Good morning. On today’s docket:

• 🤝 The steel and nuclear fusion industries are launching a collab
• 📈 The Taylor Swift + NFL collab has been a resounding success (sensing a theme here…)
• 🦩 America is seeing a slew of rare flamingo sightings (ok nvrmind)

… and more.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be about a 4.51-minute read.

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"No great discovery was ever made without a bold guess."

–Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727)

Nucor, the largest steel company in North America, announced a first-of-its-kind partnership with nuclear startup Helion Energy to develop a fusion reactor plant that will power one of Nucor’s steel mills by 2030.

⚛️ Why it’s a big deal: The agreement represents a bet on nuclear fusion, aka the smashing of two atoms together to produce one, which is widely considered the “holy grail” of energy production. This method promises essentially limitless amounts of clean energy, but without the Chernobyl downside.

• On a pound-for-pound basis, fusion generates nearly 4 million times more energy than coal, oil, or gas. It’s also how the sun generates 100% of its power.
• Scientists have been experimenting with fusion since the 1950s, but were unable to create a reactor that produces more energy than it takes to start up – that is, until Department of Energy researchers built a new model that’s now done so twice in the past ten months.

👀 Looking ahead… Nucor says the 500-megawatt fusion plant – enough to power half-a-million homes – is part of a company-wide transition to greener sources of electricity for making steel, which has one of the world’s most energy-intensive manufacturing processes.

• More than 1% of all energy consumed in the US is used to produce steel.

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🌎 UNESCO designated 42 new areas as World Heritage sites. The UN-backed organization, which is tasked with identifying areas of “outstanding universal value,” voted to add 33 new cultural sites and nine new natural sites from Europe, Africa, South America, and the US to its World Heritage list. These include Ohio’s first-ever World Heritage site (Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks), a series of Viking-age ring fortresses in Denmark, and a Silk Road corridor through Central Asia.

🇨🇳🏗️ Chinese authorities placed the chair of embattled real-estate firm Evergrande under police control. Chairman Hui Ka Yan, who founded Evergrande in 1996, was detained by police earlier this month for undisclosed reasons, per a Bloomberg report published yesterday. Evergrande was once China’s top-selling real estate developer in the mid-to-late 2010s, but, in 2020, a regulatory crackdown on China’s real estate industry forced Evergrande to disclose that it had over $300 billion in liabilities and lacked enough funds to pay off its debt, causing the company to lose 90+% of its market cap over the past three years.

🇮🇱🇺🇸 The US agreed to let Israeli citizens enter America without a visa. After signing a preliminary deal in July, the US government officially accepted Israel into its visa waiver program yesterday, which means Israeli citizens will be allowed to visit America for up to 90 days without a visa beginning November 30. As a part of reciprocal actions, Israel will allow US citizens to fly to Tel Aviv and travel to Palestine over land, instead of going through Jordan first.

It’s been four days since the relationship hard-launch of Travis Kelce, a relatively unknown Kansas City Chiefs’ tight end😉, and Taylor Swift, a relatively unknown underground musician (the joke doesn’t work as well this way, huh).

And when worlds this big collide – Kelce and his also NFL-playing brother, Jason, host a top-rated sports podcast – the impact can reverberate far and wide. Some data on this weekend’s Swift Effect, via Front Office Sports:

• Fox’s broadcast of the Chiefs-Bears game, which drew 24.3 million viewers, was the most-watched game of the week and topped many key female demographic categories.
• Data from Roku TVs shows the Chiefs-Bears matchup earned a 63% increase in female viewers age 18-49 when compared to the Chiefs’ game the previous week.
• Fanatics saw a ~400% spike in Kelce’s jersey sales after Sunday’s Swift-attended game, making him a top-five seller in the NFL.

👀 Looking ahead… The Chiefs’ next game is this weekend, a Sunday Night Football matchup against the New York Jets – and Swift has a home in New York.

Five flamingos were spotted at a beach in Wisconsin last week, marking the state’s first recorded sighting of the species in history.

And Wisconsin’s not alone. A flamingo was also recently spotted in Kentucky for the first time, plus more than 150 unique flamingo sightings have been reported in recent weeks across Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Tennessee, and Virginia.

🌀🦩 Driving the sightings… The timing of these reports roughly matches up to Hurricane Idalia, which made landfall in the southeastern US in late August/early September after traveling through the Caribbean and Mexico’s Yucatán region – where colonies of flamingos usually live.

• Birds have previously been documented in the calm center of hurricanes, USA Today reports.
• They also try to fly around the storm and get diverted, or are already in the air and get caught up in the outer bands, then ride the bands until they reach land or drop into the ocean.

Another side effect from hurricanes = high OJ prices. Orange juice futures hit a record high of $3.69/pound on Tuesday morning, after hurricanes and bad weather in Florida led to the state’s lowest orange crop yield in nearly 80 years.

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💬 Quoted… “We respectfully request and recommend that Nature issue a retraction.”

The co-authors of a study that claimed to have discovered the world’s first room-temperature superconductor are now asking the journal Nature to retract the study because the lead researcher, University of Rochester physicist Ranga Dias, had misinterpreted the data (which, unlike the best engagement parties, shouldn’t come as a surprise).

• Since the seemingly groundbreaking study was published in March, dozens of scientific teams around the world have tried – and failed – to replicate the room-temperature superconductor, despite using the same method and materials as the original research.

💊 Stat of the Day: 9 million = the number of prescriptions for Ozempic, Wegovy, and similar anti-obesity drugs written by US health care providers during the last three months of 2022, representing a 300% increase compared to early 2020.

🤔 Did You Know?... In the MLB, it’s possible for a player to be traded for themselves, due to the widespread use of a clause known as “player to be named later”; this has occurred four times in league history.

📰 Worth a Read: Inside Apple’s spectacular failure to build a key part for its new iPhones → (WSJ)

• ☝️ You’re looking at some of the winners from the 2023 Nature TTL Photographer of the Year competition, which featured more than 8,000 contestants.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with Scott Kemper Imagery

• 💰 US markets closed mixed (S&P: +0.02%; Dow: -0.2%; Nasdaq: +0.2%). | 🛢️ US crude oil futures settled at their highest level since August 2022; Brent crude (its global counterpart) closed at its highest level since last November.
• 🤝 Peloton and Lululemon announced a five-year strategic partnership; Peloton will develop digital fitness content for Lululemon, while Lululemon will become Peloton’s primary athletic apparel provider.
• 📝 Costco reported earnings yesterday that exceeded Wall Street expectations on revenue and profit; it also declined to raise membership fees. | Fun fact: The bargain retailer stocks gold bars (really), which regularly sell out in hours once they’re posted.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🏀 Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks as part of a three-team deal also involving the Phoenix Suns, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
• 🎤 Bruce Springsteen postponed all upcoming tour dates for the rest of 2023 as he continues to recover from peptic ulcer disease.
• 🏈 Michigan State University officially fired head football coach Mel Tucker for cause yesterday after he was accused of sexual misconduct; with the move, MSU is attempting to not pay Tucker any of the remaining $79 million on his contract.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Tenikle

• 🦷 Japanese firm Toregem Biopharma is set to begin human clinical trials of its new antibody drug that can regrow teeth in human patients.
• ⚛️ Researchers at the CERN lab in Switzerland observed antimatter particles – the mysterious twins of visible matter – falling downwards due to the effect of gravity for the first time.
• 🤖 The CIA and other US intelligence agencies are developing an AI chatbot similar to ChatGPT, per a newly-published Bloomberg report.

*From our partners: 🤳💥 Tired of dropping your phone?... Tenikle is like a 3rd hand for your devices – mountable on any surface + wraps around objects with ease to give you the best camera angles. Save 41% on the Tenikle (while supplies last).

MISCELLANEOUS

• 🍟 McDonald’s is introducing a pair of new limited-time dipping sauces to its menu: Mambo, and Sweet & Spicy Jam.
• 📲 A string of high-level executives have transferred from ByteDance to TikTok since the start of 2023, causing some US TikTok employees to question whether the app is operating independently from its China-based parent company, sources told the WSJ.
• 🗳️ The second debate of the 2024 GOP presidential primary took place last night at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California; notably absent was former President Trump, the current Republican frontrunner, who held a rally in Detroit. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

CLICKBAIT

• 🗣️ How to brag without sounding arrogant, according to new research.

Yesterday, we covered ongoing negotiations in Congress aimed at avoiding a government shutdown, which would go into effect late Saturday night if no agreement is reached.

❓ Our question to you (fill in the blank): In my opinion, the impending US government shutdown represents a ___ problem for our country.

• 👎 Very serious: 48%
• 📉 Somewhat serious: 17%
• 📈 Not too serious: 13%
• 👍 Not at all serious: 14%
• 🤷 Unsure/other: 8%

Click here to read some of the best responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 11,948 votes and 1,351 longform responses.

Earlier this month, Alabama resident Emmali Osterhoudt went viral after finding her dream wedding dress for $25 at Goodwill. The gown was designed by Galia Lahav, and normally retails for over $6,000.

• "I really don’t know how I got so lucky," shared Emmali. "I would like to say thank you to the girl who donated it to Goodwill because it made my whole entire year."

💍 It's like a scavenger hunt, but better... Emmali's viral video in the dress eventually made it to Galia Lahav herself, who was touched by the future bride's reaction to the gown.

Inspired to help more brides feel beautiful on their wedding days, Galia and her team are donating five to ten other Galia Lahav dresses to Goodwills around the country in response to the video. 

💬 What they're saying: “We thought it would be an exciting idea to play fairy godmother and donate a few dresses ourselves to Goodwill for more Cinderella moments," wrote a brand spokesperson. "It's a reminder that sometimes, life's surprises can be as beautiful as the dress itself."

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

• Hot dog! The Wienermobile is back after short-lived name change → (Associated Press)
• German engineer's custom Nerf gun fires 11 darts per second → (UPI)
• Shrek's 'swamp' now available to rent on Airbnb → (CNN)
• Somebody Really Made a Calendar Mocking All the Cars Beached on the Jersey Shore → (The Drive)
• Canadian man eats 135 Carolina reaper peppers in one sitting → (UPI)

Which island, pictured above, is the largest in Italy?

(keep scrolling for the answers)

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