Good morning. On today’s docket:

• ⛳ Pro golf is having a moment
• 🛒 Weight-loss drugs are changing shopping habits
• 📝 A look at the early promotion gap between men and women

… and more.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be about a 4.95-minute read.

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P.P.S. We’ll be off on Monday. See you back here on Tuesday!

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

–Lao Tzu (b. ~571 B.C.)

We’re about three months away from the start of the 2024 presidential election cycle, which officially kicks off with Iowa’s first-in-the-nation GOP caucus on January 15. And, much like a CFB fan tailgating before a noon kickoff, campaigning is off to an early start.

The Republican National Committee has hosted two debates in as many months, with a third scheduled for November 8 – though it still won’t include former President Trump, the current frontrunner, who has declined to attend any debates thus far.

There are currently five Republican candidates with at least 3% support among GOP voters, per FiveThirtyEight’s polling aggregator. That’s down from seven the last time we covered this topic in late August.

• Former President Donald Trump (August: 52% → October: 57%)
• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (15% → 14%)
• Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (3% → 8%)
• Former biotech exec Vivek Ramaswamy (9% → 7%)
• Former VP Mike Pence (4% → 4%)

🔵 On the Democratic side: President Biden officially announced his reelection bid in April. The DNC has already committed to supporting Biden’s reelection, and isn’t planning to hold any primary debates.

• Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – who initially announced his presidential candidacy as a Democrat in May but has consistently polled 45+ points behind Biden – is widely expected to switch his party affiliation to Independent in a press conference on Monday.

🥊 Head to head: In a hypothetical 2024 matchup, President Biden is currently polling slightly behind former President Trump, and slightly ahead (or better) when placed against all other Republican candidates.

📊 Flash poll: If next year’s presidential election were held today, who would you vote for?

The Republican candidate

The Democratic candidate

A third-party candidate

I’m too young/I don’t vote

Unsure/other

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🇦🇺 The Royal Australian Mint unveiled a new $1 coin featuring King Charles III. It marks the first time since 1953 that a new Australian coin won’t have an image of the late Queen Elizabeth II. Australia – alongside Canada, New Zealand, Pakistan, India, South Africa, and 50 other nations – is a UK commonwealth country, which means they acknowledge the British monarch as their symbolic leader and often feature him/her on their currency.

🇺🇸🇹🇷 A US fighter jet shot down an armed Turkish drone after it was deemed a threat to American troops in Syria. The Pentagon says its decision to use military force against Turkey, a fellow NATO member, was made out of “due diligence and the inherent right of self-defense” after one of Turkey’s armed drones came within 550 yards of American troops stationed in Syria. US officials also say there’s no indication that Turkey was intentionally targeting American troops, while the Turkish government claims the drone didn’t belong to them. Despite being fellow NATO members and committed military allies, the US and Turkey currently support opposing sides in Syria’s ongoing civil war.

🇦🇪 UAE researchers are developing the world’s most advanced Arabic AI model. While ChatGPT, Meta’s LLaMA, and other large language models currently have Arabic-language capabilities, they were mostly trained on English data and lack the ability to understand cultural nuances and dialects. To rectify this, the UAE announced a partnership with Silicon Valley AI firm Cerebras to help build a new AI model called Jais, which officials say will carry essentially the same capabilities as other LLMs – but with more accessibility for Arabic speakers.

TGL, the new tech-forward golf league founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy and backed by the PGA Tour, has signed a multi-year media rights deal with ESPN to televise its matches.

The six-team league, which has already secured commitments from top players including Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, Justin Rose, Adam Scott, and Rickie Fowler, will make its primetime debut on January 9, the night after college football’s national championship game.

And while the TGL acronym probably stands for TMRW Golf League (TMRW Sports is a biz founded by Tiger and Rory) or Tech Golf League, it should stand for “Top Golf” League – because all of its matches will be played inside, surrounded by screens (and probably beer).

• Each team will have three Tour golfers, who will play two-hour, head-to-head match-play matches in a specially built arena in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
• The arena features a virtual course as well as a physical putting green, and all participating players will be mic’d up.

TGL’s launch comes as pro golf finds itself at a major crossroads. The proposed merger between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund-backed rival LIV Golf has yet to be finalized, and other Tour-focused investors are circling.

But men’s golf may not be their only option. The LPGA is also seeking new financial investment. And, according to the Financial Times, the circuit is close to naming a strategic partner that could bring in outside capital.

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Anti-obesity drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic have already transformed Denmark’s economy, as well as the healthcare industry. Next up: the food industry. Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, revealed this week that it’s already seeing an impact on shopping demand from people taking these medications.

Why it matters: Americans are increasingly gravitating towards anti-obesity/appetite suppression drugs. According to Trilliant Health, prescriptions of those medications quadrupled from late 2020 to 2022, with 9 million prescriptions filled in the last three months of last year.

And if this pace of growth continues, it could have a real impact on the food industry’s bottom line.

• Research from Morgan Stanley indicates the number of patients taking anti-obesity drugs could reach ~7% of the US population by 2035.
• If that occurs, consumption of baked goods and salty snacks could fall 3% – or even more if the new eating habits of the people using the treatments extend to their broader households and friends.

Walmart is seeing some early signs that back this up. The retail giant sells anti-obesity drugs at its pharmacy, and, using anonymized data, is able to compare the shopping habits of those taking the medications with those who are not. Those taking the drugs are buying less products and consuming slightly less calories, though Walmart says it’s too early to draw definitive conclusions based on the data.

💬 Quoted… “The main focus of our work was how [to] bring the emotional part of intelligence to AI.”

• In a new peer-reviewed study published in Nature Communications, Penn State University researchers describe their latest invention: a first-of-its-kind electronic tongue that allows robots to taste food just like humans. The scientists suggest this could help make AI-powered robots more emotionally intelligent, an area where researchers have yet to see much success.

💼🪜 Stat of the Day: Women early in their careers receive fewer promotions from their entry-level jobs as compared to men, per a new study from McKinsey & Co. and nonprofit org Lean In. The research found that for every 100 male employees promoted from entry-level jobs to managerial roles in US companies, 87 women received a similar promotion. Or in other words: it’s not a “glass ceiling” holding women back from climbing the corporate ladder in America, but rather a “broken rung” early in their careers.

🤔 Did You Know?... There are an estimated 2 billion parking spaces across the US, or roughly 8x the number of cars in the country. And yet – dads still circle the grocery store parking lot to find the furthest best one.

📰 Worth a Read: One man’s quest to end cheating in virtual cycling → (The Hustle)

• ☝️ JetCar Miami, which rents out vehicles one-part Corvette and one-part jet ski, recently opened for business in the Sunshine State.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with Tenikle

• 💰 US markets closed down across the board (S&P: -0.1%; Dow: -0.03%; Nasdaq: -0.1%).
• 🍻 Constellation Brands, which owns America’s #1 beer Modelo, reported earnings that beat analysts’ expectations on sales and profit.
• 🚗📉 GM stock hit a three-year low amid the UAW strike and a potential airbag recall. | 🚗📉 Rivian announced plans to offer $1.5 billion in convertible notes; shares closed down ~23%.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🎥 Universal Studios greenlit a new film about the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that’ll be directed and produced by Chris Rock; Steven Spielberg will be an exec producer. | 🎟️🎤 Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour film, which debuts next weekend, has already surpassed $100 million in advance ticket sales.
• 🏆✍️ The Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Norwegian author Jon Fosse “for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable.” | 🕴️👀 Suits set a new record with its 12th consecutive week as the No. 1 movie or TV show on streaming platforms.
• 🙏 Dick Butkus, a former Hall-of-Fame linebacker for the Chicago Bears, passed away at the age of 80.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Finance Buzz

• 💊 Weight loss/diabetes drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy could be associated with a trio of rare but severe stomach conditions in non-diabetic patients (including stomach paralysis), per a new peer-reviewed study published in JAMA.
• ☄️ NASA’s Osiris-Rex mission – which collected a sample of dirt/rocks from an asteroid with the same name, then dropped the canister back down to Earth – has gathered significantly more material than expected, per the space agency.
• ☠️ Some early humans living in Europe 15,000 years ago would commonly eat the bodies of their dead instead of bury them, according to a new peer-reviewed study.

*From our partners: 💵 Six things to do if you’re barely scraping by financially… Are food, bills, rent and gas drying up all of your take-home pay? These small (but smart) moves can help you supplement your income – without doing much extra “work.”

MISCELLANEOUS

• 🍔 McDonald’s and Wendy’s won the dismissal of a lawsuit which accused the two fast-food giants of false advertising because their burgers don’t look as big or as appetizing in person. (Background)
• ⚖️🗳️ A federal court approved a new Alabama congressional map that expands the number of Black-majority districts in the state to two out of seven instead of one, as ordered by the US Supreme Court.
• 🧱 The Biden administration waived 26 federal laws to permit additional construction of a border wall in southern Texas, which will use funds appropriated by the Trump administration. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

CLICKBAIT

• 📲 There's a fun new way to spice up your iPhone group chats.

👆 This is trainer Adrian Stoica and his dog, Hurricane. 

The dynamic duo just became the winners of America's Got Talent 2023, taking home the $1 million grand prize along with a spot in the AGT Las Vegas residency show. 

🐶 So, what do they do?.... Hurricane won America's heart by performing some seriously impressive trick routines with her dad and owner, Adrian. 

• For their final performance, the duo paid tribute to Old Hollywood films, with Hurricane acting as film director and being all around adorable (and seriously impressive). 

Watch it here (6 mins).

Our weekly news quiz is live. How well did you pay attention this week? Let’s find out.

Below are three lists of ingredients. All you have to do is give us the completed dish they make.

☝️ Recipe #1:

• Beef chuck stew meat
• Beef short ribs
• Baking soda
• Vegetable oil
• Onion
• Garlic
• Green onions
• Water
• Fish sauce
• Potatoes
• Medium Carrot
• Green beans
• Green cabbage
• Kosher salt
• Black pepper

✌️ Recipe #2:

• Cornstarch
• Flour
• Salt
• Water
• Chicken wings or drumettes
• Soy sauce
• Honey
• Rice vinegar
• Gochuang
• Garlic
• Ginger
• Sesame seeds

3️⃣ Recipe #3:

• Mushrooms
• Olive oil
• Onion
• Garlic
• Bell pepper
• Ground beef
• Plum tomatoes
• Tomato paste
• Dried oregano
• Crushed red pepper flakes
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Elbow macaroni
• Cheddar cheese
• Parmesan cheese

(keep scrolling for the answers)

☝️ Recipe #1: Niligang Baka (Filipino beef stew)

✌️ Recipe #2: Spicy Korean chicken

3️⃣ Recipe #3: Johnny Marzetti (Midwestern pasta casserole)