Good morning and welcome to Wednesday. This past weekend’s Formula One Bahrain Grand Prix was the most-watched F1 race on ESPN since 1995, attracting more than 1 million US viewers.

Some F1 fun facts:

• The quickest pit stop in history is 1.82 seconds
• The longest is 43 hours, and involved the Mercedes team dislodging the right wheel from Valterri Bottas’ car
• Theoretically, modern cars can drive on an upside-down road (because they create downforce ~3.5x their weight)

With the addition of the last bullet, today’s email now covers cars driving upside down, the fast-growing autonomous plane market and – no joke – a water sommelier… what is the world coming to?!😉

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 4.65 minutes to read.

"The purpose of life is to discover your gift. The work of life is to develop it. The meaning of life is to give your gift away."

–David Viscott (1938-1996)

🇺🇦 Russian troops are on the verge of taking the southeastern city of Mariupol on Day 27 of the invasion, as forces on both sides fought street-by-street through downtown yesterday.

• It would be the first major city to fall under Russian control, though constant shelling has reportedly destroyed between 80% and 90% of Mariupol.
• Ukrainian forces retook the Kyiv suburb of Makariv on Tuesday, according to the country's Defense Ministry.
• Russian and Ukrainian negotiators have met repeatedly in recent days, with little apparent progress on peace talks.
• Officials in Kyiv said around 15,000 Russian troops have been killed since the fighting began; that number hasn’t been independently verified.
• Over 3.5 million refugees have fled Ukraine, per the UN, with 2.1 million of them ending up in neighboring Poland (pop. 38 million).
• National security adviser Jake Sullivan said President Biden would unveil new sanctions against Russia at a NATO meeting in Brussels tomorrow.

How the invasion is impacting…

🚗🚙🛻 Auto sales: Supply chain disruptions made worse by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are expected to cause as much as a 2% decline in global light-vehicle sales this year, according to S&P Global Ratings; the agency had previously predicted sales would rise 4% to 6% in 2022.

☢️ Nuclear energy: Russia enriches more uranium for use in nuclear power plants than any other country in the world. Uranium prices have jumped more than 30% since the start of the war, as the market reacts to fears that sanctions could restrict global access to Russian supply.

Student-loan borrowers were spared $195 billion in loan payments since the federal gov’t froze them at the onset of the pandemic, according to a report released Tuesday by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

• Context: Required federal student loan payments were paused when the pandemic began in 2020, and the forbearance end-date has been extended a number of times.

🔢 By the numbers…

• More than 40 million people owe ~$1.6 trillion in federal student debt, an amount larger than credit-card or auto debt. Federal loans make up more than 90% of outstanding student debt.
• Nearly 80% of federal borrowers made no payments during the pandemic freeze.
• Private borrowers experienced 33% higher delinquency on non-student, non-mortgage debt after exiting forbearance than the federal borrowers whose payments remained frozen.

👀 Looking ahead… Required federal payments are scheduled to restart in a little over a month. And afterward?

“[Federal loan] holders have higher debt balances, lower credit scores, and were making less progress on repayment than [private] borrowers prior to the pandemic,” per the report.

• “As such, we believe that [federal loan] borrowers are likely to experience a meaningful rise in delinquencies, both for student loans and for other debt, once forbearance ends.”
• But there may be another extension coming: The Department of Education has emailed the companies that service federal loans and told them to hold off on reminding borrowers that payments would start again in May.

+To those with student debt: Is this report accurate or nah? Hit reply and let us know.

Self-flying aircraft is where it's at – the market is expected to generate $325 billion between now and 2040, per recent research from the Aerospace Industries Association and Avascent, an aviation consultancy.

• Think: vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft, to mid-size jets, all the way up to larger cargo and passenger planes.

💰 Driving Flying the market… So far, around $7 billion has been invested into autonomous flight startups chasing cargo, passenger and industrial (fighting forest fires, providing Wi-Fi in disaster areas, inspecting infrastructure, etc.) applications, per Axios.

• The market progression is expected to take place like this: industrial → cargo (i.e., delivering goods) → passenger air taxis and planes "most likely not arriving at scale until at least well into the [2050s]," per the AIA’s report.
• Startups like Joby Aviation, Archer and Lilium initially plan to launch air taxi services with human pilots before transitioning them into more of an observational role, potentially overseeing multiple aircraft at once.

🛬 Zoom out: Earlier this month, the FAA issued engineering guidance for the design of “vertiports,” aka places where air taxis and cargo shuttles might land.

📊 Flash Poll: A big barrier for autonomously driven/flown vehicles is sure to be the public’s attitude towards using the tech. As it sits, would you feel comfortable taking a ride in a self-driving car? (Let’s save the sky for another day.)

Yeah, of course

No way

Maybe with some peer pressure 😉

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🏛️⚖️ Yesterday was Day 2 of confirmation hearings for President Biden’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Kentanji Brown Jackson, following opening statements from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday.

It was the first day senators were allowed to ask Jackson direct questions. They covered a wide range of topics including her qualifications, her record as a judge and public defender, and her overall judicial philosophy.

🐘 Republicans questioned if Jackson could remain impartial on the Supreme Court, or whether her liberal tendencies would result in more of what they portrayed as legislating from the judicial bench – acting more like a lawmaker than a jurist.

• Some lawmakers also inquired about Jackson’s religion (Protestant) as a reminder that Dems did the same when questioning now-Justice Amy Coney Barrett, before saying they think her faith wouldn’t interfere with her ability to be fair.

🐴 Democrats preemptively asked Jackson about a series of criminal sentences against child-pornography offenders that several GOP lawmakers described as lenient in their statements on Monday.

• Jackson said she properly applied the relevant statute in each case, which “says to impose a sentence that is, quote, sufficient but not greater than necessary to promote the purposes of punishment.”

👀 Looking ahead… The confirmation hearings continue today and tomorrow, after which the Judiciary Committee will meet to vote on whether to recommend Jackson to the full Senate.

She only needs a simple majority to be confirmed by the 50-50 legislative body, with VP Kamala Harris holding the tie-breaking vote. 

• If confirmed, Jackson would be the first Black woman and third Black Justice ever to serve on the Supreme Court.

• ☝️ Christie’s is auctioning off a 1964 Andy Warhol silkscreen called Shot Sage Blue Marilyn for an estimated $200 million, which would make it the most expensive 20th-century artwork ever sold at auction.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 📈 All three major US stock indexes closed higher yesterday. (Dow: +0.7% | S&P: +1.1% | Nasdaq: +2.0%)
• 🏦 Banks seized $2B from Evergrande on Tuesday, a day after the embattled Chinese property developer said it would delay the release of its earnings report.
• ☕ Starbucks baristas at a Seattle location unanimously voted to unionize yesterday, a first in the company’s hometown; it’s the seventh corporate-owned location to vote in favor of unionizing so far.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🏌️ Phil Mickelson won’t compete in the 2022 Masters golf tournament next month.
• ⚖️ Amanda Bynes’ nine-year conservatorship was terminated by a California judge with the support of her mother, attorney and psychiatrist.
• 📰 BuzzFeed News’ top two editors are leaving the company as shareholders push founder and CEO Jonah Peretti to shut down the entire news operation, per CNBC.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 💊 Researchers reported follow-up results from a Phase 3 clinical trial that indicated MDMA (aka ecstasy or molly) coupled with therapy could be an effective treatment for PTSD.
• ☀️⚡ The world has reached 1 terawatt of solar installations, per estimates by photovoltaics publication PV Magazine; that’s enough capacity to generate power for all of Europe.

EVERYTHING ELSE

• 💧 TikTok-er Martin Riese is a certified water sommelier (yes, that’s a real thing).
• 🎓 All LA public school students will now receive a college savings account when they hit first grade; a $50 seed deposit is included in a first-of-its-kind program.
• 💰 MacKenzie Scott donated $436 million to Habitat for Humanity International and 84 of its US affiliates, her largest publicly disclosed donation yet.
• 🎶 The Lollapalooza lineup has been unveiled. 

💬 Quoted… "[B]ased on evolving intelligence, Russia may be planning a cyberattack against us."

• President Biden warned the CEOs of America’s largest businesses to beef up their cybersecurity in preparation for a Russian attack.

🍺 Stats of the Day: Alcohol-related deaths rose more than 25% during the first year of the pandemic, according to research published in the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Medical Association; the study found alcohol-related deaths outnumbered Covid deaths in 2020 among American adults younger than 65.

🤯 Did You Know?... In 2020, a 12-year-old kid from Memphis, TN, set a Guinness World Record by creating a tiny, working nuclear fusion reactor.

📖 Worth a Read: Why We Use “lol” So Much → (Vice)

📊 Yesterday’s Flash Poll Results: 27% of y’all fully agreed with the APA defining grief as a mental disorder, while 38% agreed but had qualms and 35% said grief shouldn’t be a disorder.

📰 Background: In Monday’s Dose of Discussion, we covered UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas, the first trans athlete to win a D1 championship in any sport.

❓ Our question to you: Should trans athletes be allowed to compete in women’s sports?

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.

Earlier this year, Ukrainian couple Lesia Ivashchenko and Valerii Fylymonov left their jobs due to the Russian invasion. Soon after, they made the choice to stay and join the territorial defense forces on the outskirts of Kyiv. 

• The couple has been together for 22 years, but they never officially tied the knot. Realizing that life is short and their love is strong, the duo decided to get married – right on the front lines.

💒💍 The big day... Their ceremony was humble but full of joy, with fellow soldiers throwing rose petals for the couple as they walked down the makeshift aisle. Even the mayor of Kyiv came to congratulate the newlyweds. 

• "I'm happy that we are alive, that this day started, that my husband is alive, and he is with me," Lesia said after the wedding.

❓🍽 The Great Recipe Game, aka Hungry Hungry DONUT… For those who missed it the first three go-rounds, here’s how the game works:

We give you a list of ingredients. You give us the completed dish they make. Simple as that!

Recipe #1:

• Jalapeño chiles
• Ripe plum tomatoes
• Onion
• Vegetable oil
• Tomato paste
• Garlic
• Table salt
• Ground cumin
• Cayenne pepper
• Ground black pepper
• Cilantro
• Lime juice
• Black beans
• Corn tortillas
• Eggs

Recipe #2:

• Rice noodles
• Olive oil
• Garlic
• Chicken
• Eggs
• Bean sprouts
• Red bell pepper
• Green onions
• Crushed peanuts
• Lime
• Cilantro

Recipe #3:

• Ketchup
• Apple cider vinegar
• Brown sugar
• Honey
• Worcestershire sauce
• Kosher salt
• Ground black pepper
• Garlic
• Lemon juice

keep scrolling for the answers

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

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