A brilliant deception, buying homes online, new deep-sea species: Catch up on the day’s stories
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👋 Welcome to 5 Things PM! In most US cities, buying a home now requires a six-figure salary. A new report found that you need to earn $108,000 to afford a new single-family home and pay property taxes and insurance costs — nearly double the household income needed in 2019.
Here’s what else you might have missed during your busy day:
5 things
1️⃣ Full circle: A woman managed to fool a world-famous male-only magic society into admitting her before being unceremoniously kicked out when she revealed her true identity. Now they want her back.
2️⃣ Deep discounts: Everything costs less than $20 at Amazon’s newest store. The mobile-only experience just launched and includes fashion accessories, home goods, clothes and electronics. It’s an effort to compete with Chinese marketplaces such as Shein and Temu.
3️⃣ New experiences: Comedian Ash Perez recently got his first haircut at a barbershop, bought a suit, learned to grill and asked his close friends what it means to be a man. Here’s what a trans man is learning about masculinity at the age of 35.
4️⃣ Ancient artifact: The oldest known tablet inscribed with the Ten Commandments could fetch up to $2 million when it goes up for auction. The stone, which dates back about 1,500 years, was discovered during excavation for a rail line in what is now Israel.
5️⃣ Home delivery: Manufactured houses are surging in popularity — and you can order them online. But the path to ownership isn’t as simple as a “Buy Now” button.
Watch this
🌊 Deep and dark: Scientists at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California discovered a new species of sea slug living in the ocean’s “midnight zone” — the area so far below the surface that it’s untouched by sunlight.
Top headlines
• Trump picks Rep. Matt Gaetz to serve as attorney general
• ‘An effing nightmare’: Senior commanders react to Trump’s new cabinet picks
• Republicans will retain House majority, CNN projects, completing GOP’s dominance of Washington
$1.08 million
❗That’s how much an AI robot’s painting of British scientist Alan Turing sold for, becoming the most valuable artwork by a humanoid ever to change hands at auction.
Check this out
🐋 Valuable lesson: People in Azerbaijan for the COP29 climate summit have been gathering around a massive beached sperm whale along the Caspian Sea. But this particular marine mammal isn’t real. Buckets of rotting fish hidden nearby add to the illusion.
What’s buzzing
⛳ Par for the course: Basketball fans are used to seeing Caitlin Clark produce fantastic feats, but a golf outing served as an important reminder that she’s human after all.
Quiz time
📱Which social media app rocketed to the No. 1 spot in US downloads on Apple’s App Store after the presidential election?
A. X
B. Bluesky
C. Threads
D. Truth Social
⬇️ Scroll down for the answer.
Good vibes
🐅 We like to wrap things up on a positive note: The last tigers in Kazakhstan disappeared more than 70 years ago. In a landmark moment for conservation, they’re about to return. Bodhana and Kuma, two tigers from a sanctuary in the Netherlands, are adjusting to their new home in hopes that their offspring will be among the first wild tigers in the country in decades.
Thanks for reading
👋 We’ll see you tomorrow.
🧠 Quiz answer: B. Bluesky said it had gained 1 million new users in the past week alone.
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5 Things PM is produced by CNN’s Tricia Escobedo, Chris Good, Meghan Pryce and Kimberly Richardson.
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