Good morning. If you “fake it till you make it,” what happens when you do, in fact, make it?

Do you, then, stop faking it? It’s not like you have a new set of skills now that you’ve “made it,” right? Unless what you are faking is, in fact, having made it.

In that case, the phrase should really be, “Fake it that you’ve made it ‘till you make it, at which point you won’t need to fake it any longer.”

However, it’s more likely that you’ll just keep on faking it, because isn’t that what we’re all doing, all the time? Perhaps the phrase should be changed to a poem:

Fake it ‘till you

fake it some more,

for ‘making it’ is an illusion;

no one’s keeping score.

Whoa, was that actually maybe sorta good? Or did we just fake it? Yes.

Now get ready for one thing we’ll never fake – THE NEWS.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 4.94 minutes to read.

“The more you are grateful for what you have, the more you will have to be grateful for.”

–Hilary "Zig" Ziglar (1926-2012)

Based on the results of two recently published studies, a series of effective weight loss pills developed by pharma giants like Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly, and Pfizer could soon be available to the public.

And since a pill-version would solve some of the biggest obstacles in the way of existing obesity drugs like Ozempic reaching a mass-market, this bit of news has the folks on Wall Street more excited than a dog with the zoomies.

One such obstacle: price. Another? People’s fear of needles. Existing obesity drugs on the market like Ozempic cost upwards of $10,000/year, and most aren’t covered by insurance if used for weight loss. These drugs are also delivered via injection – a more costly (and anxiety-inducing) process than just taking a pill.

Hence, why drugmakers are focusing on developing a pill to treat obesity. A lower cost and easier delivery mechanism could broaden the market by making it easier for primary-care physicians to prescribe more widely.

• Wall Street analysts predict these new obesity drugs could exceed $100 billion in annual sales, which would represent one of the largest drug classes of all time.
• This investor-fueled hype is mainly driven by two things: a large addressable market + a product that needs to be used indefinitely. ~40% of the US is currently obese, and because these drugs mimic a hormone we produce to signal to our body that we’re full, stopping the weekly injections means potentially reversing any weight loss.

💊 Big picture: One-third of Americans say they would indefinitely pay whatever they can afford to access new weight-loss medicines such as Ozempic, according to a recent survey by STAT and The Harris Poll.

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🇸🇦☪️ Nearly 2 million Muslims have begun the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca (located in Saudi Arabia). The annual pilgrimage to the city is one of the five pillars of Islam, with all Muslims required to make the five-day journey at least once in their lives if physically and financially able to do so. Saudi officials estimate a record-high 2.5+ million pilgrims will ultimately participate in this year’s Hajj, which is the first without any restrictions since before the Covid pandemic.

🇷🇺 Russian President Vladimir Putin made his first public address since the Wagner Group’s armed rebellion ended. In a speech yesterday, Putin thanked the Wagner soldiers who halted their advance on Moscow, but said any attempt to provoke unrest in Russia was “doomed to fail.” Earlier that day, Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led the rebellion, categorized his armed uprising as a “demonstration of protest” against Russian generals rather than an attempt to topple Russia’s government. While Saturday’s ceasefire agreement included full amnesty for Prigozhin and his troops, Russian state media reports the Wagner chief is still under criminal investigation.

🇫🇮 Finland is almost done building the world’s first permanent storage site for spent nuclear fuel. Over the past 19 years, Finnish nuclear giant Posiva has spent $1.1 billion constructing a custom bunker buried more than 1,300 feet underground. The bunker, which will become operational starting next year, is designed to house all ~7,200 tons of spent uranium created by Finland’s five nuclear reactors over their entire lifetime. Several other countries – including the US, UK, Sweden, France, and Canada – are also considering similar underground bunkers to store nuclear waste.

On Saturday, the European Space Agency is scheduled to channel its inner Darth Vader and turn to the dark side. And by that we mean launch its new Euclid space probe, which aims to study the mysterious “dark universe” – aka dark energy and dark matter – in more detail than ever before.

📅 Background: In 2014, NASA’s Planck mission discovered that all normal matter, including everything humans have ever observed, adds up to less than 5% of the universe😳.

The rest is composed of dark energy (68%) and dark matter (27%), which haven’t ever been actually observed by scientists but were created to explain what would otherwise be impossible observations about the universe.

• Dark matter helps explain what, along with its buddy gravity, is keeping galaxies intact as they rotate. Without the existence of dark matter, these galaxies would have torn apart billions of years ago, since the gravity from their observable matter alone isn’t strong enough to hold them together.
• Dark energy, aka the opposite of gravity, is the answer to why the universe is expanding faster today than ever before, when gravitational laws indicate the opposite should be true. Meaning: gravity pulls things inward, so over time the pace of the universe’s expansion outward should start to slow (but it’s not).

👀 Looking ahead… Once the ESA’s Euclid probe reaches space, it will begin creating a detailed map of how the universe evolved over time by observing billions of galaxies as far as 10 billion light-years away. Astronomers hope this map will reveal more about the precise nature of dark energy, dark matter, and gravity.

When it comes to AI, sure, there’s a whole lotta hype. But does anyone actually… use it?

That’s one question, among many others, answered in an AI-related poll of 2,000 US adults recently published by The Verge and Vox. And here’s the reality of how actual people are thinking about – and using – the technology.

• Usage: One in three US adults has used an AI-powered tool, with usage skewing heavily towards Gen Z and Millennials vs. Gen X and Boomers.
• Impact: Almost 75% of respondents believe AI will have a significant or moderate impact on society. In comparison, 69% thought the same for EVs, 60% for VR, and 34% for NFTs.
• Sentience: 64% of US adults expressed no concerns about companies working towards the creation of a sentient, or conscious, human-like AI.

📰 In other recent + impactful AI news: Last Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced the SAFE Innovation in the AI Age legislative strategy, an intended bipartisan effort to legislate AI around five major principles: security, accountability, protecting our foundations, explainability, and innovation.

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• CBN’s relaxing effects can have anti-inflammatory/analgesic properties, and multiple studies have found it to be a powerful, natural sleep aid.

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💬 Quoted… “The 2024 elections are going to be a mess…”

• On Monday, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt warned that the primary short-term danger of AI, in his mind, is misinformation. He points to decisions like Google’s recent announcement to stop removing false claims about 2020 US election fraud, which Schmidt believes are paving the way for a deluge of false AI-generated content to spread across the internet. Free speech, he argues, is “for humans, not computers.”

😋 Stat of the Day: Bring on the all-you-can-eat meatloaf, cornbread, and crab legs, because buffets are back, baby! Golden Corral, the buffet chain restaurant with ~360 locations, is, according to CEO Lance Trenary, “running about 20 percent up” this year.

🤯 Did You Know?.... Pressing “enter” and “clear” at the same time at some gas pumps allows you to input the exact dollar amount of gas you’d like to buy. At other gas stations, it’s even easier – just press “enter” – while at others, you need to press the numbers 7,8,9,8,9 and then hit “enter” almost like a videogame cheat code.

📖 Worth a Read: The search for Earth's hidden mountains → (BBC Future)

• ☝️ Scooter, a Chinese crested born with backwards hind legs, won “top prize” in the 2023 World’s Ugliest Dog contest this past weekend; Scooter spent years walking on his front two legs before recently acquiring a two-wheel mobility cart.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with Lodi Wine Country

• 💰 US markets closed down across the board yesterday (S&P: -0.5%; Dow: -0.04%; Nasdaq: -1.16%).
• 🪙 Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX has recovered ~$7 billion in liquid assets so far, per a new report from CEO John Ray; the company now estimates it owes customers $8.7 billion in total, and is continuing efforts to claw the funds back.
• 💐👃 Gucci owner Kering is buying luxury cologne maker Creed, a 263-year-old business that once counted King George III among its clients, in a deal with undisclosed terms.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• ⚾ LSU defeated Florida 18-4 last night to win its seventh NCAA Men’s College World Series title in school history (and first since 2009). | 🏎️ Ryan Reynolds, Michael B. Jordan, and Rob McElhenney are among a group of investors who purchased a 24% stake in the Alpine Racing Formula One team, owner Renault Group revealed yesterday; the deal values Alpine at ~$900 million.
• 📺 Netflix eliminated its “Basic” $9.99 ad-free plan for all new or rejoining members in Canada.
• 📰 Fox News announced a series of changes to its primetime news lineup yesterday, including naming Jesse Waters to succeed former 8 pm ET host Tucker Carlson.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Bulletpitch

• 🔋 John Goodenough, Nobel Prize winner and pioneer in the development of lithium-ion batteries, passed away at the age of 100.
• 🦴 A team of scientists discovered what they believe is the oldest known evidence of “systematic cannibalism” among ancient human ancestors after analyzing a 1.45 million-year-old leg bone.
• 🚀 SpaceX’s Starship rocket needs another six weeks to finish implementing “well over 1,000” changes from its initial unsuccessful test flight two months ago, per CEO Elon Musk. (Background)

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MISCELLANEOUS

• 🥵 At least 45 million Americans across seven southern states were under an extreme heat warning yesterday; it marked an expansion of the ongoing heat dome that’s been affecting most of Mexico, Texas, and parts of New Mexico for over three weeks.
• ⚖️ A 23-year-old male was sentenced to life in prison yesterday after pleading guilty to killing five people in a 2022 mass shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs.
• 🗽 A first-of-its-kind law in NYC that would implement a “congestion toll” for every motorist entering midtown Manhattan has received final federal approval.

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Yesterday we covered the Wagner Group’s short-lived rebellion against the Russian government, which ended with a peace agreement late Saturday night promising full amnesty to all Wagner troops.

❓ Our question to you: In your opinion, how long will Vladimir Putin, 70, remain the leader of Russia?

• The next 0-2 years: 39%
• The next 2-4 years: 24%
• The next 4-8 years: 16%
• More than 8 years: 21%

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

+Note on sample size: We received 9,545 votes and 863 longform responses.

Ben Miller is a 9-year-old boy who's quite the entrepreneur.

The young Idahoan has raised nearly $2,000 for his local humane society to help save as many animals as possible. How, you ask? With a good old-fashioned lemonade stand.

🐕‍🦺🐈❤️💸 Man on a mission... Ben spent hours on end making and selling his lemonade along with a host of cookies and other baked goods.

• After the Idaho Humane Society highlighted his efforts on their social media pages, people from across the state made the trek to Ben's stand for some lemonade.
• "He always had a big heart," Ben's mom shared. "It really just blew me away."

Note: an earlier version of this story ran on April 25, 2022. Our Positive DONUT writer Kailyn is currently deep in 50-hour/week rehearsals for another slate of upcoming live shows in Europe (which is taking a lot of her focus).

🏆 Trivia: How many Oscars did American Beauty (1999) win?

🎣 True or False?... The term for using all 7 Scrabble letters in a single turn is known as “Go Fish.”

🗝️ Riddle Me This… What kind of keys can’t open a lock?

(keep scrolling for the answers)

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🏆 Trivia: Five

🎣 T/F: False, it’s “Bingo”

🗝️ Riddle: Piano ("ones on a keyboard" is also acceptable)