Alex Jones, the conspiracy theorist and Infowars host, was ordered by a Connecticut jury to pay $965 million in damages to people harmed by his lies about the Sandy Hook school shooting.

Those people include 14 family members of victims and an FBI agent who was a first-responder at the shooting. One of those family members, Robbie Parker, whose six-year-old daughter was killed in the attack, was given $120 million—the largest single award.

What did Jones do? For years, he used his massive reach on the internet to push a conspiracy theory that the 2012 school shooting was a hoax and that the victims’ families were actors. Those lies led to death threats and harassment directed at them, the families said.

Jones was sued for defamation in three separate lawsuits, this one and two in Texas. Jones lost all three suits by default because he didn’t share necessary info during court proceedings, leaving only the question of damages open for juries.

The finances of Alex Jones

Nearly $1 billion is a lot to fork over…does Jones have it? Probably not all of it, but he did rake in tons of cash spreading lies about the Sandy Hook shooting. An employee of Jones testified that he brought in somewhere between $100 million and $1 billion selling merch (dietary supplements, books, and survival gear) since the massacre. In a single day in 2020, he did $810,000 in sales.

And that mega-sales day was after his company, Infowars, had been booted from all the big social media platforms. YouTube, Apple, Facebook, Spotify, and Twitter banned Infowars in 2018 after Jones threatened then-special counsel Robert Mueller. But that did not appear to dent his business in any way.

In the first defamation case against Jones, a forensic economist calculated that Jones and his companies have a net worth of up to $270 million. Jones has said he doesn’t have much money.

Looking ahead…the trial for the final defamation suit against Jones will take place in Texas near the end of the year.—NF

Fed officials fear doing too little on inflation. The minutes from the Fed’s September meeting, released yesterday, show central bankers remain very worried about inflation’s staying power. Many officials at the meeting stressed that the cost of taking too little action probably outweighed the cost of taking too much action—a message Jerome Powell has hammered home this summer.

Ex-LA City Council president finally resigns from office. Three days after audio leaked of her making racist remarks about a fellow councilmember’s Black child, Nury Martinez stepped down from the council entirely. The decision to leave office after initially only giving up her leadership post came after fellow Democrat President Biden said she and the other councilmembers on the recording should do so. It also followed the announcement that California’s attorney general will investigate the redistricting that was being discussed when the inappropriate remarks were made.

Pinky and the Brain reboot is coming along nicely. Stanford neuroscientists successfully transplanted human brain cells into rat brains. The human cells were able to grow and connect with rat brain cells, creating hybrid neural circuits (i.e., they worked). This research opens up possibilities to better understand conditions that are currently difficult to study, like autism and schizophrenia. It also creates an ethical gray area: Scientists worry that rats with human brain cells could potentially possess bits of human traits—like suffering and worrying about their follower count.

Justice Clarence Thomas was a Prince fan in the ’80s. We know this because it came up yesterday when the Supreme Court heard arguments over whether Andy Warhol’s silkscreen prints of the rock star violate the copyright of the photographer who took the image he used to make them.

The photographer, Lynn Goldsmith, claimed infringement after the pop artist’s foundation licensed one of the prints to Condé Nast for Vanity Fair. Now it’s up to the justices to decide whether Warhol’s picture falls under the “fair use” exception to copyright law.

So…what’s fair use?

Fair use lets you use copyrighted material without permission for things like criticism, news reporting, and scholarship.

One thing courts consider to determine fair use is whether the use is “transformative,” which means giving the work a new meaning or message, and that’s what this case hinges on. The decision being reviewed by the high court found that Warhol, despite his reputation as a major artist, didn’t transform the original enough to qualify.

Zoom out: While this case is a fight between art world heavies, anything the court decides about the limits of fair use will impact all artists and professionals in creative industries.—AR

No one has been this excited for paperwork since we got our bellybutton pierced at 18. The Biden administration gave a sneak peak yesterday of the application that will wipe away a chunk of your college debt, and provided a few more details about how the process will work.

Here’s what you’ll need to fill out the form: your name, SSN, birthday, phone number, and email. About the same info as a Red Robin rewards account. You’ll be able to access the application via a .gov site in English and Spanish, and you won’t even need to submit any income verification documents (unless officials notice some discrepancies in your info).

Even though the form is simple, the Education Department estimated it will cost around $100 million per year to process the applications. But the process should be quick: One official said loans would be forgiven in “a matter of weeks” after paperwork is submitted.

But don’t ask us for a date. Administration officials said the app will go live sometime later this month and will be available through December 2023.

Unless critics get their way…six GOP-led states argued in front of a federal judge in Missouri yesterday to block the program, and there are other legal challenges brewing.—MM

Stat: Marmalade sales in Britain spiked 18% last month as the UK mourned the death of Queen Elizabeth II, according to data company Kantar. Following the monarch’s passing on Sept. 8, many rewatched a video in which the queen and an animated Paddington Bear bonded over their shared love of marmalade sandwiches. The clip’s popularity prompted mourners to leave sandwiches and pots of the citrus jam in London’s parks in tribute—so many, in fact, that parks officials begged the public to stop leaving anything besides flowers.

Quote: “Even if China got a hold of the golden hen, it won’t be able to lay golden eggs.”

Strict new US export restrictions aimed at kneecapping China’s tech sector are taking their toll on the global semiconductor industry, but yesterday Taiwan’s head of national security was focused on the fate of just one major chipmaker: TSMC. Chen Ming-tong explained that the US would not need to carry out reported possible plans to take over the company’s operations if China invades the island because its manufacturing process is so integrated with global supply chains.

Read: The science of sound that went into a famous concert hall’s renovations. (The New Yorker)

Not just apple-picking szn: Parks that allow anyone to pick fruits and vegetables for free are gaining popularity in the US and abroad.

For your nightstand: The best 39 books of the year (so far).

A ball of bees, a hungry snake...and other award-winning wildlife photos.

Live the life you want. In The Mel Robbins Podcast, Mel shares the science-backed tools she’s built her career around to empower you to create a better life. Listen now.

Brew Mini: “March Madness round, but in ancient Rome” is your particularly mysterious sample clue of the day. See what that’s all about here.

Three headlines and a lie

Three of these headlines are real and one is faker than anything that promises to “detoxify” you. Can you spot the odd one out?

1. Man sues Texas Pete after learning hot sauce is not actually made in Texas
2. Little Debbie mascot “comes out” as gay on National Coming Out Day this week
3. Leader of Belarus gifts Putin a tractor for 70th birthday
4. I made $200,000 last year ghostwriting tweets for superstar VCs

If you love Three Headlines and a Lie, play along on The Refresh from Insider and dive deeper into these weird headlines.

We’re often told to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps if we want to be successful, but is it really useful advice to follow? Watch or listen here.

On Imposters: How comedian and Bros actor Guy Branum built a career in Hollywood despite stereotypes. Listen now.

“How did they get so many followers?” We’ll tell you in Strategy for Creators, a one-week sprint built to teach you strategies from the best in the biz.

What employees want from their workplace changes as quickly as your TikTok feed. Join us on Oct. 27 at 12pm ET for a free virtual event. Register here.