Good morning. Hope you don’t have any travel plans for 2028, because NASA is offering a free trip to Saturn’s moon Titan. The catch is that only your name will get to go. The space agency’s Dragonfly mission will explore the distant moon for signs of life's building blocks and bring a small microchip full of names along with it. See how you can apply here.

In today’s edition, we’ll cover North Korea’s crypto heist, a massive fraud scandal in the science world, a new version of Flock cameras, and much more.

— Chase Goepfert, Founder of NextGen News

If you feel like political ads have taken over your devices lately, you’re not alone. With Election Day just around the corner, this year’s midterms have officially become the most expensive election cycle in American history.

As candidates, political parties, and outside groups have thrown billions at voters, total spending has outpaced every other midterm in US history and even surpassed the 2024 election cycle:

Megadonors are contributing the most: The top 50 have poured a whopping $2.77 billion into this election, with roughly 60% donating to conservative causes. Elon Musk leads the pack at $446 million, which is nearly three times as much as the next-largest donor and more than double the combined $186.2 million contributed by the two biggest Democratic donors, George Soros and Michael Bloomberg (see chart).

Since just a few congressional seats could decide who holds the power in Washington, political groups are spending enough money to buy a small island to tip the scales in their favor:

All that money can make a difference… since studies show that a $2 million edge in TV ads can bring in roughly 10,000 extra votes for a Senate candidate, potentially turning a razor-thin loss into a close victory.

The day before Halloween, hackers linked to the country stole more than $6 billion in cryptocurrency from Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange.

Officials are describing it as the biggest digital theft in history.

The FBI attributed the attack (see post) to a North Korean hacking operation known as "TraderTraitor," a group that had been linked to cryptocurrency thefts in the past.

While investigators haven't publicly explained exactly how the hackers broke into the exchange:

Just how big was the heist? To put it into perspective, the 20-minute hack is four times bigger than last year's record-setting Bybit breach (which was also thanks to North Korea) and nearly double the size of every crypto theft that happened last year… combined.

Despite the enormous loss, Binance says its customers won't be the ones paying for the attack:

It may be hard to trace the hackers: Investigators say the hackers are already converting the stolen crypto into Ethereum and plan to shuffle it through various crypto platforms to cover their tracks. However, most crypto transactions leave a digital trail, giving the FBI, Secret Service, and IRS a way to follow the money and try to stop further transfers.

Getting the nutrition you deserve doesn’t need to take up all your time. CookUnity delivers fresh dishes handcrafted by award-winning chefs, ready to heat in minutes. Build a custom menu for your entire week, so you can spend your evenings on your terms—not scrubbing pans. Skip, pause, or change your plan size anytime.

Build Your Weekly Menu

🦖 Meet the only dinosaur that ate fruit instead of meat. I guess not every dinosaur was a fearsome predator. Scientists have discovered a new species nicknamed the "hell chicken," a turkey-sized, feathered dinosaur that lived roughly 66 million years ago. Fossils found in North America's Hell Creek Formation showed that the 25-pound creature had a toothless beak and unusual chewing muscles that are similar to modern fruit-eating parrots, making it the first known dinosaur specifically adapted to eating fruit. The weirdest part, perhaps, is that it evolved from meat-eating ancestors. Researchers believe the prehistoric fruit lovers may have helped spread seeds along the forest floor, which could have helped play a role in the evolution of flowering plants.

🚔 Your car's license plate might not be the only thing police can track. This is probably the only follow-up we could have expected from Flock cameras. A new surveillance technology called SignalTrace can detect wireless signals from phones, smartwatches, Bluetooth headphones, and other devices inside passing vehicles, creating a unique digital fingerprint. By linking those signals to license plates, police can identify and track vehicles even when their plates aren't visible. While the system doesn't read texts or listen to calls, it could reveal where people travel and which devices they regularly carry on them. The tech is already being marketed to law enforcement, although widespread use hasn't been confirmed.

☄️ Mysterious rock turns out to be 4-billion-years-old. A strange pink rock discovered in the Sahara Desert is giving scientists a rare look at Mars more than 4 billion years ago. Known as Teghaza 001, the nearly two-pound meteorite was found in Mali in 2022 and has since been identified as one of the oldest pieces of Mars ever discovered. Researchers found evidence that water altered its minerals roughly 4.1 billion years ago, suggesting the Red Planet had water interacting with its crust incredibly early in its history. Scientists believe the rock could help piece together what Mars looked like when it was still young, offering new clues about how the planet formed, evolved, and possibly supported conditions suitable for life.

Breasts are among the most talked about and medically researched parts of the human body, yet many of us are embarrassed to discuss our breast health openly. 

Allure Perspectives, a new podcast hosted by Allure editor-in-chief Jessica Cruel, spends its first season exploring how breasts intersect with beauty, health, identity, sexuality, and culture. Episodes feature Olivia Munn on the test she says to take even if your mammogram is clear, sex educator Ericka Hart on reclaiming her body after breast cancer, and a Beverly Hills surgeon on why GLP-1s are driving a surge in breast lifts. All episodes available now.

Listen wherever you get podcasts.

Despite consumers voicing ongoing concerns about inflation, high prices, and the cost of living, the economy itself is actually doing surprisingly well.

According to new data from the Commerce Department, the US economy grew faster than expected during the third quarter, a pretty stark contrast to the previous three months.

What helped drive the growth? Mainly investment and steadfast consumer spending. Business investment surged 12.7%, driving more than half of the economy's overall growth, while consumer spending grew at an annualized rate of 3.8%, its fastest pace in over two years.

…a lot of Americans aren’t feeling it. The economy may be growing quickly, but that doesn't automatically translate into cheaper groceries or more money left over at the end of the month.

Regardless, the good numbers are a boon for the White House: With the midterms just around the corner, Trump and Republican candidates are pointing to strong economic growth as proof their policies are paying off. However, the problem is that a growing economy doesn’t necessarily mean Americans are feeling any richer.

One of the world’s largest scientific organizations just made history, but not the kind researchers would celebrate, after it retracted more than 1,400 scientific papers in a single day following an investigation that linked them to so-called “paper mills.”

The term refers to a shady business that makes money by producing and selling fake or poor-quality scientific research. According to the NOAA Library, the companies:

Why? It’s an easier (more fraudulent) way to help researchers pad their résumés, boost their reputations, or meet publication requirements without doing the work themselves.

An outside study found one of the world’s top professional societies, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), had suspicious connections between published papers and online ads selling authorship. Investigators say:

It’s pretty bad: In what is essentially the academic version of paying someone else to do your homework, many of the suspicious papers were published through scientific conferences, where the screening process can be less strict than traditional academic journals.

Credibility? IEEE doesn’t know ‘em: The org sponsors thousands of conferences each year, and its reliance on local organizers to review submissions can allow paper mills to slip suspicious research through the cracks. That risks misleading other scientists and wasting valuable resources, but doesn’t mean flagged papers are necessarily fake. Regardless, the IEEE says it independently reviewed the retractions, which represent only a tiny fraction of its publications.

Looking beyond NVIDIA for your next stock idea?

MarketBeat just identified five highly rated companies worth a closer look. Get the full list, completely free, along with the bull and bear case for each stock, so you can see where the opportunity may be hiding.

View the Top Picks

→ Scientists found that crows can make certain decisions up to twice as fast as humans after two trained crows made visual decisions in approximately 235 milliseconds in a new study.

→ Four NASA crewmembers finally emerged from a simulated Mars habitat after 378 days, helping scientists understand how humans might survive extended missions to the Red Planet.

→ Researchers at MIT developed tiny magnetic implants that track muscle movements more accurately, which could let people control prosthetic limbs more naturally.

→ A giant bird believed to have gone extinct thousands of years ago may never have disappeared at all, as researchers discovered it was simply an oversized ancestor of today's common crane.

→ The Vatican opened an exhibition to display every popemobile ever used, showing how they have transformed from luxurious 1930s sedans to modern bulletproof vehicles.

→ When does Halloween candy expire?

→ Experts explain the secrets to happiness.

→ What do AI models think about humans?

→ Check out the best places to retire in 2027.

Made it to the bottom? We appreciate you. If you enjoyed today's discoveries, send this email to someone who might enjoy them too.