Good morning, and welcome to Giving Tuesday. On today’s docket:

• 📝 The end of affirmative action has prompted a DEI reckoning
• 📦 The US has a new delivery king
• 💬 Merriam-Webster just announced the 2023 Word of the Year

… and more.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be about a 4.28-minute read.

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“It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself.”

–Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962)

US companies' diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts – aka attempts to achieve "fair outcomes” in hiring and promotion – have taken a step back after the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action this summer, per a new report from consulting firm Paradigm.

Some quick background: In June, the Supreme Court ruled that US public and private schools can't explicitly consider race in their admissions process. Since then, the group that brought the SCOTUS case – the American Alliance for Equal Rights – has sued two law firms over fellowship programs that were open only to students of color, those who identify as LGBTQ+, or those with disabilities.

The Alliance argued the fellowships represented discrimination against other groups, including white people, straight people, and those without disabilities.

• In response, the law firms broadened their programs’ criteria to all law students at a certain stage of school, resulting in the lawsuits being dropped.
• Another major law firm – which had not been sued – also changed its minority fellowship program following the suits.

GOP lawmakers are pushing back on race-based DEI programs, too. In a letter sent a few weeks after the Supreme Court overturned affirmative action, 13 Republican state attorneys general urged Fortune 100 companies to reexamine their DEI programs in the wake of the Court's decision. More specifically, the letter warned companies against using "explicit racial quotas in hiring, recruiting, retention, promotion, and advancement."

📸 Big picture: Race-based DEI programs have had a large impact on corporate America in recent years. Since 2014, roughly half of S&P 100 companies have publicly stated a diversity goal.

📊 Flash poll: In general, do you support corporate DEI programs aimed at achieving "fair outcomes” in hiring and promotion?

• Yes
• No
• Unsure/other

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💥 Israel-Hamas war update: Both sides agreed yesterday to extend their ongoing cease-fire for two additional days (through tomorrow) to allow for the release of more Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners. As part of yesterday’s agreement, Hamas committed to releasing 20 Israeli hostages in exchange for 60 Palestinian prisoners. In total, Hamas has released 69 hostages, while Israel has released 117 Palestinian prisoners. US officials say they’re working to further extend the Gaza cease-fire beyond tomorrow’s midnight deadline.

🇳🇿 New Zealand overturned the world’s first generational smoking ban. The legislation would have prevented residents born after 2008 from purchasing cigarettes and reduced the number of domestic stores that can sell tobacco products. The country’s newly-elected Prime Minister said the repeal is aimed at improving New Zealand’s economy and curbing inflation. Proponents of the repeal say the ban would have created tobacco black markets and crime rings, while critics say the ban would have prevented thousands of smoking-related deaths and saved billions of dollars in healthcare spending.

🇨🇳 China said an ongoing child-pneumonia outbreak is slowing, but warned of additional viral outbreaks this winter. In recent weeks, the country has seen an uptick in the pneumonia-causing pathogen mycoplasma, which typically triggers epidemics in China every 2-4 years. Outside of mycoplasma, Chinese health officials say a combination of other pathogens – including the flu, RSV, and adenoviruses – will likely cause a major outbreak during the country’s first winter without strict Covid restrictions.

Amazon has surpassed FedEx and UPS to become the biggest delivery business in the US, according to a new report from the WSJ. And, much like Max Verstappen getting into a straightaway, the gap is already starting to widen.

By the numbers: Amazon’s internal projections indicate it’ll deliver ~5.9 billion packages by the end of the year, per the WSJ, up from 5.2 billion in 2022. In their last respective fiscal years, UPS delivered 5.3 billion packages and FedEx delivered 3.1 billion, and neither expects to exceed that volume this year.

How it happened: Rewind to 2016, when Amazon was viewed by logistics CEOs the same way the ugly duckling was before growing up. FedEx’s then-CEO Fred Smith called the notion of Amazon becoming a logistics threat “fantastical.”

Amazon was a distant third to FedEx and UPS at the time. But in 2018, the e-commerce giant launched a program where entrepreneurs could start their own franchise delivering Amazon packages. The program has grown to ~200,000 US drivers, and played a major role in helping the company accelerate the number of packages it was able to deliver each day, per former execs. Investments into its logistics network haven't hurt, either.

🖐️ But, but, but… there is a technicality to this story. The US Postal Service – which technically isn’t a business even though it pretty much operates like one – shipped 6.7 billion parcels in 2022, making it the still undisputed king of the US delivery game.

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💬 Quoted… “Authentic.”

• Merriam-Webster just announced its 2023 Word of the Year: authentic. Per Webster, the choice was driven by a substantial increase in lookups this year, which were caused “by stories and conversations about AI, celebrity culture, identity, and social media.” Other words in the running: rizz, deepfake, coronation, dystopian, EGOT, X, implode, deadname, and indict.

📈 Stat of the Day: Ready for some inflation data in plain terms? It now requires $119.27 to buy the same goods and services a family could afford with $100 before the pandemic, per a new Bloomberg analysis.

🤔 Did You Know?... The most regular season career losses by an NFL head coach is 165, a title held by both Dan Reeves and Jeff Fisher. But there could soon be a newcomer to this list. Legendary Patriots head coach Bill Belichick currently sits at 161 career losses, four away from tying the record, with six games still left in the current NFL season. (Though to be fair, he’s also closing in on the record for regular season career wins.)

📰 Worth a Read: The Globe-Trotting Scholar Who Unlocked the Secrets of the Aztecs → (Smithsonian Magazine)

• 👆 The White House yesterday unveiled its holiday decorations, which took 300 volunteers a full week to put together; the display includes 98 Christmas trees, 33,800 ornaments, and 142,400 lights.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with Nutrafol

• 💰 US markets closed down across the board (S&P: -0.2%; Dow: -0.2%; Nasdaq: -0.1%).
• 🚗🇸🇪 Tesla is currently locked in a labor dispute with Sweden’s unions. | 📱🇮🇳 Foxconn, the iPhone manufacturer, announced plans to invest $1.5 billion in India as it shifts operations away from China. | 🤝 Amazon's $1.7 billion deal to buy iRobot has run into objections from EU antitrust regulators.
• 👚 Shein, the fast-fashion giant last valued at $66 billion, filed for IPO.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🚫 Google this week will start deleting inactive accounts that haven’t been accessed for at least two years.
• 🍿 The Hunger Games prequel earned $52 million in domestic ticket sales over the extended holiday weekend, beating out Napoleon ($32.5 million) and Disney’s Wish ($31.7 million) for the top spot. | 🎤 Taylor Swift said her Eras Tour concert film will be released for streaming on her birthday, December 13, and will have three extra songs. | ⚖️ The RICO trial involving Atlanta rapper Young Thug kicked off yesterday.
• 🏈 The Carolina Panthers fired head coach Frank Reich after an NFL-worst 1-10 record to start the season.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Spoak

• 💉 Mounjaro is more effective than Ozempic for weight loss in overweight and obese adults, per a large analysis of real-world data published yesterday by Truveta Research.
• 👶 Spending quality time with a newborn can shape new fathers' brains and have a lasting impact on their parenting instincts, according to new research.
• 🧬 A team of US researchers discovered nearly 200 new CRISPR gene-editing systems that are used by bacteria in nature as a self-defense tool, per a new study published in Science.

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MISCELLANEOUS

• 🏫 More than 40,000 Portland students returned to school yesterday for the first time this month after the Portland Association of Teachers reached a tentative deal on a new contract with the city’s public school district.
• ✈️ The TSA screened just over 2.9 million passengers on Sunday, marking a new all-time high.
• 🌨️ A winter storm in central and southern Ukraine has dropped up to 6.5 feet of snow since Saturday, leaving ~2 million local residents without power.

CLICKBAIT

• 🎥📅 How time travel works in movies.

Isla McNabb was only seven months old when she could start identifying common items in picture books. By 18 months, she had learned the entire alphabet and started reading. 

😎 Boss baby... Isla was recently accepted into Mensa after scoring in the 99th percentile of intelligence for her age group. She claimed the Guinness World Record for youngest-ever member upon her enrollment. 

• More than anything else, Isla's parents say they enrolled her in Mensa in hopes of finding resources for their bright little girl.

It’s called Positive DONUT, and we think you should check it out.

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🌿 Trivia: What’s the difference between herbs and spices?

🌞 True or False?... The Sun produces sound.

🤔 Riddle Me This: Turn me on my side and I am everything. Cut me in half and I am nothing. What am I?

(keep scrolling for the answers)

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🌿 Trivia: Herbs come from the fresh part of the plant, and spices are the dried roots, dried stalks, seeds, or dried fruit of the plant

🌞 T/F: True, but the sound waves are hundreds of miles long and outside the range of human hearing

🤔 Riddle: The number 8