Good morning and welcome to Friday. Breaking and awesome news: optimism helps you live longer.... which is probably good for you, given you're subscribed to the most optimistic news brand in the world and all.😉

Some other things you’ll know after reading this email:

• 🤔 Which spirit is projected to surpass vodka as America's most popular
• 🤖🚘 What Level 3 autonomous driving means
• 🍷 Why California's wine region could be in trouble (hint: it's animal-related)

… and more.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 4.20 minutes to read.

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"Our greatest fears lie in anticipation."

–Honore de Balzac (1799-1850)

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the US Capitol held its first of six public hearings in primetime last night.

🏛️ Background: The House formed a committee in late July to investigate the events surrounding Jan. 6, largely via a party-line vote.

• Both parties had initially nominated five members, but Republican leadership withdrew all of their choices after Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) made a self-professed “unprecedented” decision to veto two GOP reps who had voted against certifying the 2020 election.
• Pelosi ended up nominating all nine committee members, selecting seven Democrats and two Republicans; GOP Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger were both later censured by the RNC for their participation.
• Over the course of its nearly year-long investigation, the Jan. 6 committee interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses and reviewed more than 125,000 documents.

⏩ Fast forward to last night… when the committee aired previously unseen video, audio, and live testimony they allege is proof that former President Trump’s claims of a stolen election incited his followers to try to interrupt the peaceful transfer of power.

📸 The big picture: This week, the DOJ revealed that over 300 people have pleaded guilty to a range of charges related to the events of Jan. 6, with most being misdemeanors; overall, more than 840 defendants have been arrested and ~350 more are still at-large.

👀 Looking ahead… The Jan. 6 committee’s next public hearing is tentatively scheduled for Monday. All five remaining hearings are expected to occur over the next two weeks.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has upgraded a probe from last August into Tesla's Autopilot, which has been involved in over a dozen crashes with first-responder vehicles stopped for roadway emergencies.

• In a filing published yesterday, the NHTSA said its investigation is now designated as an ‘Engineering Analysis’ – the second and final phase before a possible recall – and covers 830,000 Tesla Models S, 3, X, and Y released since 2014.
• The agency said in its preliminary report that a majority of the 14 crashes involved emergency vehicles that would’ve been visible to the driver for an average of eight seconds prior to the crash.

🤖🚘 Zoom out: The NHTSA has already opened a larger investigation into nearly 50 crashes where Level 2 autonomous driving features, like lane-keeping assistance and adaptive cruise control, are suspected to have played a role.

• While this probe covers all vehicles regardless of make, incidents involving Teslas represent most of the cases under examination, including several with fatalities.

🧠 In the know: Mercedes-Benz is hoping to become the first company to introduce Level 3 autonomous driving in the US sometime this year. Level 3 means the driver can take their hands off the wheel and engage in "certain secondary activities,” like watching movies or (safely) sending texts/emails.

Fanatics, the parent company of Topps, announced partnerships with more than 100 major universities yesterday as part of the largest student-athlete trading card venture ever launched.

🎓🪪 More deets... Beginning this fall, Topps (under its BowmanU brand) will release non-exclusive trading cards featuring more than 200 current student-athletes.

• The initial release will include 2021 Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Young, CFP National Championship-winning Georgia QB Stetson Bennett, and 2021 women’s March Madness-winning national player of the year Aliyah Boston of South Carolina, among others.
• ESPN reported that NIL deals will vary from player to player, and could be worth up to five figures apiece for higher-profile athletes.

✋ But wait, there’s more… Topps has also secured multiyear exclusive rights with more than 35 colleges, including the majority of Power 5 conference schools. These collectibles will feature official university trademarks with NIL rights from both current athletes and former players.

• By 2025, Topps will have agreements in place with Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, Florida, Florida State, Miami, LSU, Kentucky, Kansas, Oregon, Penn State, Wisconsin, Texas A&M, and more.

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Get dad da dough.

This year, for the first time ever, Americans will spend more money on tequila and mezcal than US-made whiskeys. And by 2023, agave-based spirits are projected to surpass vodka as the most popular spirit in the country, according to new research from IWSR.

🍹 By the numbers…

• The tequila and mezcal market in the US is expected to be worth $13.3 billion in 2023, compared to vodka’s $12.5 billion and American-made whiskeys’ $12.3 billion.
• Out of the agave-based duo, Mezcal is far and away the faster-growing drink. In the US, tequila grew by 27% in value in 2021 over 2020, compared with mezcal, which grew 53%.

🌎 Around the world: The UK, Russia, Germany, and Japan are among the 10 largest tequila and mezcal markets. Of those top 10, the fastest-growing is Canada, where agave-based spirits are expected to grow 93% by volume and 109% by value from 2021 to 2026.

🧠 Dig deeper: Beer has long been the undisputed booze king of America. But over the past two decades, that dominance has been dwindling – and now it’s on the precipice of losing its crown.

• ☝️ More than 40 million Americans are currently under an extreme weather advisory due to a heat wave that’s expected to push temps in the Southwest to new record highs; the extreme weather begins today and will persist over the weekend.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 📈 US stocks fell across the board yesterday, as investors awaited May inflation data that’ll be published this morning. (Dow: -1.9% | S&P: -2.4% | Nasdaq: -2.7%)
• 💼 Weekly unemployment claims, a proxy for layoffs, saw its highest increase since January, though total US unemployment remained at its lowest level since 1970.
• 🌶️ A nationwide shortage of Sriracha hot sauce is expected from now through the end of summer, thanks to a drought in Mexico.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 📺 Disney fired TV content chief Peter Rice, the company’s most senior TV executive; CNBC reported that CEO Bob Chapek told Rice he wasn’t a cultural fit.
• 🍿 Jurassic World: Dominion, the sixth and final entry in the franchise, officially hits theaters today.
• 🏌️ The PGA Tour suspended all 17 members – including Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson – currently participating in a Saudi-funded LIV Golf event that teed off yesterday in London. (Background from the DONUT)

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🛰️ The James Webb Space Telescope was recently struck by a micrometeroid, though NASA said the impact isn't expected to affect its performance.
• 🦖 The largest-ever land dinosaur in Europe was discovered on the Isle of Wright, per new peer-reviewed research; the two-legged, crocodile-faced predator measured over 32 feet long.
• 🛸 NASA is launching a study that'll spend nine months evaluating unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs), though the agency said there’s “no evidence UAPs are extra-terrestrial in origin."

EVERYTHING ELSE

• ♻️ The Department of the Interior plans to phase out single-use plastics at all US national parks by 2032.
• 🦗🍷 The invasive spotted lanternfly could endanger California's wine region by as early as 2027, according to a new peer-reviewed study.
• 🏛️ The FBI arrested Michigan GOP gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley yesterday on misdemeanor charges related to the Jan. 6 riot at the US Capitol. (From the Left | From the Right)

💬 Quoted… “There is at least no shortage of children.”

• Norway saw a 6% increase in overall births last year... and Ikea Norway is trying to cash in on the boom by creating an online name bank with hundreds of suggestions for new baby names, drawing from ones the company gives to its furniture in lieu of product numbers

📱 Stats of the Day: More than ⅔ of the 1,000 most popular iPhone apps for kids are collecting and sending their personal information to advertisers, according to a new study from Pixalate. On Android, the number is 79%.

🌎 Around the World: Three captured foreigners – two men from the UK and one from Monaco – were sentenced to death by a Russia court yesterday for fighting alongside Ukrainian forces.

🤯 Did You Know?... A trio of authors and researchers have identified a handful of global “Blue zones," aka areas seeming to have an unusually high proportion of people who live longer than average.

• There are believed to be five Blue zones in the world: Okinawa (Japan), Sardinia (Italy), Nicoya (Costa Rica), Icaria (Greece), and Loma Linda (California, USA).

📖 Worth a Read: The Lucrative Economics of Expert Witnesses → (The Hustle)

We bring you the most unusual, off-the-wall and occasionally laugh-out-loud headlines from this week…

• 2 rescued after falling into tank full of chocolate at M&M factory in PA → (ABC Philadelphia)
• Man bitten by gator he mistook for dog in Florida → (Click Orlando)
• NY woman finds lost dachshund — in Hilary Swank’s lap → (AP News)
• Chefs assemble over 600-pound hamburger in Mexico → (UPI)
• Austin, Texas: weird, and apparently forgetful → (The DONUT )

An elephant at a Guatemalan zoo is being hailed a hero after saving the life of a drowning antelope in her enclosure. 

🐘🦌🚨 Sound the alarm... When Trompita the elephant started trumpeting her horn and pointing with her trunk at the pool, a zoo staff member quickly noticed the distressed antelope, its horns barely poking up above the water. 

• Thankfully, the antelope was rescued in time, and Trompita was rewarded with a lunch of watermelon, carrots, and peanuts for her bravery.

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:

• Sugar
• Flour
• Corn starch
• Salt
• Water
• Lemons
• Butter
• Egg yolks
• Egg whites
• Crust

✌️ Recipe #2:

• Chicken breasts
• Tomato puree
• Pasta
• Eggs
• Garlic
• Olive oil
• Parmesan cheese
• Breadcrumbs
• Salt & pepper
• Parsley
• Onion
• Dried Italian herbs
• Mozzarella

3️⃣ Recipe #3:

• Butter
• Flour
• Cornmeal
• Brown sugar
• Baking powder and soda
• Salt
• Buttermilk
• Honey
• Eggs

(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.

☝️ Recipe 1: Lemon meringue pie

✌️ Recipe 2: Crispy chicken parmesan

3️⃣ Recipe 3: Buttermilk cornbread