Good morning. Today’s date is, of course, July 10, 2023, aka 7-10-2023.

Do you see it? The power of that date? Watch closely, because this is about to get very complicated.

First, add up the numbers in 2023 – and you get 7. Now you’ve got 7-10-7. Obviously, the two 7’s cancel each other out and now you’ve simply got…

10.

Or perhaps that’s just a 1 next to a…🍩. Yes, it’s all there, clear as day – the one True DONUT revealing itself. And guess what? You’re reading it.

Take a minute to collect yourself, have some water, and now? NEWS.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 4.54 minutes to read.

“The merit of all things lies in their difficulty.”

–Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870)

Mark your calendars – the 2024 presidential cycle has an official start date.

The Republican Party of Iowa over the weekend announced plans to host its first-in-the-nation presidential caucus on January 15 (Martin Luther King Jr. Day), during which the state’s GOP voters will cast a ballot for their favorite candidate.

And much like that one neighbor with Christmas lights up in September, campaigning in Iowa has gotten off to an early start. A half-dozen GOP candidates appeared at events in the Hawkeye State last week – and Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis hosted her own solo event in Iowa as well.

Overall, more than 270 people have filed federal paperwork to run for the Republican nomination in 2024. But the vast majority of these candidates typically don’t appear on any ballots, raise any money, or otherwise attempt to run a campaign.

There are currently six Republican presidential candidates with at least 3% support among GOP voters, per FiveThirtyEight’s poll aggregator:

• Former President Donald Trump (52%)
• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (23%)
• Former VP Mike Pence (6%)
• Former biotech exec Vivek Ramaswamy (4%)
• Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (4%)
• South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott (4%)

🔵 On the Democratic side… President Biden officially announced his reelection bid in April. Two political activists with no elected experience – Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Marianne Williamson – 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.

• Biden is currently polling slightly behind former President Trump, and slightly ahead (or better) compared to all other GOP candidates.

👀 Looking ahead… The first Republican presidential debate is scheduled for August 23 in Milwaukee, though it's currently unclear which GOP candidates will participate.

📊 Flash poll: If the 2024 presidential election were held today, who would you vote for?

The Democratic candidate

The Republican candidate

A third-party candidate

I’m too young/I don’t vote

Unsure/other

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🇨🇳 Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen described her four-day trip to China as “productive.” The key takeaway from her meetings with top officials in Beijing over the weekend, Yellen explained, is that America is pushing for an economic relationship that's “mutually beneficial over the long-term,” despite competition and recent tensions between the world's two largest economies. China imposed export restrictions on two critical minerals used in computer chips last week, days after the US enacted similar limits on semiconductor exports to China.

🇫🇷 France approved a new law allowing police to remotely activate the cameras, microphones, and GPS systems of suspects’ phones, laptops, and cars. The law, first reported by Le Monde, permits such surveillance on any individual suspected of a crime punishable by at least five years in jail. However, any use of the provision must be approved by a judge, and the surveillance can’t target sensitive professions like doctors, lawyers, journalists, judges, or politicians. Some lawmakers and rights groups argue the new law is a violation of French citizens’ right to privacy, while lawmakers in favor of the bill say it will result in a safer country. It comes roughly a week after tens of thousands of youth protesters demonstrated across France for several days in a row; the country saw an estimated $1.1 billion in total property damage done over that period.

🇺🇦 Ukraine shouldn’t join NATO until its war against Russia is over, according to top US and German officials. In a CNN interview that aired Sunday, President Biden said it would be “premature” to admit Ukraine into NATO in the middle of an ongoing war, since the military alliance would then be obligated to join the conflict against Russia. Biden’s comments, which echoed similar remarks made last month by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, were published ahead of a two-day NATO summit featuring the heads of state from all 31 member-nations, beginning tomorrow in Lithuania.

The newest Indiana Jones film – Dial of Destiny – is about a device you can use to change history.

And based on the film’s second weekend at the box office, Disney execs are probably wishing they could get their hands on one.

Indy 5 has earned a less-than-expected $26.2 million in US box office receipts, which wasn’t enough to maintain its one-week-long reign in the #1 spot (that honor went to horror sequel Insidious: The Red Door, which opened to $32.7 million in the US). The showing marks a less-than-epic end to the five-film franchise, which, up until this point, had boasted some of the biggest box office hits of all time:

• In 1981, Raiders of the Lost Ark opened to only $8.3 million, but the film’s popularity grew. And grew, and grew. Nine months later, Raiders was still in theaters and had brought in an inflation-adjusted $1.1 billion worldwide.
• The next two sequels – Temple of Doom and The Last Crusade both scored big, earning an inflation-adjusted ~1.0 and ~$1.2 billion, respectively.
• 2008’s Kingdom of the Crystal Skull also cruised past the billion dollar mark, with an inflation-adjusted $1.1 billion.

🍿 Zoom out: This year’s summer box office currently lags last year’s by ~4%. Whether 2023 can catch up will depend largely on blockbusters like Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, out July 12, as well as Oppenheimer and Barbie, both out July 21.

💬 Quoted… “There are more than enough amazing communities…to make a vibrant platform without needing to get into politics or hard news.”

Instagram’s Threads, the text-based “Twitter clone” that launched last Wednesday night, has just crossed the 100 million user mark. This makes it the fastest-growing app… ever, overtaking ChatGPT, which took two months to hit the 100-million user mark.

• According to Instagram’s CEO, Adam Mosseri, there is one big difference between Threads and Twitter. Threads will not be elevating controversial topics like politics and news, with Mosseri claiming the increased engagement and revenue from those verticals is not worth, “...the scrutiny, negativity…or integrity risks.”

☀️🗺️ Stat of the Day: On July 8 at 7:15 AM EDT, the sun shone at least a little bit of sunlight on a whopping 99% of the Earth. Now that’s what you call a hot girl summer.

🤯 Did You Know?.... Stamp prices just went up. For example, purchasing a “forever” stamp now costs 66 cents, or three cents more than before. According to the USPS, the price hike is fueled by inflation.

📖 Worth a Read: Waterworld: America’s first water sommelier → (Afar)

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• ☝️ You’re looking at The Sphere, a new $2.3 billion entertainment venue in the Las Vegas Strip that’s set to open in September; The Sphere contains 18,000 seats, and is covered with 580,000 square feet of programmable LED panels.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 💰 US markets closed down across the board on Friday (S&P: -0.3%; Dow: -0.6%; Nasdaq: -0.1%).
• 💼 The US economy added 209,000 jobs in June, below economist estimates of 240,000; it’s the smallest monthly job gain since December 2020.
• 🥤⚡ PRIME, a beverage brand founded by YouTube stars Logan Paul and KSI, is facing calls for an FDA investigation over potentially hazardous caffeine levels; PRIME Energy, which is popular among Gen Z, contains 2x more caffeine than Red Bull.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

in partnership with Pendulum

• 🎙️ The North American leg of Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour kicked off in Toronto on Saturday; Queen Bey has 24 US tour dates scheduled between now and September 27.
• ⚾ LSU pitcher Tyler Skenes was selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates with the No. 1 pick of the 2023 MLB Draft. | 🏎️ Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won the F1 British Grand Prix. | ⚽ Megan Rapinoe will retire from women's soccer after the current NWSL season.
• ✈️📲 Jack Sweeney, who was suspended from Twitter last year for tracking private-jet flights via public info (including those of CEO Elon Musk), has moved to Meta’s Threads.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with CariFree

• 🌌 The Northern Lights are expected to be visible in 17 northern states this week due to increased solar activity.
• 🪱💊 Rilmenidine, a common drug prescribed for high blood pressure, was shown to slow down aging and increase the lifespan of worms in a peer-reviewed study published in Aging Cell.
• ⏳ Time appears to move more slowly in the early universe from the perspective of observers in the present day, per a new study published in Nature Astronomy; the findings confirm part of Einstein’s 1915 theory of general relativity.

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MISCELLANEOUS

• ⛈️ Heavy rain and thunderstorms are forecast over the northeastern US beginning last night, placing an estimated 50 million people from North Carolina to New Hampshire under a flood watch.
• ⚖️ Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors will go into effect for now; a US appeals court ruling on Saturday temporarily stayed a lower court’s ruling. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)
• 🏛️ Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) was voted out of the House Freedom Caucus on Friday; this follows a confrontation with Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) on the House floor last month. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

CLICKBAIT

• 🇺🇸💻 The 10 best US cities for digital nomads.

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Monday: MLB Home Run Derby

Tuesday: Two-day NATO world leader summit begins; MLB All-Star Game

Wednesday: June CPI; Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One hits US theaters

Thursday: Weekly unemployment claims

Friday: Bastille Day

On Friday, we covered the controversy around a potential debate over Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s claim that vaccines are linked to autism and some chronic diseases, a theory that’s drawn pushback from many in the scientific community, including vaccine scientist Dr. Peter Hotez

❓ Our question to you: Do you think Dr. Hotez – or another vaccine scientist – should agree to debate RFK Jr.?

• 👍 Yes: 31%
• 🙅‍♀️🎙️ Yes, but not on Joe Rogan’s podcast: 19%
• 👎 No: 39%
• 🤷 Unsure/other: 11%

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

+Note on sample size: We received 10,733 votes and 942 longform responses.

The annual Snail Racing World Championship is back – and better than ever.

😮🐌 Wait, that's a thing?... The yearly competition started in Congham, UK, in the 1960s after founder Tom Elwes first witnessed a snail racing event in France.

• The race has been held every year since, with the exception of 2020 (due to Covid). It recently won a Guinness World Record as the longest running humane snail-racing world championships.

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

1. Cac
2. Dub
3. Fug
4. Patr
5. Ret

(keep scrolling for the answers)

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1. Cac = Bad (e.g., cacophony)
2. Dub = Doubtful (dubious)
3. Fug = Flee (refuge, fugitive)
4. Patr = Father (patriarch)
5. Ret = Net (reticle, retina)