Good morning and welcome to Friday. Something to think about as you get dressed: 149 years ago today, Levi Strauss was granted the patent for using copper rivets to strengthen trousers... and just like that, the blue jean was born.

Now if you still choose to wear sweats on this rivet-ing anniversary, it better be with a denim jacket.👖💪

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

"Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do."

–Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

Enrollment in LA public schools is expected to plunge by nearly 30% over the next decade, according to a presentation outlined Tuesday to the city’s Board of Education.

🔢 By the numbers... After reaching a peak of 737,000 students two decades ago, LA Unified School District has declined over the years to about 430,000 K-12th graders currently.

• Enrollment is projected to drop ~3.6% annually to reach 309,000 over the next nine years, with declines also expected in LA County (19%) and California as a whole (9%).

🏫📉 The big picture: US public school enrollment is projected to decline 5+% from now until the end of the decade, after falling 3% in the first year of the pandemic, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

• NYC, the second-largest US public school district, was projected to lose 7% of its enrollment by 2027 before 5% of its students left over the past two years.
• In Chicago, the third-largest district, enrollment has been steadily declining for two decades with no signs of slowing.

🤔 What’s going on?... An overriding explanation has yet to emerge, but experts have several theories (which aren’t mutually exclusive):

• US birth rates have declined by almost 20% over the past decade-and-a-half.
• Charter school enrollment rates have rapidly increased, especially during the pandemic.
• Some parents became so fed up with Covid restrictions that they started home-schooling their children or sending them to private schools.
• Some parents became so overwhelmed by pandemic-related job losses or school closures that their children simply dropped out.

A bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation yesterday that would force Google to break up its dominant online-ad business, if passed.

📝 More deets: The bill would ban companies that process more than $20 billion annually in digital ad transactions from participating in more than one part of the digital ad process, and require companies presiding over more than $5 billion in digital ads to follow new rules.

• In effect, the legislation would force Google to divest a substantial chunk of its digital advertising business, where it's been “simultaneously serving as a seller and a buyer and running an exchange,” per Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT).
• Meta’s Facebook would also likely be required to lose “significant portions” of its advertising business under the new proposal, sources told the WSJ.

🏛️ Zoom out: Two other bills aimed at Big Tech have received bipartisan support from the Senate Judiciary Committee in recent months, setting them up for possible floor votes.

• The American Innovation and Choice Online Act would ban Big Tech companies from favoring their own services in an anticompetitive way, while the Open App Markets Act would ban app store operators like Apple and Google from requiring use of their own in-app payment systems.

Boeing successfully launched its Starliner capsule into space last night as part of a key unmanned test flight that follows two previous failed attempts.

🚀 A deeper dive… Both Boeing and SpaceX were awarded contracts to help end NASA’s reliance on Russian launches after its shuttle program ended in 2011. But at the moment, SpaceX is the only US company capable of flying astronauts to the ISS.

• If the ongoing uncrewed test flight is successful, Boeing and NASA plan to launch a crewed test flight to the ISS before the end of the year, with the ultimate goal of using Starliner to help keep the space station continuously staffed.

✋ Yes, but: Proving that Starliner can safely carry out its mission has been a struggle for Boeing over the last three years; it first attempted to launch an uncrewed mission in 2019, but Starliner turned around before making it to the ISS due to a timing issue.

• Boeing had planned a do-over for last August, but a pre-flight check revealed issues with key valves, and the launch was delayed an additional nine months.

📅 Looking ahead… If all continues to go well, Starliner will spend the next ~15 hours free flying through orbit before docking tonight with the ISS, where it’s slated to remain for less than a week before returning to Earth.

⚠️ Advice overload… much of today’s content is geared toward self-improvement/life hacks to become a better professional, but how much of it is truly useful? Are the people giving the advice actually credible and does the advice even work? And much of it is the same, boring, rehashed advice over and over… 🥱

This is exactly why over twenty-three thousand people are reading The Assist newsletter. 🙌

You can think of them as that trustworthy friend who always has solid advice about work and life. Every email they send is carefully curated, so you get only the best actionable tips for being a better professional and having a better life.

🍭 Short and sweet… they don’t drone on and on about the same cookie-cutter advice you’ve already heard a thousand times – nay, their four newsletters each week only take five minutes to read and are 100% free.

➡️ For life tips that actually work, subscribe to The Assist.

Apple showed a mixed-reality headset capable of both augmented and virtual reality to its board of directors last week, according to a Bloomberg report ($), indicating that its development is at an advanced stage.

🍏🕶 More deets… While Apple has never publicly confirmed it’s working on a headset, the company has hired ~2,000 people to work in a division that focuses on VR and AR technology.

• If/when the device is released (previous intel pointed to a 2022 or 2023 debut), it’ll be the company’s first major new product category since the Apple Watch’s launch in 2015.
• The company also plans to offer augmented reality versions of its iPhone apps alongside the headset, which some reports say will debut with a sticker price north of $2,000. 
• The Information reported ($) that the headset will have AirPods Max-esque fabric mesh and a headband that almost looks like a fancy Apple Watch loop.

🤓 Zoom out: Meta and Google both previewed mixed reality headsets last week, “Project Cambria” (demoed by Zuck himself) and a smart glasses prototype that translates foreign languages in real time, respectively.

📝 The bottom line: With companies like Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Sony and Google all getting into the race, it's about to be on like Donkey Kong (or 2 a.m. Mario Kart following a night out).

• ☝️A ​​1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe – one of only two cars ever created – was secretly purchased for $143 million earlier this month, making it the most expensive car ever sold at auction.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 💼 New jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, rose for a third straight week to reach 218,000, though continuing claims fell to their lowest level since 1969.
• 🐦 Where Elon Musk’s Twitter deal could go from here: a flowchart from the WSJ.
• 🏘️ The US median home price hit a record-high of $391,200 last month, a 14.8% increase from a year earlier, while existing home sales fell for a third straight month to reach its lowest level since the start of the pandemic.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🏌️ Rory McIlroy (-5) sits atop the leaderboard after the first round of the PGA Championship; Tiger Woods ended the day at +4.
• ⚖️ Amber Heard’s lawyers called a series of witnesses to testify in court yesterday as the trial wrapped up its fifth week.
• 👶 Rihanna and A$AP Rocky welcomed their first child, a baby boy.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• ♻️ A newly-discovered enzyme just set a speed record for breaking down plastic.
• ☀️ The European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter recently captured out-of-this-world footage of the sun.
• 🌯 Engineering students at Johns Hopkins University developed a "Tastee Tape" for sealing shut messy foods like burritos.

EVERYTHING ELSE

• 🦠 The first case of monkeypox has been detected in the US, Massachusetts health officials said Wednesday; human-to-human transmission is believed to be very low.
• 📝 Oklahoma lawmakers passed a bill banning abortion at any point during the pregnancy yesterday; the measure is likely to be the most wide-ranging restrictions on the procedure in the US; it now heads to the governor's desk for approval. (From the Left | From the Right)
• 💉 The CDC officially signed off on booster shots of Pfizer/BioNTech's vaccine for children ages 5-11. (From the Left | From the Right)
• 🏛️ The Senate overwhelmingly approved a $40 billion aid package for Ukraine; President Biden is expected to sign it into law shortly. (From the Left | From the Right)

💬 Quoted… “Some people think they’re God.”

• Texas A&M football coach Jimbo Fisher delivered a fiery rebuttal to Alabama coach Nick Saban, who on Wednesday night claimed “A&M bought every player on their team” with deals for their name, image and likeness (NIL).

🦠 Stat of the Day: One in three Americans now say the pandemic is over, according to the latest Axios/Ipsos Coronavirus Index.

🤯 Did You Know?... The world’s first vending machine was invented by Greek mathematician Hero of Alexandria a few decades after the calendar turned to A.D.; his machine would accept a coin and dispense a set amount of holy water in exchange.

📖 Worth a Read: Why Free Stuff Makes Us Irrational → (The Hustle)

... it's the most unusual, off-the-wall and occasionally laugh-out-loud headlines from this week.

1. Don't accidentally hire a North Korean hacker, FBI warns → (The Guardian)
2. New York high court to determine if Bronx Zoo elephant is a person → (Associated Press)
3. Balenciaga launches 'fully destroyed' sneakers worth a whopping $1,850 → (The Philippine Star)
4. Johnny Cash mural is leaking from a crude spot after Arkansas water tower gets shot (The Wichita Eagle)
5. 'We're fed up with scary dreams': thieves return temple treasures in India → (The Guardian)

😱⬆️ Holy cuteness, Batman!... On April 29, the Nashville Zoo celebrated the birth of a male spotted fanaloka (aka a Malagasy civet) – a rare species of mammal typically found in the forests of Madagascar. 

• According to the zoo, the pup is "healthy and alert" and being cared for in their neonatal care unit. 

🍼 Already breaking records: Officially listed as a vulnerable species by the Union for the Conservation of Nature, this baby spotted fanaloka is the first of its kind to be born on US soil. 

Below are three lists of ingredients. All you have to do is give us the completed dish they make. Easy peasy! (The rules, at least.)

☝️ Recipe #1:

• Lamb
• Garlic
• Ginger
• Sunflower oil
• Onion
• Cumin
• Nigella seeds
• Madras spice paste
• Basmati rice
• Curry leaves
• Lamb/chicken stock
• Paneer
• Spinach

✌️ Recipe #2:

• Spinach
• Strawberries
• Pecans
• Feta
• Red onion
• Poppy seed dressing

3️⃣ Recipe #3:

• Bread
• Eggs
• Milk
• Vanilla extract
• Cinnamon
• Cream cheese
• Honey

(keep scrolling for the answers)

👆 Check out the referral prizes you can get just for introducing people you know to little old us. 

What to do: Copy your unique link below, then send it to anyone you think would like the DONUT.

• ☝️ Lamb Biryani
• ✌️ Spinach Strawberry Salad
• 3️⃣ Stuffed French Toast Pockets