• ☝️ The Mississippi River flooded a section of downtown Davenport, Iowa, this week, as a spring surge from melting snow pushed river levels to a near-record high.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 💰 US markets closed down across the board yesterday (S&P: -0.7%; Dow: -0.8%; Nasdaq: -0.5%).
• 🥩🥖 Olive Garden parent company Darden Restaurants is buying Ruth’s Chris Steak House in an all-cash deal worth around $715 million.
• ❌ Jenny Craig is going out of business, the company told its ~1,000 employees on Tuesday per NBC News; executives cited an inability to secure additional funding as the cause.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 📽️🎭 Hollywood unions including the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and Director’s Guild of America (DGA) have joined the WGA in solidarity; the writer’s strike is heading into its third day. (Background)
• 🏇 Four horses have reportedly died within the past week at Churchill Downs, where the 149th running of the Kentucky Derby will take place on Saturday.
• 🎤🎸 The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced its 2023 inductees yesterday; they include Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow, George Michael, and Missy Elliott.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 💉 The FDA yesterday approved the world’s first vaccine against RSV, a common respiratory virus; the vaccine was okayed for all Americans aged 60+, but still needs CDC approval before it becomes publicly available. | 💉 The world’s first contraceptive vaccine, which its creators say doesn’t mess with women’s menstrual cycles, recently began human clinical trials.
• ☀️🪐 Astronomers have witnessed a star in the act of gobbling up a planet that was drawn in too close by gravity for the first time.
• 🦷🧬 Archaeologists have identified the owner of a 20,000-year-old elk tooth pendant that was recently discovered inside Denisova Cave; the brand-new method of extracting ancient DNA was detailed in a peer-reviewed study published yesterday in Nature.

MISCELLANEOUS

• 📰 Schedules and emails belonging to deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein have revealed previously undisclosed meetings with a range of high-profile individuals – including former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and filmmaker Woody Allen – held long after Epstein became a convicted sex offender, per a WSJ report published yesterday.
• 🏛️ The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission voted to suspend Inspector General A. Roy Lavik after a watchdog said he disclosed whistleblower identities and wasted government funds, sources told the WSJ.
• 📑 House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) subpoenaed the FBI yesterday, demanding the agency turn over a 2020 document that Comer, along with Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), is claiming outlines an unverified “alleged criminal scheme" involving the exchange of money for policy decisions between then-VP Joe Biden and a foreign agent. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

CLICKBAIT

• 🍔🍟🥤 McDonald's new takeout boxes can unfold into a table.

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