Good morning. In today’s edition:

• 🏛️ Congress’ youth wave hits wall
• 🚫📚 School book bans reach record high
• 🕰️ Leap hour replaces leap second

…and much more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~4.64-minute read (1,233 words).

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“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.”

–Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

Gen Z and millennials came out in force ahead of November's midterms to try and shake up the makeup of Congress. But their push to bring some younger faces to Capitol Hill hasn't quite gone according to plan.

Young candidates took a big swing

Gen Z and millennials accounted for 36.4% of congressional candidates this election cycle, up from 23.4% in 2024, per a new analysis from nonprofit Future Caucus shared with Axios. The nonprofit identified 3,918 candidates who filed to run for Congress, a 31% increase from the previous cycle.

But making it through to November has proven much harder:

• Only 21.2% of Gen Z candidates were still in the race as of early September, compared with 30.2% of millennials, 41.1% of Gen Xers, and 44.5% of baby boomers.
• Nearly 33% of Gen Z candidates failed to qualify for a primary ballot, compared with 18.3% of millennials and 9.4% of Gen Xers.

Experience may have played a role. Just 1.7% of Gen Z candidates and 9% of millennials had served in a state legislature prior to running. Nearly 40% of congressional challengers with that experience advanced to the general election this cycle, compared with ~26% of those without it.

Two 29-year-olds did manage to break through: Democrat Melat Kiros defeated longtime Rep. Diana DeGette in a Colorado House primary, while Republican Joe Mitchell secured the GOP nomination for an open House seat in Iowa.

Meanwhile, midterm tensions keep heating up

The Justice Department sued California yesterday asking a judge to order the state to set aside mail-in ballots from voters federal officials suspect aren't US citizens, and only count them once their citizenship is verified. California Secretary of State Shirley Weber says the DOJ hasn't provided evidence to support its claims that noncitizens—who are prohibited from voting in federal elections—are registered to vote.

In Texas, voting rights groups sued the state's Department of Public Safety and secretary of state after a software glitch created a backlog of ~600,000 voter-registration applications.

• The glitch left some residents who registered through the DMV off the voter rolls, raising concerns they could show up to vote only to find they weren't registered.
• But local officials say most of the backlog had been cleared by Wednesday, and there's little risk of eligible voters being unable to cast their ballots.

Over in Georgia, the first day of early voting set a new state record for a midterm election, with the 188,000+ ballots cast on Tuesday marking an increase of ~50,000 compared to opening day for the 2022 midterms.

Looking ahead: Some form of early in-person voting has already begun in 22 states, with another 24 states plus Washington, D.C., set to begin early voting in the coming days and weeks ahead of Election Day on November 3. See your state’s schedule.

📊 Flash poll: In your opinion, what will control of Congress look like following the November midterms?

• GOP in charge of House and Senate
• Democrats in charge of House and Senate
• Democrat-led House, GOP-led Senate
• GOP-led House, Democrat-led Senate

“I sure do love seeing the same number on the scale every time,” said no one ever. Hume Health’s Body Pod 2.0 breaks that stubborn figure into 45 metrics in 30 seconds.

The 3D body scanner separates fat from muscle, with its own readings for every limb. Hume Health reports 99% body-fat accuracy compared with DEXA and 97% for lean mass against clinical-grade scanning. At last, a bathroom readout worth trusting.

Hume AI explains the changes plainly, so you finally see the progress beneath the ‘stalled’ number.

It’s HSA/FSA eligible with a 45-day money-back guarantee. It’s time to meet the body behind the number.

Here are five stats from this past week that made our team go “whoa.” Hopefully you will, too.

🇺🇸💭 The cost of the “American Dream” has risen to $5.3+ million over a lifetime, up 4.1% from last year. That’s per an Investopedia analysis of eight classic milestones: owning a home, buying new cars, raising two children and sending them to college, retiring, paying for healthcare, having a wedding, owning pets, and taking a yearly vacation.

🤖♂️ Men are far more positive on AI than women, according to a new Morgan Stanley poll of 2,000 US consumers. Researchers found men had a +30% net sentiment when asked for their overall perception of AI, positive or negative, compared to a -1% net sentiment for women.

🚫📚 US public schools instituted 11,982 book bans in the 2025-26 school year, the highest total since PEN America started tracking such data five years ago.

📈 The bull market in US stocks turned four years old on Monday. At that point, the current bull run had boosted the S&P 500 by 118.3%, marking the sixth-best-performing bull market since World War II.

🍿🦹 Four major films in theaters between now and December portray tech billionaires as Hollywood villains: The Social Reckoning (Mark Zuckerberg), Musk (Elon), You Can See Everything (Elizabeth Holmes), and Artificial (Sam Altman).

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 📈 Producer Price Index, the main measure of wholesale inflation, rose 1.3% in September, its highest mark since 2022 and well above the 0.6% bump expected by analysts.
• ✈️ Southwest Airlines is overhauling its frequent flyer program starting next year, replacing Southwest’s current two-tier loyalty program with silver, gold, and platinum levels similar to other carriers.
• 🤖📲 Meta announces release of new powerful open-weight AI model, and reveals partnership with Apple to run the model locally on high-end Mac computers.

SPORTS, MEDIA, & ENTERTAINMENT

• ⚾️ Milwaukee Brewers complete 4-0 NLCS sweep of Los Angeles Dodgers to make their first World Series since 1982; Cleveland Guardians beat Tampa Bay Rays to take a 2-1 ALCS lead.
• 🏈 Philadelphia Eagles QB Jalen Hurts is out Sunday due to a superficial blood clot in his calf, which will reportedly sideline him “indefinitely.”
• 🇺🇸 Canadian singer Joni Mitchell, 82, receives US citizenship after 60+ years of living in the States. | 🎬 Zendaya to star in currently untitled A24 sci-fi film directed by Alex Garland.

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SCIENCE, SPACE, & EMERGING TECH

• 🕰️ International group of scientists, diplomats, and timekeepers vote to end the leap second, which has been added irregularly—every ~21 months on average—to align Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) with the Earth’s rotation; it’s being replaced by a leap hour, which scientists predict won’t be needed for 1,000+ years.
• 🦴 ~75,000-y.o. Neanderthal bones found in an Iraqi cave represent the earliest known evidence of a human ancestor being killed by a wooden spear ~75,000 years ago, per new study; remains also exhibit signs of an earlier nonfatal injury that likely required care from others for some basic needs.
• 🐦 Colossal Biosciences says its newly developed AI platform has helped make progress on resurrecting the flightless dodo bird, with its analysis of the dodo genome, now filled to 95%.

US, WORLD, & POLITICS

• 🚫 President Trump cancels plans to livestream the firing-squad execution of the Army officer convicted of killing 13 people at Fort Hood, reversing a decision by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
• 🇺🇦🌐 Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense reportedly says Starshield, the military version of Starlink’s satellite communication system, has been restored to full capacity after officials claimed connection speeds were throttled this week; President Volodymyr Zelensky has suggested SpaceX CEO Elon Musk deliberately slowed his company’s service, while Musk says President Trump is “ultimately” responsible for any limits on speed or usage.
• 🏛️ Katie Zacharia, new White House press secretary, confirms she never passed the bar exam despite calling herself a lawyer; Zacharia, who graduated from Pepperdine University’s law school, says she’s been careful to never describe herself as an "attorney at law."

☝️ Hundreds of sea lions have taken over a road in Moss Landing, CA, occasionally blocking traffic and requiring police escorts back to the water. But the California Highway Patrol doesn't seem to mind playing shepherd to the sea puppies, acknowledging that the warm pavement is the “perfect spot to bask in the California sunshine.”

🤔 Did you know? Despite being closest to the sun and absorbing the most radiation, Mercury is not the Solar System’s hottest planet. Venus takes that crown, with surface temperatures sitting around 900°F even at night.

📰 Worth a read: What are data centers doing? A mind-boggling amount of math.

🖱️ What we’re clicking:

• This ‘Temu Range Rover’ is rattling global automakers (2.5-min video)
• Why are witches always depicted with pointy hats?
• 20 best horror movies from the past 20 years

Better odds start here… CAKES gives back this October. Every Grippy and Sticky Circles bundle sends 30% of revenue to BCRF’s She’s Not Too Young Fund for breast cancer research. Shop the set 15% off.

How well did you pay attention this week? Find out here.

Who was the first modern-day athlete to earn $1 billion in salary/prize money and endorsements?

A) Michael Jordan

B) Tiger Woods

C) Cristiano Ronaldo

D) Rafael Nadal

(keep scrolling for the answer)

🐶 After 35 days surviving freezing temperatures and dodging coyotes in Yellowstone National Park, 10-year-old Jack Russell terrier Luna has been reunited with her California family. The adventurous pup was found waiting inside a makeshift doghouse set up by rescuers, just days before the park's roads closed for winter.

B) Tiger Woods

Tiger reached that mark in 2009, according to Forbes.

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