Good morning, and happy Cinco de Mayo. In today’s edition:

• 🫄 Doula care goes mainstream
• 💥 Iran war escalates
• 🤖 AI godfather’s blunt advice

…and much more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~3.91-minute read (1,041 words).

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“Optimism, when applied to your life, develops strength and peace within you.”

–Norman Vincent Peale (1898-1993)

A growing number of moms across the US are getting a second voice in the delivery room—and a second line item covered by Medicaid.

Over 30 states plus Washington, D.C., now reimburse doulas through Medicaid, or are in the process of implementing such coverage, up from just three states in 2019, per the National Health Law Program.

First things first: A doula is someone hired to offer emotional, physical, and informational support to expecting mothers through the birthing process (pregnancy, labor, and postpartum).

• Unlike midwives, doulas aren’t medical professionals, meaning they don’t perform tasks like checking blood pressure, doing cervical checks, or catching the baby.
• Instead, they offer nonmedical support like affirmations, helping with position changes in labor, and acting as advocates for patients’ desires in the hospital.

A survey conducted in 2006 found just 3% of US women got care from a doula during labor. But today, researchers estimate that figure has at least doubled.

Demand has grown alongside the evidence

Doula care is consistently linked to lower maternal anxiety, higher rates of breastfeeding initiation, and improved postpartum follow-up, according to a review of clinical trials published last month in JAMA Network Open. Other studies have found a link between doula care and fewer C-sections and preterm births.

Zoom out: Doula care is an outlier when it comes to Medicaid coverage of alternative healthcare options. Medicaid tends to prioritize treatments backed by strong clinical evidence, meaning options like acupuncture, herbal medicine, or massage therapy aren’t typically covered.

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Apple Gift Card lets them decide what they actually need once real life starts:

• Apps for the new job
• Music for the new commute
• iCloud storage for a phone full of graduation photos
• Apple TV for the first night in a new apartment
• Subscriptions like Apple Music, Apple Arcade, Apple Fitness+, and even third-party subscriptions
• Products and accessories whenever they're ready

It works for right now and six months from now. Available from $15 to $200 in physical and digital formats.

Netflix is the latest streaming giant coming for your daily “I’ll just scroll for a minute whoops how’d an hour go by already” time.

The streaming giant last week rolled out a revamped mobile app featuring a new vertical video feed called “Clips,” marking its latest attempt to keep users engaged beyond the traditional couch-binge session.

How it works

The new Clips feed serves up short snippets from Netflix movies, series, and specials in a scrollable, TikTok-style format. Netflix says the feature acts as a personalized highlight reel tailored to your tastes, and should help users decide what to watch.

• If something catches your eye, you can jump straight to the full title—which requires horizontal mode, for now—or share the clip with friends/socials.
• Netflix also plans to expand its vertical Clips feed over time, eventually including podcasts, live programming, and curated collections based on genres or interests.

The update is already live in several countries including the US, with a broader global rollout expected in the coming months.

Big picture: Netflix’s push into vertical video feeds is the latest example of the TikTok-style video options bleeding into the streaming sector as a whole, as other major players look to maximize daily engagement.

Disney+ launched vertical video content on its platform in March (called “Verts”), while Peacock debuted its new live vertical video sports coverage last month.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🤖 Anthropic is creating a $1.5 billion joint venture with several Wall Street firms—including Blackstone and Goldman Sachs—that aims to sell AI tools to companies. | OpenAI is also creating a new ~$10 billion venture along very similar lines, raising $4+ billion from 19 investors including Bain Capital and TPG.
• 🏘️ US foreclosure filings rose 26% in Q1 2026 compared with a year ago, reaching their highest level since 2020; it follows the rollback of a Biden-era subsidy that helped people who fell behind on their mortgage stay in their homes.
• 📦 Amazon officially opens its global logistics network to all businesses, allowing them to store and ‌ship goods ranging from raw materials to final products; move aims to challenge a market dominated by UPS and FedEx, whose shares fell 9%+ on the news.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🏀 Orlando Magic fire head coach Jamahl Mosley after the team blew a 3-1 series lead to the #1 Pistons in NBA Playoffs Round 1. | 🙏 John Sterling, the legendary NY Yankees radio announcer who called 5,600+ games, passed away at 87.
• 📲 Trial begins in second phase of lawsuit brought by New Mexico’s AG against Meta over alleged harms to children; it follows a landmark jury decision in March that found Meta guilty of violating state consumer protection law, and ordered $375 million in damages.
• 🏆📰 2026 Pulitzer Prize winners announced by Columbia University, including local and national news reporters as well as live sports podcast Pablo Torre Finds Out.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🤖 DeepSeek V4 Pro is China's leading AI model and trails behind the top US frontier models by about eight months, per a new federal analysis.
• ☄️ Eta Aquarid meteor shower, which originated from the debris of Halley's Comet, will peak overnight tonight; experts say best viewing is in the early morning hours before dawn.
• 📵 Schools with strict cellphone bans saw a meaningful decline in student phone use—but didn’t experience any rise in test scores, and also saw higher suspension rates after initially banning phones; that’s per a new study which is the largest of its kind.

US, WORLD & POLITICS

• 💥 US and Iran return to military force in the Strait of Hormuz, with fighting flaring yesterday for the first time in roughly a month; US officials say Apache helicopters were used to sink Iranian speedboats harassing traffic in the strait; Iran struck a critical UAE oil port and several ships around the waterway.
• 💊 Supreme Court temporarily restores broad access to abortion pill mifepristone, blocking a lower court ruling—which had banned doctors from mailing pills to patients—for one week while SCOTUS considers the issue.
• 🙏 Rudy Giuliani, 81, the former NYC mayor and President Trump’s former personal lawyer, is hospitalized in "critical" but stable condition while recovering from pneumonia.

👆 You’re looking at some of the best outfits from last night’s Met Gala, an annual event widely regarded as the biggest night in fashion. The 2026 dress code was "Fashion Is Art,” which can be interpreted however the guests wish.

🤔 Did you know? The term “orphaned negative” is used to describe words like disgruntled, nonchalant, and innocent. These words all used to have positive counterparts, like gruntled, chalant, and nocent—but over time, they completely vanished from common usage.

📰 Worth a read: Food labels have far-reaching effects on our health

🖱️ What we’re clicking:

• AI godfather’s blunt advice for the AI age
• All the new state license plates in 2026
• The hiring hotspots where college grads are landing good jobs

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Yesterday we covered a US appeals court ruling that temporarily blocked doctors nationwide from mailing the abortion pill mifepristone to patients, on the grounds that it was likely approved based on flawed data and undermines state bans on abortion. (Note: This ruling was temporarily put on hold yesterday by SCOTUS)

❓ Our question to you: In your opinion, should doctors be allowed to mail mifepristone to patients across the US seeking an abortion?

• Yes: 74%
• No: 22%
• Unsure/other: 4%

Click here to read some of the most thoughtful longform responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 636 votes and 76 longform responses.

✍️ We have a right to know: An evolutionary biologist explains four leading theories for why 90% of humanity is right-handed.

🍽️ Up your hosting game: The science of putting on the perfect dinner party.

🎂 Sweet victory: A group of chefs in London recently made the world's longest tiramisu, at nearly 1,450 feet long. (1 min video)

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❓ Trivia: The oldest major soft drink in the US is still in production today. Can you name it?

🐟 True or false?… Nemo from Finding Nemo is a tiger fish.

🤔 Riddle me this… I’m light as a feather, yet the strongest man on Earth can’t hold me for more than a few minutes. What am I?

🦓 Recent reports of a zebra on the loose in Armenia’s capital turned out to be a horse of a different color. Officials say the “zebra” was just a painted donkey from a prank, not an escapee from the local zoo.

❓ Trivia: Dr. Pepper (1885), with Coca-Cola (1886) right on its heels.

🐟 T/F: False, he is a clown fish

🤔 Riddle: Breath

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