Good morning. We’ve got a jam-packed newsletter, so let’s just rock ‘n roll.

On today’s docket:

• 🏛️ The House of Representatives still doesn’t have a Speaker
• 🎃🍬 Behind the big business of Halloween candy
• 😯 Science says we may be living in a simulation

… and more.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be about a 4.83-minute read.

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"No matter who you are, we’re creatures of habit. The better your habits are, the better they will be in pressure situations."

–Wayne Gretzky (b. 1961)

The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on a new Speaker later today, in a bid to resume legislative business amid a two-week hiatus brought on by the ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).

🏛️⏪ How we got here: In late September, McCarthy threw his support behind a bipartisan stopgap bill to temporarily avoid a government shutdown for 45 days. As a result, a group of House Republicans who had been pushing for a smaller federal budget – led by Rep. Matt Gaetz – called for a vote to oust McCarthy from his Speaker position.

The measure was approved two weeks ago by a 216-210 margin, with eight Republicans joining Democrats in voting for removal. The move left Rep. Patrick McHenry acting as speaker pro tempore, a placeholder position created after September 11, 2001, to ensure continuity of government in case the speaker is killed or incapacitated.

Following McCarthy’s ouster, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Rep. Jim Jordan both tossed their hats in the ring to be nominated as the GOP’s next Speaker.

• Rep. Scalise narrowly won the first internal vote among House Republicans last Wednesday. But he withdrew from consideration for Speaker a day later, saying it was clear he lacked enough support to pass a full chamber vote.
• Rep. Jordan won the following internal GOP Speaker election on Friday, setting up a formal House vote at noon ET today.

👀 Looking ahead… Once the House approves a new Speaker, the chamber will immediately begin working on several time-sensitive pieces of legislation, including a bill to fund the government that needs to be passed by November 17 to avoid a shutdown and an aid package for Israel following the recent Hamas attack.

🇨🇦🇵🇭 Canada agreed to help the Philippines track illegal fishing vessels via satellite. Illegal and unregulated fishing has been a problem across the Philippines’ 7,641 individual islands for years, with the country’s coast guard regularly accusing Chinese fishing vessels of switching off their location-transmitting devices to avoid detection and surveillance. China claims control of virtually the entire South China Sea on historical grounds, and continues to do so despite its claim being invalidated by an arbitration tribunal in 2016.

🇳🇱 Amsterdam is set to enforce the highest tourist tax in Europe. The current tourist tax rate of 7% – which applies to all hotel rooms, short-term rentals, and cruise ships – will increase to 12.5% at the start of next year. Amsterdam is expected to welcome over 20 million tourists this year, prompting concerns from local residents and officials over excess noise, rising prices, and environmental damage. Amsterdam’s government says the extra tax revenue will allow it to manage the consequences of overtourism, with extra funds allocated towards maintaining cleaner streets.

🇪🇺 The EU offered to open its market to the Western Balkans in exchange for reforms. EU leaders presented a new plan yesterday to six Western Balkan nations – Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia – that were previously accepted to join the EU, but have had their accession process delayed for over a decade due to internal issues like poor regulatory structure, corruption, and organized crime. The EU’s plan would open new trade routes to the six nations and move them closer to joining the 27-member bloc, in return for implementing sweeping reforms.

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The SBF trial is in the same mode as Bartolo Colón when he steps up to the plate – full swing. Yesterday, the jury heard testimony from Nishad Singh, FTX’s former director of engineering and a member of Bankman-Fried’s inner circle.

The biggest takeaway: Singh admitted to knowingly committing crimes alongside the 31-year-old SBF, making him the third witness to do so after Gary Wang (an FTX co-founder) and Caroline Ellison (SBF’s ex-girlfriend and former CEO of Alameda). All three have agreed to plea deals.

Singh also discussed what he framed as excessive and flashy spending by FTX on investments, sponsorships, and celebrities. And he brought receipts.

• According to spreadsheets of investments made in 2021, FTX invested $1 billion in bitcoin mining firm Genesis, $499 million in AI startup Anthropic, and $200 million in investment firm K5.
• The jury was also presented with a separate spreadsheet of celebrity sponsorship deals. It included $205 million for the naming rights to FTX arena in Miami, $150 million to Major League Baseball, $50 million to Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen, $28.5 million to Steph Curry, and $10 million to Larry David. In total, these deals amounted to $1.13 billion.

👀 Looking ahead… The entire trial is expected to last around six weeks soup-to-nuts, putting its expected end-date somewhere in mid-November. Still ahead? Potential testimony from Bankman-Fried himself (but only if he can get his adderall).

We’re exactly two weeks away from the only day of the year when it’s acceptable to hide in a coffin and scare teenage girls (Halloween). And, much like the creepy looking house on the corner donned in ivy, cobwebs, and inflatable spiders, candymakers have been preparing for this moment for ages.

Years, in fact, according to Tim Lebel, Mars Wrigley’s chief Halloween officer. He told CNBC: “A lot of those things take two years to develop and execute to bring to market. So the things we looked at in 2021, you’re starting to see this year in 2023.”

And for good reason. For decades, the fall holiday has been the biggest sales season of the year for candymakers.

• The National Retail Federation predicts US consumers will spend $3.6 billion on Halloween candy this year, up from $3.1 billion last year.
• For context, the global candy market size was valued at $12.1 billion in 2022 – meaning roughly one-quarter of all global candy sales occurred during Halloween.

📸 Big picture: Halloween is one of the largest retail holidays in the US. And this year is shaping up to be the second half of Rob & Big – consumers are expected to spend a record $12.2 billion for Halloween candy, costumes and decorations, according to the National Retail Federation's annual holiday survey.

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💬 Quoted… “Infodynamics.”

In a peer-reviewed research article published last week, UK physicist Dr. Melvin Vopson proposed a new law of physics, which could support the theory that our entire reality exists inside a computer simulation.

• Vopson’s new “second law of infodynamics” is based on the second law of thermodynamics – which says that any naturally occurring process in the universe results in a loss of energy and an increase in entropy (aka disorder) – but it focuses on information systems, instead of energy.

💼🏢 Stat of the Day: The push by companies to get workers back into the office appears to be working. Fewer than 26% of US households still have someone working remotely at least one day a week, down from the early-2021 peak of 37%, according to the two latest Census Bureau Household Pulse Surveys.

🤔 Did You Know?... Over half of all US teenagers (51%) report spending at least 4 hours per day on social media apps, per new Gallup polling. The screen monster can be a very compelling beast.

📰 Worth a Read: The Soviet spacecraft cemetery in the Pacific → (BBC Future)

• ☝️ You’re looking at some of the winners from the Natural History Museum's Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition; the overall winner, Laurent Ballesta (top left), is the second person in the contest's 59-year history to earn the top prize two different times.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with Paleovalley

• 💰 US markets closed up across the board (S&P: +1.1%; Dow: +0.9%; Nasdaq: +1.2%); more than 50 companies in the S&P 500 will report earnings this week.
• 🚫 Rite Aid filed for bankruptcy; the drugstore chain plans to close an untold number of stores across the United States amid slumping sales and a slew of opioid lawsuits. | 🚗❌ The UAW strikes have cost the automotive industry a total of $7.7 billion through Oct. 12, per a new estimate from the Anderson Economic Group of East Lansing, Michigan.
• 🏡 Renting is cheaper than buying, per Zillow; the median rent nationally in August was $2,052 – or $81 cheaper than the monthly mortgage payment for a typically priced home, assuming a 10% down payment and prevailing interest rates. | 👪 38% of recent US homebuyers under age 30 received family money in order to afford their down payment, per a new Redfin report.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🚫📺 YouTube has started cracking down on ad-blockers.
• 🎭 Sir Michael Caine, 90, is retiring from acting after a more than 70-year career; he’s won two Oscars, three Golden Globes, a SAG Award, and a BAFTA Award.
• 🎤🍿 Taylor Swift‘s “The Eras Tour” concert film officially opened to $92.8 million in North America this past weekend; that figure is slightly below initial estimates and $3.4 million shy of the biggest opening in October history.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Tugboat

• 🦠 Many symptoms of long Covid, including memory problems and other neurological or cognitive issues, could be explained by a reduction in serotonin levels triggered by remnants of the virus, per a peer-reviewed study published yesterday in Cell.
• 🪨🌀⭐ Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection may also apply to non-living objects like minerals, hurricanes, and stars, according to a peer-reviewed study published yesterday in PNAS.
• 🧠 The largest-ever atlas of different cells in the human brain was recently completed by a team of international scientists, who mapped the location, structure, and function of 3,000+ types of brain cells.

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MISCELLANEOUS

• 👽📹 Amazon-owned Ring is offering a $1 million reward for anyone who captures proof of aliens using one of their cameras.
• ⚖️🙊 A federal judge issued a partial gag order yesterday restricting former President Trump from making statements targeting prosecutors, possible witnesses, and court staff in the ongoing criminal case where he stands accused of trying to overturn the 2020 election results. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)
• 🗣️🗳️ The third GOP debate of the 2024 presidential election cycle is scheduled for November 8 in Miami.

CLICKBAIT

• 🤔💎 Is anything harder than a diamond?

Yesterday, we covered the ongoing war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, which officially entered its second week on Saturday.

❓ Our question to you: What are your thoughts on the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas?

• “Israel has oppressed and murdered thousands of innocent Palestinians for 70+ years, with the goal of completely taking over the land. Palestinians have no army and no way to defend themselves. Israel is using this situation as a justification to kill more innocent civilians. This is not a war, or an equal one at that – it has turned into a genocide and humanitarian crisis.”
• Why so much hatred for the Jews? Why can't Hamas keep to any of the many agreements that have been made over the decades? The terrorist groups in the middle east are setting a very bad example of Islam.”
• “​​Americans need to intervene and stop both sides. We need to realize you can be pro-Israel but disagree with what their government is doing. Israel isn’t innocent in this, and if they would just let the Palestinians have territory then the fighting would stop.”

Click here to read more of the best (and most-nuanced) responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 292 longform responses.

Chances are, if you're from New England, you've visited Fenway Park. Home of the Boston Red Sox, the stadium has been around for over 100 years. 

It's also undergone routine maintenance and renovations since being built over a century ago. But one renovation in particular stands out – a sprawling 5,000-square-foot farm right on the roof, just beyond the Green Monster in left field.

🌱 The future of farming... Constructed within the last decade, the rooftop farm provides locally grown produce to the restaurants and food stands in the stadium, as well as pre-game meals for the athletes. 

• Any produce not used within the stadium is donated to local food pantries to help people in need. 

❓ Trivia: Which country hosted the men’s FIFA World Cup in 2022?

🍬 True or False?... Chewing gum takes roughly seven years to digest.

🤔 Riddle Me This: What has thirteen hearts but no other organs?

(keep scrolling for the answers)

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❓ Trivia: Qatar

🍬 T/F: False

🤔 Riddle: A deck of cards