Good morning. In this edition:

• 📵 Aussie social media ban
• 🪐 Humans on Mars
• 💔 Relationship-killing “swag gaps”

…and much more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~3.47-minute read (924 words).

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“Deliberately seek the company of people who influence you to think and act on building the life you desire.”

–Napoleon Hill (1883-1970)

Over 1 million children and teens under 16 in Australia officially lost access to their social media accounts earlier today, after a world-first ban officially took effect.

The new law applies to Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, X, YouTube, Snapchat, Reddit, Threads, Kick, and Twitch. Starting today, these sites are all required to prevent Australian kids under 16 from owning or registering an account, or risk fines up to $32 million.

Driving the move: The ban follows a national study commissioned this year by the Australian government, which found 96% of the country’s children aged 10-15 use social media.

• The study also found ~70% of those kids have been exposed to harmful content and behavior, including misogynistic material, fight videos, and content promoting eating disorders and/or suicide.
• ~14% also reported having experienced grooming-type behavior from older kids or adults, and more than half said they’d been cyberbullied.

The arguments

Australian officials say the landmark ban, which lawmakers swiftly approved late last year, is intended to protect children from addictive social media platforms that experts say can be disastrous for their mental health.

Supporters of the move—a label that covers two-thirds of Aussie voters—cite many of the statistics listed above, and also say it’ll boost kids’ social skills by encouraging them to prioritize in-person interactions over online ones.

On the flip side: Opponents of the ban, including some parents and children, say it’ll restrict younger Aussies’ ability to express themselves and connect with others, as well as prevent them from having access to crucial online support.

• Younger folks also worry that if they’re blocked entirely from social media, they won’t have the learning experience to know what’s safe and what’s not upon graduating into an increasingly digital world.
• The ban has also faced fierce resistance from social media companies, who argue it will actually make young users less safe by forcing them to use unregulated apps that push them into darker corners of the internet.

Looking ahead…Aussie gov’t officials are partnering with Stanford University experts to closely monitor data about kids’ mental well-being in the aftermath of the new social media ban.

This includes whether kids are sleeping more, going outside more, or taking fewer antidepressants—as well as unintended consequences like whether they’re going to darker areas of the web.

📊 Flash poll: In your opinion, what should be the minimum age for kids to use social media?

• 11 or younger
• 12 years
• 13 years
• 14 years
• 15 years
• 16+ years

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BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🇨🇳💻 Trump admin plans to lift a blockade on exports of Nvidia's powerful H200 chips to China, in exchange for the US government getting a 25% cut of future sales.
• 💊 Eli Lilly to build $6 billion manufacturing plant in Huntsville, Alabama, to help make its upcoming obesity pill and other drugs.
• 🤖 OpenAI hires Slack CEO Denise Dresser to serve as the AI giant’s new Chief Revenue Officer. | Instacart’s AI pricing experiment found to inflate grocery prices by as much as 23%, per new Consumer Reports and Groundwork Collaborative investigation.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• ✍️🏟️ Indianapolis Colts sign 44-year-old retired QB Philip Rivers—who last played in 2020—to their practice squad following QB Daniel Jones’ season-ending injury. | MLB free agency: Phillies sign slugger Kyle Schwarber to 5-yr, $150 million deal; Dodgers sign closer Edwin Díaz to record-breaking 3-yr, $69 million deal.
• 📺 Pay-TV subscriptions in the US grew quarter-over-quarter for the first time since 2017, fueled by "skinny bundles" and digital offerings like YouTube TV and Sling TV.
• ⚽ Florida State beats Stanford 1-0 to win its third NCAA women’s soccer national championship in the past five years. | Inter Miami's Lionel Messi wins MLS MVP for a second straight year.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🪐 Leading US scientists and engineers publish major new report that builds a case for sending astronauts to Mars, with the main goal being to search for evidence of extraterrestrial life.
• 💉 FDA opens investigation into whether Covid vaccines caused deaths across all age groups; probe was previously focused on deaths in children.
• 🌌 Astronomers capture first-of-its-kind moment when a supermassive black hole flare flung matter out into space at speeds up to 134 million MPH (~20% of the speed of light).

US, WORLD & POLITICS

• 🎓 Trump admin unveils proposed settlement that could soon force millions of US student-loan borrowers into repayment; the deal would force borrowers enrolled in the Biden-era SAVE plan to instead select a new option.
• ⚖️ Federal judge orders the unsealing of grand jury materials related to the criminal prosecution of Ghislaine Maxwell, who’s serving a 20-year prison term for sex trafficking crimes related to Jeffrey Epstein.
• 🧑‍⚖️ Supreme Court hears oral arguments in GOP-led appeal to end limits on how much political parties can spend on elections in coordination with candidates for Congress and President.

☝️ You’re looking at some of the winners from the International Landscape Photographer of the Year 2025 awards, with the top prize granted to J. Fritz Rumpf of the United States.

🤔 Did you know? The launch of Visa all-purpose credit cards in 1961—then known as BankAmericard—was initially a major public failure, losing millions of dollars. But when the card started to turn a profit a few years later, the company deliberately kept this information secret and let the negative impression linger in public, in the hopes of avoiding competition.

📰 Worth a read: Putting pig organs in people is OK, but growing human organs in pigs isn’t. Why is that?

🖱️ What we’re clicking:

• These everyday activities help people of all ages live longer
• Young daters confront a relationship killer: the ‘swag gap’
• How does your salary compare to other jobs?

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How it works: We provide an incorrect stat. Your challenge is to guess whether the actual number is over or under the given value.

• 🎭 50: Surviving plays written by William Shakespeare
• 🐻‍❄️ 10,000 miles: Flying distance from the North Pole to the South Pole
• 🐳 1,000 lbs: Weight of a newborn blue whale

✈️ Fly high, graduate: When single mom realized her flight overlapped with her son’s kindergarten graduation, the flight crew brought the ceremony to him, featuring an aisle-walk “Pomp and Circumstance.”

+Note: This story previously appeared in Positive DONUT, our weekly newsletter surfacing all the good things you don't hear about in the news.

• 🎭 Under; 38 surviving plays
• 🐻‍❄️ Over; 12,430 miles
• 🐳 Over; 5,000-6,000 lbs

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