Good morning. We know what you’re thinking: what the heck am I gonna talk about at all these Presidents’ Day Weekend hangs?

Fear not, we got you:

1. John Adams, the 2nd President of our United States, exchanged more than 1,100 letters with his wife Abigail. #goals
2. President Andrew Johnson is one of the only presidents to not have an official pet while in office, however he did end up befriending a family of White House mice he called “the little fellows.”
3. The “S.” in both Harry S. Truman and Ulysses S. Grant doesn’t stand for anything – it’s just an initial.

Now if that doesn’t make your friends go “whaaaat,” then maybe they’re not your friends after all.

P.S. We’ll be off this coming Monday to celebrate the aforementioned Presidents’ Day holiday.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 4.36 minutes to read.

“Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.”

–Jim Rohn (1930-2009)

Capitol Hill is channeling the logo of everyone’s favorite retailer and focusing its bullseye on a new target: the minimum age to use social media. On Tuesday, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) introduced a bill that would ban all US children under the age of 16 from using social media, joining a similar House measure proposed earlier this month by Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT).

Both bills come on the heels of US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, aka “America’s doctor,” saying he thinks the current minimum age to join social media (13) is too young.

📅 Background: For decades, all major social media platforms have required users to be at least 13 years old due to a 1998 US law called COPPA, which bans the collection of personal data from children below that age without parental consent. But once they reach birthday #13, kids are legally allowed to create an account on any major social media platform, where they can post/consume content and view ads like normal adult users.

🤔 What’s so bad about that?... In a recent CNN interview, Surgeon General Murthy said he has two main concerns with the status quo in regards to social media and children:

1. Research shows 13 is too young of an age to join social media, due to its links with poor mental health and low self-esteem in teens (though there’s little evidence those problems are directly caused by social media).
2. Companies currently rely on children to moderate their own participation on social media, all while pouring dollars into ensuring its users stay on-platform for the maximum amount of time possible.

✋ Yes, but… Without certain measures like ID verification in place, increasing the minimum age to use social media or implementing new time restrictions won’t necessarily keep children safer online. And even if certain precautions are taken, kids are like the phones we use these days: pretty darn smart. Which means they’re more than capable of finding ways to falsify their age or bypass other policies that are in place.

📊 Flash poll: How do you feel about Congress approving a law that bans kids under 16 years old from using social media?

Strongly agree

Agree/Somewhat agree

Neutral

Disagree/Somewhat disagree

Strongly disagree

🌎🏦 World Bank President David Malpass announced plans to step down in June. Malpass’ resignation, which will occur nearly a year ahead of his term’s expiration date in April 2024, gives President Biden an opportunity to install a new leader at the World Bank, since the US is its largest shareholder. The World Bank is made up of 187 member-nations who collectively lend billions of dollars to poorer countries each year, in an effort to eliminate poverty and encourage international trade.

🇪🇸 Spain officially approved the first-ever law in Europe allowing for paid menstrual leave. The measure allows for a paid leave of absence of between three and five days for women who obtain a doctor’s note confirming they suffered from incapacitating period symptoms. The menstrual leave bill was part of a broader package that, among other things, provides all Spaniards with free period products in schools and prisons, and allows citizens aged 16+ to legally change their gender without needing a doctor to diagnose them with gender dysphoria.

🇵🇹 Portugal is ending its “golden visa” program for new foreign property-buyers amidst rising prices. The country’s golden visas were implemented a decade ago for non-EU nationals as part of an effort to fix the country’s public finances, following a 2011 bailout from the EU and IMF. Since then, Portugal has raised an estimated $7.3 billion from nearly 12,000 golden visas, each of which requires the holder to do one of three things: invest at least $350,000 in property, create at least ten jobs in Portugal, or pay $1.5 million.

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They say the best journalists really live their stories, experiencing them firsthand to capture the truth. Well, that’s exactly what I (Alex) did last night by having the catalytic converter on my Prius stolen. Again. For the third time, in fact.

And it’s not just me. Catalytic converter theft is going up faster than the house in Up – in 2018, there were 1,298 thefts reported; in 2021, that number rose to over 52,000. That’s an increase of 3,900+%.

🤔🚗 Why is it happening?... For starters, they’re easy to steal. We’re talking under two minutes for someone to get under your car, saw off the catalytic converter – which converts pollutant gasses into less toxic byproducts – and bolt. The catalyst causing the reaction is almost always a precious metal such as platinum, rhodium, or palladium, each of which can fetch thousands of dollars when sold by the ounce.

• That’s also about the repair cost for consumers; without insurance replacing a converter runs between $1,000 to $3,000.

🏛 Big picture: To combat this growing problem, Congress earlier this month introduced the Preventing Auto Recycling Thefts (PART) Act. It would make the theft, sale, or known purchase of stolen catalytic converters a federal criminal offense, and require ID’ing each one that's manufactured to make them easier for police to trace.

+ In case it helps: You can minimize the chances of having your catalytic converter stolen by installing anti-theft devices such as cages, shields, locks, and alarms. Also park in well-lit areas and garages, if possible, and paint your converter a bright neon color to deter thieves. Or you can just do what I’m doing from now on: sleep through the day and camp out by the car every night🦉.

Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe begins today with the release of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, officially kicking off the next part of Marvel’s ongoing “multiverse saga.”

And it’s not just a phase, mom – ever since Marvel released its first movie in 2008 (Iron Man), all of its content has been divided into phases. Each one includes a group of several movies and TV shows that can be enjoyed as standalone pieces, but also build upon each other with overlapping characters and plot points.

Phase 5 is smack dab in the middle of what Marvel calls its “multiverse saga,” which also includes Phases 4 and 6. Here’s what it entails:

• Marvel Studios over the next 20 months is scheduled to release seven TV seasons and five more movies (besides Ant-Man), concluding with a Blade reboot in September 2024 starring Mahershala Ali.
• This phase will also see the formal introduction and development of a Thanos-like major villain called Kang the Conqueror, who’s played by Jonathan Majors (👆on the right).

So far, though, Phase 5 is off to a rocky start. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania currently has a 48% critic approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, good for the second lowest-rated Marvel project ever (after Eternals). Though it does seem moviegoers are liking it more – the film has an 85% audience score.

+Dive deeper: As Marvel gears up for its new phase, rival DC Studios is doing the same.

💬 Quoted…​​ “We have found that in long, extended chat sessions of 15 or more questions, Bing can become repetitive or be prompted/provoked to give responses that are not necessarily helpful.”

Just over a week after Microsoft first unveiled its new ChatGPT-powered Bing search engine, the company published a new blog post addressing recent user reports that its AI has been acting a little… off. This includes instances where it expressed anger, obsession, and even threats.

• As a fix to minimize long chat sessions, the company will introduce a tool allowing users to more easily refresh the AI’s context or start from scratch.

👆 Stat of the Day: 31 = the number of new emojis in the beta version of iOS 16.4 that Apple released yesterday; they include “shaking face,” ginger root, jellyfish, and a wing.

🤯 Did You Know?... Greenland is located further north, south, east, and west than Iceland.

📖 Worth a Read: Bitcoin’s future depends on six mysterious coders → (WSJ)

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• ☝️ Rare and unseen footage of the 1986 expedition through the wreckage of the Titanic was released on Wednesday night by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🚗 Tesla is recalling ~362,000 vehicles due to safety issues with its Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta software.
• 💻 YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki is stepping down after nine years in the company’s top role; the company’s current Chief Product Officer, Neal Mohan, will take over as CEO.
• ✉️ Jeffrey Epstein exchanged over 1,000 emails with former Barclays CEO Jes Staley, some of which included photos of young women, per court documents released earlier in the week.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🎤 Ryan Seacrest is leaving his six-year post as co-host of Live with Kelly and Mark; Seacrest will be replaced by Kelly Ripa’s husband, Mark Consuelos.
• 🎬 Female-led films featuring a female from an underrepresented group as the lead or co-lead made up 16% of the 100 top-grossing films in 2022, per a new report from the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative; that’s up from 1% in 2007.
• 🩺 Bruce Willis has been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, his family announced yesterday.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🦱 Human scalps evolved hair to help us stay cool in the sun, per a new peer-reviewed study.
• 🐋 The melancholy tunes sung by humpback whales may really be a sign of loneliness, according to a new study published in Nature Communications Biology, which found whales perform fewer of these calls as their population grows.
• 🕳️ Black holes may be the source of dark energy, a mysterious force that theoretically explains why the universe continues to expand despite the pull of gravity, per a new peer-reviewed study led by University of Hawaii researchers.

EVERYTHING ELSE

• 🚂 A Norfolk Southern train containing at least one car with hazardous material derailed near Detroit, MI, yesterday; no injuries or evidence of exposed toxic chemicals were detected, state officials said.
• 🏛️ Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) checked himself into Walter Reed Medical Center to seek treatment for clinical depression, his office announced yesterday.
• ⚖️ A Georgia grand jury recommended perjury indictments of one or more unnamed witnesses who testified in its criminal probe into possible election meddling by former President Donald Trump; the section of the report that indicates whether the grand jury believes Trump, his lawyers, or political allies should be indicted remains under seal. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

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Mechanics at the Germain BMW dealership in Naples, FL, were working on a routine oil change last month, when they heard a bizarre noise coming from the engine of the car. 

The scratching sound didn't seem electrical; upon further inspection, the employees were surprised to find a small wild bunny nestled into the engine. 

🐰 Hoppily ever after... As they carefully worked to rescue the bunny, the rabbit hopped right to it, bouncing out of the car and around the BMW shop until an employee finally caught it. 

• Neither bunny nor mechanics were harmed in the incident. 
• “The bunny was released outside of the door, into the mulch and I think he went back into his bunny home,” said BMW employee Kyle.

Below are three lists of ingredients. All you have to do is give us the completed dish they make.

☝ Recipe #1:

• Coconut oil
• Onion
• Tomatoes
• Salt & pepper
• Chickpeas
• Garlic
• Garam masala
• Curry powder
• Cumin
• Coconut milk & flour
• Juice of lime

✌️ Recipe #2:

• Ripe avocados
• Cacao baking chocolate
• Almond milk
• Maple syrup
• Vanilla extract
• Cinnamon
• Sea salt

3️⃣ Recipe #3:

• Cremini mushrooms
• Shrimp
• Olive oil
• Scallions
• Chicken stock
• Garlic
• Soy sauce
• Rice
• Sesame seeds

(keep scrolling for the answers)

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☝️ Recipe #1: Coconut chickpea curry

✌️ Recipe #2: Dark chocolate avocado mousse

3️⃣ Recipe #3: Shrimp and mushroom stir fry