Good morning. ‘Tis the season of Daylight Savings Time, but not for much longer. Early Sunday morning, observing states will “fall back” one hour, ending the practice of DST for the year. Meaning morning commutes are about to get lighter, and evening ones darker.

Because there’s nothing quite like leaving work feeling like it’s midnight – but it’s actually 5 pm.

In today’s edition:

• 🗣Immigration gets the Dose of Discussion treatment
• 💼 Layoffs hit the tech sector
• 🤔 How dirty is your phone, actually?

… and more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 3.83 minutes to read.

“Life must be a constant education; one must learn everything, from speaking to dying.”

–Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880)

US Border Patrol made 2.4 million migrant arrests on the southern border this fiscal year – a 37% increase from the previous year and the highest number ever recorded, per new federal data published late last month.

📝 A deeper dive… The increase was largely driven by an influx of Venezuelan, Cuban, and Nicaraguan migrants attempting to cross the border. Together, the three groups combined for 571,000+ arrests, more than 4x higher than the preceding year.

But that doesn’t tell the whole story. Border Patrol officials say the total arrest numbers overstate the amount of unique individuals trying to illegally cross the border, since many migrants are released into Mexico after being arrested and try to cross again (aka recidivism).

• Over the past two fiscal years, agents have reported recidivism rates of 27% and 26%, respectively – nearly double the 14% average from 2014 to 2019.
• Most experts attribute elevated recidivism rates to a Covid-era policy, called Title 42, that allows border agents to immediately expel migrants into Mexico without granting them asylum, with no other repercussions.

📸 Big picture: The US population is around 330 million people. 47 million of them were born elsewhere (~1 in 7), and an estimated 11.4 million are unauthorized immigrants (~1 in 30), per gov’t figures.

• On the legal side of things, the federal government admitted 262,000 of the 648,000 immigrants who applied for US residence – aka a green card – in the 2021 fiscal year.

📊 Flash poll: Do you personally consider illegal immigration to be: a crisis, a fairly significant problem, a minor problem, or not a problem for the US?

Crisis

Fairly significant problem

Minor problem

Not a problem

🇮🇱 Former Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu will officially replace incumbent PM Yair Lipid, who conceded last night. ​​Netanyahu's right-wing bloc won 64 of a possible 120 seats in the Knesset (Israel's parliament), signaling an end to recent political gridlock that's resulted in five national elections since 2019, per APNews. The popular vote was evenly split, with 49% of the vote going to Netanyahu's party and 49% going to Lipid's (though the outcome, similar to the electoral system in the US, is dependent on regional districts).

🌎 One-third of the glaciers at 50 UNESCO World Heritage sites are all-but-guaranteed to disappear by 2050. That’s per a new UNESCO report that predicts the glaciers will melt regardless of the world’s actions against climate change – but says it’s still possible to save the other two-thirds. The ~18,600 glaciers at the sites represent nearly 10% of the Earth's glacierized area, including places like Mount Kilimanjaro, the Alps, and Yosemite National Park.

🇬🇧 The Bank of England raised interest rates by 0.75%, its highest increase since 1989. This is the bank’s eighth consecutive hike since last December, pushing benchmark interest rates to their highest level in 14 years. The BoE also forecasted the UK will face a “very challenging” recession over the next two years, with unemployment projected to double between now and 2025. The rate hikes are intended to bring down inflation, which hit a new 40-year high of 10.1% in September.

🏁🌎 The world's moving faster than ever, and there are no signs of things slowing down. Want to stay ahead of the curve? Check out TheFutureParty – a community-based media brand that dissects the business of culture.

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When all throughout tech, workers were handed pink slips and severance checks. What’re we talking about? Well, this all happened yesterday.

• Lyft said it’s laying off 650 people, or about 13% of its workforce.
• Stripe, a payment processing platform, said it’s cutting roughly 1,100 jobs, or 14% of its employees.
• Opendoor, a real estate tech firm, announced it’s laying off 550 workers, or 18% of the company.

And in addition – also yesterday – Amazon announced a hiring freeze, and news broke that Elon Musk reportedly plans to lay off ~3,700 Twitter workers, or 50% of its workforce.

What. A. Day🥃.

💼 Big picture: The labor market is still very strong (which feels weird to write now). The unemployment rate is at a 50-year low and there are 1.7 job openings for every unemployed person.

But cracks are starting to show in some areas – cue yesterday. And Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a headhunting firm, told Bloomberg ($) that job-cut announcements were up 48% year-over-year in October, with more layoffs “on the way.”

• We’ll get more labor market data later this morning, when the next federal jobs report is released.

Curious as they are, cats possess a talent for getting themselves into situations they have no business being in. And while this behavior often lands them in trouble with their owners, it could also prove useful to detectives trying to solve a case, per a new peer-reviewed study.

🧬 Background: In recent years, technology has become so sophisticated that even the most minute traces of DNA can be relevant for a crime scene investigation – and humans tend to leave little pieces of themselves everywhere. Tl;dr: Even brief contact with an object or person can transfer genetic material.

🐈 That brings us to last month… when, in a first-of-its-kind study, scientists at Flinders University in Australia examined how human DNA is transferred to – and remains on – household pets. Their research focused specifically on cats, with a separate ongoing study analyzing dogs as well.

• After studying samples from 20 different pet cats across 15 households, the researchers found human DNA on 80% of them. Of that data, 70% could be linked to a person of interest.

📝 Bottom line: Per the scientists, a cat's fur can retain enough DNA shed by someone nearby to serve as evidence of a fleeting meeting between the two, but further research is needed to improve the process before it can be used in the real world.

💬 Quoted…​​ “There’s no question that in the early days of Virgin, society was very different. I doubt you’ll see me turning girls upside down or picking up ladies today, whereas 38 years ago if I didn’t do that, I wouldn’t get in a newspaper.”

• Virgin Atlantic owner Sir Richard Branson, 72, said that while he’s still physically capable of doing so, his tradition of turning women upside-down along the wing of a landed jumbo jet has almost certainly come to an end, per an interview with The Guardian published yesterday.

🏆 Number of the Day (b/c age is just that): A 95-year-old grandma was nominated for the Best New Artist award at the Latin Grammys.

🤯 Did You Know?... The average cellphone is ~10 times dirtier than a toilet seat, per a 2012 study from the University of Arizona.

📖 Worth a Read: 'Giving him the business': College football's most iconic call → (ESPN)

It’s important to trust gut feelings, like the one you have about probiotics being good for you, even if you’re not really sure why. 

But do you ever think about how your gut trusts you to take care of it? And even though we know to take care of our stomachs with probiotics, who's taking care of those??

• Prebiotics are. Probiotics are cute little bacteria that hang out in your digestive tract. They need food, and prebiotics are what they eat. So, take prebiotics to take care of your probiotics, which takes care of your stomach!👍

If that’s a lot to digest, Odyssey Snacks makes it easy. Their protein bars are the real deal, packed with prebiotics and no fake stuff – just amazingly healthy, real ingredients like dates, kale, and spinach. Choose from delicious flavors in both whey and plant-based options!😋

Make the smart gut decision today with Odyssey Snacks.

• ☝️ A fleet of 500 drones lit up the NYC skyline last night, as part of an… effective ad for the 10-year anniversary of mobile game Candy Crush.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 📉 US stocks fell across the board for the fourth straight session yesterday. (Dow: -0.5% | S&P: -1.1% | Nasdaq: -1.7%) | Apple was worth $2.31 trillion at close, more than the market caps of Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta combined ($2.30 trillion).
• 📝 Earnings: Starbucks reported Q3 earnings and revenue beating analysts’ expectations, and disclosed its highest-ever sales week in September when it first introduced fall drinks. | DoorDash shares rose 14+% in extended trading after it posted better-than-expected sales and total orders last quarter.
• ✈️ Airline labor disputes: The board of the union for American Airlines pilots voted down a proposal for a new two-year contract on Wednesday; Delta pilots overwhelmingly voted this week to authorize a strike, as talks between the airline and its pilot’s union continue.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 📱 Encrypted messaging app Signal is rolling out a Snapchat-like "stories" feature.
• 🏀 The Brooklyn Nets suspended guard Kyrie Irving for five games without pay last night for his repeated failure to "unequivocally say he has no antisemitic beliefs"; Irving last week posted a link to an antisemitic film on his Twitter feed, and later doubled down in interviews.
• 🏈 Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is reportedly interested in buying the NFL’s Washington Commanders from embattled owner Dan Snyder, possibly with Jay-Z as a minority owner, per WaPo.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🕳️ Astronomers were able to trace particles called neutrinos back to their origins in a supermassive black hole, offering a new way of studying the mysterious space phenomena, per a new study published yesterday in Science.
• 🚀 NASA’s Artemis I moon rocket is “on track” to roll out to the launch pad later today ahead of a planned November 14 launch. (Background)

EVERYTHING ELSE

• ⚖️ The DOJ arrested 21 people suspected of belonging to a theft ring that stole more than half a billion dollars’ worth of catalytic converters from underneath cars.
• 🎰 The Powerball jackpot rose to $1.5 billion, the third-largest figure in US history (and second-largest in Powerball history), after nobody won on Wednesday night; the next drawing is tonight at 11 pm ET.
• 🏥 Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, returned home from the hospital last night.

CLICKBAIT

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Animal sanctuary owner Ryan Phillips often hears mysterious banging on the windows of his home. But his brain never jumps to a possible intruder, because he knows the most-likely culprit: Jenna, his 1,400-pound pet cow, who wants nothing more than some love. 

• Ryan rescued Jenna at only three days old. The two have been inseparable ever since. 

🐄 Anything for the cuddles... “Jenna knocks daily, multiple times daily,” Ryan told The Dodo. “She likes to come to the window and stare if we’re eating or hanging out to let us know she’s there. She will knock with her horns to let us know she wants me to come out and give her a hug." 

How mooo-ving🥺.

Our weekly news quiz is live. In just two minutes or less... 

Find out how your news superpowers stack up against the team.

Below are three lists of ingredients. All you have to do is give us the completed dish they make – and you don't even have to face Gordon Ramsay if you get one wrong.

☝️ Recipe #1:

• Butter
• Brown sugar
• Egg
• Vanilla extract
• Flour
• Baking soda
• Salt
• Chocolate chips
• Smarties

✌️ Recipe #2:

• Beef
• Soy sauce
• Teriyaki sauce
• Steak seasoning
• Red wine
• Bell peppers
• Mushrooms
• Onion
• Salt & pepper

3️⃣ Recipe #3:

• Chicken breasts
• Black beans
• Corn
• Salsa
• Cream cheese

(keep scrolling for the answers)

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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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☝️ Recipe #1: Smartie cookies

✌️ Recipe #2: Shish kabobs

3️⃣ Recipe #3: Crock pot chicken with black beans & cream cheese