Good morning and welcome to Wednesday. It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day…

🎶AND I’M FEEEEEELING GOOOOODDDDDD🎶

In today’s email:

• Canada’s PM invoked emergency powers
• Encanto’s soundtrack is putting up serious numbers
• And we’re tackling the toplessness debate

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today's news takes 3.73 minutes to read. Then it’s puzzle time.

"Ideas do not reach perfection in a day, no matter how much study is put upon them."

–Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922)

🇨🇦 Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked emergency powers for the first time in history on Monday. He did so in an effort to end weeks of trucker-inspired anti-Covid restriction protests in Ottawa, the country’s capital, where demonstrators and their vehicles remained gathered.

• The Emergencies Act of 1988 gives the federal government added powers in times of national crisis – specifically, an "urgent and critical situation" that "seriously endangers the lives, health or safety of Canadians."
• For the next 30 days, Trudeau will have the ability to prohibit public assembly and travel, and can allow banks to freeze the accounts of protesters without a court order, among other things.
• Officials said the measures were necessary because of unlawful acts committed by the protesters, as well as the damage done to the economy after they partially blocked the Ambassador Bridge to the US for nearly a week (resulting in losses of ~$300 million within the auto industry alone).
• The premier of Ontario, where Ottawa is located, said he supported Trudeau’s move. But other provincial leaders said the emergency powers weren’t needed in their regions, with some cautioning that invoking them could “throw oil on fire.”

🌎 Zoom out: Copycat trucker protests have also sprung up in Israel, France, Belgium, and New Zealand. There were also reports of a similar US trucker convoy that could have potentially disrupted the Super Bowl in LA before heading to DC, but it hasn’t yet materialized.

+Stepping down: Ottawa’s chief of police resigned yesterday.

+Dig deeper: From the Left | From the Right

🦠 A NYC woman of mixed race appears to be the third person ever cured by doctors of HIV after receiving a transplant of blood stem cells from an adult relative and the umbilical cord of an unrelated newborn. The details of her case were presented yesterday at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections.

• Unlike many people who have HIV but stay healthy by keeping the virus at low levels using drugs, doctors said this woman showed zero detectable signs of HIV in her body after extensive testing.
• The treatment used in her case is likely to be suitable for a wider range of patients than the bone marrow transplants that were used to cure two other people of HIV, since umbilical-cord blood is more widely available and doesn’t have to be as precise of a genetic match.

✋ Yes, but… The researchers stressed that it would be unethical to attempt this treatment on any patient who wasn’t also suffering from a potentially fatal cancer or other condition, since the associated risks and costs are too severe. The woman who was cured also had an aggressive form of leukemia.

🌎 Zoom out: Worldwide, nearly 38 million people are living with HIV, including 1.2+ million Americans.

+Fun fact: Two people have appeared to naturally cure themselves of HIV, with the most recent case detailed in a study published this past November.

🏈📺 Super good ratings… More than 100 million Americans watched Super Bowl LVI on live TV this past Sunday. Across all of NBC’s platforms – including streaming service Peacock – the game drew 112.3 million viewers, making it the most-watched Super Bowl since 2015.

🎤 We don’t talk about Encanto… enough. The Disney film’s soundtrack is No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the fourth straight week and fifth week overall. It also has five individual songs in the Top 40, including We Don’t Talk About Bruno, which remained No. 1 for the third straight week.

📝 The Great Application… Americans filed 5.4 million applications to start new companies in 2021, according to census data. That’s a 53% jump from pre-pandemic levels in 2019. Roughly one-third of the applications were classified as "high-propensity,” meaning they're new businesses that are likely to create additional jobs.

🥉🍿 On the podium… Spiderman: No Way Home officially passed Avatar on Monday to become the third-biggest movie ever at the domestic box office (not adjusted for inflation). The Sony/Marvel collab has now grossed $760.9 million since launching exclusively in theaters in December, more than three times as much as the next highest-grossing movie of the pandemic era, Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which brought in $224 million.

💰 Charity case… According to new securities filings, Elon Musk donated $5.7 billion in Tesla stock to charity last November, making him one of 2021’s top philanthropists. The donation took place amidst a larger series of stock sales by Musk, who sold $16+ billion worth of Tesla shares in the final two months of last year. In December, Musk estimated he would pay over $11 billion in 2021 taxes.

🐶 Many dogs will eat anything and everything, but when it comes to their food, all of a sudden they can get picky.

And we get it. After all, it’s no fun eating the same thing for every meal of every day. 🥱

If you’re looking for a way to spice up your dog’s meals, check out Pupford's Over The Topper Meal Enhancers. They're a convenient way to add variety to your dog’s meals while improving taste and nutrition.

🐾 5 Reasons You’ll Love Them…

• Made using minimal and natural ingredients sourced right here in the USA
• Convenient and easy to use; just add them to your dog’s current food
• High in protein to keep your dog healthy and strong 💪
• Unique freeze-drying production process retains nutrients while killing bacteria
• And unlike toppers from other brands, Pupford uses zero artificial colors.

All Pupford products are backed by “The Pupford Promise”: If anything isn’t right, they’ll fix it! 👍

If you haven’t already, join over a million other pup parents and check out Pupford. They have free training resources and tons of products to help you on your dog-parenting journey!

Use the code DONUT15 to get 15% off Pupford's Toppers and a free gift code!

💬 Quoted… “So far, we have not seen ... any signs of reduced Russian military presence on the borders of Ukraine.”

The US and NATO have been unable to verify Russia’s claim that President Vladimir Putin ordered some troops to pull back from their positions surrounding Ukraine.

🤭 ‘Oops’ of the day: A Phoenix-area priest resigned this month after it was discovered every baptism he had performed was invalid because he changed a single word.

🤯 Did you know?… Voyager 1 has been traveling at speeds upwards of 35,000 MPH for the past 43 years and is still only 20 light hours away from Earth. It would take ~20,000 years for the craft to travel a single light-year, though we'll probably never know about it.

• Voyager 1’s instruments aren’t built to survive that long. The transmitter will be the last to go, but NASA says it’ll eventually give out sometime this decade.

📖 Worth a read… Silicon Valley Is Ready for Robots To Kill Us All → (Vanity Fair)

• 👆 LA’s iconic Hollywood sign has been temporarily changed in honor of the Super Bowl champs.
• 👑 Prince Andrew agreed to settle a sex abuse case brought by Epstein-accuser Virginia Giuffre; the only disclosed term was a “substantial donation” to a charity started by Giuffre that supports sex trafficking victims.
• 🚀 Virgin Galactic announced plans to sell space tourism tickets to the general public beginning today; they start at $450,000 with a $150,000 initial deposit.
• ⚖️ Remington agreed to pay $73 million to the families of victims in the Sandy Hook school shooting to settle claims that its marketing practices were in part responsible. (From the Left | From the Right)
• 🏦 Mazars USA, former President Donald Trump's accounting firm, said it could no longer stand behind financial statements it prepared for the Trump Organization from 2011 to 2020. (From the Left | From the Right)

+Get with the Times: The NYT has changed Wordle’s solutions.

Last week, Adidas highlighted its new collection of sports bras by tweeting a photo grid of 25 different pairs of naked boobs, earning both praise and pushback across the internet. In response to criticism, the company defended the post by arguing, “It’s important to normalize the human body.”

Based on the variety of opinions we stumbled across, the topic we’re tackling today is toplessness – should it be allowed across the board? Only men? Not at all?

⏮ The backstory… In most parts of the US, it’s illegal for adult women to go topless in public due to local laws and regulations, even if it's technically allowed on a state level. Breastfeeding in public is legal and protected by federal and state law in all 50 states.

Only a handful of cities, including Philadelphia and NYC, currently allow women to bare their breasts in public. No such restrictions exist for male toplessness – though it wasn’t always that way.

• Up until the 1930s, both women and men were banned from taking their tops off in public. Then men campaigned for – and eventually won – the right to sunbathe naked from the waist up.
• But that movement also had its haters. A group of New York women told the Associated Press in June of 1936 that they had “no desire to gaze upon hairy chested men.”

🔥 Then, in the 1960s… The “Bra Burning” movement began to gain traction as women advocated for more equal rights across the board. More recently, the phrase “Free the Nipple” has been used to voice support for the women’s topless movement (fun fact: the hashtag is unsearchable on Instagram).

📝 To (over)simplify the arguments: Advocates of “Free the Nipple” point to the oversexualization of women’s bodies, arguing society should work towards removing those stigmas by allowing women to bare their breasts in public without consequence.

• On the other side, some critics contend that allowing bare nipples won’t result in de-sexualization, while others argue the entire movement only serves as a distraction from more pressing women’s issues.

What do you think?

Do you support the ongoing Canadian trucker protests?

Yes

No

Unsure/Other

+Note: A written response isn't required – all you need to do is click one of the links above, and your vote is recorded. Poll results and the best comments for each response will be featured in tomorrow's newsletter.

Ryan Pasborg of Jamestown, VA, was running late for work last week when he was overwhelmed by the smell of smoke – a house fire had erupted inside a neighbor's home. 

• When he realized emergency trucks were nowhere in sight, the 32-year-old quickly ran towards the house and found three children, who told him their mom and youngest brother were still inside. 

🔥🧯 "A real hero"... Ryan entered the blazing house and managed to help both the four-year-old boy and his mother reach safety. 

“There are no words to adequately express the magnitude of Ryan’s bravery,” said the local sheriff. “People like Ryan are a testament to the overwhelming power and strength of community." 👏

Obtain the desired result by adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing the numbers provided below. Each provided number can be used only once, and you don’t necessarily have to use each one.

Set #1:

Numbers: 4, 9, 50, 100

Result: 136

Set #2:

Numbers: 5, 15, 20, 75

Result: 305

Set #3:

Numbers: 1, 2, 5, 10, 25, 50

Result: 902

(answers at the bottom of the email)

What’s the best-selling album of all time?

A) Back in Black by AC/DC

B) Their Greatest Hits by The Eagles

C) The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd

D) Thriller by Michael Jackson

(keep scrolling for the answer)

Check out our referral prizes you can get just for introducing people you know to this newsletter. 👇

Here’s your unique link to copy & send to anyone you think would like the DONUT:

Dose of Knowledge:

D) Thriller by Michael Jackson

It’s estimated to have sold 70 million copies worldwide.

Today's Puzzle:

#1: 4 x 9 = 36; 36 + 100 = 136

#2: 15 x 20 = 300; 300 + 5 = 305

#3: Two possible answers: 50 – 5 = 45; 45 x 10 = 450; 450 + 1 = 451; 451 x 2 = 902 OR 50 – 10 = 40; 40 – 5 = 35; 35 + 1 = 36; 36 x 25 = 900; 900 + 2 = 902

P.S. Did we squeeze enough numbers into this section or what?