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Good morning. Today, we have a game for you. Here’s how it works:
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We’ll use nothing but emojis to spell out a sentence.
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You try to guess what we’re saying.
Ready?
❌ 🧮 🐔 🐔 🐣
Scroll for the answer.
⏰🚀 Ready, Set, Go: Today’s newsletter takes 4.94 minutes to read. (With the 360 view: 7.37 minutes.)
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🍩 Daily Sprinkle
“I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took an excuse.”
–Florence Nightingale
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🗣👂 Dose of Discussion
🌎 The Intersection of Climate Change, Government, & Business
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A Dutch court on Wednesday issued a first-of-its-kind ruling ordering Royal Dutch Shell to reduce its carbon emissions 45% by 2030, compared with 2019 levels.
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The court didn’t stipulate how the company should achieve the ordered results, saying Shell has “total freedom to comply with its reduction obligation as it sees fit.”
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The order also didn’t say how the court might monitor or enforce its ruling.
🇺🇸 In the U.S.
Also on Wednesday, Exxon Mobil Corp. shareholders voted to award at least two board seats to a brand-new activist hedge fund called Engine No. 1, which was formed last year with the express purpose of seeking a public commitment from Exxon to reduce carbon emissions.
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Elsewhere, more than 100 companies - most of them U.S.-based - have joined The Climate Pledge, an initiative launched by Amazon in 2019 with the goal of its signees achieving net-zero emissions by 2040.
⏭️ What’s Next?
From the WSJ: “Lawyers said the ruling, which Shell said it expects to appeal, could set a precedent in other Western jurisdictions, particularly in Europe, opening oil companies to new legal jeopardy over their carbon emissions.” 
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👇📰 Quick Bits
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🦠 Investigation into COVID Origins
President Biden ordered the U.S. intelligence community to “redouble their efforts” to investigate the origins of COVID-19 - first discovered in Wuhan, China - and provide a report “that could bring us closer to a definite conclusion” within the next 90 days.
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In a statement, the White House said the intelligence community had “coalesced” around two scenarios: the virus emerged from 1) human contact with an infected animal or 2) a lab accident.
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The statement went on to say “the majority of elements do not believe there is sufficient information to assess one to be more likely than the other.”
More: Biden’s announcement came days after the WSJ reported previously undisclosed U.S. intelligence that three researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology were ill enough to be hospitalized in November 2019.
From the Left: NPR
From the Right: WSJ
From the DONUT: A 360º look at the origins of COVID.
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📝 Facebook Disinformation Report
Images: FB
A report from Facebook published Wednesday revealed the company has discovered campaigns of “coordinated inauthentic behavior” (CIB) in more than 50 countries since 2017.
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The social media giant found one-third of the 150 CIB networks it shut down from 2017-2020 originated in Russia (27) or Iran (23).
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Facebook also found the U.S. was the most popular target of CIB networks removed during that time by a wide margin.
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🎂 Predicting the Max Human Lifespan
The max lifespan for humans lies between 120 years and 150 years, according to a peer-reviewed study published in Nature Communications on Tuesday.
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Researchers at human life extension startup Gero took a variety of measurements from adults in the U.S., UK, and Russia, including blood cell counts and the number of steps taken per day.
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They found that regardless of external factors, or nationality, these numbers declined with age – leading to a loss of biological resilience to things like disease, stress, or injury.
The study concluded this decline in resilience signals “the end of life is an intrinsic biological property of an organism,” which “signifies a fundamental or absolute limit to human lifespan.”
From Scientific American: “They are asking the question of ‘What’s the longest life that could be lived by a human complex system if everything else went really well, and it’s in a stressor-free environment?’”
More: The world’s oldest officially recorded person is Jeanne Calment, a French citizen who passed away at 122 years and 164 days old.
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DONUT Holes…
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🚡 Three people were arrested in Italy in response to a cable car disaster on Sunday leaving 14 dead; investigators found the car was operating with a faulty brake system.
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🙈👍 Facebook and Instagram now offer the ability for users to hide their own like counts.
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🏌️🏈 Phil Mickelson & Tom Brady are facing off against Bryson DeChambeau and Aaron Rodgers in a celebrity golf match on July 6.
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💰 Ford plans to spend $30B on electric vehicles by 2025 (up from a previous $22B commitment); also expects EVs will make up 40% of its production by 2030.
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🚢 Royal Caribbean is testing its COVID-19 prevention measures with a "simulated cruise" using volunteer passengers.
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📽️ Amazon agreed to purchase MGM for $8.45B including debt; e-commerce giant gains access to over 4,000 movies and 17,000 TV shows including the James Bond and Rocky film franchises.
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🖼 Laurence des Cars will become the Louvre’s first female president in its 228-year history.
+Bonus: Friends: The Reunion hits HBO Max today.
Today's Game Answer:
❌ 🧮 🐔 🐔 🐣 = Don't count your chickens before they hatch.
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📸 Pic of the Day
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Image: Eraldo Peres/AP |
☝️ The moon at dawn in Brasila.
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The first total lunar eclipse in more than two years occurred yesterday. It also coincided with a supermoon.
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📙 Definition: A supermoon is a new or full moon closely coinciding with perigee, the moon’s closest point to Earth in its monthly orbit. There are only usually three or four supermoons in a year, but between 2020 and 2025 there will be four each year.
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Per NPR: “The moon takes on a red hue as it aligns with the sun and Earth and passes fully into Earth's shadow, or umbra. The distinct bloodlike color is caused by red-orange light refracted [from sunrises & sunsets] through the Earth's atmosphere.”
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📣🗣💬 This Week’s Poll Responses
Background: As of yesterday, more than 61.5% of Americans over the age of 18 have been fully or partially vaccinated, per the CDC.
I have been fully or partially vaccinated – "I'm so thankful and so much more at ease. I have vulnerable people in my life, so I am grateful for science and that we can all be together without fear. This virus is so unpredictable. I've seen people who were healthy have horrible side effects from this virus, and I've seen people with pre-existing conditions have very mild symptoms. The unpredictability is what drove me and my family and friends to get vaccinated."
Haven’t been vaccinated yet but I plan to at some point – "I'm not against getting vaccinated - I believe in science and believe that vaccinations help. The thing is, I want more data because we are still in an 'unknown' area. We don't know what a year after being vaccinated looks like - what happens in 5 years? I've realized I believe in vaccines because of the insane amount of data that's shown."
Do not ever plan on getting it – "I’m not at risk. I’ve had COVID and I have a positive antibody COVID test. We don’t know how long the antibodies last with the vaccine or natural antibodies from having COVID so I don’t see how one is better than the other. We also don’t know the long term effect of COVID or the vaccine so why would I choose to have both unknowns."
Unsure/Other – "Love vaccines. I think that all past vaccines have had the research aided by an extended timetable proving the unlikeliness of side effects. Specifically as it comes to fertility, or possible side effects to pregnancy, there has not been any data released, because the vaccine has not been around long enough to have such data. Since I am not willing to risk my future family... I will continue to use masks and lysol the heck out of our lives as we 'wait and see.'"
+Note on Sample Size: We received 1,029 responses. 👏🥳 Some may have been lightly edited for grammar or clarity.
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This week brought an onslaught of opinions so incredible, well thought-out, and eye-opening in today’s age of division and filter bubbles, we thought we’d post an extended version.
Read more responses.
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🤗 Daily Dose of Positive
📺 That’s My Mama
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Image: Lisa Wright
Lisa Wright’s favorite show growing up in the 70’s was ABC’s That’s My Mama – but little did she know, one of the actresses on the screen actually was her mama.
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Adopted as a newborn in a closed-adoption, Lisa was never able to contact or even know who her birth parents were.
How’d she’d find out? Let’s go for a ride. 👇
Keep reading.
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🛸🌄📲 Calling from the Future…
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✈️🌎 Need For Speed…
Image: Nathan Leach-Proffer, Boom Supersonic
As one of only two supersonic transports ever to be operated commercially, the Concorde was a British French airliner that flew from 1976 to 2003 with a top speed more than twice the speed of sound (reaching up to 1,354 mph).
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By the time the Concorde was retired in 2003, a roundtrip ticket on the supersonic jet cost around $12,000 – roughly $20,000 in today's dollars.
Nearly two decades after Concorde’s retirement, startup Boom Supersonic began developing the Overture, a commercial airliner aiming to be twice as fast as traditional subsonic jets, enabling travel from New York to London in three hours and 15 minutes (a trip that normally takes about seven hours).
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The startup plans to begin flights of the Overture in 2026, saying its long-term goal is to offer the opportunity to go “anywhere in the world in four hours for 100 bucks."
Keep reading.
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💡 Dose of Knowledge
🏃 A Run For Your Money
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What is the fastest two-legged animal?
A) Human
B) Ostrich
C) Kangaroo
D) Flamingo
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(keep scrolling for the answer) |
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🍩 Share the DONUT
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Access merch, subscriptions, and even a weekend in Austin with the DONUT team by referring others to this newsletter. Simply:
1. Copy your unique referral link. 👇
2. Post said link on social media, drop it in the group chat, send it to your pet (we’re paw-sitive they’ll love it), etc.
3. Watch the rewards roll in.
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Ambassador Rewards and Progress → |
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💡 Dose of Knowledge Answer
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B) Ostrich
Topping out at speeds of 43 mph, ostriches are quick on their feet — especially considering they average around 250 pounds. They can retain this speed for more than a mile when running on flat land.
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