Good morning and welcome to DONUT Friday. (Don’t worry, we didn’t skip a day. Our workweeks just run Sunday–Thursday.) If you’re anything like us, your favorite day probably falls on the weekend… and do you know what’s cool about that?

The best part of the week is yet to come.😎🥳 🗓

On today’s docket:

• Belgium has some new labor laws
• Google made a big privacy announcement
• And we’re testing a new DONUT Holes format – hit reply and let us know what you think

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 4.64 minutes to read. It’s all fun and games from there.

"Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder."

–Rumi (1207-1273)

📅🇧🇪 Yesterday, Belgium became the latest country to give workers the option to request a four-day workweek from their employers as part of an overhaul of the country’s labor laws. Employees in the country now also have the right to turn off work devices and ignore work-related messages after hours without fear of reprisal.

• Officials said the moves are an attempt to incentivize more Belgians to work. The country’s employment rate stood at ~71% in late 2021, and the government hopes to increase that number to 80% by 2030.
• If Belgium’s trade unions agree to the new rules, employees can opt to work for a max of 10 hours a day – instead of eight – to accrue extra time towards a three-day weekend or lighter hours the following week(s). There would be no reduction in workers’ pay.
• Any employer that turns down a request for a shorter workweek would have to provide “solid reasons” in writing for doing so.

🌍 Zoom out: Dozens of companies in the UK, Spain, Australia, and New Zealand are currently experimenting with four-day workweeks as part of government-sponsored pilot programs, similar to ones previously carried out in Iceland and Japan.

A handful of US companies have adopted a four-day workweek, but they still represent a tiny portion of the overall market. Earlier this year, the United Arab Emirates implemented a shortened 4.5-day workweek for government employees.

+Dig deeper: The Four Day Workweek: A 360° View

📱 Yesterday, Google announced plans to adopt new privacy restrictions that cut back on companies tracking users across different apps on Android smartphones.

• The tech giant declined to provide many details about the new system, except that it’ll be more privacy focused and designed with help from the industry itself.
• Google also committed to supporting the current tracking method for at least the next two years.
• Right now, people using Android devices are assigned special IDs that advertisers use to build a behavioral profile of the user, eventually placing highly-targeted ads on their screen.
• In April 2021, Apple moved to restrict such practices on iPhones by adding a pop-up that prompts users to either allow or prevent an app from tracking them. Per mobile analytics firm Flurry, US users opt out of tracking over 80% of the time.

📉 Zoom out: Earlier this month, Facebook said Apple’s privacy change will cost the social media giant $10 billion this year in lost ad revenue. The following day Facebook lost more than $230 billion in market value, the biggest single-day drop in Wall Street history.

FB is reportedly more receptive to Google’s proposed changes due to its collaborative approach and long time frame.

+On Capitol Hill: Democrats in the House and Senate introduced bills last month that would effectively ban most forms of targeted advertising.

+Elsewhere: Google announced a new plan for replacing Chrome web browser cookies last month after its initial proposal received pushback from privacy advocates.

📉📈 The Justice Department is investigating whether some short-sellers used illegal trading tactics while sharing damaging research reports to cash in on their bets against companies’ stocks, per the WSJ. The group being investigated reportedly includes renowned short-sellers Carson Block and Andrew Left.

• Previous analysis suggests that in the moments around the release of certain short-seller reports, heavy volumes of sell orders were sent to stock exchanges and then canceled within fractions of a second – a tactic known as ‘spoofing.’
• Spoofing is essentially high-speed bluffing where one trader dupes others into buying or selling at artificially high or low prices.
• They do so by placing large buy/sell orders, then quickly canceling and doing the opposite of whatever they just committed to, reaping the benefit of the market’s reaction to their initial (fake) order.
• The practice was outlawed in 2010, around the time when a spoofing-inspired ‘flash crash’ caused US markets to lose and then quickly regain nearly $1 trillion in value. By 2020, the DOJ had charged 20 people with spoofing-related crimes and collected more than $1 billion in fines.

+Dig deeper: What is short-selling?

Sooner than many of us would like, our children will be running the show that is this world (why can’t they just stay little?! 😭).

That’s why it’s important to do everything we can to encourage them to dream big and shoot for the stars.🚀🌎

🤔 A point of concern… Women leaders are underrepresented across many mediums, including children’s clothing. This contributes to many girls developing self-limiting beliefs as early as age 5.

🙌 A brand striving for change… Piccolina is a kids’ lifestyle brand that empowers all children to be brave, kind, and curious!

Piccolina aims to put an end to how society perpetuates gender stereotypes and limits children’s interests. Their products feature original conversation-sparking artwork with enriching themes, such as:

• Science 👩‍🔬
• Engineering ⚙
• Art 🎨
• Math ✏
• Civil rights and more! 🌎

👍 It’s good to give back… Piccolina donates 1% of its sales to non-profit partners supporting children in need.

Their efforts are turning heads too. Piccolina was recognized as one of Fast Company’s “World’s Most Innovative Companies of 2021” and featured in Oprah’s Favorite Things!🏆👏

Check out Piccolina's 20% site-wide sale today!

⛸️🇷🇺 The 15-year-old Russian leads the women’s Olympic figure skating individual competition heading into the medal round starting at 5 a.m. ET this morning.

Earlier this week, the highest legal body in global sports ruled she should be allowed to compete despite failing a pre-Olympic drug test for trimetazidine, a banned heart medication known to increase endurance.

🤔📋 Details, details... The arbitration panel said it sided with the Russian Olympic Committee over the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), International Olympic Committee (IOC), and US officials for three reasons:

1. Valieva is considered a “protected person” because she’s under 16 years old
2. She would suffer “irreparable harm” if suspended and later found innocent
3. She didn’t have enough time for a full legal process before the Games

If Valieva ends up being ruled ineligible as a result of either Russia or WADA’s ongoing investigations, she and/or Russia could be stripped of their gold medals from the team event, along with any singles medal she may have won. The IOC this week said no medal ceremonies would be held in any event where Valieva came in the top three.

+Other Olympic news:

• Day 12 saw Team USA's medal tally rise to 19, including eight golds; Norway still leads both categories with 28 and 13.
• The US men’s hockey team was eliminated from the Games after going 0-for-5 in an overtime shootout against Slovakia.
• Canada beat the US 3-2 in the women's hockey gold medal match.
• As of Wednesday night, women had won 13 out of Team USA’s 19 medals, with four coming in mixed events.

💬 Quoted… “I insulted your dark lord Putin by not only surviving, but by returning. Now, he will increase my prison terms forever.”

A new trial against Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny began Tuesday; the longtime political foe of President Vladimir Putin was arrested immediately upon returning to Russia in January 2021 after he spent five months recovering from nerve agent poisoning in Germany.

• Navalny is facing up to 15 years in prison on charges of fraud and contempt of court, which he says are politically motivated. He also blames his poisoning on the Kremlin, which has a history of similar attacks.

🔢 Stat of the day: US casinos raked in $53 billion in 2021, their best year on record by 21%.

🤯 Did you know?… The new Hummer EV’s battery weighs more than an entire Honda Civic (2,923 pounds).

📖 Worth a read… He Was Going to Win Olympic Gold. Then He Skied the Wrong Way → (WSJ)

• 👆 The first images from NASA’s newest space explorer show the remnants of a famous supernova (or exploding star) called Cassiopeia A.

BUSINESS, TECH & MARKETS

• 📈 US retail sales rose 3.8% last month after dropping 2.5% in December.
• 🏠 The average loan to purchase a home in the US rose to a record $453,000 last week; US home prices were up 18.5% year-over-year in December.
• 📉 Roblox stock logged its worst day ever (-26.51%) following a lackluster earnings report.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 📺 Allison Gollust resigned as Chief Marketing Officer of CNN over her previously undisclosed relationship with former President Jeff Zucker, who stepped down earlier this month for the same reason; their relationship came to light after an investigation into former anchor Chris Cuomo.
• 🎮 Nintendo announced that by late March 2023, Wii U and Nintendo 3DS owners will no longer have access to the eShop; up to 1,000 digital-only games will reportedly vanish when the change goes into effect.
• 🦈 “Baby Shark” announced a feature-length film coming to Paramount+ in 2023; the popular YouTube video hit a record ten billion views last month.

SCIENCE & SPACE

• 🌊 ​​A 58-foot-tall rogue wave that briefly reared up in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Canada in 2020 was the "most extreme" version of the phenomenon ever recorded, scientists now say.
• 🐀❄️ Researchers found that activating a specific receptor in the brain can reduce cocaine use in rodents.
• 🌌 Astronomers discovered the largest radio galaxy ever; it’s at least 16 million light years long.

BEST OF THE REST

• 💡🚘 US regulators approved new adaptive driving beam headlights that automatically tailor beams so they focus on dark areas of the road and reduce glare for oncoming drivers.
• 🎤 Coachella and Stagecoach are dropping all Covid restrictions.
• 🎓💰 The best – and worst – paying college majors five years after graduation, according to the New York Federal Reserve.

Yes – “As humans, we have a right to come together when we disagree with government practices. I believe the Canadian government is overreaching and the truckers’ response displays the degree to which they are.”

No – “In theory, the truckers' right to protest is protected by Canada's Charter, but there are concerns around their methods. Protesters initially prevented access to hospitals, plus the blocking of the US border also infringed upon others’ right to work or move.”

Unsure/Other – “I'm entirely okay with protesting, but if it becomes violent or results in people not receiving what they need then I think it becomes inappropriate.”

+Note on sample size: We received 4,750 responses. 👏🥳 Some may have been lightly edited for grammar or clarity.

February is all about celebrating the history and achievements of the Black community. 

🏆 Skating into history... This week, American athlete Erin Jackson became the first Black woman to win an Olympic medal in speed skating after a nail-biting finish in which she won gold by less than one-tenth of a second.

• "I think what she did tonight is going to be a springboard to give so many little girls and boys the opportunity to look up to someone that they haven't been able to look at and relate to," Erin's teammate Brittany Bowe shared with Reuters after the race.  

Out of these eight letters, find one six-letter word, three five-letter words, and five four-letter words.👇

FIDCMRAE

(answer at the bottom of the email)

True or false: Sound travels faster in air than in water.

(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:

It's false. Sound waves travel faster in denser substances – like water compared to air – because neighboring particles can more easily bump into one another.

• There are ~800 times more particles in a bottle filled with water than in the same bottle filled with air.

Today's Puzzle:

Six letters: FARMED, FIRMED, FRAMED, CRIMED, MEDICA, ADMIRE, CARDIE, FAIRED, CARIED (fun fact: the last one is an obsolete form of the word “carried.” So you’ve been spelling it right all along😉)

Five letters: DECAF, FACED, FAMED, MEDIC, CRAME, CRIME, FADER, AIMED, ARMED

Four letters: CAFE, FACE, FAME, FERM, CRAM, FADE, MARC, MICE, MICA, ACID, CARD, DACE, FAER, FIRE, REAM, FIRM