Good morning. On today’s docket:

• 🤔 OpenAI had a drama-filled weekend
• 🏎️ A look inside Vegas’ first F1 race in decades
• 😘 How many cultures around the world engage in romantic kissing?

… and more.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be about a 4.85-minute read.

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

“Whoever is happy will make others happy too.”

–Anne Frank (1929-1945)

OpenAI, the San Francisco-based startup that created ChatGPT, suddenly fired CEO Sam Altman on Friday, in an announcement that came as a surprise to nearly everyone in the tech sector – including Microsoft, OpenAI’s largest investor.

The exact reason for Altman’s firing hasn’t been disclosed. OpenAI’s board initially said the move came after a review concluding Altman “was not consistently candid in his communications with the board,” and later told employees Altman’s removal had nothing to do with “malfeasance or anything related to our financial, business, safety, or security/privacy practice.”

• According to multiple reports, Altman was fired after some board members pushed back against his plan to rapidly expand OpenAI’s commercial offerings, with board members arguing such a move violates the company’s charter to develop AI in a safe and responsible manner.
• Altman’s ambitions and side ventures also strained his relationship with OpenAI’s board, including his ongoing efforts to raise tens of billions of dollars for an AI chip-making company that would rival Nvidia, per Bloomberg.

🤔 What happens next?... The story experienced another Shyamalan-worthy plot twist on Saturday, when Microsoft and other major OpenAI investors reached out to Altman in an attempt to “Command+Z” the situation and bring him back as CEO.

But it was not to be. Early this morning, Microsoft announced it had hired Sam Altman and OpenAI President Greg Brockman to lead an advanced research lab. OpenAI hired the former CEO of Twitch, Emmett Shear, to replace Altman in the interim.

📊 Flash poll (long form): In your opinion, how should AI companies approach the topic of safety as they develop new technologies and products? We’ll share the most thought-provoking and insightful responses tomorrow.

• Click here to leave a response.

Join the 1 million-plus people growing stronger hair with Nutrafol’s physician-formulated hair growth supplements for thinning hair. With formulas for women and men through different lifestyles and life stages, they’re the #1 dermatologist-recommended hair growth supplement brand.

You’re not alone…

• “The average woman is preoccupied with thoughts about hair thinning about 15 different times each day.
• 45% revealed their hair thinning negatively impacted their confidence.
• Two-thirds agree that the way their hair looks can completely change how they feel about themselves.”*

But now, you can rest assured knowing you’re taking action with a 100% drug-free, science-backed, clinically tested formulas. Nutrafol multi-targets root causes of hair thinning for visibly thicker and stronger hair within 3-6 months.

Invest in your hair health with Nutrafol here.

🇪🇹 Ethiopian Julie Mehretu broke her own world record for the most expensive painting sold by an African-born artist. Mehretu’s abstract painting “Walkers With the Dawn and Morning” sold for $10.7 million at Sotheby's in New York last week, eclipsing her previous record of $9.3 million set last month. Mehretu painted the artwork for an exhibition created to showcase the impact of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans.

💥 Israel-Hamas war update: On Saturday, WaPo reported that Israel, the US, and Hamas reached a tentative agreement to free 50 or more Israeli hostages held in Gaza in exchange for a five-day pause in fighting. However, a US spokesperson later denied claims that any hostage-exchange deal was reached, and said negotiations are still ongoing. Separately, Hamas-led health authorities in Gaza say at least 12,300 Palestinians, including 5,000 children, have died since the war began seven weeks ago. Israel’s government recently revised its official estimated death toll from Hamas’ October 7 surprise attack, lowering the total from over 1,400 to about 1,200 people.

🌏 Global sugar prices are rising due to dry weather from El Niño. Sugar worldwide is currently trading at its highest price in over a decade, at $0.27/pound, after recent dry spells in India and Thailand – the world's second- and third-largest sugar exporters, respectively – caused a decrease in global supplies. The UN predicts a further 2% decline in global sugar production over the current 2023-24 season ending in July, which would raise the risk of food insecurity in many sub-Saharan African countries where sugar is used as a cheap source of calories.

… is sometimes broadcast around the world for millions to watch. This past weekend, Formula One returned to Sin City for the first time in over four decades with a $500+ million Grand Prix race that delivered an exciting finish – but also saw some initial turbulence.

First, the turbulence: Just nine minutes into the first practice session on Thursday evening, Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz Jr. hit a manhole cover on the F1 track (aka Las Vegas city streets) and badly damaged his car.

Organizers immediately ended the first practice run to remove all manhole covers from the track, then later forced waiting fans to leave the stadium one hour before the second practice session began at 2:30 am local time, citing risks for employees and fans due to the late hour.

• The saga prompted a class-action lawsuit from Thursday ticket-holders who only witnessed nine minutes of racing action before being kicked out.

But, much like Do-Re-Mi, the event ended on a high note. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen notched his record-extending 18th win of the season on Saturday, in a race featuring close competition for the top spot and lots of overtaking, which is rare on a street track like Vegas.

🔢 By the numbers: F1 officials said the three-day race weekend featured 315,000+ spectators and added ~$1.2 billion to Vegas’ local economy. For context, the latter figure is more than twice as much as the Super Bowl is projected to add to Vegas’ economy this upcoming February.

Moomoo’s powerful tools and free educational resources can help support your investing journey, even if you haven’t started yet.

• 🎓 Free courses to help you build on your investment knowledge
• 📃 Paper trading to gain practical learning experience
• 🛠️ Pro-level tools and fully visualized company financials
• 🐮 A community of moomoo users to share ideas and insights with

Consider yourself an advanced trader? Moomoo provides access to full extended-hours trading and global markets too… you don’t win the ‘Best Mobile App’ award in August for nothing!**

Get up to 15 free stocks by signing up and depositing with moomoo today***.

💬 Quoted… “I have never seen such poor behavior by a Board in my career. The things that I have heard, the things that have been spoken directly to me, and the actions I have witnessed are in a category that I have never seen.”

• OpenAI’s board vs. Sam Altman wasn’t the only business drama brewing over the weekend. On Friday, investment firm JAT Capital sent a letter to the board of Bed Bath & Beyond, calling them out for what it deems as a series of misdeeds, including canceling planned investor conferences and twisting the facts about former CEO Jonathan Johnson’s ouster. Bed Bath & Beyond – previously Overstock.com before Overstock bought Bed Bath out of bankruptcy in June and rebranded – had been dealing with slow sales and a shrinking market cap before closing its doors. And so far, post-bankruptcy hasn’t been too much different. The first quarter of the new Beyond delivered declines in sales and profits, though there were a few bright spots.

🦃✈️ Stat of the Day: Traveling for Thanksgiving? PSA: This year isn’t the one to show up to the airport fashionably late. The TSA expects to screen 30 million passengers from November 17–November 27, the most ever. The Sunday after Thanksgiving (26th) is projected to be the busiest day during that period, with an estimated 2.9 million passengers taking to the skies. But here’s some good news: getting from point A to point B and back is cheaper this year. Thanksgiving flight deals are averaging $248 for domestic round trips, according to flight-tracking site Hopper, down from $271 last year and $276 in 2019. Overall, airfare was down more than 13% in the latest US inflation report.

🤔 Did You Know?... Outside of the US, less than half of the world’s cultures engage in romantic kissing between partners, per a 2015 study; however, researchers found parents regularly kiss their children to express affection in the vast majority of cultures.

📰 Worth a Read: How clocks and watches have shaped civilization → (BBC Future)

• ☝️ UK stunt driver Paul Swift last week broke the Guinness World Record for the tightest gap driven through by a pickup truck on two wheels, making it through a gap of just 35 inches (not including the truck's height).

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with Tugboat

• 💰 US markets closed up across the board on Friday (S&P: +0.1%; Dow: +0.01%; Nasdaq: +0.1%); each major average has now experienced three consecutive weeks of gains.
• 🤝 UAW workers at both Ford and Stellantis approved the union’s labor deal with the automakers; GM workers approved the negotiated labor deal last week. | 🚗 Honda issued a recall for ~250,000 vehicles whose engines are at risk of damaging themselves.
• 🙅‍♀️ Apple, Disney, Comcast, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount Global, and Lions Gate Entertainment have all paused advertising on X.

*From our partners: 💰🤝 A home insurance claim is a negotiation… and most people leave thousands on the table. The average Tugboat user increases their settlement by $15,000, and most users get their denials overturned. Save 15% on Tugboat Claim Support Tools with code DONUT.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• SCOREBOARD: 🏈 CFB: No. 5 Washington defeated No. 11 Oregon State, while No. 1 Georgia cruised past No. 18 Tennessee; see a full Week 12 recap (link). | 🏈 NFL: See a full Week 11 recap.
• 🎤 Taylor Swift postponed an Eras Tour concert in Rio de Janeiro Saturday due to extreme heat after a 23-year-old fan died during her Friday night show. | 📝 Sean “P Diddy” Combs settled a civil lawsuit brought by the singer Cassie accusing him of rape and abuse one day after she filed it.
• 🍿 The Hunger Games prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, generated $44 million in domestic ticket sales to top this weekend’s box office; The Marvels’s box office take cratered by 79%, the biggest second-weekend drop (by far) in the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with RYSE

• 🤖 UnitedHealthcare, the largest health insurance company in the US, is allegedly using a flawed AI algorithm to override doctors' judgments and wrongfully deny critical health coverage to elderly patients, per a new lawsuit seeking class action status.
• 🚀 SpaceX's massive Starship rocket had a successful liftoff, but lost both the booster and the spacecraft in a pair of explosions minutes into Saturday’s test flight.
• 🛰️ NASA’s Psyche spacecraft successfully sent and received data via laser beams from ~10 million miles away; the experiment was part of NASA’s ongoing plans to develop more powerful communications tools for future space travel. (Background)

*From our partners: 📢 ONLY 1 week remaining to become an early investor of RYSE, the next SmartHome innovation. RYSE turns regular shades into SmartShades for a fraction of the price, and they just launched in 100+ Best Buys. Get bonus shares for investing here.

MISCELLANEOUS

• 🎂 President Biden turns 81 years old today. | 🐭 Disney’s Mickey and Minnie Mouse turned 95 on Saturday. | 🙏 Rosalynn Carter, the former first lady known for her work on mental health reform, died on Sunday at 96.
• 🛣️ The fire-damaged I-10 freeway in LA will be reopened in time for this morning's commute; authorities are seeking to identify a person of interest in connection with the fire, which was determined to be arson.
• 🥃 A bottle of Macallan Adami 1926 Scotch whisky sold at auction on Saturday for $2.7 million, a record for a bottle of wine or spirits. (Dive deeper)

CLICKBAIT

• 🏈 This 25-year-old NFL quarterback makes $44,000/week and still lives with his parents.

Monday: Annual presidential Thanksgiving turkey pardon

Tuesday: National Gingerbread Cookie Day

Wednesday: 60th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination; Ridley Scott’s Napoleon and Disney’s Wish hit theaters nationwide

Thursday: Happy Thanksgiving🦃

Friday: Black Friday

On Friday, we covered New York’s new Clean Slate Act, which allows ~2 million residents convicted of lesser crimes to have their criminal records sealed following a period of good behavior.

❓ Our question to you: Do you agree with New York’s Clean Slate Act?

• 👍 Yes: 49%
• 👎 No: 29%
• 🤷 Unsure/other: 22%

Click here to read more of the best responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 7,247 votes and 389 longform responses.

Lexie Lu is only five, but she's been battling neuroblastoma for more than four years. Between her various doctor's appointments and chemotherapy sessions, she doesn't have much time for "normal" kid things.

🎄 'Tis the season... One thing Lexie loves more than anything, though, is the Christmas lights. Her parents haven't had any spare time to hang lights on their home this year, so they often opt to drive Lucy around town to see other people's houses.

But, thanks to the team at Denver Illuminations, Lexie's dream of having lights decorating her own home came true. 

• The team spent a half day decorating the Lu's home completely free of charge, and captured the young girl's reaction on camera.

Guess the definitions of the following Greek/Latin root words:

1. Cardin
2. Dem
3. Fin
4. Histri
5. Lachry

(keep scrolling for the answers)

👆 Check out the referral prizes you can get, just for introducing people you know to little old us. 

What to do: Copy your unique link below, then send it to anyone who you think would like the DONUT. Once you hit each milestone, you'll get an email with a link to claim your prize. (Pro tip: there's no need to ration points, you're entitled to a prize at each tier.)

Start referring.👇

1. Cardin = Hinge (e.g., cardinal)
2. Dem = People (democracy, demographic)
3. Fin = End (finish, final)
4. Histri = Actor (histrionic)
5. Lachry = Cry (lachrymose)

*Data from a survey conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Nutrafol from July 19 to July 25, 2023, with a panel of 2,000 US women.

**Accolades are not indicative of future performance. More information on the award can be found here.

***Terms & Conditions apply. See bit.ly/46qkwiU