Good morning. On today’s docket:

• 🏥 75,000+ healthcare workers are striking
• 🛰️ The US issued its first-ever space debris fine
• 🤔 How much did Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour earn?

… and more.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be about a 4.88-minute read.

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“The deeper the truth in a creative work, the longer it will live.”

–Sir Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977)

More than 75,000 healthcare workers employed by Kaiser Permanente, one of the largest nonprofit healthcare providers in the US, walked off the job for three days yesterday.

📝 The sticking points: Workers say inflation has eroded their wages, and staffing shortages are leading to employee burnout and poor patient care. The Kaiser employee union wants what it describes as competitive compensation that accounts for the increased cost of living: a $25/hour wage floor and increases between 6.25% and 7% over the next four years.

• Kaiser had countered with minimum hourly wages of between $21 and $23 next year, increasing by a dollar/year. It also said it’s hired 22,000 people so far this year.

🤔 How will Kaiser’s 13 million patients be affected?... Physicians, hospitals, and emergency rooms will not be impacted, but some facilities will have reduced staff for nursing and support roles.

📸 Big picture: Overworked healthcare workers everywhere are burning out like a bonfire at the end of a summer night. According to a statement by Kaiser Permanente, up to two-thirds of healthcare staff everywhere are experiencing burnout and more than 1 in 5 are quitting.

And the proof is in the strike pudding: per Bureau of Labor Statistics’ data from the start of 2022 through August of this year, one-third of the 42 work stoppages of 1,000 or more strikers were in the healthcare industry.

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🇸🇬 Singapore is now the world's most expensive city for luxury living. The Julius Baer Lifestyle Index, which evaluates the cost of 20 items associated with a high-end cosmopolitan lifestyle, found Singapore surpassed Shanghai for the top spot in 2023, with Hong Kong, London, and NYC rounding out the top-five. Miami, which ranks 10th on this year’s list, saw the largest annual cost increase among all major cities over the past year (+22%).

🇪🇺💻 Meta is reportedly planning to charge EU users a monthly fee for ad-free access to its platforms. Under the new proposal, EU users would have the option to either allow Meta to use their data for personalized advertising, or pay $10+/month for ad-free access to their Facebook and/or Instagram account. Meta’s plan, which still has to be approved by regulators, is aimed at satisfying new EU laws requiring social media platforms to seek consent before capturing user data for personalized ads.

🇮🇷 Iran is cracking down on its international schools to combat “Westernization.” Analysts say the move stems from general anti-US sentiment following recent widespread protests over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini (which Iranian leaders blamed on America and Israel), the US’ withdrawal from a nuclear deal in 2018, and reimposed US sanctions on Iran. Under the new regulations, an estimated 90% of Iran’s current international student population is now banned from attending such schools.

In most cases, an offer to buy an iPhone 15 Pro for just $2 would carry more red flags than a Soviet Union embassy – but coming from MrBeast, it might actually be believable.

Alas, the YouTube creator this week revealed a TikTok ad that appears to show MrBeast offering people brand-new iPhones for pennies on the dollar was actually a deepfake video that evaded the platform’s filters.

And it’s not the only celebrity deepfake that has popped up recently on social media:

• Tom Hanks on Sunday said he had nothing to do with a computer-generated video of himself "promoting some dental plan."
• The following day, Gayle King made a similar post saying her voice and video were manipulated to make it seem like she was endorsing a product that she isn’t associated with.
• Elon Musk has been the subject of at least 50 deepfake video scams across Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok dating back to late August.

Deepfake videos are generally allowed under social media platforms’ terms of service, though some sites require the content to be labeled as such. Virtually all platforms ban the use of deepfakes for misleading purposes.

🏛️🗳️ On Capitol Hill: While Congress hasn’t approved any federal legislation regarding deepfakes, regulators at the Federal Election Commission are currently considering a measure that would ban political campaigns from distributing fake audio, video, or images of their opponents ahead of the 2024 election.

The FCC this week imposed the first fine in US history for littering in outer space. Its lucky recipient? Satellite TV provider Dish Network, who will be out $150,000.

🛰️ What happened: In 2002, Dish launched a satellite known as EchoStar-7 into geostationary orbit, a level of space beginning 22,000 miles above the equator that enables orbiting objects to remain in a stationary position over one fixed spot on Earth (hence the term, geostationary).

The satellite TV provider received approval for an eventual satellite-sunset plan in 2012. As part of this plan, Dish and FCC both agreed the EchoStar-7 would be boosted ~186 miles above its geostationary orbit, where it wouldn't pose a risk to active satellites.

But, in early 2022, Dish revealed the EchoStar-7 only had enough fuel to propel itself ~76 miles above its existing orbit, well short of the agreed-upon plan – which is why the fine was levied.

👀 Looking ahead… Space is turning into a popular nightclub on the weekend – crowded, with the potential for problems to arise. There were ~5,500 active satellites in orbit last year, and tens of thousands more are expected to be launched over the next decade (SpaceX alone plans to launch 40,000).

But this looming issue is on officials’ radar. Earlier this year, the FCC established the Space Bureau, which is aimed at creating policy and regulations around these types of issues.

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💬 Quoted… “In 2030, we will have a unique global footprint.”

The 2030 World Cup will be co-hosted by Spain, Morocco, and Portugal, with a trio of opening games also taking place in Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay, FIFA announced yesterday. It’ll be the first World Cup spread across three continents (because soccer wasn’t global enough already).

• The unique format is intended to celebrate the tournament’s 100th anniversary, with the opening match to be held at the same Uruguayan stadium where the inaugural World Cup took place in 1930.

🎤🏟️ Stat of the Day: $579 million = the total revenue earned by Beyoncé’s recently-concluded Renaissance World Tour, which saw 2.7 million fans attend 56 dates across 39 cities. But the show isn’t over yet – Queen Bey on Sunday announced plans to bring her tour to AMC movie theaters starting in December (á la Taylor Swift).

🤔 Did You Know?... A new species of dinosaur is discovered about once every week, or a pace even Jurassic Park would find it hard to keep up with.

📰 Worth a Read: They studied dishonesty. Was their work a lie? → (The New Yorker)

• ☝️ Barstool founder Dave Portnoy recently purchased this waterfront compound in Nantucket for a Massachusetts record $42 million; the property features a two-bedroom guest house and a separate studio that are reportedly connected via an underground tunnel (though Portnoy says the tunnel doesn’t exist).

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with Floof

• 💰 US markets closed up across the board (S&P: +0.8%; Dow: +0.4%; Nasdaq: +1.4%).
• 🚗💳 GM secured a new $6 billion line of credit in preparation for additional UAW strikes; the union’s targeted strikes cost the automaker $200 million during Q3.
• 📝 Zoom is releasing its own version of Google Docs/Microsoft Word in Spring 2024; Zoom Docs will feature an AI assistant similar to both tech giants’ products.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🏰🎟️ Disney is discounting children’s tickets at its US parks between January 8 and March 10 of next year in a bid to boost attendance; these tickets will go on sale starting October 24.
• 🎧📚 Spotify will soon allow paying US subscribers to listen to 15 hours of audiobooks for free each month.
• 🎓 The NCAA approved new transfer portal changes that will shrink the number of days which student-athletes are allowed to enter their name each year (from 60 to 45).

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Coop

• 🏆⚛️ The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to three scientists – Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus, and Alexei Ekimov – who worked to discover and develop quantum dots, which are used in LED lights, TV screens, and by surgeons when removing cancer tissue.
• 🌎☄️ There’s a 1 in 2,700 chance the asteroid Bennu could hit the Earth around the year 2184, which would release 24x more energy than the most powerful nuclear bomb ever built, per new data from NASA.
• 📱 Made by Google 2023: The tech giant announced a slate of new products yesterday, including the Pixel 8/Pixel 8 Pro, Pixel 2 Watch, Pixel Buds Pro, and Android 14 operating system.

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MISCELLANEOUS

• ⚖️ Michigan’s Supreme Court will allow the parents of the Oxford school shooter to stand trial for their alleged roles in the deaths of four students; they’re the first parents to be charged following a mass shooting in US history.
• 📝 A 9-year-old girl who was kidnapped in upstate New York on Saturday was safely rescued two days later after a fingerprint on her ransom note led investigators to the kidnapper.
• 🎓💰 President Biden announced $9 billion worth of federal student-loan forgiveness for 125,000 Americans who meet certain conditions, including those who have worked in public service for a decade-plus. | 🏛️ Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and ex-Majority Leader Steny Hoyer were both evicted from their secondary offices on Capitol Hill after the House voted to remove Speaker McCarthy on Tuesday. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

CLICKBAIT

• 🤔🚘 It seemed like a good idea at the time: 9 car designs that went nowhere.

Yesterday, we covered the resumption of federal student-loan payments for ~45 million US adults following a three-year hiatus due to the Covid pandemic.

❓ Our question to you: Will the resumption of student-loan payments have an adverse effect on your personal finances?

• 👍 Yes: 29%
• 👎 No: 27%
• 🙅‍♀️ I don’t owe any student loans: 44%

💰 Follow-up question for those w/ loans: How much student-loan debt do you currently owe?

• Under $10,000: 24%
• $10,000-$25,000: 19%
• $25,000-$50,000: 27%
• $50,000-$100,000: 18%
• $100,000+: 12%

Click here to read some of the best responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 12,592 votes and 1,354 longform responses.

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

• Emotional support alligator named Wally denied entry into Phillies stadium → (ESPN)
• Connecticut artist aims for world record with chalk drawing → (UPI)
• 'On my way with a bottle of Cheese Whiz': Major Ontario highway closed due to celery spillage → (Yahoo! News)
• Chicago woman, 104, skydives from plane, aiming for record as the world’s oldest skydiver → (Associated Press)

Ten-year-old Jack Steele was devastated when he lost his custom-built "mini me" Lego figurine somewhere between his house and school.  

• The boy had meticulously chosen every piece of his Lego man – down to his Hawaiian shirt and the shape of his eyebrows – when he built him at the Lego Discovery Centre in Manchester, UK. 

🧱👨 Quick thinking... As soon as Jack realized his Lego man was missing, he got to work on a missing person poster to hang around town (very official – see above👆). 

• Thanks to the magic of social media and a neighbor with a keen eye at the playground, the Lego man was found and returned to a very grateful Jack. 

Mammoth Cave, the world's largest cave system (pictured above), is located in which US state?

Kentucky 

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