Good morning. In today’s edition:

• 🚀 Earth’s first asteroid mining ship prepares to launch
• 🇯🇵 Operation: Cool Japan
• 📦 The athlete who mailed himself 10,000+ miles

… and more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~4.11-minute read (1,094 words).

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“Just do what must be done. This may not be happiness but it is greatness.”

–George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

AstroForge is on a mission to build a space mining operation rivaling RDA’s unobtanium-gathering enterprise in Avatar.

The California-based space mining startup plans to launch a robotic spacecraft onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as early as tomorrow, in a major step towards mining precious metals in asteroids across the Solar System – and potentially creating vast fortunes on Earth.

Turning unobtainium into obtainium

AstroForge’s microwave-sized spacecraft, called Odin, will head for a near-Earth asteroid that’s believed to be part of an asteroid class called M-types.

• All M-type asteroids are thought to be rich in valuable metals like iron and nickel. But some of them also contain vast amounts of platinum, an even pricier metal used widely on Earth in devices like smartphones.
• Experts say just one 0.6-mile-wide M-type asteroid that does contain platinum would have enough to fulfill ~680 years of global supply.

Odin is just the first step…Upon reaching its ~330-foot-long target asteroid, the craft’s role is to gather critical imagery and prepare the way for a follow-up AstroForge mission, which aims to land on the potential M-type and begin extracting its minerals.

…and it’s not alone. NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is currently en route to an asteroid scientists believe holds several quintillion dollars worth of iron and nickel – or more metal than an album with all of Metallica, Korn, Black Sabbath, and Slipknot‘s greatest hits. Though, since that figure is over 10,000x larger than the entire world economy, the metals wouldn’t actually sell for that price if they reached the open market.

🚀 Zoom out: In addition to Odin, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 will be carrying two key spacecraft headed for the Moon: the Athena lander from Intuitive Machines – which last year became the first private company to land on the Moon – and NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer.

Spencer Rascoff co-founded Zillow, scaling it into a $16B real estate giant. But everyday investors couldn’t invest until after the IPO, missing early gains.

• "I wish we had done a round accessible to retail investors prior to Zillow's IPO," Spencer later said.
• Now he’s doing just that. Spencer has teamed up with another Zillow exec to launch Pacaso, a co-ownership marketplace disrupting the $1.3T vacation home market. And unlike Zillow, you can invest in Pacaso as a private company.

With $100M+ in gross profits and rapid international expansion, Pacaso is scaling fast. Investors like Softbank, Maveron, and more are already on board.

Join them as a Pacaso shareholder and lock in the $2.70 share price by Thursday.**

Japan is trying to hearken back to an era when Pokémon, Hello Kitty, and Tamagotchis dominated pop culture across America and the rest of the globe.

The island nation’s government has relaunched its “Cool Japan” campaign, which seeks to reestablish the creative industry as one of its leading exports and boost the country’s soft power globally.

• As part of Cool Japan, the government wants to quadruple the amount of content it sells in overseas markets to ~$133 billion by 2033, primarily in the form of new anime, manga, and video games.

Driving the move: From Super Mario Bros. to Studio Ghibli to Elden Ring, Japan’s cultural offerings have gained widespread fame across the globe over the past several decades and lured millions of tourists to the island nation.

But, in recent years, Japan’s position as the world’s coolest country has faced challenges.

• South Korea (K-pop, Squid Game) and China (Genshin Impact, Black Myth: Wukong) have seen their cultures become more mainstream globally.
• The rise of generative AI has also enabled anyone, anywhere to create convincing knockoffs of Japanese content, drawing concern from the country’s business lobbies.

🇯🇵💹 Bottom line: Despite these obstacles, Japanese culture is still wildly popular globally. Overseas content sales nearly tripled between 2015 and 2022; American companies like Blackstone and Netflix are investing billions in manga and anime; Shogun is sweeping award shows; and Shohei Ohtani is sweeping MVPs.

Starbucks, the siren logo’d coffee chain, will be reducing the size of its workforce, the company announced yesterday – a siren singing a swan song, if you will.

The cuts will affect ~7% of the chain’s 16,000 employees who work outside company-owned stores (corporate workers); baristas are not included.

The menu is getting a haircut, too. Starbucks also said yesterday that it’s removing 13 uncommonly purchased or complex-to-make drinks from its list of offerings, including some Frappuccino blended drinks, the Royal English Breakfast Latte, and White Hot Chocolate.

• The company has already eliminated iced energy drinks and its controversial olive oil coffees, as it works to trim 30% of its beverage and food menu by the end of September.

📸 Big picture: Starbucks’ moves are part of CEO Brian Niccol’s plan to streamline the coffee chain’s operations following four straight quarters of same-store sales declines, its longest negative streak in years.

Part of this push involves reducing customer wait times by ensuring baristas can make drinks in a timely fashion, even in high-volume periods, and working to restore the more personal coffeehouse atmosphere for which Starbucks was originally known (one move already made to that end: restoring the permanent markers that baristas traditionally used to misspell write names on cups).

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• 💓 Beetroots dilate blood vessels
• 😊 Magnesium helps your muscles relax

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BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 📊 US markets closed mixed (S&P: -0.5%; Dow: +0.1%; Nasdaq: -1.2%).
• 🪙 Robinhood said the SEC is dropping its investigation into the company's crypto unit; the news comes three days after Coinbase said the SEC would drop the suit against it.
• 🍏 Apple earmarked $500 billion over the next four years to expand its manufacturing footprint in the US; the company says its investment will create 20,000 jobs and build a factory in Houston to support its generative-AI system.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

in partnership with Kanguro

• 🎤 The Wu Tang Clan announced “the start of their final tour,” which kicks off in Baltimore on June 6.
• 🎭 Several stars are returning to the Broadway stage this year, including Nick Jonas, Sadie Sink, and Christian Slater; George Clooney is also making his Broadway debut.
• 📺 Lester Holt is stepping down as host of NBC Nightly News, but will remain in his role as Dateline anchor.

*From our partners: 🐶 Pet insurance simplified… With Kanguro, easily file claims with the app then get paid quickly. Also features exclusive discounts and 24/7 access to a real vet via video/web chat. Industry-leading customer service. Protect your pets with Kanguro.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🪐🏖️ Mars once had an ocean with sandy beaches ~4 billion years ago, according to a new study.
• 🤖 Anthropic’s latest AI model, Claude 3.7 Sonnet, is its first to incorporate reasoning; Anthropic says the “hybrid reasoning” model can produce near-instant responses or extended step-by-step answers.
• ☄️ Asteroid 2024 YR4 now has just a 0.0017% chance of hitting Earth in December 2032, down from a peak of 3.1% last week, per NASA. (Why the odds keep changing.)

MISCELLANEOUS

in partnership with NoNetz

• 🇻🇦🏥 Pope Francis experienced a “prolonged asthmatic crisis” on Saturday while being hospitalized for double pneumonia, per the Vatican; Francis remained in critical condition yesterday but showed signs of improvement.
• ⚖️ Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes lost her bid to overturn her conviction for fraud, leaving few remaining legal options; Holmes is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence.
• 🏛️ President Trump selected Dan Bongino, an ex-Secret Service agent and popular conservative podcaster/media figure, as the FBI’s deputy director.

*From our partners: 🫶 Cozy feel, stylish aesthetic, and sustainably made… NoNetz hats and fingerless gloves are 3D knitted on-demand in NYC with 100% no-itch Merino wool. Made breathable and with minimal seams for unmatched comfort. Save 15% on NoNetz with code DONUT15.

A bundle that Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery launched last July that offers Disney+, Hulu, and Max at a discount is stickier than the underside of a park bench, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal.

Per the WSJ: ~80% of the bundle’s subscribers were still paying for the service three months later, based on data for those who signed up between July and September, making it stickier than any of the individual services on their own. It’s also stickier than any of Disney’s bundles as well as Netflix, the “envy of the industry in its ability to keep customers.” The DA-DUM streamer kept 74% of the users that subscribed during the same period.

Overall, bundles have been increasing in popularity as streamers seek to improve customer retention.

☝️ You’re looking at some of the winners from the 2025 World Nature Photography Awards, which drew thousands entries from 48 countries.

🤔 Did You Know? In the mid-1960s, Aussie athlete Reg Spiers mailed himself in a wooden crate from London to Australia to make it back home in time for his daughter’s birthday.

📰 Worth a Read: The Swedish philosophy of lagom: how “just enough” is all you need

🖱 Clickbait: Math couple spent two decades on one problem

Here are five stats from this past week that made our team go “whoa.” Hopefully you will, too.

🤖🏭 There is an estimated 1 robotic worker for every 30 human factory workers in the US, and 1 for every 10 in South Korea.

🛍️ Bankruptcy filings by US retail stores increased by 104% last year.

🧠 Black Americans are ~2x more likely than white Americans to suffer from psychosis or schizophrenia.

🚌 91% of US schools reported experiencing a bus driver shortage in their area last year.

🏥👎 53% of Americans polled in 2024 gave a high/very high rating to medical doctors, down from 67% in 2021; it’s the biggest drop among 23 professions ranked by Gallup over that period.

Yesterday we covered the latest regarding the Trump administration’s new Department of Government Efficiency and its attempt to cut what it classifies as wasteful spending across the federal government.

❓ Our question to you: In general, how do you feel about DOGE’s cost-cutting efforts across the federal government thus far?

• 👍 Support: 34%
• 👎 Oppose: 56%
• 🤷 Unsure/other: 10%

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

+Note on sample size: We received 2,936 votes and 282 longform responses.

🐶 Trooper was once a dog abandoned on the side of the road just hours before a hurricane. He’s since beaten cancer, inspired a new Florida bill, and found his forever home.

🏅 The Medal of Yavin, worn by future Jedi master Luke Skywalker in the first Star Wars film, will be sold at the Entertainment Memorabilia Live Auction in Los Angeles next month. It's expected to fetch between $300,000-$600,000.

🔭 All seven planets will be present in the sky at dusk from almost anywhere on Earth this weekend. Find out how to best catch the incoming planet parade.

💫 Trivia: Which celestial body is known as both the morning star and the evening star?

🍯 True or False? Honey doesn’t spoil.

🤔 Riddle Me This: What comes down, but never goes up?

Our DONUT Dealz page is packed tighter than a jelly donut with sweet, sweet bargains. Missed out on a past deal from our partner? No worries! We’re always rolling out fresh deals, like a baker on a mission. And remember: supporting our partners helps us keep bringing you the daily goods every morning for free.

Check out the DONUT Dealz page to see what’s cooking. 

💫 Trivia: Venus

🍯 T/F: True

🤔 Riddle: Rain

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