TGIF!

Closing out the week with some interesting stories. Hope you enjoy!

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German discount grocer Aldi plans to operate more US stores than any chain except Walmart by 2028, banking on a massive American expansion as its European dominance crumbles. The company generated $29 billion in US sales in 2024, surpassing sibling chain Trader Joe's, by perfecting ruthless efficiency: shopping carts need quarter deposits, products stay in shipping boxes, there's no music, no bakery, no deli counter. Every decision eliminates costs. Aldi now attracts Mercedes drivers alongside food stamp recipients, luring wealthier shoppers with $4.65 burrata and premium wine while maintaining its core mission of undercutting competitors on price. But back in Germany, rival Lidl is gaining ground, threatening to dethrone Aldi as the country's top discounter.

A three-eyed catfish supposedly pulled from Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal turned out to be performance art, but the hoax captured something real about the waterway's mythology. The canal sits on the EPA's Superfund list after more than a century of industrial abuse left it choked with mercury, lead, oil, sewage, and ten feet of sludge locals dubbed "black mayonnaise." When dredging began in the 2010s, contractors excavated two cars within a month and residents speculated mobster corpses would surface next. The stench grew so bad the city deployed cinnamon perfume and odor-suppressing foam while simultaneously building thousands of apartments on surrounding blocks.

SpaceX's Starship exploded three times over busy Caribbean airspace in 2025, raining flaming debris across commercial flight paths and forcing pilots to scramble for safety. One Iberia flight carrying 283 passengers declared an emergency and crossed a designated debris zone after running low on fuel while circling. At least 11 planes were inside closed airspace when the January explosion occurred, all clearing out within 15 minutes as controllers issued frantic warnings. The FAA predicted launches would cause only "minor or minimal" disruption when it approved testing in 2022, but reality proved far messier.

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Florida's coral scientists spent the summer of 2023 watching century-old reef colonies dissolve in real time while waiting for permits that arrived too late. Water temperatures hit 38.4 degrees Celsius, the hottest ocean reading ever recorded. Researchers knew exactly which corals to rescue, had aquarium space ready, and understood the narrow window for action. But conservation law requires permits to remove threatened species from reefs, even during thermal emergencies. By the time funding and approvals came through months later, the corals had bleached to bone-white and died. Staghorn corals that once dominated the Florida Keys now exist in what scientists call functional extinction, meaning a few individuals persist but in numbers too small to sustain reef ecosystems. They're ecological ghosts.

The internet gives you everything and helps you understand nothing. The Lunch Break Reads Weekend Edition solves that problem. Every week we pick one theme that actually matters and build you a curated reading list that goes deep instead of wide. Underground book markets. Deep-sea mining's geopolitical consequences. The kind of stuff that makes you dangerous at dinner parties.