Two months after he led a revolt against the Kremlin, entrepreneurial warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s mercenary-muscle-turned-enemy, appears to have died in a plane crash north of Moscow.

Prigozhin is listed on the private jet’s flight manifest, along with three crew members and six other passengers, all of whom were killed in the crash, Russian authorities said. US officials have not yet been able to verify this, and one person close to the Kremlin said Prigozhin was known to sometimes take a secondary plane out of caution.

Was Putin behind this?

Unconfirmed reports on Telegram indicate that Russian forces shot the downed plane out of the sky, and an Associated Press analysis of videos of the plane said they appeared consistent with a mid-flight explosion. If true, it would align with widespread theories that Putin was not done punishing Prigozhin for trying to overtake Moscow in June with his guns-for-hire army, the Wagner Group—which has played a major role in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—before he took an exile deal that quickly ended the attempted mutiny.

Christo Grozev, a journalist who investigates alleged Russian plots—and correctly predicted Prigozhin’s attempted coup—told the Financial Times a couple of weeks ago, “In six months Prigozhin will either be dead or there will be a second coup.” Grozev’s team helped uncover the attempted assassination via nerve agent of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Last month, President Biden nodded at the possibility of a similar outcome for Prigozhin, saying, “If I were he, I’d be careful what I ate.”

Suspicious circumstances: More than a dozen high-profile critics of the Russian government have died in recent years from apparent poisonings, defenestrations, or shootings that Russian authorities tended to investigate as suicides.—ML

Tech startup with traction: Turn your phone from a cost to an income source. Intriguing idea, isn’t it? This is why eyes are on the launch of Mode’s pre-IPO offering. The latest in a series of impressive raises among smartphone innovators, likely spurred by Apple’s recent $3t valuation.

Mode saw 150x revenue growth from 2019 to 2022, a leap that has made them one of America’s fastest-growing companies. EarnPhone, a budget smartphone that’s helped consumers earn and save $150m+ for activities like listening to music, playing games, and...even charging their devices.

Over 11k investors already acquired shares—and tomorrow is the last day to get the 200% bonus stock offer. Claim your exclusive 200% bonus: $0.16/share .

The GOP had a primary debate without front-runner Donald Trump. They say the parties you don’t attend are the most important, and former President Trump loomed large over this one after deciding to skip it in favor of releasing a pre-taped interview with Tucker Carlson on X, saying he didn’t want to be harassed by “people that shouldn’t even be running for president.” Meanwhile, the eight candidates on stage had to decide how much to criticize him (and risk getting booed, like Chris Christie was). All but one, Arkansas’s Asa Hutchinson, vowed to support Trump, who is facing multiple indictments, if he becomes the nominee—even if he’s convicted. The candidates also took swipes at each other, like Vivek Ramaswamy memorably calling Florida’s Ron DeSantis a “super PAC puppet.”

Abercrombie’s stock popped like its collars. Abercrombie & Fitch’s 21st-century reinvention keeps picking up steam. Shares shot up 24% after the clothing retailer reported monster sales for Q2 and its CEO asserted, “We are no longer a jeans and T-shirt brand. We certainly are a lifestyle brand today.” If only that were still true for Peloton, which continued its spiral into a financial black hole after losing 29,000 subscribers last quarter. At Peloton’s peak, its share price was more than $167—yesterday, its stock sank to an all-time low of $5.41.

A paralyzed woman was able to speak again thanks to AI. Ann Johnson stopped being able to talk after suffering a severe stroke 18 years ago. But a new study in Nature revealed she could speak again thanks to a brain implant and AI technology that allowed scientists to decode her brain signals and represent them as an avatar speaking words on a computer screen. The triumph, a world first, raises the possibility that brain-computer-interfaces and AI can work together to help people who’ve lost their speech capabilities regain verbal communication.

India spent less money to land a spacecraft on the moon than Warner Bros. spent to make Gravity.

With a reported budget of just $75 million, India’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft successfully landed on the moon’s south pole yesterday, making India the first country to reach the unexplored terrain after a Russian spacecraft crashed in the same pursuit earlier this week. Its rover will rove in hopes of locating a water supply that is easily accessible—a necessity for more advanced and long-term missions to space.

The landing instantly became an immense source of national pride and signifies India’s prowess in launching high-quality moon missions with a Kirkland-level price tag.

• The Indian Space Research Organization, which launched Chandrayaan-3, had a budget of less than $1.5 billion last fiscal year. By comparison, NASA currently has over $34 billion in budgetary resources.
• India’s $6 billion private space industry, filled with space tech startups inspired by companies like SpaceX, is expected to triple over the next two years.

One for the books: Prayers were held across India ahead of the momentous landing, which 7.5 million people tuned in to watch on a YouTube livestream as the country joined the exclusive club of just three other nations that have successfully landed on the moon.—CC

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People in the Midwest are welcoming the pumpkin spice latte back by slurping it in 100+ degree weather because fall starts when Starbucks decides. The PSL—now in its 20th year of being as synonymous with autumn as billowy scarves and going brunette—and the rest of the Starbucks seasonal fall menu went live today.

The iconic PSL will be joined by new menu items, including the Iced Pumpkin Cream Chai Tea Latte and the Iced Apple Crisp Oatmilk Shaken Espresso. The fall newbies highlight two industry trends:

1. Everyone wants an iced coffee. Both new drinks are, by default, served over ice, meaning three out of five of the Starbucks fall drinks are intended to be cold instead of hot. Five years ago, cold drinks accounted for about 50% of all the company’s beverage sales—now they’ve jumped to 75%.
2. R&D is watching TikTok. The Iced Pumpkin Cream Chai Tea Latte took inspiration from a popular customization by TikTokers, who ordered from the coffee chain’s secret menu. And Starbucks isn’t the only chain getting its best ideas from 90-second videos: Chipotle added a new menu item to accommodate two quesadilla “hacks” that went viral on TikTok.

No need to spike your drink…the coffee giant is offering Pumpkin Spice Espresso Martinis at its posh Reserve locations in major global cities.—MM

Stat: Nothing brings Americans from different backgrounds together quite like half-priced apps. A new study found that the most socioeconomically diverse places in the US are chain restaurants like Applebee’s and Olive Garden, whose affordable delicacies enable cross-class mingling more than civic spaces such as schools, churches, and parks. The study also found that dollar stores and local pharmacies like CVS widen social isolation among high- and low-income people.

Quote: “We’re going to open up preorders the second that it comes out.”

Former President Trump is expected to get his mug shot taken today when he’s booked in Georgia, and Etsy sellers are ready to pounce on this once-in-a-lifetime merch opportunity. Etsy shop owner Lauren Koontz told Semafor she’s already prepared designs and has been speaking to manufacturers about fulfilling orders as soon as the photo is made public. We’re not sure it’ll be plastered on college dorm walls like Frank Sinatra’s mug shot, but Trump’s “would instantly become one of the most famous photos in the world,” Semafor writes. Here’s Rudy Giuliani’s from yesterday.

Read: A cocaine warlord is saving the Amazon with his campaign of terror. (Bloomberg)

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Three headlines and a lie

Three of these headlines are real and one is faker than the butter cow at the Iowa State Fair. Can you spot the odd one out?

1. Forget the fruit. Your keyboard could be attracting gnats
2. A rare spotless giraffe was born in a Tennessee zoo
3. Tickets to Fyre Festival 2 are on sale now
4. Visitors to sunflower fields urged to stop posing naked for photo shoots

Your keyboard is not attracting gnats, as far as we know.

Word of the Day

Today’s Word of the Day is: defenestration, which means “a throwing of a person or thing out of a window.” Thanks to dozens of you who submitted the word we all remember from European history class.

Submit another Word of the Day here.