Our condolences to anyone with an iPhone 14: You no longer own the newest Apple phone.

And you’ll need a different charger if you plan to snag the next-gen iPhone 15, 15 Plus, 15 Pro, or 15 Pro Max the gadget-maker unveiled yesterday. The shiny new iPhones and updated AirPods are juiced via USB-C port, long standard for MacBooks and virtually all other smartphones.

• The change puts Apple in compliance with the EU common charger directive mandating that most consumer electronics be USB-C compatible starting in 2024.
• The rule is intended for customers to avoid the peskiness (and e-waste) of buying a new charger every time they switch device brands.

Innovation or rebranding?

As with every iPhone release, tech nerddom is split over whether the evolution is impressive or superficial. If you’re considering shelling out at least $799 for the new phone, here’s what to know:

• In addition to being speedier than its predecessors, the 15s ditched the mute switch on the side.
• The latest models boast a snazzier camera and enhanced bathroom mirror selfie Portrait mode. The titanium-encased upscale iPhone 15 Pros come with 3D video capabilities that’ll be available at the end of the year, and the 15 Pro Max has ultra-potent 5x zoom to see every last one of your pores.

If you’re feeling extra splurgy, the product drop also featured new Apple Watches that let users end calls or start a timer by tapping two fingers together.

Big picture: In recent years, Apple has expanded its global market share over smartphone rivals like Samsung and Huawei despite its steep prices. Almost nine in 10 US teens are iPhone users, per Piper Sandler, partially because they convinced themselves green text bubbles are uncool.

But it’s not all rosy…China’s moves to restrict iPhone use among government employees and word of Huawei’s new 5G-speed smartphone have been giving Apple investors the heebie-jeebies.—SK

It’s a road map for everything your money touches, helping you manage what you earn to live the life you want.

The benefit? Americans who work with a financial planner are 3x happier than those who don’t.* Time to say goodbye to sleepless nights spent worrying over the money moves you’re making (or not making).

Luckily for you, Facet is here to help. A membership comes with your own financial planning expert who will give you 1-on-1, unbiased advice, always keeping your Benjamins in tip-top shape.

Oh, and you can get a membership for a flat, transparent fee. Best of all, it won’t go up when your money grows. The fee can even pay for itself!**

Talk to a Facet expert today.

More than 5,000 people feared dead in Libya floods. Thousands more are still missing after torrential rains from Cyclone Daniel caused two dams to burst, unleashing catastrophic floods on the coastal city of Derna and nearby areas. Libya’s split government is complicating the response to the storm: The area in eastern Libya affected by the floods is controlled by a militia leader supported by the Kremlin and is not recognized by the United Nations. Analysts are calling it Libya’s “Katrina moment.”

Kevin McCarthy calls for impeachment inquiry into President Biden. The Republican Speaker of the House bowed to pressure from far-right members of his party and directed lawmakers to open a formal impeachment inquiry into the president’s purported role in his family’s foreign business dealings. In a break with tradition, the speaker called for the investigation without a House vote or any evidence of wrongdoing. Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries responded by calling the inquiry “reprehensible” and “a political revenge tour that lacks any factual or constitutional basis.”

Escaped Pennsylvania convict still on the loose—and armed. Convicted killer Danelo Cavalcante stole a rifle from a home, according to state police, who warned Pennsylvanians not to approach him if they see him. Cavalcante has been eluding law enforcement for nearly two weeks since breaking out of Chester County Prison, where he was serving a life sentence for murdering his ex-girlfriend, Deborah Brandão. In a press conference, Governor Josh Shapiro said police have Cavalcante “contained.”

Stimulus checks are long gone, but the impact of shuttering other pandemic-era programs is starting to come to light. In 2022, poverty in the US jumped back up to pre-pandemic levels, and childhood poverty in particular more than doubled compared to 2021, according to a report released yesterday by the Census Bureau.

• The overall supplemental poverty rate, a measurement that includes governmental assistance and geographic factors, jumped from 7.8% in 2021 to 12.4% in 2022—the first increase since 2010.
• And child poverty rates went from an all-time low of 5.2% in 2021 to 12.4% last year, an increase that translates to more than 5 million more children falling into poverty.

What happened? Politicians, economists, and even the Census Bureau place most of the blame on the pandemic-era expanded child tax credits lapsing at the end of 2021. President Biden has called for the credits to resume, and Democrats in Congress attempted to extend them twice, but conservative members of the party and Republicans blocked them.

Bottom line: These program expirations, paired with record-high inflation, essentially erased any progress the US made in shrinking poverty over the past few years.—MM

Your go-to cold medicine is apparently just as effective as a “Hope you feel better!” text from your friend.

An FDA panel concluded yesterday that phenylephrine, the main ingredient in some oral versions of Sudafed, Benadryl, Mucinex, and other household names, doesn’t actually work. Recent studies showed that people who took the drug had no clearer sinuses than those who took a placebo, validating long-standing doubts from some pharmacists about its efficacy when taken orally.

What happens next? The FDA will decide whether to take the panel’s advice (it usually does, but isn’t required to) and revoke the drug’s over-the-counter safety designation. That would require pharmaceutical companies to reformulate medicines containing phenylephrine, and in the meantime, products with it would be taken off shelves.

• A ban would alter the market for drug manufacturers: In 2021, medicines with phenylephrine generated nearly $2 billion in sales, according to the FDA.
• Pharmacists consider pseudoephedrine a good alternative—though that has its own issues, since it can’t be sold OTC (see: Breaking Bad).

All relief is not lost. While oral phenylephrine may not clear your congestion, the nasal spray version is still believed to be effective.—CC

Stat: Notice your Spotify Discover Weekly has been a bit of a bummer lately? There’s some data to back that up. Half of the Billboard Hot 100 songs today are in a minor key (i.e., sad), up from roughly 30% at the turn of the 21st century and 15% in the 1960s, according to music data analyst Chris Dalla Riva. Heck, even the Pharrell song “Happy” is in F minor. The likely reasons: Culture in general has become more pessimistic, and today’s tastemakers—Gen Z—are sadder than previous generations. Nothing a little “Anti-Hero” can’t fix.

Quote: “We sincerely apologize for the featured parlay that was shared briefly in commemoration of 9/11.”

The brands are at it again with more ill-advised Sept. 11 tie-ins. On Monday, sports betting company DraftKings offered a special “Never Forget” bet, promising customers a payout if the New York Mets, New York Yankees, and New York Jets all won their games on the 22nd anniversary of the attacks. Social media users widely condemned the gimmick before the company took it down and apologized for the insensitivity

Read: A shockingly small portion of the US shoreline is truly available to the public. (The Atlantic)

Read: The greatest books of all time reconfigured as serialized daily newsletters.

Help out: How you can donate to relief efforts for the Libya flood and Morocco earthquake.

Nerd out: On these US state maps drawn in the style of J.R.R. Tolkien’s maps from The Lord of the Rings.

Space out: See a newly discovered green comet before it vanishes into the cosmos for four centuries.

It’s baaaack: Fresh Invest, aka our award-winning investing podcast sponsored by Fidelity, is returning to headphones everywhere. First up is an episode about navigating market volatility and inflation. Tune in.*

^{*A message from our sponsor.}

Word Search: If your favorite football team commits a lot of penalties (*cough* Raiders *cough*), you’ll ace today’s Word Search. Play it here.

Stock ticker trivia

UFC-owner Endeavor and WWE completed their merger yesterday, forming a new public company, TKO Group Holdings, which will trade under the on-theme ticker TKO.

We’ll use TKO as a launchpad to bring back a classic Brew trivia game about Wall Street tickers. We’ll give you a creative ticker symbol, and you have to name the company that’s behind it.

1. TWNK (Hint: Think back to yesterday’s newsletter.)
2. PLAY
3. WOOF
4. HOG
5. LUV
6. FIZZ

1. Hostess
2. Dave & Buster’s
3. Petco Health and Wellness Company
4. Harley-Davidson
5. Southwest Airlines
6. National Beverage Corp. (the maker of La Croix)

Word of the Day

Today’s Word of the Day is: heebie-jeebies, meaning “a condition of extreme nervousness.” Thanks to Shmuel from Montevideo for the spooky suggestion. We should also mention that yesterday’s word was “behoove,” meaning “to be necessary or advantageous.” Try to use it in a sentence, like, “It would behoove us to double-check that the Word of the Day answer is in the newsletter before we send it out.” Submit another Word of the Day here.

*Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/31/financial-help-can-lead-to-happiness-how-to-find-the-right-professional.html

**Facet Wealth, Inc. (“Facet”) is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. This is not an offer to sell securities or the solicitation of an offer to purchase securities. This is not investment, financial, legal, or tax advice. Based on a study conducted by Facet in April 2023. A statistically valid sample of members following Facet’s current planning process demonstrated that more than half of these members, defined here as a majority, achieved value greater than their planning fee. This value was shown to reoccur on an annual basis. Assumptions included average expenses and fees, using retirement tax savings, portfolio expenses and tax loss harvesting as value drivers using Facet’s investment services, and discounting value to align with the acceptance of Facet recommendations. Facet assesses clients an annual flat fee for service based on the complexity of planning needs. There is no separate or additional fee for investment management. This is not a guarantee or prediction of actual results for any member and results may vary by member. Some value like tax loss harvesting may vary year to year.

Investing involves risk, including risk of loss.

Fidelity and Morning Brew are independent entities and are not legally affiliated.

“Financial Communications Society" 05/04/2023 Fresh Invest Season 3, Gold Medal for Corporate Retail within Branded Content: Audio. https://thefcs.org/portfolio-awards/2023-brochure.

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