Good morning, and a warm welcome to all our new subscribers. In today’s edition:

• 💉 Moderna’s cancer vaccine breakthrough
• 🍿 Amazon accidentally leaks Statham movie
• 🗣️ “Polyester”: Gen Z’s newest insult

…and much more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~4.07-minute read (1,083 words).

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“Reflect upon your present blessings of which everyone has many – not on your past misfortunes, of which all people have some.”

–Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

A personalized cancer vaccine from Moderna and Merck succeeded in preventing melanoma from returning or spreading in a late-stage study of high-risk patients, marking the first successful late-stage trial for a personalized mRNA cancer therapy.

Cancer treatment gets personal

The new mRNA cancer vaccine, called intismeran, is built specifically for each individual patient after they undergo surgery to remove a high-risk melanoma tumor.

• Doctors send a blood sample and tumor biopsy for genetic analysis, then scientists identify mutations on the cancer cells likely to alert the immune system.
• Those targets are encoded into mRNA and manufactured into a personalized vaccine, a process that takes about six weeks.
• While the vaccine is being made, patients recover from surgery and begin treatment with Merck’s cancer immunotherapy Keytruda.

So, does it work?...Short answer: yes, to the unspecified satisfaction of researchers. After following 1,000+ patients who received either the mRNA vaccine and Keytruda or just immunotherapy alone for ~1 year, they found the vaccine combo met the trial’s main goal of extending time before melanoma returned (compared to just Keytruda), while also meeting a secondary goal of preventing cancer from spreading to other organs.

There are still some unknowns. Moderna and Merck haven’t released specifics on how long patients receiving the combination went without their cancer progressing, or how long they lived on average, with more details expected later this year.

Earlier results found adding the mRNA vaccine reduced the risk of melanoma recurrence or death by 49% compared with Keytruda alone.

Investors were ecstatic with the results. Moderna shares nearly tripled in trading yesterday (+177%), while Merck’s stock hit an all-time high (+12.6%) following news of the partners’ mRNA cancer vaccine breakthrough. Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel says the companies hope to have the novel melanoma treatment on the market by 2027.

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Americans may not be remodeling the kitchen, but that crooked cabinet door has officially run out of excuses, per Home Depot’s latest earnings report.

The retailer nailed its most recent quarter, reporting a 5.7% annual increase in Q2 sales that came in ahead of Wall Street’s expectations while also beating analysts predictions for earnings.

Numbers get bigger as home projects get smaller

Home Depot found the number of smaller projects undertaken last quarter rose 1.5% from a year earlier, while bigger-ticket projects fell 2.1%. Customers are also spending more when they visit, with the average transaction rising 2.8% year-over-year to $92.50, even as total transactions declined slightly.

Big picture: The shift toward smaller projects comes as buying, selling, and significantly renovating a home remain out of reach for many Americans. Existing-home sales fell 1.7% in July to an annualized 4.06 million, close to the lowest monthly figure seen this century (3.85 million in Oct. 2023). Meanwhile, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate stands at ~6.67%—roughly unchanged from a year ago, but far higher than the 3%-4% range seen earlier this decade.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🏛️ Treasury Dept. says it will at least double the level of government debt buybacks between now and Nov. 4, sending bond yields sharply lower after they had surged to levels not seen in nearly 20 years.
• 🇺🇸🇨🇦 President Trump delays 50% US tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian imports, after both countries reach last-minute deal less than two hours before the sanctions were to take effect.
• 🤖 Unitree, the robotics firm behind China’s backflipping humanoid bots, sees its shares rise 460% in yesterday’s IPO in the Chinese markets.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🇬🇧 Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, announce plans to move back to the UK following six years of US residency, where they’ll reman as non-working royals.
• 🎥 Amazon accidentally leaks full edition of Jason Statham’s new movie, Mutiny, for ~1 hour on its Prime Video streaming service; the action film is set to debut in theaters tomorrow.
• 🎾 Tennis star Nick Kyrgios provisionally suspended after testing positive for cocaine; Kyrgios, a 2022 Wimbledon finalist, faces a ban of up to four years, though a lighter sanction is expected.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🩺 Dr. Heidi Overton nominated by President Trump to lead the FDA, pending Senate confirmation.
• 📦 Prime Air, Amazon’s drone delivery service, plans to expand from 11 metro areas to ~500 cities by year-end; new areas include Chicago, Atlanta, Cleveland, Syracuse, Boise, and more.
• ☢️ Portable nuclear microreactor from startup Radiant to travel ~1,000 miles from California to Idaho, where it will operate for 150 straight hours without human intervention; Radiant’s first commercial microreactor is scheduled for delivery to US Air Force in 2028.

US, WORLD, & POLITICS

• 🏛️ Dr. David Morens pleads guilty to conspiring to hide federal records related to research on Covid’s origins; the former NIH official and adviser to Dr. Anthony Fauci admits to working with outside scientists to protect their federal funding, amid allegations that the scientists worked with a Chinese virology lab accused of research that may have led to the pandemic.
• 🌏 US military has quietly established a shipping corridor through the Strait of Hormuz to keep oil flowing, moving roughly half pre-war levels at ~10 million barrels/day. | UAE indefinitely suspends all trade with Iran after two reported Iranian ballistic missiles landed in its territorial waters; Iran denies launching the missiles.
• 🫀 Harvard agrees to pay $53 million to settle lawsuits over human body parts that were donated for medical research, but later stolen and sold by a former med school morgue manager from 2018-23.

☝️ SpaceX’s Ship 40, the first Starship upper stage to survive an ocean splashdown intact, has reached calmer waters off Christmas Island after a 24-day recovery effort through rough seas. The unexpected survivor will now be inspected by SpaceX engineers before an attempted return to Starbase, giving the company its first chance to closely study a Starship that’s flown to space and returned in one piece.

🤔 Did you know? The Barbie movie used so much of Rosco’s fluorescent pink paint while constructing Barbieland that it wiped out the company’s entire remaining global supply. Rosco was already dealing with paint shortages caused by supply-chain issues and a 2021 Texas freeze, and the film’s creation of Barbieland ultimately cleaned out what was left.

📰 Worth a read: Mom and Dad’s house is still America’s favorite storage unit. And it’s not just about extra space.

🖱️ What we’re clicking:

• The simple habit that can improve your odds of getting hired
• Why babies’ experiences matter—even if they can’t remember them
• “Polyester” is Gen Z’s newest viral insult

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🎓 Degrees of separation: The 50 best colleges for career success, according to LinkedIn.

🚗 Color me surprised: Is your car one of the most popular shades in the US?

📚 Love reading, but short on time?...20 brilliant books you can read in a single day.

💼✉️ Why 310k+ professional women start their day with this newsletter…Because it delivers leadership insights and productivity strategies normally reserved for the C-suite. The Assist shares career-defining advice 4x per week from women executives who’ve built their own paths to success. Subscribe free to The Assist.*

*A message from our partners

Yesterday we covered Disney-owned ABC’s lawsuit against the FCC accusing the agency of violating ABC’s First Amendment rights by using regulatory authority to retaliate against the network’s speech.

❓ Our question to you: In general, do you side more with arguments from the FCC or from ABC in the network’s newly filed court case claiming political retaliation?

• FCC arguments: 20%
• ABC arguments: 74%
• Unsure/other: 6%

Read some of the most thoughtful longform responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 530 votes and 65 longform responses.

Which European country has the most time zones in the world?

💒 A TikTok influencer and NYT bestselling author received a DoorDash meal earlier this month with a simple note left in her bag: "Your tip is helping make our wedding possible. It means the world to us <3".

Jen Hamilton then got to work making their wedding dreams a reality, showering the couple with gifts delivered to their front door ahead of the big day. 

France, with 12 local time zones in territories across the globe

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