Good morning. In this edition:

• 🌕 Life on Saturn’s moon?
• 📲 ChatGPT launches apps
• 🌾 America’s fiber epidemic

…and much more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~3.76-minute read (1,000 words).

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“You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do.”

–Henry Ford (1863-1947)

Big Food is facing an unexpected rival: small, nimble startups that seem to know what consumers want before even they do.

• Overall sales of packaged foods are climbing in the US
• …but household names like General Mills, Kraft Heinz, and PepsiCo have taken a hit to their bottom lines in recent months, largely due to the rise of niche food brands with more cultural cachet.

Reversing the food chain

This trend of smaller companies grabbing market share from legacy brands is apparent across a range of food categories, from protein bars, to frozen meals, to “functional beverages” like kombucha, electrolyte packets, and energy drinks.

• One main example is Chomps, a meat-stick startup that grew from $70 million in sales to ~$660 million between 2021-2024, and now rivals established brands like Jack Link’s and Slim Jim.
• The same story is playing out across chips, frozen foods, chocolate, and yogurt, according to the Wall Street Journal.

By the numbers: Startups make up less than 2% of US food, beverage, and household products—but accounted for ~39% of category growth in 2024, more than double their share the year before, per data from Bain & Co.

Meanwhile…Nearly all major food companies’ stocks have dropped over the past three years, compared to ~80% growth in the S&P 500 over the same period.

Why startups are winning

Analysts attribute the trend to several factors:

• Startups are lean and agile enough to respond quickly to changing consumer preferences and market trends, making decisions in ~10 minutes that would take a mature brand ~6 weeks.
• Online retailers like Amazon give small companies the perks of nationwide distribution, without the need for a broad physical presence.
• Smaller brands that lean into social media campaigns and online-first strategies can receive outsized cultural impact for a fraction of the price of TV ads.

Bottom line: Legacy food companies aren’t helpless—they still have shelf space, scalability, and decades of consumer trust. But as long as nothing changes, startups will continue to eat their lunch.

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Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus isn’t just another frozen speck in space—it’s quickly becoming one of the top contenders for finding life beyond Earth, according to new research.

The Nature Astronomy study centers around a salty global ocean, warmed by geothermal activity, that lies beneath Enceladus’ crust.

• Previous research has found that jets of water are bursting from Enceladus’ underground ocean, and shooting straight into space.
• But, according to the new review of data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, these geysers also spit out organic compounds that represent the chemical ingredients for life, meaning Enceladus’ ocean could potentially be habitable.

However…There’s a wide gap between habitable and inhabited.

• Enceladus having water, heat, and organics—the big three elements necessary for life—doesn’t prove that life actually exists there. Confirmation of that fact would require a future mission to scoop up and analyze samples from the moon’s geysers directly.
• But scientists say their research is important, even if it confirms there’s no life on Enceladus—since that would raise serious questions about why life isn’t present when the right conditions are there.
• “It would mean that life needs something more,” said study author Nozair Khawaja.

Zoom out: Enceladus isn’t the only celestial body keeping scientists busy in the hunt for extraterrestrial life. Last month, NASA’s Perseverance rover found a Martian rock with minerals that likely formed in water, bolstering the case that Mars was once habitable. And Jupiter’s moon Europa is another tantalizing target with its sealed underground sea.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🤝 OpenAI and AMD agree to deal that could see the ChatGPT-maker take a 10% stake in the chipmaker in exchange for OpenAI deploying up to 6 gigawatts of AMD Instinct GPUs; AMD stock closed trading up 23.7%.
• 🏦 Fifth Third agrees to acquire Comerica in a $10.9 billion all-stock deal; if the purchase goes through, it would create one of America’s top-10 largest banks.
• 🏛️ SEC reportedly investigating allegations that mobile ad-tech company AppLovin violated platform partners’ service agreements to push more targeted advertising to consumers; AppLovin’s shares closed trading down 14%.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 📰 Paramount officially purchases The Free Press, a digital news site founded by Bari Weiss, for a reported ~$150 million; as part of the deal, Weiss will be appointed editor in chief of CBS News.
• 🏛️ First-ever UFC fight at the White House to occur on June 14 of next year, which coincides with President Trump’s 80th birthday.
• 🏒 2025-26 NHL regular season kicks off tonight; see previews for all 32 teams (link). | NHL superstar Connor McDavid signs a two-year, $25 million contract extension with the Edmonton Oilers; McDavid, 28, was previously set to hit unrestricted free agency next summer.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🏆 Three scientists—two of them American and one Japanese—win the Nobel Prize in Medicine for their work on the human immune system.
• 🤖 ChatGPT users can now access interactive apps from companies like Booking.com, Expedia, Spotify, Figma, Coursera, Zillow, and Canva.
• 💉 CDC accepts new guidelines for updated Covid vaccines that call for patients to talk to a healthcare provider before they get a shot.

US, WORLD & POLITICS

• 🧑‍⚖️ Supreme Court rejects appeal from Ghislaine Maxwell, convicted sex trafficker and accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein.
• 🇫🇷 French PM Sébastien Lecornu resigns after less than a month in office; it marks the fourth French PM to leave office in the past year-and-a-half.
• 🏛️ Senate fails fifth vote on temporary funding deal to end the ongoing US gov’t shutdown.

☝️ The tomb of Amenhotep III was reopened by Egypt on Saturday following 20+ years of renovation. Amenhotep III ascended to the throne as a teen around 1390 BC, and ruled for almost 40 years. The opening of his tomb came weeks before Cairo is set to open its massive Grand Egyptian Museum on November 1.

🤔 Did you know? Just ~5% of Americans get the minimum recommended amount of daily fiber—ranging from 19 grams/day to 38 grams/day depending on gender and age—with most of the other 95% falling “exceedingly short” of that level, federal surveys have found.

📰 Worth a read: The life and death of the American foodie

🖱️ Clickbait: What was going on the day I was born?

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Yesterday we covered the Supreme Court’s upcoming action-packed term for 2025-26, which kicked off on Monday and comes as approval of the Court has reached a near-record low in recent years.

❓ Our question to you: Do you approve or disapprove of the way the Supreme Court is handling its job?

• Approve: 31%
• Disapprove: 62%
• Unsure/other: 7%

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

+Note on sample size: We received 887 votes and 113 longform responses.

🧠 Brain games: Is your memory better than a monkey’s? Find out with these games of memory and speed.

👂 Listen: Big Tech made an empty promise to computer science students across the US

🎁 Looking for a wacky gift? From dehydrated water to tortilla blankets, Weird or Confusing is full of Amazon links to “things that make noooo sense.” (Note: The first option is a dead link)

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❓Trivia: What’s the largest known animal to have ever lived on Earth?

🎓 True or false?…Bananas are berries.

🤔 Riddle me this…I’m always moving but never get tired. You can see me, but can’t grab me. What am I?

💪 Mattel just unveiled four new Barbie dolls modeled after professional rugby players in honor of International Day of the Girl. One standout: Olympian Ilona Maher, who's designed with strong shoulders and a powerful build to reflect real female athletes.

❓Trivia: The blue whale

🎓 T/F: True; botanically, bananas meet the definition of a berry

🤔 Riddle: A river

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