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Meta’s layoffs boosted profits. Facebook’s parent company’s third quarter earnings were up from $4.4 billion last year to $11.58 billion, with expenses lowered by 7% year over year—after laying off thousands of employees—and advertising revenue on the rise.
Apple is the latest to raise streaming prices. Following similar price rises at Netflix, Disney+, and Hulu, AppleTV+ will cost $9.99 (up from $6.99), and Arcade, News+, and Apple One will bump up too, taking effect for Americans and “select international markets.”
Donald Trump took the stand about courthouse hallway comments in his civil fraud trial. The former US president was fined $10,000 for the action, his second offense. Separately, disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried will take the defense stand in his own ongoing fraud trial.
Hyundai’s first US EV plant is moving right along. Now a year into construction, the “metaplant” in Georgia might even start making vehicles ahead of schedule in 2025.
Why is Apple being so chill about right-to-repair laws?
Ah, the days when one would have to wait one’s turn at the Genius Bar, silently calculating how many arms and legs it will cost to fix the tiny computer in your hand, now so inseparable from your everyday life.
Well, those days are pretty much still here, but they won’t be for long. Apple went to the White House on Tuesday in support of a nationwide right-to-repair law, a sharp U-turn from the company’s stance just a couple of years ago. The company isn’t just giving in, it’s backing the law. Why? Supporting it is good for its reputation, explains Ananya Bhattacharya. Apple used to be the one that “thought different™,” but cutting out small-time shopkeepers isn’t a good look, not to mention the arguments around price and wastefulness.
Also, cooperation gives Apple a chance to frame the law from the inside. Read the full article.
Quotable: China’s energy demand could peak by 2024
“China has changed the energy world, but now China is changing.” —The International Energy Agency, in its annual World Energy Outlook report, released Oct. 24
Under the IEA’s forecast for 4% annual GDP growth through 2030, China’s total energy use would peak around 2025, followed by declining fossil fuel use and emissions. As Mary Hui notes, the country’s sheer size still makes it a behemoth, and Beijing is working hard to dominate clean energy supply chains.
Get out of the state you’re in
A record number of Americans (about 26%) want to move out of their current state and into a new one, according to real estate firm Redfin. House prices are edging down, but mortgage rates are soaring, and homebuyers are trying to find metro areas where they’ll get the biggest bang for their buck.
Dear Austin, Texas: that used to be you. Nowadays, you don’t even make the top 10 list of cities with the most homebuyer inflow! It’s all about Sacramento, Calif.—then Las Vegas, then Orlando, Fla. See the full list, along with why home prices are falling, in Grete Suarez’s report.
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Surprising discoveries
Candy corn’s texture, sweetness, and flavor are similar to a lot of other candies. So why do people hate it so much?
If a song gives you chills, it might also relieve your headache. That’s just science. Once, we made an epic playlist of 700 songs one study found consistently delivered the chills.
It’s too late for the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. It’ll continue to melt no matter how many emissions we’re able to reduce—at least for the rest of this century.
Deer produce 2 gallons (7.5 liters) of drool a day. That’s just one of the surprising facts a massive research project tracking 1,200 deer around Pennsylvania woodlands has turned up,
A 14-year-old developed a soap that fights skin cancer. While we’re proud of the work we do here, that’s… pretty impressive.
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Our best wishes for a productive day. Send any news, comments, miracle soaps, and miracle climate solutions to [email protected]. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Susan Howson.