Good morning. In today’s newsletter:

• Trump gets hit with a fourth indictment
• Automobiles = the next subscription frontier
• The demise of cable TV just became official

Let’s rock ‘n roll🤘🎸.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 5.02 minutes to read.

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"There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power or our will."

–Epictetus (A.D. 50 – 135)

On Monday night, former President Donald Trump was indicted by a Georgia grand jury over alleged efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state.

A total of 18 other co-defendants were charged alongside Trump, including his former lawyer Rudy Giuliani and former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. The case was brought under Georgia’s RICO act, which allows prosecutors to collectively charge a group of people who allegedly committed separate crimes while working towards a common goal.

⚖️ What are the charges against Trump?... Of the 41 total counts, 13 apply specifically to the former president. If convicted on any of them, Trump would face a minimum prison sentence of five years under state law.

• The charges include allegations of racketeering, solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer (x3), making false statements (x2), and filing false documents.
• They also cover allegations of several criminal conspiracies: to commit forgery, to impersonate a public officer, to make false statements (x3), and to file false documents.

The indictment cites dozens of acts by Trump or the other co-defendants to reverse his 2020 election loss in Georgia, including a phone call with GA Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which Trump urged him to “find” enough votes to overcome the margin of defeat.

Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing related to the Georgia case, and said he didn’t tamper with the 2020 election. The former president has also framed the latest charges in Georgia as a partisan attack from the Fulton County district attorney, who is a Democrat.

🇺🇸 Zoom out: Trump is now facing a total of 91 felony charges across four separate criminal cases filed since late March. In addition to the Georgia case, the former president is facing allegations that he:

• Facilitated an illegal hush-money payment in New York
• Mishandled classified US government documents after leaving office
• Attempted to subvert the will of US voters by falsely claiming there was enough fraud to overturn the 2020 election result

📊 Flash poll: Do the ongoing criminal cases against Donald Trump impact whether you’ll vote for him in the 2024 primaries or presidential election?

Yes

No

Unsure/other

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⚽🏆 Spain advanced to its first-ever Women’s World Cup final with a last-minute victory over Sweden. The 90-minute match remained scoreless for the first 81 minutes until Spain scored the opening goal. Sweden answered right back with an equalizer in the 88th minute – but just 60 seconds of match-time later, Spanish defender Olga Carmona delivered what ended up being the winning goal. Spain’s opponent in the World Cup finals has yet to be determined; the second semifinal match between Australia and the UK kicks off right around the send-time of this newsletter, at 6 am ET. (Click here for live updates/results.)

🇷🇺🇬🇧 Three suspected Russian spies were arrested in a UK security investigation, per the BBC. The defendants, all Bulgarian nationals, stand accused of working for the Russian government as part of what appears to be an undercover cell. The trio has lived in the UK for several years, working in a variety of jobs and living in a series of different suburban properties. They reportedly were arrested in possession of fake passports and identity cards from eight other European countries outside of the UK.

🇨🇳 China will stop publishing its youth unemployment rate – which hit record-highs in recent months – while officials change the way it’s calculated. The unemployment rate among Chinese 16- to 24-year-olds in urban areas has risen every month so far this year, reaching 21.3% in June. The rate was widely forecast to have climbed even further in July – but yesterday, China announced plans to temporarily suspend the unemployment report so it can be “further improved and optimized.” The decision will likely exacerbate concerns from foreign investors and executives who say China’s strict control of information is making it harder to do business there.

+Update: Russia’s central bank raised interest rates by 3.5 percentage points to 12% yesterday in an effort to prop up the country’s currency; the ruble has lost roughly one-third of its value in 2023.

On Monday, Ford announced it’s hired former Apple exec Peter Stern to lead a newly created division focused on selling subscription services to its customers, in the latest push by automakers to build high-margin software businesses.

Stern – who left Apple after a six-year tenure heading up the launch of a portfolio of services, including Apple TV Plus, Apple Arcade, Apple Books, and iCloud storage – holds the title of president of “Ford Integrated Services.”

And, like toddlers doing scissor-focused arts and crafts, he has his work cut out for him.

• The revenue from the automakers’ current software services is in the hundreds of millions of dollars, Ford CEO Jim Farley revealed on a recent call with reporters. That translates into roughly 550,000 paying subscribers.
• But it’s the division’s potential that really has Ford excited. According to Farley, the automaker is projecting its subscription revenue to grow 10x in the coming years.

💰🚗 *Movie trailer voice* In a world dominated by subscriptions, car companies want you to add at least one more. Ford isn’t alone in its subscription push. GM wants to generate $25 billion in annual subscription revenue by 2030 – and BMW, Volkswagen, Toyota, Audi, Cadillac, Porsche, and Tesla have all dabbled with subscription models for certain options (like driver-assist features or heated seats).

But there’s one big obstacle in the way of automakers’ plans – consumers. According to a 2022 Cox Automotive survey, 75% of car buyers would not be willing to pay a monthly or annual fee to unlock a feature in their vehicle.

Streaming appears to have reached its inflection point. According to new data released by Nielsen Research, linear TV viewership (cable + broadcast TV) accounted for less than 50% of all TV usage last month for the first time ever.

Per the data:

• Broadcast and cable TV represented a record-low 49.6% of total TV usage in July. Compared to this time last year, broadcast viewing was down 5.4%, and cable viewing was down 12.5%.
• On the flip side, streaming usage increased ~25% over the past year, and streaming services like YouTube and Netflix accounted for a record ~39% of total US TV usage in July (the category’s largest share reported to date).

And, like The Little Engine That Could, this trend is set to keep on going. By the end of 2025, cord cutters – defined as those without a TV subscription from a cable, satellite, or telco TV access provider – will comprise an estimated 72% of US households.

🙅‍♀️ But there are still a few holdouts. Namely, those who prioritize watching live events. According to a recent CableTV.com survey, ~41% of people who still pay for cable say they do so in order to watch live events, including sports, entertainment award shows, and news.

However, streaming services like Max, Peacock, and Apple TV are rushing to add sports and news coverage. So whichever way you spin it – it appears the demise of linear TV has not been greatly exaggerated.

Life can be both a whirlwind and a rollercoaster all at once, but it’s important to remember to hit pause and take care of the most important person – you🥰.

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💬 Quoted… “The last few weeks, I’ve been saying, ‘holy mackerel, they’re coming out of the woodwork.’”

The age-old Wall Street mantra of “buy low, sell high” is now increasingly being applied to the commercial real estate sector, according to Kevin Gannon, CEO of an investment-banking firm that tracks real-estate fundraising. Per Gannon, many prominent Wall Street names, including Goldman Sachs, have started raising billions of dollars in funds to target distressed assets, especially in the real estate sector (buy low).

• Commercial-property values have already fallen between 10%–15% from the third quarter last year, and could fall another 10%–15% in the near future, according to data reported by the WSJ. The volume of distressed commercial real estate grew by $8 billion in the second quarter, the biggest quarterly increase since the second quarter of 2020.

+More commercial real estate-related reading: The American mall’s swan song is reaching a crescendo.

💰📉 Stat of the Day: 1.7 million = the number of Americans who lost their millionaire status last year, the highest total since 2008. Overall, US households lost a combined $5.9 trillion in 2022, compared with a gain of $15.9 trillion the previous year.

🤔 Did You Know?... The first person to ever shop online was an English grandmother in 1984. She used a prototype system that turned her TV into a computer terminal, allowing her to create a grocery list using the TV remote, then send it to a nearby store.

📰 Worth a Read: Is that viral ‘superconductor’ legit? → (The Verge)

• ☝️ You’re looking at a statue of University of Iowa basketball star Caitlin Clark that’s made entirely from butter; the attraction is on display at the Iowa State Fair through this weekend.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with Slumber

• 💰 US markets closed down across the board yesterday (S&P: -1.2%; Dow: -1.0%; Nasdaq: -1.1%). | 🌿 The Poseidon Dynamic Cannabis ETF is shutting down next week, citing overall market conditions and waning investor interest in cannabis. (Background)
• 🏦 A Fitch Ratings analyst warned yesterday that the agency may soon be forced to downgrade dozens of US banks, including JP Morgan Chase.
• 🛒 US retail sales increased more than expected last month (+0.7%), per a new Commerce Department report; shortly after the data was published, Goldman Sachs raised its Q3 GDP estimate by 0.7 percentage-points to 2.2%.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🎶 YouTube Music launched a new TikTok-style feed called Samples, which the company describes as a way to quickly sample and find new music.
• ⚖️🍿 Hollywood financer TSG Entertainment is suing Disney for breach of contract; the suit alleges Disney intentionally withheld profits and cut sweetheart deals to boost its own streaming platforms Hulu and Disney+ at the expense of its partners.
• 🏈🎓 Peyton Manning has been hired as a “professor of practice” by the University of Tennessee; Manning will partner with UT faculty to teach a variety of topics like sports reporting, video production, public speaking, and leadership and communication.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH: BRAIN EDITION

in partnership with CariFree

• 🧠 UC Berkeley scientists were able to reconstruct Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall” by listening to a patient’s brainwaves, per a new peer-reviewed study; it marks the first time a recognizable song has been decoded from recordings of brain activity.
• 💊 Northwestern researchers discovered that effective antipsychotic drugs modify a different type of brain cell than scientists originally thought dating back to 1954, per a new peer-reviewed study.
• 🍺 Scientists used gene therapy to rewire the brains of monkeys and significantly reduce the cravings associated with alcohol use disorder, per a peer-reviewed study published Monday in Nature Medicine.

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MISCELLANEOUS

• 🙏 At least 99 people have been confirmed dead from last week’s wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui; officials say the death toll could double over the next 10 days, as emergency personnel search the remaining two-thirds of the burn area.
• 🎓 More than 800,000 student loan borrowers who have been on income-driven repayment plans for 20+ years will have their debt discharged starting this week ($39 billion in total).
• ⚖️ Federal prosecutors said a pretrial plea deal they had offered to Hunter Biden on a felony gun charge was officially withdrawn before taking effect, despite what his lawyers are arguing. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

CLICKBAIT

• 📈 Once you hit this credit score, ‘there’s no benefit to scoring higher,’ says expert.

Competitive skier Katsumi Saeki broke the world record for the oldest female competitive cross-country skier, after competing in last year's Japan Masters Championships at 87 years old. 

Now the athlete has done it again, competing in the 2023 Masters World Cup in Austria at the young and sprightly age of 88 years and 16 days.

• Katsumi raced in the 5 km classic-style and 5 km freestyle events with impressive scores, beating both people in her age bracket and below.

🏆 Your only competition is yourself... She hopes to compete in the 2024 Masters World Cup in Finland next year and break her own record – yet again. 

What are the top 5 best-selling board games of all time, based on total units sold?

(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. Chess
2. Checkers
3. Monopoly
4. Scrabble
5. Clue

Source: FUN.com analysis