🌎 Scam Central

Last month had the most layoffs since 2003

Hopefully your cubicle is feeling a bit more comfy now. US companies announced they fired 153,074 employees last month, the most for October in over two decades, according to a recent report from consulting firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas.

Record layoffs

October’s losses increase the total number of job cuts in 2025 to 1.1 million—44% more than in all of last year—making this the worst year for announced layoffs since 2020… and it’s not even over yet.

In all, it was an unprecedented month for job losses:

• The nearly 154,000 terminations marked a 183% jump from September and more than triple the number of layoffs reported in October 2024.

Who was hit the hardest? Warehouse and tech jobs bore the brunt of the redundancies, with 48,000 and 33,000 layoffs, respectively. Amazon, UPS, Target, Intel, and Microsoft were just some of the companies that axed employees last month.

Why so many terminations?

Cost-cutting and automation were the main drivers of job cuts, though the report from Challenger, Gray and Christmas pointed to some other reasons for the wave of layoffs:

• The report also blamed corrections from pandemic overhiring, higher costs, and slowing consumer and business demand.

However, it’s an incomplete picture: The government’s monthly jobs report, which is usually the go-to source for tracking unemployment, was delayed again for the second straight month as the longest government shutdown in history drags on (though it might be ending soon).

10% of Meta’s revenue came from scams

This is the best summation of Facebook I can think of. Meta projected that around 10% of its total revenue last year (roughly $16 billion) came from ads promoting scams, banned products, and other “higher risk” content.

Scam central

According to leaked internal documents obtained by Reuters, the $16 billion includes everything from shady investment schemes to ads promoting illegal gambling and prohibited medical goods. Per the internal documents:

• Meta’s platforms show users around 15 billion scam ads every single day.

• Despite this, Meta only bans advertisers when its systems are 95% sure they’re scammers. If the confidence drops below that, it still allows the ads, but charges them more.

What did Meta have to say about this? A Meta spokesperson told Reuters that the company’s internal estimate was “rough and overly-inclusive,” since the revenue generated from scam ads also included “many” legitimate ads as well, though they didn’t provide evidence.

On the flip side… in a 2024 leaked document, Meta said it had “large goals” to reduce the number of scam ads, and it seems the company has somewhat followed through. The same spokesperson said Meta has gotten 58% fewer scam reports globally in the last 18 months, so that’s a win?

ESPN is shutting down its betting service… to partner with a rival

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. ESPN owner Disney is pulling the plug on ESPN Bet after a lackluster run in the sports gambling space, announcing a new partnership with DraftKings to replace its existing sportsbook deal.

Playing to lose

In 2023, Disney and Penn Entertainment—which owns about two dozen casinos—launched ESPN Bet under a $2 billion, 10-year deal, but the partnership never took off.

Despite attracting nearly three million new users using ESPN’s massive brand power, the platform failed to challenge industry giants DraftKings and FanDuel:

• ESPN Bet captured only a sliver of market share, ranking seventh overall with under 3%, per industry analyst Alfonso Straffon.

In an attempt to get back in the gambling game, the network is shifting to a new multi-year agreement with DraftKings, making the world’s second most popular sportsbook the official bookie and odds provider for ESPN.

Back in the game

While the surprising move officially ends Disney’s sports betting partnership with Penn early, that doesn’t mean ESPN Bet is completely disappearing… it’s just changing jerseys. Under the terms of the deal:

• Penn Entertainment will rebrand the ESPN Bet app as theScore Bet, with DraftKings incorporated throughout.

• That means on-air promos and betting tabs will now feature DraftKings instead of ESPN Bet.

• However, ESPN will retain the ESPN Bet brand for its ESPN Bet Live show and related digital content.

Looking forward: The partnership further consolidates DraftKings’ position at the top of the sports betting market as prediction markets, like Kalshi and Polymarket, are exploding in popularity thanks to less-strict regulations.

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The Florentine Diamond has finally been found after more than a century

They mark the first deaths from the disease since 2015. The Florentine Diamond, a 137‑carat yellow gem that had been missing for more than a century, has finally resurfaced, according to the Habsburg family descendants.

The legendary gem, which has long been the subject of speculation, was once thought to be stolen, lost, or recut after it vanished from public view after the Austro‑Hungarian Empire’s collapse.

Where has it been all this time?

The Florentine Diamond has a history intertwined with European royalty and traces back to Florence’s Medici family in the 17th century before being passed along to the Habsburgs, the current owners of the gem.

• It was believed lost or stolen around 1918, when Charles I, nephew of Franz Ferdinand (yes, that one), fled Vienna after the start of WWI.

So, what really happened? Well, the family brought it to Canada during World War II to escape Nazi persecution, along with other family jewels. What followed is fit for an HBO drama:

• According to family descendants, Empress Zita kept the diamond’s location a secret, entrusting only her two sons with its location.

• She then required the secret to be kept for 100 years after Emperor Charles I’s death in 1922.

Now, it has been revealed that the gem was kept in a Canadian bank vault since that day. The stone’s authenticity was later confirmed by Austrian jeweler A.E. Köchert based on its historic cut and other characteristics.

Looking forward: The family’s descendants revealed the diamond will remain in Canada, honoring the country that sheltered the exiled Habsburgs, and that it will soon be put on display for the public to view.

The world’s most famous Christmas tree has arrived

That’s one big tree. On Saturday, the iconic Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree officially arrived in New York City, signaling the start of the city’s holiday season that will see an estimated 750,000 people visit daily.

A festive landmark

This year’s holiday centerpiece is the 93rd annual Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. The bark-covered behemoth is a 75-foot-tall, 45-foot-diameter Norway spruce that weighs around 11 tons.

• Soon, crews will wrap the tree in more than 50,000 multicolored LED lights, and it will be topped with a 900‑pound Swarovski crystal star.

• The lighting ceremony will take place on December 3rd and will be broadcast live, which will keep the tree lit until mid-January.

Why is the tree lighting a thing? It all started in 1931, when construction workers building what would become Rockefeller Plaza chipped in to purchase a 20-foot balsam fir, sparking a holiday tradition that still continues today (watch video).

Some fun facts about Rockefeller Center’s selection process:

• The Norway spruce is almost always chosen for its tall, symmetrical nature, but since they don’t grow very high in natural forests, they’re almost always donated by a family.

• Erik Pauze, the plaza’s head gardener and tree scout, travels to inspect candidate trees and maintains the chosen tree before it is cut down for display. Watch a video interview with Erik here.

• The tree’s Swarovski-crystal star, updated by Daniel Libeskind in 2018, contains 3 million crystals, 70 glass spikes, and shines at 106,000 lumens, reportedly enough to “turn night into day.”

Some other wholesome facts: This year’s tree was planted in the early 1920s in East Greenbush, New York, and donated by Judy Russ in honor of her late husband. After it’s done spreading holiday cheer, it will be used as lumber for Habitat for Humanity.

Catch up on this week’s weird news

 > Researchers have discovered what is likely the world’s biggest spiderweb, sitting at more than 100 square meters in size and home to over 110,000 spiders, deep inside a sulfur-rich cave on the Albanian-Greek border.

 > New evidence suggests the universe’s expansion is slowing down, contradicting the long-standing, Nobel Prize–winning theory that it’s increasingly accelerating.

 > A newly released humanoid robot named IRON, which uses 62 active joints to walk, talk, and perform real-world tasks with human-like precision, will greet Chinese shoppers in 2026.

 > Researchers have discovered a DNA-repairing protein found in bowhead whales that helps explain how the nearly 200-ton mammal can live up to 200 years.

 > The creator behind Tilly Norwood, the first recognized AI-generated actor, says she has about 40 more AI actors in development despite facing strong backlash from Hollywood.