Good morning. In this edition:

• 💼 The 9-to-5 workday is dying, per new research
• 📝 Immigration flip-flop
• 🚗 GM’s quickest car ever

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~4.29-minute read (1,140 words).

P.S. We’ll be off the rest of the week for the Juneteenth holiday. See you back here on Monday!

“I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took an excuse.”

–Florence Nightingale (1820-1910)

The modern workday is no longer strictly confined to the hours of 9am–5pm, according to a new report from Microsoft.

The company’s data, drawn from millions of global users of Microsoft 365's productivity apps (Outlook, Teams, PowerPoint, etc.), identifies a “seemingly infinite workday” with no clear start or finish for many knowledge workers.

• 1 in 5 meetings now happen outside the typical eight-hour workday, with meetings held after 8pm increasing 16% over the past year, Microsoft found.
• The average employee in Microsoft’s online ecosystem also sends or receives 50+ messages/day outside of core business hours.

Increased flexibility—or increased frequency?

Working outside normal business hours can be experienced differently depending on the situation. A separate study from Microsoft Research found remote workers often see their evening work hours as a valuable window for quiet, productive catch-up, but hybrid employees typically experience that same time as a source of stress.

The increase in off-hours work also isn’t explicitly tied to higher workloads for employees. Workers are now more distributed across the US and world than ever, thanks to the rise of remote work, with ~30% of all meetings in Microsoft’s ecosystem now spanning multiple time zones (up from 22% in 2021).

But…At the same time, a growing share of workers report having to work additional hours in recent months as companies reduce hiring, cut costs, and add more job responsibilities.

• Mentions of employee burnout on Glassdoor rose 32% last quarter compared to a year earlier, reaching their highest level since data started being tracked in 2016.
• 63% of US workers said they had recently been asked to take on additional responsibilities, according to a Gallup survey released last summer, up from 47% in early 2023.

📊 Flash poll: To all our working readers—how do you feel about the increasing shift away from a traditional 9-to-5 workday?

• It’s a good thing
• It’s a bad thing
• It’s a little bit of both
• Unsure/other

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Zyn cans at sororities could soon outnumber those at frat houses, if nicotine pouch companies have their way.

The industry is currently working to more widely replicate its success in Sweden, where women nicotine-pouch users outnumber their male counterparts, in an attempt to continue the pace of its up-and-to-the-right trajectory, according to a new Bloomberg report.

• ~15% of women in Sweden ages 16-29 report using nicotine pouches every day in 2024.
• That’s ~5% higher than men in that age range, and a 57% increase from just two years ago.

Across the pond…Though regulations and customs differ, companies are scouring Scandinavia for clues on how to make inroads with XX-chromosome holders in America, where the existing user-base is mostly male. ~70% of Zyn cans sold in the US are purchased by men.

The emerging pathway: Market research indicates women nicotine-pouch users find bright and flavorful products more appealing, such as those manufactured by Kelly White and Lucy, two companies targeted at women. The Phillip Morris-owned Zyn is also well-positioned in this respect—the company earlier this year received FDA approval to market its flavored-nicotine pouches in the US.

Survival of the Zyn-est: As cigarette usage declines globally, the tobacco industry is betting on smokeless. Altria Group and British American Tobacco have pledged to sell fewer cigarettes, while Phillip Morris CEO Jacek Olczak has said cigarettes “belong in a museum.” The nicotine pouch market is worth ~$7 billion and expected to grow ~30% YoY through 2030, according to Grand View Research.

+Note: Nicotine pouch-usage poses health risks, according to experts, including gum damage and cardiovascular problems.

Silicon Valley hasn’t seen this much tension between members of the same household since Erlich and Jian-Yang were living in the incubator.

OpenAI is currently negotiating with Microsoft—a top shareholder and strategic partner—to secure approval for its conversion into a for-profit company, and to loosen Microsoft’s grip on OpenAI’s products. But those talks aren’t going so well, according to a new Wall Street Journal report, which claims OpenAI is thinking about taking the “nuclear option” and approaching federal regulators with an antitrust complaint against Microsoft.

How we got here

The companies are at a standoff over two main issues:

1. Microsoft, which owns an AI coding chatbot competitor (Github Copilot), has access to all of OpenAI’s IP under their current agreement—but OpenAI doesn’t want that access to cover Windsurf, an AI-coding startup it recently acquired for $3 billion.
2. Microsoft is also reportedly asking for a larger stake in the new for-profit company than OpenAI is willing to give.

AI battle lines are being drawn: Startup ScaleAI has seen major customers sever some or all ties following its recent investment deal with Meta, including Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and xAI—while Anthropic's co-founder said his company cut Windsurf’s direct access to its AI models after hearing rumors and reports of its acquisition by OpenAI.

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BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🗣 Kraft Heinz will remove all artificial food, drug, and cosmetic dyes from its US products by the end of 2027; becomes the first major food company to commit to the shift since the FDA announced plans to phase out synthetic food colorings. | JPMorgan Chase unveils new Sapphire Reserve card perks + raises annual fee to $795 (+45%); American Express also to introduce similar updates to its Platinum Card later this year. 
• 📝 Tesla’s robotaxi launch in Austin, TX, tentatively planned for Sunday. | xAI is burning through $1 billion/month, according to Bloomberg; Elon Musk’s AI startup reportedly looking to raise $9.3 billion in debt and equity to cover shortfall.
• 📦 Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says company’s use of AI will reduce its corporate ranks.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

in partnership with MorningSave

• 🏆 NYC restaurants lead this year's James Beard Awards—the “Oscars of food”—with three wins in six major national categories. | Joey Chestnut to return to Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July hot dog eating contest after sitting out last year over contract beef (ba-dum-tsh).
• 📝 Supreme Court dismisses copyright challenge to Ed Sheeran's hit "Thinking Out Loud" brought by co-owner of rights to Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On.” | US streaming viewership eclipses broadcast and cable viewing for first time ever (44.8% vs. 44.2% of TV consumption).
• 🏒 Florida Panthers top Edmonton Oilers in Game 6 to win the Stanley Cup for a second-straight year.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• ☀️ The European Space Agency’s Proba-3 mission creates world’s first artificial total solar eclipse.
• 💩 Researchers identify series of markers in poop that could accurately predict whether patients will die within 30 days.
• 🕷️ Scientists discover first-of-its-kind sea spider species that lives off methane produced thousands of feet below the ocean’s surface.

US, WORLD & POLITICS

in partnership with Kanguro

• 🌍 President Trump is reportedly considering whether to launch a US military strike against Iran; he demanded the country’s "UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!" in a series of social media posts yesterday.
• 💊 US states and territories agree to $7.4 billion settlement with Purdue Pharma and owners, the Sackler family, over their role in America’s opioid crisis; deal still requires final court approval.
• 🏛️ ICE officials told to resume raids on hotels, restaurants, and farms; it reverses a Trump admin directive last week exempting hospitality and agriculture industries from most immigration enforcement. | Brad Lander, NYC’s comptroller and a mayoral candidate, arrested by ICE and FBI agents outside federal immigration court yesterday for allegedly assaulting and impeding officers while escorting a defendant from immigration court.

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☝️ GM unveiled the latest addition to its Corvette lineup yesterday—the 2026 Chevy Corvette ZR1X hypercar, its quickest-ever model in history (0-60 MPH in under two seconds).

🤔 Did You Know? Pluto has yet to complete a full orbit around the Sun since its discovery in 1930, and it’s not projected to do so for another 150+ years (until 2178).

📰 Worth a Read: How do migrating birds know where they're going?

🖱️ Clickbait: Gold is near an all-time high—here’s how much a Costco bar bought a year ago is worth today

🏊‍♂️ British-South African endurance swimmer Lewis Pugh, 55, just became the first person to swim around the island of Martha’s Vineyard. The animal activist completed the swim in frigid waters over the span of 12 days in an effort to raise awareness for shark conservation efforts.

📺 Norwegian TV Station “TV Bra”—which translates to “TV Good” and in this case is not a teenage boy's response to a question about what they're watching—was created by people with disabilities, for people with disabilities.

🌞 Just because it's interesting… Check out this article from Positive.News: Why looking on the bright side is essential to social progress.

+Note: These stories appeared in a previous edition of Positive DONUT, our weekly newsletter delivering awe (and awww) inspiring stories you won't hear in the news. Sign up for free here.

Below you'll find three poorly explained plots. Your challenge is to name the movie that each describes.

1. Teacher shows students how to march + stand on furniture
2. Woman gets advice from household appliances
3. Imaginary friend convinces man to commit insurance fraud

🌌 May the CIA be with you: America’s intelligence agency once operated a Star Wars fan site, a project that eventually ended in catastrophe.

🪟 That’s cool: This website lets you look out through another person’s window somewhere else in the world.

☕ Coffee competition: 84,000 baristas, one champ—inside the battle for Starbucks’ coffee-making crown.

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1. Dead Poets Society (1989)
2. Beauty and the Beast (1991)
3. Fight Club (1999)