Good morning. Berries are great. Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, of course, but there’s one berry that flies under the radar.

🍆 That’s right, the eggplant. Commonly thought to be a vegetable even though it’s got the word “egg” right in the name, the eggplant is not only a fruit, but a berry.

It’s weird, yes, though it makes sense. The eggplant has “berry” vibes. In fact, it’s way more of a berry, vibe wise, than the cranberry.

Ok enough berry babble, THE NEWS.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 4.81 minutes to read.

"Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”

–Albus Dumbledore (1881-1997)

In January, we wrote about a lawsuit brought by Seattle’s public school district that accused TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and Snapchat of contributing to an ongoing youth mental health crisis in America.

And when Seattle PSD made this move, they may have well been singing “let’s get it started in here.” Because since then, more than two dozen school districts across four other states – CA, FL, NJ, and PA – have filed similar suits, claiming the social media companies have harmed young Americans by intentionally designing and marketing the platforms so they would become addicted.

• Social media companies have denied the allegations, pointing to their wide range of age-restricted features and parental controls designed to protect younger users.
• They also contend that there are many other potential factors to the youth mental health crisis – like Covid/remote schooling, political tensions, mass shootings, fear of climate change, etc. – making it impossible to isolate the impact social media alone is having.

🤔 What does the science say?... Like the FB status, it’s… complicated. A 2020 meta-analysis of meta-analyses (aka the holy grail of statistical reviews) found that increased use of digital technology led to a small negative effect on well-being, but a causal link was difficult to pinpoint.

More recently, a UNC study published in JAMA Pediatrics found that teens reporting habitual social media use – defined as checking more than 15x per day – became “hypersensitive to feedback from their peers,” as demonstrated by a distinct brain development trajectory when compared to teens who didn’t use social media frequently.

📸 Big picture: The CDC’s biennial survey on US high school students’ health and well-being, published last month, found the percentage of girls who reported feelings of persistent sadness or hopelessness rose from 36% in 2011 to 57% a decade later. That figure is nearly double the rate for high school boys, which grew from 21% to 29% over the same period.

📊 Flash poll: Do you think social media is the No. 1 factor behind America’s recent uptick in teens experiencing mental health problems?

Yes

No

Unsure/other

+IMPORTANT: If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988, or the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.

🇫🇷 French lawmakers called for a vote of no-confidence against President Emmanuel Macron. The vote – called for on Friday – takes place later today, though it isn’t expected to pass. It was announced less than a day after Macron invoked special congressional powers to bypass France’s legislature and raise the country's retirement age from 62 to 64, a move he’s consistently argued is necessary to keep the pension system viable. Thousands of people gathered across France for the fourth straight night on Sunday to protest against the new retirement age.

🇷🇺 The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin. The ICC on Friday said it determined that Putin and a high-ranking Russian official are personally responsible for the abduction of thousands of children from Ukraine, which constitutes a war crime. While heads of state are typically immune from prosecution under international law, that doesn’t apply to the ICC – though the court itself has no ability to arrest suspects. Putin is the third head of state to be charged by the ICC, after former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir and Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi. In related news, Putin visited Mariupol on Saturday in his first trip to Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine since the war began.

🇰🇷 The South Korean government walked back its plan to raise the max amount of weekly working hours following pushback from young adults. The government had intended to raise its cap on weekly working time (including overtime) from 52 hours to 69 hours, after business groups complained that the current limit was making it difficult to meet deadlines. But President Yoon Suk Yeol reversed course four days later, when his approval rating fell by more than 10 percentage points among 20- and 30-year-olds. South Koreans worked an average of 1,915 hours in 2021, ranking fifth out of 38 OECD countries.

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• Playstation/Xbox gift cards
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One of our writers, bless his heart, loves responding to robotexts. He acts super nice and tries to become friends with the scammers. It’s weird.

For everyone else, we’ve got good news. The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Friday unveiled new regulations requiring telecom companies to block spam text messages, citing a spike in consumer complaints.

🤖 Robots loooove texting… In cybersecurity circles, robotexting is called “smishing,” or SMS phishing. But don’t let the way-too-cute name fool you – smishing is no joke. Since 2015, the number of spam text complaints reported to the FCC has increased by over 470%, reaching 18,900 complaints in 2022.

• Consumer losses from robotexts were $231 million for the first nine months of 2022, per the agency, up from $86 million for all of 2020.

📱 Bottom line: Under the new rules – which could take effect in about six months – phone providers like Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile must block any text messages sent from invalid, unallocated, and unused numbers from ever making their way to your phone. Which is quite an undertaking: Americans received an estimated ~225 billion robotexts in 2022.

💬 Quoted… "This raises fundamental questions about what they are doing with the information they compile from TikTok users.”

• The DOJ and FBI have reportedly opened a criminal federal probe into TikTok-parent ByteDance (*DJ Khaled voice* anotha one). The catalyst? A Forbes report published in December, which claimed an internal ByteDance investigation found its employees tracked multiple journalists covering the company and its ties to the Chinese government.

🍿 Stat of the Day: One-third of all American movies about an “everyman action hero” have a male protagonist whose name starts with a J, per a recent Slate analysis.

🤯 Did You Know?... This fact is for all the bird owners out there – get ready for a threat you can add to the repertoire for when your little one is acting up. According to the US Postal Service’s website, you can mail some live adult birds.

📖 Worth a Read: Should we automate the CEO? → (The Hustle)

• ☝️ In honor of the International Day of Happiness, which is today, NPR asked photographers around the world to send in photos that best-captured instances of gratitude and kindness in 2023.

BUSINESS & MARKETS LET’S TALK ABOUT BANKS

• 🏦 Banking giant UBS agreed to purchase embattled rival Credit Suisse for $3.2 billion yesterday.
• 📉🤝 S&P downgraded First Republic Bank’s credit rating for the second time in four days yesterday. | The FDIC announced yesterday that a subsidiary of New York Community Bank will assume all loans and deposits of the seized Signature Bank.
• 🌎 The US Federal Reserve joined five other global central banks yesterday in taking action to increase the flow of US dollars through the global financial system; according to the Fed, the move will act as a liquidity backstop to mitigate potential strains on credit.

*⌛ Only a few days left!... To receive 15% bonus shares for being an early bird investor of dronemaker Parallel Flight Technologies. The global drone market is skyrocketing – currently $42 billion and projected to be $583 billion by 2030 – and PFT is poised to take advantage. Learn more about Parallel Technologies' lifesaving drones here.***

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🙏 Lance Reddick passed away on Friday at 60 years old; the actor was known for roles in The Wire, John Wick, and Bosch.
• 🏀 The Men’s March Madness Tournament is down to the Sweet 16; Purdue and Kansas, both #1 seeds, have been knocked out (Purdue by No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson). | The Women’s tournament will complete its second round of play tonight.
• ⚾ Team USA clinched a spot in this year’s World Baseball Classic Championship after defeating Cuba 13-2 last night; the US will face the winner of Mexico and Japan. | Over 1 million people attended the event’s first-round games, per the MLB.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🇬🇧 The UK government is set to begin sequencing the genomes of 100,000 newborn babies for any presence of ~200 rare but treatable genetic conditions; the aim of the project is to ease pain and anxiety for babies and their families.
• 🦠 A new CDC report says a tick-borne disease called babesiosis is now endemic in New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont; the conclusion is based on case numbers from 2011 through 2019.
• 🧚🐝 Researchers from Tampere University in Finland have created tiny, “fairy-like” robots that could be used to pollinate flowers and potentially replace dying bumblebees, per a new peer-reviewed study published in Advanced Science.

EVERYTHING ELSE

• 🌊 Minnesota officials on Friday revealed that a major leak of radioactive water from the Monticello nuclear power plant occurred in November, but said there’s no immediate public health risk; the company that runs the plant said it has recovered 25% of the 400,000 gallons of toxic water that spilled.
• ⚖️ California announced plans to transform San Quentin State Prison into a prisoner rehabilitation center modeled after Scandinavian prisons, which focus on rehabilitating former prisoners and reducing recidivism rates. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)
• 🚨🚫 Former President Donald Trump claimed in a social media post that he will be arrested on Tuesday as part of the Manhattan DA’s investigation into hush money payments. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right) | Separately, YouTube lifted its restriction on former President Trump's channel on Friday, after it was banned for more than two years following the January 6 riots at the US Capitol. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

CLICKBAIT

• 💰 The 10 most expensive US states to retire in – and California didn't make the list.

*Sponsored post

On Friday, we covered the multitude of large companies that are currently working on integrating AI into their products, including Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, LinkedIn, and more.

❓ Our question to you: In your opinion, AI chatbots will ultimately have a ____ impact on society.

• 👍 Good: 8%
• 📈 Mostly good: 21%
• ↔️ Neutral/zero-sum: 17%
• 📉 Mostly bad: 28%
• 👎 Bad: 16%
• 🤷 Unsure/other: 10%

Here are the results from when we first asked this question back in January:

• 👍 ​​Good: 7%
• 📈 Mostly good: 16%
• 🙅‍♀️ Neutral/zero-sum: 17%
• 📉 Mostly bad: 33%
• 👎 ​​Bad: 14%
• 🤷 Unsure/other: 13%

Click here to read some of the best responses from Friday’s poll.

+Note on sample size: We received 8,411 votes and 781 longform responses.

Monday: Nowruz, aka Persian or Iranian New Year, begins at sundown

Tuesday: World Baseball Classic championship (Team USA vs. TBD)

Wednesday: The Fed will decide whether to hike interest rates for a ninth straight time; Ramadan begins at sundown

Thursday: President Biden's first official trip to Canada

Friday: National Cheesesteak Day; John Wick 4 hits theaters

Are you an animal lover in need of a new job? Well, it could be your lucky day – the New Mexico Game and Fish Department is officially hiring "professional bear huggers."

🐻 Cub cuddles... Conservation officers will have the chance to cuddle some newborn pups as part of a research project.

• "Must have ability to hike in strenuous conditions, have the courage to crawl into a bear den, and have the trust in your coworkers to keep you safe during the process," reads the post searching for more officers.
• The application is now live – professional hugging experience preferred 😉.

Guess the definitions of the following Greek/Latin root words.

1. Hept
2. Milit
3. Orn
4. Par
5. Robor

(keep scrolling for the answers)

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1. Hept = Seven (e.g., heptagon)
2. Milit = Soldier (military, militia)
3. Orn = Decorate (ornate, ornament)
4. Par = Near (parallel, parameter)
5. Robor = Strength (corroboration)

**Banking services provided by MVB Bank, member FDIC; see Mana Checking Account Terms and Conditions for details. MVB Bank, Inc., does not issue rewards; such services are performed exclusively by Mana Interactive Inc.

***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.