Good morning. Or… is it? Some days are great, sure, but others can be real stinkers. And that’s okay!

Maybe you can turn things around, maybe not. Regardless, you can take a minute and breathe, drink some water, eat a yummy snack, take a lil nap – whatever helps!

OKAY ENOUGH SELF HELP LET’S NEWS.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 4.92 minutes to read.

“Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises.”

–Samuel Butler (1835-1902)

Yesterday morning, House Rep. George Santos (R-NY) was arrested on more than a dozen federal criminal charges relating to fraud, money laundering, and theft of public funds.

Santos later appeared in a NYC court and pleaded not guilty to all 13 criminal counts, before surrendering his passport and being released on a $500,000 bond. If convicted on some or all of the charges, Santos could face up to 20 years in prison.

⚖️ The accusations: Federal prosecutors are alleging that Santos engaged in three fraudulent schemes dating back to 2020:

1. While running for Congress in 2022, he allegedly deceived political donors by claiming their funds would “exclusively” go towards his campaign, then transferring the money to his personal bank account.
2. Over an 11-month period starting in June 2020, Santos allegedly claimed more than $24,000 in fraudulent unemployment benefits while simultaneously working at a job that paid him ~$120,000/year.
3. Santos allegedly lied several times on House disclosure forms filed as part of his 2020 and 2022 campaigns, including overstating his income, failing to disclose his previous salary, and lying about deposits in bank accounts.

In comments following his release, Santos said he’s been cooperating with federal investigators and vowed to fight the charges, which he called a “witch hunt.” He also said he isn’t considering resigning from Congress, and still intends to run for reelection in 2024.

👀 Looking ahead… Santos is due to appear back in court on June 30. In the meantime, he’s still allowed to perform his normal duties in Congress, though he can’t be appointed to any committee posts while the case is ongoing.

🇮🇱🇵🇸 Israel and Palestine exchanged airstrikes amidst preparations for a wider conflict. Palestinian militant groups launched nearly 500 total rockets at Israel yesterday with no injuries or deaths reported, while Israel’s army carried out a series of airstrikes targeting militant bases that killed a reported seven Palestinians. The violence came one day after Israeli airstrikes killed three senior Palestinian militant commanders, as well as 10 other civilians including several of the commanders’ children. While officials from Egypt and the UN are currently trying to broker a ceasefire, military leaders from both sides said yesterday that the conflict will likely continue for the foreseeable future.

🧬 A global team of 100+ scientists published an updated, more inclusive version of the human genome. While the previous fully-mapped human genome was largely based on DNA from a single mixed-race man, the new “pangenome” incorporates full genetic sequences from 47 people of diverse ethnic backgrounds, including African Americans, East Asians, West Africans, South Americans, and Caribbean people. The results could greatly increase the efficacy of personalized medicine in America and around the world, per a peer-reviewed study published yesterday in Nature.

🇬🇧 The UK government walked back its commitment to removing all EU laws by the end of this year. Instead of revoking all ~4,000 EU laws still on the books since Britain left in 2020, the government will instead remove around 1,100 specific laws, many of them relating to financial services and markets. The reversal came after the UK government received pushback on its initial proposal from domestic businesses and some lawmakers.

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The Consumer Price Index (CPI), America’s most widely-used measure of inflation, could be at the mall, the club, really anywhere you find it, it’s going down.

According to Labor Department figures released yesterday morning, inflation stood at 4.9% over the year-long period ending in April, down slightly from 5.0% in March. It’s the index’s lowest annual figure in exactly two years.

But while inflation may be down on an annual basis, it actually increased 0.4% from March to April. This rise was driven mainly by a 0.4% hike in shelter costs – which collectively make up over one-third of the entire CPI – as well as a 4.4% monthly increase in the cost of used cars and trucks.

• The core index, which excludes often-volatile food and energy prices, also rose 0.4% month over month.
• That’s the same level as three of the previous four months, with the exception of February (which was 0.5%).

📸 Big picture: The CPI has now fallen for ten straight months, down from a four-decade high of 9.1% last June.

And while there’s still a gap between the current inflation reading (4.9%) and the target the Fed is shooting for (2.0%), investors are overwhelmingly predicting the US central bank won’t raise interest rates for an 11th straight time next month, per data from derivatives exchange operator CME Group that was collected post-CPI.

Thirty years from now, the internet of today will seem ancient. With all of our grandkids around, we’ll explain how, “back in our day, you had to manually scroll through all of the Google search results, like a caveman! And we used flip phones, but not the cool kind!”

At least that’s how it feels after everything Google announced yesterday at its I/O event, the search giant’s yearly developer conference.

• Search: With ‘AI Snapshots,’ Google’s search results page, aka the most valuable real estate on the internet, is getting an AI makeover. Soon, the usual ‘10 blue links’ results page will also include an AI-generated summary of relevant information.
• Duet: Google’s workspace suite of apps – Docs, Sheets, and Gmail, to name a few – will soon come with an AI assistant. Example tasks include writing a job description from scratch and converting meeting notes into an email (you can sign up for the waitlist to try Duet and Snapshot here).
• Bard: Google’s AI-chatbot is now available to everyone.

And as a cherry on top, Google also launched three new Pixel phones, including the Pixel Fold, the tech giant’s first flip-phone (which, we’ll just come out and say it, is no Motorola Razr).

📸 Big picture: The last time Google demoed its AI, the chatbot made a factual error and parent-company Alphabet’s stock dropped by $100 billion. Following yesterday’s event, the stock rose by about $55 billion.

💬 Quoted… “It seemed, by all accounts, a terrible business decision.”

Yesterday, a Delaware judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by shareholders of Jack Dorsey-founded fintech company Block over its 2021 acquisition of Tidal, the music streaming service partly owned by Jay-Z, for ~$300 million.

• And while the judge didn’t hold back in roasting Dorsey and Block executives for their poor business acumen, she also ruled that they’re 100% allowed to make bad decisions, so long as they’re in good faith.

⚡⚛️ Stat of the Day: 50 megawatts = the amount of fusion-created electricity that Microsoft has agreed to buy from nuclear startup Helion Energy, in the first-ever commercial agreement for fusion power, per the WSJ. Helion, which is backed by OpenAI founder Sam Altman, agreed to pay “significant financial penalties” if the agreed-upon electricity – which is enough to power ~50 homes annually – isn’t delivered within five years.

🤯 Did You Know?... King Charles III is a descendant of Vlad the Impaler, aka the real-life person Count Dracula was based upon.

📖 Worth a Read: The basketball journeyman who became a shooting coach to the stars → (The Hustle)

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• ☝️ You’re looking at what’s believed to be a 4 billion-year-old meteorite that crashed through the roof of a New Jersey home on Monday afternoon; authorities say it’s likely related to the ongoing Eta Aquarid meteor shower (active between April 15 and May 27).

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 💰 US markets closed mixed yesterday (S&P: +0.5%; Dow: -0.1%; Nasdaq: +1.0%).
• 🐭📊 Disney released its Q2 earnings yesterday; revenue and profit was mostly in-line with Wall Street projections, though Disney+ reported a loss of ~4 million subscribers.
• 🤑 Robinhood announced plans to offer 24-hour weekday trading for certain stocks and EFTs, instead of only allowing trades when markets are open.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🎤 Beyoncé kicked off her first major tour since 2018 yesterday in Sweden.
• 🔀👩‍👧 Freaky Friday sequel?! Disney is currently working on a sequel, with Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsey Lohan in talks to reprise their roles, per a NY Times report.
• 🎥 The Director’s Guild of America began contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers yesterday; it’s the second active negotiation for the AMPTP, which is currently deadlocked with the on-strike Writer’s Guild of America. (Background)

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 💊 An FDA advisory panel yesterday unanimously recommended making daily birth control pills available over-the-counter for the first time.
• 👶🧬 In a UK first, a local baby was born using DNA from three different people in an effort to prevent the child from inheriting a rare genetic disease; fewer than five such babies have ever been born.
• 🧼🦟 Washing with certain brands of popular soaps made some people more attractive to a species of mosquito that spreads yellow fever, Zika, dengue, and chikungunya viruses; that’s per a study published yesterday in iScience, which also found one brand of soap – Native Coconut & Vanilla Body Wash – made people less attractive to mosquitoes.

MISCELLANEOUS

• 📝 Audits of foreign companies listed on US stock exchanges are highly deficient, per a new report from a US government watchdog that found significant issues in seven of eight audits previously approved by foreign affiliates of KPMG and PwC.
• 🤖🏛️ OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will testify before Congress for the first time next Tuesday.
• 🎤 Former President Trump participated in a live CNN town hall discussion last night. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

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Yesterday we covered how artificial intelligence is rapidly changing many aspects of daily life, as well as a new “constitutional AI” model created by Google-backed startup Anthropic.

❓ Our question to you: Do you think Congress should take action to regulate AI technology?

• 👍 Yes: 64%
• 👎 No: 17%
• 🤷 Unsure/other: 19%

💬 Follow-up question for the “Yes” folks: In your opinion, what should those regulations look like?

• “At minimum there should be some regulation about privacy and sourcing. This is an especially relevant conversation with the ongoing WGA strike.”
• “It needs to be severely limited or completely illegal. AI has opened many doors to our future. Some of those doors have conflict on the other side. We must take action to limit AI before catastrophe ensues.”
• “Mandate to love and seek the highest good for one another and ensure human life is not taken by AI. Also some ethics prime directives like being able to determine right from wrong and to choose right.”

Click here to read more of the best responses from yesterday’s poll.

+Note on sample size: We received 8,835 votes and 829 longform responses.

We bring you the most unusual, off-the-wall and occasionally laugh-out-loud headlines from this week.

• 500 pounds of cooked pasta was dumped along NJ stream. It’s now a local political issue → (Lehigh Valley Live)
• 'Freaky-looking' fanged fishes found on Oregon beaches (APNews)
• American Couple Tried to Smuggle 375 Pounds of Fruit Roll-Ups into Israel → (Daily Beast)
• Watch: Bear rings doorbell at West Virginia home → (KIRO-7)
• Texas high school under siege from raccoons → (UPI)

It's official – Arat Montoya has the cutest job ever. 

The Oregon man is the creator and driver of the Doggie School Bus, which proudly escorts pups around the neighborhood to and from daycare.

• Arat gave up his family's dreams of being a baker to own his doggie daycare and school bus. He escorts up to 30 dogs at any time, and has around 300 total clients – each of whom he knows by name. 

❤️ Do what you love... “I’m the happiest man in the world doing what I’m doing,” he explained. In another interview, he told KOIN 6 News: “I just love dogs. I love dogs and I’m always looking for the best for them.”

Note: an earlier version of this story ran on August 26, 2022. Our Positive DONUT writer Kailyn is currently deep in 50-hour/week rehearsals for another slate of upcoming live shows (which is taking a lot of her focus).

Badlands National Park, pictured above, is located in which US state?

(keep scrolling for the answer)

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South Dakota