Good morning, and happy belated National Poetry Month! T’was a smart poet indeed who said “better late than never.”

For real though, poems are awesome, and we’re gonna be sharing some especially-moving ones with y'all this month in a section called “Pastry-Sized Poems.”

Are there any poems or lines of poems that you particularly love? Send 'em over and we’ll share our favs with DONUT Nation.

And now, daaaaaa NEWS.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 4.62 minutes to read.

“To get angry is like to revenge yourself for the guilt of others.”

–Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas misreported hundreds of thousands of dollars in rental income from a company that went defunct over 15 years ago, the Washington Post reported yesterday.

While the alleged mistake is small – Thomas reported the income coming from “Ginger, Ltd., Partnership” instead of “Ginger Holdings, LLC” (which acquired the former in 2006) – it represents the latest in a series of errors and omissions that Justice Thomas has reportedly made regarding his financial status.

• Earlier this month, ProPublica reported Texas billionaire Harlan Crow took Justice Thomas on free luxury vacations for over 20 years, and also bought a Georgia home from his family in 2014 that Thomas’ mother still lives in today.
• None of the transactions were previously known to the public, nor mentioned on Justice Thomas’ financial disclosure forms over the years.

In a statement released after the first ProPublica report (about the vacations), Justice Thomas said he previously “sought guidance from my colleagues and others in the judiciary, and was advised that this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the Court, was not reportable.” Justice Thomas has yet to publicly comment on the second ProPublica report regarding Crow’s property purchase.

📜 What does the law say?... Under the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, SCOTUS justices are required to file forms each year disclosing their financial ties. Failure to do so properly can result in up to 60 days in jail and up to $5,000 in fines (though it’s rarely prosecuted). However, justices don’t have to report food, lodging, or entertainment received as “personal hospitality.”

• Legal experts say it’s unclear whether Justice Thomas was required to disclose any free travel he received from Crow. Per ProPublica, one of the trips they went on would have cost Thomas upwards of $500,000 in personal travel expenses.

📊 Flash poll (long-form): What measures, if any, do you think should be taken to maintain the integrity of the Supreme Court?

Click here to leave a response.

🇪🇸 Beatriz Flamini, a Spanish extreme athlete, emerged after 500 days in isolation inside an underground cave. Flamini, who was 48 when she entered the cave, was monitored over the course of her stay by a team of scientists studying the impact of extreme isolation on people's circadian rhythms and perception of time. Flamini said she lost track of time after about two months, and sometimes experienced auditory hallucinations, but called the overall experience “really amazing.” She entertained herself by reading, drawing, exercising, and knitting hats.

🇯🇵🎰 The Japanese government approved a plan to build the country’s first-ever casino. A group that includes MGM Resorts International was given the green light on Friday to start constructing an $8.2 billion casino, which will be located on a man-made island in Osaka Bay and set to open in late 2029. The city of Osaka projects the new casino will bring in 20 million visitors (6 million from outside Japan) and $4 billion in revenue each year. But not all Osaka residents are happy about the plan: public polling earlier this month showed 43% of local citizens oppose the casino, with 37% in favor.

🇩🇪 Germany switched off its last three nuclear power plants. The shutdowns, which took place on Saturday but were agreed to over a decade ago, are part of the country’s planned transition to renewable energy – though officials acknowledged that the government will have to rely on more fossil fuels in the short term. German critics argue that nuclear plants are major safety hazards to local communities, due to the potential for accidents and the issue of waste disposal. Other countries like the US, Japan, China, France, and Britain have committed to relying on nuclear energy in the future, portraying it as a clean and reliable alternative to fossil fuels.

😐 An unfortunate truth… in pet emergencies, many people have to make decisions based on what’s in their wallet – and not what’s in their pet's best interest. In fact, two-thirds of pet euthanasia decisions are made for economic reasons. 

Our friends at myBalto understand many families are denied coverage when they need it most, so they launched a pet health platform designed to help you earn cash-back on pet expenses, and pay back your vet bills.

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• Give you more money off your submitted vet bill

🐶🫶 With myBalto, you don't have to worry about pre-existing conditions, exclusions, or poor credit… everyone is welcome to join. And they’re partnering with animal hospitals to set up “round-up” programs to help pet parents when they need it most!

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If The Super Marios Bros. Movie had a favorite song, it’d probably be Britney Spears’ “Oops!... I Did It Again.”

After its Easter weekend release earned the title of biggest opening weekend for an animated film in history, Mario Bros. did indeed “do it again” this past weekend, bringing in a Donkey Kong-sized $87 million in domestic sales – the largest second weekend ever for an animated film.

And much like a Mario Kart gaming-session on a lazy Sunday morning, the party doesn’t look like it'll end anytime soon. With a global total of $678 million in sales, Mario Bros. is projected to become this year’s first film to make over $1 billion at the box office.

💰 Also worth mentioning: From weekend one → weekend two, Mario Bros. domestic box office sales decreased 41%. Which may sound like a lot, but it’s actually lower than the usual 50-60% drop for a major theatrical release. For example, Avatar 2, the third highest grossing film of all time, saw its box office total drop 59% in its second weekend.

🍿 Zoom out: Mario wasn’t the only movie setting records. Beau is Afraid, a new comedy-horror film from A24 starring Joaquin Phoenix, grossed ~$320,000 across only four screens this past weekend – making its approximately $80,000/screen average the highest so far this year (for context, Mario Bros. averaged ~$20,000/screen in the US this weekend).

💬 Quoted… "I'm not saying it'll get to orbit, but I am guaranteeing excitement. So it won't be boring."

SpaceX is planning to hold its first-ever launch of Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, during a two-and-a-half-hour window starting at 8 am ET this morning. Though “powerful” may be as much of an understatement as “juuuuust a bit outside” – Starship is able to generate a staggering 16 million pounds of thrust, or nearly 2x that of the previous record holder (NASA’s SLS rocket, used in the Artemis missions).

• If today’s uncrewed launch ends up being scrubbed, SpaceX will try again later this week (though Musk's promise of guaranteed excitement still stands). The Elon Musk-led company has already announced plans for future private missions to the Moon and Mars using a fleet of Starships, which are designed to be completely reusable.

❌📱 Stat of the Day: 50% = the percentage of Americans who support a blanket ban of TikTok. On the other hand, 22% do not (with 28% unsure). And this issue may finally be coming to a head: over the weekend, Montana lawmakers sent a first-of-its-kind bill to the governor's desk for approval that would ban the app across the entire state.

🤯 Did You Know?... In 2007, doctors discovered a middle-aged French man who was missing 90% of his brain – but was otherwise “living a normal life” with a wife, a steady job, and an IQ slightly below normal.

📖 Worth a Read: Inside the 3D-printed box in Texas where humans will prepare for Mars → (The Guardian)

• ☝️ Sergii Gordieiev, an engineer and YouTube creator, recently developed a custom working bike with square wheels.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🧬 Merck is set to acquire biotech company Prometheus Biosciences for ~$10.8 billion.
• 🚗 GM will not include Apple CarPlay in many of its new EV cars, the company said earlier this month; the move highlights the growing battle between tech companies and car makers over who controls the digital screen space within a car.
• 🤖 Google is building an all-new AI-powered search engine to compete with Microsoft’s Bing, per a NYT report published yesterday; the news comes as Samsung is reportedly considering replacing Google with Microsoft’s Bing as the default search engine on its devices.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🎮 Sega is close to finalizing a deal to buy Rovio Entertainment, the company behind Angry Birds, for about $1 billion, per a WSJ report on Friday.
• 🎭 The Phantom of the Opera closed yesterday, capping off Broadway’s longest run of 35 years; the play was performed ~14,000 times over the period.
• 🏀 The 2023 NBA Playoffs are officially underway (play-ins are over) – check out the latest scores and updates here.

*From our partners: 😻 Make your pet’s favorite part of the day even better… with the Kitty Kafe and Doggy Diner, which allow your animal to dine at a more natural and comfortable level that's optimal for joints and digestion – and very easy to clean! Shop Katio Dogio here.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🧪 A new test of spinal fluid may be able to diagnose Parkinson’s disease with 90+% accuracy, per a new peer-reviewed study published in The Lancet Neurology; there’s currently no known lab test that diagnoses Parkinson’s.
• 🤖🌐 Amazon Web Services announced a new API called Bedrock; it lets developers build AI-powered apps using pretrained models from other companies, including Stability AI and Anthropic.
• 🧠 Blocking an enzyme that’s typically overactive in people with Alzheimer’s has been shown to reverse brain degeneration in mice, per a new peer-reviewed study from MIT published in PNAS.

MISCELLANEOUS

• 💪 Lucas Helmke of Australia recently set a new world record for push-ups after completing 3,206 in a single hour (or 53 per minute).
• 📑 Pentagon leak suspect Jack Teixeira appeared in a Boston federal court on Friday; he faces two charges under the Espionage Act that collectively carry a max sentence of 15 years in prison. (Background)
• ⚖️💊 The Supreme Court temporarily suspended a lower court’s ruling that imposed nationwide limits on access to the abortion drug mifepristone; the Court has until Wednesday to decide on a formal stay while the Biden administration’s appeal plays out. (Background | From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

CLICKBAIT

• 🐕 What is your dog trying to tell you when they wag their tail?

*Sponsored post

On Friday, we covered a pair of new North Dakota laws that effectively prohibit any transgender girl or woman from joining a female sports team in grades K-12 or college.

❓ Our question to you: In your opinion, should trans girls and women be allowed to compete in women’s sports?

• 👍 Yes: 28%
• 👎 No: 50%
• 🤷‍♀️ Unsure/other: 22%

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

+Note on sample size: We received 20,5343 votes and 2,162 longform responses (this was a particularly popular one).

Monday: The Boston Marathon takes place

Tuesday: Tax Day, aka the deadline to file 2022 taxes in the US; opening statements in the Fox News vs. Dominion defamation lawsuit

Wednesday: World Day of Peace

Thursday: 4/20🙃; weekly unemployment claims

Friday: The tentative date for Eid-al-fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan

Small Kindnesses

By Danusha Laméris

I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk

down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs

to let you by. Or how strangers still say “bless you”

when someone sneezes, a leftover

from the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying.

And sometimes, when you spill lemons

from your grocery bag, someone else will help you

pick them up. Mostly, we don’t want to harm each other.

We want to be handed our cup of coffee hot,

and to say thank you to the person handing it. To smile

at them and for them to smile back. For the waitress

to call us honey when she sets down the bowl of clam chowder,

and for the driver in the red pick-up truck to let us pass.

We have so little of each other, now. So far

from tribe and fire. Only these brief moments of exchange.

What if they are the true dwelling of the holy, these

fleeting temples we make together when we say, “Here,

have my seat,” “Go ahead — you first,” “I like your hat.”

Lowe's employee Dave Urban ran into the Getty family while they were looking at pipes in the PVC aisle. With them was their son, Will, who has quadriplegic spastic cerebral palsy; the family was hoping to build two parallel bars he could hold on to as he learned how to walk. 

Dave spent the next half an hour measuring, cutting, and building the perfect bars to support Will as he took his first independent steps.

• "Then came the test," Dave said. "Will got up, out of his wheelchair and grabbed a hold of those bars... I think you saw that courageous smile of his. Sense of pride, it keeps getting me."

🙌👟 The bottom line: Will's parents said Dave's help and patience did not go unnoticed. "It was just [his] kindness that touched us and really meant the world to us."

Guess the definitions of these Greek/Latin root words:

1. Botan
2. Doct
3. Fall
4. Hyal
5. Leni

(keep scrolling for the answers)

👆 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.👇

1. Botan = Plant (e.g., botany)
2. Doct = Teach (doctor, indoctrinate)
3. Fall = Deceive (infallible)
4. Hyal = Glass (hyaline)
5. Leni = Gentle (leniency)