Good morning. According to an informal DONUT HQ poll, Tuesday has surpassed Monday as the most-hated day of the week – but it doesn’t have to be that way moving forward.

You see, every Tuesday around lunchtime we send out a free newsletter called Positive DONUT. It’s packed to the brim with nothing but non-cheesy good news that’ll make you cheese, plus all the necessary ingredients to turn a frown upside down… for ~4 minutes, at least.

Let’s make hating Monday mainstream again. 

Sign up to receive Positive DONUT here.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 3.92 minutes to read.

"We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible."

–Vince Lombardi (1913-1970)

🇺🇦 The fourth round of peace talks between Ukrainian and Russian officials were held virtually yesterday.

• As the discussion extended into the evening, both sides agreed to a “technical pause” and will resume negotiations today.
• More than 2.8 million people have fled Ukraine, according to the UN’s refugee agency, with over 1.7 million people ending up in neighboring Poland.
• US national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with his Chinese counterpart yesterday amidst reports that Russia asked Beijing for military equipment and other assistance to support its invasion.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is scheduled to address Congress virtually on Wednesday.

How the invasion is impacting…

🇷🇺 The Economy: Russian prosecutors have reportedly issued warnings to Western companies within the country – including Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and IBM – threatening to arrest corporate leaders who speak out against Moscow and seize the assets of businesses that withdraw from Russia.

🛢️ Oil & Gas: Oil fell below $100 per barrel for a brief period yesterday before closing at $106.90 (-5.1%). 

• The average price of a gallon of gas in the US is currently $4.325 – up nearly 30 cents from a week ago, and over 80 cents from a month ago.

📈📉 Markets: US stocks rose early in the day, but by mid-afternoon all three major indexes had lost those gains. (Dow: ±0% | S&P: –0.7% | Nasdaq: -2.0% )

• The Russian stock market, which has been closed since February 25, won’t reopen this week.

+The latest news: From the Left | From the Right

🏛️💊 The House Committee on Oversight and Reform asked the departments of Justice and the Treasury to look into the tax deductions of four pharma companies involved in a multi-billion-dollar opioid settlement.

• Last month, Johnson & Johnson, AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson agreed to pay a collective $26 billion to settle claims they fueled the ongoing opioid epidemic, though none of the companies acknowledged any wrongdoing as part of the deal.
• The House committee is asking the federal agencies to investigate tax breaks ranging from $974 million to $1.4 billion that all four pharma giants are seeking to offset some of the costs of the settlement.
• Lawmakers said they're concerned these deduction plans could place an "improper burden on taxpayers."
• For their part, the pharma companies say they’ve been very upfront in their approach to seeking deductions, which they claim are permissible under federal law.

🧠 In the know: US law is uncertain about these types of tax breaks. Most firms push for settlements to include a “restitution” payment for victims, which often qualifies them for deductions.

China has ordered roughly 51 million people into Covid lockdown for at least a week, impacting its entire northeastern province of Jilin and the southern tech and manufacturing hubs of Shenzhen and Dongguan. It's the largest full-scale lockdown in the country since Wuhan and its neighbors did so in early 2020.

🤔 Why it’s a big deal: Since the pandemic began, the world’s second-biggest economy has followed a “zero-Covid” policy, repeatedly locking down entire cities (or sections of them) and ordering factories to suspend operations.

The closed factories cause production snags in various industries, which then impact consumers (aka us).

• When authorities halted operations at a port in Shenzhen last June because of Covid, it caused a shipping backlog that took months to ease. One exec at shipping giant Maersk told Fortune that the closure was “a much bigger disruption than the Ever Given getting stuck in the Suez Canal.”

🚫🏭 Some of the companies who’ve halted operations in the last week:

• Apple
• Foxconn, a major assembler of iPhones
• Volkswagen
• Toyota
• More than 40 Taiwan-based makers of semiconductors and other electronic components

👀 Looking ahead… Shenzhen, where many of the companies above have operations, is potentially at greater risk of a massive Covid outbreak than other Chinese cities, the WSJ reports. The southern tech and shipping hub shares a border with Hong Kong, which is currently suffering its worst Covid outbreak since the pandemic began.

Overall, China is seeing new cases on levels it hasn’t encountered since early 2020.

🧩 Many unique learners and people with ADHD struggle with the following:

• Staying focused
• Staying engaged
• Fine motor skills

Most computer labs and equipment do little to help this matter. They're usually beige, boring and lifeless.🥱

Furthermore, keyboards and mice don’t provide the physical stimulation that many kids with Autism Spectrum Disorder need to stay engaged – and trackpads require fine motor skills they often don’t have.

🦔 That’s exactly why our pals at Hedgehog Health developed the Hoglet.🙌

The Hoglet is both visually and physically stimulating, and serves as a functional fidget that helps with the task without distracting others.

• Fidgeting has been proven to improve focus for certain individuals, especially those with ADHD.

👍 Hedgehog Health believes we all learn differently, and they strive to cater to unique learners.

Visit the Hedgehog Health shop today!

🤝 Discovery+ and HBO Max will eventually combine into a single streaming service after Discovery’s merger with Warner Bros. is finalized, the CFO of the newly-combined company revealed yesterday.

• The $43 billion merger is set to close next quarter after receiving approval from the US, EU and shareholders.
• CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels said the two streaming services will be bundled together immediately upon finalizing the merger (similar to Disney bundling Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN).
• Then, at some point down the road, HBO Max and Discovery+ will be melded into one offering. What that solution will look like is still relatively unclear.
• The future combined streaming service, which has yet to be named, will come with both ad-free and ad-supported options; specific pricing hasn't been determined.
• Discovery+ had 22 million worldwide subscribers at the end of last year, while HBO reported nearly 74 million global subs.

💬 What they’re saying: “The combination could not make more sense than what we’re doing here [to increase our appeal]… We have HBO Max, with a more premium, male-skewing positioning, and then you’ve got the female-positioning on the Discovery side,“ said Wiedenfels.

• ☝️ Protestors occupied a west-London mansion allegedly owned by Oleg Deripaska, a sanctioned Russian oligarch; they were later arrested by UK police.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🐦 Twitter is beta testing a shopping feature that lets users browse products within the app; sellers can directly list up to 50 items.
• 📺 TV-ratings firm Nielsen Holdings​​ is in advanced talks to sell to a group of private-equity firms for $15 billion including debt, per the WSJ.
• 📉 Netflix’s stock has now given up all its pandemic gains.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 📱 Google shut down YouTube Vanced, a popular ad-blocking Android app.
• 🎤 Dolly Parton bowed out of her 2022 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nomination, saying she hopes to be reconsidered after releasing “a hopefully great rock 'n' roll album at some point in the future.”
• 🚀 Pete Davidson is heading to space on Blue Origin’s fourth human flight next Wednesday.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🇬🇧 A new UK study found people became less materialistic and money-focused during the pandemic.
• 🌎🛰️ NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, who’s currently onboard the ISS, will still return to Earth on a Russian spacecraft later this month despite ongoing tensions between the two countries.

EVERYTHING ELSE

• 🥊 Elon Musk challenged Vladimir Putin to one-on-one combat to decide the fate of Ukraine. (We’re not making this up.)
• ⚖️ WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was denied permission to appeal a UK court’s decision to extradite him to the US.
• 👮 Authorities in NYC and DC are investigating a series of homicides targeting homeless men; officials have linked the killings to a single person.
• 💋 From Me To You, a hot, new weekly podcast, travels to bada** women taking their industries and lives by storm. Listen to raw – yet hilarious – convos, as host Annabel gains intimate VIP access into the lives of influencers, beauty gurus & more. Check it out here.*

*This is sponsored advertising content

💬 Quoted… “I have come to the conclusion that I am unable to support her nomination to serve as a member of the Federal Reserve Board.”

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said he opposes President Biden’s nomination of Sarah Bloom Gaskin to the Federal Reserve, effectively dooming her candidacy in the 50-50 Senate. 

+Dig deeper: From the Left | From the Right

🏘️ Stats of the Day: The number of US homes worth more than $1 million has nearly doubled since just before the start of the pandemic, from 4.8% in February of 2020 to 8.2% last month.

• Fun fact: About nine out of every ten properties in San Francisco and San Jose fall into the $1+ million category.

🤯 Did You Know?... For every one person currently on earth, there are roughly 15 dead people.

📖 Worth a Read: The Perfect March Madness Bracket: Why it's Nearly Impossible → (SportingNews)

The Utah Jazz's home stadium is the Vivint Arena, which can seat up to 18,000 spectators each game. 

🏟️ Mi casa es su casa... The Utah Jazz Foundation recently announced a partnership with Airbnb to provide short-term housing for Ukrainian refugees. The goal? To support enough people to fill the stadium two times over.

• By funding 32,000+ nights of housing for refugees, the foundation hopes their contribution will help Ukranian families and communities through their time of need.

❓ Riddle Me This: Think of a word with six letters. If you take away one letter, you’re left with twelve. What is the word?

🦸 Trivia: Which superhero did Michael Jackson want to play when he took steps to buy Marvel in the 1990s?

(keep scrolling for the answers)

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:

Riddle: “Dozens”

Trivia: Spider-Man, as confirmed by Stan Lee himself.