Good morning. In today’s edition:

• 🇬🇧 The UK bans puberty blockers for minors
• 🦕 Anyone could soon own a piece of a dinosaur
• ⚽ When cats become dawgs

… and more.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~4.80-minute read (1,278 words).

Did someone forward you this email? Subscribe here for free.

“A good character is the best tombstone. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble.”

–Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892)

On Friday, the UK indefinitely banned the prescription of puberty-suppressing treatments for minors with gender dysphoria (save for clinical trials), becoming the latest country to restrict access to treatments for transgender youth.

• In announcing the decision, officials say it came in response to advice from independent UK medical experts, who concluded there’s currently an “unacceptable safety risk” in prescribing puberty blockers to children. Researchers also expressed concern over a lack of data on the long-term effects of gender-affirming treatment for minors.
• Meanwhile, groups who support protecting access say research has consistently shown gender-affirming healthcare leads to improved mental health outcomes for minors, while denying such care is linked to higher rates of anxiety, depression, and self-harm or suicide.

How they work: As the name suggests, puberty blockers are medicines that block the hormones leading to puberty-related changes in the body. They’re typically used for children who show signs of puberty several years ahead of schedule – but can also be offered to gender-questioning adolescents on the cusp of normal puberty, with the goal of giving them time to consider their identity.

The UK is one of several nations to restrict gender-affirming treatments for minors. Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and France have also strictly limited the use of puberty blockers for children under 18 in recent years, though they’re among the minority of EU countries with such policies.

• In the US, the Supreme Court heard arguments last week over the legality of Tennessee’s recent ban on gender-affirming procedures for minors, with a decision expected by next summer.
• Just over half of all US states (26) have passed similar legislation in recent years.

Zoom in: ~1.4% of the US population between the ages of 13 and 17 identifies as transgender, including ~110,000 minors living in the 26 states that currently restrict gender-affirming care.

📊 Flash poll: In your opinion, should minors be banned from accessing puberty blockers and other gender-affirming treatments?

• Yes
• No
• Unsure/other

Experience Switzerland in its glory – hike through lush alpine meadows, marvel at cascading waterfalls, and breathe in the crisp mountain air. 

Subscribe FREE to Switzerland Tourism’s newsletter and confirm your email to enter for a chance to win:

• ✈️Two Edelweiss Economy flight tickets
• 🚂 Swiss Travel Passes for two in first class – your ticket to Switzerland’s world-renowned train system
• 🌎 New nonstop flights available from Seattle and Halifax, plus routes from Vancouver, Calgary, Las Vegas, Denver, and Tampa to Zurich.

This contest is being exclusively held for DONUT readers – just make sure to double confirm your email to secure your entry!

Your Swiss trip of a lifetime awaits – enter free here.

Jurassic Park enthusiast? Mark your calendar. Rally, an alternative asset investment platform, is launching an IPO for a stegosaurus skeleton later this month.

The 160-million-year-old skeleton, nicknamed “Steg,” is being valued at $13.75 million. And with 200,000 shares becoming available, this means anyone with $68.75 to blow could own a piece of The Land Before Time (though similar to an NFT, you can look, but you can’t touch).

• Rally plans to display the skeleton – ~69% of which has been recovered so far – for 8-12 months, then explore a sale via auction house.
• Other dino skeletons sold at auction houses since 1997 have fetched anywhere from a few million dollars to $44.6 million.

Zoom out: Alternative investments – which include real estate, venture capital, art, wine, Mickey Mantle’s childhood home, and, of course, dino remains – are growing in popularity, in part due to companies like Masterworks, Alts.co, and Rally that have made them easier to access. The global alternatives industry is projected to increase from $16.8 trillion assets under management at the end of 2023 to $29.2 trillion by 2029, per a recent report from data firm Prequin.

📅 Save the date: The stegosaurus auction opens on December 20.

Starting in April, Tokyo’s 160,000+ government employees will be able to take an extra day off work each week, per a recent announcement.

The world’s most-populated city hopes the move will force flexibility into its grueling work culture and enable more women to choose both career and family – boosting the city’s stork deliveries.

By the numbers:

• Japan is expected to welcome less than 700,000 newborns this year, its lowest level since records began in 1899.
• The country’s birth rate dipped to 1.2 babies per woman last year, according to Japan’s health ministry. Generally, that rate needs to be 2.1 for a population to remain stable (the “replacement rate”).

This isn’t the first measure Japan has taken to jumpstart babymaking. The country, in its 16th straight year of population decline, has also unveiled tax breaks, free daycare, and a government-made dating app.

🌏 Elsewhere…Population probs also abound. Half of the world lives in countries where the fertility rate has fallen below the replacement rate, according to a 2019 report from the United Nations Population Fund.

A group of 38 international experts, including two Nobel laureates, are warning against further research into mirror-image biological molecules, which they say pose an “unprecedented risk” to life on Earth.

Explaining the mirror-verse: All known life arises from 'right-handed' double-helix nucleotides in DNA and RNA, and 'left-handed' amino acids that come together to form proteins. Scientists are unsure why this phenomenon exists – but it represents a defining feature of all biological chemical reactions on Earth.

• In recent decades, scientists have theorized that a new kind of life could be created based on mirror-image alternatives of those molecules: left-handed nucleotides, and right-handed amino acids.

But…This mirror mirror on the life-wall could potentially lead to the downfall of us all, some say. In a new report, the group of scientists concluded mirror cells could likely avoid most of the barriers keeping ordinary organisms in check. For example: a potential mirror virus would evade not only humans' entire immune systems, but all organisms' immune defenses.

⏱️ Tick, tock: Experts say the creation of a viable, living mirror microbe is likely at least a decade away.

When you sleep better, you’re more present, more energetic, and more open to the experiences life has to offer. Tuft & Needle is constantly inspired by what customers do with renewed energy, and it keeps them pushing forward to innovate and craft products that help you sleep better than ever.

• The Snooz White Noise Machine effectively masks environmental sounds (traffic, neighbors, snoring), preventing the brain from being startled awake by abrupt noises.
• Trouble napping on the go? The T&N Travel Pillow gives you the perfect place to rest your head on planes, long car rides, or anywhere you need to catch some Zzzs.

Save up to 20% on sleep accessories and more at Tuft & Needle’s Holiday sale.

• ☝️ The Gemini meteor shower, known for bright, colorful meteors and up to 150 meteors/hour, peaked in night skies across the world this weekend

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with Quince

• 📊 US markets were mixed last week (S&P: -0.6%; Dow: -1.8%; Nasdaq: +0.3%).
• 💊 McKinsey agreed to pay $650 million to settle a federal probe pertaining to its work helping Purdue Pharma increase opioid sales.
• 🍏 Apple is planning to introduce a thinner iPhone next year and its first foldable iPhone as soon as 2026, per a new report from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.

*From our partners: 🎁 Last-minute shopping? A Quince gift card is certain to delight everyone on your list… Quince has Mongolian Cashmere Crewnecks, Silk Maxi Skirts, Italian Leather Quilted Crossbody bags, and more exquisite goods at an affordable price. Give the gift of luxury.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🏆 Travis Hunter, the University of Colorado's two-way star, won the 2024 Heisman Trophy; Boise State RB Ashton Jeanty came in second in the closest vote since 2009.
• ⚖️ Rapper Jay-Z asked a court to dismiss a lawsuit accusing him, along with Sean "Diddy" Combs, of raping a 13-year-old girl in 2000, after inconsistencies emerged in her allegation.
• 🍿 Kraven the Hunter generated $11 million at the domestic box office (vs. a budget of ~$110 million); it supplants Madame Web as the worst opening weekend for a Sony-produced Marvel comic book movie; Moana 2 topped the domestic box office for the third straight weekend. | 📺 YouTube TV is raising prices by $10/month starting in January, bringing it up to $82.99/month.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Nuts.com

• 🤖⚖️ OpenAI released emails from 2017 showing that Musk, its co-founder, wanted a for-profit component in which he was CEO and initially had majority board control (read them here); the two parties are embroiled in a lawsuit over OpenAI’s plan to convert to a for-profit business.
• 👣 Neanderthals interbred with humans during a limited period roughly 43,500–50,500 years ago, per new studies published in Nature and Science on Thursday.
• 🧳 Apple is partnering with United Airlines and Air Canada to let AirTag users share a temporary link that tracks the location of lost baggage.

*From our partners: 🎄🤤 The best stocking stuffers are the most delicious… Give the gift of crunch with holiday favorites from Nuts.com – featuring 6,000+ sweets, chocolates, nuts, and more with flavors not found in stores. Save $15 + free shipping on Nuts.com orders over $99 for a limited time – just click this link.

MISCELLANEOUS

• 🏥 UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty published a NY Times opinion piece regarding the death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, who led the company’s insurance arm; Witty also acknowledged the US health-care system is “flawed” and in need of reform.
• 🤖 Former OpenAI researcher and whistleblower Suchir Balaji, who said publicly that the company violated US copyright laws, was found dead in his SF apartment around three weeks ago; authorities ruled his death a suicide.
• ⚖️ ABC agreed to pay $15 million plus $1 million in legal fees to settle a defamation suit brought over anchor George Stephanopoulos’ inaccurate assertion that Trump was found civilly liable for rape; Trump was found liable for sexual assualt, not rape. | 🇰🇷 South Korea’s parliament impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol over his surprise decision to briefly enact martial law earlier this month; the move comes a week after a failed impeachment vote.

CLICKBAIT

• 🪄🙈 How scientists are creating real-life invisibility cloaks. (Video)

⚽ Stat of the day: The University of Vermont Catamounts (a medium-or-large-sized cat) aren’t exactly known for their athletic prowess. In fact, the school’s bookstore sells a tongue-in-cheek football t-shirt that reads: “UNDEFEATED SINCE 1974” (the school disbanded its team that year).

But every once in a while, the world shifts, and cats turn into dawgs. Such is the case for the Catamounts’ men’s soccer team, which, after pulling off a series of upsets, will face off against Marshall tonight with the 2024 NCAA DI national championship on the line. It’s the first time in UVM history that the school (founded in 1791) will appear in a national championship game of any kind.

The match starts at 8 pm ET and will be televised on ESPNU.

🤔 Did You Know? The first star athlete ever to sign a $1 million endorsement deal was legendary professional bowler Don Carter, who started as a janitor at his local bowling alley.

📰 Worth a Read: Their Job Is to Push Computers Toward AI Doom → (Wall Street Journal)

Monday: National Chocolate Covered Anything Day

Tuesday: State electors meet to officially cast the 538 Electoral College votes from this year’s presidential election; NBA Cup final (Milwaukee v. OKC)

Wednesday: Federal Reserve’s latest interest-rate decision

Thursday: Beast Games hits Amazon Prime Video; 13 days until the New Year (!)

Friday: Deadline to avoid a government shutdown; Mufasa: The Lion King and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 hit theaters; first College Football Playoff games

On Friday, we covered how more details are emerging about the suspect in last week’s shooting death of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO, as the incident has triggered a wave of online anger towards the US healthcare industry.

❓ Our question to you: Which of the following best describes your personal opinion towards the shooting of Brian Thompson and the suspect’s reported motive?

• Strongly support the suspect and his reported motive: 18%
• Somewhat support the suspect and his reported motive: 20%
• Neutral to the whole situation: 12%
• Somewhat oppose the suspect and his reported motive: 10%
• Strongly oppose the suspect and his reported motive: 40%

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

+Note on sample size: We received 2,592 votes and 266 longform responses.

Back in 2013, residents spotted a male humpback whale off the coast of Colombia. A few years later, the whale made another appearance in the same area (and put on a show for spectators👆).

But in 2022, the whale was unexpectedly spotted in the Indian Ocean off the coast of East Africa, ~8,100 miles from his South American starting point.

🐳 A real go-getter: The typical migration route for humpback whales is ~5,000 miles in a single direction, making this individual’s journey ~2x that of most whales

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

1. Anim
2. Carp
3. Cut
4. Doct
5. Geo

1. Anim = Breath (e.g., animal, animate)
2. Carp = Relating to wrist (carpal)
3. Cut = Skin (cuticle, subcutaneous)
4. Doct = Teach (doctor)
5. Geo = Earth (geology, geography)