Good morning. Don’t forget: Sunday is Father’s Day. In honor of that, here are some of our favorite dad jokes:

• “Singing in the shower is fun until you get soap in your mouth. Then it's a soap opera."
• “Dad, I’m hungry” – “Hi hungry, I’m dad” (classic)
• “Why do flamingos lift up one leg? Because if they lift both they would fall.”

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there. We love you❤️.

And now, NEWS.

P.S. We’ll be off on Monday in honor of Juneteenth. See you back here bright and early on Tuesday!

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 4.95 minutes to read.

“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.”

–Vince Lombardi (1913-1970)

Bud Light, the top US beer seller since 2001, lost its sales crown last month amidst a conservative-led boycott that also grew to include some progressive Americans, according to a new WSJ report citing data from consulting firm Bump Williams.

🍺 Some quick background: Bud Light’s sales first started to decline in April, when transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney posted an image of a personalized Bud Light can that the brand had sent her as a gift.

• Mulvaney’s Instagram post initially sparked backlash against Anheuser-Busch from some conservatives – and the brewer’s response to the conservative-led boycott wound up angering some progressive Americans, too.

💥 The impact: Mexican brand Modelo Especial made up 8.4% of all beer sales from US retail stores in May, compared to a 7.3% market share for Bud Light (down from 10% in late March).

On a year-to-year basis, sales of Bud Light fell 24.6% in May, with other Anheuser-Busch brands like Budweiser and Michelob Ultra also taking a hit, per the WSJ.

• Since Mulvaney first posted her Bud Light can in early April, shares of Anheuser-Busch have declined by about 15%, compared to a 7% increase in the S&P 500 over the same period.

📸 Big picture: Bud Light sales through the first five months of 2023 were still higher than any other beer. But many industry experts now believe Modelo has permanently dethroned Bud Light as America’s favorite beer, after the recent boycott accelerated a long-term trend pointing to a switch in popularity, per the Journal.

📊 Flash poll: Have you personally chosen to avoid Bud Light products due to the recent controversy?

Yes

No

I’m too young/I don’t drink beer

👚 Lulemon saw yearly sales rise by 30% last year, having more than doubled since 2019. While benefiting from the at-home fitness boom from the pandemic, they also slipped into the shoe biz and introduced a subscription model to bolster revenue.

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🇮🇳 The head of India’s wrestling federation was charged with sexual harassment following months of protests by Olympic wrestlers. Indian wrestling chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, a top politician within the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, is being charged with assaulting, stalking, and sexually harassing at least seven young women between 2012 and 2022. The charges come after some of India’s top female wrestlers accused Singh of sexual harassment in January, then embarked on a months-long effort to have their claims investigated after initially being dismissed by authorities.

🇷🇺 Russia is in the midst of its worst labor shortage in decades. In the first quarter of 2023, Russian companies reported the biggest shortage of workers since data collection began in 1998, per a new survey by the country’s central bank. A separate analysis by consulting firm FinExpertiza found the number of Russian employees under 35 years old dropped by 1.3 million last year to reach its lowest level since the early 1990s.

🇨🇳 The Chinese government is reportedly planning major steps to boost its lagging economy. Officials in Beijing are considering a series of new stimulus measures that would include billions in new infrastructure spending and looser rules to encourage home buying, according to a new WSJ report citing multiple internal sources. These measures, in addition to interest rate cuts announced last week by China’s central bank, are a sign that Beijing’s economy has cooled considerably after seeing a temporary surge in spending following the abandonment of its strict “zero-Covid” policy in December, per the Journal.

The Oakland Athletics are one step closer to becoming the Las Vegas Athletics. Earlier this week, Nevada’s legislature passed a bill approving public funding for the team’s new stadium on the Strip, sending it to Governor Joe Lombardo’s desk to sign it into law.

The bill, which passed the state Senate by a vote of 13-8 and the state’s assembly by a vote of 25-15, allocates $380 million in total public assistance towards the stadium – $180 million in transferable tax credits and $120 million in county bonds (taxpayer-backed loans).

And *sarcasm incoming* the timing of its passage has probably made the people of Oakland veryyyy happy. The bill landed on Governor Lombardo’s desk one day after more than 27,000 A’s fans flooded their home ballpark as a “reverse boycott” to show the team’s record-low attendance – ~8,900 people/game – was due to their anger at the organization and not disinterest (the “sell the team” chants during the game probably made that more clear).

👀 Looking ahead… But if A’s fans are holding onto a sliver of hope, it’s this: there are still some additional steps until the relocation becomes official.

The bill still needs to be signed into law, the team still needs to secure additional funding to build its $1.2 billion stadium, and three-quarters of the other MLB-team owners still have to approve the proposed move. (A’s fans – EARMUFFS. All three are expected to happen though; the team is shooting to play in the new stadium starting in 2027.)

On Wednesday, Australian airline Qantas launched a new route between New York and Sydney with a stop in Auckland, New Zealand.

It marks the first time the airline has flown to JFK via Auckland instead of through Los Angeles, Australian Aviation reports. And the move now means Qantas provides three of the world’s longest flights:

• Perth-London: 17 hours and 20 minutes.
• Dallas-Melbourne: 17 hours and 35 minutes.
• Auckland-New York: 16 hours and 15 minutes.

But the crown for the longest plane trip goes to Singapore Airlines: 18 hours and 50 minutes, between Singapore-New York. Though if Qantas has anything to say about it, that crown could soon change hands.

The Australian airline is currently focusing on providing nonstop flights between Sydney-New York and Sydney-London. Time in the air would clock in around 20 hours – or enough time to watch all eight Harry Potter movies.

✈️ One interesting thing: For eight years, Qantas has been working with sleep scientists to study passenger moods, sleep patterns, and food intake in an attempt to limit the impact of jet lag on super-long flights. They discovered that delaying meal service and keeping passengers awake longer with cabin lights helps to combat its symptoms.

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💬 Quoted… "It has served me well so far.”

• Diego Balleza, a 28-year-old prominent 10-meter diver from Mexico, has created an OnlyFans account to pay for his training for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. The move follows a dispute between the Mexican government and the international diving federation World Aquatics, which resulted in Balleza and other divers losing their monthly stipend.

👶 Stat of the Day: $10,600 = the average annual cost to care for one child in the US in 2021, per a new report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

🤯 Did You Know?... Each of the nine main Star Wars movies has featured the line: “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

📖 Worth a Read: The ‘Taxi Prince’ Is Taking on Uber – and Winning → (WSJ)

• ☝️ NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover recently sent back this “postcard” offering a glimpse of what the red planet looks like at different times of day.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 💰 US markets rose across the board yesterday (S&P: +1.2%; Dow: +1.3%; Nasdaq: +1.2%); all three major indexes closed at their highest level since 2022.
• 📈 Shares of Cava rose as much as 117% in the Mediterranean restaurant chain’s NYSE debut yesterday; they ended the day up 99%, giving the company a market value of $4.9 billion.
• 🏦 The SEC, Federal Reserve, and DOJ are all reportedly investigating Goldman Sachs’ role in buying the securities portfolio of Silicon Valley Bank while Goldman was simultaneously working on SVB’s doomed capital raise prior to its failure.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

in partnership with Spleash

• ⛳🏛️ The PGA Tour has been notified by the Justice Department that its merger with the Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf tour is under investigation over antitrust concerns, per multiple reports. | 🏌️ Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele yesterday became the first and second golfers ever to finish a round at the US Open in as few as 62 total shots (8 under par).
• ⚖️ Bill Cosby is facing a lawsuit brought by nine women who allege they were drugged and sexually assaulted by Cosby in Nevada between 1979 and 1992; the suit was filed several weeks after Nevada enacted a new law eliminating a two-year deadline for adults to file sexual abuse cases.
• 🥊 Former UFC champion Conor McGregor has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman in the men’s bathroom at the Miami Heat's arena following Game 4 of the NBA Finals; McGregor has denied the allegation.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with myBalto

• 🔬 A team of US and UK researchers say they’ve created the world’s first synthetic embryo-like structures from human stem cells, a breakthrough that bypasses the need for eggs and sperm to create human life.
• 🪐🔭 A rare five-planet alignment is scheduled to occur in the night sky this Saturday morning around 5 am local time (or about an hour before sunrise).
• 🎣 A 9.4-foot-long catfish that was recently hooked in northern Italy is the largest such specimen in recorded history.

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MISCELLANEOUS

• 📑💻 Jack Teixeira, the Massachusetts Air National Guardsman who was arrested in April on suspicion of leaking classified Pentagon documents on Discord, was indicted by a grand jury yesterday on six counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information.
• 🗳️ Miami Mayor Francis Suarez (R) filed paperwork on Wednesday to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)
• ⚖️ The Supreme Court yesterday voted 7-2 in favor of a 1978 law aimed at keeping Native American adoptees with members of their tribe. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

CLICKBAIT

• 🦈🤔 Could the megalodon still exist today?

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🦊 ☝️ Look at that cutie... This feisty baby fox was rescued by RSPCA animal rescuers in Birmingham, England, after being spotted for three weeks with litter around its neck. 

• Rescuers are unsure how the kit got trapped, but said the baby was lucky to be rescued when he was.
• Once the litter was removed, the lucky little fox was taken to a wildlife center to be examined. He'll be released into the wild once he regains his strength. 

Below are three lists of ingredients. All you have to do is give us the completed dish they make. Easy peasy! (The rules, at least.)

☝️ Recipe #1:

• Onion
• Cilantro
• Cream cheese
• Cumin
• Jalapeños
• Salt
• Jack cheese

✌️ Recipe #2:

• Chicken thighs
• Olive oil
• Red wine vinegar
• Greek yogurt
• Garlic cloves
• Zested lemons
• Smoked paprika
• Dried oregeno

3️⃣ Recipe #3:

• Bacon
• Red lentil fusilli
• Green beans
• Crème fraîche
• Garlic
• Lemon
• Baby spinach
• Cucumber
• Spring onions

(keep scrolling for the answers)

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☝️ Recipe #1: Baked stuffed jalapeños

✌️ Recipe #2: Chicken gyros

3️⃣ Recipe #3: Creamy bacon pasta salad