Good morning. Liquid Death, the canned water company consistently confused with beer and energy drinks, yesterday announced a contest that will see it give away a $400,000 fighter jet to one of its customers.

• The aircraft in question, a two-seater Aero L-39C Albatros, flies at a maximum speed of 470 mph, and has been nicknamed “The Dehydrator” because its thrust will “relieve you of your bodily fluids and make you empty your stomach.”
• If that doesn’t sound like a good time, there is an option #2. In the case that the winner forgoes the chance to rain Liquid Death from above, the company is offering $250,000 in cold hard cash.

It’s giving Pepsi: Liquid Death isn’t the first beverage company to do a fighter jet-related promotion. In 1996, Pepsi aired a commercial where it jokingly offered a ~$33 million Harrier jet as part of its points-reward program. One college student took them seriously and secured enough points to claim the jet – which ultimately led to a highly publicized lawsuit, and, much later, a Netflix documentary.

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“A person sees in the world what they carry in their heart.”

–Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

These days, America feels more divided than Voldemort’s soul after making all those Horcruxes.

And, while the differences in opinion are often attributed to the red-blue political divide, recent polling data also shows a large generational divide, with prominent disagreements between younger and older Americans across a wide range of key topics:

• Values: Gen Z Americans are less than half as likely as Baby Boomers to say patriotism, religion, or having children are "very important" to them. And, while 66% of Baby Boomers say America is the world’s best place to live, only 33% of Gen Z agrees.
• Happiness: Americans under 30 ranked 62nd among all countries in the latest World Happiness Report, an annual self-reported global survey. On the flip side, Americans aged 60+ ranked 10th.
• Domestic policy: US adults under 35 are significantly more likely to favor government action on climate change and defense budget cuts compared to those aged 65+, while the reverse is true for supporting border security.
• Political affiliation: Millennials and Gen Z are both significantly more likely to consider themselves political independents (52%) compared to Baby Boomers (33%).
• Economics: 52% of US adults under 35 are dissatisfied with their personal financial situation, compared to 33% of those aged 65+. Younger Americans are also more likely to be economically pessimistic, and have less favorable views on capitalism.

Bottom line: Understanding the differences of opinion between generations can be essential to running a successful organization, trying to sell a product – or simply navigating a controversial discussion in the workplace or at home.

📊 Flash poll: In your experience, how has America’s generational divide in opinions changed over the past decade, if at all?

• The divide has grown larger
• The divide has grown smaller
• The divide hasn’t changed much
• Unsure/other

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🌐 The US is privately warning that China could be tampering with undersea internet cables, according to a Wall Street Journal investigation. A state-controlled Chinese company that helps repair the cables, which ferry internet traffic across the Pacific Ocean, appears to be hiding its vessels’ locations from radio and satellite tracking services, per the State Department. US officials reportedly say the move defies easy explanation, and have warned companies in charge of the undersea cables (including Google and Meta).

🇰🇷 South Korean babies are suing the government over climate policy. A group of South Korean residents – including babies and unborn children – filed petitions this week against the country’s government for not doing enough to combat climate change. The case marks the first of its kind in East Asia, and follows similar lawsuits filed in the US, Europe, Canada, Australia, India, and Brazil.

🇬🇧 The UK will compensate victims infected by contaminated blood. Between the 1970s and 1990s, the UK’s National Health Service obtained blood from high-risk donors including prisoners and drug users. As a result, 30,000+ people (mostly UK citizens) contracted HIV and Hepatitis C from infected blood products, with 3,000 patients known to have died. Yesterday, the UK government announced a "comprehensive compensation plan” that could reportedly pay each victim $2.5+ million.

EV-startup Fisker yesterday said it will no longer be providing 24/7 roadside assistance to US customers, yet another toll of its death-knell bell as the company faces looming bankruptcy.

And while Fisker may be circling the toilet, this drain doesn’t lead to the Ocean – in fact, it came from it.

The history

Fisker launched in 2016, a few years after founder Henrik Fisker’s former startup, Fisker Automotive, went bankrupt.

The new venture was able to attract early investors, and, in 2020, went public via SPAC. At the time, the company was valued at ~$2.9 billion and projected revenue of $13 billion by 2025.

But a slew of software, supply chain, and regulatory problems meant the company’s first model, the Fisker Ocean, didn’t start being delivered until about a year ago.

And, once unveiled, the public reception… wasn’t great. Popular YouTuber Marques Brownlee referred to the Ocean as the worst car he’s ever reviewed.

• The sales figures seem to agree: Fisker made ~10,200 EVs last year, but only delivered 4,900 of those.

Magic 8-ball says trouble is ahead. Fisker ceased all production in mid-March, while entering into negotiations with "a large automaker" to receive a financial lifeline – but those talks fell through. Since then, the EV-maker has laid off more than 15% of its staff and raised “substantial doubt” over its ability to continue operations.

Bottom line: Building a car company from scratch is hard – just ask Lordstown and Arrival.

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💬 Quoted: “I don't like anthropomorphizing AI. I sort of believe it's a tool.”

• In a new Bloomberg interview, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella noted that he isn’t a big fan of AI products built to show emotions or express feelings of their own, saying users should be mindful that AI’s abilities aren’t similar to human intelligence. Apart from showing off his vocabulary, Nadella’s comments point to an ongoing debate within the industry over how much AI services should be humanized. While Google has expressed a similar view to Nadella, OpenAI is taking a different approach – the Microsoft-backed company recently unveiled its GPT-4o voice assistant, which features human-like voices that use emotional intonation to express feelings like excitement or laughter.

🤖🗣️ Stat of the Day: If you suddenly received an email from your boss asking to wire them millions of dollars, it’d probably raise more red flags than The Ohio State marching band. But what if your boss showed up on a video call with the same request? In the case of Arup, a prominent UK engineering firm, that exact scenario resulted in the company being scammed out of ~$25.6 million, after a finance worker acted on orders from a deepfake of Arup’s CFO.

🤔 Did You Know? Scientists have been trying to communicate with apes via sign language since the 1960s – and in all that time, apes have never asked a single question, according to published research literature. Some experts theorize this is a sign the animals might not be capable of actually understanding human language.

📰 Worth a Read: What Entry-Level Jobs Really Look Like Today → (WSJ)

• ☝️ Capture the Atlas announced the winners of its seventh annual Milky Way Photographer of the Year photo contest.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with The Cold Life

• 💰 US markets closed up across the board (S&P: +0.3%; Dow: +0.2%; Nasdaq: +0.2%); both the S&P and Nasdaq ended the day at new record highs. | 🤑 See the highest-paid CEOs of 2023.
• 🎯 Target is lowering prices on 5,000 frequently shopped items in a bid to attract more customers. | 🐭 Disney’s Pixar is laying off ~14% of its workforce, or ~175 employees.
• ⛽ The Biden Administration is releasing 1 million barrels of gas from a Northeast reserve in a bid to lower prices at the pump; for context, the US used 8.9 million barrels of gas per day in 2023.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🏀 Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark signed a multi-year partnership with Wilson to launch her own signature basketball collection, becoming the first athlete since Michael Jordan to do so. | 🏈💰 Jaden Rashada, a former 5-star QB recruit, filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit accusing Florida’s head football coach and a school booster of fraudulently promising ~$14 million to lure him away from Miami (where he had a $9.5 million offer).
• 🕵️ The DEA and LAPD are reportedly investigating how Friends star Matthew Perry received a ketamine prescription; Perry was found dead last October, with an autopsy revealing high ketamine levels in his blood.
• 📺 Comcast's new streaming bundle, which packages Peacock with Netflix and Apple TV+, will cost $15/month for all Xfinity internet and TV customers (a 30+% discount).

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with 120/Life

• 🥤 University of New Mexico scientists discovered microplastics in the testicular tissue of every human and dog they sampled.
• 🩸 A new HIV vaccine was able to trigger rare neutralizing antibodies in human patients for the first time, per a new study published in Cell.
• 🐟💊 Regular fish oil supplements could increase the risk of heart disease and stroke in people with no prior cardiovascular issues – though it appears to help reduce mortality for those with existing conditions, per a new study.

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MISCELLANEOUS

• ✈️ A Singapore Airlines flight from London was diverted after a UK national died and dozens more were injured due to “sudden extreme turbulence.”
• 🇺🇦 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sat for a pair of extended interviews with Reuters and the New York Times this week.
• 🗽 Former President Trump’s defense lawyers in his New York criminal hush-money trial rested their case yesterday, with Trump opting not to testify; closing arguments are scheduled for May 28, after which jury deliberations will begin. (Read more)

CLICKBAIT

• 🏘️ How some homebuyers are snagging rare, sub-4% mortgages.

👆 For years, the painting above was kept in an elderly French woman's kitchen, right above her hot plate. 

She always thought the piece was an inexpensive reprint. It wasn't until a few years ago when she was preparing to move that her grandchildren decided to bring in an appraiser to the home to take a closer look. 

😮 You just never know... Turns out, the painting in grandma's kitchen was the original Christ Mocked (also known as The Derison of Christ) by the 13th-century master Cimabue.

• The piece sold for over $25 million (🤯) and will be on display at the Louvre in the spring of 2025. 

+Note: This story first appeared in Positive DONUT, a weekly newsletter delivering awe (and awww) inspiring stories you won't hear in the news. Sign up for free here.

How it works: We provide an incorrect stat. Then you guess whether the actual number is over or under the given value.

1. 🧱 20 million: Estimated number of bricks in the Empire State Building.
2. 🛌 146: Average number of dreams a person has per year.
3. 🐼 10: Number of hours most pandas spend eat bamboo per day.

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1. 🧱 Under, 10 million bricks
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3. 🐼 Over, 12 hours/day