Good morning. In today’s edition:

• 🤔 Why Americans are having fewer kids
• 💰 Jake Paul’s W brand raises $11 million to expand
• 🧲 Mind-controlling magnets

… and more.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~4.78-minute read (1,272 words).

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"I've always tried to go a step past wherever people expected me to end up."

–Beverly Sills (1929-2007)

Despite all the new moms featured on your Insta feed, baby fever is gradually losing its grip on Americans across the country.

Some 3.6 million children were born in the US last year, down from a recent peak of 4.3 million in 2007 and the lowest figure since 1979, according to recent federal data. The US fertility rate also experienced a decline last year, falling to its lowest level since 1930 (1.62 births per woman).

What’s driving the trend? Experts say there are a wide range of reasons why Americans aren’t having as many kids (apart from their in-laws applying too much pressure):

• Teen pregnancies have declined by 68% compared to 2007 levels, largely due to increased access to contraception.
• Women are increasingly opting to pursue higher education and establish fulfilling careers, raising the “opportunity cost” associated with having a child.
• More younger Americans are delaying having children until they can financially support themselves – a goal that’s increasingly occurring later in life, due to factors like student debt and rising costs of living.
• And speaking of rising costs: the price of childcare has increased by 263% over the past 35 years, or twice the level of inflation over the same period.

🌏 The US isn’t alone in experiencing a recent birth rate decline. A large majority of the world’s richest countries have seen fertility rates plummet in recent decades, with the trend attributed to many of the same factors seen in America. Some of these countries have implemented a wide range of measures to increase birth rates, including government-run dating apps, expanded parental leave, and cash grants for having children.

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🇧🇷🦈 Brazil is dealing with cocaine sharks. A new study examining 13 wild sharks caught in fishing nets near Rio de Janeiro found all of the sharks had high levels of cocaine in their blood, muscles, and liver. Previous studies have found traces of cocaine in local river, sea, and sewage water, as well as in other sea creatures like shrimp – though officials say it’s unclear where the drug originated. Scientists have yet to conduct any studies on whether cocaine damages sharks’ health or affects their behavior – though Hollywood probably has its own ideas already (coming soon: Cocaine Shark, a sequel to Cocaine Bear).

🌎 Singapore reclaimed the title of world’s strongest passport. The Henley Passport Index ranks 199 countries across the globe based on access to 227 travel destinations. Singapore topped this year’s list with visa-free entry to a record 195 global destinations. Japan, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain shared 2nd place, with the US passport – which jointly held first place with the UK a decade ago – dropping one spot to eighth.

🇰🇷 South Korea’s richest self-made tech mogul was arrested for alleged stock rigging of a K-pop agency. Kim Beom-su, the self-made founder of internet giant Kakao, was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly manipulating stock prices to prevent BTS' management company from acquiring one of South Korea’s largest K-pop agencies. Kakao won the bidding war and acquired an additional 35% stake in the agency, becoming its largest shareholder. Kim denied the allegations, saying he wasn't involved in the purchasing process.

Dr. Squatch and the Old Spice centaur better look out – ads for men’s personal care brands are about to get even wilder.

W, the male-focused personal body care brand co-founded by boxer and YouTuber Jake Paul, has raised $11 million in funding at a valuation north of $150 million, according to a new Wall Street Journal report.

The funds will be used to expand the brand, which, according to Paul, aims to go toe-to-toe with companies currently dominating the category such as Axe and Old Spice.

• W products – men’s deodorants, sprays, and washes – are made in the US (“Pet bald eagle not included” according to its website) and contain no “weird stuff” (like parabens).
• They’re currently sold in Walmart, but will soon be available elsewhere.

Influencer-led brands are having a moment. Prime, the energy/hydration drink founded by Logan Paul (Jake Paul’s brother) and UK influencer KSI, reported annual sales of $1.2+ billion last year (less than two years after its launch). Mr Beast’s Feastables snacks brand last month expanded its retail footprint into markets including Singapore and South Africa. Skims, the shapewear company founded by Kim Kardashian, reached a valuation of $4 billion last year.

But… It takes more than a face and following to create a successful company. Just ask Addison Rae and Charli D’Amelio, whose entrepreneurial business ventures have yet to take off despite their combined ~240 million TikTok followers.

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“This is the world's first technology to freely control specific brain regions using magnetic fields.”

• Wireless mind control of mice is finally here. And at the heart of it is Charlie Kelly’s favorite hobby: magnets. As part of a recently published study, South Korean scientists created tiny magnetized nanoparticles measuring 0.0002 millimeters in size, then delivered them to specific parts of mice’s brains. The mice were then surrounded by a magnetic field, causing the magnetized nanoparticles in their brains to activate the surrounding brain cells – essentially switching on the “mind-control” devices. Depending on the parts of the mice’s brains that were specifically targeted, researchers were able to boost and curb the animals’ feeding behavior by as much as 100%, and also managed to trigger motherly behavior in mice that never had pups. (Takeaway: The Imperius Curse may be real, after all.)

• ☝️ On Tuesday, two New Hampshire residents were thrown into the Atlantic Ocean after a humpback whale leaped out of the water and landed on their fishing boat.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with Xero Shoes

• 💰 US markets closed down (S&P: -2.3%; Dow: -1.3%; Nasdaq: -3.6%); the S&P and Nasdaq had their worst days since 2022; the small-cap Russell 2000 also closed lower (-2.1%). | 💸 CrowdStrike’s recent outage cost US Fortune 500 companies an estimated $5.4 billion, according to insurer Parametrix.
• 📝 Conn's, a national home goods and electronics retailer, filed for bankruptcy.
• 📉 Tampon and pad use is declining as more women turn to alternative menstrual products, per a new Bloomberg report.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🍿 Pixar’s Inside Out 2 surpassed Frozen II to become the highest-grossing animated movie of all time; it’s generated $1.46 billion in global ticket sales.
• 🥇 Salt Lake City, Utah, was officially selected to host the 2034 Winter Olympic Games; the 2030 Winter Olympics are tentatively scheduled for the French Alps, per officials. | 🏀✍️ The NBA officially signed media-rights deals with ESPN, NBC, and Amazon worth a collective $77 billion over 11 years; the league rejected a last-minute bid from current rights holder Warner Bros. Discovery.
• 📱 Apple is moving forward with production of its first foldable iPhone, which would arrive no sooner than 2026, two sources told The Information.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Mira

• 🦎🦷 Komodo dragons, the world’s largest living lizards, have a protective layer of iron coating their teeth to help them tear up prey, per a new study.
• 🚘🤖 Google-parent Alphabet announced plans to invest an additional $5 billion in its self-driving firm Waymo over the next several years. | 🤖 xAI founder Elon Musk said training has started for what he calls "the world's most powerful AI training cluster" at the startup’s new supercomputer facility in Memphis.
• 🚫 Meta removed ~63,000 social media accounts associated with a cybercriminal ring targeting US adults in romance scams; it marks the toughest such enforcement action to date.

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MISCELLANEOUS

• 🏛️ Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a nearly hour-long address to Congress yesterday afternoon (video); VP Kamala Harris and dozens of Democrats skipped the speech, which drew large crowds of protesters across Washington (some of whom vandalized flags and statues at Union Station Plaza, and released insects in Netanyahu’s hotel). | 🗣️ President Biden last night delivered his first public address since deciding to end his re-election campaign. | 📝 The Trump campaign filed a legal challenge seeking to block VP Kamala Harris from accessing Biden’s 2024 campaign funds; analysts say the challenge is unlikely to affect Harris’ spending.
• 💰🙅 Elon Musk said reports he plans to donate $45 million/month to a Trump-aligned super PAC are “simply not true”; Musk said he’s making donations, but “at a much lower level.”
• 🚨 Illinois State Police released new bodycam footage showing the moment police fatally shot 36-year-old Sonya Massey, who had called authorities over concerns about a prowler at her home; the officer who shot Massey has been indicted on first-degree murder and other charges. | 🔍 The 20-year-old gunman who attempted to assassinate former President Trump searched online for information about John F. Kennedy's assassination, the FBI said.

CLICKBAIT

• 📱🦍 Zoos’ New Dilemma: Gorillas and Screen Time.

🥵🌎 Stat of the Day: It must be mating season, because the Earth is in full heat. The globe saw its warmest two days on record this past Sunday and Monday, at 62.76°F and 62.87°F, respectively, according to data from the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (which goes back to 1940). According to some scientists, Monday likely stands as the hottest day in thousands of years (based on tree ring records, ice cores, and other climate data).

🤔 Did You Know? There’s a mysterious “gravity hole” in the Indian Ocean where Earth’s gravitational pull is weaker, causing the sea level in the surrounding area to dip by up to 328 feet.

📰 Worth a Read: Are you a workaholic? Here’s how to spot the signs → (Knowable Magazine)

We bring you the most unusual, off-the-wall and occasionally laugh-out-loud headlines from this week.

• Meet Crush, the rare orange lobster diverted from dinner plate to aquarium → (Associated Press)
• Doomsday dinners: Costco sells 'apocalypse bucket' with food that lasts 25 years → (NBC News)
• Florida police tell people to stop taking selfies with ‘depressed’ black bear → (The Guardian)
• Nigerian man twerks for 3 hours, 30 minutes to break world record → (UPI)

Yesterday, we covered how a project backed by OpenAI’s Sam Altman published the largest-ever US study on “basic income,” or no-strings-attached payments typically aimed at lower-income Americans, which showed mixed results.

❓ Our question to you: Would you be in favor of a government program that provides basic income to lower-income Americans with no strings attached?

• 👍 Yes: 32%
• 👎 No: 49%
• 🤷 Unsure/other: 19%

Click here to read the most thoughtful longform responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 3,590 votes and 367 longform responses.

As Uber driver Danny Blanton picked up his final passenger of the night, he thought to himself, "Do I know this guy?" 

• His passenger, John Johnson, sat in the backseat and had a similar thought. Both men brushed it off.

The men made friendly small talk for a few minutes, until John finally asked Danny for his name. As the driver turned around, they both recognized an old friend; it had been 20 years since they'd seen each other.  

• Danny and John used to work at the same nightclub in the late '90s and were good work friends, but fell out of touch in the years since. 
• The men exchanged numbers and met up for drinks later that week.

The Crown Jewels are located in which famous castle?

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The Tower of London