Good evening. Ancient Greek mythology has made its way to present-day America, as a clash of the titans plays out in real time. Retail giants Walmart and Amazon held competing multi-day online sales earlier this month (Walmart’s “Deals” event; Amazon Prime Day)—and the figures are in.

The chain that sounds like a place to buy dividing partitions outperformed the e-commerce giant named after a rainforest by several metrics, according to a new Bloomberg report:

• Spending on Walmart.com grew 24% from its comparable period a year ago, 6x faster than Amazon Prime Day’s YoY growth.
• Walmart’s web traffic increased 14%, while Amazon’s was flat.
• Walmart’s app use grew 22%, compared with Amazon’s 3%.

Though to be fair: Walmart is starting from a smaller base, making larger percentage jumps easier to achieve. Amazon’s 403 million web visits during its four-day sale may not have grown from a year earlier—but they were ~6x that of Walmart’s for the same period.

The takeaway: Cracks are showing in the e-commerce king’s armor, according to analysts. Walmart—Amazon’s biggest online threat thanks to its sheer size and ability to strongarm suppliers negotiate low prices—five years ago launched its own membership program to rival Amazon Prime, and has since been beefing up its marketplace business, which hosts third-party merchants. 8% of Amazon Prime Day customers shopped online at Walmart this year, up from 5% in 2024.

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Each of the following events happened on July 25. Your challenge is to put them in the order in which they occurred by year, earliest to latest. Answers at the bottom!

• A) Louise Brown, the first human conceived using in vitro fertilization (aka the world's first test-tube baby), is born in England.
• B) At the Newport (RI) Folk Festival, American singer and songwriter Bob Dylan turns in his acoustic guitar for an electric one; the controversial performance is considered one of the most pivotal moments in the history of rock and roll.
• C) US forces launch an invasion of Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American War.
• D) Benito Mussolini, fascist dictator of Italy, is voted out of power by his own Grand Council and subsequently arrested.

Hint: Baby got back last

• 75%
• 55%
• 35%

If you’re among the renters who aren’t insuring all your valuables, check out our friends at Kanguro Insurance. They cover theft, fire, liability, and more at affordable rates. Fully customizable, with coverage on items other insurers skip.

Answer: Only 55% of renters have renters' insurance in US.

Today’s Conjoiner sequence is for all.

Reminder: Conjoiner is an original word game we developed, where each answer to a crossword-style clue gives indications as to the next. In other words: the answers are more connected than a pair of dragonflies during mating season.

The first clue of today’s sequence: “Slogan of the Three Musketeers”...

Note: A (potentially important) clue for today’s Conjoiner can be found at the bottom of our AM send. Just search “🍩 Trump’s AI plan“ in your inbox.

Mini

No new mini crossword today, but you can catch up on all the week’s previous puzzles here.

Crossword

Put on your headphones and plug-in: The sound of music is emanating from this week’s crossword.

• Play it here.

Sudoku

Friday = Try-day. Today’s Sudoku, by a nearly unanimous vote, was deemed the most challenging one of the week (our associate editor, Kyle, disagrees).

• Take a stab at it here, then tell either Kyle or the rest of us to suck it.

That moment when the cosmos CosMc’s align: McDonald’s said yesterday that it’s planning to test specialty drinks from CosMc’s, the alien-themed drinks spinoff it shuttered earlier this year. The test will encompass 500 locations across Wisconsin and Colorado.

With the move, the restaurant chain hungover people everywhere rush to get to before 10:30 AM (11 on weekends) is hoping to jumpstart falling sales and appeal more to younger consumers—particularly Gen Z, who have shown a hankering for cold, flavorful drinks packed with go-juice (caffeine).

• This liquid-focused push involves McDonald’s positioning itself to compete better with fast-growing chains like Swig, Dutch Bros., and 7 Brew Drive Thru Coffee—and potentially entering the third-place space.
• Small coffee shops have seen visits grow, according to Placer.ai, with much of that growth concentrated in longer 10-plus minute visits, indicating consumers are looking for something other than speed.

On a separate note: Are you part of this statistic^ and/or a coffee lover? We’re building a data-driven list of the best coffee drinks in existence, but we need your help.

Compete in the Best Coffee Drink challenge and cast your vote for the GOAT.

C, D, B, A

• C) 1898: US forces launch an invasion of Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American War.
• D) 1943: Benito Mussolini, fascist dictator of Italy, is voted out of power by his own Grand Council and subsequently arrested.
• B) 1965: At the Newport (RI) Folk Festival, American singer and songwriter Bob Dylan turns in his acoustic guitar for an electric one; the controversial performance is considered one of the most pivotal moments in the history of rock and roll.
• A) 1978: Louise Brown, the first human conceived using in vitro fertilization (aka the world's first test-tube baby), is born in England.