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WEDNESDAY, JULY 5, 2023
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Good morning! It’s summer beach season, and today we mark the 77th anniversary, at a Parisian swimming pool, of the first bikini swimsuit. It’s named for the nuclear tests at the Bikini Atoll because its French designer sought a similar explosive reaction.
In today’s edition, we’re discussing the most expensive new-car market in history, an evacuation of the White House when a mysterious powder was found in the West Wing, and a garden sighting of the rare hot-pink grasshopper.
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Meta Targets Twitter With New App
Meta Platforms, owner of Facebook and Instagram, plans to launch a rival to Twitter called “Threads.” The move brings billionaire owners Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk into direct business competition.
Meta will allow new Threads users to bring their followers from Instagram with them. Instagram has billions of users compared to 250 million on Twitter, so Meta can potentially swamp Twitter in terms of sheer size.
A listing for the Threads app already appears in the Apple App Store, billed as a “text-based conversation app,” and it’s expected to be ready to download as soon as tomorrow. | New Car Prices Soar to Record Highs
Car makers are increasingly targeting the luxury market, leaving just 8% of new vehicles costing less than $30,000. That’s down from 38% before the pandemic.
Kiplinger’s identifies only ten new car models at the $25,000 price point, as new high-tech vehicles soar to $60,000 and up. Experts call it a “war of features” and point to the higher profit margins luxury vehicles offer the industry. Bottom line: “It’s the least affordable car market in history,” said Pat Ryan, CEO of car-shopping app Co-Pilot. | Hot Dog Eating Champion Wins Again
Joey “Jaws” Chestnut ate 62 hot dogs in 10 minutes—nearly 19,000 calories—to win his eighth straight Mustard Belt at the 2023 Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest on Coney Island. (Video)
Chestnut is the acknowledged Greatest of All Time at eating hot dogs, breaking the world record in 2021 by gobbling 76. He’s won the 50-year-old Nathan’s contest 16 times.
Earlier Tuesday, Miki Sudo won the woman’s championship, eating 39 hot dogs in 10 minutes—one short of her total last year.
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➤ A top official at Gov. Ron DeSantis’ super PAC admitted the campaign is trailing badly and faces an uphill battle against Donald Trump. The official, Steve Cortes, called Trump the “runaway frontrunner” for now. (More) ➤ House Democrats introduced a bill to enact 18-year term limits for Supreme Court justices. Two-thirds of Americans favor term limits, according to a new AP-Norc poll, but the bill is seen as having little chance of passage. (More) ➤ The White House was briefly evacuated after the Secret Service discovered a suspicious powder—later identified as cocaine—in an area open to tours. President Biden was at Camp David at the time. (More) ➤ San Diego opened the first of two new “safe sleeping” areas designed to move homeless people off the city streets. The new tent campsite sits behind a barbed-wire fence and holds about 135 tents. (More)
A Message From Your Captain
Hello Flyover readers!
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➤ Atlanta Braves outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. became the first baseball player ever to record 20 home runs, 50 RBIs, and 40 stolen bases before the All-Star break. He stole his 39th and 40th bases Monday against the Minnesota Twins. (More) ➤ Two PGA Tour officials agreed to testify before a U.S. Senate panel next week investigating the tour’s merger with Saudi-backed LIV Golf, but LIV officials declined, citing scheduling conflicts. (More) ➤ Chicago police issued citations for negligent driving to a man who snuck his Corvette onto the deserted NASCAR street circuit after this weekend’s Cup race, hoping to get in a few laps on his own. (More)
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Market Report
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Nasdaq Natl. Assoc. of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations |
13,816.77 |
+0.21% |
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SPX S&P 500 |
4,455.59 |
+0.12% |
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DJI Dow Jones Industrial Average |
34,413.99 |
+0.02% |
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BTC Bitcoin |
30,860.0 |
+0.25% |
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VTYX Ventyx Biosciences, Inc. |
40.30 |
+22.87% |
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➤ All three major indexes closed higher on Friday. The S&P 500 climbed 1.2% to its highest level since April 2022. The Dow rose 285 points or nearly 1 percent, and Nasdaq jumped 1.4%. (More) ➤ Thousands of hotel workers in Southern California went on strike Sunday for higher pay and better benefits. Cooks, housekeepers, bellhops, and front desk agents were picketing in Los Angeles and Orange County. (More) ➤ The best U.S. cities for people working remotely are mostly in the Midwest. Columbus, Ohio, ranks No. 1. Los Angeles and New York are among the worst, due to their high cost of living. (See Top 10 List)
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➤ A federal judge restricted the Biden administration from communicating with social media platforms about content restrictions. The temporary injunction came in response to a lawsuit filed by Republican attorneys general. (More) ➤ Astronomers say they’ve observed the early universe running in extreme slow motion, where time seems to flow five times slower. The scientists used quasars as “clocks” to measure time’s passage. (More) ➤ A photographer spotted a pink grasshopper in his garden, a genetic mutant that is extremely rare. Pink grasshoppers are easy for predators to see, so they typically don’t survive for long. (See Photo)
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➤A gunman wearing a bulletproof vest opened fire in a Philadelphia neighborhood Monday, killing five people and wounding two boys. Police captured the man and say the shootings appear random. (More) ➤ Eight rollercoaster riders were stuck upside down for three hours when their Fire Ball ride abruptly stopped. First responders eventually freed the group from the ride at a small county festival in Wisconsin. (Photos) ➤ Grillo’s Pickles is suing rival Patriot Pickles, claiming the company stole its 100-year-old recipe to sell pickles at Whole Foods. The two companies had been partners before the relationship went from sweet to sour. (More)
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Daily Quote
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“The United States Government seems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth.”
— Judge Terry Doughty in a ruling banning the Biden Administration from policing social media content.
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Today’s Trivia
What’s the smallest country in the world?
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Show me the answer
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