Good morning, and a giant DONUT welcome to the thousands of new readers joining us for the first time. We’ve got (imaginary) donuts, coffee, and impartial news that’s actually enjoyable to read. Grab a bearclaw and stay a while😎🍩.

In today’s edition:

• 🚫 US lawmakers are reviving the campaign to ban TikTok
• 🗑 The future of Cleveland is garbage, according to its mayor
• 📱 A secret iPhone setting that you should def know about

… and more.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be about a 4.87-minute read.

P.S. First time reading? Subscribe here for free.

“Anyone who wants to achieve a dream must stay strong, focused and steady.”

–Estée Lauder (1908-2004)

While the vast majority of US states will lose an hour with Spring Forward this weekend, many Americans could soon find themselves with an extra several hours per day if some lawmakers have their way. 

On Tuesday evening, a bipartisan group of House lawmakers introduced a White House-backed bill that would ban TikTok from all US devices if Chinese tech giant ByteDance doesn’t sell the platform.

• The bill would give ByteDance 165 days to divest TikTok. And if the platform isn’t sold by then, US app stores would be outlawed from offering TikTok or providing any web hosting services for the platform.
• Both the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House’s select China committee are among the 19 lawmakers who introduced the measure, with the Biden admin also signaling its support for the bill’s passage in Congress. Their actions stem from national security concerns over TikTok’s Chinese ownership.
• TikTok officials are pushing back against the proposed legislation, saying it would violate the First Amendment rights of the 170+ million Americans who use their platform.

This isn’t the US government’s first rodeo when it comes to TikTok bans. Former President Trump issued an executive order in 2020 banning new downloads of TikTok due to national security concerns, though the measure was later blocked by a federal court. And last year, the Senate introduced legislation that would have granted the White House new powers to ban TikTok, but the bill never came to a vote following lobbying efforts from TikTok.

Lawmakers' actions run counter to recent trends in public sentiment. The share of American adults who support a US government ban on TikTok declined from 50% to 38% between March and December of last year, according to Pew Research.

👀 Looking ahead… The House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a vote on the proposed TikTok bill at a hearing later today. If approved (which is expected), the bill would head to the full House for a future vote – though it would also require companion legislation in the Senate before becoming law.

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🚢 At least three people died in a ship attack claimed by Houthi rebels in Yemen. A Houthi ballistic missile struck a commercial ship in the Gulf of Aden yesterday, per US officials, causing the vessel to catch fire and forcing the crew to abandon ship. The three deaths from the Houthi attack mark the first known loss of life since the Iran-backed rebel group first started targeting shipping lanes near the Red Sea last November. Four additional crew members were injured in the attack, including three critically.

🇩🇪 Tesla halted production at its Germany plant following an arson attack. The fire, which started at an outside electrical pylon, caused a power outage that cut off electricity to the plant and 60,000 people in the surrounding area, though it didn’t reach the plant itself. Tesla said production at the plant is unlikely to resume before next week, costing the company ~$1 billion. Environmental activists calling themselves the “Volcano Group” – who were behind a similar attack on Tesla in 2021 – claimed responsibility for this week’s attack, citing pollution concerns over plans to double the size of Tesla’s German factory.

🇭🇹 Haiti’s main gang leader threatened “civil war” if the country’s PM doesn’t resign. Prime Minister Ariel Henry has acted as Haiti’s de facto ruler since former Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated during a home invasion in 2021, despite ongoing US pressure to hold new elections following Moïse’s death. Local backlash against Henry escalated this week, when armed gang members took over prisons, airports, police stations, and a local port in an attempt to replace the PM (who’s currently stranded in Puerto Rico).

Part of a recent plan put forward by Mayor Justin Bibb to “modernize” the city of Cleveland involves selling advertisements that would appear as inserts in water bills, branding on light poles/parking meters, or big graphics on the side of… garbage trucks.

The idea’s premise is simple: one person’s trash is another’s treasure. Bibb believes these garbage truck-ads can drum up revenue for the city to help offset its costs or enable spending on new projects.

And, while not exactly common, ads being displayed on garbage trucks isn’t a novel idea:

• At least 25 garbage trucks in the UK have digital advertising display screens attached to their sides.
• Indiana cities Marion, South Bend, and Lafayette have similar garbage and recycling truck advertising programs. In 2019, Lafayette estimated it would bring in about $2 million in revenue over the next five years.

Yes, but… While garbage trucks may be the perfect place for trash bag-promotions (“our business is garbage, just like what this truck is picking up!”), non-trash-focused industries and local businesses tend to shy away from having their brand associated with garbage.

💸 Zoom out: Municipalities have long seen advertising as a way to drive additional revenue (think: realtors’ faces plastered on the side of city buses and benches). According to the American Public Transit Association, US public transit advertising generates more than $500 million dollars annually, and reaches up to 83% of commuters on weekdays and 69% on weekends.

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💬 Quoted… “We're sad that it's come to this with someone whom we’ve deeply admired – someone who inspired us to aim higher, then told us we would fail, started a competitor, and then sued us when we started making meaningful progress towards OpenAI’s mission without him.”

• On Tuesday evening, OpenAI published a blog post pushing back against claims made in a lawsuit filed by Elon Musk last week, which alleged that OpenAI broke its founding agreement to pursue AI research for the good of humanity instead of profit. In the post, OpenAI said Musk was on board with the company creating a for-profit entity in late 2017 – but he wanted majority equity, initial board control, and to be CEO, all of which OpenAI refused. The AI startup also brought receipts, quoting an email forwarded from Musk in early 2018 suggesting that OpenAI should “attach to Tesla as its cash cow” via a merger.

🐋👀 Stat of the Day: In an “incredibly rare event,” a team of scientists recently spotted a lone gray whale off the Massachusetts coast. Why so rare? Because the species has been extinct in the Atlantic Ocean for more than 200 years, with just five total sightings over the past decade-and-a-half. If only Dory were around to ask what it was doing so far from home.

🤔 Did You Know?... In your iPhone accessibility settings, you can program your phone to execute a wide range of options when you tap its back twice or three times, including shortcuts to access your camera, take a screenshot, use Shazam’s music identifier, or turn on your flashlight. Just open “Settings,” scroll down to “Accessibility,” click “Touch,” then scroll all the way down and hit “Back Tap.”

📰 Worth a Read: Oppenheimer feared nuclear annihilation – and only a chance pause by a Soviet submariner kept it from happening in 1962 → (The Conversation)

• ☝️ The Holsten’s diner booth featured in the infamous last scene from The Sopranos recently sold for $82,600 on eBay.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with Chartr

• 💰 US markets rose across the board yesterday (S&P: +0.5%; Dow: +0.2%; Nasdaq: +0.6%). | 📉 Fed Chair Jerome Powell told Congress that the central bank is on track to cut baseline interest rates later this year, though it won’t occur until the Fed is more confident that inflation is falling to its 2% annual target.
• 🏦 New York Community Bancorp, a commercial real-estate lender, received an equity investment of $1+ billion from a group including former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s private-equity firm.
• 🏭 The SEC approved new requirements that public companies disclose their greenhouse-gas emissions; the measure doesn’t include a provision opposed by business groups that extended the GHG disclosure to include supply chains and customer’s use of products.

*From our partners: ✨📊 Stunning, data-driven storytelling… Chartr is a visual newsletter packed with facts on business, tech, entertainment, and society. Join 500,000+ professionals understanding the world better in just a 3-5 minute read. Sign up free for Chartr here.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🎭 Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal will star in a 2025 Broadway revival of William Shakespeare’s Othello, to be directed by Tony Award-winner Kenny Leon.
• ⚖️ The 24-year-old movie armorer on the set of Rust, where cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was fatally shot by actor Alec Baldwin, was convicted by a jury of involuntary manslaughter yesterday.
• 🏈 The NFL franchise tag deadline expired on Tuesday afternoon; see a full recap of who was tagged.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Scott Kemper Imagery

• 📝🧑‍🚀 NASA began accepting applications for its next group of astronaut candidates for flights to the ISS, the Moon, and (eventually) Mars.
• 🧬 The oldest known sex chromosome in animals was recently discovered in an ancient octopus ancestor that lived ~380 million years ago, per a new preprint study.
• 🧴 An independent lab asked the FDA to recall a group of common acne products that may contain elevated levels of a cancer-causing chemical called benzene.

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MISCELLANEOUS

• 🗳️ Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley suspended her 2024 GOP presidential campaign yesterday, effectively clinching the Republican nomination for former President Trump. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right) | 🗳️ Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) also suspended his long-shot campaign for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination yesterday.
• 🏥 San Francisco residents voted to enact a ballot measure that requires welfare recipients who receive aid from the city and are “reasonably” suspected of using drugs to be screened and enroll in treatment.
• 🏛️ The House approved a group of six annual spending bills yesterday – worth a combined $460 billion – that would avoid a partial government shutdown set for this Friday; lawmakers are still negotiating over the six remaining spending bills needed to fully fund the government through September.

CLICKBAIT

• 🚢 On board the world’s most exclusive private residential ship.

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

• Animal rescue experts race to save stricken dog — only to find it was a statue → (NY Post)
• Shirtless US Senate candidate submerges himself in Wisconsin lake, issues challenge to opponent → (Associated Press)
• 'I don't believe in space:' Texas Tech DB Tyler Owens makes bold statement at NFL combine → (USA Today)
• Diver has found about 200 Apple Watches in Indiana lakes → (UPI)

Yesterday, we covered the Super Tuesday elections, in which both President Biden and former President Trump swept nearly all Democratic and Republican contests, respectively.

❓ Our question to you: Are you planning to vote – or have you already voted – in this year’s presidential primary elections?

• 👍 Yes: 66%
• 👎 No: 21%
• 🤷 Unsure/other: 13%

Click here to read some of the best longform responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 4,122 votes and 356 longform responses.

🦖 Dino sighting... A total of 1,273 people donned dinosaur costumes at Legoland California this weekend in honor of the park's 25th birthday. 

• The party claimed the World Record for the largest dinosaur costume party, beating out the previous high mark of 1,187 dancing dinos.
• The park also used the party to announce the opening of Dino Valley, its newest themed area for dino fans of all ages, which will open on March 22.

Jamaica, pictured above, is part of which continent?

(keep scrolling for the answer)

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