Good morning. Did you know the original time machine in Back to the Future wasn’t the now-iconic DeLorean car with the falcon-wing doors? It wasn’t, in fact, a car at all.

In the first few drafts of the script, the time machine was a… refrigerator. Steven Spielberg ended up changing it because he was worried that children would climb into their fridge and get stuck (back then, fridges closed with a latch that couldn’t be opened from the inside).

Definitely the right move, Steve, though it woulda been pretty sweet if a Frigidaire time machine became part of our cultural lexicon…

Aaaanyways, let’s get back to THE NEWSTURE!

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 4.64 minutes to read.

“When you judge others, you do not define them, you define yourself.”

–Earl Nightingale (1921-1989)

This week, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a pair of cases challenging whether elected officials in the US are allowed to block constituents on their personal social media accounts. So you should probably keep your ex blocked – ordinary citizens are in the clear.

The cases involve locally-elected officials from California and Michigan, who stand accused of violating the First Amendment because they blocked some constituents on Facebook and Twitter after they left critical comments and replies on the officials’ public posts.

🗣 The arguments: At issue is whether social media posts from elected officials represent real-life town hall discussions – where First Amendment protections apply to all attendees/users – or whether they’re more akin to personal conversations held in private.

• The officials are arguing their social media accounts were created for personal use, meaning they didn’t engage in any government action when blocking other users – so the First Amendment isn’t at issue.
• The blocked users are claiming that, even though the social media accounts weren’t created by a government entity, they still identify the officials as public figures and were sometimes used to communicate in an official capacity. Thus, their posts essentially represent a public square where the First Amendment is in effect.

👀 Looking ahead… The Supreme Court is expected to levy a final decision in both cases by June 2024.

🏛️ Zoom out: If Washington DC were a restaurant, yesterday's special would've had a base of social media and salt. In addition to the Supreme Court news, a bipartisan group of senators (2R, 2D) unveiled a bill that would restrict US children between the ages of 13 and 18 from accessing social media without parental consent. It would also ban social media platforms from using algorithms to serve content to Americans under 18 years old.

🇬🇧🙅‍♀️ The UK’s antitrust regulator blocked Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. After months of review, officials issued a ruling yesterday saying the two companies had failed to sufficiently ease regulators’ worries that the deal would harm competition in the UK’s video game industry. If it stands, experts told the WSJ the ruling – which Microsoft plans to appeal – would have a significant negative impact on the chances of the Microsoft-Activision deal happening at all, since it would be difficult for the combined company to operate completely outside the UK.

🇸🇬 A Singaporean man was executed yesterday for trafficking two pounds of cannabis. Under Singaporean law, trafficking more than ~1.1 pounds of cannabis may result in the death penalty (which the country used a total of 11 times last year in connection with drug offenses). Prior to yesterday’s execution, the convicted man’s family members and outside activists had argued that he was convicted on weak evidence, though Singaporean prosecutors denied those claims.

🚗⚡ Nearly one in five new cars sold globally this year will be electric. That’s according to an annual report published yesterday by the International Energy Agency, which found that more than 10 million EVs were sold last year for the first time in history – largely thanks to 6+ million sales in China. The report projects global EV sales will rise by another 4 million this year to reach 18% of all new cars, up from 4% in 2020.

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In 2021, then-CEO of WarnerMedia, Jason Kilar, unveiled a plan to simultaneously release the studio’s entire slate of films in theaters and HBO Max.

Not surprisingly, movie theater owners didn’t… love that. Which is why the newly merged Warner Bros. Discovery pulled out all the stops to impress the audience of movie theater execs at this year’s CinemaCon in Las Vegas.

And on Tuesday at 8:30 am PT, impress, it did. Current CEO David Zaslav told the CinemaCon audience that, “We do not believe in direct-to-streaming movies,” reversing the decision of his predecessor.

The move, Zaslav explained, was simple:

• It makes financial sense – films in theaters perform better than those that go directly to streaming.
• Zaslav also stressed that WBD was in the storytelling business: “WBD is not in the retail business, not in cable, not broadband, not phone. We are just storytellers.”

And judging by the studio’s star-studded preview of its upcoming slate, WBD has got some great stories to tell. Oprah made a surprise appearance Tuesday to preview the upcoming musical film version of The Color Purple (opens wide on December 25th), Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling also came out in bright pink to show new footage from Barbie (July 21), and DC Studios teased footage from The Flash (June 16th), Blue Beetle (August 18th), and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (December 20th).

🔎 Zoom out: WBD isn’t the only studio recommitting to movie theater releases. Both Apple and Amazon have recently committed $1 billion/year towards producing and distributing films in theaters.

💬 Quoted… “Blood on your hands.”

Montana lawmakers voted yesterday to bar state Rep. Zooey Zephyr, a recently-elected trans legislator, from the state House chamber for the rest of the legislative session (which ends in early May). She will still be allowed to vote on bills and participate in committees.

• The censure came after Rep. Zephyr refused to apologize for saying the above quote in reference to lawmakers who backed a ban on gender-affirming healthcare for minors; she also drew criticism for encouraging pro-LGBTQ+ protesters who interrupted Montana House proceedings earlier this week.

+Dive deeper: From the Left | From the Center | From the Right

🏛️⛪ Stat of the Day: 90% = the percentage of Congress that practices some form of Christianity, per a recent survey from Pew Research; for comparison, that figure is 63% among the US public.

🤯 Did You Know?... Almost all vertebrate animals – including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish – experience yawning.

📖 Worth a Read: The NFL Draft’s Best Athlete Is Also Its Greatest Enigma → (WSJ)

With a myBalto membership, not only do you earn cash back on your pet purchases, but they match your cash back dollar-for-dollar to give to other pets in need! It’s an innovative rewards program that helps you with the most important expense in your pet’s life: their vet bills.

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• ☝️ You’re looking at some of the winners from this year’s GDT Nature Photographer of the Year competition, which were selected from nearly 7,000 total entries.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 💰​​🏦 US markets closed mixed yesterday (S&P: -0.4%; Dow: -0.7%; Nasdaq: +0.5%). 
• 📉 First Republic Bank shares dropped nearly 30% yesterday to reach an all-time low of $5.69; action was so volatile that the NYSE halted trading 16 separate times; six months ago, the bank’s stock was trading at just under $150.
• 📈 Meta beat expectations on revenue, earnings, and user growth; its stock rose as much as 11% in after-hours trading yesterday.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• ⬛📺 Black Mirror Season 6 will hit Netflix this June, according to a new trailer released yesterday; the S6 cast includes Salma Hayek, Aaron Paul, and Kate Mara.
• 👋 Tucker Carlson’s messages about colleagues at Fox News played a major role in the network’s decision to fire him, per a new report from the WSJ.
• 🏈 The NFL Draft begins tonight; Round 1 starts at 8 pm ET.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🌌 Astronomers have captured a first-of-its-kind image showing a jet of material being launched from the shadow of a supermassive black hole, per a study published yesterday in Nature.
• 💩💊 The FDA yesterday approved the first pill made from healthy bacteria found in human poop; the treatment, which is intended to fight dangerous gut infections, is described as an easier way of performing fecal transplants.
• 💤 Middle-aged and older adults with irregular sleep schedules carry a higher risk of dying from heart disease and cancer, per new research based on data from nearly 90,000 UK volunteers.

MISCELLANEOUS

• 🎤 Fugees rapper Pras Michel was convicted yesterday on 10 criminal counts – including conspiracy, witness tampering, and failing to register as an agent of China – for his role in spending money stolen from Malaysian state investment fund 1MDB to influence two US presidential elections.
• 🐭⚖️ Disney filed a lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) yesterday over the state government’s recent takeover of the special governing district for Disney World. (Background | From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)
• 🏛️ The House narrowly passed a GOP-backed bill that would raise the federal debt ceiling in exchange for decreased spending; the legislation isn’t expected to progress in the Senate, but will be used in negotiations between the Biden admin and House Republicans. (Background | From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

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Yesterday we covered several recent missions by organizations on Earth seeking to establish a foothold on the Moon – a group that includes the US, China, Russia, and the UAE – as well as a decline in global cooperation among spacefaring nations.

❓ Our question to you : Do you think a military conflict will occur in space – or on the Moon/Mars – within the next three decades?

• 👍 Yes: 43%
• 👎 No: 36%
• 🤷 Unsure/other: 21%

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

+Note on sample size: We received 8,463 votes and 712 longform responses.

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

• An English zoo is hiring a 'seagull deterrent' worker who'll have to wear a giant bird costume to scare away the gulls → (Insider)
• Town forces argumentative parents to be umpires at Little League games → (Good Morning America)
• Parrots taught to video call each other become less lonely, research finds → (The Guardian)
• Moose wanders into Alaska movie theater, eats popcorn → (UPI)
• Meet the bulldog named Most Beautiful in Drake University's annual contest → (KCCI Des Moines)

The news, for most people, has felt especially heavy lately.

Sometimes, all they need is a pep talk😎.

🗣️ Now talk it out... Introduced by California kindergarten teachers Jessica Martin and Asherah Weiss, Peptoc is a free hotline to call when you're feeling down. 

Who's on the other side? The adorable voices of children. A group of kindergarteners pre-recorded encouraging words of advice and tidbits of wisdom for the hotline.

• With an average of 700 calls per hour, Peptoc seems to be making an impact.
• "That level of joy and love and imagination is what's going to save us in the end," Jessica told NPR. "It's really important that we continue to hold this light."

+Editor's note: We published a previous version of this story on March 7, 2022.

Which mountain, pictured above, is the tallest peak in Colorado?

(keep scrolling for the answer)

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Mt. Elbert, which stands ~14,440 feet tall

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