Good morning. It's Wednesday, Oct. 15, and we're covering a power shift on the world's fourth-largest island, a record DOJ crypto bust, and much more. First time reading? Join over 4.5 million intellectually curious readers. Sign up here.
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The US military struck a small vessel accused of smuggling illegal drugs off the Venezuelan coast yesterday, killing at least six people. The incident marks the fifth such operation in the Caribbean Sea amid the Trump administration's crackdown on alleged drug traffickers.
President Donald Trump confirmed the strike occurred in international waters, based on US intelligence linking the vessel to narcotrafficking activities. Additional details were not disclosed. At least 27 people have been killed in total from US naval attacks on suspected drug-carrying vessels since last month. The Trump administration has said the actions are part of a "noninternational armed conflict" involving designated terrorist groups like Venezuela's Tren de Aragua.
The strike followed a failed effort in the Senate last week to limit such military actions. A War Powers Resolution introduced by Senate Democrats, which would have barred such strikes without congressional authorization, failed to advance by a 48-51 vote. |
Madagascar Military Takeover |
Madagascar’s armed forces took control yesterday, minutes after parliament voted to impeach President Andry Rajoelina, who has reportedly fled the country. Military leaders said a council of army and gendarmerie officers would oversee the transition and appoint a prime minister to lead a civilian government. The move ended Rajoelina’s seven-year rule, which collapsed after he tried to dissolve parliament to block the impeachment.
The removal followed weeks of Gen Z-led protests that began over power and water cuts but quickly expanded to demands for government accountability, social reforms, and action on unemployment and educational access—about 80% of Madagascar’s almost 32 million people live in poverty. Lawmakers accused Rajoelina of mishandling the unrest and ignoring the frustrations of the country’s youth. Opposition leaders cautioned that the military takeover could threaten constitutional order.
Rajoelina rose to power in a 2009 coup. The island nation has seen multiple military-backed attempted coups since its independence from France in 1960. |
The Justice Department announced yesterday it seized roughly $15B in bitcoin from a cyberfraud operation, marking the largest forfeiture in the department’s history. The scheme is linked to Prince Holding Group, a Cambodia-based multinational conglomerate.
Authorities allege CEO and Chairman Chen “Vincent” Zhi forced trafficked workers to forge online relationships with victims before persuading them to transfer cryptocurrency into sham investment accounts—a tactic known as "pig butchering." Zhi was indicted yesterday in New York federal court on wire fraud and money laundering charges; he remains at large as of this writing. The US and the UK also imposed economic sanctions on Prince, with the US designating the company a transnational criminal organization.
Americans lost at least $10B last year to Southeast Asia-based scams, with operations like Prince playing a major role, according to the Treasury Department. A separate February analysis found deposits into pig butchering scams surged nearly 210% from 2023 to 2024, while scam revenues grew almost 40%. |
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Sports, Entertainment, & Culture |
> D'Angelo, four-time Grammy-winning R&B artist who helped pioneer neo-soul music, dies of cancer at age 51 (More) | Music world reacts to D'Angelo's death (More) |
> Defending champs UConn top women's basketball preseason AP Top 25 poll with South Carolina and UCLA rounding out the top three (More) |
> Spotify and Netflix announce partnership that will see select Spotify video podcasts streamed on Netflix beginning in early 2026 (More) |
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> Instagram to limit content shown to teenage users by applying PG-13 movie rating standards to accounts of individuals under 18 years old; feature expected to be fully rolled out in the US, the UK, Canada, and Australia by end of year (More) |
> Researchers excavate three Iron Age shipwrecks off the coast of Israel using advanced 3D modeling and digital mapping; discovery offers rare maritime evidence of Mediterranean trade from the 11th to sixth century BCE (More) |
> MRI brain scans show premature babies who regularly listen to recordings of their mothers' voices develop stronger language pathways; intervention could be used to mitigate risk of language delays often associated with premature birth (More) |
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> US stock markets close mixed (S&P 500 -0.2%, Dow +0.4%, Nasdaq -0.8%) as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell hints at interest rate cuts and US-China trade tensions escalate (More) |
> Stellantis to invest $13B in US manufacturing over the next four years; plans to create five new vehicles, increase domestic production by 50%, and create 5,000 jobs at Midwestern plants (More) |
> Walmart enters partnership with OpenAI to let customers search for and purchase products directly from ChatGPT; retail giant's shares closed up 5% (More) |
Fintech 101: Tomorrow's 1440 Business & Finance newsletter explores the development of revolutionary financial technology. Subscribe here for free! |
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> Man who set fire to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro's (D) home sentenced to at least 25 years in prison (More) | Supreme Court rejects Infowars founder Alex Jones' appeal of nearly $1.5B Sandy Hook defamation penalty (More) |
> President Donald Trump posthumously awards Charlie Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom (More) | Congress remains at an impasse over spending proposals after House-passed measure fails to advance in the Senate for the eighth time (More) |
> Hamas returns the bodies of four more hostages after an Israeli military agency warned it would halve the number of aid trucks entering Gaza over concerns Hamas is returning bodies more slowly than agreed (More) |
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1440 Topics pairs staff-written overviews with the best resources we've found, curated in a single place for you to explore. We've added: |
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> Almost 300 new resources last week, including a look at the leading cause of death in hospitals: sepsis. |
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Clickbait: Cats are taking over Cyprus.
Historybook: "I Love Lucy" airs for first time (1951); Sarah “Fergie” Ferguson, the Duchess of York, born (1959); Black Panther Party is created (1966); Wayne Gretzky becomes all-time NHL points leader (1989); Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen dies (2018).
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