Good morning. In today’s edition:

• 🌐 Behind the quest for faster internet speeds
• 🏕️ A summer camp for billionaires
• 📝 President Biden’s letter

… and more.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~4.72-minute read (1,256 words).

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"An approximate answer to the right question is worth a great deal more than a precise answer to the wrong question."

–John Tukey (1915-2000)

The median home-internet download speed in the US is currently ~248 megabits per second (Mbps). But work being done by researchers could soon pump those rookie numbers up.

Within the past year, the world has seen two major internet speed breakthroughs:

• October 2023: Japanese researchers successfully transferred data at 22.9 petabits per second – or enough bandwidth to supply every single person on the planet, and then a couple billion more, with a Netflix stream, Chigo Okonkwo at Eindhoven University of Technology, who was involved in the work, told the BBC.
• March 2024: UK researchers figured out a way to transfer data at a rate of 301 million Mbps utilizing existing network infrastructure.

Why so fast? It’s hard to imagine what the average person would want with these types of speeds (you can only download so many episodes of The Bachelorette, after all). But scientists are like Top Gun pilots: they feel the need, the need for speed.

For example: Every time one tiny subatomic particle smashes into another during experiments at the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, the impact generates about one petabit per second worth of data – equivalent to ~500 billion pages of standard printed text (per👏second👏). 

• This is condensed for storage and study, but still requires hefty amounts of bandwidth. And these speed needs will only go up.

🌐📈 Looking ahead... Some of the breakthroughs by the Ricky Bobbys of the science world will trickle down to us normies – the World Broadband Association expects home broadband connections to reach up to 50 gigabits per second (50,000 Mbps) sometime around 2030.

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🇳🇵 Nepal began cleaning up tons of garbage from Mount Everest’s highest camp. This year, Nepal launched a new initiative to clean up a camp located 26,400 feet up on Mount Everest near its peak. And over the course of the recently concluded climbing season, a team of soldiers and Sherpas removed five dead bodies and 11 tons of frozen garbage dating back to the 1950s. The team estimates there are still 40-50 tons of frozen garbage at the camp, which will take years to clean up.

⚽🏆 The Euro 2024 semifinals kick off later today. Spain and France will face off in the first matchup this afternoon, while the Netherlands takes on England in the other semifinal tomorrow. With a victory today, Spain would become the first team to win six straight matches in a Euro tournament. The winners of both semifinal matchups will face off in the Euros championship match on Sunday.

🇬🇧 UK researchers published the world’s first rules for synthetic embryo research. Among other things, the voluntary code by the University of Cambridge prohibits implanting stem-cell-based embryos in human and animal uteruses. It also requires researchers to establish an oversight committee, propose and justify project time limits, and follow specified ethical standards for research. Under UK law, scientists can grow real human embryos up to 14 days in the lab, though synthetic embryos have no time limit.

Dozens of world leaders are converging on Washington, DC, today for the start of a NATO summit commemorating the military alliance’s 75th anniversary.

The three-day summit comes as NATO, which recently expanded to 32 countries with the additions of Finland and Sweden, is facing several potential threats from both outside and within.

Electoral changes in member states: The French government is facing uncertainty as the country’s right-leaning coalition – which is skeptical of NATO – increased the number of seats it holds by 63% in recent parliamentary elections.

• Additionally, many NATO members have expressed concern that former President Trump could return to the White House and reduce US commitments to NATO, shrinking the involvement of the alliance’s most powerful member.

The Ukraine situation: Ukraine has a stated goal of joining NATO, placing it under the alliance’s collective security umbrella (Article 5) that obligates other members to come to its defense if attacked.

• However, while the military alliance is committed to adding Ukraine, NATO members have thus far remained firm on the caveat that Kyiv won’t become a member until its war with Russia is concluded.

China is still a threat, too. NATO members plan to use the summit as an opportunity to focus on China’s recent inflammatory actions, including a series of disinformation campaigns aimed at spreading doubt in democratic systems and military aggression in the South China Sea.

👀 Looking ahead… The summit will conclude with a news conference from President Biden on Thursday.

“Summer camp for billionaires.”

• While government leaders meet in stuffy DC conference rooms, billionaires will be connecting by the slopes. This week, media and tech titans are gathering at the Sun Valley Lodge in Idaho for an annual conference that’s served as the venue for industry leaders to negotiate megadeals and discuss the future of their businesses since 1983. The guest list typically reads like Michael Rubin’s White Party; this year’s attendees include Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman, Bob Iger, David Zaslav, and other business A-listers, per Bloomberg. The conference is expected to focus on a wide range of topics, including world domination the US election and its ramifications for business, potential partnerships between streaming competitors to lower costs and improve profitability, and the growing importance of live sports broadcast rights in entertainment.

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• ☝️ You’re looking at some of the winners from the 2024 World Sports Photography Awards, with a total of 24 images selected from 1,400 entrants.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with NoNetz

• 💰 US markets closed mixed (S&P: +0.1%; Dow: -0.1%; Nasdaq: +0.3%); the S&P and Nasdaq notched record-high closes (again). | 🗣️ Fed Chair Jerome Powell is set to testify on Capitol Hill today and tomorrow.
• ✈️ Boeing will plead guilty to a criminal fraud charge stemming from two 737 Max crashes that killed 346 people; the company will also pay a fine of $244 million and invest an additional $455 million in its compliance and safety programs.
• 📱 Microsoft is requiring its China-located employees to use iPhones – no Androids allowed.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• ⚖️ Alec Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter trial over the fatal shooting of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins begins today.
• ⚽ Team USA announced the roster for its Olympics men’s soccer team, which qualified for this year’s Summer Games for the first time since 2008.
• 🏀 Angel Reese, a rookie forward for the Chicago Sky, set an all-time WNBA record on Sunday with her 13th consecutive double-double. | ✍️ UConn signed men’s head basketball coach Dan Hurley to a new six-year, $50 million contract, making him the second-highest paid coach in the sport.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Slumber

• 🏛️📝 Higher ceilings in exam halls are linked to poorer test results for students, per a new study from Australian researchers. | 💉 GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy were shown to reduce the risk of certain cancers linked to obesity in a new study.
• 🤖📧 Researchers developed a computer virus that can use ChatGPT to send emails to your contacts to spread itself; it can also evade antivirus scans by rewriting its own code. The Era of Distrust is upon us.
• 🚀☄️ China announced plans to launch a spacecraft intended to smash a nearby asteroid sometime before 2030; the mission is designed to test the feasibility of protecting against Earth-threatening asteroids (similar to NASA’s DART mission).

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MISCELLANEOUS

• 🌀 Tropical Storm Beryl sped across the Texas coast yesterday, contributing to at least two deaths and leaving 2.2+ million people and businesses without power in the Houston area; the storm weakened from a Category 1 hurricane hours after making landfall yesterday morning. | 🌏 The Earth recorded its warmest June on record, extending its record streak to 13 straight months, per the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
• 🎓🏥 A majority of Johns Hopkins medical students will receive free tuition after the school received a $1 billion gift from Michael Bloomberg’s philanthropic foundation.
• 📝 President Biden sent a letter to congressional Democrats yesterday saying he’s “firmly committed” to staying in the 2024 presidential race despite calls for him to step aside following an underwhelming debate performance. (The letter | More: Biden’s 2024 campaign is facing internal scrutiny)

CLICKBAIT

• 🤔☣️ What is the world's most dangerous chemical?

📈 Stat of the Day: Nearly 3 in 5 American adults (58%) are currently invested in stocks, representing the highest such proportion on record, according to recent data from Charles Schwab and the Federal Reserve. Analysts largely attribute the high mark to the widespread accessibility of newer online stock trading platforms, which have grown especially popular among younger generations. On average, members of Gen Z start making their money machine go brrr investing at age 19, compared with 25 for millennials, 32 for Gen X, and 35 for baby boomers.

🤔 Did You Know? Despite two centuries of excavations and archaeological investigations, only three items have ever been retrieved from within the Great Pyramid (aka the Pyramid of Khufu): a hook, a stone ball, and a short rod possibly made of cedar.

📰 Worth a Read: What are AI agents? → (MIT Technology Review)

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

• ⚾ Pittsburgh Pirates rookie pitcher Paul Skenes is the first player in MLB history to be drafted No. 1 overall and make the All-Star game the following year. (Read more)
• 🤖📈 AI companies accounted for 40% of new private US "unicorns" (aka startups valued at $1+ billion) in the first half of this year, as well as 60+% of the increase in total VC-backed valuations. (Read more)
• 💻 A collection of nearly 10 billion passwords was uploaded to a hacker forum on July 4, with researchers calling it the largest such leak of all time. (Read more)
• 🏥 Private insurers involved in Medicare made 200,000+ fake or questionable diagnoses that triggered ~$50 billion in extra taxpayer-funded payments to themselves from 2018-2021, per a new WSJ investigation. (Read more)
• 🛏️ US sales of mattresses and foundations totaled 39.7 million last year, or 22% lower compared to 2021. (Read more)

Yesterday, we covered how President Biden has faced renewed calls from Democratic lawmakers and major donors to step aside in the 2024 presidential race following his underwhelming debate performance – though the president shows no signs of backing down.

❓ Our question to you: Do you think Joe Biden should drop out of the 2024 presidential race in favor of a different Democratic candidate?

• 👍 Yes: 61%
• 👎 No: 25%
• 🤷 Unsure/other: 14%

🔃 Follow-up question: What is your political affiliation?

• Democrat: Yes: 59% | No: 28% | Unsure/other: 13%
• Republican: Yes: 69% | No: 27% | Unsure/other: 4%
• Independent: Yes: 74% | No: 18% | Unsure/other: 8%
• Other: Yes: 78% | No: 11% | Unsure/other: 11%

Click here to read the most thoughtful longform responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 3,265 votes and 338 longform responses.

A group of eight British teens are officially the ultimate public transportation enthusiasts. The friends just broke a Guinness World Record by visiting all 272 stations on the London Underground in 18 hours, 8 minutes, and 13 seconds.

🏃 The group, who call themselves "The Amersham Ambushers," were required to visit every London Underground stop using only public transportation. 

• The friends had attempted the challenge twice before, but finally succeeded on their third try, beating the previous record by nearly two hours.

🤔 How did it happen? “A mixture of arguably luck and also a much-improved route,” according to team member Arthur Phillips.

❓ Trivia: Chickpeas are also referred to as what type of beans?

🐳 True or False?... The blue whale is the largest known animal in history.

🤔 Riddle Me This… If eleven plus two equals one, what does nine plus five equal?

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❓ Trivia: Garbanzo beans

🐳 T/F: True

🤔 Riddle: 2 (o'clock); 11 o'clock + 2 hours = 1 o'clock, so 9 o'clock + 5 hours = 2 o'clock