Good morning. Department stores, aka mall staples like Macy’s, Kohl’s, and Nordstrom, are making a concerted effort to appeal more to Young America. Per CNBC, the three aforementioned brands are facing down an existential crisis as they try to persuade investors to bet on their futures while sales slow and their core customers age.

A hint for brainstorming department store execs: try not to be so clothes-minded.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~4.69-minute read (1,249 words).

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“If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.”

–Chinese proverb (Unknown)

These days, Christian pastors have a lot in common with the parents from Honey, I Shrunk the Kids – because their congregations are steadily shrinking across the US.

And, to combat this decline, some entrepreneurial networks are taking a new, VC-style approach to religious participation by funding a growing number of startup churches.

The franchise treatment

These funding groups, established as nonprofit organizations, provide money and mentoring to Christian church founders in exchange for a continuing cut of revenue, which is invested in opening more new Christian churches.

The networks also deploy marketing, branding, and social-media strategies for the churches they fund – similar to conventional franchise businesses.

• The largest such network, the Association of Related Churches (ARC), provides church founders with up to $100,000 as a no-interest loan. If the church succeeds, ARC receives a portion of its annual revenue moving forward.
• ARC has started 1,114 churches since 2001, including 40 last year. Officials say ~90% of the churches ARC invests in are still operating after five years, with the organization reporting $16.8 million in revenue for 2022.

Zoom out: Traditional religious affiliation may have more in common with moon phases than previously thought – its popularity is waning (🌘).

Recent studies show Catholic, evangelical, and mainline Protestant churches losing membership in the US, partly because more young people are forgoing any religious affiliation. The percentage of American adults who attend religious services every week or nearly every week has fallen from 42% two decades ago to 30% last year, per Gallup polling.

👀 Looking ahead… Experts say the rise of startup churches could help draw Christian Americans back to the pews, since their anti-institutional vibe – featuring high-energy bands and entertaining sermons – fits the current mood in much of the US.

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• 🪮 Increases hair growth and reduces hair loss

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🇬🇧🇺🇸 A UK court allowed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to appeal extradition to the US. Assange is facing 18 US federal charges for obtaining and publishing confidential military records regarding America’s actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Assange has spent the past five years in a London prison, amid a legal battle to avoid extradition to America. In yesterday’s ruling, a UK court allowed Assange to fully appeal his extradition, since there’s an arguable case that he could face prejudice at trial as a non-US citizen.

🇨🇩 The Democratic Republic of the Congo said it foiled a coup involving US citizens. DR Congo officials said dozens of armed men breached the palace of President Félix Tshisekedi early Sunday in an attempt to overthrow his government. At least six people were killed in the shootouts, including the alleged coup leader Christian Malanga, a US-based Congolese politician. Three US citizens were reportedly among the ~40 intruders arrested.

🇮🇷 Iran scheduled elections to replace deceased President Ebrahim Raisi. Iranian authorities said elections will be held on June 28 to replace President Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash on Sunday that officials said resulted from a “technical failure.” Iran’s newly elected president – the second most-powerful government official – will receive a full four-year term, rather than serving out the remainder of Raisi’s mandate and stepping down in 2025. Experts say the leadership transition is unlikely to cause any significant change in Iran’s foreign policy.

Not even Cheddar Bay Biscuits could save America’s largest seafood restaurant chain from sinking to the ocean floor. Red Lobster has officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Florida, according to court documents.

How the company got here: The time-honored potion of higher costs, lower demand, and executive mismanagement.

• A “material portion” of Red Lobster’s leases are priced above market rates. At the same time, the chain is facing higher labor costs eating into its margins, as well as high inflation negatively impacting consumer demand.
• Plus, an all-you-can-eat shrimp special also led to some not-so-shrimpy losses. In May 2023, Red Lobster changed its $20 “Ultimate Endless Shrimp” from a limited-time offer to a permanent promotion – a decision that ended up directly costing the company $11 million (for context, the chain posted a $76 million net loss in 2023).

Fun facts: Red Lobster purchases 20% of all North American lobster tails, as well as 16% of all rock lobsters worldwide. It also serves 64 million customers/year.

~580 restaurants in the US and Canada are expected to stay open through the bankruptcy process, employing ~36,000 workers. However, dozens of other Red Lobster locations closed abruptly last week. And their entire contents – freezers, ovens, booths, lobster tanks, etc. – have already been auctioned off, per NPR.

Iced lattes, smoothie, matcha lemonade – the possibilities are endless for refreshing matcha beverages. Find yourself getting worn out from the sun? One morning cup of matcha is all you need for clean, all-day energy.

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💬 Quoted: “I’m going to welcome Pinocchio into the Poohniverse with a bang.”

• Move over, Marvel – a new cinematic universe is coming soon to a theater near you. Following the somewhat modest success of Pooh: Blood & Honey, a horror film based on the iconic bear now in the public domain, its production company is planning a major expansion of the “Poohniverse,” or “Twisted Cinematic Universe.” Per Variety, Pinocchio and Peter Pan will be the next children’s characters to receive their own horror movies, with both films currently being sold at Cannes. And like Marvel, the films are setting up for a bigger future in the TCU, as Pinocchio and Peter will converge with Pooh and Piglet in Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble (2025).

🫄 Stat of the Day: A human pregnancy requires an additional ~50,000 calories over the course of nine months, or the equivalent of 50 pints of Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia, according to a new study published in Science. That figure was significantly higher than researchers expected, as they assumed most of the energy would end up stored in the relatively small fetus – but instead, the study found 96% of that additional energy goes to support the mother’s body. So here’s a PSA to expecting moms: don’t feel guilty about snacking on a midnight cheese melt – and maybe supersize those fries (ya know, for science).

🤔 Did You Know? Lucid dreaming, aka being conscious during a dream and often controlling what happens, is a learnable skill. Techniques and tips include keeping a dream journal, and “reality testing” – or checking mirrors, clocks, and other objects for signs that you’re in a dream.

📰 Worth a Read: How Balkan gangsters became Europe’s top cocaine suppliers → (Reuters)

• ☝️ Britain’s Royal Mint unveiled a new coin marking next month's 80th anniversary of the 1944 D-Day landings, when 150,000 Allied soldiers invaded France to drive out Nazi Germany.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with Dooeys

• 💰 US markets closed mixed (S&P: +0.1%; Dow: -0.5%; Nasdaq: +0.7%); the Nasdaq ended the day at a record-high. | 📱 Trump Media reported a net loss of $327.6 million on total revenue of $770,500 in its first fiscal quarter.
• 💉 Shares of Hims & Hers Health rose 27% yesterday after the digital pharmacy startup said it’s introducing access to GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy.** | ✈️ Spirit Airlines is eliminating both change and cancellation fees; the move comes three days after a similar announcement from Frontier.
• 🏦 JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon indicated he plans to retire within the next five years.

*From our partners: ✨ Dooeys house shoes feature an unmatched blend of comfort and style… Rated #1 slipper by House Beautiful, Dooeys are perfect for everything you do at home. Supportive and sustainably made with plant-based/recycled materials. Save 10% on Dooeys with code DONUT.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🤖🗣️ Scarlett Johansson said OpenAI asked her to be its new voice behind ChatGPT – and when she refused, the company created a voice that sounds just like Her (pun intended); OpenAI reportedly took down its “Sky” voice after Johansson reached out via legal counsel.
• 🏀 The NBA announced its All-Rookie team, headlined by the Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama and the Thunder’s Chet Holmgren.
• 📺 A college comedy series starring Steve Carell landed a 10-episode, straight-to-series deal from HBO; the project comes from veteran writer-producers Bill Lawrence (Ted Lasso, Scrubs) and Matt Tarses (The Goldbergs).

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Slumber

• 🧠 Neuralink has reportedly been approved by the FDA to implant its brain chip in a second human patient, after proposing a fix to a problem that occurred in its first patient.
• 💻 Microsoft announced a new Surface Laptop and Surface Pro tablet equipped with chips designed to run AI-enhanced Windows applications without quickly using up battery life.
• 🚀 The first crewed launch of Boeing’s already-delayed Starliner spacecraft was pushed back an additional four days, from today to Saturday at the earliest. (Catch up: A Starliner is born)

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MISCELLANEOUS

• 🏦 FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg told staff he plans to resign once a successor has been confirmed; Gruenberg has faced pressure to step down after an external investigation found widespread sexual harassment, discrimination, and bullying at the agency.
• 🌍⚖️ The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor is seeking arrest warrants for top Israeli and Hamas leaders, including Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
• 🇨🇳 BMW, Jaguar Land Rover, and Volkswagen all relied on forced labor in China for some purchased parts, per a two-year Senate Finance Committee investigation.

CLICKBAIT

• ☝️ Amazon CEO: An ‘embarrassing’ amount of your success depends on this one skill.

**Disclosure: Hims & Hers Health is a paid advertiser with The DONUT.

Here are five stats from this past week that made our team go “whoa.” Hopefully you will, too.

• 🏀 The Denver Nuggets are the 5th straight NBA Champion to fail to make the conference finals the following year. (Read more)
• 🪖 In 2016, 55% of family members of active-duty US military personnel said they’d recommend military service; that figure now stands at 32%. (Read more)
• 🎓 71% of current US college students say reproductive-health laws were at least somewhat important to their school choice. (Read more)
• 🧠 Over half of all US adults (51%) have actively made lifestyle changes to reduce their risk of developing dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. (Read more)
• ⚾ Jurrangelo Cijntje, an ambidextrous pitcher for Mississippi State’s 16th-ranked college baseball team, can throw up to 95 MPH right-handed and 93 MPH from the left side. (Read more)

Yesterday, we covered how users will soon experience a major shift in the way they interact with Google Search after the tech giant unveiled plans to roll out new AI-powered summaries in its default search results.

❓ Our question to you: In general, do you support the introduction of AI Overviews into Google Search results?

• 👍 Yes: 25%
• 👎 No: 48%
• 🤷 Unsure/other: 27%

Click here to read the most-thoughtful longform responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 3,203 votes and 369 longform responses.

Georgia high schooler Madison Crowell is proving to teens everywhere that the sky really is the limit. 

💫 Star student... Madison was accepted into 231 colleges and universities, and received a combined $14.7+ million in scholarship offers. She will attend High Point University in North Carolina in the fall.

• “Getting all of this recognition is very heartwarming. The immense amount of support is greatly appreciated," Madison said.

❓ Trivia: Which scientific field is The Turing Award given in?

🎓 True or False?... Bob Dylan spent 600 hours recording his debut album.

🤔 Riddle Me This: Lighter than what I'm made of, more of me is hidden than is seen. What am I? 

👆 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.

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❓ Trivia: Computer science

🎓 T/F: False, he only spent 6 hours

🤔 Riddle: An iceberg