Good morning. Spotify Wrappeds for 2023 are expected to come out this week – so prepare yourself for the onslaught of social posts that should provide a pretty good idea of how everyone’s year went.

Your cheery best friend’s favorite genre changed from pop to emo/punk rock? She’s probably going through it. Your sober situationship’s favorite podcast has become We Might Be Drunk? It may be time for a direct convo.

For the sake of transparency, we’ll be sure to share ours, too. Be prepared for lots of J Biebs, 90s hip-hop, and early-2000s punk rock (it wasn’t a phase, mom!).

Other things on today’s docket:

• ✌️ More Americans are discharging their student loans via bankruptcy
• 🤖 Sports Illustrated reportedly published articles written by fake, AI-generated authors
• 🦈 Mark Cuban has a Shark Tank announcement

… and more.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be about a 4.94-minute read.

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

“A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of their opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of their difficulties.”

–Harry S. Truman (1884-1972)

A growing number of federal student-loan borrowers are filing for bankruptcy to get rid of their debt, a move that became far easier following a recent change to longstanding federal policy by the Biden administration.

Background: Last November, the Department of Education and the DOJ updated their bankruptcy guidelines to make it easier for borrowers to have their federal student loans erased in court.

The new guidelines require borrowers to fill out an application proving they are experiencing economic distress. Then, the federal government calculates whether a debtor’s expenses equal or exceed their income, and whether that is likely to persist in the future. If both options are true, then the borrower is allowed to discharge their student loans in bankruptcy.

• Previously, it was nearly impossible to discharge student loans via bankruptcy due to existing laws aimed at preventing potential abuses of the system, like students borrowing substantial amounts and then discharging their loans quickly after graduation.

The new changes are already having an impact. In the first 10 months of the Biden admin’s updated guidelines, 632 borrowers used bankruptcy to eliminate some or all of their student loans, marking a ~58% increase from before the pandemic. Biden officials say they expect that number to grow rapidly in the coming years as more Americans become aware that discharging student loans is an option.

🎓 Zoom out: The bankruptcy policy shift is part of the Biden admin’s wider efforts to forgive student-loan debt for eligible borrowers.

• Nearly 3.6 million borrowers have had $127 billion in student loans approved for cancellation since Biden took office, even after the Supreme Court struck down his wider ~$400 billion forgiveness plan.
• The Education Department has also changed how income-driven repayment programs work for lower-income borrowers, allowing for complete loan forgiveness after 20 or 25 years of regular payments.

📊 Flash poll: Do you agree with the Biden admin’s new guidelines making it easier for student loans to be discharged through bankruptcy?

• Yes
• No
• Unsure/other

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🇮🇳 Over three dozen Indian laborers were rescued from a collapsed tunnel under the Himalayas. The construction workers were initially trapped 18 days ago, when a landslide caused the tunnel they were working on to collapse – though the group was able to receive food, water, and oxygen through a pipe leading back up to the surface. Recovery teams blasted an escape route through the mountain and drilled the last two meters by hand, allowing the workers to escape safely. Officials say all 41 laborers made it through the ordeal in good health.

🇰🇷💒 A South Korean city is hosting mass blind-dating events in a bid to boost the local population. The local government of Seongnam city has held five such events this year, all of which featured red wine, chocolates, games, free make-up services, and background checks. South Korea’s overall fertility rate – aka the number of children born to each woman – fell to a record low 0.78 last year, far below the average rate among fellow OECD countries (1.58).

🇫🇮🇷🇺 Finland is temporarily closing its border with Russia to avert asylum seekers. The Finnish government announced the two-week border closure following a surge in migrants, which officials say was orchestrated by Russia in retaliation for increasing defense cooperation with the US (a charge the Kremlin denies). Around 900 asylum seekers – primarily from African and Middle-Eastern countries – entered Finland from Russia this month, up from less than one/day previously.

Sports Illustrated, the publication every 90s-born sports fan grew up looking forward to each week, has been publishing articles written by fake, AI-generated authors, according to a new report from Futurism.

The evidence: Multiple author bios on Sports Illustrated’s site contain photos for sale on an AI-generated headshot website with descriptions like "neutral white young-adult male with short brown hair and blue eyes."

For example: one AI-writer identified by Futurism published articles under the name Drew Ortiz, whose AI-headshot-containing bio reads similar to one you’d expect from a real human.

The only problem? Outside of Sports Illustrated, Drew Ortiz doesn't seem to exist. He has no social media presence and no publishing history. Plus, articles written under his byline contain traces of AI content (aka it reads like it was written by a third grader); for instance, one states that volleyball "can be a little tricky to get into, especially without an actual ball to practice with." (Which, to be fair, is 100% true though not very insightful.)

• Futurism reports that when it reached out to Sports Illustrated’s publisher, all the AI-generated authors disappeared from SI's site without explanation.
• The publisher later put out a statement saying the content was under investigation and came from a third-party provider, and that it has ended the partnership.

📸 Big picture: SI isn’t the only publication to experiment with AI-generated content without disclosing it to audiences. CNET, MSN, USA Today, and TheStreet are some of the other alleged culprits we know about.

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The first transatlantic flight by a large passenger plane powered only by alternative fuels successfully took off yesterday from London and landed in New York.

The plane, a Boeing 787 operated by Virgin Atlantic and not carrying any fare-paying passengers, burned a blend of 88% waste fats supplied by AirBP, and 12% synthetic aromatic kerosene made from plant sugars. This blend falls under the umbrella of something called sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), which itself is an umbrella term for non-fossil-derived fuels. Sustainable aviation fuels can be made from a variety of sources, including crops, household waste, and cooking oils.

The main benefit of SAF is that planes using it emit less carbon – 70% less, according to the aviation industry. Plus, they can be used to power current jet engines.

• SAF is already used in small amounts (aircraft are generally allowed to use up to 50% in a blend with traditional jet fuel), but accounts for less than 0.1% of the aviation fuel consumed around the world.

Here’s why: Numerous challenges remain a blocker to widespread adoption of SAF, including a low availability of suppliers, higher costs, and concern over the sustainability of its generation.

💬 Quoted… “Now we’ve got people coming on saying I watched you when I was 10 years old. I’m like, f**k.”

• In a recent podcast interview, billionaire investor Mark Cuban said he’s hanging up his metaphorical cleats and retiring from Shark Tank after next season (his 15th on the show). Cuban also offered some insight into how to avoid a bad investment: “I have this rule: the longer the back story, the worse the deal.” And if you're wondering whether he can spot a good investment: Cuban is selling a majority stake in his Dallas Mavericks in a deal valuing the NBA franchise at ~$3.5 billion. He purchased it for $285 million in 2000.

👛🌐 Stat of the Day: A record-high 200.4 million people browsed stores and searched websites for gifts from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday, surpassing analysts’ initial expectations by more than 18 million shoppers, per a new survey from the National Retail Federation. The survey also found each shopper spent an average of $321.41, roughly four dollars less than last year.

🤔 Did You Know?... James Earl Jones was officially replaced as the voice of Darth Vader last year by AI (with Jones’ consent).

📰 Worth a Read: Why you age slower on a plane and other incredibly strange effects of relativity → (BBC Future)

• 👆 The winners of the ninth annual Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards were announced this week, with Jason Moore’s ‘Air Guitar Roo’ winning first prize.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with Paleovalley

• 💰 US markets closed up across the board (S&P: +0.1%; Dow: +0.2%; Nasdaq: +0.3%). | 💪 US consumer confidence rose in November following three straight monthly declines. | 🏡 The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index, which tracks home prices in the US, hit an all-time high yesterday; other data shows home sales fell 5.6% month over month in October but remained up 17.7% year over year.
• ✌️ Apple and Goldman Sachs are calling it quits on their partnership.
• 🙏 Legendary investor Charlie Munger, Berkshire Hathaway's vice chairman and Warren Buffett's right-hand man, died yesterday at 99 years old.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🏀🏆 The NBA held the seventh and final night of group-stage play for its inaugural in-season tournament yesterday; the knockout round begins next Monday. (Background)
• 🎤 Sean “Diddy” Combs is temporarily stepping down as chairman of Revolt, the music-oriented TV network he co-founded in 2013; the move comes after three women filed lawsuits accusing Combs of sexual assault (one of whom settled out of court).
• 🧑‍🍳 Guy Fieri signed a new three-year deal with the Food Network reportedly worth over $100 million.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Scott Kemper Imagery

• 🚫🦕 Dinosaurs were likely headed towards extinction even without the catastrophic meteor impact 66 million years ago, per a new study published in Science Advances.
• 🦠🐶 The germ responsible for the mysterious and sometimes fatal respiratory illness affecting hundreds of dogs across the US has been tentatively identified by scientists, with further results expected over the next month.
• 🤖🌐 Amazon unveiled new computer chips for customers to build and run AI applications on at its annual AWS tech conference yesterday; Amazon also launched a new business-focused AI chatbot called Q that can connect to a variety of business software tools.

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MISCELLANEOUS

• 🇷🇺📰 A Russian court extended the detention of WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich for a third time; Gershkovich was initially taken into custody in March on espionage charges, which the Journal and US government deny.
• 🏫 The presidents of Harvard, Penn, and MIT will testify before Congress next week regarding their plans to address antisemitism on campus.
• 🏛️ Hunter Biden published a letter yesterday saying he’s willing to testify publicly before Congress as part of the House impeachment inquiry into his father; the GOP chair of the Oversight Committee rejected Biden’s offer, saying he must first provide testimony behind closed doors. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right) | ⚖️ Fox Corp. founder Rupert Murdoch was deposed yesterday as part of the $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit from voting technology company Smartmatic.

CLICKBAIT

• 😳🏆 Hall of Shame: The 10 most dubious people ever to make Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list.

Yesterday, we covered how US companies' diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts have taken a step back after the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action this summer.

❓ Our question to you: In general, do you support corporate DEI programs aimed at achieving "fair outcomes” in hiring and promotion?

• 👍 Yes: 41%
• 👎 No: 40%
• 🤷 Unsure/other: 19%

Click here to read the best longform responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 8,208 votes and 519 longform responses.

For five decades, Luisa Yu has traveled the world. 

The 79-year-old Miami resident arrived in America from the Philippines in her 20s as an exchange student, and eventually made her way to Miami where she settled down permanently. 

While Miami became her home, Luisa still always wanted to explore the rest of the world.

And thus began her five-decade world tour. The traveler visited Serbia earlier this year, crossing country #193 off her list and officially visiting every country in the world. 

💬 What she's saying: When asked what her advice is for people who want to travel, she told NBC Miami: "Don’t be afraid, just go. Don’t wait for anybody, because if you wait, it will never happen."

Can you name the following poorly-explained movie plots?

1. Teenage girl abandons standards to win back guy.
2. Man plays VR Smurf game.
3. Disturbed child torments two homeless men.

(keep scrolling for the answers)

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1. Grease (1978)
2. Avatar (2009)
3. Home Alone (1990)