Good morning. On today’s docket:

• 💰 Uncle Sam enters the four-comma club
• 🤔 Have there been too many Marvel movies?
• 📝 What Americans say/feel about tipping

… and more.

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

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

“Thinking is a habit, and like any other habit, it can be changed; it just takes effort and repetition.”

–John Eliot (1604-1690)

The US government has a loan payment that would make even the most credit card-laden, four-degree-holding millennial blush. The annual interest payments on America’s national debt crossed $1 trillion at the end of October, a figure that’s doubled over the past 19 months, per a new analysis from Bloomberg.

Some quick background: The US government has spent more money than it takes in each year since 2001, including record-setting deficit levels in 2020 ($3.1 trillion) and 2021 ($2.8 trillion). To cover this shortfall, the government borrows money by taking out a second credit card selling Treasury bonds to investors around the world, who expect the US to pay them back with interest.

• These back payments make up the national debt, which currently sits at $33.7 trillion (or ~120% of America’s annual GDP). And, at $1 trillion/year, total interest payments on that debt represent an estimated 3.6% of US GDP.

Over the long term, consistent US deficits lead to increasingly higher interest costs on the national debt. Spending in that area alone is projected to reach $5.4 trillion by 2053, which would make it the single largest line item in the federal budget (surpassing Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc).

👀 Looking ahead… America's debt outlook was recently downgraded from "stable" to "negative" by Moody's credit-rating agency, which cited negative fiscal projections for the near future. The move comes three months after another ratings agency, Fitch, officially downgraded the US’ long-term credit rating for similar reasons.

• Separately, House Republicans unveiled a two-month stopgap funding bill aimed at avoiding a government shutdown, which is scheduled to begin at midnight this upcoming Friday should no deal be reached.

📊 Flash poll: In your opinion, how should the US government deal with its rising national debt?

Raise taxes

Cut spending

Print more bonds/money to cover interest

Some combination of the above

Nothing needs to be done

Other/unsure

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🇮🇳🪔 India broke its own world record for most oil lamps lit during Diwali. Rounded clay lamps called Diyas are traditionally lit during the Hindu celebration of Diwali, aka the Festival of Lights, to celebrate the triumph of good over evil. In a public event yesterday, devotees at the Saryu River in northern India kept 2.2+ million lamps burning for 45 minutes, eclipsing last year’s record of 1.5 million lamps.

💥 Israel-Hamas war update: Israeli forces continued to push deeper into Gaza City over the weekend, with fighting intensifying near the largest hospital in Gaza. Doctors at the hospital said their last generator ran out of fuel on Saturday, leading to the deaths of five patients and placing many others at risk. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel offered fuel for the hospital on Saturday night, but Hamas refused to accept it. Israel has portrayed the hospital as Hamas' main command post, saying militants have set up elaborate bunkers underneath it. Hamas and hospital staff deny these claims. Separately, hundreds of thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered in London on Saturday to call for a cease-fire in Gaza, while more than 100,000 people participated in a march against antisemitism in Paris yesterday.

🇨🇳🇺🇸 A cyberattack on one of the world’s largest banks disrupted US Treasury markets on Thursday. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) disclosed the ransomware attack late Thursday, and said it temporarily affected some trading at its US branch last week. The company said it isolated affected systems in the US, and that its overseas units weren’t impacted. No organization has claimed responsibility for the hack, though several analysts said they suspect Lockbit, a cybercrime gang that has targeted 1,700+ US organizations with similar attacks.

Disney’s latest Marvel film, The Marvels, is shaping up to be a super disappointment. It took in an estimated $47 million at the domestic box office this past weekend, marking the lowest MCU movie opening in Disney’s 14-year history of owning Marvel Studios.

What went wrong?... The Marvels is a sequel to Captain Marvel, which generated $153 million in opening-weekend domestic ticket sales in 2019. But, unlike its predecessor, The Marvels doesn’t appear on track to recoup its production and advertising budget, which stands at a combined ~$275 million.

In explaining The Marvels’ poor results, some analysts point to a range of problems in pre-production, including scripting oversights that reportedly led to four weeks of reshoots. Many also cite the recently-concluded actors strike as a major issue, since stars like Brie Larson weren’t able to promote the film.

• Others contend that Marvel has oversaturated the superhero genre by releasing more content than a narcissist who just discovered TikTok – 33 films and a dozen-plus TV shows since 2008, to be exact – and causing the general public to lose interest.

👀 Looking ahead… Disney has delayed the next phase of the MCU due to the recently concluded actors strike, with only Deadpool 3 scheduled to be released in 2024.

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💬 Quoted… “Even as Americans say they’re being asked to tip more often, relatively few have a great deal of confidence about when and how to do so.”

• In a newly-published poll, Pew Research found just one-third of US adults think it’s very easy to know whether or how much to tip for different types of services. Americans are similarly confused over whether tipping is more of a choice or an obligation for consumers, with roughly half saying it depends on the situation. Pew also found a majority of Americans (57%) usually tip 15% or less at sit-down restaurants, including 2% who never leave any tip.

📺👀 Stat of the Day: People may be souring on Marvel, but shows about Naval criminal investigators are another story. More than 300 million people around the world watched at least one version of NCIS last year, according to new figures shared by CBS. Overall, the superhero-free NCIS has produced more than 1,000 episodes across the main show and four spinoffs, which include NCIS: New Orleans and NCIS: Hawaii.

🤔 Did You Know?... Škoda, a Czech auto manufacturer, test-blasts its car horns 150,000 times for vehicles on the European market, but ups that figure to 500,000 for cars sold in India. The company cites a study carried out at major intersections in Indian cities which found a horn sounds once every three seconds.

📰 Worth a Read: The human brain has different circuits to process small and large numbers → (Quanta Magazine)

• ☝️ The Air Force's next-generation stealth bomber, the B-21 Raider, took its first flight on Friday.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with Nutrafol

• 💰 US markets closed up across the board on Friday (S&P: +1.6%; Dow: +1.2%; Nasdaq: +2.1%); all three indexes have experienced two consecutive weeks of gains.
• 🛻 Cybertruck buyers aren’t allowed to sell the vehicle in the first year after their purchase without explicit permission from Tesla or they may be sued; that’s per the EV-maker’s newly updated Motor Vehicle Order Agreement.
• 💎 The diamond world is taking major steps to prevent price declines. (Background)

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🎬 An Elon Musk biopic may be coming soon: Indie studio A24 secured the film rights to Walter Isaacson’s biography of the Tesla/SpaceX/X tycoon. | 💻 Omegle, the popular anonymous video chat service, shut down after 14 years amid concerns over child safety.
• 🎙️ The 2024 Grammy nominations are out.
• SCOREBOARD: 🏈 CFB: No. 2 Georgia blew out No. 9 Mississippi, while No. 3 Michigan defeated No. 10 Penn State one day after head coach Jim Harbaugh was suspended for three games; see a full Week 11 recap (link). | 🏈 NFL: See a full Week 10 recap. | ⚽️ NWSL: Gotham FC topped the OL Reign 2-1 to win the 2023 NWSL championship; it was also Megan Rapinoe and Ali Kreiger's final career games.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Coop

• 🚬 E-cig usage among high-schoolers is at its lowest point in almost a decade, per the CDC’s annual youth tobacco survey.
• 🫀 Wegovy, one of Novo Nordisk's weight loss drugs, was found to cut rate of heart attacks by patients already taking heart medication by 28%, cardiovascular deaths by 15%, and stroke incidents by 7%.
• 🧑‍🚀 NASA Astronaut Frank Borman, commander of Apollo 8’s historic Moon mission, died at 95.

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MISCELLANEOUS

• 🐶🐱 Pet food brands manufactured by Mid America Pet Food have been recalled due to possible salmonella contamination.
• 📝 Federal authorities are reportedly investigating whether New York City Mayor Eric Adams, weeks before his election two years ago, pressured New York Fire Department officials to sign off on the Turkish government’s new high-rise consulate in Manhattan despite safety concerns with the building.
• ⛪ ​​Pope Francis on Saturday ordered the removal of the bishop of Tyler, Texas; the bishop has been a fierce critic of the pope and his potential church reforms.

CLICKBAIT

• 👏 Workers at these 15 companies are happiest with their pay, says new report.

Monday: World Kindness Day

Tuesday: Consumer Price Index for October; King Charles III turns 75

Wednesday: President Biden to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping

Thursday: Weekly unemployment claims

Friday: Midnight deadline to avoid US government shutdown; The Hunger Games prequel hits theaters; National Unfriend Day

On Friday, we covered the results from last week’s off-year election, with Americans voting to determine new state and federal lawmakers as well as on ballot measures related to abortion and marijuana.

❓ Our question to you: What are your thoughts on the 2023 election results across the country?

• “Abortion seems to be the key issue in elections at this time. I feel no matter party identification, most Americans want to protect the reproductive rights of women. If the GOP cannot embrace a more moderate and reasonable approach, Dem wins look to be the trend going into this next election cycle. Recreational marijuana is also another issue that needs to be taken care of at the federal level.”
• “It seems to me that voters are frustrated with both parties. We made a switch to the GOP because Dems were being too extreme. Now GOP officials are being too extreme and voters let them know. I truly don’t understand why we can't have moderate governance. It's very obvious to me that is what voters want.”
• “Personally, I'm not thrilled. I think the results demonstrate significant, sharp divides on some fundamental issues. When these kinds of results come in, we polarize. Polarization isn't going to benefit us as a country. Also, marijuana (while wildly misclassified) is a nuisance drug, and I'm not looking forward to the smell.”

Click here to read more of the best responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 198 longform responses.

The spines of a hedgehog, the snout of an anteater, and the feet of a mole... 

No, it's not the result of an imaginative child – you're looking at the "Attenborough's long-beaked echidna," an extremely rare mammal that hasn't been spotted in more than six decades.

🕵️ The search begins... A team of field experts set out to find the mammal, named after the British naturalist David Attenborough, in the summer of this year. 

• After weeks of searching, footage of the creature was finally found on the last memory card of more than 80 cameras set up on the search site.
• "There was a great sense of euphoria, and also relief having spent so long in the field with no reward until the very final day,” said scientist James Kempton.

Guess the definitions of these Greek/Latin root words:

1. Arthr
2. Camer
3. Cern
4. Equ
5. Gladi

(keep scrolling for the answers)

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1. Arthr = Joint (arthritis, arthroscopic)
2. Camer = Vault (camera)
3. Cern = Sift (discern, secern)
4. Equ = Horse (equestrian)
5. Gladi = Sword (gladiator)