Good morning and welcome to Tuesday. On today's docket:

• ✈️ We have an airliner love triangle on our hands
• ⚡️ California just hit a renewable energy milestone
• 🎻 You could soon buy "the da Vinci of Violins"

...and more.

🚨 BREAKING: A leaked draft opinion shows the Supreme Court appears set to overturn Roe v. Wade in the next few months, per Politico. This is a developing story, we'll have more on this topic in tomorrow's Dose of Discussion.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 4.43 minutes to read.

"There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power or our will."

–Epictetus (A.D. 50 – 135)

Spirit Airlines officially rejected a $3.6 billion cash takeover bid from JetBlue yesterday, opting instead to stick with its original plan to merge with rival Frontier.

✈️ More deets… Frontier and Spirit announced plans to merge back in February, finally becoming Insta-official after years of being that on-again off-again couple, per securities filings.

JetBlue’s offer for Spirit, updated on Friday, came with a higher price tag than Frontier’s cash-and-stock offer, which was originally valued at $2.9 billion. So why opt to tie the low-budget, lower-priced airline knot instead?

Put simply, Spirit thinks regulators would block a merger between it and JetBlue. Two quick things:

• #1: It pointed to JetBlue’s alliance with American Airlines Group in New York and Boston as a particular area of concern, per a letter from both Spirit’s Chairman Mac Gardner and CEO Ted Christie to JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes. The DOJ has challenged that arrangement and is suing to block it.
• #2: JetBlue has marketed itself more as a premium airline, offering perks like free Wi-Fi and upgraded snacks. Spirit believes officials “will be very concerned that a higher-cost/higher fare airline would be eliminating a lower-cost/lower fare airline in a combination that would remove about half of the ULCC (ultra low cost carrier) capacity in the United States.”

👀 Looking ahead… JetBlue said yesterday that it’s not giving up hope, making the details of its latest offer public in an effort to win over Spirit shareholders. Shares of Frontier fell 3.8%. Spirit shares fell 9.4% and JetBlue rose 2.6%.

🇺🇦 Nearly 5.6 million refugees have fled Ukraine since the war began, per the UN, which now estimates that some 8.3 million people will end up fleeing the country in total.

• Ukraine’s military said it destroyed two Russian naval vessels in the Black Sea with drone strikes yesterday, releasing video footage of the incident.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin is reportedly set to undergo cancer surgery and temporarily hand over power to a top lieutenant while he is incapacitated, according to the NY Post, which cited a video posted by the ‘mysterious’ Telegram channel “General SVR.”
• Ukraine’s digital minister said about 150,000 Ukrainians are using SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service each day; NBC News last week reported there are more than 10,000 Starlink terminals providing service to Ukraine.

How the invasion is impacting…

🌍 International relations: Israel demanded an apology from Moscow yesterday after Russia’s foreign minister compared Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is Jewish, to Adolf Hitler, who he alleged had Jewish roots – an unproven claim asserted by Hitler’s lawyer.

💰 Economy: Moscow is preparing a stimulus package equivalent to tens of billions of dollars in an effort to soften the blow of Western sanctions and shield its populace from the economic fallout of its invasion of Ukraine.

Lawmakers in the Big Apple postponed a law mandating pay transparency for most jobs late last week, delaying its implementation from later this month to November 1.

🗽 The deets: Four months ago, NYC's government overwhelmingly voted to require that most ads for jobs in America’s most populous city post the minimum and maximum salaries for each role.

• The idea is that by doing so, lawmakers can help diminish unfair gender and racial pay disparities. 
• In some industries like the public sector, where salaries are publicly available, gender wage gaps are more narrow.

🇺🇸 Zoom out: The Big Apple is the latest out of nearly a dozen cities and states to approve pay transparency laws in recent years. Since 2019, seven states and two other cities – Cincinnati and Toledo, OH – have started requiring employers to disclose salary information to job-seekers in at least some circumstances.

✋ Yes, but… In many cases, like NYC, local businesses have pushed back against the new laws, which they contend couldn’t have come at a worse time. In other words: the competition for workers is hot, and companies argue they need maximum flexibility on pay (especially small businesses).

Very few things in life are guaranteed. So how can unspun guarantee that their jeans will fit you perfectly?

Simple. They make completely one-off, one of a kind jeans designed just for you, and you only. (Read their full story.)

👖⚙️ How it works…

• Shop: Design your perfect pair. Custom select your fit, fabric, waist rise, and more.
• Scan: take a quick 3D body scan through their iPhone app.
• Wear: Your perfect fit. Guaranteed. 🙌

These will be the best-fitting pair of pants you've ever owned. And if they’re not?

unspun will cover tweaks and adjustments until they're absolutely perfect – or you can get a full refund.🥇👌

That’s the story of how unspun guarantees risk-free perfection. And just for being a DONUT subscriber and reading it, you get to save 20% on your first pair.😉🍩

Click here to get 20% off your new favorite jeans.

P.S. Not sure what you want/need in a pair of jeans? Check out this Denim Guide and take the Fit Quiz to find out.👍

The family of Paul Rusesabagina, the man portrayed in the film Hotel Rwanda, announced a $400 million lawsuit in the US this morning over his alleged abduction from Texas and subsequent torture by Rwandan government agents.

🏨 Background: Rusesabagina, 67, is best known for his heroism in 1994 as the manager of the Hôtel des Mille Collines in Rwanda’s capital of Kigali, where he gave safe haven to more than 1,200 people during a genocide that claimed ~800,000 lives; he was later awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush.

✈️ The story... In the late 2000s, Rusesabagina and his family moved to San Antonio, TX. But the Rwandan government spent years trailing, spying-on, and harassing him and his family, per their lawyers.

• In August 2020, Rusesabagina was traveling from the US to Burundi for contractual work when he went missing during a layover in Dubai.
• Four days later, the Rwandan government announced they had captured Rusesabagina, who was eventually sentenced to 25 years in prison for terrorism in what his supporters called a sham trial.

🇷🇼 Additional context: Rusesabagina co-founded the opposition Rwandan Movement for Democratic Change, which has an armed wing called the National Liberation Forces that has claimed responsibility for multiple deadly attacks in Rwanda in recent years, per Human Rights Watch.

• ☝️ A rare 18th-century instrument known as “The da Vinci of Violins” is being put up for auction in June; it’s expected to fetch upwards of $10 million.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🗳️ Amazon workers at a Staten Island warehouse voted against unionizing yesterday, one month after a neighboring warehouse formed the first Amazon union in the US.
• 🏘️ The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage hit 5.55% Monday after starting the year at 3.29%, according to Mortgage News Daily.
• ⚖️ EU regulators stepped up their antitrust case against Apple yesterday, accusing the tech giant of using its dominance to prevent competitors from accessing its contactless Apple Pay mobile payment system.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🎭 The Masked Singer is launching an international competition where celebrities from various local editions of the show around the globe will face off in a worldwide battle.
• 🍿 Lionsgate unveiled the release date for its upcoming Hunger Games prequel – called The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes – which centers around a young President Snow; it’ll hit theaters on November 17, 2023.
• 🕺💃 The 2022 Met Gala was held last night.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• ⚡ The entire state of California was 100% powered by renewable energy for a 15-minute period on Saturday for the first time ever.
• 👓 Snap is partnering with Live Nation to offer augmented reality experiences at select concerts, starting with Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas later this month.

EVERYTHING ELSE

• 📱 A WSJ report found the precise movements of millions of users on Grindr were sold to advertisers since at least 2017; the company changed its privacy policy to cut off such data collection two years ago.
• 💊 Online pharmacy company Truepill is temporarily halting prescriptions for Adderall and other controlled substances used to treat ADHD “out of an abundance of caution.”
• ⚖️ The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Boston could not restrict a local organization from flying a Christian flag in front of city hall, saying the city had created a public forum by previously allowing any organization to use that flagpole. (From the Left | From the Right)

💬 Quoted… “Can’t you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?”

• In his new book, former Defense Secretary Mark Esper alleges that former President Trump asked authorities if they could shoot protesters in the legs amid demonstrations that filled the streets of D.C. following the murder of George Floyd.

+Dig deeper: From the Left | From the Right

📱📈 Stat of the Day: The number of tweens (defined as children ages 8-12) with their own smartphones increased from 24% in 2015 to 43% in 2021, per a new survey from Common Sense Media.

🌎 Around the World: A heat wave that set records over the weekend in India and Pakistan has yet to fully abate; at least one billion people experienced temperatures of 104°F or higher from Thursday through Sunday, with many seeing highs of 110°F and above.

🤯 Did You Know?... Ticks aren’t technically classified as insects, but rather a type of arachnid, like mites, spiders or scorpions.

📖 Worth a Read: The Personality Traits of Self-Made and Inherited Millionaires → (Humanities and Social Sciences Communications)

Pam Patterson and Jeremy Salda were headed to elope in Vegas this past weekend when their flight was canceled. Soon after, a fellow passenger who'd overheard their predicament approached the couple.

• He just so happened to be an ordained minister, and offered to officiate their ceremony – they just had to get to Vegas first. The trio quickly booked the next flight out and waited to board. 

💍✈️ To the happy couple... Upon boarding their new flight, the crew noticed the couple's wedding attire and asked Pam where they were headed. 

• Then, the plane's captain offered the couple something even better than a Vegas wedding: an elopement right there on the plane. In a ceremony featuring toilet paper streamers, free snack packs for everyone, and a walk down the airplane aisle, Pam and Jeremy tied the knot in the sky. 

⚖️ True or false… Marlon Brando would use cue cards when acting instead of memorizing his lines.

💬 Who said it?... "The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like, and do what you'd rather not."

🤔 Riddle me this… What two things can you never have for breakfast?

(keep scrolling for the answers)

👆 Check out the referral prizes you can get just for introducing people you know to little old us. Just copy your unique link below, and then send to anyone you think would like the DONUT.

⚖️ T/F: True, Brando would even get other actors to wear the cue cards.

💬 Quote: Mark Twain said it.

🤔 Riddle: Lunch and dinner.