11/01/2024
Good morning. It's Friday, Nov. 1, and we're covering the state of Halloween, an investigation into Temu, and much more. First time reading? Join over 4 million intellectually curious readers. Sign up here.
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Need To Know
Halloween, by the Numbers
Last night, an estimated 72 million Americans, most of them ages 5 to 14, hit the pavement for trick-or-treating, including for the first time since 1938 in Des Moines, Iowa, where heavy rains Wednesday pushed back the city's traditional Beggar's Night—a Halloween alternative designed to cut down on "hooliganism."
The age-old tradition of trick-or-treating (see history here) has become increasingly expensive in recent years, with Americans spending close to $12B annually on costumes, decorations, and candy. Each household spent an average of $51 on sweets this year, a jump in costs due to a nearly 50% rise in cocoa prices since February (see chart). Over half of Americans decorated their homes or lawns for the occasion, including roughly 30 million pumpkins and thousands of Home Depot's popular 12-foot skeletons, dubbed Skelly.
New Hampshire takes the crown for the state with the most Halloween spirit in 2024 as it hosts the highest number of haunted houses per capita in the US (for an 8.1 on the jack-o’-lantern scale). See a map of the most popular candy by state here.
Germany Shutters Iran Consulates
Germany ordered the closure of all three Iranian consulates there yesterday, expelling 32 Iranian diplomats and leaving only Iran's embassy in Berlin. The move followed Iran's ex*****on of German-Iranian citizen Jamshid Sharmahd.
Sharmahd, 69, was executed Monday after being sentenced to death last year on terrorism charges. Following his 2020 capture by Iranian forces in Dubai, Sharmahd was accused of leading a US-based Iranian opposition group and planning a 2008 mosque attack in Shiraz, killing 14 people and wounding more than 200 others. The US and human rights groups criticized the trial, alleging Sharmahd was not given proper representation.
The news escalates tensions between the two countries, with relations previously strained by Iran's nuclear program and human rights abuses and Germany's support for Israel. Germany halted trade incentives with Iran in 2022, reducing exports to approximately $1.3B in 2023, a 24% decrease from the previous year. Germany is now calling for EU-wide sanctions against those involved in Sharmahd's ex*****on.
EU Takes on Temu
The European Union has launched an investigation into Temu, a Chinese e-commerce platform selling cheap clothes, home goods, and other products.
The EU this year added Temu to its list of especially large online platforms meriting scrutiny under its Digital Services Act. The law, which went into effect last summer, enables the bloc to hold online platforms accountable to EU privacy and safety laws under the threat of hefty fines. In this case, the EU is investigating Temu for three potential violations: failing to block "rogue traders" and noncompliant goods, using an addictive app design to gamify usage, and failing to disclose recommendation algorithms to researchers.
Temu entered Western markets in 2022, quickly amassing 92 million users in the EU and more than 100 million users in the US; its rise in popularity has, in part, prompted Amazon to develop a US-based competitor; a launch date for the platform has not been set.
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Even better? Pacaso is letting you become a shareholder in the whole thing. That’s a $1.3T market opportunity, by the way. Elite investors like Softbank and Howard Schultz already own stock in Pacaso. Now this opportunity is open to the public. Learn more about investing in Pacaso here.*
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In The Know
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> Rapper Young Thug changes his plea to guilty on trial related to involvement in a street gang; plea could end Georgia's longest-ever criminal trial (More) Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Costas to retire from calling play-by-play on MLB games after 44-year career (More)
> Comcast sees 36.5% year-over-year revenue growth for Q3, fueled by NBCUniversal's coverage of the Paris Olympics; NBC's streamer Peacock tops 36 million subscribers (More) | "Wicked" film adaptation projected for $85M box office opening weekend (More)
> NFL star Patrick Mahomes among ownership group looking to bring new WNBA franchise to Kansas City in 2028; Mahomes currently owns stakes in Kansas City's NWSL, MLS, and MLB franchises (More)
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The 'It Card' of the Year
This leading card now offers 0% interest on balance transfers and purchases into 2026. That’s almost two years to pay off your balance, sans interest.
Yes, it’s true, balance transfer credit cards can actually help you get out of debt faster. Transfer your existing balance and pay it down as much as possible during the intro period. On top of that, you can avoid interest on purchases for the same amount of time. Now does it make sense why thousands of Americans like you are flocking to this card in 2024?
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Science & Technology
> OpenAI releases SearchGPT for paid users, providing a search engine powered by its ChatGPT chatbot; product is viewed as a direct competitor to Google (More) | The history of OpenAI (More, w/video)
> Researchers discover defense mechanisms behind the bacteria known as MRSA, which causes antibiotic-resistant staph infection; may lead to new treatments for the bug, which kills 120,000 people worldwide each year (More) | What are superbugs? (More)
> New weight-loss drugs including Ozempic, Wegovy shown to significantly reduce arthritis; trial showed pain reduction on par with opioid treatments (More) | How semaglutides work (More)
Business & Markets
> US stock markets close lower (S&P 500 -1.9%, Dow -0.9%, Nasdaq -2.8%), dragged by Microsoft and Meta; Microsoft's stock falls in worst day in two years after lower-than-expected forecast (More) | Amazon rises 6% in after-hours trading after beating revenue and earnings expectations (More)
> Peloton shares close up 28% after company names Apple Fitness+ cofounder and Ford executive Peter Stern as new CEO; Stern will be third CEO to lead Peloton since its founding in 2012 (More) | Uber shares close down 9% after company posts weaker-than-expected gross bookings for Q3 (More)
> Personal consumption expenditures price index rises 2.1% year-over-year in September, down from 2.2% in August (More) | US average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rises to 6.7%, up from 6.5% in the previous week (More)
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Politics & World Affairs
> Death toll from historic flash flooding in Spain surpasses 150 people as rescuers continue to search for bodies (More) | See previous write-up (More) | At least two people killed after Typhoon Kong-rey strikes Taiwan's east coast (More)
> North Korea fires new intercontinental ballistic missile in test launch, the first such launch in nearly a year; missile—reportedly designed to reach the US—flew for 86 minutes in longest flight recorded before falling into waters east of North Korea (More)
> More than 60 million ballots cast so far in the US election (More) | See national polls (More)
In-Depth
> The Evolution of Día De Los Mu***os
NPR | Staff. Communities around the world celebrate the Day of the Dead festival today, a holiday to remember deceased loved ones first introduced in the US in the 1960s by the Mexican Chicano movement. (Listen)
> Salvaging Shipping History
Afar | Jen Rose Smith. Peter Knego mucks through the world's largest shipbreaking yards in India in search of artifacts from a bygone era: the early 20th century passenger ocean liner. (Read)
> Betting on the Election
WSJ | Alexander Osipovich. An October federal appeals court decision legalized betting on political outcomes in the US, prompting hundreds of millions of dollars to be wagered on next week's election. (Watch)
> The Singular Human Brain
Nature | Kerri Smith. The human brain is over seven times larger than what would be expected by the mass of its body, a major factor in the species' development of highly complex brain functions like reasoning, language, and more. (Read)
In partnership with Pacaso
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Etcetera—Best of October 2024
Editor's note: More than 10 million monthly clicks can't be wrong. Here are the most popular stories we ran in October. Enjoy!
(10/4/24) Water bear riding a worm tops the month's best science photos.
(10/11/24) How the stock market eerily predicts the presidential election.
(10/9/24) Which generation are you in, and what does it mean?
(10/11/24) What's the difference between a graveyard and a cemetery?
(10/28/24) Explicit frescoes discovered in tiny Pompeii home. (w/photo)
(10/2/24) Junk dealer discovers his family owns an original Picasso.
(10/14/24) In world first, two people communicate in their dreams.
(10/3/24) Tiny home for less than $20K available on Amazon.
(10/17/24) Hundreds of mysterious black balls wash ashore in Australia.
(10/22/24) This year's most popular baby names.
Clickbait: Your parents' Halloween costume the year you were born.
Historybook: Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling exhibited to public for first time (1512); Earthquake and tsunami in Lisbon kill 60,000-90,000 people (1755); Apple CEO Tim Cook born (1960); Bollywood actress and Miss World 1994 winner Aishwarya Rai Bachchan born (1973); Football great Walter Payton dies (1999).
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