Good morning. In today’s edition:

• 📅 The Israel/Hamas war, one year later
• 🔎 TikTok rolls out search ads
• 📉 Joker 2 lays a deux-ce

… and more.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~5.14-minute read (1,368 words).

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"Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate."

–Carl Jung (1875-1961)

Today marks the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ October 7 attack against Israel, an event that kicked off a war which threatens to ensnare the Middle East in an even wider conflict.

Background: The surprise raid involved Hamas troops storming a dozen Israeli towns near the Gaza border. Hamas killed ~1,200 Israelis and took 251 more as hostages, in the deadliest attack on Israeli soil since 1973. In response, Israel declared war on Hamas and launched an ongoing offensive in Gaza, marked by a bombing campaign and ground incursion.

By the numbers:

• To date, the fighting has killed ~42,000 Palestinians, per Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn't disclose how many combatants but says just over half of the deaths were women and children. Israel has reported ~500 deaths from the Hamas war outside of the October 7 attack.
• ~90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced by Israeli evacuation orders since October 7, per the UN.
• Of the 251 Israeli hostages taken by Hamas, 154 have been freed, including 37 dead bodies that have been recovered. 97 hostages remain in Gaza, including 33 believed to be dead.

Closer to home: The US has seen 10,000+ antisemitic incidents in the year since Hamas’ October 7 attack, per the Anti-Defamation League. That’s 200+% higher compared with the same period a year before, and the most antisemitic incidents over a year-long period since the ADL started tracking such data in 1979.

A cease-fire still appears distant

Both Israel and Hamas have been unable to reach an agreement in peace talks dating back to last November. In addition to a cease-fire, Israel is pushing for the release of all remaining hostages and a sustained military presence in Gaza, while Hamas seeks the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops.

Big picture: The Israel-Hamas conflict has also spread across the Middle East. Iran-backed militant groups in Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, and Syria have all fired rockets at Israel over the past year, in what they say is a bid to force a cease-fire in Gaza.

• In recent weeks, Israel has sharply escalated its campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, prompting Iran to launch a barrage of missiles against Israel last Tuesday (to which Israel has not yet responded).

📊 Flash poll: What best describes your personal opinion regarding the current Israel-Hamas war?

• Israel’s military operation is going too far
• Israel’s military operation is taking about the right approach
• Israel’s military operation isn’t going far enough
• Unsure/other

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We’re always working to make this newsletter better. So after receiving a significant amount of reader feedback, we’ve decided to cut our “Around the World” section in favor of a daily section we’re calling “Pics du Jour.”

The main reason: We found – and feedback confirmed – that relegating International (non US) stories to just one, limited section tended to A) limit us to three/day and B) prevent us from covering anything outside the US in-depth, which is something we’d like to do more often moving forward (case in point above).

🤖🚕 Robotaxi fever: On Friday, Hyundai and Waymo agreed to a multiyear, strategic partnership that will see the self-driving company add Hyundai’s new Ioniq 5 EV to its robotaxi fleet (👆). The partnership was announced ahead of Tesla’s “Robotaxi Day” this coming Thursday, where CEO Elon Musk is scheduled to unveil plans for a robotaxi product.

🏈🙌 Vandy took down #1 Alabama – and its own goalposts. On Saturday night, Vanderbilt students tore down their stadiums’ goalposts in celebration of a historic 40-35 upset win over #1 Alabama. Students then proceeded to carry the goalposts some two miles to downtown Nashville, where they paraded down Broadway (left👆) before tossing the posts into the Cumberland River (right). Prior to Saturday, Vanderbilt had lost all 60 of its games against AP top-five teams.

🚢 A historic ship is poised to become the world’s largest artificial reef. The S.S. United States, a 92-year-old ocean liner 100+ feet longer than the Titanic that once ferried immigrants, Hollywood stars, and heads of state, may soon be sent to its final resting place – the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, where it would serve as Earth’s biggest artificial reef. Last week, the government of Okaloosa County, Florida, signed a tentative deal to buy the ship for $10+ million, with plans to sink the vessel over an 18-month period once the sale is finalized.

In a move that takes direct aim at Google’s dominance, TikTok recently introduced its Search Ads Campaign tool, which gives advertisers the ability to target users based on search queries.

They say when you come at the king, you best not miss. Some data points driving TikTok’s decision:

• Past internal Google data indicates ~40% of young people use TikTok and Instagram for search instead of Google – while 14% of Gen Z use TikTok to research a major news event, compared to just 1% of other generations, according to Morning Consult.
• 57% of all users utilize the app’s search functionality, and 23% search for something within 30 seconds of opening TikTok.

Is Google’s dominance fading?

The tech giant’s share of the US search ad market is expected to drop below 50% next year for the first time in over a decade, according to the research firm eMarketer, as competitors increasingly enter the fray.

• Perplexity, a Jeff Bezos-backed AI search startup, plans to introduce ads later this month under its AI-generated answers. And Amazon has been chipping away at Google’s search ad dominance for years (#BezosLovesSearch).

👀 Looking ahead… The long arm of the law could play a major role in the search ad industry’s future. Appeals and punitive actions are still being considered after Google Search was declared an illegal monopoly in August, while an ongoing lawsuit may lead to TikTok being kicked out of the US.

...and with another Prime Day kicking off tomorrow, this number will keep increasing. Amazon fuels impulse buying and overconsumption, leading to excess spending and waste.

That’s why, this October, Commons is challenging you to skip Amazon. The goal is to get at least 500 people in the Commons community to avoid shopping at Amazon for the month, and earn rewards for doing so.

• 🎁 To help you through the month, Commons has partnered with sustainable alternatives to Amazon where you’ll earn 10x rewards on the Commons App.

Ready to reduce waste and save money? Get started here.

“Are we ready for a world where our data is exposed at a glance?”

If you’ve seen Minority Report, Black Mirror, Eagle Eye, or *insert any other tech-based sci-fi thriller here* and the answer is no, brace yourself. Two Harvard students recently paired the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses with facial recognition software to rapidly identify strangers and compile their personal information from the internet.

In a video posted to X, the students, AnhPhu Nguyen and Caine Ardayfio, explain how they built I-XRAY:

• The program utilizes the camera integrated into the glasses to capture images of random people.
• These images are then run through a publicly available facial recognition search site like PimEyes, after which AI trawls the web to compile the person’s addresses, names of their parents, photos, and more.

Using this info, Nguyen and Ardayfio were purportedly able to approach unsuspecting people in public and make them think they had met before.

😬 The dystopian future is already here: Per the students, the aim of this project is to highlight the privacy concerns associated with new consumer technologies. Anyone with a camera and the tech know-how can pull off the same thing as Nguyen and Ardayfio, Meta told 404 Media (the students won’t be releasing the program’s code for this very reason).

• ☝️ Hurricane Milton is projected to rapidly intensify from a Category 1 hurricane to Category 4 before making landfall around Tampa this week; the storm is expected to bring up to 15 inches of rain in some locations.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with Cornbread Hemp

• 💰 US markets rose across the board on Friday (S&P: +0.9%; Dow: +0.8%; Nasdaq: +1.2%); the Dow closed at a record high. | 💼 The US economy added a better-than-expected 254,000 new jobs in September; the unemployment rate ticked down to 4.1%.
• ✈️ Spirit Airlines is considering filing for bankruptcy in the wake of its failed merger with JetBlue, according to The Wall Street Journal.
• 📈 Vietnam's GDP rose 7.4% year-over-year in Q3, driven by exports and investment; the figure marks its highest quarterly increase in two years.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• SCOREBOARD: 🏈 CFB: There were several major upsets outside of Vandy’s historic win against #1 ‘Bama; unranked Arkansas beat #4 Tennessee, #25 Texas A&M stomped #9 Missouri, unranked Washington beat #10 Michigan, and unranked Minnesota upset #11 USC; see a full Week 6 recap. | ⚾ MLB Playoffs: The four ALDS and NLDS series kicked off on Saturday and continue this week; see the full playoff picture. | 🏈 NFL: See a full Week 5 recap.
• 🏰 Anne Hathaway confirmed she’s returning for Princess Diaries 3, which is in the works at Disney. | 🍿 Speaking of sequels: Between 50%-70% of movies from the six major studios next year will be related to existing IP (aka a sequel, prequel, or remake), per CNBC.
• ⚖️ Los Angeles prosecutors say they’re reviewing new evidence in the case of Lyle and Erik Menendez – two brothers convicted of killing their parents in 1989 – that could lead to resentencing or possibly a new trial; the case has drawn renewed attention following the recent release of Netflix’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with JadeYoga

• 🫁 The FDA approved a new treatment for a specific type of lung cancer, with trials showing it stopped cancer from advancing for 40+% longer than the standard treatment.
• 🦠 The world’s oldest living microbes were recently discovered within a 2 billion-year-old sealed rock fracture; the microbes predate the previous record-holder by ~1.9 billion years.
• 📲 Google has reportedly begun rolling out new anti-thievery features for Android users; they include a tool that uses AI to lock your screen when it detects “common motion associated with theft” (like your phone being snatched out of your hand).

*From our partners: 🧘‍♀️ Get the most out of your yoga practice with JadeYoga Accessories… Mat cleaner, yoga towels, mat bags – every item purchased from JadeYoga is eco-friendly and responsibly made. They give back to the planet for each item sold. Explore JadeYoga here.

MISCELLANEOUS

• 🗳️🗣️ Election news: On Saturday, former President Trump held a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania – the site of his attempted assassination – where he delivered a speech and brought out billionaire Elon Musk; VP Harris appeared on an episode of the popular Call Her Daddy podcast yesterday, will go on 60 Minutes tonight, and announced future interviews with Howard Stern, Stephen Colbert, and the hosts of The View.
• 📖 Merriam-Webster added 200 new words to its dictionary, including “freestyle,” “beach read,” and “IDGAF.”
• ⛪ Pope Francis named 21 new cardinals, significantly increasing the size of the College of Cardinals (which elects each new pope).

CLICKBAIT

• 🏎️ The 50 Greatest Sports Cars of All Time.

🍿🤡 Stat of the Day: Joker: Folie à Deux, the big-budget sequel to Joker (2019) starring Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga, debuted for moviegoers everywhere this weekend – but it appears critics are having the last laugh. Joker 2 earned $40 million in domestic ticket sales, well below its expected haul of $50 million–$60 million. It also became the first Hollywood comic book movie in history to earn a “D” CinemaScore from audiences. Compared to the first Joker, the jukebox-musical sequel earned less than half as much in its domestic weekend debut ($40M vs. $96M), despite costing over 3x as much to make ($190M vs $55M).

🤔 Did You Know? A zeptosecond – aka one trillionth of a billionth of a second – is the smallest unit of time ever measured. Ex: It takes a photon ~247 zeptoseconds to travel across a hydrogen molecule.

📰 Worth a Read: The video game that inspired a generation of historians → (The Guardian)

Monday: The Supreme Court begins its new term

Tuesday: Amazon kicks off Prime Big Deal Days, while Walmart launches its first Holiday Deals event; NHL season kicks off in the US

Wednesday: National Stop Bullying Day

Thursday: Tesla’s “Robotaxi Day” event; WNBA Finals begin

Friday: 2024 Nobel Peace Prize laureate announced

On Friday, we covered how Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced a long-shot measure to block the US from selling $20 billion worth of weapons to Israel, amid a growing backlash to Israel’s military actions in the Middle East

❓ Our question to you: In your opinion, should the US keep supplying weapons to Israel with little or no conditions?

• 👍 Yes: 35%
• 👎 No: 51%
• 🤷 Unsure/other: 14%

Click here to read some of the most thoughtful longform responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 3,086 votes and 319 longform responses.

Bill and Aileen Turnbull got married in Scotland in August 1967. The happy couple only watched their wedding video once on a borrowed projector, before the tape was later misplaced. For 58 years, they never thought they'd see it again. 

😮 That is, until this year... when Aileen stumbled upon a post on a Mastrick, Scotland, Facebook group with a photo of her and her husband on their wedding day asking if anyone recognized the couple. “I was absolutely amazed, I couldn’t believe it,” she said. 

• The post was shared by Terry Cheyne, who found the tape at his uncle's house earlier this year. He had been trying to locate the couple for over six months before Aileen found the post. 
• Bill and Aileen, who now live in Australia, couldn't believe Terry had their tape all these years later. "We both can’t thank him enough,” Aileen said. “We can’t wait to get over there and meet Terry in person and thank him properly."

Guess the definitions of the following Greek/Latin root words:

1. Arist
2. Dino
3. Flor
4. Junct
5. Mut

Working your way towards those airpods? The $100 gift card? Good news – prizes stack, so when you’re emailed to claim your prizes, you don’t have to wait! Hit reply for more info or with any questions🍩✌️.

1. Arist = Excellence (e.g., aristocracy)
2. Dino = Terrible (dinosaur)
3. Flor = Flower (floral)
4. Junct = Join (conjunction)
5. Mut = Change (mutation)