Good morning. On today’s docket:

• 📝 Major college conferences are pushing for NIL legislation
• 📺 Netflix’s ad-supported tier isn’t chillin’
• 😬 Ad-blocker armageddon is approaching

… and more.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be about a 4.90-minute read.

P.S. First time reading? Subscribe here for free.

"The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts; therefore guard accordingly."

Marcus Aurelius (121 AD – 180 AD)

If you’re a recent lottery jackpot winner looking to start a second career as a college bagman, you may be in some trouble. The most prominent college athletic conferences launched a campaign yesterday calling for new federal legislation that regulates how student-athletes can profit off their name, image, and likeness (NIL).

More specifically, the group of more than two dozen Division 1 conferences – led by the Power Five commissioners – wants federal legislation that:

• Replaces the current patchwork of state NIL laws and establishes uniform oversight and enforcement across the country, creating an even playing field for schools and athletes alike.
• Prevents the use of NIL in the recruiting process, a move conferences say is aimed at reversing the current “pay-to-play” environment where third-party individuals and orgs often use money to influence which schools athletes attend and play for.
• Recognizes the existing requirements of Title IX and ensures that male and female college athletes in all sports have equal opportunities to NIL deals.
• Clearly establishes that college athletes are not university employees, placing the conferences at odds with many athletes and legal advocates who argue they should be eligible for wages and overtime pay.

📸 Big picture: Since the NCAA lifted its long-standing ban preventing athletes from signing sponsorship and endorsement deals in 2021, NIL has grown into an OK Corral-gunslinging, almost-anything-goes booming national industry worth more than $1 billion annually.

And while Congress has held nearly a dozen hearings over the past three years regarding potential NIL regulation in college sports – including one as recently as last month – no such bills have yet made it to the House or Senate floor for debate (the first step in the voting process).

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🇷🇺 Eurasia’s largest active volcano is erupting. The Klyuchevskaya Sopka volcano’s initial explosion sent ash as high as eight miles above sea level and forced local authorities in two nearby towns to close their schools, though no injuries were reported. Klyuchevskaya Sopka, which has a peak height of 15,255 feet and is located in eastern Russia, is considered one of the world’s most active volcanoes and last released lava in June.

💥 Israel-Hamas war update: Israel’s military carried out its second airstrike targeting Gaza's largest refugee camp in the past two days, with officials saying each of the strikes managed to take out a top Hamas commander in addition to causing widespread casualties and damage in the surrounding area. Egypt opened its border with Gaza yesterday for the first time since the war began three-and-a-half weeks ago, allowing over 400 foreigners and injured Palestinians to cross over. On the US side, the State Department confirmed roughly 1,000 Americans and their family members are trapped in Gaza, and said officials are carrying out a plan to secure their safe departure over the next several days.

🇵🇰🇦🇫 Pakistan began deporting an estimated 1.7 million undocumented migrants. Under a new law which officially came into effect yesterday, all unregistered foreigners in Pakistan – most of whom are from neighboring Afghanistan – face arrest and deportation. The deportation order, which officials say isn’t aimed at any single nationality, comes after Pakistan’s government accused Afghan nationals of being involved in recent militant attacks, smuggling, and other crimes (which the Afghan Taliban government denies).

After years of saying ads would never make their way onto the platform, Netflix officially launched its $6.99/month ad-supported tier one year ago.

Today, the move is looking more successful than a sharply dressed Wall Street banker wearing a Rolex. The streaming giant revealed yesterday that its ad-supported tier has 15 million monthly active users, triple the number it had in May.

Behind the growth… Netflix has been hiking prices on its ad-free tiers in order to a) drive more revenue from those subscribers and b) try and prompt more people to sign up for its ads tier, where commercials help bring in more revenue per user.

And, much like Thomas the Tank Engine, it’s working.

• The monthly active users on Netflix’s ads tier increased 70% from Q2 to Q3.
• In countries where the ad plan was available, 30% of signups were for the ads-tier.

📸 Big picture: In order to experience ad-free premium content, it’s looking like consumers will have to pony up, Ponyboy. While streamers like Paramount+ and Peacock have recently raised prices on their ad-supported plans, most streamers – including Disney+, Hulu, Max, Discovery+, and, yes, Netflix – have been raising prices on their ad-free tiers while leaving ad-supported plans unchanged.

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*Mugatu voice* Labor strikes are so hot right now. The latest walkout occurred yesterday in Portland, Oregon, as roughly 4,000 teachers, school counselors, and other employees went on strike, closing all schools in the state’s largest district.

The sticking points: Teachers are asking for higher wages, more time to plan lessons, and a cap on class sizes, among other things (most are common asks present in other teacher’s strikes this year). Angela Bonilla, president of the Portland teachers union, described crowded classrooms where there aren’t enough desks, teachers working up to 20 hours/week unpaid to keep up with workloads, and schools overwhelmed by students’ mental health challenges.

• The union is asking for a cumulative 23% cost-of-living increase over three years. The average salary for a Portland teacher is ~$79,000, right around the area’s median income for a single person and below the median for a family of four.
• The district, which encompasses roughly 45,000 students, has offered cost-of-living adjustments that would boost teacher salaries by ~11% over the next three years, according to The Oregonian.

👀 Looking ahead… It may be hard for teachers to secure many more immediate concessions without the district having to make cuts in the years ahead, since state funding hasn’t kept up with inflation and a state law limits the district’s ability to raise taxes on residents. All Portland schools will remain closed at least through the weekend.

💬 Quoted… "The use of ad blockers violate YouTube's Terms of Service."

• Halloween may be over, but a large percentage of online users are about to experience a new horror: back-to-back unskippable YouTube ads. Yesterday, the Alphabet-owned platform confirmed plans to expand its crackdown on ad-blockers to all users globally – which is probably unwelcome news for the ~31% of US adults who use web browser add-ons or extensions to block ads.

💰👶 Stat of the Day: Parents' average child-care payment has risen by 32% since 2019, compared to a 20% increase in US inflation over the same period, per new Bank of America Institute data.

🤔 Did You Know?... Forget cutting out Starbucks or avocado toast – extra time left on the parking meter can add up. On average, Americans overpay for parking at meters and in garages to the tune of $20 billion/year (equivalent to $97/driver), according to a 2017 report from INRIX transportation.

📰 Worth a Read: Roombas at the End of the World: Robotic romance, ransoms, and raccoon suits at the South Pole → (IEEE Spectrum)

• ☝️ The Nature Conservancy announced the winners of its 2023 photographer contest, which featured celebrity guest judge Cole Sprouse.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with Finance Buzz

• 💰 US markets closed up across the board (S&P: +1.1%; Dow: +0.7%; Nasdaq: +1.6%). | 📝 The Fed opted to keep interest rates steady following its two-day meeting.
• 📉 WeWork reportedly plans to file for bankruptcy as early as next week.
• 🏡🤝 Major DC landlords and RealPage, a property management software, are being sued in DC for an alleged rent-fixing scheme. (Background)

*From our partners: 💵 Hands down the laziest ways people are making extra cash... Feeling lazy but still want to earn some extra cash? We found some weird (but legit) ways to earn cash and stack your bank account without even leaving the house. Start earning legit cash today.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• ⚾ World Series: The Texas Rangers beat the Diamondbacks 5-0 last night to win the World Series by a 4-1 margin; it's the Rangers' first MLB title in its 63-season history.
• 🇪🇺📲 The EU’s data regulator will ban Meta from using targeted advertising across 30 countries within the next two weeks.
• 🏀🙏 Bob Knight, the legendary (and hot-tempered) college basketball coach whose Hall of Fame career included three national titles with Indiana, passed away at the age of 83. | ⚽🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia was selected to host the 2034 FIFA World Cup. | 🏈 The Las Vegas Raiders fired head coach Josh McDaniels and general manager David Ziegler one day after the franchise fell to 3-5 on the season.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with RYSE

• 🌍💥🌕 Mysterious blobs located 1,000+ miles underground may be remnants of a Mars-sized planet that slammed into Earth in the early solar system and produced a shower of debris that formed the Moon, per a study published yesterday in Nature.
• ☀️🛰️ Low-cost, lightweight solar panels can successfully generate energy in space, according to new research from the Universities of Surrey and Swansea.
• 🫀🐷 A Maryland man who received the world’s second-ever pig heart transplant in late September passed away on Monday, his doctors announced. (Background)

*From our partners: 📈 RYSE launches in 100+ Best Buys this week... and you can still get early shares before they become a household name in the booming SmartHome industry. Similar tech in the space (Nest, Ring) netted early investors 15x returns. Invest in RYSE here.

MISCELLANEOUS

• 🎓 A Cornell University student was arrested this week after allegedly threatening to kill Jewish students on campus.
• 👶📈 The US infant mortality rate rose last year for the first time in over two decades, per a CDC report published yesterday; there were 5.6 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2022, up 3% from the previous year.
• 🇨🇳🤝🇺🇸 The White House confirmed President Biden is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in San Francisco later this month.

CLICKBAIT

• ⭐🐟 Starfish ‘arms’ are actually extensions of their head.

Yesterday, we covered how US businesses have hiked their prices for over two years in response to a combination of factors including labor costs – and how prices are expected to further increase following recent minimum-wage hikes, strike actions, and new labor contracts.

❓ Our question to you: In general, would you support businesses paying higher wages even if it results in higher prices for goods and services?

• 👍 Yes: 45%
• 👎 No: 34%
• 🤷 Unsure/other: 21%

Click here to read more of the best responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 7,855 votes and 361 longform responses.

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

• Man not allowed to travel overseas as surname is ‘too rude’ for passport → (New Zealand Herald)
• Garth Brooks is Releasing His New Album Exclusively via Bass Pro Shops → (Consequence of Sound)
• Luxury California home — complete with meth lab and "contamination" — selling for $1.55 million → (CBS News)
• Sheep living with a mob of kangaroos rescued and sheared after five years → (UPI)
• A small New Zealand city has been plagued by drivers blasting Céline Dion ballads at 2 am for almost a year → (Insider)

Eleven-year-old Jude Nyame Yie Kofie went viral in September after his father discovered his natural piano abilities and posted a video of Jude playing online. 

🎶 A natural talent .... Jude had never taken a piano lesson before – but seemed able to play any song he heard by ear. 

• "[My] first reaction was, 'This kid is Mozart level,'" said professional piano tuner, Bill Magnusson. "And he deserves the very best."
• So Bill used his inheritance money to purchase Jude a grand piano, as well as sponsor piano lessons.

🎹 Why, you ask? "The ripple effects for the next 70 or 80 years are incalculable," Bill said. "It's not just for him. It's for all the people he's going to touch."

The Great Blue Hole, which measures over 400 feet deep, is located off the coast of which Central American country?

(keep scrolling for the answer)

Belize