• ☝️ You’re looking at some of the winners from the 2024 World Press Photo Contest, which featured 61,000+ entries from 130 countries.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with NoNetz

• 💰 US markets closed mixed on Friday (S&P: -0.9%; Dow: +0.6%; Nasdaq: -2.1%). | 🪙 Bitcoin’s halving is now complete.
• 🛻 Tesla is recalling all 3,878 Cybertrucks due to a defective pedal pad that could cause the accelerator to get stuck in the depressed position (fully down to the floor).
• 🗳️🪧 Workers at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga (TN) factory overwhelmingly voted to join the UAW (73%); this marks the union’s first successful organizing drive of a non-Detroit Three auto-assembly factory. (Background)

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🏀 The NBA Playoffs tipped off this weekend following the Play-In Tournament. | 🏒 The NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs officially dropped the puck this weekend. | 📺 The NBA’s exclusive negotiating window with current media partners Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery is expected to expire today without a deal.
• 🍿 Civil War topped the domestic box office with $11 million in its second weekend; Universal’s new horror film Abigail placed second with $10.2 million in its debut.
• 🎶 The Tortured Poets Department, Taylor Swift’s latest album that was released on Friday, became the first in Spotify history to record 300+ million streams in a single day.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Spoak

• 🧠✍️ Colorado’s governor signed a first-in-the-nation law aimed at protecting residents’ brainwave data.
• 🐍 A giant prehistoric snake between 36 and 49 feet long – possibly the largest ever – was recently discovered in a mine in western India, according to a new study.
• 🏙️🇨🇳 Nearly half of China's major cities, including Beijing, are sinking due to groundwater extraction and the sheer weight of urban buildings and infrastructure, per a new study published in Science.

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MISCELLANEOUS

• 🎓 The University of Southern California removed outside speakers and honorees from its commencement ceremony next month, days after canceling its valedictorian’s speech over security concerns. (Background)
• 🏛️ The Senate voted 60-34 to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a controversial US spy program some lawmakers say violates Americans’ privacy rights; President Biden has signed the renewal into law. (Background)
• ⚖️ All 12 jurors and six alternates have been selected in former President Trump's criminal hush-money trial in New York City; opening arguments will begin later today. | 🙏 A 37-year-old man died after setting himself on fire in a park across the street from Trump’s hush-money trial on Friday.

CLICKBAIT

• 🏘️ You can buy a home in France or Italy for ‘the price of a new truck’ – but take these 3 steps first.