Good morning. When you hear the word “peach,” you probably think of Georgia, cobbler, and perhaps even that Justin Bieber song?

One thing that doesn’t come to mind: almonds. But guess what – they’re cousins!

• Both part of the Prunus family, peaches and almonds are so genetically similar you can hybridize them.
• In fact, nature already has: the wild peach! Usually found in northwest India, the peach x almond collab is thriving, though apparently very sour. We’ll stick to Georgia peaches for now.

Know what else we’ll stick to? THE NEWS.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 4.29 minutes to read.

“Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.”

–Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

It’s finally here: the highest court in the land is tackling the topic of student loan forgiveness, in a pair of cases that promise to impact tens of millions of Americans – no matter which way they turn out. Yesterday, the Supreme Court heard arguments seeking to overturn the Biden administration’s proposed student loan forgiveness plan.

🎓 Background: The plan, announced last August, would forgive up to $20,000 worth of federal student-loan debt for certain borrowers. At least some part of the plan would apply to an estimated 95%+ of the 45+ million Americans who owe a collective $1.6 trillion in federal student debt.

The Biden administration began accepting forgiveness applications in mid-October, but the process was halted due to ongoing litigation – aka the two cases heard yesterday – before any debt forgiveness could officially take place.

• If enacted, the program would cost the US government an estimated $400 billion over the next decade, per the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

⚖️ Now, back to the cases… There were two separate lawsuits heard yesterday before the Court: one brought by six Republican-led states, and one brought by a pair of student-loan borrowers from Texas who wouldn’t benefit from all of the plan’s provisions.

The plaintiffs in both cases argued that the Biden administration doesn’t have the legal authority to forgive student loans for all Americans, since the plan wasn’t first approved by Congress. And up to this point, lower courts have mostly agreed with their reasoning.

On the flip side, the Biden administration argued that both cases shouldn’t have come before the Court in the first place, since none of the plaintiffs were materially harmed by the debt cancellation. This would mean there would be no legal standing to sue.

👀 Looking ahead… The Supreme Court’s final decision is expected in late June or early July.

📊 Flash poll: Do you support the Biden administration's plan to cancel some federal student-loan debt?

Yes

No

Unsure/other

🇳🇴 A group of protesters, including Greta Thunberg, blocked access to Norway’s energy ministry on Monday and Tuesday. The demonstrators were gathered there to protest against two wind farms in central Norway, which they said are imposing on the rights of the Sami Indigenous people to raise reindeer on the land. In 2021, Norway’s supreme court ruled the wind farms in question violated Sami human rights under international conventions, but the turbines remain operational 16 months later. Norwegian officials have said that while the supreme court ruled that the wind farm is invalid, the justices didn’t say anything about what should happen to it.

🌐 More countries shut down their domestic internet in 2022 than ever before. That’s according to a new report from NY-based digital rights watchdog Access Now, which found authorities across 35 countries instituted at least 187 internet shutdowns last year (up from 34 and 182 the previous year, respectively). More than half of those shutdowns occurred in India, with other repeat offenders including the Iranian government and Myanmar’s ruling military junta. Access Now said a majority of the shutdowns were triggered by protests, conflict, or allegations of human rights violations, while a smaller number coincided with school exams and elections.

🇷🇺 Vladimir Putin ordered stronger Russian border measures yesterday after drones flew into southern and western Russia, including one that came within 60 miles of Moscow. Moscow described the two drones it shot down over Russian airspace as a Ukrainian attempt to target domestic infrastructure, though Kyiv has a policy of not claiming responsibility for any attacks inside Russia. Experts say the drones were likely created by Ukrainian manufacturer Ukrjet based on images captured by Russian media. Separately, Putin officially banned all government officials from using foreign words that could otherwise be communicated in Russian.

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No, this isn’t a question we thought of in our silly goose hat this morning – it’s a real debate being had by scientists as we speak. And don’t just take our word for it: On Monday, the European Space Agency said space organizations around the world are currently brainstorming the best possible way to keep time on the Moon.

🕰🌕 Why it matters: Each past lunar mission has used the time of the country operating the spacecraft. But much like the honeymoon phase in relationships, this arrangement can only last for so long – as more and more missions reach different areas of the Moon’s surface and start communicating with each other, some sort of standardization needs to be introduced, per ESA officials.

Though what that would actually look like is unclear. The international team looking into lunar time has begun debating whether a single organization should set and maintain time on the Moon, and whether that time should be kept independent from Earth or synchronized.

The challenges aren’t just bureaucratic, either – there are also technical issues to consider. Each day in the Moon’s equatorial region is 29.5 Earth days long, including a freezing two-week lunar night. And analog clocks run slightly faster on the Moon than on Earth due to the reduced gravity; they also tick even more rapidly in lunar orbit than on the surface.

🤔 Bottom line: Exploration has been a key driver of improved timekeeping throughout human history, leading to new innovations like pendulum clocks, time zones, and wristwatches. Up next? Only time will tell😉.

Warner Bros. Discovery is ready for second breakfast. Last Thursday, CEO David Zaslav announced on an earnings call that WBD and production studio New Line had signed a deal to make “multiple” new Lord of the Rings films.

Which is… interesting, given Amazon’s recent all-in commitment to the LOTR franchise with The Rings of Power, the streamer’s most expensive and most viewed series. And much like Gandalf and Sauron, WBD and Amazon aren’t exactly besties.

🧙‍♂️💍 What’s going on?... In 2001, a human from the race of Men named Peter Jackson dared to do the impossible by adapting J.R.R. Tolkien’s books into the $3 billion trilogy of The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King. The final film of the series won all 11 Oscars it was nominated for, including Best Picture and Best Director.

Here’s where it gets interesting. J.R.R. Tolkien’s estate had nothing to do with Jackson’s films. In fact, it was actively against them, with J.R.R.’s son Christopher saying they “eviscerated” his father’s books, “[reducing] the aesthetic and philosophical impact… to nothing.”

• In 2017, the Tolkien estate did give Amazon permission to make its LOTR series, but under one condition: it couldn’t include any mention of the Third Age stories depicted in Jackson’s films. (Which is why The Rings of Power focuses exclusively on the Second Age.)
• But the new films from Warner Bros. Discovery will continue exploring the Third Age – and though Jackson hasn’t been officially attached, the director has been hinting that he may be involved.

💬 Quoted…​​ “Elon Musk, are you breaking the pot of China?”

A Chinese state-run newspaper issued a warning to Elon Musk yesterday – which roughly translates to “Are you biting the hand that feeds you?” – after the Tesla CEO responded to tweets about the Department of Energy’s assessment that the Covid pandemic most likely leaked from a Chinese lab.

• China is currently the second-largest global market for Tesla vehicles outside of the US, and houses a Tesla ‘gigafactory’ in Shanghai.

🏢 Stat of the Day: In the US, office occupancy is currently at between 40% and 60% of pre-pandemic levels. But elsewhere it’s a different story: offices in Europe and the Middle East are 70%-to-90% full compared to pre-pandemic, while current occupancy rates in Asia range from 80%-to-110%, per new data from global property-services firm JLL.

🤯 Did You Know?... Former President Richard Nixon often said that he seriously considered a career as a rapper before entering politics.

📖 Worth a Read: The puzzling gap between how old you are and how old you think you are → (The Atlantic)

• ☝️ The National Archives of Australia recently published hundreds of photos, lantern slides, and glass plate negatives showing scenes from early 20th-century expeditions to Antarctica.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 💰 US markets closed down across the board yesterday (S&P: -0.3%; Dow: -0.7%; Nasdaq: -0.1%).
• 💻🤖 Twitter’s new CEO is rumored to be Steve Davis, the current CEO of The Boring Company. | Elon Musk is considering starting an AI company to rival Open AI, which created ChatGPT.
• 📱🤖 Microsoft previewed Phone Link for iOS, which will let iPhone users send messages and make calls from a Windows PC. | Microsoft’s Windows 11 update includes a button promoting its Bing AI chatbot.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🎤 Chris Rock will perform a live standup special March 4 on Netflix; Rock will talk about the infamous slap from last year’s Oscars.
• 🍸 Ian Fleming’s James Bond books will be republished in April with a number of passages changed or removed.
• 📺 Actor Tom Sizemore’s family is soon making an end of life decision after doctors said there was no chance for recovery; the Saving Private Ryan actor suffered a brain aneurysm last week.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 💻 Google said its newest version of the Chrome web browser drains less battery power on newer and older MacBooks.
• 💪 Exercise is ~1.5x more effective at treating depression than medication, per a new peer-reviewed study from the University of South Australia.
• 🐦 Dinosaur fossils featuring arms with a certain bend at the elbow and wrist could hint at the presence of an unpreserved tendon that represents the “missing link” in how birds first evolved wings, per a new peer-reviewed study.

EVERYTHING ELSE

• 🏛️ President Biden nominated deputy Labor Secretary Julie Su to replace outgoing Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, who will step down later this month.
• 🌐 The US Marshals Service is currently investigating a major ransomware attack earlier this month that compromised some of its most sensitive information, officials disclosed late Monday.
• 🗳️ Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) failed to advance to a two-candidate runoff in citywide elections held yesterday; the runoff is set for April 4.
• 🦠 FBI Director Christopher Wray said yesterday that the Covid pandemic was probably the result of a laboratory leak in China; it’s the first public confirmation of the FBI’s classified judgment regarding Covid’s origin. (Background)

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• 💎👑 30 of the most valuable treasures in world history that are still missing.

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🧶 A sight to see... Some 960 crocheters gathered in Derby, England, last month to practice their favorite hobby – and break a Guinness World Record in the meantime. 

The event was the culmination of the BBC Radio Derby's Make A Difference: Make A Blanket campaign, which urged crochetiers across the country to make blankets over the winter to help people in need.

Here's how to play: We provide an incorrect stat. Then you guess whether the actual number is over or under the stated value.

• 🗽 895: The shoe-size of the Statue of Liberty’s feet.
• 🏝️ 710: The number of islands in the Philippines.
• ❤️‍🩹 15%: The increased likelihood of a man suffering a heart attack on a Monday.

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1. Under; she’s *only* a size 879
2. Over; the Philippines has more than 7,100 islands
3. Over; men are 20% more likely to have a heart attack on a Monday, while women are 15% more likely, per a 2005 peer-reviewed study

**The Parallel Flight sponsor block was written and/or published as a collaboration between The DONUT's in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of The DONUT. Although the piece is not and should not be construed as editorial content, the sponsored content team works to ensure that any and all information contained within is true and accurate to the best of their knowledge and research. The DONUT may receive monetary compensation from the issuer, or its agency, for publicizing the offering of the issuer’s securities. This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be investing advice. This is a paid ad. Please see 17(b) disclosure linked in the campaign page for more information.