Good morning. We have a jam-packed newsletter waiting:

• The winner of yesterday’s Taylor Swift vs. Beyoncè poll is in
• ​​New details have emerged regarding Covid’s origin
• Student loan payments are set to resume

But, if you read all of today’s email and still want more, you’re in good company. As of yesterday, the newsletter gods themselves bestowed us with the nickname DONUT Khaled – because, like many of you, they keep asking for “anotha one” every morning after reading.

And now, without further ado: NEWS.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 4.24 minutes to read.

"The best revenge is to be unlike those who performed the injury."

–Marcus Aurelius (121 A.D. – 180 A.D.)

More than three years after the Covid pandemic began – and nearly 7 million deaths later – the virus’ origin is still a hotly-debated topic among scientists, policymakers, and journalists. And while we still don’t know the answer for certain, a pair of newly-published reports shed more light on the topic.

🦠 Let’s break it down…

1. Report #1: According to a new investigation from journalists Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger, who both authored the Twitter Files, three scientists had been performing “gain-of-function” experiments with some of Covid’s closest viral relatives at the Wuhan Institute of Virology when they fell ill in November 2019. The trio is reportedly considered by US officials as the first people known to have been infected with Covid.
2. Report #2: A separate report, published yesterday by the WSJ, identified one of the three sick researchers as a prominent scientist who previously worked on coronavirus projects funded by the US government.

📸 Big picture: Many experts are undecided, but the rest have fallen into two main schools of thought: Covid was the result of natural transmission, meaning it passed from animals to humans, or it was originally leaked from a laboratory (likely in Wuhan, China).

In total, eight US federal agencies have investigated the origin of Covid. Four concluded the virus was likely the result of natural transmission, two said Covid likely leaked from a Chinese lab, and two are still undecided.

• Worth mentioning: the FBI is the only agency to say it had “moderate confidence” in its assessment that Covid leaked from a lab, versus a “low confidence” rating from the others.

📊 Flash poll: In your opinion, which of the following is the most likely explanation for Covid’s origin?

Lab-leak hypothesis

Natural transmission

Other

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🌋🌩️ The Tonga undersea volcano eruption last year created the most intense lightning storm ever recorded. In a peer-reviewed study published Monday in Geophysical Research Letters, scientists found the January 2022 eruption under the southern Pacific Ocean generated a record 192,000 individual lightning strikes over 11 hours, in a thunderstorm that spread across ~75,000 square miles. And the study puts yet another medal in the Tonga eruption’s trophy case – research previously found it also produced the most powerful atmospheric explosion ever recorded (15 megatons).

🇪🇪 Estonia approved a new law legalizing same-sex marriage. The law, which received 55 votes in the country’s 101-member Parliament, means Estonia will be the 31st country in the world where gay marriage is legal. The central European nation will also be the first ex-member of the Soviet Union to legalize same-sex marriage. Some 53% of Estonia’s population currently supports marriage equality, up from 34% in 2012, per a survey published last month.

🇷🇴 Romanian prosecutors indicted influencer Andrew Tate on charges of rape, human trafficking, and forming a sex trafficking organization. The British-US citizen and his brother Tristan are accused of luring seven women to Tate’s properties in Romania with what prosecutors called a “loverboy" ploy – aka making false promises of a romantic relationship to gain control over another person. Once they came to Romania, the women allegedly were sexually exploited, raped, and forced to make pornographic videos. Tate has consistently denied the charges against him, saying authorities have no evidence against him.

An international search and rescue team is racing against time to find a tourist submersible that went missing during a recent dive to explore the wreck of the Titanic. And to be perfectly frank, things aren’t looking good😬.

The five-person craft, named Titan, lost contact with the surface on Sunday morning, soon after making its initial dive to visit the famous shipwreck (which lies ~13,000 feet below the surface). It has not reopened communication.

And while in dire situations like this it’d be amazing if the Staples “Easy” button was real, that’s unfortunately not the case – leaving officials with two big obstacles to overcome to pull off a rescue:

• The logistics required to search the ocean depths, which can reach pressures 200x that of a car tire.
• Time. Titan only has enough oxygen to last its crew 96 hours, meaning it’ll run out of air sometime tomorrow morning.

🌊 How could this have happened?... A Canadian plane using sonar picked up underwater noises in the search area late last night, but this has so far "yielded negative results" according to the Coast Guard. So at this point, everything is still speculative: power blackout, fire, flood, pressure leak, or the craft getting entangled in something (like the Titanic’s wreckage).

• If it’s one of the first three options, the craft could be bobbing on the surface somewhere waiting to be opened (its pressurized cabin is sealed from the outside). Submersibles typically have a drop weight, or a mass they can release in the case of an emergency to bring them up to the surface.

💬 Quoted… “Payments will be due starting in October.”

Yesterday, the Department of Education confirmed that the ongoing three-year pause on all federal student loan repayments, which was enacted due to the Covid pandemic and extended eight times, will officially expire in October.

• But even though the freeze is ending, there is still some uncertainty – namely, most borrowers don’t know what they’ll owe when payments resume in the fall. The Supreme Court has yet to issue its verdict on whether Biden’s plan to cancel $10,000 for all federal student-loan borrowers is legal, though a decision is expected sometime this month.

⚽🎟️ Stat of the Day: $1,065 = the minimum price on SeatGeek for a ticket to see superstar Lionel Messi's July 21 debut for Inter Miami of the MLS, according to Fortune. For context, tickets to club’s game on July 1 are selling for as low as $27.

🤯 Did You Know?... Adele threatened to walk away from her $58 million agreement to buy Sylvester Stallone’s LA mansion last year if the deal didn’t include the property’s 12-foot-high poolside statue of Rocky. (Stallone eventually agreed to Adele’s demand.)

📖 Worth a Read: The strange survival of Guinness World Records → (The Guardian)

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• ☝️ You’re looking at some of the winners of this year’s Royal Entomological Society Insect Week photo competition, which attracted entries from 34 different countries.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 💰 US markets closed down across the board yesterday (S&P: -0.5%; Dow: -0.7%; Nasdaq: -0.2%).
• 🚗⚡ Rivian is switching to the fast-charging standard pioneered by Tesla starting in the spring of 2024; its customers will now have access to America’s biggest EV charging network (Tesla's); this follows similar moves from Ford and GM.
• 🛒 Alibaba announced plans to replace Chairman and CEO Daniel Zhang with a combination of co-founders Eddie Wu and Joe Tsai (who owns the Brooklyn Nets).

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

in partnership with Spleash

• 🏀 The Washington Wizards will trade All-Star guard Bradley Beal to the Phoenix Suns in exchange for Chris Paul, Landry Shemet, and multiple second-round picks and pick swaps, per multiple reports. | 📱 Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant was suspended for 25 games for posing with a gun on Instagram Live last month (his second such incident).
• 👕 Pharrell Williams held his first fashion show as the men’s creative director of Louis Vuitton in Paris last night.
• 🎤 Taylor Swift announced 38 new international dates for her ongoing Eras Tour, which will head overseas next February.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Ice Barrel

• 🌌 In a new conceptual study, a theoretical physicist at the University of Geneva posits that the universe isn't constantly expanding, but rather is flat and static as Einstein once believed.
• 🏥 The US Preventive Services Task Force issued a new recommendation yesterday advising primary care doctors to screen all adults ages 19 through 64 for anxiety disorders.
• 🐍 Scientists have created genetically modified snakes for the first time ever, per a new peer-reviewed study published in Science Advances; the breakthrough offers new insights into how snakes develop their precisely patterned scales.

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MISCELLANEOUS

• 🇲🇪 Do Kwon, the crypto mastermind behind the $40 billion collapse of the terraUSD and Luna tokens, was sentenced to four months of jail in Montenegro for forging official documents; Kwon is also facing charges in the US and South Korea, though neither has an extradition treaty with Montenegro.
• 🏥 A federal judge yesterday struck down Arkansas' ban on gender-affirming care for children, ruling it violates the due process and equal protection rights of trans youth and families. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)
• ⚖️ Hunter Biden reached an agreement with the DOJ to plead guilty to two federal misdemeanor counts of failing to pay his taxes; Biden also faces a separate felony gun possession charge that’s likely to be dismissed if he meets certain conditions; it marks the first time the DOJ has ever brought charges against a sitting president’s son. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

CLICKBAIT

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Yesterday, Beyoncé and Taylor Swift went head-to-head.

❓ Our question to you: Whose music is better?

• 👑🐝 Team Bey = 31%
• 🧝🏻‍♀️🎸 Team Taylor = 69%

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

+Note on sample size: We received 7,026 votes and 353 longform responses.

Ninety-year-old Michael Leigh first opened the Kin Ryu Judo Club in Crawley, England, back in 1976.

And for the past 45+ years, the athlete has taught judo both in his studio and abroad, traveling to over 160 countries to share his love for the sport. 

🥇 Recognition where it's due... Michael was recently awarded a ninth dan in judo, which is the second-highest possible grade. There are currently only five other dans in the UK – and Michael is the oldest ever to hold the title.

Here's how to play: We provide an incorrect stat. Then you guess whether the actual number is over or under the stated value.

1. 🗼 5 years: How frequently the Eiffel Tower is repainted
2. ✈️ 4 gallons per second: The average pace that fuel is consumed by a Boeing 747 airplane
3. 🚘 500: The amount of hours it takes to build a Rolls Royce.

(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. Over; it’s repainted every 7 years
2. Under; it’s 1 gallon per second
3. Under; it takes 450 hours