Good morning. Quick: do you know what the Cookie Monster’s real name is? Take a guess.

Maybe you guessed plain ol’ Cookie. Then when the demons take over, he becomes a Monster. Or Cooper? Or even Monty. Monty would make sense, actually – his nickname for some reason was Monster and then he began to love cookies – bam, Cookie Monster.

But all of those guesses are, sad to say, wrong.

The real answer: Sid.

In 2004’s Sesame Street song “The First Time Me Eat Cookie,” Cookie Monster finally came clean with the lyric, “Me was just a mild-mannered little kid. In fact, back then, me think me name was Sid.”

And now, NEWS.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 4.30 minutes to read.

“Others can stop you temporarily – you are the only one who can do it permanently.”

–Hilary "Zig" Ziglar (1926-2012)

Whenever you watch a rerun of the classic Jim and Pam finally kiss “Casino Night” episode of The Office on TV, the episode’s writer, director, and actors all make a little money from residuals. But if you watch that same episode on Peacock, they don’t.

And for the roughly 10,000-member Writers Guild of America (WGA), that's a big problem. Though it’ll soon have a chance to rectify this – the writer’s union announced earlier this week that negotiations will begin with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers, which represents studios such as Disney, Apple, and Netflix, on March 20.

If a deal isn’t struck before the existing contract expires on May 1, the writers may strike. Which could cause the production of most TV series to halt completely.

🤔 What does the WGA want?... To put it bluntly, a bigger piece of the pie. Total earnings for WGA-West writers have dropped by more than 12% from 2019 totals, per the WGA’s 2021 annual report – while, for example, Netflix’s revenue increased by over $9 billion over the same period.

The reason for this, according to the WGA, is outdated agreements that fail to capture a content landscape dominated by streamers like Netflix and Apple. A couple examples:

• Fees for shows on streaming platforms are one-time, not based on how often content is watched (or residuals, aka how it’s traditionally worked for years). This significantly decreases the upside for popular shows.
• Writers get paid per episode, and the number of episodes per show has decreased over recent years.

🚫✍️ Bottom line: The WGA is no stranger to strikes. In 2007, all union writers walked off the job for 100 days – during which production on most TV series had to stop because they had no new scripts to shoot.

🇮🇹 Canals in Venice, Italy, are starting to dry up due to a lack of water. Venice is widely known for its regular flooding brought by rising tides, which often completely submerge the ground floors of local buildings. But the same tidal changes can also bring about periods of lower water levels – especially when low tide coincides with greatly reduced levels of precipitation, as has been the case in Italy this winter. And it’s not the only European country with that problem: France just went an entire month without rainfall for just the second time since records began in 1959.

🇷🇺 Russia held a parade yesterday celebrating the one-year anniversary of its Ukraine invasion. The event also coincided with a Russian holiday called Defender of the Fatherland Day. It was held during freezing weather at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, where extras were reportedly paid the equivalent of $7 and given free food and merch to attend. The outdoor rally featured patriotic rap remixes, propaganda montage videos of Russia's military in Ukraine, and a three-and-a-half minute speech from President Vladimir Putin.

🇷🇴 A Romanian court extended the detention of British-American influencer Andrew Tate for a third time. The 36-year-old former kickboxer and his brother, Tristan Tate, are currently being investigated by Romanian authorities over allegations of human trafficking, rape, and forming an organized crime group. Both Tate brothers and their lawyers have said there is “no evidence” of any wrongdoing. Under local law, officials can apply to detain suspects for up to six consecutive 30-day periods during ongoing investigations.

🏊 Deep dive… Dogs are meant to eat large amounts of protein quickly by design (as indicated by the powerful jaw, angular teeth, large stomach, and short digestive tract). Unfortunately, kibble is often 60% carbohydrates and dehydration means the little protein contained is poor quality.

So why is it popular? Because it was introduced around the Great Depression/WWII out of necessity, and just kind of became the norm.

🔬 But we’re in a new century, and we have science. Science that shows dogs live on average 32 months longer with a homemade high-quality diet vs industrial/commercial pet food.

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Switch to Sundays today, your dog will thank you (nonverbally).

In recent years, the number of Americans using diabetes drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro has grown in the same way that a frog moves – by leaps and bounds. But that’s not due to a sudden increase in diabetes cases. Instead, millions – including Elon Musk, Chelsea Handler, and several other celebrities – have started using the drugs to help them lose weight.

💊 A deeper dive… The main ingredient in both treatments, called semaglutide, was initially approved by the FDA in 2017 to treat Type 2 diabetes. Studies showed it helped control high blood-sugar levels, and reduced the risk of heart problems in prescribed patients.

A few years later, further research revealed weekly doses of semaglutide can also help obese patients lose 15% of their body weight on average over a 16-month period (versus ~2% for a placebo). These findings prompted the FDA to approve semaglutide’s use for weight loss under a separate brand called Wegovy in 2021.

• In 2019, US doctors prescribed semaglutide-based treatments for weight loss around 230,000 times, per analytics firm Komodo Health.
• Three years later, that number came in at over 5 million, representing a ~2,100% increase. In fact, the drugs have become so popular among people seeking to lose weight that they’re currently in short supply for people with diabetes, per the FDA.

💰 The cost: Besides potential side effects, Wegovy’s $1,400/month price tag isn’t typically covered by insurance. And when it comes to semaglutide, it appears that consistency is key – a recent peer-reviewed study found that within a year of stopping the medicine, most people had gained back a majority of the weight they previously lost.

💬 Quoted…​​ “This will be the most significant, transformative thing we’ve done in decades.”

In a CNBC interview aired on Tuesday, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said the coffee chain will start rolling out a new line of olive oil-infused coffee drinks in the US this spring, which Schultz himself conceived after a recent inspirational trip to Italy.

The three “Oleato” beverages (Italian for “with oil”) are as follows:

1. An oat milk latte with olive oil
2. An ice-shaken espresso with oat milk, hazelnut flavor, and olive oil
3. A “golden foam” cold brew made with olive oil-infused sweet milk foam

🚘 Stat of the Day: Tesla’s Model 3 currently goes for $4,930 less than the average new vehicle sold in the US after its recent price cut, per a new Bloomberg analysis. That’s the cheapest it’s ever been relative to other new cars, which collectively sold for an average price of $47,920 last month.

🤯 Did You Know?... The MLS was founded 30 years ago as part of the US Soccer Federation’s bid to host the 1994 World Cup – and it worked.

📖 Worth a Read: I made an AI clone of myself → (VICE)

• ☝️ You’re looking at some of the winners from the 2023 ​​Underwater Photographer of the Year awards, which attracted a record-high ~6,000 individual entries this year.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🩺 Amazon’s $3.5 billion purchase of primary care provider One Medical won’t be challenged by the FTC, allowing the deal to close later this week, Bloomberg reported yesterday.
• 📻 NPR will cut about 10% of the company’s workforce, or roughly 100 people.
• 🏛 The White House announced yesterday a plan to lower fees on FHA loans by about $800 per year for roughly 850,000 first-time home buyers.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🏆 The Academy Awards will have a “crisis team” for the upcoming March 12 ceremony, a response to last year’s infamous scene of Will Smith slapping Chris Rock.
• ⚖️ The 33-year-old man convicted of killing Grammy-nominated rapper Nipsey Hussle in 2019 was sentenced to at least 60 years in prison yesterday.
• 📰 WhatsApp is working on a private newsletter tool, per the app’s latest Google Play beta release on Tuesday.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🌌🔭 NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has discovered six mysteriously large galaxies that potentially defy scientists’ current understanding of how the universe evolved, per a peer-reviewed study published yesterday in Nature.
• 🎧 Spotify unveiled a new AI-powered DJ with a dynamic AI voice to talk you through its selections.
• 🎈👀 Japanese startup Iwaya Giken announced plans to launch new space-viewing balloon flights that are cheaper than any other existing space tourism offering – though they’ll still cost tens of thousands of dollars per passenger.

EVERYTHING ELSE

• 🥛 Soy, oat, almond, and other drinks that bill themselves as "milk" can keep doing so against the wishes of dairy producers, according to draft federal rules published yesterday by the FDA.
• ⚖️ The Supreme Court unanimously ruled yesterday that Americans who file for bankruptcy can’t avoid debt that resulted from fraud by a business partner, even if they themselves couldn’t have known about any wrongdoing. | The Court also heard arguments in Twitter v. Taamneh; it's the second case this week that could reshape Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a 26-word clause that's been credited with helping to shape the internet as we know it. (Background)
• 🗳️ Venture capitalist Vivek Ramaswamy on Tuesday announced plans to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

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Yesterday we covered a recent report that found new editions of children’s books written by the late UK author Roald Dahl are being edited to remove words that could be deemed offensive to some readers.

❓ Our question to you: How do you feel about the Roald Dahl Company editing the deceased author’s works to remove some words that could be deemed offensive?

• 👍 Strongly agree: 6%
• 📈 Agree/Somewhat agree: 9%
• 🤷 Neutral: 4%
• 📉 Disagree/Somewhat disagree: 21%
• 👎 Strongly disagree: 60%

Click here to read some of the best responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 14,905 votes and 1,317 longform responses.

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

• Apple is convinced my dog is stalking me → (Engadget)
• Heinz wants to find the man who survived nearly a month at sea with nothing but ketchup and seasonings to help him buy a new boat → (CBS News)
• A Bolivian inmate disguised himself as a sheep in an attempt to escape prison → (NY Post)
• Spy balloon, UFO or Dragon Ball? Japan baffled by iron ball washed up on beach → (The Guardian)
• Man with world's longest tongue uses it to paint → (UPI)

If there's one thing Jeff Reitz loves, it's Disneyland. The California resident has visited the park for a grand total of eight years, three months, and 13 days in a row, setting a new world record along the way. 

🐭 Move over, Mickey... It all started – like most of these things do – "as a joke between friends," when Disneyland announced a 24-hour Leap Day event in 2012. 

• But Jeff's habit of visiting the park ended up sticking around – and for the next 2,995 days, he visited the "Happiest Place on Earth" every single day.

The "Lithium Triangle" refers to a group of three bordering countries that collectively contain about half the world’s known lithium reserves. 

❓ Our question to you: In which continent does the Lithium Triangle reside?

(keep scrolling for the answer)

👆 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.👇

South America (Chile, Bolivia, and Argentina)