Good morning. We’ve got some breaking news regarding the letter “Z.”

If you read that in your head as “zee,” we’re 99% sure that you’re a Yankee-doodle-dandy-citizen of the USA.

At least, that’s our hunch, since America is the only English-speaking country that pronounces it “zee.” The others – like England, Ireland, Australia, to name a few – all say “zed.”

Zed? The heck is zed? A currency on one of Jupiter’s moons? Zed outta here with that zed talk.

Okay, wait, more breaking news: turns out “zed” came first; it dates back to the 1400s. “Zee” on the other hand, first appeared in 1667, and is thought to have been created to match the bee, cee, dee, ee, gee pattern of the alphabet.

But “zee” really blew up when the alphabet song dropped in 1834. The creator of the song knew he needed his final letter to rhyme with “vee,” and “zed” wasn’t gonna work – but “zee”? It was zeelicious.

Wait, there’s more. The guy who invented that song? Charles Bradlee. It was an eenside job, and Bradlee got away with it. Until today.

And now the NEWZEE (the “ee” is silent obviously)!

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 4.65 minutes to read.

“Perseverance and spirit have done wonders in all ages. ”

–George Washington (1732-1799)

We’re roughly a year and a half away from the next presidential election. But 2024 is starting to come into focus, thanks to campaign announcements and new polling data.

🔵 On the Democratic side… While an AP/NORC poll published over the weekend found more than half of registered Democrats don’t want Biden to run for a second term (52%), his administration is set to officially announce his 2024 candidacy tomorrow, per multiple sources.

Two political activists with no elected experience – Marianne Williamson and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – have also thrown their hat in the ring for the Democratic nomination. But the DNC, which previously committed to supporting Biden’s reelection, has said it isn’t planning to sponsor any primary debates for the 2024 season.

🔴 On the Republican side… The latest national polls show former President Trump has widened his lead over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who hasn’t officially entered the 2024 race yet. All other GOP candidates – official or rumored – are trailing by a wide margin, including former SC Gov. Nikki Haley, former VP Mike Pence, and SC Sen. Tim Scott.

Some notable examples:

• An NBC News poll published yesterday found Trump carried a 46%-31% lead over DeSantis in a hypothetical Republican primary; Pence received 6%; all other candidates were at 3% or below.
• A WSJ survey last week gave Trump a 51%-38% lead over DeSantis among likely GOP voters – a stark reversal from the 14-point deficit Trump faced last December.
• Also last week, a YouGov/The Economist poll found Trump leading DeSantis by a 53%-22% margin in a head-to-head matchup.

🗳️📅 At this point in time: Polling data suggests a hypothetical 2024 presidential matchup featuring Biden against either Trump or DeSantis would be a toss-up, while all other potential GOP nominees currently trail Biden by a slim margin, per the latest polling data aggregated by FiveThirtyEight.

📊 Flash poll: If the 2024 presidential election were held today, which party would you vote for?

Republican

Democrat

A third party/independent (like Afroman, who announced over the weekend)

I'm not planning on voting/too young

Unsure

🇸🇩 The US Embassy in Sudan has been evacuated. The evacuation, undertaken yesterday by a group that included the Navy’s Seal Team Six, follows a week of violent skirmishes between two Sudanese military commanders, which have resulted in at least 420 deaths and nearly 4,000 injuries to-date. The UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and other Western countries also began evacuating their respective citizens from Sudan, Africa’s third-largest country by area, yesterday.

🇧🇪 Belgium destroyed thousands of cans of imported Miller High Life due to EU laws regarding the word “Champagne.” The 2,300 condemned cans – which certainly weren’t living the high life – bore the US-based beer brand’s trademark slogan: “The Champagne of Beers." They were destroyed last week at the request of the industry group Comité Champagne, which cited EU laws that only allow the word “Champagne” to describe sparkling wines made in the French region of Champagne.

🇩🇪 A German publisher fired its editor and apologized for running a fake AI-generated interview of F1 legend Michael Schumacher. The moves by Die Aktuelle magazine’s parent company came one day after Schumacher’s family said it would sue over the fake interview, which purported to be the first since the former F1 driver suffered a major brain injury in 2013 that left him with long-lasting health effects.

🥱🏃‍♀️ Are you tired of dragging yourself to the gym or forcing yourself to do boring workouts? Could your routine use a bit of spice?

💃🏋️‍♀️ With obé, you'll rediscover the joy of movement and find your groove again. From dance-inspired workouts to strength training, yoga, and more, they've got everything you need to feel confident, motivated, and empowered in your own skin.

• Expect themed classes, celebrity guests, mashups, and more; obé’s workouts are designed to get you motivated and moving.

🫶 With a supportive community and best-in-class instructors, you'll never feel alone on your fitness journey. So join the party and start feeling confident, energized, and empowered today!

Turn up the volume on your workouts with obé fitness – try your first month free here.

Five NFL players, including four Detroit Lions, were suspended on Friday in the league’s biggest crackdown on violations of its gambling policy in history.

🏈 What we know: Shaka Toney of the Washington Commanders and two Lions players, CJ Moore and Quintez Cephus, were suspended indefinitely for betting on the results of NFL games last season – though the league said it uncovered no evidence that any inside information was used, or that any game was compromised in any way. The NFL released no specifics about the bets placed by these players, or how the violations were uncovered.

The other two Lions players, Stanley Berryhill and 2022 1st-round pick Jameson Williams, were suspended six games apiece for placing bets on non-NFL sports while located in a team facility, which violates league policy.

📸 Big picture: Of the ten gambling-related suspensions in NFL history, seven have come since 2018 – or the year a Supreme Court ruling opened the door for legal sports betting (it’s now legal in 33 states plus D.C.).

Over the same period, all major US sports leagues signed partnership deals with companies that run sportsbooks. And if these partnerships were a person, they’d be Cuba Gooding Jr. – because they’re getting shown the money. Legal sports-betting revenue in the US reached an all-time high of $7.5 billion last year, per the American Gaming Association, up nearly 75% from 2021’s record high.

💬 Quoted… “[It] satisfied [my] urge to win without feeling like [I was] doing anything to anybody else and causing rage.”

• The reason Erryn Rhoden, a 48-year-old mother of three from Ohio, gives for why she avidly plays Candy Crush, a free mobile game with over 250 million monthly users. And this motivation appears to be working – the Ohio mom recently became an esports icon after she mistakenly entered a Candy Crush tournament with a $250,000 prize pool… and then reached the semi-finals.

💰☢️ Stat of the Day: To date, nuclear fusion startups have raised more than $5 billion from investors including Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel, Bill Gates, and Marc Benioff. Though much like a rich-person fidget spinner, these investments have only become popular in recent years – around 75% of the industry’s total funding, or ~$3.75 billion, has been committed since 2021. ​

🤯 Did You Know?... The marathon at the 1904 Summer Olympics – which took place on a sweltering 90°F day – had a grand total of one water station across the entire 25-mile course. Not surprisingly, just 14 of the 32 men who began the race ended up crossing the finish line, including the initial winner, Fred Lorz, who was later disqualified since he had hitched a ride in a car for part of the race. Meanwhile, the runner-up-turned-winner, Thomas Hicks, purposely ate rat poison for its supposed performance-enhancing effects – and that’s just the tip of the 1904 Summer Olympics marathon iceberg.

📖 Worth a Read: The American Spy Who Surrendered to the Nazis to Save Civilians → (Smithsonian Magazine)

🏆Rated the best overall slipper by House Beautiful and featured on the TV show Billion Dollar Idea, Dooeys are not your average house shoes…

• Made from premium plant-based and recyclable materials (like vegan apple leather, recycled foam, & sugarcane soles)
• Sleek yet supportive design with amazing fit
• Easy to slip on and off
• Great for hardwood/tile floors
• Ethically produced with small batch manufacturing and carbon-neutral shipping

✨ Dooeys provide the coziness of a slipper, with all-day comfort. Whether you're working from home, chasing little ones, or crushing housework, these sneaker-like soles and supportive insoles will treat your feet right.

🥳📨 Plus, you can save $10 if you sign up to the Dooeys newsletter! (Just visit their page and scroll to the bottom to sign up.)

Treat your feet to some Dooeys today.

• ☝️ You’re looking at some of the winners from the 2023 World Press Photography Competition; two dozen prizes were awarded out of 60,000+ total entries from across the globe.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🍺 Bud Light’s vice president of marketing, Alissa Heinerscheid, and her boss, Daniel Blake, were both placed on leave; the moves follow the beer-maker’s recent advertising campaign that featured transgender activist and influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
• 📉⚖️ Bed Bath & Beyond filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy yesterday. (Fun fact: Bed Bath & Beyond didn’t have an unprofitable year as a public company until 2019; it IPO'd in 1992.)
• 🏘️🧒 About 30% of 25 year-olds in the US owned their homes last year, per a Redfin report released Friday; this means Gen Z is tracking higher than Gen X (25%) and Millennials (27%) at the same age.

*From our partners: 🙌🐶 Save big on pet care with myBalto. Not only do you earn cash back on your pet purchases, but myBalto also matches your cash back dollar-for-dollar to give to other pets in need. Plus, they help with your vet bills, too – sign up and start saving today!

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🔧🐢 The Super Mario Bros. Movie topped the box office charts for a third straight weekend; the movie has grossed about $872 million globally.
• 👋 NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell stepped down yesterday, following an internal investigation concluding Shell had an inappropriate relationship with a colleague.
• 🤖 Google has added new features to its Bard AI-chatbot that focus on “code generation, debugging and code explanation.”

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🏆🔬 The 2023 Breakthrough Prize Ceremony, which awarded a combined $15.75 million in prizes to “scientists changing the world,” was held in Hollywood for the first time this month.
• 🦁 A female lion was spotted on Friday in Chad's Sena Oura National Park – where it’s technically considered extinct – for the first time in nearly 20 years.
• 🧠⚡ Networks of non-living, tiny silver wires appear to learn and remember in much the same way as the human brain, per a peer-reviewed study published Friday in Science Advances.

MISCELLANEOUS

• 🛒 Walmart was by far the most popular grocery store chain nationwide last year, per new data from Chain Store Guide; the retailer held a 25% US market share, while Costco placed second with 7%.
• ⚖️💊 The Supreme Court on Friday temporarily blocked a lower court's ban on the abortion pill mifepristone while the case plays out through the appeals process, which will likely include the Court itself. (Background | From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)
• 🏔 Visualize the world's highest mountains by continent.

CLICKBAIT

• 😋 Parents who raise healthy eaters never use these 4 ‘toxic’ phrases when their kids are young, says dietitian.

*Sponsored post

On Friday, we covered Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R)’s plans to nullify a series of past agreements that allowed Walt Disney World to retain governing powers over most of the land near its theme park in Orlando.

❓ Our question to you : Do you agree with Gov. DeSantis’ attempts to strip Disney of its governing powers in Florida?

• 👍 Yes: 30%
• 👎 No: 63%
• 🤷 Unsure/other: 7%

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

+Note on sample size: We received 11,044 votes and 1,082 longform responses.

Monday: National Bucket List Day

Tuesday: President Biden expected to announce his 2024 candidacy

Wednesday: New data on total US home sales in February

Thursday: NFL draft begins; Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes to begin serving an 11-year prison sentence

Friday: Arbor Day

Like many people, Gez Robinson picked up a quirky new habit in his older age. 

• Upon discovering a family of mice living in his garden, Gez has spent hours building them a safe habitat and feeding them flowers and seeds. 

🐭🏠 Cinderella, who? ... As his love for the mice grew, he became more and more creative with constructing their habitat. 

Gez began building teeny-tiny houses for the mice, and even named the two families now occupying his garden. (The Honeysuckle family lives in the logpile, while the Bramble family lives near the brambles in a stone wall.)

• "I’ve had a few emails saying the mice have helped them through hard times," he shared, referring to his viral videos of the critters. "People say it’s quite uplifting and it makes them smile.”

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

1. Mont
2. Fund
3. Mut
4. Troph
5. Vit

(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. Mont = Mountain (e.g., Montana)
2. Fund = Bottom (fundamental)
3. Mut = Change (mutate)
4. Troph = Grow (hypertrophy, atrophy)
5. Vit = Life (vitals, vitality)