Good morning. Today marks the 22nd anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

And in honor of the victims – those who died on the day of the attacks, as well as those who succumbed to injury or illness in the months or years afterwards – we’d like to invite everyone reading this to take a moment of silence and reflection.

#NeverForget.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be about a 4.56-minute read.

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“I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took an excuse.”

–Florence Nightingale (1820-1910)

Google is about to learn whether it will pass “Go” and receive $200, or head straight to (metaphorical) jail.

On Tuesday, a federal judge in DC will begin considering arguments in the US government’s first monopoly trial of the modern internet era, which involves a Justice Department lawsuit against the Alphabet-owned tech giant.

🤔⚖️ What are the charges?... The DOJ’s suit, initially filed by the Trump administration in late 2020, accuses Google of illegally amassing an 80% market share in the US online search industry, in part by paying smartphone makers like Apple and Samsung billions of dollars annually to have Google Search preloaded as the default option in their devices’ web browsers.

On the other hand, Google is claiming its deals with phone-makers shouldn’t be classified as monopolistic behavior for two reasons: 1) the agreements are open to any and all competing bidders, and 2) consumers can easily switch default search engines on their devices.

• The tech giant also says the allegations focus too narrowly on alleged harms to smaller competitors like Bing and DuckDuckGo, as opposed to the relatively minor impact on Google’s main rivals like Amazon, Facebook, TikTok, and other major sites where users go to search information.

👀 Looking ahead… The nonjury trial, which is expected to last around 10 weeks, will feature testimony from Google CEO Sundar Pichai, along with top execs from Apple and Samsung.

If the court rules against Google, the company could be ordered to pay significant fines, alter its relationships with smartphone-makers, and/or potentially break up its entire online search business – though legal experts say the last option isn’t very likely.

📊 Flash poll: In your opinion, do Google’s deals with smartphone-makers to preload its search engine as the default option represent illegal monopolistic behavior?

Yes

No

Unsure/other

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🌏 The G20’s annual heads of state summit took place in India this weekend. Leaders from the Group of 20 – which collectively represents ~85% of global GDP – began the proceedings by welcoming the African Union as the bloc’s newest addition, increasing the number of G20 member-nations from 46 to 101. World leaders at G20 also agreed to a new major infrastructure project connecting India, the Middle East, and Europe, as well as a new international cryptocurrency framework for the exchange of financial details between countries.

🇨🇱 Today marks the 50-year anniversary of a US-supported coup in Chile. On September 11, 1973, Chile’s army bombed the country’s presidential palace and deposed Salvador Allende, the country’s democratically-elected socialist president, sending Chile into a military-run dictatorship. During the ensuing 17-year rule of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, over 40,000 Chileans were disappeared by the government or became political prisoners – most of them victims of torture. When it became public that the CIA under then-President Richard Nixon worked to end Allende’s presidency and supported the Chilean military’s coup, the backlash effectively resulted in Congress taking on a larger role in US foreign policy.

🇻🇳🤝🇺🇸 Vietnam signed a new strategic partnership with the US during a visit from President Biden. The agreement between former adversaries means America now owns the highest diplomatic status Vietnam has to offer, alongside China, India, Russia, and South Korea. While US officials didn’t explicitly say the Vietnam deal was struck with Beijing in mind, it comes as the Biden administration seeks to deter Chinese aggression in the Asia-Pacific region by building closer links with friendly countries.

A PR firm called Bunker 15 is manipulating the critic scores of movies on Rotten Tomatoes by paying for positive reviews and burying negative ones, according to a new investigative report by Vulture.

Per the report, Bunker 15 allegedly uses a network of “obscure, often self-published critics” who were added to Rotten Tomatoes’ pool of reviewers in 2018 following a change aimed at including critics from YouTube and podcasts.

• Bunker 15 typically offers these little-known critics around $50 for each positive review that ends up on Rotten Tomatoes, despite said practice being banned by the site, several reviewers told Vulture.

🍅📈 Case in point: When a 2018 film called Ophelia initially received a 46% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes after an early press screening, Bunker 15 was allegedly hired to boost the film’s numbers.

Between October 2018 and January 2019, eight reviews were added to Ophelia’s RT critics score – seven of which were positive, and came mostly from critics who previously reviewed other movies that hired Bunker 15.

• This caused Ophelia’s critics score to rise 16%, flipping it from a “Rotten” rating to “Fresh.” One month later, IFC Films bought distribution rights for the movie’s US release.

And the critics’ scores aren’t the only questionable numbers on the site. Rotten Tomatoes’ audience score has also been accused of being easy to manipulate, with several recent Marvel and Disney projects receiving unusually large waves of negative user reviews.

💬 Quoted… “If what he says is true, which I tend to believe, it is likely to reopen the question of a second shooter, if not even more… If the bullet we know as the magic or pristine bullet stopped in President Kennedy’s back, it means that the central thesis of the Warren Report, the single-bullet [aka magic-bullet] theory, is wrong.”

The account of Paul Landis, one of the Secret Service agents just feet away from President John F. Kennedy when he was shot in Dallas, is being publicized for the first time in an upcoming memoir – and it casts a shadow of doubt on the “magic bullet” theory, as well as Lee Harvey Oswald being the lone gunman.

• Per Landis’ account, he found a bullet in the backseat of Kennedy’s limo, then placed it next to the president on a stretcher at the hospital. The Warren Commission determined one of the bullets struck Kennedy from behind, exiting through his throat, partly because the bullet was found on a stretcher at the hospital.

🤖📊 Stat of the Day: Over the past few months, ChatGPT’s users have been like Jay Sean’s only popular song – going down, down, down, down, down. According to a report by online intelligence firm Similarweb, ChatGPT users dropped by 10% in both June and July. But the tides could be turning. The chatbot’s users dropped 3% globally last month, which the report attributes to students increasingly using the tool as school starts back up. More than a quarter of adults using ChatGPT are college-age individuals, per Similarweb.

🤔 Did You Know?... If all the salt in the world’s oceans were removed and spread evenly across the Earth’s land surface, it would form a salt layer more than 500 feet thick (roughly the height of a 40-story building).

📰 Worth a Read: Putin Wants His Hit Man Back → (WSJ)

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• ☝️ You’re looking at a map of the US showing the percentage of residents in each state who were born there and still resided there as of 2021, courtesy of the Dallas Federal Reserve; America’s “stickiest” state is Texas, with 82% of natives still living there, while Wyoming is the least-stickiest state at 45%.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 💰 US markets closed up across the board on Friday (S&P: +0.1%; Dow: +0.2%; Nasdaq: +0.1%); though all three indexes were negative for the week. | 🛢️ Oil prices hit a nine-month high on Friday.
• 🛒 Kroger and Albertsons are selling more than 400 stores and other assets in connection with a $24.6 billion merger proposed last fall; the move is intended to assuage regulators and clear a path for the grocery chains to unite.
• 😬📉 Instacart is targeting a valuation of roughly $8.6 billion–$9.3 billion in its imminent IPO, per the WSJ; the grocery-delivery company was previously valued at $39 billion in 2021.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🎾 Coco Gauff defeated Aryna Sabalenka over the weekend to win the US Open; it’s the 19-year-old American’s first career Grand Slam title. | 🎾 On the men’s side, Novak Djokovic defeated Daniil Medvedev in straight sets to claim his 24th all-time Grand Slam title (a men’s record in the Open era).
• 🏈 CFB Roundup: #11-ranked University of Texas beat #3-ranked Alabama 34-24 in Tuscaloosa; see other highlights from the weekend (link); Michigan State Head Coach Mel Tucker was also suspended amid a sexual harassment investigation. | NFL Roundup: The Browns beat the Bengals 24-3, while the Rams upset the Seahawks 30-13 (full Week 1 recap); the Bills and Jets face off tonight starting at 8:15 pm ET.
• 🏀 Team USA claimed 4th place in the FIBA World Cup following losses to both Germany and Canada.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🌋🔋 A volcanic crater on the Nevada-Oregon border could contain between 20 million–40 million metric tons of lithium, per a new study published in the journal Science Advances; if confirmed, it would be one of the world’s largest lithium deposits.
• 🤫🚀 The “Silent Barker” mission took off for space yesterday aboard the United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket; the multi-payload mission is part of a joint operation with the US Space Force and National Reconnaissance Office.
• 🌬️ NASA has managed to extract oxygen from Mars’ atmosphere; the breakthrough could be utilized for future crewed missions to Mars/the Moon.

MISCELLANEOUS

• 🌀 Hurricane Lee re-strengthened into a major hurricane yesterday (Category 3); it’s expected to bring dangerous surf conditions to the US East Coast this week.
• 🗳️ Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), 83, announced she will be seeking reelection in 2024. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)
• 📖 Walter Isaacson’s new biography of Elon Musk goes on sale tomorrow. Read an excerpt.

CLICKBAIT

• 🤔🎓 Ranking the most popular undergraduate degrees of the last decade.

On Friday, we covered a lawsuit in Colorado seeking to remove former President Trump from the GOP primary ballot in 2024, citing the US Constitution’s ban on insurrectionists holding public office.

❓ Our question to you: In your opinion, should former President Trump be disqualified from public office under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment over his actions surrounding the January 6 riot at the US Capitol?

• 👍 Yes: 61%
• 👎 No: 28%
• 🤷 Unsure/other: 11%

Click here to read some of the best responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 19,586 votes and 2,221 longform responses.

Monday: The 22nd anniversary of September 11, 2001

Tuesday: Apple expected to unveil the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro

Wednesday: Consumer Price Index for August

Thursday: The UAW’s current contracts with all Big Three US automakers expire at midnight

Friday: A Haunting in Venice hits theaters nationwide

More than three weeks ago, the "laziest citizen" competition began in Montenegro. 

Started as a joke by resort owner Radonja Blagojevic, the competition mocks a popular myth that labels Montenegrins as lazy. 

• This year's competition has lasted for 23 days as of this publication – with seven competitors still going strong. 

🥱 What does being the laziest citizen entail?... To sum it up in a nutshell, all the competitors simply have to stay horizontal to remain in the contest. They are allowed one 10-minute bathroom break every 8 hours, and can use phones, books, and more to kill time.

• “All of us feel good, excellent, there are no health problems, they are pampering us, all we have to do is to remain lying down,” said 2021 champion Dubravka Aksic.

There are 443 films with a 100% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Can you name five? 

• You can check your answers here (hint for Mac users: command + f allows you to search web pages without needing to scroll).

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