Good morning. In today’s edition:

• 📉 Illegal US border crossings are down significantly
• 📺 New sports streamer Venu’s pricepoint may prove a tough sell
• 🤔 Musk vs. Maduro?

… and more.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~4.75-minute read (1,265 words).

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“Curiosity is the most powerful thing you own. Imagination is a force that can actually manifest a reality.”

–James Cameron (b. 1954)

The recent surge in unauthorized migration at America’s southern border appears to have dissipated. In July, Border Patrol arrests along the US-Mexico border fell for the fifth straight month to reach their lowest level since September 2020, according to preliminary federal data.

By the numbers: The number of migrants arrested for illegally entering the US from Mexico fell to ~56,000 last month, marking a 30% decrease from June. It also represents a sharp decline from a recent peak of 250,000 arrests in December 2023, the highest monthly total on record.

• Migration has dropped so markedly that average daily illegal border crossings are approaching 1,500/day – or the threshold at which federal officials would be required to lift an ongoing ban on asylum claims enacted by President Biden in early June.

Driving the trend… Analysts and border officials point to three main factors:

1. Mexico’s government has overseen a large-scale crackdown on migrants headed to the US in recent months, stopping many from reaching America in the first place.
2. Historically hot summer temperatures have made the migration journey even more difficult, discouraging people from attempting to enter the US.
3. America’s ongoing ban on asylum claims – under which migrants caught illegally entering the US can be quickly deported or turned back to Mexico – has coincided with a ~50% reduction in arrests at the southern border (since June 5).

Looking ahead… America’s asylum restrictions will likely continue through next year and beyond, regardless of who wins November’s presidential election. VP Kamala Harris's campaign has signaled she would continue the Biden admin’s current asylum ban, while former President Trump has promised to enact more restrictive border policies.

📊 Flash poll: Do you personally consider unauthorized immigration to be: a crisis, fairly significant problem, minor problem, or not a problem for the US?

• Crisis
• Fairly significant problem
• Minor problem
• Not a problem

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🇺🇸🇷🇺 The US and Russia carried out their largest prisoner swap since the Cold War. Russia released 16 detainees as part of yesterday’s multinational deal, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former US Marine Paul Whelan, two other people with US ties, and several associates of deceased Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. In exchange, the US, Germany, Norway, Slovenia, and Poland released eight Russian prisoners, including state assassin Vadim Krasikov and several others charged or convicted of serious crimes. (Dive deeper: Inside the secret negotiations to free Evan Gershkovich)

🇿🇦 In a global first, South Africa is vaccinating seals against rabies. Rabid cape fur seals have infected at least seven people in South Africa in recent weeks, marking the first-ever documented outbreak of rabies in marine mammals. The vaccine trial will target migratory seals and those who regularly come into contact with humans to prevent rabies from spreading to other colonies.

🇦🇺 Australia launched the world’s first national program to treat peanut allergies in babies. Children under a year old with an allergy will be given gradually increasing daily doses of peanut powder for at least two years to build immunity. The free program is available in ten participating hospitals across Australia, which is often dubbed the “allergy capital of the world” due to its high rate of food sensitivity diagnoses (1 in 10 infants; an estimated 3% of the population has a peanut allergy).

Venu, a sports streaming joint venture between Disney’s ESPN, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Fox, announced its pricepoint yesterday: $42.99/month (at least for the first 12 months).

For that, consumers get access to: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNEWS, ABC, FOX, FS1, FS2, BTN, TNT, TBS, truTV, and ESPN+.

And therein lies the potential issue. Venu is targeting the 60+ million US households without cable TV – many of whom are content with just watching highlights and commentary online after the games take place. According to a 2023 survey by Kantar, 54% of people would rather watch creators break down a major live event than actually watch the event.

Another thing not exactly in Venu’s favor – its sports coverage isn’t all encompassing.

Earlier this year, Citi analysts estimated the new service would encompass ~55% of US sports rights. Meaning consumers wanting to watch games in the other 45% will have to subscribe to other services to gain access – or sign up for cable TV (😱).

The competition: While Venu is priced lower than traditional cable packages ($100+/month) and YouTube TV ($73/month), it may not have gone far enough.

• For $60/month, Sling TV offers many of the same networks that come with Venu plus others that don’t, including NBC, CNN, Fox News, and Discovery NFL Network (46 networks vs. Venu’s 14).

👀 Looking ahead… Venu is aiming to launch this fall, before football starts. According to internal forecasts, it expects to have five million subscribers in five years.

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“Social media creates a virtual reality, and who controls the virtual reality? Our new archenemy, the famous Elon Musk. Do you want to fight? Let’s do it. Elon Musk, I’m ready.”

• Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is currently dealing with the fallout from last weekend’s controversial presidential election – but he still has time to trade barbs with the world’s richest man. In recent days, Elon Musk has posted 50+ tweets about Maduro that label him a dictator, compare him to a donkey, accuse him of carrying out “major election fraud,” and blame Venezuela’s collapsed economy on the corruption of leftist politicians. Musk’s comments have triggered strong pushback from Maduro, who challenged the billionaire to a fight during a televised speech Tuesday (quote above; to which Musk responded in a post: “I accept”). Separately, the US government last night recognized Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo González as the winner of Sunday’s presidential election, discrediting the results announced by electoral authorities who declared Maduro the victor.

• ☝️ An ongoing heat wave is poised to expand from the Central US to both coasts over the next week, with ~180 million Americans under heat warnings and advisories yesterday.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with Spoak

• 💰 US markets fell across the board (S&P: -1.4%; Dow: -1.2%; Nasdaq: -2.3%) | 💼 US jobless claims hit an 11-month high last week, per new government data.| ✌️ Pershing Square USA withdrew its planned IPO; the Bill Ackman-ran investment fund initially aimed to raise $25 billion but faced tepid demand.
• 💻 Meta shares rose ~5% following a better-than-expected earnings report and rosy revenue forecast. | 📦 Amazon reported weaker-than-expected revenue for Q2, though its cloud business exceeded analyst estimates; shares fell ~7% in early after-hours trading. | ✂️ Intel is cutting 15,000 jobs, or 15% of its workforce, and suspending its dividend payments in a bid to cut costs. | ⚖️ CrowdStrike is being sued by shareholders over its recent global outage.
• 🏢 A 23-floor office building in Manhattan just sold at a 97.5% discount; in 2006, it was purchased for $332 million; on Wednesday, it was purchased for $8.5 million.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🥇 The Olympics: Simone Biles won gold in the women's gymnastics all-around final; the victory marks the 27-year-old athlete’s sixth Olympic gold medal and ninth overall; fellow Team USA gymnast Suni Lee took home bronze. | The US won its first rowing gold medal in the men’s four class since 1960. | Do you know the Chocolate Muffin Man? | Italian gymnast Giorgia Villa really likes cheese. | See the overall medal count.
• 🏈 A federal judge overturned a jury's $4.7 billion verdict against the NFL in the class-action lawsuit filed by "Sunday Ticket" subscribers, handing the league a legal victory. | 🏈 The NFL preseason officially kicked off last night with the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game between the Bears and Texans.
• 🦑 Netflix’s Squid Game Season 2 will be released on December 26, with the third and final season premiering in 2025. | 🎤 Carrie Underwood is returning to American Idol as its newest judge, replacing Katy Perry. | 📲 Don Lemon is suing Elon Musk and X for breach of contract.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Game Show Network

• 💉 Eli Lilly’s weight loss drug, Zepbound, showed benefits in patients with obesity and a common type of heart failure, according to new late-stage company trial data. | 💉 An older diabetes drug from Novo Nordisk, called liraglutide, shows evidence of slowing the progression of Alzheimer’s disease by protecting patients’ brains, per new mid-stage trial data.
• 🛢️ US oil and gas fields are emitting ~4x more methane – a potent greenhouse gas – than ​​federal regulators have estimated, per new aerial survey data from the Environmental Defense Fund.
• 🎓 US workers without a college degree have boosted their earnings and wealth at a faster pace than college graduates since the start of the Covid pandemic, per a new study.

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MISCELLANEOUS

• ⚖️ Three al-Qaeda members accused of plotting the 9/11 terrorist attacks, including alleged mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, reached plea deals that reportedly involve life sentences and avoid death-penalty trials.
• ✈️ The Department of Transportation proposed a new rule that would ban airlines from charging families extra to be seated together.
• 🏛️ Governor Josh Shapiro (D-PA) has reportedly canceled a trip to the Hamptons this weekend; Shapiro is on the shortlist for VP Kamala Harris’ 2024 running mate, with Harris’ decision expected by Tuesday.

CLICKBAIT

• 🤔🥇 What Olympic sport would you play? Take this quiz.

💎🪐 Stat of the Day: If Lucy was in the ground with diamonds instead of the sky, she was probably visiting the planet Mercury. According to a new study published in Nature Communications, the smallest planet in our Solar System likely contains a layer of diamonds up to 11 miles thick below the planet’s surface. However, researchers say the diamonds are virtually inaccessible – even with future, more advanced technologies – since they’re buried 300+ miles underground.

🤔 Did You Know? Using CRISPR gene-editing tools, Harvard scientists in 2017 managed to store a GIF of a galloping horse in the DNA of bacteria.

📰 Worth a Read: ChatGPT and the movie ‘Her’ are just the latest example of the ‘sci-fi feedback loop’ → (The Conversation)

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

• Rajasthan Man, Declared Dead By Govt, Commits Crimes To Prove He’s Alive → (News18)
• Detroit’s giant slide is back. There will probably be fewer bruises this time → (Associated Press)
• Champagne sales down worldwide in 2024, industry executives cite lack of 'cheer' → (Fox Business)
• Lululemon pulls new leggings line that gives customers ‘long butt’ → (CNN)
• Man pulls three planes while walking on his hands → (UPI)

People worldwide are geeking out over Stephen Nedoroscik, aka the Olympic "Clark Kent," after he helped claimed America's first male gymnastics medal in 16 years. 

🤸 The pommel horse specialist sat on the sidelines for the entire event until his turn, often closing his eyes and breathing steadily to calm his heart rate; he’s the first American gymnast to ever make the Olympic team as a specialist in a single event.

• Then, at the final event of the competition, Stephen took the stage and executed a near-perfect pommel horse routine, helping the team claim the bronze medal. 
• The gymnast shot to online fame soon after, with Stephen remarking that the memes he’s inspired are “awesome.” “I’m representing people who wear glasses well,” he said. 

Coming at you hotter than the sidewalks of Phoenix, it’s the DONUT’s weekly news quiz.

Find out how your news superpowers stack up against our team.

Below are three lists of ingredients. Your job is give us the completed dish they make.

☝️ Recipe #1:

• Flour
• Powdered sugar
• Salt
• Butter
• Cold water
• Raspberry jam
• Golden syrup
• Light brown sugar
• Cornflakes

✌️ Recipe #2:

• Flour
• Baking powder
• Salt
• Water
• Neutral oil
• Egg
• White vinegar
• Olive oil
• Yellow onion
• Black pepper
• Russet potatoes
• Butter
• Mustard

3️⃣ Recipe #3:

• Butter
• Yellow onion
• Carrots
• Celery
• Garlic
• Salt
• Dried thyme
• Flour
• Chicken broth
• Shredded chicken
• Chopped red potato
• Frozen peas
• Half and half
• Oyster crackers

☝️ Recipe #1: Cornflake tart

✌️ Recipe #2: Potato knishes

3️⃣ Recipe #3: Chicken pot pie soup