Sam Bankman-Fried will officially take the stand in his own trial today after completing a hearing in front of US District Judge Lewis Kaplan yesterday without any jurors present. His decision to testify is a risky move at best—and a downright kooky one if you’ve already had multiple former colleagues and an ex-girlfriend testify against you.

To recap: It’s been nearly four weeks since Bankman-Fried’s trial began. He’s pleading not guilty to a variety of fraud and conspiracy charges related to the downfall of his crypto exchange, FTX.

We’ve already heard from key witnesses: Caroline Ellison, who said she worked with SBF to funnel billions in FTX customers’ money to its sister company, Alameda Research; FTX executive Gary Wang, who said SBF lied to the public; and Nishad Singh, who testified that FTX made donations to political campaigns using stolen funds.

What crypto’s fallen golden boy said yesterday

Spoiler: not a lot. SBF exhibited the sort of question-evading vagueness of a 17-year-old caught with a fake ID. During the hearing…

• SBF admitted to being “aware of some speed bumps in place on Alameda’s account,” but said he didn’t know the “exact nature of them.”
• When Judge Kaplan asked if he had read FTX’s terms of service, SBF said he read some of it “in depth”—but other parts he “skimmed over.”

Judge Kaplan isn’t having any of it. Near the end of the day, after SBF had repeatedly asked the prosecution to clarify questions, Kaplan said “the witness has what I’ll simply call an interesting way of responding.” Reporters inside the courtroom have described Kaplan as frustrated with both the defense and the prosecution’s lines of questioning.

What to expect moving forward: Without a jury present, yesterday’s hearing was a way for Kaplan to hear the scope of SBF’s testimony and determine if it’ll be admissible. SBF’s defense is expected to highlight that he acted in accordance with advice from FTX's lawyers. We are simply hoping that SBF is asked to explain what “oof” means.—CC

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The mass shooter who killed at least 18 people in Maine remains at large. Authorities are hunting for 40-year-old firearms instructor Robert Card, who went on a deadly shooting rampage at a bowling alley and bar in Lewiston on Wednesday. The Coast Guard was searching the Kennebec River after the suspect, who owns a 15-foot motorboat, abandoned his car at a boat launch 10 miles from the crime scenes. Multiple Maine communities remain on lockdown, with several schools closed and residents urged not to leave their homes. The shooting prompted President Biden to renew his calls for Congress to pass an assault weapons ban and other gun control measures.

Israeli troops and tanks briefly entered Gaza. The Israeli military said it targeted Hamas’s anti-tank positions and other infrastructure in a nighttime raid into the enclave yesterday to “prepare the battlefield” ahead of a sweeping ground operation. Israeli forces also announced that they eliminated three senior Hamas commanders, while the terrorist group made an unverified claim that Israeli airstrikes killed 50 of the 224 hostages it kidnapped on Oct. 7. Israel’s heavy bombardment of Gaza is taking a steep toll on civilians in the territory; a recent strike killed four immediate family members of Al-Jazeera’s chief Gaza correspondent, Wael Dahdouh. Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI reported an uptick in violent threats against Jewish and Muslim Americans since the conflict erupted.

Amazon impressed Wall Street. Shares for the e-commerce giant shot up in after-hours trading yesterday after Amazon reported much better-than-expected Q3 earnings. Ad revenue spiked 26% to $12.1 billion, ahead of analysts’ $11.6 billion forecast. Overall revenue was a gargantuan $143.1 billion, up 13% and higher than what analysts predicted. The earnings beat marked a silver lining for the tech industry after several big companies, including Meta, Google, and Tesla, disappointed the markets with their Q3 reports. Amazon’s stock is up about 45% so far this year, ahead of the S&P 500.

Turns out a lot of us were more willing to spring for appetizers this summer. Government data released yesterday revealed that the GDP jumped 4.9% last quarter—more than analysts expected and the most it’s risen since the last quarter of 2021. And half of that growth was thanks to consumer spending.

Despite headlines recapitulating fears that a recession is right around the corner, consumer spending was up 4% in Q3 after growing just 0.8% in Q2, even as the Fed kept raising rates to slow the economy down. While people spent more money on groceries and other necessities, it’s discretionary spending that was off the charts.

• Experts attribute some of that spending to all the wigs we bought (not to mention the tickets) for summer events like Taylor Swift and Beyoncé concerts, as well as the Barbenheimer premiere.
• Americans also balled out in other categories like travel, sports equipment, and gambling.

Plus, unlike other advanced economies, the US is “on track this year to return to reach the level that would have been predicted by the pre-pandemic trend,” according to the Treasury Department.

Looking ahead…The numbers might not be as pretty for this current quarter, as student loan payments resume and war in the Middle East continues to inject uncertainty into the market.—MM

It’s already been a year since the guy who still uses doge memes marked his acquisition of Twitter by bringing a sink into its headquarters.

And the results are in. Here’s how year one of Musk has impacted site engagement:

• Global app downloads fell 38% from October 2022 to September 2023, according to data from Sensor Tower. The Twitter-to-X rebrand was a major culprit, per intelligence provider Apptopia.
• Monthly active users fell 14.8%, according to SimilarWeb.
• Sensor Tower reported that users spend an average of 2% less time on X, though Apptopia found that active users have increased their screen time this year.
• US ad revenue has dropped by 60%, Musk, who was forced into buying the platform after he attempted to back out, admitted last month.

What’s responsible? The rise in hate speech, misinformation, and glitches under Musk’s leadership likely contributed to the declining interest. The X rebrand and confusion around changes to the blue check mark probably didn’t help either.

It could be worse. X is still running faster than Threads, which only had 10 million daily active mobile users last month to X’s 183 million, per Sensor Tower.—ML

Stat: The good news is everyone at your office is using deodorant. The bad news is nobody was wearing it before they returned to work in person. Unilever, the company that owns Dove, Axe, Rexona, and several other deodorant brands, said the post-pandemic return to offices led to a 15% surge in deodorant sales, boosting total sales at Unilever 5.2% to $16 billion in the latest quarter. People didn’t buy deodorant as much when they were working from home, CFO Graeme Pitkethly said, which explains the mysterious smell in your building’s elevator that disappeared this year.

Quote: “A nightmare scenario is unfolding.”

Those are not words you want to hear from the National Hurricane Center. Otis was supposed to hit Acapulco, Mexico, as a tropical storm, but when it made landfall on Wednesday, it was a Category 5 hurricane—stunning the scientists who had been tracking it. Just before reaching land, Otis passed over a pocket of hot ocean, making the storm much stronger before anyone had time to prepare. At least 27 people were killed and four remain missing. One hurricane expert at MIT told the AP that “the models completely blew it.” Because of warming oceans, researchers expect this to happen more often.

Read: Automakers slow their EV roll amid lagging demand. (Morning Brew)

The feeling of getting a 5/5 on the Brew’s Weekly News Quiz has been compared to someone at the party getting your niche Halloween costume without your having to explain it.

It’s that satisfying. Ace the quiz.

Travel: The most popular winter travel destinations this year will be Hong Kong; Buenos Aires; and Muang Pattaya, Thailand, according to Airbnb.

Learn: A database of every writing system throughout human history, from 5,500-year-old proto-cuneiform to South Asia’s Toto, which established an alphabet in 2015.

Shiver: More than 700 songs that are scientifically confirmed to give you goosebumps. Our pick: Howard Shore’s “The Breaking of the Fellowship” from the LOTR soundtrack.

Read: Hollywood can make pretty much anything look real, but for some reason even big-budget productions still can’t realistically depict a simple flame with CGI.

Shopping list: Klaviyo surveyed 3k US consumers about their shopping plans for this year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Download their free guide for the deets.*

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