Good morning. Remember the legendary arcade game NBA Jam? You couldn’t play as Michael Jordan because he owned the rights to his name and likeness, buuuut MJ did get a special version of the game made where he and Gary Payton were a two-man team.

Guess that’s what happens when you’re the GOAT.

Speaking of four-letter words, here’s the NEWS.

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

“Every adversity, every failure, every heartbreak, carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.”

–Napoleon Hill (1883-1970)

On the left is a video clip that was shown to a group of young adult volunteers. On the right is an AI model’s attempt at literally reading the volunteers’ minds – aka recreating what they’re seeing in real-time, based on scans of their brain activity.

The psychic community is not happy with the news.

🤔 What news exactly?... That a research team in Singapore has developed a new mind-reading technique that uses AI to recreate "high-quality" video of what humans are seeing in real-time, according to a study published last Friday on the arXiv preprint server.

Here’s how it works:

• The study’s volunteers entered an fMRI to have their brains scanned over a period of 18 hours. During that time, they looked at pictures from a dataset of images – including everyday buildings, sports activities, and wildlife – for nine seconds each.
• The researchers then trained an AI model to associate the volunteers’ brain patterns with particular image features like color, shape, texture, and contextual meaning.
• Lastly, they used the AI model to recreate what volunteers saw when they were shown brand-new video clips inside the brain scanner.

And while the videos weren’t reproduced with total accuracy, the research team said their AI model consistently produced recognizable matches, and significantly outperformed all previous experiments of a similar nature.

💥 The impact: The researchers’ ultimate goal is to help people with medical conditions that make it hard for them to communicate (like full-body paralysis). Future plans include a mind-reading headband with sensors that can detect and translate the wearer’s brain activity in real-time.

🧠 Zoom out: This study represents the latest advancement in the field of… well, reading people’s minds using AI. Earlier this month, a peer-reviewed study published in Nature Neuroscience detailed a new AI system from UT Austin scientists that successfully and non-invasively translated a person’s thoughts into text for the first time ever.

🌏 Nearly 400 new species were recently discovered in Southeast Asia’s Greater Mekong region. In a report published Monday, the World Wildlife Fund revealed that 290 plants, 19 fish species, 24 amphibians, 46 reptiles and one mammal species have been discovered over the past two years in the region, which encompasses Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, China, Cambodia, and Vietnam. And that’s not all (warning: the report was a little bit of an emotional roller coaster) – the WWF also warned that nearly all of the newly-discovered species could soon become extinct due to loss of habitat caused by human activity🎢📉.

🇨🇳 China is on a path to securing access to one-third of the world’s lithium-mine production capacity by 2025. Lithium is a key component of cell phones, EV batteries, laptops, and other popular electronics. And Beijing has spent $4.5 billion over the past two years acquiring stakes in nearly 20 lithium mines, most in Latin America and Africa, according to data compiled by industry analytics firms Rystad and Benchmark. Though per the WSJ, this move represents a risky strategy for the Chinese government, due to its need to invest in many nations with a history of political instability, local resistance, and resource nationalism. For context, China itself contains around 8% of the world’s lithium.

🇨🇭 Swiss researchers helped a paralyzed man walk normally again with brain and spine implants. The 40-year-old man from the Netherlands was outfitted with two stimulators that, when activated, reestablish communication between his brain and the area of the spinal cord that controls leg movements. Using the new device, the man is now able to simply think about walking, and his legs will obey. The experimental system was detailed in a peer-reviewed study published yesterday in Nature.

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis filed paperwork to run in the 2024 Republican presidential primary yesterday afternoon, hours before formally announcing his campaign in a glitchy Twitter Spaces event hosted by CEO Elon Musk.

With the addition of DeSantis, seven candidates have now officially entered the 2024 presidential race on the Republican side. The other potential nominees are:

• Former President Donald Trump
• South Carolina Senator Tim Scott
• Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley
• Former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson
• Former biotech executive Vivek Ramaswamy
• Talk radio host Larry Elder

🔵 On the Democratic side… President Biden officially announced his reelection bid late last month. Two political activists with no elected experience – Marianne Williamson and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – have also thrown their hats into the ring, but the DNC has committed to supporting Biden’s reelection and isn’t planning to sponsor any primary debates for 2024.

📊 What do the polls say?... As it stands today, former President Trump is the GOP frontrunner, with support from 54% of likely Republican voters, per the latest data from FiveThirtyEight’s poll aggregator. Gov. DeSantis ranks second with 21%, while all other candidates are at 5% or less.

• On a national level, President Biden is polling virtually even with both former President Trump and Gov. DeSantis, and is slightly ahead compared to other GOP candidates.

+Dive deeper: From the Left | From the Center | From the Right

Have you been feeling like a mermaid longing for more than just what’s under the sea? Us too. And we’re all in luck because, starting today, Disney’s live-action reimagining of the 1989 animated classic, The Little Mermaid, hits theaters across the country.

Reviews so far have been generally positive. The film currently has a 72% on Rotten Tomatoes, with almost all critics agreeing on one thing – star Halle Bailey (not to be confused with Halle Berry) shines as Ariel. It’s Bailey’s first leading role in a film, though she’s no stranger to singing; she’s half of the five-time Grammy nominated R&B duo Chloe x Halle.

🧜🍿 So what’s different about the remake?… First off, the whole “live-action” thing. Unlike its cartoon predecessor, this version of The Little Mermaid consists of real-live actors and a whole lot of CGI (for nonhuman characters like Sebastian).

But don’t worry, all the songs from the classic film, like “Under the Sea” and “Part of Your World,” are back. In fact, the mastermind behind those songs – composer Alan Menkin – returned to recompose the updated soundtrack.

• There are also a few new songs, too. The live-action film is longer (by 52 minutes), meaning the film team had room to add new tracks written by Menkin as well as Lin-Manuel Miranda, the composer of Hamilton and a Disney regular who’s written music for Moana, Encanto, and Mary Poppins Returns.

👀 Looking ahead… Get ready to see Halle Bailey on the big screen more often – The Little Mermaid won’t be her only leading role in a musical remake this year. The 23-year old is also starring in Oprah’s musical reimagining of The Color Purple, which opens in theaters this Christmas.

💬 Quoted… “We had a guy pull in the other day towing a big boat... He asked us how to get to the launch ramp to the lake. I don’t think he realized he was looking at a lake of solar panels.”

• Over the last few years, developers have created a “sea” of solar panels in California’s Mojave desert that represents one of the largest such installations in the world. The Riverside East Solar Energy Zone covers a combined 150,000 acres, an area more than 10x the size of Manhattan.

🎮💣 Stat of the Day: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom sold 10 million copies in its first three days, making it Nintendo of America’s fastest-selling game in history.

🤯 Did You Know?... Sir J.J. Thomson, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, had seven students who later went on to win their own separate Nobel Prizes, as well as a son who also won a Nobel Prize (also in physics).

📖 Worth a Read: Inside Denmark's secret nuclear bunker → (BBC Travel)

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• ☝️ Typhoon Mawar made landfall in the US territory of Guam overnight yesterday, cutting power to all 150,000 residents; the storm brought 140-mph winds and between one and two feet of rain, causing property damage but no reported injuries.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with Dooeys

• 💰 US markets closed down across the board yesterday (S&P: -0.7%; Dow: -0.8%; Nasdaq: -0.6%).
• 👚🎽 Abercrombie & Fitch and Kohl’s both reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings yesterday; A&F’s stock closed up over 31%, while shares of Kohl’s rose as much as 19%. | 💻 Nvidia shares were up over 20% in after-hours trading after the chipmaker announced a stronger-than-expected forecast.
• 🛒 Target announced plans to remove some Pride Month merchandise following threats made against employees; the retailer said it still remains committed to celebrating the LGBTQIA+ community.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🤖🎙️ Spotify is reportedly developing AI tools to read advertising copy that mimic its hosts’ voices.
• 🏈❌ The Washington Commanders’ trademark application for the name “Commanders” was rejected by the US Patent and Trademark Office; the team said it’s still committed to the name and will keep trying to secure a trademark.
• 🎤 Tina Turner, the singer often referred to as the “Queen of Rock 'n' Roll”, died yesterday at 83 years old. | 👁 Rapper Fetty Wap was sentenced to six years in prison on federal drug trafficking charges.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Lingopie

• 🪐 Saturn’s icy rings formed relatively recently – while dinosaurs still roamed the Earth – and could disappear within the next few hundred million years; that’s per a new analysis of data captured by NASA’s Cassini probe, which orbited the gas giant from 2004 to 2017.
• 🌐 It’s more likely that people are responsible for choosing to engage with partisan or unreliable news, versus the theory that search-engine algorithms are unduly exposing them to such content, per a peer-reviewed study published yesterday in Nature.
• 🌀 NASA scientists have observed a polar cyclone on Uranus for the first time; the discovery confirms that all planets with substantial atmospheres in our Solar System, both rocky and gas-based, show signs of a swirling vortex at the poles.

*From our partners: 📺😎 Thousands of people are learning a new language by watching their favorite Netflix shows… How, you ask? With dual subtitles and other interactive features from Lingopie, the go-to platform that makes learning a language stress-free and enjoyable. Sign up and get a 7-day free trial.

MISCELLANEOUS

• 🦬 A newborn bison calf was euthanized by Yellowstone National Park rangers this week after a visitor touched the animal while trying to help it catch up to its herd, leading the calf to become rejected by the herd and persistently approach other humans and cars.
• 🎓 George Washington University is changing its nickname from the Colonials to the Revolutionaries.
• 🏛️ South Carolina’s Senate approved a ban on nearly all abortions after six weeks of pregnancy; the bill now heads to the desk of Gov. Henry McMaster, who has promised to sign it into law. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

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Yesterday we covered America’s divide over gender-affirming healthcare for transgender teens, with GOP lawmakers enacting new restrictions for such care and Democratic lawmakers passing new protections.

❓ Our question to you: Which political party’s stance on gender-affirming healthcare for minors do you most agree with?

• 🔴 Republicans: 48%
• 🔵 Democrats: 39%
• 🤷 Unsure/other: 13%

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

+Note on sample size: We received 13,202 votes and 1,254 longform responses.

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

• Transplant patient sees own heart go on display at museum → (BBC News)
• "Make better choices": Researchers beg endangered seals to not stick eels up nose → (WPBF)
• Book overdue by nearly 100 years returned to library → (Fox5Vegas)
• World's largest T-shirt unfurled in Romania → (UPI)
• The actual Conjuring house is now offering camping → (PennLive)

Did you know that Sydney, Australia, hosts an annual duck fashion show?🤔

Well, it's a real thing. Sponsored by farmer Brian Harrington, the show is part of the yearly Pied Piper Duck Event. 

• Each duck receives three outfits: one for day, one for evening, and one for a wedding. And the looks will quack you up! 

+Dive deeper: See more hilarious photos from the show here. 

Aconcagua, pictured above, is the highest mountain peak in the Southern Hemisphere. In which country is it located?

(keep scrolling for the answer)

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