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"Success seems to be connected to action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit."

–Conrad Hilton (1887-1979)

Swedish pop group ABBA, known for classics like “Dancing Queen” and “Mamma Mia,” has created one of the most successful live shows of the year – without ever stepping foot on-stage.

The group’s ongoing ABBA Voyage tour, featuring hologram performances by the artists at a specially designed venue in London, has drawn huge crowds and rave reviews since it began in May 2022.

💃🕺 How does it work?... While many deceased artists have launched tours where they take the stage in digital form – including Whitney Houston, Amy Winehouse, and Frank Zappa – the producers of ABBA Voyage and the band itself felt such performances weren’t very entertaining or realistic.

• So instead, they used 160 motion-capture cameras to film ABBA members performing 22 of their songs live, in addition to recording younger body doubles to make the band members’ movements look youthful.
• With the help of 1,000 visual-effects artists, the production company then built a custom arena using 600 tons of overhead lighting equipment to create the illusion of a real-life band, with ABBA members’ 3D avatars aged down to 28 years old.

The whole setup represents one of the most expensive productions in music history, carrying a price tag of around $175 million.

But the large investment has paid off. ABBA Voyage, which typically plays seven shows per week, has been at least 99% sold out for every single performance over the past 15 months, according to Bloomberg. Overall, the show has sold 1.6 million tickets at an average price of $105, nearly earning back its initial investment (and the momentum shows no signs of slowing down).

👀 Looking ahead… Producers of ABBA Voyage are now looking to expand the tour to other major cities, including New York and Singapore. Mamma Mia! Here we go again.

🧠📰 Our friends at Ground News don’t just spoonfeed you news based on your browsing history, resulting in yet another echo chamber. Instead, you get to view a story through multiple lenses and pierce through the bias in these divisive times.

Ground News lets you compare stories framed across the media landscape by arranging everything in a tidy and intuitive manner. They spotlight underreported stories from both the left and the right, so you can read and determine what’s credible yourself👍.

Make up your own mind today with Ground News.

🌎🥵 Earth just experienced its hottest summer since at least 1940. A UN report, published yesterday by the World Meteorological Organization and European climate service Copernicus, found the June-July-August season was the “warmest on record globally by a large margin.” Average global temperatures over that span stood at 62.2°F, or 1.2°F higher than the previous all-time record. The report predicted 2024 will be even hotter than this year, as the full warming impact of the ongoing El Niño weather event is felt across the globe.

🇨🇳🍎 Apple is to China what TikTok is to America. China has ordered officials at central government agencies to stop using iPhones or other foreign-branded devices for work, and to stop bringing them into the office, per a new WSJ report, mirroring similar bans in the US restricting federal and local government officials from using Chinese-owned TikTok over security concerns. Experts say China’s move is likely geared towards both national security and its economy, as the government hopes to boost market shares for domestic smartphone manufacturers.

🇪🇺 The EU classified six tech giants as “gatekeepers” under its new Digital Markets Act. The new designation, which covers Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, and ByteDance, applies to large platforms the EU considers to be restricting access to core services like online search, advertising, or messaging. The tech giants now have six months to comply with the new law, which essentially prohibits them from restricting other competing apps on their platforms. For example: Apple can’t restrict users from installing Google Play on their iPhones, and ByteDance can’t prevent Meta from advertising Instagram on TikTok, under penalty of fines worth up to 10% of global revenue.

The NFL season officially kicks off tonight at 8:20 pm ET, with the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs taking on the Detroit Lions.

And, in addition to shattered fantasy dreams and Tony Romo accurately predicting each play before it happens, here’s what to expect this year:

• Streaming services are poised to play a larger role. More NFL games will be streamed exclusively on services like ESPN+, Peacock, and Prime Video this year than ever before. It’s also the first season of the NFL’s new $2+ billion/year contract with YouTube TV for “Sunday Ticket,” meaning access to most out-of-market NFL games will be limited to a streaming-only audience.
• Las Vegas is looming. The Raiders’ new $2 billion stadium will play host to this year’s Super Bowl. Off the field, a record-high 73 million Americans plan to wager on the NFL this season, representing a 60% increase compared to last year.
• Washington has a new owner, and potentially another new name. An investment group led by Josh Harris assumed ownership of the Commanders in July, after paying a record $6.05 billion for the franchise. Shortly afterwards, new minority owner Magic Johnson hinted the team could soon change its name for the second time since 2020.

👀 Looking (way) ahead… The Chiefs, led by MVP favorite QB Patrick Mahomes, have the highest odds to win the Super Bowl at 6-1, followed by the Eagles (7.5-1), Niners (9-1), and Bills (9-1).

Moving out of the city soon? It’s going to cost ya.

America’s suburbs are posting the fastest-rising rents in the country, a sign the recent migration from major cities is starting to look more long-term, the WSJ reports.

• Rents in suburbs climbed 26% from March 2020 through this past July, 8% more than the gain in urban cores, according to data from rentals website Apartment List.
• And it’s not relegated to one specific region. Suburban rent growth was greater than its urban counterpart in 28 of the 33 metro areas studied, per the company.

This shift appears to be happening at the expense of cities. Suburbs nationwide gained population last year, while core counties in large metro areas collectively lost more than 800,000 movers, according to US census data. The population of St. Charles, Missouri, for example, grew nearly 1% between 2020 and 2022, while the city of St. Louis lost about 5% of its residents over the same period.

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💬 Quoted… “[Designed to maintain] the highest of Japanese sensibilities.”

The Toyota Century – often described as the Rolls-Royce of Japanese cars – has been a frequent vehicle choice of Japan’s royalty, CEOs, and other bigwigs, but little-known to those outside of the country. Much like the leaves over the next few months, however, that’s sure to change.

• The super-luxury model, which starts at ~$170,000 and was almost exclusively sold in Japan, will soon be offered to customers in all regions of the world for the first time.

🪙 Stat of the Day: The crypto boom, drop, and whatever it’s doing now has resulted in investors collectively losing billions of dollars. But, as in any market, there were also winners – just not that many. According to a report released by Henley & Partners on Monday, a very small percentage of the 425 million people trading crypto possess any significant assets. Per the report, 88,200 people have crypto assets worth at least $1 million (0.02% of users) – and only 22 have crypto holdings worth $1 billion (0.000005%). For context, there are ~56 million people in the world with non-crypto assets worth >$1 million, a figure equivalent to 0.7% of the global population.

🤔 Did You Know?... Like bananas to the Bluths, at Costco, there’s always money in the Kirkland Signature brand. Kirkland generated $58 billion in revenue during the 2021 fiscal year, more than Delta ($30 billion), American Express ($44 billion), and Nike ($45 billion).

📰 Worth a Read: Return-to-Office Is a $1.3 Trillion Problem Few Have Figured Out → (Bloomberg)

• ☝️ You’re looking at some of the winners from the 2023 Bird Photographer of the Year awards, which fielded more than 20,000 entries from around the world.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with Brilliant

• 💰 US markets closed down across the board (S&P: -0.7%; Dow: -0.6%; Nasdaq: -1.1%).
• 🚀💳 Elon Musk reportedly borrowed $1 billion from SpaceX in the same month of the Twitter acquisition.
• 📺 Roku is laying off 10% of its staff, or ~360 workers, as it “performs a strategic review of [its] content portfolio.”

*From our partners: 🤳🎓 Get out of mindless scrolling and into a world of knowledge and growth. With Brilliant, transform idle moments into opportunities for learning and career development through bite-size, interactive lessons. Join 10M others and start your 30-day free trial today.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

in partnership with EnerHealth

• 🥼👶 Kourtney Kardashian recently underwent urgent fetal surgery, per an Instagram post; her and her unborn baby are safe and healthy.
• 🏈 The San Francisco 49ers signed defensive end Joey Bosa to a 5-year, $170 million deal; it makes him the league’s highest-paid defensive player in history. | 🎾 American Ben Shelton upset fellow American Francis Tiafoe at the US Open to reach the semifinals; the victory makes Shelton, 20 years old, the youngest male US Open semi-finalist in 30 years.
• 🐭📈 Disney has reportedly seen a 60% jump in Hulu + Live TV subscriptions relative to internal expectations since its carriage dispute with cable-provider Charter began. (Background)

*From our partners: 🍄☕ Boost your immune system with every sip… Organic Immune Support Coffee from EnerHealth is infused with 6 extracts of medicinal mushrooms to support your immune system – no mushroom taste guaranteed! Save 25% with code DONUT25 here.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🦧🙋‍♀️ Apes and early humans evolved more flexible shoulders and elbows than monkeys to safely downclimb out of trees, per a new study published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
• 👍🚀 The Ariane-6, Europe’s next-gen rocket, successfully completed its first "hot-fire" test on a launch pad.
• 👶 Israeli researchers have reportedly created human embryo-like structures from stem cells (no sperm or egg) and grown them outside the womb.

MISCELLANEOUS

• 🏆🎓 The WSJ/College Pulse 2024 Best Colleges in the US rankings just dropped; Princeton, MIT, and Yale came in as the top three (in that order).
• 🚨 Danelo Cavalcante, a convicted murderer who escaped from a Pennsylvania prison on August 31, remains at large.
• ⚖️ Donald Trump is civilly liable for defamatory statements he made about writer E. Jean Carroll in 2019, a federal judge ruled yesterday; this means Trump’s upcoming trial will be focused around how much the former president should pay her in monetary damages. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right) | ⚖️ Prosecutors are seeking an indictment against Hunter Biden by September 29, per a court filing; the move comes after a previous plea deal on tax-related charges fell apart. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

CLICKBAIT

• 🏃 Tom Cruise’s running form is famous. But is it actually good?

Yesterday, we covered a new nonpartisan report that found the US federal deficit will roughly double from 2022 to reach $2 trillion this fiscal year, as America’s overall national debt stands at just under $33 trillion.

❓ Our question to you: In your opinion, how should the US government deal with its rising national debt?

• 📈 Raise taxes: 12%
• 📉 Cut spending: 49%
• 💸 Print more bonds/money to cover interest: 4%
• ⬆️ Some combination of the above: 20%
• 🙅 Nothing needs to be done: 6%
• 🤷 Other/unsure: 9%

Click here to read some of the best responses.

🤔 Follow-up question for “Cut spending” folks: In which areas do you think the US government should spend less?

1. Some combination of the below options: 35%
2. The federal workforce: 24%
3. Entitlement: 20%
4. Defense: 10%
5. Other/unsure: 4%
6. Medicaid: 3%
7. Medicare: 2%
8. Social Security: 1%
9. Domestic law enforcement: 1%

+Note on sample size: We received 12,068 votes and 1,072 longform responses.

We bring you the most unusual, off-the-wall and occasionally laugh-out-loud headlines from this week.

• Police stop Nebraska man with a bull riding shotgun in his car → (Associated Press)
• Five million bees escape after crates of hives fall off truck in Canada → (The Guardian)
• New York comedian breaks doughnut-stacking world record → (UPI)
• Three-legged bear breaks into Florida patio, drinks two White Claws → (NBC6 South Florida)
• TikTok-famous cat living in Home Depot draws in crowds of new customers → (ABC6 Philadelphia)

Long-time Brooklyn, NY, resident Joe Delfausse joined an amateur astronomy club in the 1990s. A regular at his Park Slope neighborhood, Joe is often spotted lugging his telescope out to the street to observe the cosmos. 

• The 82-year-old was doing just that last week, when he realized he could get a perfect view of Saturn from the middle of the street.
• After making sure he wouldn't widely disrupt traffic, he set up his telescope in the perfect position – and started drawing in a crowd. 

🪐 Space is for everyone...There just so happened to be an indie concert playing close by. As a crowd of Millennials and Gen Zs left the venue, Joe invited them to take a peak in the telescope. 

• Concert-goers lined up down the block, as Joe managed the scene. “He was really this kind of Zen Buddha in the space, shepherding a bunch of hippie kids who just got out of a concert," said one observer.

Which Nordic country, pictured above, was the filming location for “The Battle of Hoth” in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back?

(keep scrolling for the answer)

Norway