Good morning and welcome to Wednesday. We have something very important to share – and we'd be negligent at best if we didn’t.

• Today, at Krispy Kreme, if you’re graduating high school/college and are wearing class of 2022 apparel, you can get FREE DOUGHNUTS!

Consider yourself informed.🍩⚠️

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today's news takes 4.62 minutes to read.

"He who never made a mistake, never made a discovery."

–Samuel Smiles (1812-1904)

President Biden is expected to sign a federal use-of-force measure into law later today in commemoration of the two-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder.

An estimated ~20 million Americans joined protests against police brutality in the weeks and months after Floyd’s death, marking one of the largest demonstrations in US history.

What’s happened since then? Let's take a look (aka, get ready for a data dump).

🚨 Legislation...

• On a federal level: The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act passed the House in a mostly party-line vote last March, but was blocked in the Senate amidst opposition from Republicans.
• On a state level: 24 states plus D.C. have enacted new police reform laws since Floyd’s death; ten provided body cams to all officers, 16 banned officers from using neck restraints, four limited qualified immunity for officers, and five outlawed no-knock warrants.

🗳️ In Minneapolis, where Floyd’s death occurred: A measure that would've abolished the Minneapolis PD in favor of a "public-health oriented" Department of Public Safety was rejected last November by a 56-44 margin.

• Minnesota’s Department of Human Rights published a report last month that found the city's police department had a long-standing pattern of racial discrimination.

💰 Civil settlements: Minneapolis agreed to pay $27 million to Floyd’s family last year to settle a wrongful death lawsuit; a recent WaPo analysis found America’s largest police and sheriff’s departments have paid out $3+ billion for claims of wrongful injury or death over the past decade.

The US birth rate rose last year for the first time since 2014, but still remained below pre-pandemic levels, according to provisional CDC data published yesterday.

🔢 By the numbers... Before last year, US births had fallen an average of 2% per year since 2014, including twice that much in the first year of the pandemic.

• Nearly 3.7 million babies were born in the US in 2021, a 1% rise from the previous year's record low.
• Birth rates increased for all age groups 25+, but fell for women aged 15-24.
• The rate of premature births rose to 10.1%, its highest reported level since national data became available; the overall C-section rate also increased slightly to 32.1%.

Overall, the birth rate sits at 1.66 per woman – still below the replacement level of 2.1 (aka the level at which the population will replace itself).

🌍 Zoom out: The world’s population is expected to virtually stop growing by the end of this century for the first time in modern history, due in large part to falling global fertility rates.

• Birth rates are falling in many European countries, as well as in China. More than half of the global population growth between now and 2050 is expected to occur in Africa – and by 2100, the continent is projected to host five of the world’s 10 largest countries.

+For us visual learners…👇

A team of international scientists developed a way to edit the genetic makeup of tomatoes to turn them into a robust source of Vitamin D, according to a peer-reviewed paper published this week.

• Low vitamin D levels are associated with a multitude of conditions – from cancer to cardiovascular disease – and affect roughly 1 billion people globally.
• Although it’s created in our bodies after exposure to sunlight, most people’s main source of Vitamin D is food – specifically, fish and dairy products.
• Tomato leaves naturally contain one of the building blocks of vitamin D, called 7-DHC; the researchers used the Crispr gene-editing tool to tweak the plant's genome so that 7-DHC accumulates in the tomato’s fruit as well.
• Exposing the gene-edited fruit (☝️ left) to UV light for an hour created tomatoes that each contained 20% of the recommended daily allowance of Vitamin D, equivalent to two medium-sized eggs or 28 grams of tuna.

👀 Looking ahead... The scientists are currently evaluating whether sunshine, instead of UV light, can effectively repeat the same process, after the UK government earlier this year granted them permission to grow the tomatoes in open-air fields.

🏯 Nearly 1,000 years ago, Zen monks – and even the samurai – worked towards achieving the highest levels of mental clarity and physical performance.

Hundreds of years later, their secret weapon to high performance has now become a global phenomenon… and may even be on track to outpace coffee!

🧘‍♂️ A daily bowl of matcha... For centuries, matcha tea has been providing people the focus and endurance they need to get through even the most difficult days. Once available to only royalty in ancient Japan, it’s now way more affordable (and fun) to make at home…

🍵 Matcha contains time-release caffeine that won’t crash you,

• Won’t interfere with your sleep;
• It also has tons of L-theanine, an amino with calming powers,
• Supports cognitive & mental health,
• And has 100x the antioxidants as regular tea.

🙅‍♀️ This is your sign to say no to coffee (and jitters)... and check out Matcha.com, the #1 trusted source for matcha! Not to mention you’ll save an arm and a leg over the café...

Browse Matcha.com and use the code DONUT for an exclusive 25% off 🍩👍

Walmart is expanding drone delivery to six states, the retailer announced yesterday, finally providing some of us with the ability to order the allergy meds we desperately need without setting foot into the pollen-filled danger zone (aka outside).

📝 The deets… When the program was initially launched this past November, it was only available in one Arkansas town.

• But with yesterday’s announcement, 4 million households living within 1.5 miles of a drone-capable store in Phoenix, Orlando, Dallas, Salt Lake City, and Richmond will now be able to access the service.
• Delivery isn’t limited to certain items; customers can purchase 100,000 different products in all, up to a total of 10 pounds — then get that order delivered by drone for $3.99.

⚙️ How it works… Once you press “order”, Walmart workers are notified to pack your item(s) into a box, and then secure the box to a drone. Then, a pilot flies the drone to your address, dropping the package onto the front lawn using what looks like a giant claw. The company aims to deliver 1 million packages by drone annually.

🚁 Zoom out: Earlier this month, Google’s sister company, Wing, began offering a drone delivery service in the Dallas suburbs of Frisco and Little Elm.

• ☝️ Seth Green spent the last few months creating a new TV show around his Bored Apes NFT... but then it was stolen in a phishing scam earlier this month; the actor has been vocal on Twitter asking “DarkWing84,” who bought his ape from the scammer, to give it back.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 💰 Commodity trading and mining company Glencore agreed to pay at least $1.2 billion in fines from the UK, US, and Brazil to settle charges that two of its business units bribed officials in several countries and manipulated oil prices.
• 📉 Shares of Snap had their worst trading session on record yesterday, falling 43% after the company issued a profit warning late Monday and announced plans to slow hiring and spending.
• 🧑🪙 Adam Neumann is back: Flowcarbon, a crypto startup founded by the former WeWork CEO, raised $70 million in funding led by Andreessen Horowitz.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🎾 Naomi Osaka was eliminated in the first round of the French Open this week; on the men’s side, No. 1 Novak Djokovic will play his second-round match at around 7:30 ET this morning.
• 🎮 Activision revealed that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will be released on October 28th.
• 🎤 Professor Lupe Fiasco will teach a rap course at MIT this fall; in unrelated news, New York’s state Senate recently passed a bill restricting how prosecutors can cite rap lyrics as evidence in criminal trials.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🚐📡 SpaceX now offers Starlink for RVs, campers, and other large vehicles, though the antenna is too big for normal cars to use.
• 🤖🐋 Move over, Dory: A team of scientists from the University of Washington developed an AI that can detect the calls of different animals swimming in the ocean.
• 🐒🦠 The recent surge in monkeypox cases appears to have been mostly spread via gay and bisexual men having sex with other men, according to WHO officials, who emphasized that the virus itself isn’t an STI. (Background from the DONUT: Monkeypox, Explained)

EVERYTHING ELSE

• 🏛️ The FBI foiled a plot to assassinate former President George W. Bush, the DOJ announced yesterday; the plan was formulated by an alleged ISIS operative.
• 🏟️ The mayor of Anaheim, CA, resigned yesterday amid a federal investigation into his actions surrounding a plan to sell the Angels baseball stadium site.
• 🏫 At least 19 students and two adults were killed in a mass shooting at a Texas elementary school yesterday; the shooter, an 18-year-old local man who also shot his grandmother beforehand, is believed to have been killed by officers responding to the scene. (Partial details on the victims were available as of this morning.)

🌎 Around the World: The Maldives, an island country in the Indian Ocean, announced a plan to create 480 acres of new land using sand from the ocean.

💬 Quoted… “You are not the victim here.”

After an Indiana pastor confessed to adultery and said he was stepping down in an address to his church this past Sunday, he received a standing ovation from his congregation – until a woman came forward in front of the crowd and said he had sex with her when she was only 16.

• A local prosecutor’s office said it’s currently investigating the claim.

🚚 Stat of the Day: Last year, one in seven Amazon delivery drivers sustained injuries that were so severe they either couldn’t perform their regular job, or were forced to miss work altogether, according to a new study from a coalition of labor unions.

🤯 Did You Know?... The convention of naming a dog “Fido” was widely popularized by Abraham Lincoln, though its origins can be traced back to the Ancient Romans. (From fidelis, the Latin word for “faithful.”)

📖 Worth a Read: Paradise at the Crypto Arcade: Inside the Web3 Revolution → (WIRED)

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When Jennifer Vernancio rushed into work at Big Cheese & Pub in Providence, RI, last week, she was already flustered. 

• Not only was the single mom of two running late, but she couldn't find a sitter for her three-year-old son. And coming in as late as she did would mean missing out on valuable tips she needed. 

💸 A tremendous tip... As Jennifer started to close out her first few tables at the popular pizza spot, she had to double-take at one signed bill. 

• The total came out to $48.17. But the customers left a tip of $810. 

💬 What she's saying: “To the gentleman and his wife that left that generous tip, I just want to say thank you so much. It meant a lot," Jennifer said. "The kindness behind it and making my day from going a little hectic to that kind of a tip.. it made me smile the rest of the day.”

Name the oceans! 🌊🦑

(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.

1. Arctic
2. Pacific
3. Atlantic
4. Indian
5. Antarctic/Southern