Good morning and welcome back. Today is 2/22/2022 – or in other words, Twos-day.

On today’s docket:

• The UK is dropping Covid restrictions
• There’s been an organ transplant breakthrough
• Family Dollar has a rat problem

... and more.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 4.63 minutes to read.

"Goodness is the only investment that never fails."

–Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

🚚 Ottawa police removed the final ‘Freedom Convoy’ protesters from the city’s downtown area and towed their vehicles over the weekend. By Sunday evening, officials declared that all roads were clear after arresting 191 demonstrators and impounding 57 vehicles.

• Canadian PM Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act earlier in the week, giving police the authority to declare the blockades illegal, tow away trucks, arrest the drivers, suspend their licenses, and freeze their bank accounts.
• In all, officials said they froze 206 financial products (including bank and corporate accounts), requested that virtual currency exchangers block transactions to-and-from 253 bitcoin addresses, and froze a payment processing account valued at $3.8 million. It’s unclear what will happen to the money.
• The 24-day protest in the country’s capital city initially targeted a vaccine-or-quarantine mandate for truckers crossing the US-Canada border, but later broadened into a widespread critique of Covid restrictions and Trudeau's policies.
• Canadian truckers also blocked travel across the Ambassador bridge connecting Windsor, Ontario to Detroit, MI, for a week until a Canadian court ordered them to disperse. The bridge’s closure cost the auto industry alone ~$300 million.

🇨🇦 Looking ahead... Canadian PM Justin Trudeau said the emergency powers he invoked last week are still needed for the next few days, because the "situation is still fragile".

+Zoom out: Other anti-government protests cropped up across Canada over the weekend, including hundreds of demonstrators who gathered in British Columbia.

Some Covid restrictions in Ontario – where Ottawa is located – and other provinces have been lifted in recent weeks due to high vaccination rates, decreasing cases and decreasing hospitalizations.

+Dig deeper: From the Left | From the Right | See the 360º View

🐷 McDonald’s on Sunday confirmed that billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn has nominated two members to its board of directors in a push to change the way the company’s pork suppliers treat pregnant pigs.

• In 2012, McDonald’s promised to phase out the practice of keeping pregnant sows in small gestational crates. The WSJ revealed earlier this month that Icahn had quietly pushed for that change behind the scenes.
• Now, the Humane Society and Icahn – whose daughter used to work there – are claiming the fast-food giant is simply working to reduce the practice rather than end it.
• In a statement McDonald’s said it expects to source 85% to 90% of its US pork volumes from “sows not housed in gestation crates during pregnancy” by the end of this year, and 100% by the end of 2024.
• The company also mentioned that Icahn is a majority owner of pork supplier Viskase and hasn’t publicly called on them to adopt similar commitments.

🧠 In the know: Icahn reportedly owns just 200 McDonald’s shares (worth ~$50,000). The activist investor typically acquires eight- or nine-figure stakes in the companies he targets.

It’s unusual for activist investors with such a small stake to gain traction. But last spring, a hedge fund called Engine No. 1 won three seats on Exxon Mobil’s board – despite holding just a 0.02% stake in the company – after arguing it should commit to carbon neutrality.

🫁 Researchers in Toronto succeeded in converting multiple pairs of lungs from one blood type to another using a combination of different technologies, according to a new paper published last week in Science Translational Medicine.

• There are four major blood type groups: A, B, O, and AB. For any organ transplant to work, the donor needs to have a blood type that’s compatible with the recipient.
• Type O is often referred to as the ‘universal donor’, since it’s compatible with all other types.
• On the flip side, those with type O blood can only receive transplants from people with the same blood type, which can be found in ~45% of Americans.
• In this experiment, medical researchers at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute managed to turn eight type-A lungs into type-O lungs.
• "There are situations where we may get a B donor, but we don't have a B recipient," said Marcelo Cypel, a professor of surgery at the University of Toronto and lead author of the paper. "If we could use that organ in any of the patients in our waitlist, then we would always have a patient to receive that organ."

📸 The big picture: Scientists hope this technique can eventually be adapted to change the blood types of all organs, not just lungs. More than 106,000 Americans are currently waiting for an organ transplant, with average times ranging from a few months to a few years depending on the organ.

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🇳🇴 The Beijing Olympics are officially over. Norway was the clear winner this year, leading in both overall medal count and total number of golds.

• In one of the final events, Finland beat Russia in men's hockey to capture its first gold medal in the sport.
• Figure skating’s international governing body is backing a proposal to raise the minimum age from 15 to 17 in the wake of reactions by – and towards – several young Russian figure skaters in the final competition, including 15-year-old Kamila Valieva.
• An average of 12.2 million people watched the Olympics on NBC, cable or Peacock during primetime through early last week, according to Nielsen data. That’s a decrease of 42% compared 2018 and good for the lowest-rated Olympics ever – but NBC's streaming audience hit an all-time high.
• Team USA athletes also generated far less interest on social media this year than athletes who competed in last year’s Summer Olympics, per data from CrowdTangle.

👀 Looking ahead… The Olympics head to Paris in summer 2024, Italy in winter 2026, Los Angeles in summer 2028, TBD in winter 2030, and Brisbane, Australia, in summer 2032.

💬 Quoted… “I deem it necessary to make a decision that should have been made a long time ago.”

Yesterday evening, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced he will recognize two breakaway “republics” in eastern Ukraine, where separatists have waged a low-scale war against the Ukrainian gov’t with military backing from Moscow since declaring independence in 2014.

• Many say the move could be a de-facto declaration of war, as the separatists don’t hold all of the territory they claim.
• The US said it will impose new sanctions on the regions in response.

🔢 Stat of the day: Crypto analytics firm Chainalysis has identified 4,068 criminals that hold more than $1 million in crypto. Collectively, their wallets contain $25+ billion.

🤯 Did you know?… In many countries where nearly all media is blocked, the popular video game Minecraft is still accessible.

• To take advantage of this, Reporters Without Borders created “The Uncensored Library,” a huge Minecraft map where those without freedom of press can access uncensored journalism.

📖 Worth a read… The Elaborate Con That Tricked Dozens Into Working for a Fake Design Agency → (BBC)

• 👆 A 7-inch, 10 oz piece of fruit set the Guinness World Record for heaviest strawberry.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🏦 Leaked documents from Credit Suisse going back 70 years claim the second-largest bank in Switzerland broke international banking rules by holding funds linked to crime and corruption.
• 💵 Family Dollar temporarily closed over 400 stores in six southern states after the discovery of 1,000+ dead rodents and other safety violations at a distribution center.
• 📱 Truth Social, former President Trump’s new social media platform, launched in the App Store late Sunday. (From the Left | From the Right)

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🍿 Sony’s Uncharted starring Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg topped the domestic box office, earning $51M over the extended four-day weekend; Dog starring Channing Tatum came in second with $18 million.
• 🎤 Kanye West’s new album Donda 2 drops today; it’s exclusively available on Ye’s $200 Stem Player, a physical device that lets users customize tracks.
• 🏀 Team LeBron beat Team Durant 163-160 in the NBA All-Star Game thanks to 16 threes from Steph Curry; the Knicks’ Obi Toppin won the Slam Dunk Contest; the Timberwolves’ Karl Anthony-Towns won the Three-Point Contest.
• 🏇 Medina Spirit was officially disqualified as the winner of the 2021 Kentucky Derby for testing positive for a banned substance.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🦖 Paleontologists in Argentina have identified a new type of ‘armless’ dinosaur.
• 🚫📝 The US Copyright Office rejected a request to let an AI copyright a work of art.
• 🌊 NASA is exploring the deepest parts of the ocean; the aim is to test its equipment for outer space and search for clues about alien life on other planets.

BEST OF THE REST

• ​​👑 Queen Elizabeth II, 95, tested positive for Covid and has "mild cold-like symptoms".
• 🥑 Fresh avocado imports from Mexico have resumed following a threat made to a USDA employee earlier this month.
• 🎓 Yale Law School will cover full tuition for its lowest-income students starting this fall.
• 🦠 Covid: California became the first state to formally shift to treating the virus as endemic. | The UK will lift all of its remaining Covid restrictions, PM Boris Johnson announced yesterday.

+So it begins... The New York Times has added ad-tracking to Wordle.

Last week, Brittney Johnson made history as the first Black woman to assume the leading role of Glinda on Broadway as part of the smash hit Wicked. 

• Brittney had understudied the role for multiple years, always dreaming of taking over full-time. 

“I’m really excited for people to be able to see someone who looks like them onstage, wearing the crown,” she told NBC News.

🤔 Two Truths and a Lie on Twos-day: One of the following facts is incorrect. Can you guess which one?

1. As of Monday evening, 49 states had announced plans to drop their indoor mask mandates
2. Whiskey is on pace to replace vodka as America's favorite liquor within a few years
3. Facebook stock has lost nearly 45% of its value over the past six months

🧠 Daily Trivia: How many films have Al Pacino and Robert De Niro appeared in together? Bonus points if you can name them.

(keep scrolling for the answer)

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Two Truths and a Lie: #2 is incorrect, but we didn’t completely make it up. Tequila – not whiskey – is on pace to replace vodka as America’s favorite liquor within a few years.

Trivia: 4; The Godfather Part II (1974), Heat (1995), Righteous Kill (2008), and The Irishman (2019).

+One dad joke for the road: Whenever I go to funerals, I always say "plethora". People tell me it means a lot to them. (Credit: @dadsaysjokes)