Good morning. It's Monday, Sept. 30, and we're covering Hurricane Helene rescue efforts, a stem cell cure for diabetes, and much more. First time reading? Join over 3.9 million intellectually curious readers. Sign up here.
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Hurricane Helene has left a trail of devastation since making landfall last week, killing over 100 people across Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Dozens of people remain unaccounted for; more than 4 million people have experienced power outages.
A leading danger has come from floods and mudslides. In Tennessee, a bridge collapsed and a dam narrowly avoided failure. In North Carolina, entire towns and cities were cut off, with Asheville (population 94,000) largely isolated for days, requiring emergency supplies to be airlifted in. Atlanta witnessed the heaviest downfall of rain in a 48-hour period in its history. Dozens of people across multiple states have been rescued by helicopter. See photos of the storm's impact here.
Part of the impact can be explained by the storm's relatively large width (see previous write-up). As Helene was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone, the system continued to cause storm surges and historic floodwaters.
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An Israeli airstrike killed Hezbollah’s longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, over the weekend. The strike involved 80 tons of bunker-buster bombs, killing Nasrallah at a meeting of senior leaders below residential buildings south of the Lebanese capital of Beirut.
The 64-year-old Nasrallah helmed the group, designated a terrorist organization by the US, for more than 30 years. During that time, he was seen as a spiritual leader for Hezbollah’s supporters (up to roughly one-third of Lebanon's population) and a pivotal player in the Iranian proxy group's transformation into a regional power (see overview). The group led the 2006 war against Israel and has carried out ongoing strikes across the Lebanon-Israel border since Oct. 8—a show of support for Hamas following its Oct. 7 attacks and amid Israel’s war in Gaza.
Israel has significantly expanded attacks across the region, killing other top Hezbollah commanders (see list) over the past week. It also struck Iran-backed Houthi rebels yesterday, its second such strike in Yemen.
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A stem cell treatment has reversed a 25-year-old woman's Type 1 diabetes, a study last week found. The case marks the first in which a patient with Type 1 was treated using cells from her own body. Read the study here.
Researchers at Beijing's Peking University extracted patient cells and reverted them to their pluripotent state (see 101, w/video). They then developed these cells into the insulin-producing islet cells responsible for turning glucose into energy—a process attacked by the body when a person has Type 1 diabetes. The team tested the cells in mice and primates for safety. Then, in June 2023, they reinjected 1.5 million cells into the patient's abdomen. Two and a half months later, the patient was producing enough insulin on her own to forgo other treatments.
Roughly half a billion people—including 38.4 million Americans—live with a form of diabetes, representing roughly 10% of the global adult population. See more here (w/video).
Editor's note: In Saturday's newsletter, we mistakenly referred to NYC Mayor Eric Adams (D) as a Republican. He is a Democrat. We apologize for the error and thank you to readers for pointing it out.
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In partnership with EnergyX
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Supercharging The Lithium Supply Chain
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Each EV battery needs ~70 kg of lithium—10,000x the amount of a smartphone.
With over 1 billion EVs needing to be on the road by 2050, current lithium
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When EnergyX revealed that their technology could extract up to 300% more
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companies—like GM—and invest on the ground floor as they’re set to unlock a
massive lithium supply. EnergyX invites you to join them as a shareholder before Thursday’s deadline.*
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Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
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> MLB regular season wraps with postseason kicking off tomorrow; see playoff bracket (More) | Chicago White Sox set modern record for most losses in a season with 121 (More)
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> YouTube blocks content by Adele, Green Day, Bob Dylan, and more amid legal dispute with a performing rights organization (More)
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> Kris Kristofferson, Grammy- and Golden Globe-winning country music legend and actor, dies at age 88 (More) | Drake Hogestyn, longtime "Days of Our Lives" star, dies at age 70 (More) | John Ashton, actor best known for "Beverly Hills Cop" franchise, dies at age 76 (More)
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In partnership with The Ascent
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> California passes law expanding its consumer privacy laws to give users of brain-computer interface devices ownership over their neurological data (More) | California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) vetoes AI safety bill, siding with tech execs (More)
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> Geologists discover new subduction zone—an area where one tectonic plate slides underneath another—in the Eastern Pacific (More)
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> SpaceX launches mission that will eventually return pair of astronauts stranded on the International Space Station following malfunction of their Boeing vehicle; return trip slated for February (More) | See previous write-up (More)
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> US stock markets close mixed Friday (S&P 500 -0.1%, Dow +0.3%, Nasdaq -0.4%), with the Dow closing at a record high; key inflation data from August gives traders hope for additional interest cuts this year (More)
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> Government-facilitated talks between Boeing and union workers collapse, with no dates scheduled for further discussions; total US gross domestic product estimated to have dropped by $1B since walkout of 33,000 production workers began this month (More)
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> WeightWatchers CEO Sima Sistani departs amid 90% drop in share value over the past year; Sistani had spearheaded $106M acquisition of telehealth company prescribing weight-loss drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy (More)
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> Austria's nationalist-populist Freedom Party leads in yesterday's parliamentary elections with nearly 30% of the vote, the first win of its kind since WWII; remaining parties are in negotiations to form a coalition without it (More)
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> Nepal flooding and landslides leave at least 148 people dead, with capital of Kathmandu hardest hit (More)
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> The US says its airstrikes in Syria this month killed 37 al-Qaeda- and ISIS-affiliated militants, including two senior operatives (More)
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In partnership with EnergyX
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How GM Is Securing Its Lithium Supply
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