Good morning. If you’re a fan of learning cool stuff, today’s newsletter should be your cup of tea📰🍵.

On the docket:

• 📈 False advertising lawsuits are on the rise
• 🥼 Walmart is getting into the vet business
• 🤳 Gen Z is all aboard the influencer train

… and more. Let’s do it to it.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be about a 4.84-minute read.

P.S. Did someone forward you this email? Subscribe here for free.

“If you look for perfection, you'll never be content.”

–Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)

This week, a federal judge ruled that a lawsuit brought by consumers against Starbucks could move forward.

Its key claim? That none of the coffee chain’s Refresher fruit beverages actually contain fruit.

To which Starbucks’ replied: the product names – like Mango Dragonfruit, Pineapple Passionfruit, and Strawberry Açai Lemonade – just describe the drinks’ flavors, not their ingredients, and no reasonable consumers would be confused.

📈 Zoom out: Much like our subscriber base over the past few months, similar types of false advertising lawsuits against fast-food restaurants have been growing at a rapid pace.

According to law firm Perkins Coie, 214 class-action lawsuits were filed against the food and beverage industry in 2022, and 331 cases were brought the year before – a fairly significant increase from the 81 cases filed in 2014.

Some past examples of lawsuit claims:

• Burger King's Whoppers are smaller than they appear.
• Barilla pasta isn't made in Italy.
• The "boneless wings" served at Buffalo Wild Wings aren't actually chicken wings.
• Subway's "100% tuna" sandwiches either partially or completely lack tuna.
• Taco Bell skimps on the fillings in its Mexican Pizza, Crunchwrap Supreme, and more.

Some of these lawsuits get tossed out in court, others have resulted in big payouts. A&W agreed to pay up to $15 million to settle claims that its root beer and cream soda weren't "made with aged vanilla" as the labels suggested. And in 2014, Red Bull announced it would pay more than $13 million to settle a lawsuit brought by buyers who said the energy drink didn't "give them wings" like the company’s marketing promised.

Chartr is the #1 visual newsletter, loved by 400,000 subscribers for its uncanny ability to turn information into graphical gold.

It's data storytelling at its finest, with riveting tales like…

• 🥷💻 How cyber attacks are threatening MGM’s multi-billion-dollar casino empire
• 🏈💰 Why NFL teams overwhelmingly became the most valuable franchises in all of sports
• 👡🤩 How Birkenstock turned comfy sandals into a fashion phenomenon

Every issue is jam-packed with insights into business, tech, and society. And it’s all free.

Subscribe free to Chartr.

🇹🇭 Thailand is experiencing a severe and harmful plankton bloom. The amount of plankton in eastern Thailand has increased to 10x its average level in recent months, creating a large aquatic “dead zone” in which waters are depleted from oxygen and cut off from sunlight. Thailand’s Chonburi region, famous for its mussels, has seen 80% of such farms adversely affected by the plankton’s dead zone. Scientists say the cause of the unusually large bloom is unknown, but may be due to the ocean getting its Athletic Greens in a combination of pollution and heat from the ongoing El Niño event.

🇬🇧 UK PM Rishi Sunak delayed the country’s ban on new gas-powered car sales. PM Sunak said his decision to move the deadline from 2030 to 2035 was part of a concerted effort to place the "long-term interests of our country" before "short-term political needs." The move was announced alongside a wider overhaul of the UK government’s green energy commitments, which PM Sunak framed as a way to ensure the country’s goal of net-zero emissions by 2050 doesn’t impose too high of a cost on lower-income citizens.

🇪🇸 ⚽ The Spanish women’s national soccer team ended its boycott. All but two members of the World Cup-winning squad agreed to resume playing after Spain’s soccer federation said it would make "immediate and profound changes," which reportedly includes the firing of between six and nine senior officials. The players initially said they wouldn’t represent Spain until the federation agreed to reforms after its former boss, Luis Rubiales, kissed a player on the lips without her consent during the World Cup presentation ceremony. Rubiales later resigned and is facing sexual assault and coercion charges.

A nasal spray medicine that would represent the first injection-free treatment for Americans with life-threatening allergies was rejected yesterday by the FDA, which said further research is needed before the treatment can be approved for use.

👃 How it works: The active ingredient in Neffy is epinephrine (aka adrenaline), which has been used in the US since 1901 to treat anaphylaxis, the most severe type of allergic reaction.

But all approved epinephrine treatments to date – including EpiPens and generic versions – require an injection via needle, which can cause some patients experiencing a life-threatening allergic reaction to hesitate in an emergency situation.

• Neffy instead opts for a simple nasal spray device, identical to those used in the drug overdose medication Narcan, to quickly deliver epinephrine to patients who have been exposed to an allergen like peanut butter, bee stings, or a bad meme (okay, maybe not the last one).

👀 Looking ahead… The FDA’s rejection came despite an advisory committee’s previous recommendation to approve Neffy without any additional trials or studies. FDA officials say they turned down the drug’s application due to a lack of data on its performance when the same patient is given repeat doses.

Drugmaker ARS Pharma plans to re-submit Neffy for FDA approval in 2024, after running an additional clinical trial studying repeat doses. More epinephrine nasal sprays are also in the pipeline, including an experimental treatment from Bryn Pharmaceuticals.

The world’s largest retailer has opened its first-ever Pet Services center at a store in the confusing city of Dallas, Georgia, with big plans for expansion.

The company’s pet services centers will have their own dedicated entrance next to stores, and will offer a range of vet and grooming services for dogs and cats (no other animals yet), from $15 nail trims to $25 rabies shots to $97 for a vital package.

Each center will bear the Walmart name and brand, but will be staffed and operated by vet care and pet product company PetIQ, which has already rented space for vet clinics inside more than 65 Walmart stores.

• The Georgia location will serve as a pilot, but the retailer plans to open more locations, according to Kaitlyn Shadiow, vice president of merchandising for pets for Walmart US.
• She declined to say how many pet shops it may ultimately have, per CNBC, but said Walmart plans to open more next year, if not sooner.

📸 Big picture: US consumers spent ~$137 billion on pets last year. And, after food and treats, vet care and products were the second-biggest slice of that market, totaling $35.9 billion in 2022, per the American Pet Products Association.

🤤 Discover the exquisite taste of DeLo-xx’s chocolate fondue, inspired by European chocolatiers. Kits include world-class dippables, melter, and all ingredients perfectly measured.

With different varieties and darkness levels, DeLo-xx is the perfect fall memory to create with loved ones. Just sit back, relax, and submit to sweet, chocolate bliss.

• DISCLAIMER: The DONUT bears zero responsibility for any chocolate addiction that results from clicking this link👇.

Get DeLo-xx’s best price on their gold kit + free delivery with code DONUT.

💬 Quoted… “Was that function [on the F-35] triggered for some reason, and punched the pilot out?... There’s a lot of unanswered questions.”

A US Marine Corps pilot was flying a single-seat F-35B fighter jet on Sunday when they experienced a malfunction and were “forced to eject,” the AP reports. And while we don’t know what the malfunction was or what caused it (and probably never will), speculation has run rampant.

• Dan Grazier, a former Marine Corps captain and the senior defense policy fellow at the Project on Government Oversight, told the AP that on the Air Force and Navy’s version of the F-35, the pilot has to initiate the ejection – but the Marine Corps’ F-35s have an auto-eject feature intended to better protect pilots in certain situations, and this is what could’ve caused the mishap.

🌐💼 Stat of the Day: The No. 1 career choice for Gen Z is online influencer, with 57% of respondents saying they would perform the job if given the chance, per a new Morning Consult survey. For context: 41% of all US adults said they would do the same.

🤔 Did You Know?... Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the Battle of the Sexes, aka the tennis match held between the world’s best female player, Billie Jean King, and former men’s world No. 1 Bobby Riggs, who claimed he could beat King despite a two-and-a-half decade age difference (29 vs 55). King ended up beating Riggs in three straight sets in front of ~90 million TV viewers.

📰 Worth a Read: Alex Cooper Went From Raunchy Podcaster to Gen-Z’s Barbara Walters → (Rolling Stone)

• ☝️ NASA published a highly-detailed photo of the Moon’s south pole, which features a large lunar crater permanently shadowed from the Sun; this area is being targeted by the US, Russia, and China as a location for future Moon bases. (Background)

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with moomoo

• 💰 US markets closed down across the board (S&P: -0.9%; Dow: -0.2%; Nasdaq: -1.5%). | 📈 Klaviyo, a Boston-based provider of e-commerce marketing software, was valued at $9.2 billion in its IPO; the company’s shares closed up 9.2% on their first day of trading.
• 🚗 GM and Stellantis announced a combined 2,370 layoffs yesterday, due to parts shortages stemming from the UAW’s ongoing targeted strike. (Background)
• 🏦 The Federal Reserve opted to keep baseline US interest rates steady at a range between 5.25%-5.5%, the highest level in 22 years; Fed officials indicated they still expect one more rate-hike by year’s end.

*From our partners: 🥳 Trade US stocks, ETFs, and options commission-free*... moomoo provides free investor education resources and a paper trading tool so you can learn to trade with confidence. Sign up for moomoo and deposit to get up to 15 free stocks.**

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 📚⚖️🤖 A group of top US authors – including George R. R. Martin, John Grisham, Jonathan Franzen, George Saunders, and Jodi Picoult – filed a copyright lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing the company of unlawfully training ChatGPT on their works.
• 🏈 The LA Rams are trading running back Cam Akers to the Minnesota Vikings in a deal that includes a swap of 2026 draft picks, per multiple sources. | 📝 Chicago Bears defensive coordinator Alan Williams resigned yesterday amid unconfirmed reports that his home was raided by the FBI.
• 🖼️ Seven paintings by Austrian Expressionist Egon Schiele looted from a Jewish art collector by the Nazis in WWII were returned to the collector’s heirs in a ceremony yesterday.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Paleovalley

• 🧠 Scientists at NYC’s Mount Sinai Hospital identified a unique biomarker that represents the first known signal of the presence or absence of depression in the brain, per a new study published in Nature.
• 🪵 The world’s oldest known wooden structure – a 476,000-year-old arrangement of logs on the bank of a river – was recently discovered on the border of Zambia and Tanzania; the previous record holder dated back just 5,000 years.
• 🦠 The average amount of cells present in human men (36 trillion), women (28 trillion), and 10-year-old children (17 trillion) follow a mathematical pattern based on size and mass that appears elsewhere in nature, per a new study published in PNAS.

*From our partners: 🐄😋 100% grass-fed beef, gluten/soy free, nonGMO… Paleovalley’s 100% Grass Fed Beef Sticks come in 5 popular flavors and are naturally fermented with no chemicals or questionable ingredients. Delicious taste/texture and loved by kids! Save 15% on Paleovalley products.

MISCELLANEOUS

• 🚨 Indianapolis authorities launched an ongoing manhunt after a homicide suspect was accidentally released from a local detention center last week.
• 📲 Donald Trump Jr.’s X account appeared to be hacked yesterday morning, resulting in a post falsely claiming his father, former President Trump, had passed away.
• 🗣️🌎 President Biden announced a new program called the American Climate Corps, which will employ more than 20,000 young adults to build trails, plant trees, help install solar panels, and perform other jobs to boost environmental conservation.

CLICKBAIT

• 😡 ‘One of the Most Hated People in the World’: Sam Bankman-Fried’s 250 pages of justifications.

Yesterday, we covered Unite America’s campaign for nonpartisan primary elections across the US to address the “primary problem,” or how a small number of voters – often those who lean strongly toward one party – select the vast majority of politicians in office.

❓ Our question to you: Would you be in favor of your state holding a nonpartisan primary election in 2024?

• 👍 Yes: 71%
• 👎 No: 15%
• 🤷 Unsure/other: 14%

Click here to read some of the best responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 12,577 votes and 1,352 longform responses.

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

• 'Twin-dergarten': 17 sets of twins enter kindergarten in Pennsylvania school district → (ABC6 Philadelphia)
• ‘Meteorite’ crater on Dublin beach turns out to be hole dug by beachgoers during sunny spell → (Irish Independent)
• Bears raid a Krispy Kreme doughnut van making deliveries on an Alaska military base → (Associated Press)
• Boot-throwing record broken at National Plowing Championships → (UPI)

Meet Lawrence, a kitten with a rescue story that's been compared to an iconic scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

🎥 Setting the scene... When a passerby heard mewing coming from a storm drain at the Port Jefferson Station on Long Island, New York, rescuers from Strong Island Animal Rescue were quickly called to the scene. 

• In the hours that ensued, rescuers worked with local police to move a 5,000-pound concrete slab sitting atop the drain with a hydraulic rescue tool called “the Jaws of Life.” 
• They (eventually) rescued the kitten. 

🙌 A happy ending: Lawrence was taken to the vet and passed all his health checks with flying colors. He'll be up for adoption soon🥰. 

Which country, pictured above, is the only one in the world without mosquitos? (Hint: Antarctica isn't a country.)

(keep scrolling for the answer)

👆 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.👇

Iceland

**$0 commission trading is available only to U.S. residents trading in the U.S. markets through Moomoo Financial Inc. Other fees may apply. For more information, visit moomoo.com/us/pricing. Terms and Conditions apply; please visit this link for details. Accolades are not indicative of future performance. Investing involves risk and the potential to lose principal. Moomoo is a financial information and trading app offered by Moomoo Technologies Inc. Securities offered through Moomoo Financial Inc., Member FINRA/SIPC.