Good morning. In this edition:

• 🛒 America’s BNPL boom
• 💻 Blockbuster Nvidia earnings
• 🧟 How zombies can save lives

…and much more.

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

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“Victory is always possible for the person who refuses to stop fighting.”

–Napoleon Hill (1883-1970)

Buy now, pay later (BNPL) services were introduced years ago as a handy way to upgrade your phone early, or splurge on a birthday experience.

Fast forward to today, and BNPL has quietly become a budgeting tool for everyday life, with a growing number of Americans using the services for groceries, gas, and other essentials.

By the numbers

The total number of BNPL users in the US currently stands at 91.5 million, up from 86.5 million in 2024, with the average loan amounting to $135 over six weeks, according to Capital One Shopping Research.

• Among those US users, a record-high 25% say they use BNPL services to pay for groceries, up from 14% last year, per a recent LendingTree survey.

Delinquencies are also on the rise. More BNPL users are embracing the “Buy now, worry later” mantra, with a record-high 41% reporting at least one late payment this year. That figure is up from 39% in 2024 and 34% in 2023.

At the same time, most BNPL loans aren’t reported to credit bureaus, creating what regulators call “phantom debt” and forcing US lenders to assess risk without seeing the full picture.

Looking ahead…Analysts say any further increase in BNPL delinquency will likely have spillover effects on other consumer credit products, including auto loans, student debt, and credit card balances.

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The process of slicing up and analyzing real human brain tissue carries some obvious ethical complications for anyone not named Hannibal Lecter, forcing scientists to rely on animal brains to study human conditions—which isn’t ideal.

But a breakthrough experiment from researchers at UC Riverside is poised to change all of that.

For the first time, scientists have grown functional, brain-like human tissue without using any animal-derived materials or added biological coatings.

How they did it: UCR researchers developed a tiny scaffolding less than an inch wide, on which donated neural stem cells can be attached and develop into full neurons.

• Their breakthrough came from the scaffolding’s material: a chemically inert polymer, called PEG, that’s been transformed into a porous, maze-like structure.
• This unique structure enables the donor brain cells to organize into active neural networks.

Why it’s a big deal: Researchers say their discovery will pave the way for better medications to treat traumatic brain injury, stroke, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s disease, and other brain-related conditions. It also reduces—and in some cases eliminates—the need to use animal brains for testing.

Looking ahead…The scientists’ next goal is to scale up their method beyond its current small size. They also eventually aim to take this same approach with other organs in the human body outside of the brain.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 💻 Nvidia reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue in Q3, and provided stronger-than-expected sales guidance for Q4; it also reported $31.9 billion in Q3 profit, up 65% year-over-year; shares rose ~5% in after-hours trading.
• 💼 Labor Department won’t release a full jobs report for October, citing disruptions in data collection stemming from the recently ended 43-day gov’t shutdown.
• 🌍 Commerce Department approves sale of up to 70,000 advanced AI chips to companies in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. | The US now exports more goods to Mexico than to Canada for the first time in at least 30 years, per new government data.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• ⚾ MLB signs new three-year media rights deals with ESPN, NBCUniversal, and Netflix valued at a combined $800 million annually.
• 🎙️ The Joe Rogan Experience tops Apple's year-end podcast charts by listenership, followed by The Daily and The Mel Robbins Podcast.
• ⚽ FIFA reveals the dozen #1-seeded teams for next year’s World Cup, a group that includes co-hosts the US, Canada, and Mexico.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🧑‍🏫🤖 OpenAI is rolling out ChatGPT for Teachers, a new model for K-12 teachers designed to help with classroom busywork; service will initially be free to use until June 2027.
• 🚕 Amazon’s Zoox begins offering robotaxi rides to the public in San Francisco, challenging Alphabet-owned Waymo’s dominance in the area; it marks the first time the two self-driving giants have operated in the same city.
• 🍕🍪 Ultra-processed food is linked to harm in every major organ in the human body, and poses a massive global health risk, according to the world’s largest review on the subject.

US, WORLD & POLITICS

• 🎓 Larry Summers resigns from OpenAI’s board of directors amid scrutiny over his ties to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein; Summers—an ex-Harvard president, current professor, and former Treasury Secretary—is also the subject of a new Harvard investigation into his Epstein relationship.
• 🚢 Misplaced wire label to blame for cargo ship losing power and crashing into Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge last year, in incident that killed six construction workers, new NTSB report reveals.
• 🪖 Trump admin is reportedly secretly drafting a new plan—in consultation with Russia—to end the war in Ukraine; senior Pentagon officials arrived in Ukraine yesterday to "discuss efforts to end the war," the US military confirmed.

☝️ Norwegian photographer Åsmund Keilen snagged the top honor at the 2025 Nature Photographer of the Year Awards for his glowing shot “Sundance” (top left). Judges sifted through a record-breaking 24,781 entries across a dozen categories to crown the winners.

🤔 Did you know? All mammals get goosebumps, not just humans. The process, called piloerection, occurs when tiny muscles contract at the base of each hair, distorting the skin and creating bumps.

📰 Worth a read: Scientists say we can save lives with real-life zombies

🖱️ What we’re clicking:

• Taco Bell’s new fan-designed menu turns secret hacks into official orders
• Each generation's favorite Crayola Crayon colors
• Can weed help you drink less? How well 'California sober' really works.

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Yesterday we covered how the House and Senate both overwhelmingly voted to compel the Justice Department to release all of its case files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

❓ Our question to you: Do you think the DOJ’s upcoming release of its Epstein files will reveal that Epstein blackmailed powerful figures, and/or kept a secret client list?

• Yes: 57%
• No: 25%
• Unsure/other: 18%

Click here to read more of the most thoughtful responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 709 votes and 96 longform responses.

⌚ Timepiece dime piece: See this year's winners from the “Oscars of Watchmaking”

🏈 Watch: Why do NFL quarterbacks say “Blue 42?” The art of the QB cadence

🖼️ Free Photoshop alternative: Photopea is a free, in-browser photo editing software that’s perfect for quick and easy mock-ups.

😱 Relive: 10 of the most terrifying moments in film history

😏 Finance: Short Squeez dishes out finance and biz news with a side of laughs to 200K readers. Insider members get VIP access to Wall Street’s secrets. Sign up today.*

*A message from our partners

Which country has the most volcanoes in the world?

👆 Hundreds of sheep made their way through the German town of Nuremberg on their way to pastures for the winter. This annual spectacle involves herding the sheep for six miles directly through the town square.

The United States, with 165 volcanoes that have erupted in the past 12,000 years

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