Good morning and Happy New Year! Let’s give it up for 2023, an aesthetically-pleasing year. 2022 had ominous vibes – that poor 0, lost amidst a sea of 2’s. And also what were all those 2’s doing? Nothing good, we can tell you that.

Now, take a look at 2023. It’s got 23 in there, a classic prime number and Michael Jordan’s jersey number – so very special already. And then there’s the 20, an everyman’s number, friends with the evens and the odds, a number’s number. Even more special stuff.

In short, the vibes for 2023 look great. Special, yet down-to-earth. This is your year. Our year. So let’s enjoy it, because the very spooky 2024 is coming up fast👻.

Also just a reminder – you’re gonna keep writing 2022 as part of the date for the next few weeks. This is all part of 2022’s plan. Do not fall for it and remember: the year is 2023.

Onward and upward.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 3.93 minutes to read.

“There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.”

–Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

Snow and ice weren’t the only things that started melting after last week's winter storm. Southwest Airlines, the largest carrier of US domestic passengers, also experienced a Christmas meltdown, canceling ~16,000 flights from December 22–29 and stranding hundreds of thousands of passengers – including a bride who missed her wedding.

🚫✈️ What happened?... While the winter storm caused initial industry-wide flight cancellations and delays, other airlines like United, Delta, etc., were back operating at full capacity soon afterward. But not Southwest, which accounted for ~95% of the more than 2,500 canceled flights in the US last Thursday (December 29).

The driving reason behind this meltdown? Just like a boomer with a BlackBerry in a belt holster, Southwest is using outdated technology.

The airline relies on a crew-assignment software called SkySolver, which was initially developed decades ago. And even though it’s been customized and updated over time, the program isn’t equipped to handle Southwest’s scale. Meaning that whenever hiccups – like adverse weather events – arise, the system requires a lot of manual work.

When Southwest flights are canceled, employees staffing the plane are required to call a hotline to let the company know where they are. This is how crew members receive new flight assignments, or how emergency hotel rooms are booked.

And with thousands of canceled flights, not enough hotline operators, and a software system that kept crashing while being used, reassignments became… difficult.

• Pilots and crew members calling in after canceled flights were put on hold, with waits ranging from three, six, eight, and 12 hours – and even one of 17 hours (!).
• To complicate matters even further, these long hold times led to many of the employees “timing out“ – a phrase related to an FAA safety requirement mandating a certain amount of rest for crews while traveling – thus rendering them unable to be assigned to another flight.

This all took around a week to get corrected; Southwest’s flight schedule was mostly back to normal over the weekend. 

🔥 The fallout: While the company has pledged to cover all reasonable expenses for those whose travel plans were messed up due to its mishaps, it should be noted that the airline hasn’t yet publicly defined “reasonable.” 

But its Chief Commercial Officer, Ryan Green, did publicly say that this debacle will “certainly” impact its Q4 earnings.

• A similar incident in October 2021 cost the airline ~$75 million. But this most recent event lasted longer, and occurred during a busier and more expensive time to travel.

+Resource: If you were affected by Southwest's breakdown, you can make a reimbursement request here.

🇨🇳 More than a dozen countries, including the US, have recently imposed new Covid testing requirements for travelers from China. This comes as China battles an ongoing nationwide Covid outbreak, which intensified shortly after Beijing eased virus restrictions last month for the first time since early 2020. Separately, US military officials last week revealed a Chinese fighter jet unexpectedly flew within 10 feet of a US aircraft in the contested South China Sea. (No word yet on whether any upside-down photography or finger-birds were involved.)

🇺🇦 Ukraine’s military said it killed 400+ Russian soldiers yesterday in an airstrike in occupied Donetsk. Russian officials disputed the figure, saying only 63 troops were killed. Regardless, it marks the highest number of deaths acknowledged by Moscow in a single incident since the war began ten months ago. Two days earlier, on New Year’s Eve, Russia had launched 45 Iranian-made drones – all of which were shot down by Ukraine’s air defenses with no reported casualties.

🇭🇷 Croatia officially transitioned to using the euro as its main currency on Sunday. The country had previously agreed to join the eurozone and open up its borders when it became the EU's newest member in 2013. With Sunday’s move, Croatia is the 27th country to join Europe’s “Schengen” area, which allows some 400 million citizens to move freely between countries. Fun fact: Croatia (pop. ~4 million) welcomes an estimated 20+ million tourists every year.

🫖🤔 You've likely heard of kratom tea, but do you really know its storied history?

• 🦖 Ancient times… Kratom trees grow in SE Asia
• ✍️ 1650s… First written documentation of kratom consumption in historical records
• 👷‍♂️ 1650s - 1943… Kratom is chewed raw/brewed into tea by most working men in Thailand. They felt drinking kratom when doing hard work was essential, and consumed it like we consume coffee.
• 😓 1943… Millions of Thai are addicted to legal opium and use kratom to quit, causing significant losses in tax revenue for the Thai government. The gov’t reactively bans kratom – a pattern that re-emerges later.
• 👩‍⚖️ 2016… The DEA tries to ban kratom in the US. Quickly reverses course and acknowledges that kratom is not a threat. Thousands of kratom users, hundreds of scientists, and dozens of members of Congress made their support of kratom known during this time.
• 🙌 2021… The UN and WHO classify kratom as the lowest possible safety concern.
• 🌎 2023… An estimated 15 million Americans consume kratom every day. Many who desire caffeine-free energy, a mood balancer, or a way to unwind try kratom tea daily.

Join us tomorrow for part 2: The science of kratom, and learn more at Top Tree Herbs.

Last week, federal and state prosecutors opened separate investigations into incoming House Rep. George Santos (R-NY) after he admitted to lying about parts of his background during his election campaign.

⏪ Let’s start at the beginning… While running for office last year, Santos said he graduated from Baruch College in Manhattan, then worked at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup before making a previous congressional run in 2020.

But as it turns out, these claims were faker than cubic zirconia. A NY Times report published last month found all three of those institutions have no record of Santos ever attending or working there.

And to top it all off, further investigation into Santos’ background by other news orgs revealed more falsehoods that he perpetuated during the midterm campaign, including claims that he’s Jewish, and that his grandparents fled Europe to escape the Holocaust.

🗣️ Santos’ response: In a NY Post interview published last Monday, Rep.-elect Santos admitted to “embellishing” his resume in regards to his education and employment history, and clarified that he never graduated college and “never worked directly” for the firms listed above. Santos also said he still plans on serving as a member of Congress for the next two years.

👀 Looking ahead… Unless he chooses to resign, Santos will be officially sworn-in at the first meeting of Congress later today, since elected House candidates can only be prevented from taking office if they violate the Constitution’s age, citizenship, or state residency requirements.

Expelling a sitting House member, which has happened five times in US history, would require support from two-thirds of all lawmakers in the chamber.

💬 Quoted…​​ "You may marry him, murder him, or do anything you like to him."

When asked in 1899 if an actor could modify Sherlock Holmes’ persona, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the mystery series, didn’t seem to mind. And now we're all legally free to do so, too.

• The final collection of Sherlock Holmes stories entered the public domain on Sunday, as well as works by Virginia Woolf and Ernest Hemingway, the first “outstanding picture” Oscar-winning film Wings, and thousands of other titles.

📲😬 Oops of the Holidays: A medical practice in the UK accidentally sent a text message to 8,000 patients telling them they have aggressive lung cancer, instead of the intended message that wished them a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

🤯 Did You Know?... Sloths can hold their breath for up to 40 minutes. Which is longer than many marine mammals, including dolphins.

📖 Worth a Read: The eight secrets to a (fairly) fulfilled life → (The Guardian)

• ☝️ The death toll from a historic snowstorm that dropped nearly 4.5 feet of snow on Buffalo, NY, last week has climbed to at least 37, per local officials.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 📉 All three major US stock indexes finished 2022 with their biggest annual losses since 2008. (Dow: -8.8% | S&P: -19.4% | Nasdaq: -33.1%)
• 🚀 SpaceX is raising a new $750 million round of funding that values the Elon Musk-led company at $137 billion, sources told CNBC.
• 💻 Meta agreed to pay $725 million to settle a class action lawsuit accusing Facebook of allowing third parties, including Cambridge Analytica, to access users' personal information.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🏈 No 16. Tulane scored 16 points in the final 4 minutes to win yesterday’s Cotton Bowl against No. 10 USC. | No 9. Penn State beat No 7. Utah 35–21 to win yesterday’s Rose Bowl. (See the full bowl season schedule and results here.)
• 🏆 NY Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge was named the 2022 AP male athlete of the year; Team USA swimmer Katie Ledecky won the 2022 AP female athlete of the year award.
• 🏥 Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin is currently hospitalized in critical condition; he collapsed shortly after making a tackle in last night’s game against the Bengals, which was postponed to a later date after Hamlin stayed down for 15+ minutes upon collapsing; it was later reported that he suffered a cardiac arrest on the field. | Actor Jeremy Renner is in “critical but stable condition” following a snow-plow accident on Sunday.
• 🍿 Avatar: The Way of Water hit $1.4 billion in worldwide box office sales yesterday; the film will enter the top-10 highest-grossing films of all time once it crosses $1.5 billion.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• ☄️ The annual Quadrantid meteor shower will peak tonight and tomorrow night, though a full moon means fewer visible meteors this year.
• 💧 Adults who don’t sufficiently hydrate are more likely to die younger than those who stay well-hydrated, per a new NIH study based on data collected from 11,000+ adults over 25 years.
• 🛰️ NASA's Surface Water and Ocean Topography satellite successfully unfolded its solar panel and antenna arrays in orbit. (Background)

EVERYTHING ELSE

• 🙏 Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who in 2013 became the first pope to retire in over six centuries, passed away on Friday at the age of 95. | Soccer legend Pele, the only player ever to win three World Cups, died last Thursday at 82 years old. | Barbara Walters, a pioneer of broadcasting and the first female anchor on evening network news, passed away on Friday at age 93.
• ⚖️ A 28-year-old male suspected of killing four University of Idaho students in November was arrested in Pennsylvania on Friday and charged with four counts of first-degree murder. | Online influencer Andrew Tate was arrested in Romania last week on charges of rape and human trafficking.
• 🏛️ The House Ways and Means Committee published a redacted version of former President Trump’s tax returns last week. (The returns | From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

CLICKBAIT

• 🤑 Here's how much money it takes to be considered middle class in 20 major US cities.

Ashlee Larsen was enjoying her dinner at a family restaurant in Melbourne, Australia, when her toddler got away from her. 

🔎 The search begins... She couldn't find her two-year-old son Brooklyn anywhere on the indoor playground, so she began searching through the small arcade. 

• Soon enough, Ashlee found Brooklyn, lovingly nicknamed "Dennis The Menace," in a place all kids dream about: surrounded by stuffed animals, where no adults can get to them. 

🧸 Living up to his nickname: Brooklyn had crawled into the claw machine, filling the chute with stuffed animals to block his way out. Eventually, the toddler was coaxed from the machine and went home with two new stuffed animals as collateral. 

❓ Trivia: What kind of accent does Shrek have?

 🐞 True or False?... Ladybugs symbolize good luck in Europe.

🤔 Riddle Me This… What never asks questions, but usually gets answered?

(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 who you think would like the DONUT. Once you hit each milestone, you'll get an email with a link to claim your prize. (Pro tip: there's no need to ration points, you're entitled to a prize at each tier.)

Start referring.👇

❓ Trivia: Scottish, at Mike Myers' insistence

🐞 T/F: True

🤔 Riddle: A doorbell