Today’s Big Story

An Olympic Payday

The controversial decision by one sport’s governing body ends a 128-year tradition

How much is an Olympic gold medal worth? Any athlete, who spent the majority of their lives training for the Olympic Games, would surely tell you they’re priceless. Of course, if we’re talking specifics, the medal awarded to champions are required to be at least 92.5% silver, and are plated with about 6 grams of pure gold. That works out to be anywhere from $750 to $800 worth of gold and silver in those medals, according to Philip Newman, a founding partner and managing director of Metals Focus, a London-based research firm.

But this summer, at the Paris Olympics, the gold medals for track and field athletes will be worth considerably more. On Wednesday, it was announced that World Athletics—the governing body that oversees the sport’s competitions worldwide—will award $50,000 in prize money to Olympic champions at the 2024 Games. In doing so, the organization will become the first international federation to offer prize money directly to Olympic medalists, a landmark moment in the Olympic Games' slow-but-sure shift away from amateurism.

World Athletics’ move comes amid a shift in the world of amateur sports. In the United States, the NCAA more than two years ago approved a policy that allows student-athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness. The change has been clearest in high-level college football and basketball, where collegiate booster groups can pay star players through sometimes-lucrative NIL deals.

The prize money will come out of the share of Olympic revenue that the International Olympic Committee distributes to World Athletics. The modern Olympics originated as an amateur sports event and the IOC does not award prize money directly to winners. However, many medalists receive payments from their countries’ governments, national sports bodies or from sponsors. At the Summer Games in Tokyo in 2021, the U.S. Olympic Committee paid $37,500 for a gold medal, $22,500 for a silver and $15,000 for a bronze—amounts that sit on the lower end of cash incentives globally.

There’s no sign yet of any other Olympic sport following track’s lead. World Athletics is an outlier financially since it gets much of its funding from its own events like the world championships. The governing bodies for many smaller sports depend almost entirely on their IOC payments to survive the four-year cycle until the next Games.

Ceasefire Talks Slow

Hamas tells negotiators it doesn’t have 40 Israeli hostages needed for first round of ceasefire

As Israel and Hamas try to hammer out the thorny details of a U.S.-backed cease-fire proposal, Israeli officials are seeking the release of the remaining hostages held in Gaza. But they don’t actually know how many of them are still alive. Israel says that 133 hostages are still in captivity, ranging from toddlers to the elderly, but Hamas has failed to provide Israeli negotiators with a list of the remaining hostages.

Hamas has indicated it is currently unable to identify and track down 40 Israeli hostages needed for the first phase of a ceasefire deal, according to an Israeli official, raising fears that the group has lost track of them amid the war—or worse, that it might not want to reveal how many have been killed.

But while Israel wants the hostages released, it is also seeking to topple Hamas and sees an open-ended troop presence in Gaza as the way to keep the militants from regrouping, reports the Washington Post. Despite the delicate negotiations going on, Israeli aircraft killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday. According to the Associated Press, Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far.

Should We Bet Big on Betting?

Who could’ve guessed that an explosion of legalized gambling would cause trouble?

Legalized gambling is bigger than ever. And it’s now setting the stage for a provocative new frontier in the world of risk-taking: Betting markets for everyday events, ranging from Taylor Swift streams to hurricanes hitting major U.S. cities.

Americans' growing fixation with gambling has fueled everything from meme stock mania on Wall Street to record Powerball jackpots and soaring casino spending. Prediction markets could be the next to cash in on the phenomenon. A unique hybrid between betting with a bookie and playing the stock market, users can bet on hundreds of real-world events—whether the Fed will cut rates, the high temperature today in Miami or the outcome of Supreme Court cases—on Kalshi, the only federally regulated exchange dedicated to event markets.

But experts are already trying to pump the brakes on the gambling free-for-all. Smartphone apps and pervasive ads have taken sports gambling from niche to mainstream. And many are warning that it’s led to a rise in problematic gambling. Addiction hotlines say calls for help are way up this year and callers are younger thanks to the rise of online sports betting.

Broadband ‘Nutrition Labels’ Are Here

No more hidden fees, thanks to this FCC-mandated decision

It's been 34 years since the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990 made it mandatory for companies to display a nutrition label on food products in the U.S. These labels helped inform consumers of exactly what and how much they're eating. Now, the FCC is hoping its own “nutrition label” requirements for internet service providers will provide that same transparency when it comes to how much we pay for a broadband plan.

As of today, major ISPs will be required to clearly label any and all fees that consumers have to pay for their broadband plans. Besides the total monthly fee price, nutrition labels will include details regarding any activation fees, early termination fees, and the length of the contract. The nutrition labels will also disclose whether the price shown is a discounted rate for new customers and what the consumer will be expected to pay per month once the introductory pricing has expired.

According to CNET, providers are notorious for their complicated pricing structures. Between autopay discounts, introductory pricing and hidden fees, you often don’t know what your bill will actually look like until it’s too late. “The fundamental idea is that competitive markets work better when consumers have appropriate information,” Blair Levin, a former FCC chief of staff told the site. “Requiring ISPs to provide this kind of minimum level of information to consumers really is kind of a no-brainer.”

Get Busy

You should probably up your numbers in the bedroom

Without getting into the numbers, you should probably be having more sex. We don't prescribe to the strange edict that any couple should be having it regularly, three times a week—who came up with that arbitrary number? After all, it's a delicate balance, right? You should be smashing as much as you like to feel hot and satisfied, but you don't have to hit some quota to prove anything to anyone.

But we'll never object to having more sex—in any and all of its many iterations: Morning sex, shower sex, hotel sex, back-seat-of-the-car-sex, anniversary sex, birthday sex, role-play sex, make-up sex, threesomes, even sweet run-of-the-mill quickies. And there are actually some physiological benefits and health perks to getting it on.

Stay focused.