Good morning. In today’s edition:

• 🤔 Should the US keep supplying weapons to Israel?
• 🚢 Why the port strike ended
• 🍥🧠 Kaleidoscope brain

… and more.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~4.96-minute read (1,320 words).

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"By seeking and blundering we learn."

–Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

Last week, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced a series of joint resolutions to block the Pentagon from selling $20 billion worth of weapons to Israel.

The resolutions, sponsored by Sanders and a pair of Democratic senators, seek to force a vote in Congress to block the US – Israel’s biggest weapons supplier – from adding to the 15,000+ bombs and Hellfire missiles it has provided Israel since the start of the Gaza war.

Driving the move: The resolution claims that while Israel has the right to defend itself following the Hamas terrorist attacks on October 7, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has instead waged an all-out war against the Palestinian people, leaving more than 41,000 Palestinians dead and 95,000 injured.

• The resolution also claims Israel’s use of US weapons violates international law, and accuses Netanyahu of blocking US humanitarian aid to Gaza.

On the flip side: The general consensus among US lawmakers is that Israel should be encouraged to do more to protect civilians, but its ability to defend itself should not be limited by American policy.

• The US has partnered with Israel on security and intelligence efforts for decades, with both countries working together to counter the expansion of Iranian influence in the Middle East.

Zoom out: An estimated 60% of Americans favor the US supporting Israel militarily until all hostages are returned, and about half (49%) favor such support until Hamas is dismantled – though a narrow majority also think the US should condition its military aid so that it’s not used against Palestinian civilians.

Looking ahead… Congress will review and vote on Sanders’ resolution when it reconvenes in November, though analysts say it’s unlikely to pass.

📊 Flash poll: In your opinion, should the US keep supplying weapons to Israel with little or no conditions?

• Yes
• No
• Unsure/other

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🇻🇪🎄 Christmas officially started in Venezuela this week. Last month, embattled President Nicolás Maduro declared Venezuela’s Christmas season would start on October 1, in a move critics frame as an attempt to divert attention from disputed presidential election results. Residents of the capital Caracas woke up Tuesday to Christmas decorations – including LED light strings and sculptures declaring: “Feliz Navidad” – spread across public squares, boulevards, and plazas. Maduro, who’s been in power since 2013, previously declared the early arrival of Christmas during the pandemic.

🌏💉 US pharma giant Gilead will let drugmakers in Asia and Africa make cheap generics of its HIV drug. Lenacapavir, a twice-yearly injection, provides near-total protection from HIV. Gilead on Wednesday announced a deal allowing a total of six pharma companies across India, Pakistan, and Egypt to make and sell generics of lenacapavir. While the treatment costs $42,250/year for US patients, the generics makers are expected to offer a far lower price, with recent research showing the drug could be sold profitably for as little as $40/year.

🌍 The sun has set on Britain’s African empire. Yesterday, the UK government agreed to give up sovereignty of the Chagos Islands – a cluster of 58 tiny islands in the Indian Ocean – to the East African island nation of Mauritius, ending a long legal battle over the final remaining African territory from the British Empire. Under the deal’s terms, the UK will pay to retain control of the largest island, Diego Garcia, which is home to a joint US-UK military base.

Like Minnie Driver and Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting, Fidelity is writing down its number for X. The social media platform formerly known as Twitter is worth significantly less than two years ago when Elon Musk bought it, according to recent estimates from the investment giant (how do you like them apples?).

Background: Though X is no longer publicly traded, Fidelity still holds a stake in the company and publicly discloses how much it thinks these shares are worth.

• As of the end of August, the investment giant’s Blue Chip Growth Fund estimates its shares are worth $4.2 million. That’s down 24% from its July estimates, and 79% from October 2022 when Musk acquired Twitter.
• This implies an overall valuation of $9.4 billion for X, vs. the $44 billion Musk paid.

Other investors could value X differently… However, it’s clear the company is in the midst of a downward trend – something even Musk admits.

Advertising revenue, which comprises ~90% of the company’s overall revenue, fell 24% in the first half of 2024 compared to the same period last year (reaching $744 million), while user engagement is also down.

😬 Overall, X isn’t too popular with its backers. The seven banks who helped Musk finance the deal haven’t been able to offload the debt without incurring major losses, largely because of X’s weak financial performance, leaving the loans stuck on their balance sheets, or “hung” in industry jargon, the Wall Street Journal reports.

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“Effective immediately, all current job actions will cease and all work covered by the Master Contract will resume.”

In a twist on the phrase “three strikes and you’re out,” ~45,000 dock workers on the East and Gulf Coasts yesterday agreed to end their strike after three days of being out.

What happened: The sticking points leading up to the port strike were wages and automation. And when it came to wages, shipping companies blinked.

• The US Maritime Alliance, which represents shippers and ports, this week offered dock workers a 62% increase in wages over six years – less than the dock workers’ 77% ask, but good enough to call off the strike, the Wall Street Journal reports.
• However, the deal is tentative. Both the dock workers union and the US Maritime Alliance agreed to extend the existing contract between the two until January 15, 2025, in order to leave enough time to tackle other topics such as automation.

📸 Big picture: The tentative agreement kicks the can down the road on a strike that was already having a significant economic impact. Grocery stores and retailers say consumers were panic buying products over shortage concerns, thousands of containers were dumped at the wrong ports, billions of dollars in goods were anchored offshore, and shipping costs had already started to rise. Previous estimates from JPMorgan indicated a strike would cost the US economy ~$5 billion/day.

• ☝️ A trio of autonomous aquatic drones recently discovered the wreck of the “Ghost Ship of the Pacific” (aka the U.S.S. Stewart) off the California coast; the sunken vessel was the only US Navy destroyer captured and put into use by Japanese forces during World War II.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with Going

• 💰 US markets fell across the board (S&P: -0.2%; Dow: -0.4%; Nasdaq: -0.04%); oil prices spiked amid escalating tensions in the Middle East. | 💉 Eli Lilly's Zepbound (weight loss) and Mounjaro (diabetes) shortages are over, according to the FDA; shares of Hims and Hers, which sells compounded weight-loss drugs, fell ~10% in afternoon trading.
• 🚗 A couple hurt in an Uber crash can't sue Uber after their daughter clicked away trial rights on UberEats, a New Jersey court rules.
• 🚚 Ford unveiled the 2025 Expedition.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• ⚾ MLB Playoffs: The New York Mets came back in the 9th to win a deciding Game 3 against the Milwaukee Brewers and conclude the Wild Card Round; the ALDS and NLDS start on Saturday. (Full playoff picture)
• 🏀 Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark named the WNBA Rookie of the Year after receiving 66/67 first-place votes.
• 🎶💰 British rock band Pink Floyd agreed to sell the rights to their entire music catalog, along with their names and likenesses, to Sony Music for $400 million. | 🎥 Rust will debut at the Camerimage Festival in November, three years after the on-set shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Manscaped

• 🤖 AI startup Character.ai told the Financial Times that it’s giving up on making new AI models and will instead focus on consumer products; the move comes after Google struck a $2.7 billion deal to re-hire Character.ai’s founders, add 20% of its staff, and license its technology. (Dive deeper: The employee Google paid $2.7 billion to get back)
• 🧠 Stanford researchers identified a gene in mice that explains why their brains slowly lose the ability to regenerate neurons with age, with future plans to apply that research to humans.
• 🐜 Ants may have first learned to farm fungi – a practice widely seen across ant species today – in response to the mass extinction that killed the dinosaurs, since few life forms beyond fungi could thrive at that time, per a new study.

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MISCELLANEOUS

• 🌀 Hurricane Helene is now the deadliest mainland US hurricane since Katrina in 2005 and the fourth-deadliest since 1950; its death toll climbed to at least 214 people yesterday. | 🔥 The Maui wildfire that killed at least 102 people last year was ignited by power lines downed due to high winds, per a new joint federal-state report.
• 👮 Three former Memphis police officers were found guilty by a federal jury of varying charges related to the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols in January 2023.
• 🎓💰 A federal judge allowed the Biden admin to move forward with its revised student-loan forgiveness plan while the court battle over its legality continues; the plan mainly focuses on forgiving up to $20,000 in accrued interest for ~25 million borrowers.

CLICKBAIT

• 🪐 32 real planets that sound like science fiction.

🧠🧬 Stat of the Day: After more than a decade of research, the first-ever full reconstruction of the brain of an adult animal with eyes and legs – a female fruit fly – is finally here. In a study published Wednesday in Nature, hundreds of scientists described how they mapped out all ~140,000 neurons, which were joined together by 490+ feet of wiring (remember: this is a fruit fly). Previously, the only adult animal to have its brain entirely reconstructed was a tiny species of worm with 385 neurons in its entire nervous system – and despite advancements, mapping the human brain and its ~86 billion neurons is unlikely to happen anytime soon.

🤔 Did You Know? Less than 5% of all Portuguese speakers in the world live in Portugal. The vast majority are located in Brazil (87%), which Portugal colonized in the 1500s.

📰 Worth a Read: FanDuel and VIP Perks: The Unraveling of an NFL Team Worker’s Betting Scheme → (Wall Street Journal)

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

• Montana man gets 6 months in prison for cloning giant sheep and breeding it → (NBC Montana)
• After 31 years, a French treasure hunt may have a winner. The prize: a valuable golden owl → (Associated Press)
• Police officer's gun sucked away by powerful magnets in lab raid → (Newsweek)
• Painting bought for $50 at barn sale expected to fetch up to $200,000 → (UPI)
• Study: Cats in little crocheted hats shed light on feline chronic pain → (Ars Technica)

Jimmy Carter, America's 39th president, celebrated his 100th birthday on Tuesday. He celebrated the record milestone with a "mill around his hometown" with close friends, family, and fans. 

• The former president served one term from 1977 to 1981, then went on to lead the Carter Center – a nonprofit he and his wife co-founded in 1982 to “wage peace, fight disease, and build hope.”

🎉 Something worth celebrating... “Not everybody gets 100 years on this earth, and when somebody does, and when they use that time to do so much good for so many people, it’s worth celebrating," said grandson Jason Carter.

😍 Explore: 15 charming mountain towns in Europe. Mürren, Switzerland, and Alagna Valsesia, Italy, here we come.

💪 Read: The 100%-free Press Sports newsletter, a 1x/week look beyond the headlines designed to make you the smartest sports fan in the room.

🤔 Hmmm: Should you try primal movement workouts?

👀 Watch: When Michael Morse hit a home run with no bat, in one of the strangest plays in MLB history.

🧠 Expand: The bcc newsletter from Letterlist is the simplest way to discover other amazing newsletters. The fresh new Letterlist website also features in-depth interviews with writers like Dave Pell, Ann Handley, and Sari Azout.*

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*A message from our partners.

Our weekly news quiz just dropped. See 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:

• Milk
• Pudding mix
• Sweetened condensed milk
• Vanilla
• Frozen whipped topping
• Vanilla wafers
• Bananas

✌️ Recipe #2:

• Rolled oats
• Brown rice cereal
• Raw almonds
• Shredded coconut
• Unsweetened cocoa powder
• Kosher salt
• Cayenne pepper
• Brown sugar
• Maple syrup
• Vegetable oil
• Water

3️⃣ Recipe #3:

• Rye bread
• Thousand Island dressing
• Swiss cheese
• Deli sliced corn beef
• Sauerkraut
• Butter

☝️ Recipe #1: Banana pudding

✌️ Recipe #2: Chocolate cereal breakfast bars

3️⃣ Recipe #3: Reuben sandwich