Good morning. In this edition:

• 📉 Childhood allergy decline
• 📰 AI fake news
• 📜 History’s obsolete jobs

…and much more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~3.55-minute read (945 words).

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"Success is defined as the ability to go from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm."

–Unknown

For years, nurseries across America treated peanuts and other allergens like biohazardous material. But recent research suggests a new health trend for allergies may be letting kids—and their parents—breathe a little easier.

Food allergies in US children have dropped dramatically since the federal government introduced new guidelines that recommend introducing infants to foods early on, according to a study published this week in Pediatrics.

How we got here: In 2015, a landmark trial found that feeding peanuts to babies could cut their risk of developing a peanut allergy by ~80%. In response, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) updated its guidance in 2017 to recommend early introduction of peanuts—and later, other allergenic foods—to infants as young as four months.

This new method has proven effective

The Pediatrics study tracked ~125,000 children under the age of three across ~50 US health centers, and compared the three-year periods before and after the new NIAID allergy guidance.

• It found a 36% reduction in all food allergies and a 43% drop in peanut allergies once the guidance was updated in 2017.
• The study didn’t track exactly what infants were eating, but experts say the decline likely reflects both the early-introduction guidelines and other factors like better eczema care.

The study also revealed that eggs have scrambled their way to the top of the allergen leaderboard, overtaking peanuts as the most common allergy among young children in the US.

Big picture: Food allergies still affect roughly 10% of children and 8% of adults in the US. But with new early exposure methods, scientists expect to see those numbers plummet across the board for future generations.

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OpenAI just took a swing at the internet’s biggest gatekeepers. On Tuesday, the company rolled out ChatGPT Atlas, a brand-new web browser that incorporates its AI tech directly into the act of surfing the internet.

How it works: Atlas is designed to make web browsing feel more like a conversation thanks to built-in ChatGPT access, which lets users ask questions and summarize articles while browsing.

• Its flashiest trick, called “agent mode,” goes one step further. This feature allows Atlas to effectively click around the internet on the user’s behalf, armed with their browser history and what they’re trying to learn, all while explaining its process as it searches.
• OpenAI’s Atlas browser is currently available on Apple laptops, with plans to expand to all major operating systems in the near future.

Why launch a web browser? OpenAI wants ChatGPT to be the starting point of the internet, not just an app users open when they’re curious. But its new Atlas browser faces steep competition from Google Chrome, which claims ~3 billion global users and recently began layering its own Gemini-powered AI features into search and browsing.

Big picture: Roughly 60% of Americans—and 74% of those under 30—now use AI to find information, per a recent AP-NORC poll.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🚗 Tesla reports lower-than-expected earnings, but beats analysts’ expectations on revenue; profit falls 37% year-over-year, largely due to a 50% increase in operating expenses.
• 🤖 Meta cuts ~600 jobs in its AI division, affecting teams focused on products, infrastructure, and long-term research; though the company says it plans to continue hiring AI-native talent.
• 🛢️ Oil prices rose ~5% last night after the Trump admin imposed further sanctions on Russia’s two largest crude companies over the Ukraine war.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🏈 NFL moves Pro Bowl to Tuesday of Super Bowl week; game will also be held in the same city as the Super Bowl. | NHL signs first-of-its-kind licensing deal with prediction markets Kalshi and Polymarket.
• 🍿 Sony and Netflix reportedly developing a sequel to their 2021 Oscar-nominated animated film The Mitchells vs. the Machines.
• ⚾ San Francisco Giants name University of Tennessee head baseball coach Tony Vitello as manager; it marks the first time an MLB team has hired a manager directly from college without any pro coaching experience.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 📰 Leading AI chatbots misrepresent news content ~45% of the time when measured against criteria like accuracy, sourcing, providing context, and the ability to distinguish fact from opinion, per new research.
• 👀 Surgical eye implants combined with augmented-reality glasses succeeded in helping blind people read again, according to results of a small trial published this week.
• 🌬️ New human clinical trial shows it’s safe for humans to breathe through our butts, or have oxygen delivered rectally in case of emergency.

US, WORLD & POLITICS

• 🏛️ Ongoing gov’t shutdown is now the second-longest in US history, at 23 days and counting; it only trails the 2018 shutdown, which lasted nearly five weeks; Democrats and Republicans still don’t appear close to any deal.
• 🏛️ President Trump says entire White House East Wing will be torn down to build his new ballroom; Trump had previously said his ballroom construction wouldn’t “interfere with the current building.” (Dive deeper: Trump breaks ground on new WH ballroom)
• 💥 US military says it destroyed a suspected drug boat on the Pacific side of South America (near Colombia) for the first time, killing two people onboard; it marks the eighth such strike in recent weeks, with an announced death toll of 34. | Trump admin has reportedly lifted a restriction on Ukraine’s use of some long-range missiles, enabling more attacks inside Russia.

☝️New Delhi’s air quality has plunged into the “very poor” category after recent Diwali celebrations filled the streets and skies with firecrackers for three straight days. The air quality index in India’s capital city hit 360 yesterday, more than 7x the “good” limit of 50.

🤔 Did you know? The word muscle comes from the Latin musculus, meaning “little mouse,” because the Ancient Romans thought a flexed bicep looked like a mouse scurrying under the skin.

📰 Worth a read: Underparenting: The trend that’s challenging helicopter parenting

🖱️ Clickbait: 13 odd and obsolete jobs from history

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Yesterday we covered how demolition crews this week began tearing down the White House’s East Wing to make way for the addition of President Trump's planned ballroom, which will be nearly twice the size of the main White House footprint.

❓ Our question to you: Do you agree or disagree with President Trump’s decision to build a new privately-funded, $250 million White House ballroom?

• Agree: 32%
• Disagree: 55%
• Unsure/other: 13%

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

+Note on sample size: We received 1,201 votes and 216 longform responses.

Can you name the newest country in the world?

⚔️ A Canadian thrift store got the surprise of the century when someone anonymously donated a box of mysterious objects, which are believed to be medieval artifacts over 1,000 years old. 

South Sudan (founded in 2011)

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