Good morning. No, you weren’t dreaming. We really did post about a 5-day/4-night inclusive vacation to the Margaritaville Island Reserve Riviera Maya last week.

And today is the LAST DAY to sign up so you have a chance to win.

Like, no joke – the winner is going to be selected on May 4th. And unless you sign up, you’re gonna spend the rest of the day/month/year thinking, “dang why the heck didn’t I sign up to win the Mexico trip. I love Mexico.”

No one wants that! What we ALL want is for you to sign up and possibly win this crazy cool trip with five-star dining, luxurious amenities, and spectacular entertainment including pop-up pickleball tournaments (!) valued at $2,588.

So, whaddya say? Sign up, if you so choose.

👋 HOW TO ENTER: just click this link and fill in your deets, no purchase necessary. In fact, no purchase possible! It’s free.99, and all you gotta do is sign up.

NOW ONTO SOMETHING THAT INVOLVES NO FREE FOOD NOR PICKLEBALL - THE NEWS.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 4.95 minutes to read.

“How you think when you lose determines how long it will be until you win.”

–G.K. Chesterson (1874-1936)

Title 42, a pandemic-era immigration policy that lets US authorities more easily deport asylum-seekers, is about to end. And much like a party planner stressing over last-minute details, the Biden administration has been preparing for an expected surge of migrants at the southern border once the measure officially expires on May 11.

🏛️ The preparations: Secretary of State Blinken and Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas jointly announced plans last week to open a series of new immigration processing centers across Latin America, with the goal of facilitating legal immigration into the US and reducing the number of illegal border crossings.

Then yesterday, President Biden deployed 1,500 active-duty US troops to the southern border in anticipation of a projected 2x increase in illegal border crossings once Title 42 expires. The troops will be placed in administrative roles, since military personnel aren’t allowed to act as law enforcement on US soil.

🤔 Replacing Title 42: The Biden administration has introduced new immigration laws that’ll replace the previous pandemic-era policy starting next Thursday. These include two main requirements for asylum-seekers who wish to legally enter the US:

1. Migrants passing through other countries to reach the US will have to first seek protection in that country before attempting to claim asylum in America.
2. Asylum-seekers will be required to utilize “lawful, safe and orderly pathways” when entering the US – such as applying for an appointment via smartphone app – or face deportation.

📸 Big picture: The US Border Patrol has made 2.54 million migrant arrests on the southern border over the past calendar year, per the latest federal data. That’s a 24% increase from the previous year and the highest number on record.

• But, but, but: officials have consistently said that arrest numbers in recent years overstate the amount of unique individuals trying to illegally cross the border, since many migrants were released back into Mexico under Title 42 and then tried to cross again.

📊 Flash poll: How do you feel about the Biden administration’s new immigration laws to replace Title 42?

Strongly agree

Agree/Somewhat agree

Neutral

Disagree/Somewhat disagree

Strongly disagree

🇬🇧💥 Buckingham Palace police conducted a controlled explosion after arresting a man for throwing items onto palace grounds. Officials said the man threw what they believe were shotgun shells over the fence encircling Buckingham Palace property, after which law enforcement took the man into custody and carried out a controlled explosion of a bag he was carrying. Nobody was injured and no shots were fired as part of the situation, which is being treated as an isolated mental health incident per the BBC.

🇦🇺🚭 Australia enacted new laws that essentially ban all vaping without a prescription. Nicotine vapes already required a prescription under national law, but the ban on recreational vaping was mostly ignored by law enforcement prior to yesterday’s announcement. Aussie officials say the new laws were enacted due to the growing trend of vape users later transitioning to cigarettes – especially among those under the age of 25.

🇩🇪 Germany’s $54/month public-transit pass officially went live this week. The public transport subscription covers all rail, metro, tram, and bus travel across Germany, with the exception of long-distance trains. The German government has set aside $3.3 billion per year to subsidize the program, which is aimed at getting passengers to switch away from cars for environmental reasons.

🥰 “You shouldn’t have!”... Ah yes, the magic words letting us know we knocked it out of the park yet again. By now you must have quite the gift-giving reputation, but are you ready to live up to it this year??

If you want to keep the hot streak alive, Dooeys house shoes are a slam dunk for any mom this Mother's Day. Why?

• Made from premium plant-based and recyclable materials (vegan apple leather, recycled polyester suede & sugarcane soles)
• Cushioned insoles with arch support
• Easy to slip on and off, great for hardwood/tile floors
• Ethically produced with small batch manufacturing and carbon-neutral shipping

🏆 You don’t get rated the Best Overall Slipper by House Beautiful for nothing.

So go ahead, get Dooeys for Mom and watch her face light up like when she sees her favroite grandchild. Just prepare to hear about them everytime you call for the foreseeable future.

🍩😉 And if you scroll to the bottom of their page and sign up to their newsletter, you can save $10 off your order.

Give Mom a present she’ll brag to her friends about with Dooeys.

Has the ‘Twitter killer’ finally arrived? Judging by the hype that Bluesky’s been getting this past weekend, it’s quite possible.

Bluesky was co-founded by Twitter’s ex-CEO, Jack Dorsey, and incubated within the tech giant before spinning off into its own company earlier this year.

The text-only social media app, which is still in an invite-only beta, has about 55,000 current users. But a lot more people want in. More than 1.2 million people are currently on its waitlist, and, as of yesterday, Bluesky was the App Store’s No. 10 most downloaded social app in the US.

📸 Big picture: Bluesky is a decentralized platform, which is a tech jargon-y way of saying that anyone can create their own "server" and moderate content as they see fit.

If its goal is to catch up to Twitter, though, Bluesky’s got a long way to go. Not only does Twitter boast 228 million monthly active users as of last year, the term “tweet” is integrated into our cultural lexicon.

Bluesky is showing promise in the catchy words department, though. On Monday, CNN’s Jake Tapper mentioned Bluesky on the air, referring to the platform’s posts as "skeets," a portmanteau of “sky” + “tweets.” (Bluesky’s 8-10 person team has asked people to not use the term, though that seems to only be fanning the skeet flames.)

In the years before the Covid pandemic, around half of all US adults reported experiencing loneliness, according to a new report published by the office of Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy. And in what may come as a shocker, America’s loneliness problem hasn’t exactly improved since then.

But US health officials have a plan to turn Mr. Lonely → Mr. Popular. Outlined in yesterday’s report was a new national strategy to combat loneliness.

1. Strengthen the social infrastructure in US communities, a category that includes libraries, public transport, and volunteer or religious groups.
2. Encourage more “pro-connection public policies,” like the process of evaluating laws based in part on whether they benefit or hinder social connections.
3. Educate US healthcare providers and patients about the physical and mental benefits of social connection – as well as the risks of disconnection.
4. Reform current digital environments. Social media, in particular, was singled out as an example of technology that contributes to America’s ongoing loneliness epidemic.
5. Further study of the driving forces behind America’s high rate of loneliness to address current gaps in the data.
6. Encourage a nationwide culture of connection in which Americans and government institutions alike “cultivate values of kindness, respect, service, and commitment to one another.”

🤔 What’s so bad about being lonely?... On top of having no one to split a pizza with on a Tuesday at 1 am, lots of things. Peer-reviewed research has shown that feelings of loneliness are associated with higher rates of heart disease, strokes, diabetes, addiction, self-harm, and dementia. And that’s also reflected in other data: an American’s risk of premature death increases by nearly 30% if they’re lonely – or the equivalent of smoking 15 cigarettes per day.

💬 Quoted… “The fact that… the entirety of the political spectrum can find common ground on key issues like this should send a powerful message to America.”

Two unlikely forces in Congress have teamed up: Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) are part of a bipartisan group of lawmakers co-sponsoring a new bill that would prohibit all members of Congress – plus their spouses and dependents – from owning or trading individual stocks.

• Similar measures have been introduced in Congress multiple times over the past few years, but none were ever brought to the floor in either chamber for a vote.

🐶🐱 Stat of the Day: 46% = the percentage of US pet owners who spend the same amount of money or more per month on their furry friends as compared to their children, per a recent survey of 988 pet owners by Ally Consumer Research.

🤯 Did You Know?... In 2017, a group of Maryland college students consumed so much alcohol at a house party that the air in the house registered a reading of 0.01 on a breathalyzer, according to local police.

📖 Worth a Read: ​​Social-Media Shopping Scams Are Growing. Young Adults Are the Targets → (WSJ)

🌴🌞 Last chance!

You and a lucky plus-one could soon be soaking up the sun at the beautiful Margaritaville Island Reserve Riviera Maya if you just enter our giveaway for free. We're talking: 

• Mexico’s first and only LandShark Brewery, serving refreshing lagers, smokehouse classics, and ongoing live music
• Weekly events like TropRock-style musical performances, pop-up pickleball contests, pool parties, and more
• 3 free-form swimming pools for refreshing dips in between activities
• 24-hour room service to satisfy your cravings around the clock

👋 HOW TO ENTER: Just click this link and fill in your deets. No purchase necessary! And as an added bonus, you’ll also get hooked up with the other brands that are helping us put the contest on (they are cool and kind and we like them very much).

Don't miss your chance to win an unforgettable getaway to a tropical paradise – again, all you have to do is enter your email.

⌛ Entries close at midnight tonight! Enter for your chance to win here (once again: it's free, and the odds are better than you may think).

• ☝️ You’re looking at the closest example of a black hole devouring a star ever recorded; the phenomenon was recently discovered ~137 light-years from Earth by an MIT-led team of researchers.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 💰 US markets closed down across the board yesterday (S&P: -1.2%; Dow: -1.1%; Nasdaq: -1.1%). | 💼 US job openings totaled 9.59 million in March, per gov't data released yesterday; that's down from 9.97 million in February and the lowest level in nearly two years.
• 🤖 IBM CEO Arvind Krishna announced plans to pause hiring for roles the company thinks could be replaced with AI; Krishna said an estimated 30% of non-customer-facing roles (~7,800 jobs) could be offloaded to AI within the next five years.
• ☕ Starbucks reported quarterly earnings and revenue yesterday that beat expectations.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🎤 The Jonas Brothers announced a 35-date tour starting this summer; the band will reportedly play all five of their albums at each show. | ✏️📺 The WGA writer’s strike began yesterday with 10 picket lines at different studios in Los Angeles, and one in New York City. (Background) | 🎭🏆 Some Like It Hot received the most Tony nominations, with 13; see the full list.
• 🤖 Microsoft is planning to offer private versions of ChatGPT to large companies with concerns about leaks and privacy, The Information reported yesterday; the new version will reportedly be up to 10x as expensive as the chatbot’s current offerings.
• 🏀🏆 Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid was named the 2022-2023 NBA MVP. 

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• ☀️💧🪐 NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has detected signs of water vapor around a rocky exoplanet orbiting a star some 26 light-years from Earth; astronomers are still trying to determine whether the water vapor originated from the star (highly likely) or the planet itself (highly unlikely).
• 🦅 Twenty California condors have died in recent weeks, with laboratory tests confirming at least 13 deaths resulted from avian flu; the deaths represent ~4% of the critically endangered species’ entire known population.
• 🛰️ European aerospace giant Airbus recently unveiled its design for a new space station with artificial gravity.

MISCELLANEOUS

• ❌ Pornhub has blocked access to all Utah residents in protest of a new state law requiring adult websites to verify users' ages.
• 🚨 The 38-year-old man accused of fatally shooting five of his Texas neighbors over the weekend was arrested near Houston last night following a dayslong manhunt.
• 🏛️💰 House Democrats have taken procedural steps to bypass Republican leadership and force a vote on legislation that would increase the federal debt ceiling without enacting GOP-sponsored spending cuts. (Background | From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

CLICKBAIT

• 💼 For a good job by 30, do this in your 20s.

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A pit bull named Chief went missing from his Georgia home more than six years ago. Owner Tara Hillis searched for her pup for weeks, but as the months turned into years, she never thought she'd see him again.

• "So many years go by," she said. "You just really miss him.”

🥰 Never give up... Earlier this month, an anonymous couple found Chief wandering the streets on his own – more than 400 miles from home. 

• Thanks to his microchip, Chief's rescuers were able to get in touch with Tara. They're currently arranging Chief's eventual reunion with his astounded mom.

“I can’t believe this,” Tara said. “This is insane! Every time I’d talk about it that day, I get chill bumps.”

Here's how to play: We provide an incorrect stat. Then you guess whether the actual number is over or under the stated value.

🐉🪰 80%: A dragonfly’s hunting success rate.

⚖️⛓️ 25%: The percentage of convicted criminals later fully exonerated by DNA testing who had initially confessed to said crime.

🪵🪓📈 60%: The average percentage that a man’s testosterone increases after chopping wood for an hour.

(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. Over: 95%
2. Over: 30%
3. Under: 48%