Good morning. On today’s docket:

• 🥃 The US and EU are fighting over tariffs – and whiskey is caught in the crossfire
• ➕ We’ve entered the streaming bundle era
• 🐧 Some penguins really like naps

… and more.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be about a 4.92-minute read.

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

“Always seek out the seed of triumph in every adversity.”

–Augustine "Og" Mandino II (1923-1996)

Starting next year, US tourists and expats wanting a taste of home while abroad probably won’t be turning to whiskey.

The $5.4 billion US liquor industry is staring down an upcoming 50% tax when American-made whiskey is sent to Europe, potentially affecting $566 million worth of EU-bound liquor each year.

How we got here: In 2018, then-President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum coming from the EU in an attempt to bolster domestic industry, which had faltered in recent years. The tariffs then caused the EU to impose its own retaliatory taxes on iconic American goods, including Levi’s jeans, Harley-Davidson motorcycles, orange juice, peanut butter, and whiskey.

• US whiskey was initially taxed at 25%, leading to a 20% drop in exports to the EU, though the tariff was suspended in 2022 as part of an agreement in which the US lifted its EU steel aluminum taxes for two years.
• Since that tariff’s suspension, the US whiskey industry has sprung back to life. American exports to the EU jumped 118% in the first half of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022.

👀 Looking ahead… The EU’s tax on American whiskey is scheduled to resume starting Jan. 1, 2024 – and it will be doubled to 50% when it does.

The US is currently trying to negotiate another two-year pause in the tariff, but an agreement hasn’t been reached thus far, per the WSJ. However, a senior EU official last month said the bloc is aiming to resolve the ongoing tariff dispute by year-end.

No restless nights. No sore neck. Just unmatched comfort and an exceptional sleep. When you have the #1 ranked pillow on Consumer Reports, the coziest place in the world gets even cozier.

The Original from Coop is…

• ↕️ Adjustable so you can get the perfect height.
• ✅ Hypoallergenic and nontoxic so everyone can enjoy.
• ☁️ Made with a proprietary blend of microfiber and memory foam for max comfort.
• 👌 Easy to use/maintain with interlocking dual-case and washable cover.

People are shaped differently and sleep differently, but everyone loves a good sleep. The Original is backed by a 100-night risk-free trial, but with 15,000+ five-star reviews, don’t expect to send this one back anytime soon.😴

Sleep better tonight with the Original from Coop.

🇻🇪🇬🇾 Venezuela approved the annexation of two-thirds of neighboring Guyana. The largely symbolic referendum comes during a period of heightened tensions following ExxonMobil's discovery of billions of dollars worth of oil in Guyana’s densely forested Essequibo region in 2015. Venezuela claims the land was within its borders during the Spanish colonial period, while Guyana’s independent government says an 1899 ruling set the current boundaries when it was a British colony. The International Court of Justice warned Venezuela not to modify the status quo, though Venezuela doesn’t recognize the court’s jurisdiction.

🇷🇺🏳️‍🌈 Russian police raided gay clubs and bars across Moscow following a recent Supreme Court LGBTQ+ ruling. The raids on Friday night came less than 48 hours after Russia’s Supreme Court issued a decision labeling the country’s “LGBTQ+ movement” as an extremist organization in response to a lawsuit from Russia’s Justice Ministry. Critics of the Court’s decision say it was rendered against a movement that isn’t an official entity, and its broad and vague definition allows authorities to crack down on any individuals or groups they believe are a part of the “LGBTQ+ movement.”

🇨🇳 Chinese borrowers are defaulting in record numbers. Defaults surged to a record high 8.5+ million people – 1.5% of working-age Chinese adults – this month, up from 5.7 million in early 2020. Defaulters face more severe punishment in China; a blacklisting process is triggered when a borrower is sued by creditors and then misses a subsequent payment deadline. Blacklisted defaulters are blocked from a range of economic activities, such as making purchases and payments through mobile apps, using toll roads, and finding government jobs.

The legendary rock band Kiss closed the final performance of their “The End of the Road” farewell tour over the weekend by bringing out some unexpected guests – themselves.

During the show’s encore, the band debuted digital avatars of its current lineup: founders Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, as well as guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer. The avatars then performed a song live, and left the stage to the quote: “A NEW ERA BEGINS.”

That new era, of course, involves the band making money from their avatars, who really can rock ‘n roll all night and party every day. According to the CEO of one of the companies behind the digital replicas: ”Kiss could have a concert in three cities in the same night across three different continents. That’s what you could do with this.”

Behind the tech: ​​In order to create their digital avatars, Kiss performed in motion capture suits. The avatars were then built by Industrial Light & Magic, George Lucas’ special-effects company, in partnership with Pophouse Entertainment Group.

This isn’t the companies’ first go-round. ILM and Pophouse have already launched “ABBA Voyage” in London, where fans can attend a full concert performed by the Swedish band’s digital avatars.

And, so far, it’s going well enough to make you say “Mamma Mia!”. The London show has been watched by 1.9 million visitors since its debut in 2022, and reportedly grosses $2 million/week.

Short on storage space? Make use of the vertical space you already have with the Auxx-Lift, the motorized storage solution you’ve been waiting for. Industry leading in safety while also holding the highest load capacity of any other lift, the Auxx-Lift is taking vertical storage to the next level…

• 🤳 Seamlessly remote-controlled
• 💪 Heavy duty (holds up to 600 lbs)
• 🔧 Made for easy DIY installation
• 💸 Increases home value

Great for storing heavy items like luggage, furniture, bikes, canoes and more, the Auxx-Lift is saving time, space, and hassle for over 11,000 happy homeowners.

Save $180 on Auxx-Lift with code SAVE180.

Yesterday, Verizon announced an available bundle of Netflix and Max (both with ads) for $10/month with its mobile phone plan myPlan. Netflix’s ad tier normally costs $6.99/month, while Max’s usually costs $9.99/month or $99.99/year.

The age of streaming bundles is upon us. Consumer surveys show many users are paying for streaming services they don’t use, overwhelmed by the number and cost of platforms available, and disgruntled with the fractured ecosystem requiring multiple accounts and billing sources, Variety reports. This has led to an increasing number of bundles:

• Disney already offers a bundle of Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+.
• Apple and Paramount are reportedly discussing bundling their streaming services.
• Warner Bros. Discovery, owner of streaming platform Max, has been open to bundling its Max service with rivals (as evidenced by today’s story).

It’s not just streamers + streamers, or streamers + telco companies, either. Bundles are popping up across other consumer industries. For example, Instacart just announced a free Peacock membership to compete against Walmart and Amazon's video offerings.

💬 Quoted… “You stand your ground, sir, and don't get bogged down by all the haters out there.”

• Former Rep. George Santos is making his second-straight appearance in our Quoted section. The ex-congressman from New York joined personalized video site Cameo yesterday, leading Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman to put on his troll hat and request a video – in which Santos offers support and advice to embattled Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), who’s currently under federal indictment for bribery and conspiring to act as a foreign agent for Egypt.

🥇📈 Stat of the Day: The price of gold reached an all-time high of $2,135/ounce yesterday, with most of the recent increase attributed to growing investor expectations that the Fed will soon cut baseline US interest rates after hiking them 11 times since March 2022.

🤔 Did You Know?... Nesting chinstrap penguins, native to Antarctica, sleep via more than 10,000 mini powernaps of roughly 4 seconds/apiece each day, per a new study published in Science.

📰 Worth a Read: Ego, Fear and Money: How the A.I. Fuse Was Lit → (NY Times)

• 👆 A candid wedding photo showing a bird landing on the bride’s head in the middle of exchanging vows has earned photographer Tara Lilly the title of 2023 International Wedding Photographer of the Year.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with Paleovalley

• 💰 US markets closed down across the board (S&P: -0.5%; Dow: -0.1%; Nasdaq: -0.8%). | 🚗 Uber’s stock closed near an all-time high after news broke that the company will join the S&P 500 later this month. | 🪙 The price of bitcoin surpassed $42,000 yesterday to reach a 20-month high.
• 🎶 Spotify is cutting 1,500 jobs, or 17% of its workforce, in the music streaming company’s third (and largest) round of job cuts this year.
• 🏦 Swiss private bank Banque Pictet agreed to pay the IRS $123 million in restitution and penalties after admitting to helping US taxpayers hide more than $5.6 billion from the agency.

*From our partners: 💪 What makes Paleovalley Beef Sticks better than the competition?... They’re made with 100% grass-fed beef and organic spices, contain naturally occurring probiotics, and are available in five delicious flavors. Also made with zero questionable ingredients. Save 15% on Paleovalley here.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• ⚽🏆 Florida State defeated Stanford to win the NCAA women’s soccer national championship last night.
• 🎭 Nic Cage says he “may have three or four more movies left in me” in a new interview with Vanity Fair.
• ⚾🤝 The MLB’s annual winter meetings kicked off in Nashville yesterday; all eyes are on star FA Shohei Ohtani, who will reportedly sign with a new team sometime later this week.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Spoak

• 🦟 While all blood-sucking mosquitoes alive today are female, male mosquitoes were once bloodsuckers around 125 million years ago, per a new study published in Current Biology.
• 🧠📈 Five patients with moderate to severe brain injuries saw their scores on cognitive tests improve after brain-stimulating electrodes were implanted into their heads, per a study published yesterday in Nature Medicine.
• 🏛️ The House Oversight Committee is investigating why the FDA didn’t take earlier action against a range of over-the-counter cough and cold drugs the agency recently declared to be ineffective; the drugs in question accounted for ~$1.8 billion in sales last year.

*From our partners: ✨ Be your own designer… Spoak features simple interior design tools to organize and envision your ideas. Save 40% on any annual plan today with their year-end sale – try your first 7 days of Spoak free.

MISCELLANEOUS

• 🗣️📖 “Rizz” (short for “charisma”) is the Oxford English Dictionary’s 2023 word of the year.
• 💰📈 The median US household’s net worth increased by 30% to $166,900 between 2019 and 2021, according to a new Pew Research report.
• 🚫🗳️ North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R) has ended his 2024 Republican presidential campaign.

CLICKBAIT

• 🌎 The 24 best places to visit on Earth in 2024.

Yesterday, we covered a Supreme Court case over an ~$8.3 billion settlement involving the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma, whose pain medication OxyContin played a key role in the US opioid epidemic.

❓ Our question to you: Do you agree with the legal settlement allowing the Sackler family to pay $6 billion for protection from any future civil lawsuits regarding the opioid crisis?

• 👍 Yes: 27%
• 👎 No: 54%
• 🤷 Unsure/other: 19%

Click here to read the best longform responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 5,982 votes and 338 longform responses.

Two decades ago, renowned photographer Sebastião Salgado returned home to Brazil after a traumatic assignment reporting on the genocide in Rwanda.

When he made it home, he was shocked to find his family's land barren.

• “The land was as sick as I was – everything was destroyed,”  he told The Guardian. “Only about 0.5% of the land was covered in trees.”

🌱 It starts with a seed... Sebastião and his wife, Leila, decided to start replanting the forest that used to flourish on the property. Now, two decades and more than 2 million trees later, the forest has returned – along with some rare flora and fauna that hadn't been seen for years.

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

This 100% free newsletter hits inboxes each Tuesday with nothing but non-cheesy good news that’ll make you cheese.👇

Subscribe here for free.

❓ Trivia: What makes chewing gum chewy?

🦇 True or False?... Chiroptophobia is the fear of bats.

🤔 Riddle Me This: I possess a halo of water, walls of stone, and a tongue of wood. Long I have stood; what am I?

(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.👇

❓ Trivia: Synthetic rubber

🦇 T/F: True

🤔 Riddle: A castle