Good morning. Hope you’ve got a nice cuppa and a pastry to dunk it into, because we’ve got one heck of a newsletter today. In addition to all the news (and boy, have we got some news), we’ve got a poem from poetry GOAT Mary Oliver called “The Summer Day.”

Huge thanks to Sherry B. for the suggestion!

Have some poetry we oughta feature? Send it over! And remember, anything can be poetry – song lyrics, movie speeches, heck, even THE NEWS.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 5.06 minutes to read.

“No one ever is defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality.”

–Napoleon Hill (1883-1970)

The year is 1996. Bill Clinton’s been re-elected, the minimum wage is $4.75/hour, and everyone is, without irony, doing “the macarena.” Watching television means one of two things: free local channels via an antenna-connected TV, or cable. With cable, you pay a monthly fee and gain access to what feels like endless channels.

Fast-forward to 2007. Netflix, a DVD-rental-via-mail business, launched a “streaming” service. Soon, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Apple TV, and others followed, becoming the platforms du jour. Dropping cable became the hip new thing. In 2010, about 105 million American households paid for TV. By 2023, that number was around 73 million.

Though similar to the resurgence of 90’s-era fashion like clogs and mom-jeans, what goes around many times comes back around. And according to the recently released 2023 Deloitte Trends Report, cutting the cord is, once again, in.

Per the report:

• People spend an average of $48/month on subscription services – and about half say that’s too much. In fact, one-third of respondents say they plan on cutting back on the number of services they pay for monthly.
• 44% of Americans have canceled a streaming service subscription in the last six months. That’s up from 37% in 2022.
• The youths are most likely to cancel – 57% of Gen Z and 62% of Millennials said goodbye to at least one service over the last six months.

📺💰 Zoom out: Elsewhere in streaming service land, what was once old might also again become new. Netflix, HBO Max, Disney+, and others have all added an ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) option into their pricing models over the past few years. This allows users to watch a platform’s content, but with some ads in between. Sound familiar?

These days, AVOD is about as popular as a jock in a 90s teen movie. Tubi and Pluto TV, the two most widely-used pure AVOD platforms, made up 1.8% of all content viewing in March 2023 (for context, HBO Max accounted for 1.2%).

Plus, Netflix rolled out its AVOD offering last November, and things are going great. The streamer said last week that its per-user monthly revenue is higher for someone on its ad-supported plan ($6.99 fee + ad revenue) than a user paying $15.49 for the standard ad-free plan.

Who knows. One day soon we might just see all the streamers bundle up their ad-supported channels and charge customers one fee for all of it. Wonder what they’d call it…

🇮🇳🍎 Apple is opening its first two stores in India. CEO Tim Cook was in attendance when the first store in Mumbai opened its doors on Tuesday, and will also be there when the second store opens later today in Delhi. While India currently accounts for less than 2% of Apple’s overall revenue, the iPhone-maker has expressed optimism about the potential for growth in a nation with ~933 million internet users. Apple has also committed to moving up to 25% of iPhone production to India by 2025.

🇬🇧 UK inflation remained above 10% in March. The annual inflation rate of 10.1% was down from 10.4% in February, but 0.3 percentage-points higher than economists had projected. It leaves the UK with the highest inflation rate among the Group of Seven wealthy democracies, though that gap is expected to narrow this month.

🇩🇪🇪🇺 German writers, designers, and performers asked the EU to regulate generative AI over copyright concerns. In a letter to EU lawmakers, a group of 42 German associations and trade unions representing 140,000 workers said lawmakers need to address the “fundamental questions of accountability, liability and remuneration” in regards to generative AI systems like ChatGPT and DALL-E. The European Commission proposed new AI rules last year, and is scheduled to hash out its final details with EU lawmakers and member states before the rules become law later this year.

🙌 🦴 The BetterBone has been taking the nation by storm. Featured in Vogue, Vanity Fair, and EllenShop, and boasting a mountain of 5-star reviews, dogs can’t get enough of the texture – and dog parents love its safe design. By flaking into small pieces, the BetterBone cleans those pearly whites and makes ingestion/choking much less likely.

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• BetterBones are made from 2 all-natural, ethically-sourced ingredients, and the company plants a tree for every bone sold.

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The Senate Armed Services Committee held a public hearing yesterday regarding recent sightings of unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAPs, marking the second-such event in more than 50 years.

🏛️🛸 The testimony: Sean Kirkpatrick, head of the Pentagon’s newly-established UAP office, told Congress that his team is currently reviewing more than 650 UAP incidents reported by military personnel in recent years. That’s up from 510 in January.

Kirkpatrick said the majority of unresolved UAP reports can likely be chalked up to mundane reasons – like balloons, unmanned drones, or natural phenomena – but the cases still remain open because there aren’t enough details to draw a formal conclusion.

On the flip side, a “very small percentage” of UAP reports display characteristics that could “reasonably be described as 'anomalous'” – which isn’t a fancy word for “aliens.”

• Kirkpatrick said his office has found no credible evidence of extraterrestrial activity, off-world technology, or objects that defy the known laws of physics thus far, but encouraged all UAP enthusiasts to submit their own research and analysis to peer-reviewed scientific journals, as his office is working to do the same.

🤔 Punch, counter-punch: Two brand-new UAP videos were unveiled before Congress yesterday – one incident that reportedly can’t be explained by available data, and another that reportedly can.

Over the weekend, disc jockey and legendary basketball player Shaquille O’Neal was served in a $5 billion class action lawsuit targeting celebrities who endorsed the now-defunct crypto exchange FTX. He had reportedly been dodging the legal notice over the past few months, “hiding and driving away” from process servers.

The 7’1” DJ Diesel joins 10 other celebrities – including NBA star Stephen Curry, football legend Tom Brady, supermodel Gisele Bündchen, Seinfeld co-creator Larry David, and tennis legend Naomi Osaka – named in the lawsuit, which levels accusations of peddling a “Ponzi scheme” that affected “thousands, if not millions, of consumers nationwide.”

But according to Adam Moskowitz, one of the lawyers behind the class action suit, there was almost one more celebrity name added to the list: Taylor Swift.

• Speaking on an episode of The Scoop podcast published yesterday, Moskowitz revealed that in the middle of negotiating a three-year, $100 million deal to become a paid spokesperson of FTX, Swift asked one question no one else did: “Can you tell me that these are not unregistered securities?” The deal ended up falling apart afterward.
• Before securities like stocks and crypto shares can be offered for sale to public investors, they must be registered with the SEC. Last September, SEC chair Gary Gensler said he believes “the vast majority” of crypto tokens meet the definition of an unregistered security.

💬 Quoted… “I had an old boss who said to me one time, ‘You can visit pity city, but you can’t live there.’ So people, leave pity city, let’s get it done.”

Andi Owen, the CEO of high-end furniture company MillerKnoll, is receiving backlash over a viral video showing her response to a question about how to stay motivated if employees don’t receive bonuses this year.

• On Tuesday, Owen sent a note to employees apologizing for how the comments landed, MillerKnoll said.

🙅‍♀️⛽ Stat of the Day: 59% = the percentage of gas stations in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area that were completely out of fuel on Tuesday. The widespread shortages were caused by a storm last week that brought heavy rain and flooding to South Florida, temporarily delaying fuel deliveries.

🤯 Did You Know?... There are more millionaires living in NYC than any other city on the planet (340,000). For billionaires that city is San Francisco, with 63.

📖 Worth a Read: The World’s Richest Person Auditions His Five Children to Run LVMH, the Luxury Empire → (WSJ)

• ☝️ You’re looking at some of the world’s best science images from March, as selected and published by Nature’s photo team. (See the rest here.)

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 💰 US markets closed mixed yesterday (S&P: -0.01%; Dow: -0.2%; Nasdaq: +0.03%). | 🏠 Median US home prices fell 3.3% year-over-year in March to $400,258; it marks the biggest annual decline since 2012.
• 🗣️ Tesla reported Q1 earnings yesterday; total revenue was up 24% from last year, while net income dropped 24% over the same period.
• 🚘 Volkswagen’s ID.4 yesterday became the first EV model sold by a foreign automaker to qualify for the US’ full $7,500 federal tax rebate.

*From our partners: 🏆 Rated the best overall slipper by House Beautiful and featured on TLC, Dooeys are supportive and stylish with a big emphasis on sustainability. Made with premium plant-based materials for supreme quality and comfort. Shop Dooeys today.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• ⚖️ Facebook users on the platform between May 2007 and December 2022 are eligible to receive a portion of the platform’s $725 million Cambridge Analytica class-action settlement; here’s how to get it.
• 📺🧛‍♂️ A Twilight TV series is in early development at Lionsgate TV, Variety confirmed yesterday.
• 🎤 Frank Ocean has pulled out of Coachella after his performance last weekend, citing a leg injury; he'll reportedly be replaced as a headliner this Sunday by Blink-182. | 🪦 Moonbin, a member of the K-pop group ASTRO, died yesterday; he was 25 years old.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🚀 SpaceX plans to re-attempt its first-ever test launch of Starship, the world’s most-powerful rocket, during a one-hour window starting at 9:28 ET this morning (watch live here); the company scrubbed a planned launch earlier this week due to a frozen valve.
• 🛝 A team of physicists from Japan and Australia have determined the perfect technique for maximizing the speed of a playground swing, per a new peer-reviewed study.
• 🏭 More than a third of all US residents (~120 million people) live in areas with unhealthy levels of potentially life-shortening air pollution, per an annual report by the American Lung Association; that figure is 17.6 million fewer people than last year.

MISCELLANEOUS

• 🏫 Florida’s Board of Education yesterday approved a controversial law that restricts public schools from teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity in grades K-12, instead of just grades K-3. (Background | From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)
• ⚖️💊 The Supreme Court temporarily extended its pause on a lower court’s ruling that imposed nationwide limits on access to the abortion drug mifepristone; the pause will remain in effect until at least Friday night. (Background | From the Left | From the Center | From the Right) | ⚖️ The Supreme Court also heard arguments yesterday in a case challenging whether Colorado’s law against cyberstalking violates the First Amendment.
• 🌿 Today is 4/20, aka Weed Day. The history of how 4/20 came to be.

CLICKBAIT

• 😊🔬 I spent 10 years studying what makes us happy in life – here's the No. 1 thing I overlooked the entire time.

*Sponsored post

Yesterday we covered a new song featuring Drake and The Weeknd that was entirely produced by AI, which ended up being scrubbed from social media and streaming platforms for allegedly breaching copyright law.

❓ Our question to you (long-form): In your opinion, how will AI affect art over the next 20 years?

• “I believe as AI art and human art become less and less distinguishable, humans will revert to older physical mediums like canvas, and leave the realm of digital art to AI.”
• “This is tough because while AI could be amazing technology, it should never take the place of a human’s creative abilities. So that being said, if an artist embraces it to enhance their work it could be a great thing.”
• “AI is already massively impacting art. I've seen friends accused of using AI for their art on pieces that I've seen them working on, there are a lot of artists that AI has been trampling. However, we can use AI art to our advantage if we learn to find ways to separate it from artists' work.”
• “I think AI art will just be what it is, it's its own art. Each individual human can decide what looks good or not. Even though it could contend with humans, I don't think human art will ever go away since people will like their unique art styles.”

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

+Note on sample size: We received 533 longform responses.

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

• The White House grounds are safe after a toddler breached the fence → (NPR)
• 'Mermaid' breaks her own record with 30-mile Florida swim → (UPI)
• Black bear breaks into vehicle, guzzles 69 cans of pop → (CBC News)
• Escaped emu takes police on 20-mile chase in Tennessee → (ABC News)
• Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson plan to take DNA test to see if they're actually brothers → (FOX News)

By Mary Oliver

Who made the world?

Who made the swan, and the black bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper, I mean—

the one who has flung herself out of the grass,

the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,

who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—

who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don't know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down

into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,

how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,

which is what I have been doing all day.

Tell me, what else should I have done?

Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?

The city of Kyle, Texas, is hosting its first annual Kyle Fair late next month. The event will feature carnival rides, games, live music, local food vendors – and an attempt to break a Guinness World Record.

😮 Making history... "The City of Kyle wants to invite anyone with the first name Kyle – spelled that way – to help attempt the Guinness World Record for the largest same-name gathering during the Kyle Fair," reads a press release on the city's official website. 

• The current record was set by Kupreski Kosci in Bosnia and Herzegovina, when a total of 2,325 people named Ivan gathered together in 2017. 
• This is the city of Kyle's fourth attempt at breaking the record, and it's hoping that 2023 will finally be the year🙏. 

Psssst. DONUT Associate Editor, Kyle, what are you doing next month?😉

Which South American country, pictured above, was the first in the world to completely legalize marijuana in 2013?

(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.👇

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