Good morning. Help us settle a HEATED (heh) debate at DONUT HQ – what is your preferred temperature for drinking water?

• The coldest of ice cold
• Chilled, but in a chill no-big-deal way
• Room temp
• Warm like warm milk
• Hot like you could make tea with it

Results your way tomorrow.

But today? The same as everyday: NEWS.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 4.96 minutes to read.

“Whatever you are, try to be a good one.”

–William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863)

Following years of open arms, countries across the globe are beginning to close their doors to digital nomads and eliminate special perks for foreigners. Think: Semisonic’s “Closing Time” just came on at the bar – you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.

Maybe the most impacted by this nascent trend are young American nomads, who over the past few years have been increasingly channeling Emily in Paris and moving abroad:

• The number of Americans living in Spain grew by 13% from 2019 to 2021, and home sales to US citizens jumped 88% from the first half of 2019 to the first half of 2022.
• ~10,000 Americans were living in Portugal last year, a 239% increase when compared to 2017.
• In France and Italy, demand from Americans looking to move in July 2022 was the highest it had been in at least three years, Bloomberg reports.

🤔 Behind the data: Research from Tufts University indicates that while there are many potential reasons for US citizens wanting to move out of the country – cost of living, political reasons, etc. – the main driving factor is to explore or have an adventure.

Combine that impulse with opportunity – more than 60% of the 50 existing digital nomad visa programs or special permits were created after the Covid pandemic’s onset in 2020 – and voila! A perfect nomadic storm.

• The number of Americans identifying as digital nomads, aka they combine remote work with travel, more than doubled from seven million in 2019 to 15 million in 2021.

❌ Looking ahead… While the introduction of visas attracting remote American workers boomed during the pandemic, countries are increasingly eliminating these programs due to rising home prices… which are being blamed on the influx of foreign workers. And even though, according to data reported by Bloomberg, associating out-of-country nomads with rising home prices may be an unfair conflation, the digital nomadic party appears to be past its peak.

🤔 What happens when an investigative journalist works tirelessly to uncover and deliver expert analysis on recently-filed patents? You get a glimpse into the future of Big Tech, twice a week via the free Patent Drop newsletter.

🔮🤖 Patent Drop scours the US Patent and Trademark website for the latest technological developments from companies like Apple, Nvidia, and Uber. Stay ahead of the curve by joining their 60,000+ subscribers and get a unique perspective on the latest game-changing tech innovations.

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🇺🇦🇷🇺 Ukraine reportedly attacked the only bridge linking Crimea to Russia yesterday. While Ukraine didn’t publicly claim responsibility for the attack on the Kerch Bridge, a nearly 12-mile crossing that’s the longest in Europe, internal government sources told multiple news orgs the damage was caused by water-based drones operated by Ukraine’s military. Moscow says it expects the bridge to be fully operational again by November.

🇮🇳🍎 India will be a major driver of Apple’s user and revenue growth over the next decade, per a new Morgan Stanley report. The bank’s analysts predict India will account for 20% of Apple’s user growth over the next five years, as well as $40 billion in new revenue over the next decade – a figure “equivalent to Apple ramping an entirely new product category.” Morgan Stanley says their assessment was largely based on India’s improved electrification and Apple’s clear efforts to build a manufacturing and retail presence in the country.

🇲🇱📧🇺🇸 Because of a common typo, the country of Mali has received millions of sensitive emails meant for the US military over the past decade. That’s per Johannes Zuurbier, a Dutch technologist contracted to manage the western African country’s email domain. In a Financial Times interview published yesterday, Zuurbier says he’s repeatedly tried to warn the Pentagon about how some email traffic meant for the .MIL domain – which is how all US military email addresses end – has instead been going to Mali’s .ML domain since first discovering the problem in 2013. But despite his repeated warnings, the issue persisted – and yesterday, Zuurbier’s contract officially expired, reverting control of the .ML domain to Mali’s government (a close ally of Russia).

You’ve probably heard of the Thunderdome, an arena for steel-cage fights in the movie Mad Max. But today’s story is about its slightly-less-exciting cousin: the heat dome.

More specifically – the ongoing heat dome that’s placed roughly 100 million Americans living in the southern US under a heat advisory for the past week straight.

🔢 By the numbers: From California to Florida, historically high temperatures have been recorded across dozens of southern cities in recent days. A few examples:

• Miami-Dade County was placed under an excessive heat advisory on Sunday for the first time in history, with the local heat index reaching as high as 112°F.
• Death Valley, CA, reached an official high of 128°F on Sunday – just six degrees shy of the hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth (also at Death Valley, in 1919).
• Reno hit 108°F on Sunday, matching its highest temperature ever observed, while Flagstaff (96°F), Las Vegas (116°F), and Salt Lake City (106°F) each missed all-time highs by a single degree.

👀 Looking ahead… Weather forecasters expect the heat dome currently parked over the southern US to remain in place through the end of this week. After that, it's projected to retreat from the Southeast – but continue bombarding the Southwest into next week and beyond.

Okay fine, they haven’t announced a winner of the $900 million Powerball prize yet – but it doesn’t matter. Because no matter who wins, someone always wins.

The IRS.

In fact, the IRS has won big on every single one of the 1,130 Powerball jackpots since the contest began in 1992, pocketing at least $17.5 billion of the $73 billion in total winnings.

💰🎰 A deeper dive… The IRS takes a minimum of 24% for any winnings over $5,000.

*game show host voice* But that’s not all! Whether you opt to receive the $900 million paid out over 30 years or receive a lump sum of $465 million (the two options available to you as a winner), the taxman cometh, and he cometh big time:

• Lump Sum: Choose the $465 million lump sum payout, and you immediately lose $111.6 million (24%). Then there’s income tax, which, at the highest tax bracket of 37%, tacks on an additional 13% in taxes (unless the winner chooses to give the money to charity, or opens certain types of investments). Take-home earnings: ~$293 million.
• Installment: $900 million over 30 years = an average payout of $30 million/year. Assuming not enough write-offs to move down into a lower tax bracket, that works out to a tax bill of roughly $11 million a year. Take-home earnings: ~$568 million.

🤑 Bottom line: Whether you’re the lucky 1 in 292 million that beats the lottery odds or part of the rest of us who don’t win, the IRS is coming – and it always gets its cut.

🤯 Did you know… a fast-dripping faucet can run you about $20/month? And a small crack in your pipe is a bigger deal, costing about $600/month. Even a leaky toilet can cost homeowners around $150/month on average.

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💬 Quoted… “Over 100 people trapped for several hours in mystery writer Agatha Christie’s former home.”

In a classic case of life imitating art, a tour group visiting Agatha Christie’s former home was briefly stuck on Friday after stormy weather knocked down a tree blocking the single access road. But unlike an Agatha Christie novel, no one was murdered.

• Instead, the guests explored the estate, played games, and enjoyed tea served by the staff. They were finally able to leave on Friday evening when local rescue services cleared the road.

🎞️ Stat of the Day: The physical IMAX reel of the film Oppenheimer is over 11 miles long stretched end-to-end, and weighs around 600 pounds.

🤯 Did You Know?... Director Steven Soderbergh (Ocean's Eleven, Magic Mike) secretly made an eight-part series starring Michael Cera titled Command Z. The sci-fi comedy is only available via an $8 purchase on Soderbergh’s website, with 100% of the proceeds going to Children's Aid and Boston University Center for Antiracist Research.

📖 Worth a Read: Greta Gerwig’s Barbie Dream Job → (NY Times)

• ☝️ You’re looking at some of the pictures on the shortlist for this year’s edition of the Comedy Pet Photography awards.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 💰 US markets closed up across the board yesterday (S&P: +0.4%; Dow: +0.2%; Nasdaq: +0.9%); the Dow reached its highest closing level in 2023. | 📉 Shares of AT&T dropped to their lowest closing price since 1997, extending recent losses following a WSJ investigation into toxic lead cables left behind by telecom companies.
• ⚡ Ford cut prices on its electric F-150 Lightning pickup by up to ~$10,000. | 💵 Tesla directors will return $735 million to the company to settle claims they overpaid themselves.
• 🐦 Twitter’s ad revenue has dropped ~50%, per a tweet from Elon Musk.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

in partnership with DeLo-xx

• 🎶 Taylor Swift this week became the first woman ever to have four albums on Billboard’s top-10 list at the same time; she’s also the first living artist to do so since trumpeter Herb Alpert in 1966.
• 🌹 The Golden Bachelor, a new ABC dating series spinoff for senior citizens, announced its leading man for season one: Gerry Turner, a 71-year-old retired restaurateur and father of two.
• 🏀 The Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA Summer League championship game against the Houston Rockets last night by a score of 99-78.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Spleash

• 🫀 Biotech startup eGenesis is experimenting with transplanting the hearts of young gene-edited pigs into baby baboons; the company aims to transplant pig hearts into human babies with serious heart defects as early as next year.
• 💊🧠 An experimental Alzheimer’s drug from Eli Lilly slowed progression of the disease by 29% over 18 months compared to a placebo, per new results from a Phase 3 clinical trial; the pill also exhibited potentially life-threatening side effects like swelling and bleeding within the brain.
• 💉👶 The FDA approved an injectable drug designed to protect all infants from RSV; the virus is the leading cause of hospitalization among US babies less than a year old.

*From our partners: 💦🐶 When hydration meets convenience… The Spleash is the smart leash attachment for active dog owners. Walk, hydrate, repeat. Keep your dog refreshed and energized wherever the adventure takes you. Save 15% on Spleash with code TheDonut15.

MISCELLANEOUS

• 🇺🇦🚢 Russia officially suspended a UN-brokered agreement allowing Ukrainian ships carrying grain and other agricultural exports to leave from three Russia-controlled ports.
• 🗳️💰 Former President Donald Trump ($35 million) and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ($20 million) raised more money for their 2024 presidential campaigns last quarter than any other candidate, per new Federal Election Commission filings. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)
• ⚖️ Georgia’s Supreme Court yesterday declined to hear an appeal from former President Donald Trump seeking to halt an ongoing investigation into his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

CLICKBAIT

• 📺 The best television shows of 2023 so far.

*Sponsored post

Yesterday, we covered conflicting reports on how many US hospitals are fully complying with a 2021 federal law requiring them to make all standard costs for their procedures publicly available to consumers.

❓ Our question to you: Would you support a harsher punishment for hospitals that fail to comply with federal laws requiring full price transparency?

• 👍 Yes: 83%
• 👎 No: 10%
• 🤷 Unsure/other: 7%

🏥 Follow-up for “Yes” folks (long form): What other ways would you improve the US healthcare system?

• “More availability/information about what exactly your health insurance covers, and the costs associated with care ahead of time. It's often hard to tell how much you are going to pay heading into the doctor's office.”
• “I fully support anything that aims to bring honesty, transparency, integrity and affordability back to the healthcare industry.”
• “No one should go bankrupt for their health; implement an NHS (UK) style national health care system. Rich people will always pay to go private, but the 95% will never need to worry about medical bankruptcy.”

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

+Note on sample size: We received 11,729 votes and 1,105 longform responses.

Bob is an experienced homing pigeon from the northeast UK... but even experienced travelers get lost sometimes. He was on a routine trip from the Channel Islands to his home in Gateshead, when he took a wrong turn somewhere along the route. 

• Bob's owner Alan Todd was worried when his bird didn't make it home by the end of the day as planned. As the days passed, he worried he would never see Bob again. 

✈️ Sweet home... Alan was understandable shocked when, after three weeks of Bob missing, the bird was found in a backyard in Alabama, USA. That's four thousand miles from where his journey began. 

🐦❤️ Bottom line: Other than being a bit dehydrated, Bob made it to Alabama in great health. He was taken care of by a shelter while waiting for his Dad to make the trek across the Atlantic to bring him home.

Note: an earlier version of this story ran on May 29, 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: Who is the author of To Kill A Mockingbird?

🌛 True or False?... The planet Mercury has three moons.

🤔 Riddle Me This… What has a heart that doesn’t beat?

(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.👇

❓ Trivia: Harper Lee

🌛 T/F: False, Mercury has zero moons

🤔 Riddle: An artichoke