Good morning. A quick note: Given the popularity of our Russia/Ukraine coverage and how fast the situation could evolve, we’ve focused today's Dose of Discussion on the conflict.

And in case you woke up with a case of the Mondays, take a few seconds to…

Now summon the eye of the tiger and go kick today’s a**.👁🐯💪😉

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 4.17 minutes to read.

"Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact."

–William James (1842-1910)

🇺🇦 Ukrainian troops have partially recaptured the port city of Kherson, according to Pentagon officials. Russia’s military is currently on the defensive near Kyiv, as Ukraine attempts to regain control of the surrounding towns.

• The next round of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine – held in Turkey – is set to begin today and end on Wednesday.
• At least 1,035 Ukrainian civilians have died since the start of the invasion, according to the UN.
• Over 10 million Ukrainians have been displaced from their homes, including more than half of the country’s children.
• Ukrainian officials say their forces have killed seven Russian generals and eight other senior military commanders on the battlefield so far.
• After an off-the-cuff remark from President Biden at the end of a speech in Poland – "For God’s sake, this man [Putin] cannot remain in power" – the White House clarified that the US is not seeking a regime change in Russia.

How the invasion is impacting…

🛢️⚡ Energy: Germany announced plans to cut imports of Russian oil in half by the summer and out almost entirely by year’s end.

• US wind and solar energy projects are being postponed or canceled due to higher prices for key materials such as aluminum and steel, as well as increased transportation costs stemming from higher oil prices, per the WSJ.

🪙 Crypto: Ukraine’s government launched a “Museum of War” NFT collection that includes “every substantial event of the war”; the gov’t has reportedly received nearly $67 million in donated crypto and had spent about $34 million as of last week.

🛒🚗🏠 Instacart, the on-demand grocery delivery service, is voluntarily cutting its valuation from $39 billion to $24 billion, Bloomberg first reported late on Thursday.

• The company isn’t publicly traded, so the ~40% drop is reflected in the company’s 409a valuation, an internal measure used to price employee and investor shares.
• The pandemic initially turbocharged its business, as people avoided going to physical stores and turned to grocery delivery. But high transportation and labor costs have kept delivery expensive, and consumers are increasingly returning to in-person shopping – changes that have been reflected in publicly-traded companies' share prices, but not Instacart's.
• Bloomberg reported that the company brought in $1.8 billion revenue last year, which at the updated valuation equates to a 13.3x trailing revenue multiple. Pre-adjustment, it would’ve been 21.7x.
• Instacart is hoping the updated valuation will help it attract and retain talent by aligning new equity awards, effectively issuing more shares to employees at a lower price. Per the company, 2021 was a banner year for number of orders, revenue, ad revenue and gross profit; it also has more than $1 billion in cash and securities on-hand.

📉 Zoom out: As alluded to earlier, other publicly-traded companies in the ad and delivery businesses, like Shopify, DoorDash and Meta, have seen their share price decline recently. And there could be more bad news on the horizon for some highly-valued tech stocks.

• “With [record-high inflation and interest] rates climbing, this adds risk to higher multiple software stocks trading over 20 times revenue,” according to a recent 2022 outlook report by JPMorgan.

🏀 After an exciting slate of Sweet Sixteen games on Thursday and Friday, all four higher-seeded teams (i.e., they have a lower number; yeah, it's confusing) cruised to victory in the Elite Eight to reach the Final Four.

• The St. Peter’s Peacocks became the first 15-seed ever to win their first three games in the tournament after stunning No. 3 Purdue on Friday; they eventually fell to No. 8 North Carolina in the Elite Eight.
• In his last season as Duke head coach, Mike Krzyzewski earned his record 100th and 101st tournament wins as the Blue Devils progressed to the Final Four; they’ll face rival North Carolina in the semifinals. 
• This will be Coach K's 13th Final Four, which surpasses legendary UCLA coach John Wooden for the most appearances all-time.
• The other semifinal matchup will feature a pair of heavyweight coaches – No. 2 Villanova’s Jay Wright and No. 1 Kansas’ Bill Self – each competing in their fourth Final Four; Villanova will be without star guard Justin Moore, who tore his Achilles on Saturday.

👀 Looking ahead... Kansas will tip off against Villanova at 6:09 pm ET this Saturday, while Duke will face UNC at 8:49 pm ET. The National Championship is scheduled for 9:20 pm ET on Monday. (Sorry, East Coasters.)

🚺🏆 Every March, people celebrate women for their often-overlooked achievements.

While WHM is great, the facts still remain:

• When looking at earnings in their entirety, women make 82 cents for every dollar men earn
• Women are underrepresented at EVERY level of employment
• As early as age 5, young girls develop self-limiting beliefs

Piccolina is a women-owned lifestyle brand working to encourage all kids to be makers of change.🌎🙌

🙎‍♀️ The brand’s Oprah-approved Trailblazer Collection introduces children to barrier-breaking female role models, and 1% of all sales go to nonprofits that support women and children.

➡️ Celebrate women 365 days a year with Piccolina!

P.S. Piccolina is currently having a 20% off sitewide sale. Run!

The streaming giant paid an undisclosed amount last week to acquire Texas-based game developer Boss Fight Entertainment, its third gaming studio purchase since last summer and second this month.

⏮👾 Background… Netflix acquired indie game developer Night School Studio last September, globally debuted games to all users this past November, and then purchased Finnish studio Next Games – who developed its Stranger Things titles – for $72 million earlier this month.

🎮 📸 The big picture: As an early entrant into the streaming market, Netflix enjoyed the first-mover advantage – and the new subscriber growth that came with it – for quite a while. But competition from other platforms like Disney+, Peacock, HBO Max, Paramount Plus, etc. has led to a subscriber slowdown.

2021 saw Netflix’s lowest new subscriber growth in six years, and so far, 2022 doesn’t look much better. The company is forecasting 2.5 million new subscribers this quarter vs. the 4 million it added over the same period last year. (And the 8+ million new subs it added in Q4.)

• Long-term, Netflix sees gaming as a way to attract and retain subscribers. But the initiative is still early-stage; on its Q4 earnings call the streaming giant said its initial launches were focused on gathering data to determine what consumers may want from the service.

+Worth mentioning: Last week, Netflix added two new games and teased its first upcoming first-person shooter title: Into The Dead 2: Unleashed.

• ☝️ A grass fire outside Boulder, CO, that forced at least 19,000 people to evacuate; it was fueled in part by a heatwave bringing summer-like temps to the western US.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🤝 The US and EU reached a preliminary deal to allow data about Europeans to be stored on American soil.
• 📝 Roughly 52 million Americans earn less than $15 per hour, according to a new report from anti-poverty nonprofit Oxfam America.
• 🍔 Many prominent fast-food and fast-casual restaurants use food packaging containing high levels of ‘forever chemicals’ known as PFAS, according to Consumer Reports.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🏎️ Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix yesterday; Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr. placed second and third, respectively.
• 🥁 Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, 50, passed away hours before a scheduled performance in Bogotá; an autopsy showed he had ten different substances in his system.
• 🏆 The 2022 Oscars were held last night; Apple TV+'s Coda won Best Picture, a streaming first; Will Smith slapped Chris Rock after a joke about his wife, then won Best Actor for King Richard. (Who else won? | What’s in the $140K gift bag? | Watch the unedited slap broadcast – WARNING: LANGUAGE)

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🎶 New research suggests that singing, playing or listening to music provides roughly the same positive impact on mental health as exercise or weight loss.
• ❄️ Satellite images show Antarctica’s Conger Ice Shelf, which is roughly the size of NYC, collapsed earlier this month.

EVERYTHING ELSE

• ⛵ An 83-year-old Japanese man began a solo attempt to cross the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco to Japan in a sailboat on Saturday.
• 🏫 Minneapolis’ teacher’s union reached a tentative agreement with the school district to end their two-week-long strike.
• 💰 President Biden will propose a minimum 20% tax on America's wealthiest households as part of his 2023 budget unveiled later today. (From the Left | From the Right)
• 🏛️ Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) resigned from Congress after nearly two decades; he was convicted of three felonies last week for lying about receiving campaign funding from a Nigerian billionaire. (From the Left | From the Right)

💬 Quoted… “I have determined I intend to vote for her nomination to serve on the Supreme Court."

• Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) published a statement saying he plans to vote for Biden’s SCOTUS nominee, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, essentially guaranteeing she'll be confirmed.

🏘️ Stats of the Day: Year-over-year home sales were down 5.4% in February, while prices were up 28%.

• Average 30-year mortgage rates have increased 1.3% over the past three months, their largest jump since 1994.

🤯 Did You Know?... Lobsters’ teeth are located inside their stomach, where the food is actually chewed.

📖 Worth a Read: The Wizard of Oz as an Allegory for the 1896 Presidential Election (Law & Liberty)

Monday: President Biden sends his 2023 budget to Congress

Tuesday: Blue Origin launches its fourth crewed mission to space (sans Pete Davidson)

Wednesday: National Doctors Day

Thursday: Weekly unemployment claims

Friday: April Fool's Day; Monthly jobs report for March

+Over the weekend: Ramadan begins on Saturday

Simon Kindleysides, a British man paralyzed from the waist down due to an inoperable brain tumor, recently climbed over 1,500 stairs to the top of the 51-story Leadenhall Building to break a world record.

• How, you ask? With a robotic exoskeleton.😎

👟 Making record time... The skeleton, built by ReWalk Robotics, has allowed Simon to break not one, but two world records; he also set the title for fastest marathon distance in a robotic walking device in 2018. 

🗺️ Commencing your EU citizenship test… Below is a map of Europe. How many of the numbered countries can you name?

❓ Trivia: Which of the following films doesn’t share the all-time record of 11 Oscar wins?

A) Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

B) The Godfather (1972)

C) Titanic (1997)

D) Ben-Hur (1959)

keep scrolling for the answers

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Map:

1. Poland
2. Ukraine
3. Belarus
4. Russia
5. Finland
6. Sweden
7. Norway
8. Estonia
9. Lithuania
10. Latvia

Trivia: B) The Godfather (1972). The film only captured three Oscars.