Good morning. In today’s edition:

• 📝 The DOJ’s case against TikTok
• 🛳️ Cruises are skewing younger
• 🌊💀 The “place of skulls”

… and more.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~4.57-minute read (1,217 words).

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"Decisions are made by those who show up."

–President Jed Bartlett, The West Wing

In a series of new legal briefs, the Justice Department accused TikTok of paying more attention to Americans’ online browsing habits than a jilted ex, as part of its argument that the app’s Chinese ownership represents a threat to US national security.

Some quick background: In April, Congress enacted a bipartisan law requiring Chinese parent ByteDance to sell TikTok’s US operations within nine months or face a ban. TikTok then filed a lawsuit seeking to halt the potential ban – and last Friday, the US government delivered its rebuttal to the suit.

The DOJ's newly filed documents highlight two main reasons supporting its assessment that TikTok poses a national security threat:

1. TikTok allegedly uses an internal system to collect and send sensitive US user data – including individuals’ views on gun control, abortion, and religion – to servers located in China, where the government can potentially access the data and weaponize it against America.
2. The DOJ also says China’s government has the ability to manipulate TikTok’s content algorithm, and could do so to deepen social divisions in America and/or sway US public opinion towards Beijing's interests.

On the flip side: TikTok denies all claims that it has sent – or will send – US user data to China’s government, arguing the new DOJ filings aren’t enough to counter the fact that Congress’ sale-or-ban law violates the First Amendment.

• TikTok also claims Congress’ imposed deadline to sell its US operations is financially, practically, and technically impossible to meet – effectively turning the law into a TikTok ban, which US courts previously struck down as government overreach.

⏳ Tik, tok… Both parties are seeking a ruling by December, allowing for a possible Supreme Court review before the TikTok sale-or-ban deadline in January.

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🇻🇪 Both parties claimed victory in Venezuela’s presidential election. Venezuela’s United Socialist Party said incumbent President Nicolás Maduro (☝️ left) won a third term by a 51%-44% margin in Monday’s election, with 80% of votes counted. However, the opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable party claims its presidential candidate, Edmundo González (☝️ right), actually won 70% of the vote (based on independent exit polls). The US, EU, and several nations in North and South America are calling on Venezuela’s government to release detailed vote tallies.

🇯🇵🇺🇸 The US is upgrading its military forces in Japan. The Pentagon announced plans to establish a joint force headquarters in Japan led by a three-star general, bringing operational control of US troops stationed in Japan from Hawaii to a local Tokyo headquarters. Separately, Australia, India, Japan, and the US released a statement yesterday pledging to bolster joint defense in the South China Sea, where China has ramped up military pressure amid territorial disputes.

🇫🇷 France experienced two major infrastructure attacks during the Olympics. On Friday, three long-distance train lines connecting Paris to major French cities were set on fire, disrupting travel for ~800,000 people across Europe. In a separate incident on Sunday, several regions of France experienced internet disruptions after long-distance fiber optic cables across the country were cut. French police arrested a person described as a left-wing activist on suspicion of causing the railway sabotage, though no group has claimed responsibility for the internet outage.

Millennials and Gen Z may be more like their parents than they care to admit. The cruise industry, a longtime haven for old people, is increasingly attracting younger consumers, according to a new Bloomberg report.

• At Royal Caribbean, the largest cruise company by market cap, half of its passengers are millennials or Gen Z, according to CEO Jason Liberty. They’re also the fastest growing portion of its customer base.
• Other cruise lines are seeing similar growth among young people, with the average age of cruise passengers falling for two straight years after being largely stagnant since at least 2016, according to the Cruise Lines International Association.

The main reason behind the trend is simple, per analysts: cruises are typically cheaper than other travel options.

The price of booking a cruise was 40% below a comparable land-based vacation in 2023, according to Norwegian Cruise Line. Now, that figure is ~20% – which is still above historical averages.

Big picture: ~31.7 million people took ocean cruises last year, 7% more than in 2019 – while international tourism fell 12% over the same period, Bloomberg reports. This trend seems to be continuing; this year, 7.2% of US travel expenses have been allocated to cruises, up from 5.8% in 2019.

🛳️ Big Three financial snapshot: Royal Caribbean’s stock price has risen ~600% since March 2020, while Carnival Corporation is up 88% and Norwegian Cruise Line has gained 142% (for context: the S&P grew ~129% over the same stretch).

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“Place of skulls.”

• As the rest of the Summer Olympics takes place across Paris over the next two weeks, Olympians competing in surfing will battle for gold nearly 10,000 miles away at Teahupo’o, aka the “place of skulls.” Located in the French territory of Tahiti, Teahupo’o is one of the most revered – and dangerous – surfing spots on Earth, with strong South Pacific swells and the unique underwater topography of Tahiti’s coastline combining to form the “heaviest wave in the world” in terms of sheer tonnage. Teahupo’o was previously banned from women’s surfing circuits in 2006 for being too dangerous, before being reinstated ahead of the Olympics.

• ☝️ This summer, medal-winning athletes at the Olympic Games will receive a custom-made poster alongside their bronze, silver, or gold; Parisian illustrator Ugo Gattoni says the posters took him four months and 2,000 hours to create.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with Game Show Network

• 💰 US markets closed mixed (S&P: +0.1%; Dow: -0.1%; Nasdaq: +0.1%); the small-cap Russell 2000 fell 1.1%. | 🍔 McDonald’s reported Q2 results that missed analysts’ estimates on revenue and earnings; same-store sales fell for the first time since Q4 2020; shares closed up ~4%.
• 🏡 US home insurers were hit with a $15.2 billion net underwriting loss last year, according to data from rating agency AM Best; this figure is the highest since at least 2000 and more than double the losses from 2022.
• 🏙️ Raleigh, Austin, Baltimore, Atlanta, and Charlotte are the top five most promising locations for new college grads to find work, per a new study by payroll provider ADP. (Read more)

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🥇 The Olympics: Swimming practice in the River Seine was canceled for a second straight day after testing revealed poor water quality. | The US Women’s soccer team clinched a spot in the quarterfinals. | The US men’s gymnastics team won bronze in the team all-around competition, ending a 16-year medal drought. | See the overall medal count.
• 📺🤝 Comcast and Diamond Sports reached a deal that will see Bally Sports regional networks return for Xfinity cable customers on August 1.
• ⚾ The MLB trade deadline is at 6 pm ET this afternoon; catch up on all the deals thus far.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with First To Worst from Dyce Games

• 🤖🍎 Apple said the two AI models underpinning Apple Intelligence were pretrained on Google-designed chips; Apple’s decision signals some Big Tech companies may be looking for and finding AI-training alternatives to Nvidia’s graphics processing units.
• 🩸🎗️ The FDA approved a new blood test that screens for colorectal cancer, the second-most common cause of US cancer-related deaths.
• ☄️ A trio of meteor showers will appear together in the night sky over the next two weeks, with a peak of up to 100+ meteors/hour. | 🌎 Animal life on Earth may have begun as early as 2.1 billion years ago, or ~1.5 billion years earlier than most scientists currently believe, per a new study.

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MISCELLANEOUS

• 📅 The 20-year-old gunman who tried to assassinate former President Trump began making dozens of gun-related purchases and stocking up on bomb-making materials over a year ago, FBI officials revealed. | 🗣️ Trump agreed to be interviewed by the FBI as part of its probe into the assassination attempt against him.
• 🚨 Police traffic stops across the US, which declined significantly in 2020, remained well below prepandemic levels through the end of last year, per a NY Times analysis. | 🚘🌿 More people are driving on cannabis but “impairment” is hard to measure, leaving law enforcement scrambling to identify drivers who shouldn’t be on the road. (Read more)
• 🏛️ President Biden proposed a series of long-shot changes to the Supreme Court, including 18-year term limits and a binding code of conduct; Biden also proposed a constitutional amendment to eliminate broad presidential immunity established in a July 1 Supreme Court ruling. (Read more)

CLICKBAIT

• 📖 “The ick” and “boop” among new terms added to Cambridge Dictionary.

💰 Stat of the Day: Roughly 1 in every 15 Americans – or 22 million US residents – had a net worth of at least $1 million last year, according to a new global wealth report from UBS. While America’s millionaire population fell slightly in 2023, the US was still home to 38% of the world’s millionaires – a figure 3x higher than second-place China.

🤔 Did You Know? The spire on top of the Empire State Building was originally designed as a dock for flying zeppelins, though only one airship has ever docked there.

📰 Worth a Read: Make Your Own Luck → (Psychology Today)

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

• 🍿 The Marvel Cinematic Universe is now the first film franchise to surpass a total global box office gross of $30 billion (across 34 films). (Read more)
• 🔥 The Park Fire in Northern California now stands as the state's sixth-largest wildfire on record after burning for five days; it’s consumed as much as 150,000 acres/day. (Read more)
• 🗳️ Among US voters under 30, women are more likely to identify as a Democrat than a Republican (+34% D), while the opposite is true for men (+12% R). (Read more)
• 🎾 Novak Djokovic defeated Rafael Nadal at the Olympics yesterday in their 60th career matchup, the most in men's tennis history; Djokovic leads the series 31-29. (Read more)
• 📉 President Biden averaged 38.7% job approval during his 13th quarter in office (which ended April 19), marking the lowest such figure on record dating back to 1956. (Read more)

Yesterday, we covered the current state of the 2024 presidential election following the attempted assassination of Trump, Biden’s decision to step down from the race, and the elevation of Harris as the presumptive Democratic nominee.

❓ Our question to you: If the November election was held today, which candidate would you vote for?

• Former President Trump: 31%
• Vice President Harris: 50%
• Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: 7%
• Another third-party candidate: 5%
• Not planning to vote/Too young to vote: 3%
• Unsure/other: 4%

Click here to read the most thoughtful longform responses.

+Note on sample size: Our audience skews younger. We received 4,083 votes and 414 longform responses.

If you're on TikTok, odds are you've seen Spencer from SB Mowing. The viral social media star makes videos of him landscaping people's overgrown and neglected lawns for free.

• A few weeks ago, the landscaper found an injured cat while filming a video of himself working. He described the encounter with the injured animal as "meant to be." 

🐈 Spencer brought the cat to a local animal shelter, then set up a GoFundMe account for the kitty's medical procedures. In less than a week, his followers raised ~$180,000 in funds and donations for the shelter.

• “It was a miracle, and it makes me emotional to think that so many people could care about us and about this cat and what we're doing,” shelter director Anissa Beal told KIIITV. “This is beyond anything I could have ever imagined."

❓ Trivia: Shrek (the ogre) speaks with what kind of accent?

🤠 True or False?... Indiana Jones’ first name is Henry.

🤔 Riddle Me This: The more there is, the less you see. What am I?

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❓ Trivia: A Scottish accent

🤠 T/F: True; his full name is Henry Walton Jones Jr.

🤔 Riddle: Darkness (also fog or smoke)