Good morning. Hi. We’ve been having a lot of fun sending you these newsletters. And it seems like you are digging it too? So, um, well, we were thinking of maybe seeing if you might want to take this to the next level and so we wanted to ask:

Will you fill out this DONUT Reader Survey?

It takes two minutes and would genuinely help us a ton in better understanding who the heck our readers are. AND ALSO, if that isn’t enough, we’re gonna give away three $50 gift certificates to the new hip indie shop Amazon.com.

So whaddya say – help us out and maybe win some moolah?🙏 Here’s another link to the survey. Thank you, truly.

And with that: THE NEWS AWAITS.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 4.06 minutes to read.

“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.”

–Dale Carnegie (1888-1955)

The Department of Justice yesterday filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against Google seeking to break up its core advertising business, in a move that could significantly impact the tech giant and cause ripple effects across the entire ads industry.

🤿 A deeper dive… Instead of “Don’t be evil,” Google should've made its unofficial founding motto “Senator, we sell ads.” The company generated $258 billion in annual revenue in 2021, with ~$209 billion of that coming from advertising.

And while the DOJ’s suit isn’t coming after the whole she-bang, it could still impact a significant portion of tech giant’s business. Nearly 30% of its total US revenue in 2021 came from activity that’s currently being targeted by the DOJ.

🗣️ The DOJ’s argument: Tl;dr: That Google has an illegally monopoIy over the digital ads market. Longer version: In the 155-page suit, the DOJ and eight state attorneys general accuse Google of making several “anticompetitive acquisitions” since the mid-2000s that effectively forced online publishers and advertisers into using Google’s ad products.

Federal prosecutors also say these acquisitions unfairly gave Google power on all sides of the online ad industry, allowing it to own and operate a marketplace offering ad-buying services for marketers and ad-selling services for publishers, while participating in the market at the same time.

• Prosecutors claim Google abused this power over the years to essentially rig the online ad market, giving its own products like YouTube or Search an unfair advantage when buying or selling ads, as well as suppressing competition from rival firms.

🔄 On the flip side… Google currently owns ~29% of the US online ads market (after peaking at ~35% in 2017), and has consistently denied accusations of holding monopoly power, arguing the market is extremely crowded and competitive due to major rivals like Amazon, Meta, Microsoft – and now TikTok.

⚖️ The potential impact: As part of its lawsuit, the DOJ is attempting to force Google to spin off three different enterprises from its core business:

1. The buying of ads on third-party websites or apps
2. The selling of ads on third-party websites or apps
3. Ownership of the exchange where said ad business is transacted

📊 Flash poll: In your opinion, should Google be forced to sell some or all of its ad business?

Yes

No

Unsure/other

🇳🇬 Nigeria officially opened a new $1.5 billion deep seaport yesterday. The Lekki Deep Sea Port, one of the biggest in West Africa, is a joint venture between the local and federal government, a Singapore-based holding company, and a Chinese state-owned engineering firm. Together both foreign companies own a 75% majority stake in the project, which is expected to create at least 200,000 local jobs. Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy, but growth has been stalled for years due to poor infrastructure and mismanagement, per APNews.

🇺🇦 Nearly a dozen high-profile Ukrainian officials were fired or resigned yesterday amidst allegations of corruption. The shakeup, which is Ukraine’s largest since Russia invaded last February, came days after local media reported allegations that the country’s military was overpaying for food for its troops, per the NY Times. Separately, multiple news outlets reported yesterday that Germany and the US have both agreed to supply Ukraine with Leopard 2 and M1 Abrams tanks, respectively, following months of resistance.

🇮🇳 An Indian university reportedly cut off power and internet ahead of a controversial documentary screening. The students’ union at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi said power was cut campus-wide roughly 15 minutes before they were scheduled to screen a new BBC documentary examining PM Narendra Modi’s role in the 2002 riots in Gujarat, India (where he served as chief minister at the time). JNU officials had previously barred the students’ union from screening the film, saying it might disturb peace and harmony on campus, per Reuters. Despite the power cut, students were still able to gather and watch the documentary on their phones.

🏌️‍♀️ Then you’ll love The GIST, a 4x a week newsletter that provides a refreshing female voice and perspective on the biggest stories in sports.

🤿🏈 If you’re ready to finally immerse into the world of sports but want to spare yourself the mansplanations, The GIST is perfect to uplevel your knowledge and stay current… and it’s FREE!🙌

🦸‍♀️ Besides the biggest major sports headlines they dive into college sports, betting picks, strategies, rumors, and lots more – see for yourself why 700,000 sports fans have made The GIST their home for sports news.

Stay up to date on sports for free with The GIST.

Per a new peer-reviewed study published in Nature Geoscience, Earth’s inner core has stopped spinning in the same direction as the rest of the planet – and may even be rotating the other way. Cue sad planet breakup songs☹️.

🌎🔁 Background: Earth’s inner core is a superhot, Pluto-sized ball of solid iron located ~3,100 miles below the surface. It’s able to spin independently from Earth, since it floats within an outer core of piping-hot liquid metal.

And not to burst any bubbles, but Journey to the Center of the Earth wasn’t a documentary😱. The furthest humans have ever dug into our planet is ~7.6 miles (40,230 ft) – or about 3,092.4 miles away from the Earth’s inner core. What little data we have comes from analyzing tiny differences in earthquake-related seismic waves as they pass through the middle of the planet.

• In the newly-published study, Chinese researchers analyzed seismic waves from the last six decades and found Earth’s inner core rotation "came to near halt around 2009 and then turned in an opposite direction."
• The study’s authors concluded that our planet’s inner core oscillates between rotating one direction and then the other, with the switch occurring roughly every 35 years (or 70 years to complete one full rotation cycle).

✋ Yes, but… Other geological experts have pushed back against the study’s conclusion, arguing that it’s just one of several plausible explanations for the data. Other possibilities include a shorter 20- or 30-year rotation cycle, or a theory that Earth’s inner core only significantly moved between 2001 to 2013 and has stayed put ever since.

Ah, Amazon – the one place you can buy baguette slippers, an inflatable horse, and prescription meds. Yesterday the company announced RxPass, an Amazon Prime add-on that gives patients access to over 50 generic medications, delivered for free, no insurance needed – all for $5/month.

The program offers meds that treat over 80 conditions, including high blood pressure, acid reflux, and anxiety. And if you're one of the estimated ~150 million Americans with a presciption to one of the meds on the list, here's how it works:

1. Your doc sends the prescription to Amazon Pharmacy (or you can transfer an existing Rx via Amazon’s website).
2. Add all eligible, prescribed meds to your Amazon cart like you would anything else (free of charge, besides the $5/month fee).
3. Amazon ships the meds to you, also for free. And refills are handled automatically.

Though there are a few caveats. Customers enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid are not eligible. And RxPass is not yet available in Texas, California, Washington, or five other states in the US.

💊 Driving the move... Analysts say Amazon sees RxPass as a way to boost signups to its Amazon Prime subscription, as well as a way to broaden its healthcare portfolio and attract more users to Amazon Pharmacy – which ranks at the bottom of the list of Prime perks that drew members to the service, per a Morgan Stanley survey conducted last summer.

💬 Quoted…​​ “We are sending a message that the situation is becoming more urgent.”

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists officially set its Doomsday Clock at 90 seconds until midnight yesterday, down from 100 in 2022, saying the decision to shave 10 seconds off the clock this year was "largely, though not exclusively" due to the war in Ukraine.

• The 76-year-old Doomsday Clock is now the closest it’s ever been to midnight, a metaphor signaling the end of humanity. (Background)

💻 Stat of the Day: Remote jobs made up 13.2% of all postings advertised on LinkedIn last month, down from 20.6% in March, per new company data. At the same time, remote jobs attracted 52.8% of all applications submitted on LinkedIn in December, slightly higher than a year before.

🤯 Did You Know?... More than half of Americans between the ages of 16 and 74 read below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level, per a new Gallup analysis of Department of Education data.

📖 Worth a Read: Nobody has my condition but me → (The New Yorker)

• ☝️ Local Hawaiian lifeguard Luke Shepardson beat out fellow amateurs and pros alike on Monday to win the Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational; this prestigious surfing contest, known simply as “The Eddie,” is only held when waves at Hawaii’s Waimea Bay consistently reach 30 feet or higher.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🛻⚖️ Tesla announced plans to build a $3.5 billion facility in Nevada to produce its new Semi electric truck; Elon Musk took the stand in his “funding secured” Tweet trial for the third straight day yesterday.
• 🤑 Walmart is raising the minimum wage for its US hourly workers to $14 an hour, up from the current minimum of $12; the raise will affect ~21% of Walmart’s ~1.6 million US employees.
• 🍎 🕶️ Apple’s Reality Pro VR/AR headset, set to be released later this year with a price tag of ~$3,000, will reportedly work by tracking its user’s eye and hand movements. | Also in Apple world, iOS 16.3 was released with security updates and bug fixes on Monday.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🏸🥒 Pickleball is coming to a TV near you – the Association of Pickleball Professionals made a deal with CBS Sports and ESPN to show hundreds of hours of Pickleball programming in 2023. | The Academy Award nominations were announced yesterday; Everything Everywhere All At Once leads the pack with 11 nods.
• 👨‍🎤📺 Panic! at the Disco will break up after the band’s European tour concludes on March 10th, frontman Brendon Urie announced yesterday. | Adult Swim parted ways with Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland after domestic violence charges against him were made public earlier this month; the show will continue after recasting title characters Rick and Morty, both voiced by Roiland.
• ⚾ Scott Rolen, an eight-time Gold Glove-winning third-baseman and seven-time MLB All Star who played for several teams including the Reds and Phillies, was elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame yesterday.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🧊 NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope recently discovered the coldest interstellar ice ever measured, at negative 440°F.
• 🦠 More than 70% of people who filed Covid-related workers' compensation claims in New York were still unable to work six months after filing, per a new government-funded study.

EVERYTHING ELSE

• 🏛️ Execs from Ticketmaster and parent company Live Nation testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday over Ticketmaster’s breakdown during a sale of Taylor Swift concert tickets last November. (Background)
• 📑 Roughly a dozen classified documents were discovered last week at former Vice President Mike Pence’s Indiana home, according to two letters from Pence's attorney published yesterday. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

CLICKBAIT

• 💰 How much you need to earn to be in the top 1% in every US state.
• 🫖🔀 A sippin’ contradiction… kratom tea is energizing and relaxing! One lucky DONUT reader can win 3 of Top Tree Herb’s most popular teas by entering the Top Tree TEA GIVEAWAY here!*

*Sponsored post

⬆️ This little raccoon got himself into quite a predicament while crossing a railroad track. 

While straddling the rail with his little feet, the raccoon was frozen to the metal by his bottom, with a train car fast approaching.

• No one is sure how the raccoon ended up frozen to the rail, but luckily a railroad worker spotted the animal just in time. With the help of a friend and some hot water, they freed the animal in about five minutes. 

🦝 Run, raccoon, run... "He jumped off the rail and ran in the woods never looking back,” said the rescuer. “Operation well-performed. Little fella is safe now.”

Can you decode these children’s book titles, written with emojis?

1. 🍎🍐🍉🍊🍑🐛
2. 😺🎩
3. 👧🐻🐻🐻

(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.👇

1. The Very Hungry Caterpillar
2. The Cat in the Hat
3. Goldilocks and the Three Bears