2.5M born last week. 1.2M died last week.
Since 1950, over 75 years, the % of unnatural deaths has dropped from 12% down to 5%.
Over the past 25 years, over 1/5th of deaths have been due to a failure of the heart, over 1/10th due to a failure of the lungs, and over 1/20th from Cancer. Zuckerberg is planning on using his wealth to cure all disease. Scientists are working on solving human aging. Others are working on resurrecting animals such as Wooly Mammoth, with the first milestone being a Woolly Mouse.

Myanmar earthquake
3000+ died and 3000+ buildings were destroyed in Myanmar from an earthquake. It was so impactful that a skyscraper in Bangkok (Thailand, 600+ miles away) collapsed. An earthquake of this magnitude (7.5+ on the Richter) occurs once a year and is expected to kill 10s of 1000s and cost 10s of $billions in damages. There’s really no good way to prevent these earthquakes; at best, they can be mitigated through robust architecture and mass evacuations. Japan has forewarned of an earthquake within the next 50 years, so damaging that it will claim 300,000+ lives and cost up to $1.8 trillion (1/2 of their GDP) in damages.

Russia, China, and Belarus
Russia and China both signaled their expansion into the Arctic and space respectively. The Arctic, which houses 13% of the world’s undiscovered oil and 30% of its undiscovered natural gas, is a strategic asset for Russia who is increasing their military presence along key trade routes in the Arctic. China aims to collect samples from Venus and Jupiter and establish research facilities on Mars by the 2040s.

Robinhood’s new products
Robinhood becomes a full-stack financial suite for the retail investor. Robinhood announced several new offerings: cash home-deliveries, a 0.25% portfolio management that blends AI and human input, mid-level estate planning and tax advice, and the ability to book private jets and helicopters in-app. These are services, typically offered to millionaires with $50k in assets minimum requirements, now accessible to those with a $5/month Gold subscription.

Yankee’s “Torpedo” bat
The Yankees had a record-tying start to the season, in terms of home runs hit in the first 3 games, thanks due to a new bat engineered by their coach—a MIT physicist. Aaron Leanhardt, who has been working on the bat since 2022, worked with bat manufacturers to create custom bats tailored to each player. The core innovation comes from moving the densest part of the bat from the tip down to the middle, closer to the contact point. This is a natural evolution of sports, of which the Enhanced Games are the extreme—where doping is encouraged and aims to push medical innovation. “Lance Armstrong shouldn’t have won the Tour De France, but his chemists could have won the Nobel Prize for medicine” – Balaji Srinivasan.

Markets
BYD, China’s counter to Tesla, is becoming a household name. Some numbers to give you perspective:

• BYD’s charging delivers 3x+ range over Tesla’s within the same amount of time.
• BYD has 8.5M vehicles on the road vs Tesla’s 7M, and 20% and 15% EV market share respectively.
• Outside of cars, BYD is aiming to be a battery supplier while Tesla is going all-in on robotics, to the extent that it’s expected they’ll make more money on these than cars within a few decades.

Culture
White Lotus is the hottest show on TV right now with an estimated SOM weekly viewers. The School Of Rock-writer struck gold with his black comedy that touches upon all of humanity’s vices. Playboi Carti became the first rapper to chart 30+ songs simultaneously on the Billboard Top 100, joining Taylor Swift and Morgan Wallen who’ve also achieved this feat.