Good morning. The world is expected to reach a major population milestone tomorrow, according to Worldometer – 8 billion people. So if you’re having world problems I feel bad for you son, I got 8 billion problems, but this ain’t one.

ANYways. Here’s a fun fact for the road: it took over two million years for the human population to reach one billion, and only 207 years more to grow to 7 billion.

In today’s edition:

• 🗳️🔵 Democrats keep the Senate
• 📉 Things keep getting worse for FTX
• 🤫 A look at the Defense Department’s secretive spaceplane

… and more.

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

“Try all things, hold fast that which is good.”

–John Locke (1632-1704)

Incumbent Democratic Sens. Mark Kelly (AZ) and Catherine Cortez Masto (NV) officially defeated their Republican challengers over the weekend, ensuring Democrats will retain a majority in the upper chamber.

🏛️ More details… With the two victories, Democrats now have 50 Senate seats compared to 49 for Republicans. With VP Kamala Harris as the potential tie-breaking vote, this means Dems will keep control over Senate committees and the power to conduct investigations or oversight of the Biden administration.

• A Dec. 6 runoff election in Georgia will decide whether Democrats will gain a seat compared to the chamber’s 50-50 pre-election split.

🏠 Meanwhile, in the House… Republicans are currently favored to win a narrow majority, but it hinges on nearly twenty races yet-to-be-called. The GOP has officially won 212 House seats compared to 204 for Democrats, per APNews, with a total of 218 needed to secure control of the chamber.

• Of the 19 races still not called, 6 were led by Republicans, 8 were led by Democrats, and 5 were toss-ups, per the NY Times. Results in several competitive races are expected to take days or weeks to be finalized.

👍 The Trump effect: In the Senate, candidates endorsed by former President Trump lost close races in Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Nevada. Though others secured narrow victories in Ohio, North Carolina, and Wisconsin (plus Georgia is still up for grabs).

• In the House, all five Trump-endorsed candidates in toss-up races – as rated by the Cook Political Report – ended up losing.

📊 Flash poll: How do you feel about the midterm election results so far?

Very pleased

Somewhat pleased

I don’t really care

Somewhat disappointed

Very disappointed

🇺🇦 Ukraine’s military officially recaptured the southern port city of Kherson after 8+ months of Russian occupation. Located in one of four regions Moscow claimed to annex in a September ceremony, it was the country’s only regional capital held by Russian forces. Roughly a quarter of Kherson’s pre-war population of 320,000 remain in the city, which has a critical lack of water, medicine, and electricity, per local officials. On Sunday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine had discovered evidence of 400+ war crimes committed by Russian troops in Kherson.

🇨🇳 China eased some ‘Zero-Covid’ measures, and issued a plan to address its ongoing real estate crisis. Beijing unveiled a new 20-point playbook on Friday aimed at reducing the economic and social impact of Covid, though officials stressed that stamping out infections remains their guiding principle. Hong Kong’s benchmark stock index rose 7.7% in response, its biggest single-day gain since March. Then on Sunday, China announced a 16-point plan to ensure the “stable and healthy development” of its property sector.

🇩🇪 The Bucs beat the Seahawks 21-16 on Sunday morning in Munich, Germany. It was the NFL’s first-ever game in the country. Around 70,000 fans attended, but according to the league demand was so intense it could’ve sold 3 million tickets. The NFL has now played 45 games outside of the US since it first started doing so in 2005, including in the UK, Canada, and Mexico.

🐈🐶 Doobert is a platform that helps people and organizations help animals. Think match.com, except it pairs animal shelters and rescues with partners. Also, volunteers (hereinafter referred to as “Dooberteers”) can register to transport animals between shelters and partners – like an Uber for rescue pets.

• So far, Doobert has facilitated 15,500+ rescues and 6,100 completed transports. And The Doobert Shop donates 5% of every purchase to an organization of your choosing.👏

It’s the type of feel-good initiative we at The DONUT can really get behind. They’re completely transparent, super cool & nice, and support has ballooned to more than 35,500 volunteers and over 5,300 organizations. (And they’re named after the founder's dearly departed cat, for crying out loud!🥰)

Help animals today by shopping Doobert.

In the beginning of the end of a story that could arguably prove Murphy’s Law, FTX – previously the world’s fourth-largest crypto exchange by volume – announced plans to file for bankruptcy on Friday. Its sister trading firm Alameda Research followed suit.

The now-infamous Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) also got fried, resigning from his role as leader of both companies after overseeing the swift and tumultuous collapse of a company once valued at ~$32 billion.

Quick recap:

• A CoinDesk report, published two Wednesdays ago, exposed Alameda Research’s balance sheet. It had some pretty major issues.
• Cue: a run on the exchange. Traders withdrew $6 billion over a 72-hour period, creating a liquidity crisis.
• Rival crypto exchange Binance then agreed to bail out FTX, only to flip-flop after due diligence. A move probably related to Alameda Research secretly trading with billions of dollars worth of FTX customers’ funds. Between $1 billion and $2 billion is still missing.

It doesn’t get better either. Since declaring bankruptcy, FTX froze trading and withdrawals, reportedly due to a $477 million hack, transferring its remaining digital assets into cold storage (aka offline).

👀 Looking ahead… The exchange is currently under criminal investigation by the DOJ, SEC, and authorities in the Bahamas, where it and SBF are headquartered. And speaking of: reports over the weekend that he fled to Argentina – a country with US extradition – are greatly exaggerated.

+It’s giving Theranos: Alameda Research was overseen by SBF’s 28-year-old girlfriend, Caroline Ellison.

Like everyone's favorite trivia game show, the Biden admin's federal student loan forgiveness plan is in jeopardy. On Friday, the Education Department stopped accepting student loan forgiveness applications on its dedicated website, less than 24 hours after a federal judge in Texas struck down the program entirely.

⚖️ More deets: Several lawsuits have been filed in recent weeks challenging the loan forgiveness program, which would forgive up to $20,000 for some borrowers. One even resulted in the program being temporarily placed on hold until arguments are heard later this month – but until Thursday, none had succeeded in challenging the program’s legality.

• In this most recent case, the ruling called the Biden administration’s plan an “unconstitutional exercise of Congress’s legislative power.”
• It also noted that the program failed to go through normal rule-making processes, including allowing the public to weigh in on its merits.

👀 Looking ahead… The DOJ will appeal the decision. Which makes sense, since most legal analysts predict the case will end up before the Supreme Court. So to the 26 million borrowers who applied for forgiveness prior to applications being closed – sit tight.

+Worth mentioning: The pandemic-era freeze on student loan repayments will thaw on January 1, 2023. It’s currently unknown whether the Biden admin will extend it again as the court battles play out.

💬 Quoted…​​ "With the successful completion of its sixth mission, the reusable spaceplane has now flown over 1.3 billion miles and spent a total of 3,774 days in space."

The reusable (and also robotic) spaceplane in question, an X-37B – one of two belonging to the US Space Force – landed in Florida on Saturday after spending 908 days in orbit, a record for a winged craft. And here’s the kicker: its purpose is largely a secret.

• The X–37B runs missions for the US Defense Department, including hosting military research payloads, science experiments, and even NASA investigations, Florida Today reports.

⏱🏈 Stat of the Day: The average game through Week 9 of the NFL season lasted 3 hours, 1 minute, and 55 seconds – on track for the fastest pace in nearly 30 years, per APNews.

🤯 Did You Know?... Blacking out from alcohol doesn’t cause you to “lose” memories. Instead, your brain temporarily loses its ability to create new memories during the blackout – so they never even existed in the first place.

📖 Worth a Read: This Twitter thread by investor Sahil Bloom.

• ☝️The National Native American Veterans Memorial officially opened on Friday. It’s the first national memorial honoring the military contributions of Indigenous people, who serve in the US Armed Services at a higher rate than any other ethnic group, per the Dept. of Veterans Affairs.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 📈📉 US stocks rose across the board Friday, as the S&P closed out its best week since June. (Dow: +0.1% | S&P: +0.9% | Nasdaq: +1.9%) | Eli Lilly lost over $15 billion in market cap on Friday after a Twitter Blue verified account impersonating the pharma brand promised free insulin.
• 🐦 More Twitter updates: The social media company officially dropped its $7.99/month Twitter Blue verification program on Friday and fired 4,400 to 5,500 contractors on Saturday; CEO Elon Musk has reportedly been burning the midnight oil at Twitter’s HQ since Thursday.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🍿 Black Panther: Wakanda Forever earned $180 million in its first weekend at the domestic box office, a new record for a movie opening in November; it’s also the second-highest opening weekend so far this year.
• 🏈🏎️🥊 Results: In college football, No. 25 Washington upset No. 6 Oregon while No. 9 Alabama escaped from No. 11 Ole Miss with a victory. (AP Top 25) | In Formula One, Mercedes drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton secured the top two spots at the Brazilian Grand Prix. | Alex Pereira defeated Israel Adesanya via fifth-round TKO to claim the UFC middleweight title.
• 🎤 Netflix announced plans to host its first-ever live event early next year; it’ll be a Chris Rock comedy special, his first since 2018. | Comedian Dave Chappelle hosted SNL this week. (His standup monologue.)

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🚀 NASA’s Artemis I moon mission is on track to launch at 1:24 a.m. ET on Wednesday; the mission was originally scheduled for Aug. 29 but has been delayed three times due to technical problems. (Background)
• 🚁 Amazon unveiled a new delivery drone that can fly through light rain without issue and generates 25% less noise than previous versions.
• 🤰 ​​Doctors successfully treated a child with a rare genetic disease while the child was still in the womb, a first-of-its-kind achievement, per a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

EVERYTHING ELSE

• ✈️ Two World War II-era planes collided at a Dallas air show, killing six people.
• 🏆 Dolly Parton received the $100 million Courage and Civility Award from Jeff Bezos and partner Lauren Sanchez’s charitable organization; the money will be distributed to charities of Parton’s choice.
• 🏛️ The head of US Customs and Border Protection resigned after less than a year on the job; this past fiscal year set a new all-time record with 2.4 million migrant arrests on the southern border. (Background | From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)
• 🦠 The US government extended its Covid public health emergency through Spring 2023; an estimated ~15 million Americans will lose their expanded eligibility for Medicaid and children’s health insurance once the emergency expires. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

CLICKBAIT

• 🎓 The top 10 most-regretted college majors — and the degrees graduates wish they had pursued instead.
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Monday: President Biden meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping

Tuesday: The G20 Summit kicks off in Bali, Indonesia; former President Trump’s “very big announcement”

Wednesday: National Educational Support Professionals Day; Artemis launch🤞

Thursday: Weekly unemployment claims

Friday: Mickey and Minnie Mouse turn 94 years old; Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes will receive her sentence (prosecutors are seeking 15 years and $800 million in restitution)

+Bonus: It’s also American Education Week

⏰ Flashback to 2004... when Moe Hunter was fighting for his life. Diagnosed with bacterial meningitis and tuberculosis in his brain, the 38-year-old native of England was in a coma for an entire month. 

• When he finally woke up, he had no memories. What he did have, however, was multiple new artistic talents 🖌. 

🧑‍🎨 A medical marvel... Moe never had any interest in crafts or the arts before getting sick. But as he recovered, he gravitated towards creativity, drawing realistic portraits of some of his favorite video game and comic book characters. 

• Moe now works full time as a carpenter and artist, selling pieces all around the country. 

💬 What he's saying: “It was crazy," Moe shared about discovering his new talents. "I haven’t stopped since then. I just found I had this passion which never existed in me before... I just feel incredibly lucky.”

Guess the definitions of the following Greek/Latin root words.

1. Auto
2. Crypt
3. Grat
4. Lact
5. Ocul

(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 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.)

Start referring.👇

1. Auto = Directed from within (e.g., autonomy, automatic)
2. Crypt = Secret (cryptograph, encryption)
3. Grat = Thank (gratitude, ingrate)
4. Lact = Milk (lactose, lactation)
5. Ocul = Eye (oculus, ocular)