Good morning. In today’s edition:

• 🗣️ Hawk Tuah resurfaces
• 🏛️ Gov’t shutdown averted
• 🚰 Luxury water

… and more.

P.S. We’ll be off until January 3. Happy Holidays, and see you back here in the New Year!

P.P.S. We're testing out a slight change of format this edition. Let us know what you think.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~4.65-minute read (1,237 words).

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“It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”

–Albus Dumbledore (1881-1997)

Following a historically significant decline over the past four years, a record-low 35% of Americans have confidence in the country’s courts and judicial systems, according to new polling from Gallup.

What’s going on? Each year since 2006, Gallup has asked Americans and residents of other nations around the world how much they trust their home countries’ judicial systems.

• Up until 2020, Americans’ perceptions of their courts were roughly in-line with the median for other wealthy OECD countries, with 50+% of each group typically expressing confidence.
• But the US has seen a sharp decline in judicial confidence since that point, falling from 59% in 2020 to a record-low 35% in 2024.
• Meanwhile, other OECD countries held steady at 55%-58% over that period.

The trend has been driven by both political parties

In recent years, confidence in the American court system has dropped for both those who approve and disapprove of US leadership under President Biden, according to Gallup.

• Democrats’ trust in the federal judicial branch fell from 50% to 25% between 2021 and 2022, a period that includes the SCOTUS decision overturning constitutional abortion rights established by Roe v. Wade.
• Gallup also notes recent legal cases against President-elect Trump – which he has consistently denounced as politically motivated – helps explain why Americans disapproving of Biden’s leadership have also lost trust in the judicial system since 2020.

Zoom out: The recent decline in judicial confidence among Americans ranks among the steepest Gallup has ever measured globally over a four-year period (dating back to 2006).

Among the nine nations with larger percentage-point drops than America (-24 points) are – Syria in the runup to and early years of civil war (-28 from 2009-2013), and Hong Kong after China approved a new national security law governing the island (-28 from 2016-2020).

📊 Flash poll: Do you personally have confidence in America’s judicial system and courts?

• Yes
• No

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Hailey Welch, aka Hawk Tuah girl, is once again talking tuah her audience.

After 15 days of silence following the release and subsequent crash of her memecoin, $HAWK, Welch released a statement on Friday saying she is cooperating with legal proceedings and referring affected parties to a law firm (read it here).

What happened: The Hawk memecoin was launched December 4. It quickly reached a $500 million market cap, before plummeting by 90+% to a ~$42 million market cap.

• Critics labeled $HAWK a potential pump-and-dump scheme, an illegal tactic where a token’s value is artificially inflated before large-scale sell-offs by insiders, leaving new entrants holding a worthless, oral sex-themed bag.
• Welch, the public face of the token, claimed she and her team had not sold a single token. However, data from Bubblemaps challenged her statement, revealing that insiders controlled 96% of the token’s supply, Crypto.News reports.

Anywhoo: A lawsuit has been filed against Welch on behalf of 12 individuals, who collectively lost ~$150,000 investing in the celebrity’s meme coin, per court documents.

🪙 Zoom out: In 2023, the FBI received 69,000+ public complaints concerning financial fraud related to cryptocurrency. Estimated losses with a nexus to cryptocurrency totaled $5.6+ billion.

The first round of the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff kicked off this weekend with a bang…that turned into a fizzle, as all four higher-ranked teams – Notre Dame, Penn State, Texas, and Ohio State – easily advanced to the quarterfinals.

The games weren’t particularly competitive. Quick reminder: the higher-ranked seeds in each game hosted their respective matchup on-campus, in their home stadiums.

Prior to the weekend, these four teams were favored to win by a combined 38 points. They ended up winning by 77.

• The average margin of victory in Round 1 was 19 points.
• The smallest margin of victory was 10 points – Notre Dame’s 27–17 victory over Indiana – though IU ended up scoring two fourth-quarter TDs to narrow the gap.

Put on your Alabama Jones investigative hat and take a deep-dive into each of the results here.

👀 Looking ahead…The CFB Playoff quarterfinals take place December 31–January 1. Unlike in the first round, where the higher-ranked teams played home games, the quarterfinal matchups will be hosted at traditional bowl sites: the Rose Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Sugar Bowl, and Peach Bowl.

See game previews + betting odds here.

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BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with Paleovalley

• 📉 US markets fell across the board last week (S&P: -2.0%; Dow: -2.3%; Nasdaq: -1.8%). | ✌️ US public companies announced 327 CEO changes this year through November; that's an 8.6% increase over last year and the highest number since tracking began in 2010.
• 🍏 Apple is exploring a Face ID doorbell and lock device as part of a push into smart home tech, per Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. | 🎉👎 Party City, the largest party supply store in the US, is closing all of its stores amid financial difficulties.
• ⚖️ The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is suing three of America's largest banks (Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo) for allegedly failing to protect customers from fraud on Zelle, the payment platform they co-own.

*From our partners: 🙌🎁 Healthy, delicious snacks for the holidays… Paleovalley’s 100% Grass-Fed Beef Sticks and Superfood Bars are clean, flavorful, and nutrient-packed. Made with organic, natural ingredients and tasty flavors available – perfect for stuffing stockings. Save 30% on lifetime subscriptions or 20% on single purchases.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• ⚾ Rickey Henderson, the MLB’s all-time stolen bases leader, died at 65. | 📺 Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto is leaving the network after 28 years.
• 🍿 Sonic 3 topped the domestic box office, bringing in ~$62 million its opening weekend. | 🕵️ The James Bond franchise is reportedly on ice due to extreme creative differences between Barbara Broccoli, whose family owns the rights to the Bond character, and Amazon, which owns the rights to distribute Bond movies. | ⚖️ Actress Blake Lively filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against her It Ends With Us director and co-star Justin Baldoni, accusing Baldoni of sexual harassment and misconduct on the set of the film.
• ⚽ Netflix secured the US broadcast rights to the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2027 and 2031. | 🏐 Penn State topped Louisville 3-1 to win the school's 8th NCAA women's volleyball national title.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Pique Life

• 💉😴 The FDA approved Eli Lilly’s weight-loss drug Zepbound for treating patients with sleep apnea, the most common sleep-related breathing disorder.
• 📣 Researchers made the first demonstration of quantum teleportation over busy internet cables; the experiment suggests quantum communications may be possible without specialized infrastructure.
• 🏫🤖 Arizona officials approved a new online charter school where the academic curriculum is taught entirely by AI. | 🤖 OpenAI’s new major AI project – officially called GPT-5 – is behind schedule, getting “crazy expensive,” and may not have enough data to work, per a Wall Street Journal report. (More: AI companies are struggling to build more advanced models)

*From our partners: 😌 Glow into 2025 with Pique Life Radiant Skin Duo… Sun Goddess Matcha firms, brightens, and energizes, while BT Fountain hydrates and reduces wrinkles. Pure, toxin-tested ingredients for radiant, nourished skin. Save 20% on Pique Life + get a free starter kit here.

MISCELLANEOUS

• ✈️💥 The US Navy apparently shot down its own plane over the Red Sea amid attacks against Houthi rebels, forcing two Navy fighter pilots to eject to safety, per the US military’s Central Command.
• 🏛️ Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX), 81, who hasn’t cast a vote in Congress since July, was recently discovered living in an assisted living home, per The Dallas Express; her son later confirmed “dementia issues” have kept her away from Congress; she’s set to leave office in January.
• 💰 Congress and President Biden approved a stopgap funding bill shortly after Friday’s midnight deadline, avoiding a government shutdown; the bill funds the government at current levels through March 14 and provides ~$110 billion in disaster relief and farming aid; it doesn’t include raising the federal debt ceiling, as requested by Trump. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

💧 Stat of the Day: The Inn at Little Washington, a three-Michelin-starred restaurant near D.C., has started turning water into wine on a nightly basis. Its new luxury water menu allows guests to pair any of 13 still or sparkling waters with their meals with the help of restaurant wine director Lindsey Fern, who’s currently working on her water sommelier certification (yes, it's a real thing).

• Prices range from $0 for Virginia water to $95 for iceberg water – hand-harvested in Canada from 15,000-year-old glaciers that give hints of "ancient packed snow and air,” per Axios D.C.

🤔 Did You Know? While some dinosaurs routinely spent time and hunted in the water, there was technically no such thing as a marine or aquatic dinosaur who lived in the water. Those creatures, like the long-necked plesiosaur or mosasaur (aka “T-Rex of the sea”), are called crocodiles marine reptiles.

📰 Worth a Read: Harry Potter’s Favorite Sport Is Changing Lives in Rural Uganda → (Atlas Obscura)

☝️ You’re looking at some of the winners from the 2024 Nature Photographer of the Year competition; the winning photo (top-left) features the “holy grail” of wildlife photography – not one, but two elusive snow leopards.

+The clickbait story of the day: Rock Used as Doorstop For Decades Turns Out to Be Worth $1+ Million.

On Friday, we covered how fewer US adolescents are using drugs like alcohol, marijuana, and nicotine than ever before, per an annual survey funded by the US government.

❓ Our question to you: In general terms, how would you classify the issue of drug use among US teens in middle and high school?

• A very serious issue: 44%
• A somewhat serious issue: 28%
• A somewhat low-stakes issue: 16%
• A very low-stakes issue: 12%

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

+Note on sample size: We received 2,107 votes and 224 longform responses.

Francis Apraku, a James Madison High School custodian, recently received the birthday surprise of his life. 

⏪ Let's rewind...Earlier this year, a group of students heard Francis mention that a Jeep Wrangler was his dream car. Francis is a favorite employee among the students, so a group of freshman boys set up a GoFundMe for him shortly after. 

They hoped to raise enough money to buy him a Jeep by their graduation in four years – but it only took a few days to reach their goal.

• When the boys walked Francis out to the parking lot, it took him a few moments to realize the shiny new jeep with the big red bow was his – before he became visibly moved by the students' gesture.

+Note: This story first appeared in a September 2024 edition of The DONUT. It was so sweet we had to share it again.

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

1. Ann
2. Capr
3. Dia
4. Foli
5. Kine

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Start referring.👇

1. Ann = Yearly (e.g., anniversary)
2. Capr = Goat (Capricorn)
3. Dia = Through (diameter)
4. Foli = Leaf (foliage)
5. Kine = Movement (kinetic)