📅 Happy Friday

💉 COVID Vaccine Update

Image: Bloomberg

At the current pace, Bloomberg estimates it will take another 4 months to cover 75% of the U.S. population.

• A number of states accelerated their timeline for extending vaccine eligibility to all adults yesterday, including FL, CA, CT, NH, NC, and RI. See where your state stands.

📢 Biden Press Conference

President Biden held his first official press conference yesterday. Full video.

• Biden opened the hour-long session by announcing a new goal of 200M vaccines administered by the end of his first 100 days in office.
• He also addressed a wide range of issues including immigration, foreign policy (especially China & Afghanistan), the Senate filibuster, and his intention to run for reelection in 2024 with VP Kamala Harris.

⚖️ SCOTUS Decisions

The Supreme Court published two decisions yesterday:

• In a unanimous ruling, the court said Ford could be sued for allegedly defective vehicles involved in accidents, rejecting the company’s argument it could be sued only in states where the vehicles were actually designed, manufactured, or sold. (From the Left | From the Right)
• In the second case, the court ruled 5-3 that police can be sued for violating the 4th Amendment’s protection against unreasonable seizures when they use excessive force trying to apprehend a subject – even if the subject gets away. (From the Left | From the Right)

🧠 In the Know

🖊️ Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law a measure to overhaul state elections yesterday. (From the Left | From the Right)

🌪️ A tornado killed at least five people and injured several others in Alabama yesterday. The National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center issued a category 5 out of 5 “high risk” for severe thunderstorms in the southeastern U.S. (map).

🦅 The number of American bald eagles has quadrupled since 2009, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. There are now more than 300k birds across the contiguous U.S.

☝️ 1 Last Thing…

Image: Twitter

💷 The Bank of England unveiled the new 50-pound note featuring WWII codebreaker Alan Turing, famously portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch in The Imitation Game.

🇨🇳 CCP Cancels H&M

Chinese state TV yesterday called for a boycott against Swedish retailer H&M, criticizing the company for saying in March 2020 it would stop buying cotton from China’s Xinjiang region.

• Criticism of H&M surged Wednesday on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, amplified by mentions from multiple state-media accounts.
• As of Thursday, the company and its stores had been wiped from China’s leading e-commerce, ride-hailing, daily-deals, and map applications. Two Chinese celebrities also severed ties with the brand.

More: The Global Times, a state-run newspaper, also criticized similar statements about Xinjiang from Nike, Adidas, New Balance, Burberry, and Zara, though none of the companies were subject to the same across-the-board removal as H&M.

Even More: The U.S., EU, & Canada issued joint sanctions against China on Monday.

📱 Social Media CEOs Testify

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey testified for more than five hours before the House Energy and Commerce Committee yesterday. (Full video.)

• Much of the hearing focused on Section 230, the law that generally shields online platforms from liability for content their users post.

More: Section 230: What It Is, and Why Politicians Want to Change It.

From the Left → Axios

From the Right → WSJ

📝 Jobless Report Card

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell to 684k last week, according to the Department of Labor, the fewest since the pandemic started.

• It marks a decrease from 781k the previous week. The four-week moving average, which smooths out volatility, also fell to a pandemic low of 736k.

More: A total of 18.9M people continued to collect jobless benefits last week. Roughly one-third of those recipients are in extended federal aid programs, meaning they’ve been unemployed for over six months.

🧠 In the Know:

🏀 March Madness Round 3: Both the men’s and women’s tournaments kick off the Sweet Sixteen round tomorrow.

💰 The first-ever NFT - minted by artist Kevin McCoy in 2014 - is on sale for $7M+, according to an exclusive report from Axios.

🐱😎 Furry Friends Friday: The Four-Eyed Feline

"It's just like magic. As soon as the kids see her, they're like, 'Okay, glasses are amazing.'"

Danielle Crull is a pediatric optician in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Most of her patients are between two to five years old – and many of them experience anxiety over wearing glasses for the first time.

• That’s where Danielle’s special coworker comes in: meet Truffles the cat.

Images: Facebook & YouTube

When Danielle adopted Truffles in 2016, she quickly noticed the cat had an affinity for picking up tricks. It was then she had the idea of training Truffles to don a pair of small frames.

• The trick, she hoped, would help her young patients grow more comfortable with the idea of wearing glasses.

Her idea has been a hit, and now Truffles works in the office with mom five days a week.

• The cat has 20 pairs of frames and can demonstrate how to wear, take off, and store the glasses when not wearing them.

“I think animals are healing in so many different ways, I can tell Truffles really feels like, ‘This is what I do. This is me.'”