Good morning. On today’s docket:

• 🚫 Another major worker’s strike is looming
• 🏈 College football is back
• 💳 Credit card defaults are on the rise

… and more.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be about a 5.08-minute read.

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"I know now a loss can be a gift. A chance to grow. Losing has taught me to be a better winner and a better person, one who is always looking for opportunities to learn."

–Serena Williams (b.1981)

More than three years after the pandemic forced a large portion of employees to work from home, the policy is still popular in many sectors of the economy. But is it the best working setup for everyone involved?

✌️ Two different perspectives: Overall, an estimated 98% of US workers say they want to work remotely at least some of the time, citing benefits like a lack of commute, fewer distractions, and a healthier work-life balance.

But many managers and executives aren’t as keen on the idea. In a Federal Reserve Bank of New York survey of business leaders released this month, more than 60% said they feel remote work has worsened their companies’ workplace culture, team cohesion, and mentorship.

🏢 What does the data say?... Short answer: it’s complicated. A 2022 peer-reviewed study examining 60,000+ Microsoft employees before and after the pandemic found remote work led to an overall boost in productivity, though it also decreased employees’ collaboration and creativity.

• But a working paper published last month by Stanford’s Institute for Economic Policy and Research found that fully remote work is associated with 10% to 20% lower productivity than fully in-person work.
• Separately, a recent UChicago study found remote workers in the US save an average of 54 minutes in daily commuting time – and spend about 23 minutes of that extra time engaging in daily work.

📸 Big picture: Several major US companies have urged their workers to return to the office full- or part-time starting this fall, including Apple, Amazon, Blackrock, Disney, Goldman Sachs, IBM, Meta, and Zoom.

• Nationally, office occupancy across 10 of the largest US cities is currently less than half of pre-Covid levels, a figure that’s roughly unchanged over the past year.

📊 Flash poll: In your opinion, what is the ideal working setup?

Fully in-person

Hybrid

Fully remote

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🇳🇱🇩🇰🇳🇴🇺🇦 The Netherlands, Denmark, and Norway are donating US-made F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. It marks Ukraine’s first time receiving F-16 jets, which have largely been replaced in most NATO militaries by the successor model F-35. But experts say the F-16s still represent a significant upgrade over Ukraine’s current Soviet-era combat planes, and will allow the country to provide much-needed air support to its ongoing counteroffensive. The US military yesterday announced it will start training Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 jets in October.

🇦🇺🏗️☕ Australian scientists discovered a way to reduce emissions and make concrete stronger using coffee grounds. A team of researchers at RMIT University in Melbourne found that adding a specially-prepared mixture of coffee grounds during the concrete-making process resulted in a product 30% stronger than typical concrete. The scientists say the procedure also reduces the amount of organic waste that ends up in a landfill, where it would emit large amounts of methane (a greenhouse gas 21x more potent than CO2).

🇷🇺 A Russian court extended the detention of WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich by threethree months. Gershkovich was initially arrested in late March over allegations of stealing state secrets on behalf of the US government, claims which US officials and the WSJ have repeatedly denied. His pretrial detention, which was set to expire on August 30, has now been extended to at least November 30. Gershkovich is the first American journalist arrested on espionage charges in Russia since the end of the Cold War.

+Update: The BRICS bloc of nations – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – will welcome Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia as new members next year.

On Saturday, what’s being hailed as "the last season of college football as we know it" officially kicks off – and demand for tickets is hotter than ever.

According to StubHub, ticket sales for this season are over 50% higher than last year, a phenomenon the ticketing giant mostly attributes to an upcoming series of major changes that will fundamentally alter many colleges’ opponents, rivalries, and travel schedules.

📅 The end of an era: The 2023 season will play out similar to previous years, with the “Power Five” major conferences all fully intact and a four-team College Football Playoff to decide the championship.

But starting in 2024, the college football landscape will look a lot different:

• Texas and Oklahoma will be leaving the Big-12 conference to join the SEC.
• The Pac-12 conference is losing two-thirds of its members, with four schools going to the Big Ten and four to the Big-12. It’s currently unclear if the Pac-12 will continue to exist beyond 2023.
• The College Football Playoff is expanding to a 12-team format, in which the top four seeds receive a first-round bye.

👀 Looking ahead… “Week 0” of the college football season takes place tomorrow, featuring a slate of ten games starting at 2:30 pm ET. The rest of the NCAA will play their first games over Labor Day weekend.

This week, nearly 150,000 UAW workers employed by GM, Ford, and Stellantis voted on whether to authorize a strike if a new four-year labor deal can't be reached by a September 14 deadline.

Here are some of the worker’s demands:

• 40% general pay raises over four years
• The elimination of a two-tiered wage system where new hires are paid lower wages for doing the same work
• A shorter workweek
• Restoration of pensions for new hires

According to UAW President Shawn Fain, whose union is negotiating on behalf of the workers, “record profits deserve record contracts.”

But pushback is expected by the Big Three automakers, who are in the midst of a costly EV transition and hoping to close a cost gap between them and competitors – including Toyota and Tesla – that don’t pay union wages. Total labor costs, including benefits, at GM, Ford, and Stellantis are roughly $64-$67/hour, compared to ~$55/hour for foreign automakers and between $45-$50/hour at Tesla.

💰💰💰 What’s at stake: When auto workers went on strike for six weeks at GM in 2019, the company reportedly lost $2 billion. This time around, if all negotiating workers were to strike simultaneously for ten days, it would result in an estimated total economic loss of $5 billion – a figure that wouldn’t just apply to the Big Three, since a work stoppage would cause a ripple effect throughout the supply chain.

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💬 Quoted… “[The] consumer continues to be under pressure.”

In a CNBC interview this week, Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennette said the retailer has seen consumers pull back on discretionary spending and put more purchases on credit cards – a phenomenon also seen throughout the rest of the economy. Credit card balances rose by $45 million in Q2 to surpass $1 trillion for the first time.

• At the same time, credit card defaults have risen past pre-pandemic levels. And, as student loan payments start to resume, consumers could get squeezed even further. Over 50% of those with student loans added debt on regular credit cards during the pandemic payment pause, per data from TransUnion.

🍽️ Fact of the Day: Casual restaurant chains like Applebee’s and Olive Garden are the most socioeconomically diverse locations in America, featuring more cross-class mingling than libraries, parks, museums, or schools, per a recent study published in SSRN.

🤔 Did You Know?... Chris Farley was originally cast as Shrek instead of Mike Meyers, but he died while the movie was in production.

📰 Worth a Read: Why nobody got paid for one of the most sampled sounds in hip-hop → (The Hustle)

• ☝️ Former President Donald Trump surrendered to authorities and was booked at the Fulton County jail in Atlanta last night on state charges that he conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. (Background | From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with The Wine Connection

• 💰 US markets closed down across the board (S&P: -1.4%; Dow: -1.1%; Nasdaq: -1.9%); Fed Chair Jerome Powell will give a speech in Jackson Hole later today.
• 🥪 Subway was purchased by Roark Capital for a reported $9.6 billion; Roark also owns Arby’s, Baskin Robbins, Buffalo Wild Wings, Dunkin’, Jimmy John’s, and Sonic.
• 👚🤝 Shein and Forever 21 signed a fast-fashion partnership; as part of the agreement, Shein could one day operate stores-within-stores at Forever 21 outlets, while Forever 21’s clothes will be sold on Shein’s site.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• ⚾ Two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Angels has torn his UCL, likely ending his season on the pitching mound; Ohtani, who leads the MLB with 44 home runs, is still expected to hit if no surgery is required.
• 🎥 National Cinema Day is on Sunday; most theaters across the country are offering movie tickets for only $4.
• 📰📺 Warner Bros. Discovery is adding 24/7 CNN content to Max, its streaming platform (just like we hinted at a few weeks ago).

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with EnerHeatlh

• 📱 Children who experience one to four hours of screen time per day at age 1 have higher risks of developmental delays in communication, fine motor, problem-solving, and personal and social skills by the ages of 2 and 4, per a study of 7,097 children published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics.
• 💉 The nationwide median rate of kindergartners with vaccine exemptions nearly doubled between the school years ending in 2012 and 2022.
• 🧠🪱 MIT researchers created an atlas for how the neurons of a roundworm encode its behaviors; the finding could shed light on how our own minds work.

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MISCELLANEOUS

• ⚖️⚡ Maui County filed a lawsuit against utility company Hawaiian Electric yesterday alleging that its power lines caused recent wildfires on the island, including one that destroyed the town of Lahaina and killed at least 115 people.
• 🏫 The number of US students who say they were bullied on campus this year rose 14% from 2019, per an annual survey by the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
• 💥 Early US intelligence indicates that Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was assassinated via a bomb on his aircraft or other form of sabotage, and wasn’t shot down by a missile, per the WSJ.

CLICKBAIT

• 🗣️ A psychology expert shares 5 toxic phrases ‘highly selfish, entitled’ people always use – and how to deal with them.

Meet Timon and Pumba, an unlikely (and frankly adorable) duo recently rescued near Cave Creek, Arizona. 

The animals were saved from an abusive household, and, while dogs and pigs are not usually recommended to live together, these brothers quickly made it clear they are a special exception. 

• Timon and Pumba are inseparable, spending their days as close together as possible – much of the time with little Timon hitching a ride on Pumba's back.

🐗🐕 Bottom line: The duo has been officially rescued by Better Piggies Rescue as permanent residents... which means no worries, for the rest of their dayyyssss.😉🎶 

+Editor's note: This story previously ran in Positive DONUT, a separate newsletter we publish weekly that recaps all the good things happening throughout the world (your antidote to news-induced outrage and/or anxiety). Subscribe here for free.

The DONUT’s weekly news quiz is back. In just two minutes or less, see how your news superpowers stack up against our team.

Below are three lists of ingredients. All you have to do is give us the completed dish they make.

☝️ Recipe #1:

• Olive oil
• Onion
• Garlic
• Ginger
• Curry leaves
• Tumeric
• Masala
• Mustard seeds
• Coriander
• Cumin
• Carrot
• Roasted almonds
• Tomatoes
• Coconut milk
• Maple syrup
• White vinegar
• Salt
• Chili powder
• Cauliflower

✌️ Recipe #2:

• Walnuts
• All-purpose & whole wheat flour
• Baking powder & soda
• Cinnamon
• Ginger
• Crystal
• Eggs
• Applesauce
• Light brown sugar
• Vegetable oil
• Grated orange zest
• Carrots
• Golden raisins
• Hemp seed

3️⃣ Recipe #3:

• Butter
• Jalapeno
• Garlic
• Corn
• Cream cheese
• Shredded cheddar & parmesan cheese
• Salt & pepper
• Breadcrumbs
• Parsley
• Green onions

(keep scrolling for the answers)

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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.👇

☝️ Recipe #1: Cauliflower, carrot, and almond curry

✌️ Recipe #2: Carrot muffins.

3️⃣ Recipe #3: Cheesy corn casser