Good morning. Today is National Zoo Lovers Day, which fits pretty well with what we’re going over, since, you know… dire wolves are back from the dead. Also, I would like to mention that starting Friday, the newsletter will be sent out around 6 am ET for you early risers out there.

I hope you enjoy today’s edition and have a great rest of your day.

— Chase Goepfert, Founder

There’s nothing like tariffs to get a good recession going. Global markets worldwide continue to nosedive as Trump’s tariff plans go into effect, with some regions seeing the worst freefalls since the 2008 financial crisis.

Since US President Donald Trump imposed his sweeping tariffs to over 100 countries, markets around the world are reeling:

Those in the retail, automotive, airline, and tech industries also took massive hits as US stocks saw over $5 trillion in losses. However, they aren’t alone… Asian markets have also had quite a rough stretch in the past couple of days.

Many want to cut a deal: The White House's chief economic counselor, Kevin Hassett, told ABC News that more than 50 nations have contacted the White House for trade talks since Wednesday.

While the US stock market might have retreated to its bedroom and assumed a fetal position, Asian markets are under the bed looking for the boogie monster:

One analyst described the drops as a “bloodbath” to the BBC, as the global stock market chaos gets increasingly worse and the tariff war with the US only escalates.

Speaking of escalation… US President Trump threatened to impose an additional 50% tariff on Chinese goods Monday if China doesn’t withdraw its retaliatory 34% levy on the US by sometime today.

We literally got dire wolves before Winds of Winter. Thanks George. After over 12,000 years of extinction, genetic engineers at Colossal Biosciences brought back three dire wolves as a part of the company’s mission to resurrect extinct animals.

Colossal Biosciences first gained popularity in 2022 when it announced its goal of resurrecting the woolly mammoth — although the company has only been able to create woolly mice so far.

Now, the company has brought back the dire wolf, a species popularized by the insanely popular HBO series Game of Thrones, in its latest attempt to bring a long-dead species back to modern life.

Colossal’s newest breakthrough is the birth of three young dire wolves, Romulus, his brother Remus, and a younger female Khaleesi (named after the dragon-wielding Game of Thrones character).

According to Colossal, the brothers are roughly 20%-25% larger than a gray wolf—their closest living relative—and predict that they’ll weigh roughly 140 pounds when they reach adulthood. See a breakdown of dire wolf biology here.

Essentially, they reconstructed the wolf’s genome using ancient DNA from a nearly 12,000-year-old tooth and a 72,000-year-old skull, according to Colossal CEO Ben Lamm.

Colossal’s genetic scientists were able to find alternative genes only found in dire wolves and then modified DNA from modern-day gray wolves to include the ancient DNA.

The embryos were implanted successfully, resulting in the births of what we now know as the three pure white pups, Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi. While the achievement is pretty damn cool, it’s also a “leap forward for science, conservation, and humanity,” Colossal said in a post on X.

P.S. they’re super cute: Check out this video of the pups howling (which hasn’t been heard in over 12,000 years) and a montage of them growing up.

They mark the first deaths from the disease since 2015. Officials confirmed over the weekend that a second child, who was only 8 years old, has died amid a growing measles outbreak in West Texas and the neighboring areas.

The two children, who are members of the local Mennonite community (see here) and are allegedly unvaccinated, are the first measles deaths in the United States to be confirmed since 2015.

Health Secretary RFK Jr. attended the 8-year-old girl’s funeral on Sunday and expressly supported the MMR vaccine—used to treat measles, mumps, and rubella—calling it the “most effective way” to stop the spread of the disease amid the current outbreak.

The outbreak has continued to spread, spanning across the US to Kansas, Oklahoma, Ohio, and even New Jersey. See an interactive map here.

We thought it was gone: Measles was considered to be eradicated (meaning no ongoing, endemic transmission) in the US in 2000, mainly due to the introduction of a vaccine in 1963 and the ensuing public health initiatives.

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What’s better than the Large Hydron Collider? A way bigger one. Scientists at the world’s largest particle collider unveiled blueprints for what would be science’s newest and biggest instrument, the Future Circular Collider. Researchers say it could unlock the secrets of physics.

The Large Hadron Collider (pictured above as ‘LHC’) is one of the pinnacles of the scientific world, but scientists are thinking we can do better.

While an underground, 56.5-mile wide atom smasher might seem like a supervillian-esque contraption, it’s a successor that could vastly improve research and potentially solve some remaining enigmas of the universe.

What else could it do? The FCC could also lead to developments in electrical transmission, fusion energy research, and superconducting materials for medical purposes.

It’ll take a while: Unfortunately, the project won’t be approved until 2028, and even then, phase one wouldn’t begin until the 2040s—at the earliest.

We’ve officially gone full circle. Tumblr was once a social media heavyweight, hanging in there with the likes of Instagram and Facebook, but has since faded into obscurity… or has it?

Today, young people (mainly Gen Z) are joining the platform in hordes, bringing Tumblr back into the game and possibly making it a contender with other, more popular platforms.

At its peak, Tumblr had amassed over 100 million members and was often compared to up-and-coming social media giants like Facebook. However, the platform struggled to profit off of its userbase, and was sold to Yahoo for $1.1 billion in 2013.

So, what changed? Gen Z revived it. The second-youngest generation accounts for 60% of new sign-ups and 50% of Tumblr's active monthly users, according to a Business Insider article. To keep up with the newfound demand, Tumblr has added some fresh features:

Just how popular is it? According to analytics firm Similarweb, the platform is now the 9th most used social media app in the US behind BlueSky, which rocketed to fame as an X alternative.

Minecraft Mob: Despite a below average response from critics, A Minecraft Movie made $157 million at the domestic box office in its opening weekend after analysts expected it to generate only ~$80 million.

Paper Producers: A Chilli’s location in Scranton, PA, will pay homage to the Uber-popular sitcom, The Office. The location will feature decor ripped directly from the show and be decorated as it would have been in the mid-2000s.

Storm Surge: At least 24 people have died as severe storms ravaged parts of the US; 10 deaths have been counted in Tennessee alone. Flash flooding has shifted to the southeast, and governors have urged residents to stay inside.

Goal Getter: The Washington Capital’s Alex Ovechkin broke Wayne Gretzky's goal record, which had lasted for more than 25 years, to become the NHL's all-time leader with 895 goals.

Falling Finances: Following Thursday and Friday's worldwide market meltdown, the world's 500 wealthiest individuals lost $536 billion in value last week—the largest two-day decline in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index's history.

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