Good morning. Who up who ready to, as we say in the calendar business, “get that Monday.”

Dunkers one and all, let today be not just a Monday nor a Manday, but an Everyoneday – sure, it doesn’t have the pizazz of TGIFridays, nor the collective struggle of “hump day,” but nonetheless, Monday is here, Monday is now.

Monday is you. Monday is us. Monday is.

Monday simply is.

Now, let us do what we always do on Mondays – NEWS.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 4.11 minutes to read.

“The only thing new in the world is the history you do not know.”

–Harry S. Truman (1884-1972)

President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) will meet later today to discuss a deal to raise the federal debt ceiling, in the latest effort to avoid an impending default on government debt.

Quick reminder: the federal debt ceiling is the amount of money the US is legally authorized to borrow to meet its existing obligations; it can only be raised by an act of Congress.

🤔 What happens once the ceiling is reached?... If the US fails to make interest payments to bondholders, then the federal government would be in default for the first time ever. This would lower America’s credit rating, increase the cost of the national debt, and potentially set off a global economic crisis.

• Moody’s Analytics estimates that even a temporary US default – aka one week or less – would result in ~1 million jobs lost over the next year, in addition to a mild stock market recession in the second half of 2023.

🏛️🗣️ How are negotiations going?... Despite weeks of talks, lawmakers still remain far apart on an overall agreement.

• Republicans are insisting that any bill to raise the debt ceiling also includes legislation that would reduce 2024 federal spending compared to this year, increase work requirements for social safety net programs, overhaul the federal permitting system for energy projects, and clawback all unspent Covid aid money (estimated at ~$60 billion).
• Democrats ideally want the debt ceiling raised without any caveats, but have indicated a willingness to compromise in certain areas. Their counteroffers have included commitments to cap 2024 spending at this year’s levels, claw back some Covid-related funds, and increase work requirements for most financial aid programs (excluding Medicaid).

👀 Looking ahead… Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reiterated yesterday that the US could default on its debt as early as June 1, with the odds of a default reaching near-certainty by June 15.

📊 Flash poll: Overall, which side do you agree with more in the ongoing debt ceiling negotiations?

Republicans

Democrats

Unsure/other

🌏 The annual G7 Leaders’ Summit concluded yesterday in Hiroshima. This year’s summit featured the heads of state from all Group of Seven countries – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US – along with invited guests including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war was the summit’s main topic of conversation, with Zelensky securing billions of dollars in additional aid – though world leaders also struck deals on climate change, poverty, nuclear weapons, and countering China’s economic aggression.

🐋 Orcas have sunk three boats off Europe’s Iberian coast, in a series of attacks experts say is learned behavior. The current leading theory, marine biologists told LiveScience, is that a female killer whale suffered a traumatic incident involving a boat – like a serious injury to her or her children – which caused her to start attacking boats regularly. Scientists say that others soon began copying the female, leading to 500+ reported incidents in which orcas have damaged boats off the Iberian Peninsula dating back to 2020.

🏦🇬🇧 Bankers perform significantly less financial misconduct when working from home, per a study published in European Financial Management. The research, which examined an unnamed top-5 UK bank, found the traders who worked from home had a 7.3% chance of triggering a misconduct alert over the course of a year, versus 37.6% for those working in the office. The researchers said the stark difference could be explained by several factors, including less access to insider information and that – as shown by previous research – unethical behavior can be “contagious.”

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If you’ve been holding off on watching Disney+’s Willow, Diary of a Future President, or Big Shot starring one John Stamos, now… might be a good time.

That’s because last week, Disney announced it will be removing a combined 70+ TV shows and movies from Disney+ and Hulu on May 26. Why? The move allows Disney to write off between $1.5 to $1.8 billion, according to the company’s most recent earnings call on May 10.

• To get a little finance-nerdy for a second: the company does this by taking a “content impairment charge.” Impairment charges are used to write off an asset whose value has dropped or been lost completely.

📺👋 Driving the move: According to Disney’s former and current CEO Bob Iger, bringing the company’s streaming division out of the red by the end of 2024 is his number one priority.

And though the company’s numbers from the past three quarters are squarely in the red, the losses are getting smaller (which we're told by experts is a good sign). Disney lost $659 million in Q1 of this year, a sizable improvement from last year’s Q4 and Q3 losses of $1.1 billion and $1.5 billion, respectively.

✂️ All part of the plan… Disney isn't the only studio channeling Edward Scissorhands. Over the past year or so, Warner Bros. Discovery has been gradually culling titles from HBO Max – including Westworld – for cost-cutting purposes.

💬 Quoted… “Epstein tried unsuccessfully to leverage a past relationship to threaten Mr. Gates.”

• Per a WSJ report published yesterday, disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in 2017 threatened to expose an extramarital affair involving Bill Gates and a Russian bridge player. The threat, which wasn’t followed through, reportedly came after Epstein failed to convince the Microsoft co-founder to invest in his proposed multibillion-dollar charitable fund.

🏘️ Stat of the Day: 78% = the percentage of Americans who currently believe it's a bad time to buy a house, the highest percentage since Gallup first asked that question in 1978.

🤯 Did You Know?... White rice is just brown rice with its outer layer milled off.

📖 Worth a Read: Why birds and their songs are good for our mental health → (WaPo)

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• ☝️ A 10-foot-high bronze spider sculpture created by French-American artist Louise Bourgeois sold for $32.8 million, Sotheby’s announced on Friday; it’s the highest amount ever paid at auction for a sculpture made by a female artist.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

In partnership with Pendulum

• 💰 US markets closed down across the board on Friday (S&P: -0.2%; Dow: -0.3%; Nasdaq: -0.2%).
• 🎢 Disney on Friday unveiled new details about DisneylandForward, the company’s 30-year expansion plan for Orange County; the company projects it’ll bring nearly 2,300 jobs to the area.
• ✈️⚖️ JetBlue and American Airlines will be forced to end their partnership in the Northeast, a federal judge ruled on Friday.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• ⚽ Manchester City won its third straight Premier League championship. | 🏇 National Treasure won the Preakness Stakes on Saturday; the Bob Baffert trained horse was the second favorite to win, at 5-2 odds. | 🏌️ Brooks Koepka won the PGA Championship.
• 📱 Meta is developing a standalone Twitter-clone microblogging platform that will be partially integrated with Instagram; it’s set to release this summer, per TechCrunch.
• 🏈 Jim Brown, one of the greatest college football and NFL players of all time, died on Friday; the former running back was 87. | 💻 Hank Green, the YouTube creator and author, has been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 💰🌕 NASA awarded Blue Origin a $3.4 billion contract to develop a human landing system for the Artemis V mission to the Moon; SpaceX is currently building the lander NASA will use to land on the Moon as part of the Artemis III and IV missions.
• 🚀 A SpaceX rocket carrying a former NASA astronaut and three paying customers blasted off into space yesterday afternoon for a weeklong stay aboard the ISS; it’s the second such mission chartered by Axiom Space.
• 🛣️ A team of scientists recently discovered what they say is "the first freeway system in the world," connecting 417 cities in Guatemala roughly 3,000 years ago.

MISCELLANEOUS

• 🇬🇷 Greece’s incumbent ruling party secured ~40% of the vote in yesterday’s general election – more than 20 points higher than the main opposition party, but still short of the majority needed to form a coalition-free government.
• 🇨🇳 China’s government yesterday ordered domestic businesses dealing with “critical information” to stop buying products from Micron Technology, the biggest US memory chipmaker.
• 🗳️ Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) officially filed paperwork to run for president in 2024 on Friday. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

CLICKBAIT

• ♟️ A meme takes center stage in the chess cheating lawsuit.

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On Friday, we covered the latest installment of Axios/Ipsos’ American Health Index, which every few months asks 1,000+ US adults what they think is the biggest threat to American public health.

❓ Our question to you: In your opinion, what’s currently the No. 1 threat to American public health?

• 🔫 Access to firearms: 24%
• 🍟 Obesity: 19%
• 💊 Opioids and fentanyl: 11%
• 🎗️ Cancer: 10%
• 👤 Loneliness: 10%
• 🍺 Alcohol abuse: 9%
• 🦠 Covid: 6%
• 📱 Social media: 4%
• 📊 Something else/other: 3%
• 🚬 Smoking/tobacco products: 2%
• 🚗 Unsafe driving: 2%

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

+Note on sample size: We received 15,426 votes and 1,500 longform responses.

Monday: International Being You Day

Tuesday: Warner Bros. launches Max, its combined streaming service

Wednesday: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) expected to announce his 2024 presidential candidacy

Thursday: Weekly unemployment claims

Friday: Disney’s live-action version of The Little Mermaid hits theaters

Randy Williams, aka “Ramblin' Randy," started off on a mission to visit every country in the world more than a decade ago. 

• The travel-lover arrived in Turkmenistan last week, officially checking country #195 off his list and completing his lofty goal.  

🌏 How he did it: Randy travels quickly through the countries he visits, sometimes spending less than 24 hours in a destination. 

• "It is not uncommon for me to spend only one night in each country... I travel fast and furious because my eye is on the prize; I want to see every single country on this beautiful planet," he wrote on his website.

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

1. Capit
2. Erg
3. Hipp
4. Lun
5. Omni

(keep scrolling for the answers)

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1. Capit = Head (e.g., capital)
2. Erg = Work (ergonomic)
3. Hipp = Horse (hippodrome, hippopotamus)
4. Lun = Moon (lunar, lunatic)
5. Omni = All (omnivore, omnipotent)