Top of the morning to you! That’s an Irish way to say "good morning." Do you know the proper response?

"And the rest of the day to you!"

Feels like an unfair trade but okay sure!

And now, THE NEWS.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 4.98 minutes to read.

“True wealth is of the heart, not of the purse.”

–Augustine "Og" Mandino (1923-1996)

President Biden signed an executive order yesterday that aims to expand the number of US gun buyers required to undergo background checks, as part of an effort to reduce instances of mass shootings and gun violence in America.

☝️ First things first: This executive order doesn’t change any US government laws. Instead, it directs federal agencies to work within existing procedures that were previously approved by Congress.

Currently, federal background checks aren’t required for any private gun sales between individuals – only for sales by people and organizations considered to be firearm dealers. Which is the general area where the order is focused.

Biden’s executive order directs the DOJ to clarify what it means to be “engaged in the business” of selling guns, a move that’s expected to result in more individual sellers being classified as firearms dealers – who then have to run background checks.

• In a fact sheet, the White House said the new measure will bring the US ”as close to universal background checks as possible” without additional legislation from Congress.

📝 Zoom out: Overall, data shows that mass shootings and instances of gun violence in America are currently headed the same direction as a driver seeing headlights on a one-way road: the wrong way.

• The US experienced 690 mass shootings last year, defined as four or more victims injured or killed, per the Gun Violence Archive. That represents a 153% increase since 2014, the first year the org began collecting data.
• The latest CDC data shows gun-related homicides in America surpassed 19,000 for the first time in 2020, marking a 75% increase from the previous decade.

📊 Flash poll: How do you feel about President Biden’s new executive order that aims to expand the number of US buyers subjected to background checks?

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🇵🇰 Protests erupted in major cities across Pakistan yesterday, after government authorities tried (and failed) to arrest former PM Imran Khan. Police clashed with protesters outside Khan’s home yesterday, leaving them unable to gain entry and arrest the 70-year-old former cricket star, who was ousted as Pakistan’s PM by a vote of no-confidence last October. Government officials have accused Khan of illegally selling gifts given to him by foreign dignitaries while in office, though he claims the charges are false and politically motivated.

🇷🇺 A Russian jet collided with a US surveillance drone, knocking it out of the sky in international airspace near Crimea. According to US officials, two Russian jets were following the drone yesterday morning when one of them flew past the American craft, dumped fuel on it, then pulled away. When the second Russian jet tried to do the same, it struck the drone’s propeller, causing it to crash in the Black Sea. The Pentagon described the incident as a “juvenile” but accidental move, while Moscow insisted that its planes never hit the drone. Separately, the International Criminal Court is expected to announce arrests in two war crimes cases against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, per the NYT and Reuters.

🇫🇲🇨🇳 The outgoing president of Micronesia, a small Pacific island nation, accused China of “political warfare” over Taiwan. President David Panuelo said China has been engaging in nefarious tactics like spying and offering bribes in an effort to ensure that, if Beijing goes to war with Taiwan, Micronesia would align itself with China and not the US – or would at least refrain from choosing sides. Beijing and Taiwan have a history of competing over allegiances in the Pacific islands, where four of Taiwan's 14 diplomatic allies are located.

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The Consumer Price Index (CPI), America’s most widely-used measure of inflation, is acting like that one Yung Joc song: it’s going down.

According to Labor Department figures released yesterday, inflation rose 6.0% in February from the same month a year ago. That’s down from 6.4% in January, and the index’s lowest annual figure since September 2021.

🔢 Monthly, by the numbers: The CPI increased 0.4% on a month-to-month basis in February. That rise was driven mainly by a 0.8% increase in shelter costs, which make up more than one-third of the entire CPI.

• The core index, which excludes often-volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.5% month over month, up from 0.4% in January and December.

📸 Big picture: The CPI has now fallen for eight straight months, down from a 40-year high of 9.1% in June. Though there’s still a gap between the current inflation reading (6.0%) and the 2% target the Fed is shooting for, which typically implies more interest-rate hikes are on the horizon.

But, but, but: After the second- and third-largest bank failures in modern US history occurred over the weekend, in part due to factors stemming from higher interest rates, investors now predict a nearly 50% chance that the Fed won’t increase rates following its meeting next Wednesday. That’s up from a 0% chance as recently as last week.

If you were given a photo of a squirrel holding a camera and asked to explain why it's funny, what would you say?

If you said it's because “we don’t expect them to use a camera or act like a human,” congratulations, you’re operating at the same comedic level as GPT-4, the newest version of the large language model underpinning ChatGPT that was released yesterday by OpenAI.

🍎🍊 How’s it different from the previous version?... If GPT-3.5 (the old version) was a Motorola Razr flip-phone, the new GPT-4 would be an iPhone 15. For example, GPT-4 scored in the 90th percentile on a uniform bar exam, compared to the 10th percentile for GPT-3.5.

• GPT-4’s biggest upgrade is the ability to receive both text and image inputs, not just text. During yesterday’s demo, the model was able to take a hand-drawn sketch of a website and code it into, well, an actual website.

⚠️ Human Beware: Oh and according to yesterday’s demo, it can do your taxes. Buuuuut, probably take that with a few grains of salt. Although the new model is 40% more likely to provide accurate information, OpenAI specifically warns users that GPT-4 still suffers from the same limitations as GPT-3.5, including social biases, aggressive responses, and presenting false information as true (also known as “hallucinating”).

GPT-4 is now available to ChatGPT Plus users and developers, as well as users with early access to Microsoft’s Bing.

💬 Quoted… “I think [you’re] driving the wrong car.”

A 51-year-old man from Vancouver, Canada, said he accidentally entered a stranger's Tesla Model 3 last week, driving it around for 15 minutes until realizing the car wasn’t actually his.

• But like that iconic scene from Good Will Hunting, it wasn’t the man’s fault: somehow his Tesla app allowed him to unlock and operate the car as if it were his own.

🌎☄️ Stat of the Day: 1 in 600 = the chance that a newly-discovered asteroid the size of a swimming pool will collide with Earth about 20 years from now, per a recent NASA announcement. But even if the asteroid does end up being on a collision-course with our planet, we have a solution at the ready: The Avengers ramming a spacecraft into it, a la NASA’s recent (and successful) DART mission.

🤯 Did You Know?... The sale of chewing gum is banned in Singapore.

📖 Worth a Read: Sorry, Too Busy! Why It’s So Hard to Get Together Right Now → (WSJ)

🤯 Did you know… Coffee was once illegal in parts of Europe and the Middle East? The world’s favorite psychoactive beverage was vilified before becoming a morning staple.

Kratom tea faces a similar stigma today. Enjoyed for centuries for its various effects, Thai workers drank it throughout the day to stay motivated/focused, and after as a relaxing socializer that helped them get quality rest.

🌿☕ Kratom comes from the same family as coffee but contains zero caffeine, and many drinkers report significantly less crash vs coffee. Also, kratom tea is the most palatable form of kratom, but can still pucker lips when consumed unsweetened. Yet 15,000,000 people in the US drink or swallow kratom every day… what does that say about the benefits?

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• ☝️ Florida’s southwest coast is currently experiencing a flare-up of toxic red tide algae (look for the discoloration in the water), which has led to residents complaining of burning eyes and breathing problems, along with hundreds of dead fish washed up on beaches; the algae is projected to remain at potentially harmful levels for another month.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 💰 US markets closed up across the board yesterday (S&P: +1.7%; Dow: +1.1%; Nasdaq: +2.1%); First Republic Bank closed up 27%. | 30-year fixed mortgage rates fell to 6.57% on Monday, per Mortgage News Daily, down from last Wednesday’s recent high of 7.05%. | Moody’s cut its outlook on the US banking system yesterday from “stable” to “negative.”
• 💉 Drugmaker Novo Nordisk will cut a portion of US insulin prices by up to 75% starting next year, the company announced yesterday.
• 🧑‍💻 Meta announced plans to lay off ~10,000 employees and remove another ~5,000 currently unfilled job openings; it's the company's second significant workforce reduction in four months.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• ⚾🏈🏒 Diamond Sports Group, the largest owner of regional sports networks (RSNs) in the US, filed for bankruptcy yesterday; Diamond oversees 19 different RSNs that collectively show games from over half of all MLB, NBA, and NHL teams.
• 🏆📽️ Sunday’s Oscars broadcast averaged 18.8 million viewers, a 13% increase from last year’s awards. | Quentin Tarantino will reportedly begin shooting his tenth and final film, The Movie Critic, this fall.
• 🏀 March Madness officially tipped off yesterday with the Men’s First Four; Pittsburgh defeated Mississippi State and Texas A&M-CC beat Southeast Missouri State. | The Women's First Four tips off today. 

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🛰️ NASA is planning to develop a new “space tug” that’s capable of steering the ISS to a controlled descent when its time in orbit is up (currently scheduled for 2031); the method would be an alternative to current plans for a Russian spacecraft to safely deorbit the ISS.
• 📜 A first edition of a historic book written by Nicolaus Copernicus, in which he proposed that the Earth revolved around the sun and not vice versa, will be auctioned off next month, per a new report; the sale is expected to fetch $2.5 million.
• 🌊 A series of rapid rises in sea level may have been responsible for one of Earth's most significant mass extinctions more than 350 million years ago, per a study published last week in Nature.

EVERYTHING ELSE

• 💻 Telehealth startup Cerebral is being investigated by the Department of Health and Human Services after the company said it inadvertently shared the personal data of 3.1 million patients with advertisers like Google, Meta, and TikTok.
• 🚰 The Environmental Protection Agency yesterday proposed the first national drinking water standard that would limit the amount of certain PFAS, or “forever chemicals,” present in tap water across the country.
• ⚖️🚂 The state of Ohio filed a federal lawsuit against Norfolk Southern yesterday, accusing the railway company of violating numerous state and federal laws in last month’s toxic chemical derailment in East Palestine, OH.

CLICKBAIT

• 🏆💼 Ranked: America’s best places to work in 2023.

March is Women's History Month – and even Barbie is taking part in the celebration. Mattel, which owns the Barbie brand, recently launched one-of-a-kind dolls in the likeness of women in STEM fields.

🔬Science is for everyone… In doing so, the company hopes to inspire young girls to embrace careers in STEM.

• Susan Wojcicki (longtime CEO of Youtube), Maggie Aderin-Pocock (space scientist/educator), and Li Yinuo (co-founder of startup ETU Education) are just a few examples of the special occasion dolls.

❓ Trivia: What do nephologists study?

🚀 True or False?... The “T” in Captain James T. Kirk stands for Tiberius.

(keep scrolling for the answers)

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❓ Trivia: Clouds (not to be confused with a nephrologist, which is a type of doctor that specializes in treating diseases of the kidney)

🚀 T/F: True