were unsure or had a more nuanced opinion.

See the full 360° view.

Being one of twelve children had to make for an exciting childhood. 

For one family in Spain, the excitement hasn't stopped for more than nine decades. The very youngest of the Hernandez-Perez siblings is 76 years old, with the oldest of the bunch coming in at the ripe old age of 97. 

🏆 One for the record books... The group recently claimed the Guinness World Record for most combined years among siblings, with a whopping 1,058 years and 249 days between them.

•  "It all started as a joke during a family reunion in June," shared one of the siblings. "Then, after seeing a newspaper article titled '12 siblings count more than 1,000 years,' we started gathering information and reached out to Guinness World Records!"

❓ Trivia: What was the challenging way to catch a fly in The Karate Kid (1984)?

🐹 True or False?... It's illegal to own just a single guinea pig in Switzerland. 

🤔 Riddle Me This: What's in seasons, seconds, centuries, and minutes – but not in decades, years, or days?

(keep scrolling for the answers)

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❓ Trivia: With chopsticks

🐹 T/F: True. Ownership of just one guinea pig is considered abuse in Switzerland, since they're a social species that needs to interact with their own kind.

🤔 Riddle: The letter “n”