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An 82-year-old Virginia power broker vowed she won’t back down after a federal indictment. A melanoma shot posted strong numbers, yet its maker’s stock plunged anyway. Two Ebola patients may have crossed paths at one airport, and Amazon’s 007 hunt reaches the screen-test stage.

Home furniture brand Blu Dot blew up on CTV with help from Roku Ads Manager. Here’s how:

After a test campaign reached 211,000 households and achieved 1,010% ROAS, the brand went all in to promote its annual sales event. It removed age and income constraints to expand reach and shifted budget to custom audiences and retargeting, where intent was strongest.

The results speak for themselves. As Blu Dot increased their investment by 10x, ROAS jumped to 2,308% and more page-view conversions surpassed 50,000.

“For CTV campaigns, Roku has been a top performer,” said Claire Folkestad, Paid Media Strategist, Blu Dot. “Comping to our other platforms, we have seen really strong ROAS… and highly efficient CPMs, lower than any other CTV partner we've worked with.”

Using Roku Ads Manager, the campaign moved from a pilot to a permanent performance engine for the brand.

Learn More

The S&P 500 fell 1.2% Thursday for its worst day since July, while the Nasdaq tumbled 2.6% as another AI-stock shudder rippled through global markets. Most U.S. stocks rose and the Dow edged up less than 0.1%, but heavy tech losses masked that strength as oil jumped on Iran worries.

AI stocks have swung on fears that high interest rates threaten their boom, and the nervousness pulled Treasury yields sharply lower as the Russell 2000 inched up. Even after Thursday's slide, the S&P 500 is still up 11.9% for the year and 0.1% this week, while the Dow is up 1.7% over that span.

Virginia state Sen. L. Louise Lucas, one of the state's most powerful Democrats, was charged Thursday with leading an alleged enterprise that distributed marijuana and laundered proceeds. The indictment says she used her political power to shield the operation, and Attorney General Todd Blanche said she put her own financial interests before constituents.

Lucas, 82, faces five counts, including racketeering conspiracy, alongside six co-defendants, among them relatives, and her attorney says she denies the charges and will plead not guilty. In a statement on X, Lucas called the prosecution politically motivated, saying she would not be intimidated or bullied and promising, "I will not back down."

Moderna shares dropped as much as 25% Thursday after partial data leaked on its personalized cancer vaccine with Merck, though the full results looked positive. Paired with Merck's Keytruda, the shot cut recurrence or death risk by 42% in certain melanoma patients, with 82% relapse-free at two years versus 70%.

Analysts at BMO and UBS called the data clinically meaningful and strong, blaming the selloff on inflated expectations after the stock soared this year on vaccine hopes. Because each shot is personalized, manufacturing can take six weeks, though Merck's CEO has said the company believes it can shorten that timeline in the future.

Germany faces "intensive" Russian espionage activity, Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned after authorities arrested a Ukrainian national suspected of spying for Moscow and collecting military-related intelligence inside the country.

The first Ebola patients in Kenya and Nigeria may have crossed paths in Uganda at Entebbe airport on Oct. 3, African health officials said while racing to slow the outbreak.

Myanmar's detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi was allowed her first phone call in more than five years Thursday, speaking with her son, Kim Aris, from Naypyitaw.

Lab giant Quest Diagnostics disclosed a breach of its Quanum Lab Services Manager platform Thursday, where clients order tests and view results, saying "certain patient records" were likely accessed.

A Florida police officer who found a man dead in 2022 is accused of stealing his identity, moving into the man's home and renovating it, living undetected for years.

A Bellingham, Washington, resident charged with conspiracy in one of Canada's worst school shootings pleaded not guilty Thursday, accused of aiding the Tumbler Ridge gunman, who killed eight people.

PepsiCo renewed its Taco Bell partnership through 2036, a deal announced just one week after sister chain KFC said it would switch to Coca-Cola as its U.S. beverage supplier.

Elon Musk has invested roughly $1 billion in Skydance, the merged Paramount-Warner studio, according to a person familiar with the matter, as the company works to cut costs.

The average 30-year mortgage rate fell to 7.32% from 7.40%, its first pullback since late August, though borrowing costs remain well above the 6.19% average from a year ago.

Have a business larger than 20 people that lives on Slack and is older than a year? Companies like Micro1 want to pay $100k - $2 million to license your data. They anonymize it and then use it to train the next set of frontier AI models.

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Prime editing, a precise gene-editing technique, has rewritten DNA inside a living person for the first known time, targeting a liver-cell mutation behind Wilson disease, a copper-buildup disorder.

A South Korean research team says van Gogh's "The Starry Night" matches a real 1889 predawn sky over Saint-Rémy-de-Provence around July 22, a month later than the long-accepted time frame.

A 253-year-old coral core from Maui shows the Olowalu reef's growth mirrored changes on land, with a steep decline beginning in the late 1960s as the plantation economy boomed.

The Milwaukee Brewers open the World Series Friday against the Tampa Bay Rays, their first Fall Classic game since 1982, after sweeping the Dodgers in the NL Championship Series.

Former star defensive lineman JJ Watt signed a multiyear deal with CBS Sports to become its full-time lead NFL game analyst, taking over the role previously held by Tony Romo.

President Trump called LeBron James a "disgrace" and demanded the 76ers star apologize after video showed him warming up during the national anthem before Philadelphia's season opener.

Montreal Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki is out two to four weeks with an upper-body injury, ending a 546-game ironman streak, second among active NHL players behind Brent Burns.

Tom Skerritt, the rugged character actor, has died at 93, a representative said, after a career spanning "Top Gun," "Alien" and "Picket Fences," which earned him an Emmy in 1993.

The hunt for Amazon MGM's next James Bond reaches final screen tests within the week, with Callum Turner and Jack Lowden appearing in the mix for Denis Villeneuve's film.

Tom Hanks is heading back to Broadway after 14 years, starring in "This World of Tomorrow," a time-travel romance he co-wrote from his own short stories, opposite Kelli O'Hara.

What it is: Americans 60 and older reported losing about $3 billion to fraud in 2025, a 25% jump from $2.4 billion in 2024, according to the Federal Trade Commission's report to Congress. Because many scams go unreported, the agency estimates actual losses last year could have reached anywhere from $13.3 billion to $119.5 billion, versus $10.1 billion to $81.5 billion in 2024.

The detail: Big losses drive the surge, since just 6% of older victims lost $100,000 or more, yet those cases made up 70% of the age group's total reported losses. Investment scams were costliest, topping $1 billion after a 42% jump, followed by government impersonation scams at $448 million and business impersonation scams at $422 million.

Why it matters: Victims can get hit twice, because some scam losses are not tax-deductible, and withdrawals from a traditional 401(k) or IRA made during a fraud may still trigger income taxes. Savers under 59½ can face a 10% early-withdrawal penalty, and as one elder-justice advocate put it, "You get scammed out of $100,000 and then you're paying taxes on that $100,000."

What to watch: The House passed the bipartisan Tax Relief for Fraud Victims Act 408-17 in September to lift deduction limits and waive that penalty, but Senate action remains uncertain. Also watch how families respond, since one University of Minnesota aging researcher advises an open, nonjudgmental approach and warns that scammers deliberately isolate their targets from loved ones.

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An Oklahoma caiman on the loose since August was captured by hand in a creek late Tuesday, in a state that bans alligators but allows pet caimans with permits.

A Mount Airy, Maryland, man tucked a Mega Millions ticket in his car's sun visor and forgot about it for weeks, until it fell onto his lap, a $30,000 winner.

A pet kangaroo named Ollie bolted from a Mount Pleasant, Tennessee, farm right before his daily walk Tuesday, and neighbors are still searching after one sighting about 15 miles away.

Sam Houston takes office as the first president of the Republic of Texas (1836) · The Metropolitan Opera House opens in New York with "Faust" (1883) · Chester Carlson makes the first xerographic copy (1938) · Venera 9 lands on Venus and returns the first image from another planet's surface (1975)

"The need for a quick, satisfactory copying machine that could be used right in the office seemed very apparent to me" — Chester Carlson, inventor of xerography

That's a wrap for today. Thanks for making us part of your morning. Stay curious, keep exploring, and we'll see you tomorrow.

—The Five Minute Daily Team