Good morning. In today’s edition:

• 📱⏱️ TikTok is on the clock
• ✈️ If it’s Boeing, airlines aren’t going
• 📈 Behind the fundraising approach boosting nonprofits

… and more.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be about a 5.18-minute read.

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

“Happiness must be grown in one's own garden.”

–Mary Engelbreit (b. 1952)

The doomsday clock is ticking closer to midnight for TikTok’s US operations. Later today, the House is scheduled to vote on a White House-backed bill that would require its Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell TikTok within six months or face a ban in the US.

• House leaders have expressed confidence that the bipartisan measure will pass today’s vote, since most members seem to agree that TikTok’s ties to the Chinese government represent a national security threat.
• The chamber’s support for the bill has continued despite weekend comments from former President Trump saying he opposes banning TikTok in the US, because doing so would help its rival Facebook.

Other voices have also spoken out against the ban. Over the past week, thousands of TikTok users have flooded the phones of House lawmakers to express their disapproval of the proposed bill. The pushback was prompted by an ongoing series of TikTok push alerts urging users across the US to tell their local lawmakers to “stop a TikTok ban.”

• TikTok is also focusing its lobbying efforts on the Senate, where CEO Shou Chew began meeting yesterday with lawmakers to make the case against a potential ban or divestment from ByteDance.

🤔✍️ So, does the bill have a chance of becoming law? Short answer: it depends on the Senate. Lawmakers in the upper chamber appear less supportive of a potential TikTok ban than their House counterparts, with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) remaining tight-lipped about whether he’ll bring the measure to a floor vote.

• If he does, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has committed to blocking unanimous approval of the TikTok ban, forcing Democratic leaders to spend floor time debating the bill if they want to see it passed.

📊 Flash poll: In your opinion, should TikTok be forced to divest from Chinese owner ByteDance or face a ban from every device in the US?

• Yes
• No
• Unsure/other

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🇭🇹 Haiti’s PM resigned following two weeks of gang violence. PM Ariel Henry has served as Haiti’s de facto ruler since former President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in 2021. The prime minister’s resignation came in response to Haiti’s main gang leader (a man who goes by the name “Barbecue”) threatening “civil war” if he doesn't resign. PM Henry will step down once a transitional presidential council is installed, which will hold future presidential elections for the first time since 2016.

🇬🇧🇷🇴 Andrew and Tristan Tate were arrested in Romania for UK sexual offense charges. The Tate brothers, who style themselves as men’s self-help gurus, were detained in Romania on Monday over a UK arrest warrant for sexual aggression allegations dating back to 2012-2015, which they deny. A Romanian court ruled the Tate brothers can be extradited to the UK once domestic legal proceedings over 2022 charges of rape, human trafficking, and forming a criminal gang to exploit women are complete. The judge’s order also released the pair from prison.

🇳🇬🪙 Nigeria reportedly detained two top Binance employees after accusing the firm of causing a currency crisis. The Nigerian government hasn’t publicly discussed the Binance employees, though their families say they’re being held in a guarded house and haven't been charged with any crimes. Residents of Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, have flocked to crypto exchanges like Binance in recent years due to rising inflation and a sharp decline in the value of its local currency, the naira. The government’s issue with Binance stems from the platform’s exchange rate between the naira and the dollar, which has been much weaker than the official government-set rate in recent years.

Airlines have gone from dishing out delays to being forced to deal with a wait themselves (my, my, my how the turntables).

Southwest Airlines yesterday announced that it’ll have to trim flight capacity, reduce hiring, and reevaluate its financial forecasts for the year due to jet delivery delays from Boeing, which has been under heavy regulatory scrutiny following an incident in January where the door blew off one of its planes in midair.

Southwest isn’t the only one with issues. Other airlines are also plane plain beefing with Boeing:

• Alaska Airlines said in a filing yesterday that its 2024 flight capacity is “in flux due to uncertainty around the timing of aircraft deliveries as a result of increased Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Justice scrutiny on Boeing and its operations.”
• Ryanair earlier this month said it'll be making 5 million fewer flights than expected this fiscal year due to manufacturing delays with Boeing's 737 Max 8 plane.
• United told staff last week that it has to pause pilot hiring this spring because of late-arriving aircraft from Boeing.

These manufacturing delays don't have a quick and easy fix. Heavy backlogs make it hard for airlines to shift orders to rival Airbus, the only other large commercial aircraft manufacturer globally, Reuters reports.

👀 Looking ahead… On February 28, the FAA gave Boeing 90 days to come up with a plan to fix quality control issues and meet safety standards for building planes.

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Contrary to popular belief, big things can come in small packages. Just ask nonprofits, which keep seeing more and more dollars pour in after implementing a fundraising approach where customers in the checkout line are asked to round their purchase to the nearest dollar for charity.

• In 2022, US charities raised $749 million via these so-called point-of-sale donations, a 24% jump from 2020 and nearly double that of 2012, according to data reported by NPR.

A case study: The Taco Bell Foundation, a nonprofit that operates independently from the fast food chain, brought in $42 million last year on round-ups collected from the company's ~7,500 US restaurants. The average donation? Just $0.44.

But the organization didn’t always take this approach. It previously asked customers to donate $1 at checkout, before switching to roundups in 2019.

• The results after the switch were "mind-blowing," Jennifer Bradbury, the foundation's executive director, told NPR.
• The foundation roughly doubled what it had been raising (which averaged between $11 million–$14 million per year), bringing in $20+ million in 2019.

🤔 Why does the round-up approach work? According to a 2018 study, the perceived pain of rounding up a transaction is seen to be less than parting with $1, making consumers more likely to say yes. Humans also tend to have a preference for round numbers; a 2013 study that looked at purchases at self-serve gas pumps and tips at restaurants found the number of transactions ending in “0” to far exceed chance.

💬 Quoted… “A hot mess.”

• For years, college applicants in the US have used the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (aka Fafsa) to access billions of dollars in student loans and scholarships. Congress recently approved a bipartisan effort to streamline the Fafsa process, which federal officials described as “the most significant changes to the financial-aid system in decades.” But when the new program launched in late December, it faced a series of issues that required the Education Department to postpone the process until mid-March. These delays have forced some applicants to commit to a college before knowing how much it will cost, though many schools have pushed back their commitment deadlines by several weeks.

🌐🚘 Stat of the Day: In the car/insurance industry equivalent of screenshotting a text convo to send to a friend, at least four major car manufacturers (GM, Honda, Kia, and Hyundai) are sharing their drivers’ data with insurance companies – many times without their knowledge – according to a NY Times investigation. The NYT found shared data from the internet-connected vehicles – which includes instances of speeding, hard braking, and sudden accelerations – caused some drivers’ insurance rates to nearly double.

🤔 Did You Know?... Approximately 98% of all known mammal species on Earth do not menstruate.

📰 Worth a Read: The New Science on What Ultra-Processed Food Does to Your Brain → (WSJ)

• ☝️ Bird watcher Clare Jacobs captured this first-of-its-kind image showing a wild seal spitting water at an approaching eagle, a behavior experts say was aimed at scaring the eagle off from its food.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with Babbel

• 💰 US markets closed up across the board (S&P: +1.1%; Dow: +0.6%; Nasdaq: +1.5%); the S&P 500 notched a new record high.
• 📈 February’s Consumer Price Index, the most widely used measure of US inflation, rose 0.4% on a monthly basis and 3.2% from a year ago, per federal data published yesterday.
• 🏰 Disney cleared a crucial hurdle from Anaheim regulators in its plan to spend $1.9 billion to renovate Disneyland.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🏈 Free agent RB Derrick Henry signed a two-year deal with the Baltimore Ravens worth up to $20 million with incentives. | ⚖️ A former Jacksonville Jaguars employee who stole $22 million from the team was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison yesterday.
• 🙏 Eric Carmen, the former lead vocalist of The Raspberries and singer of “Hungry Eyes,” passed away at the age of 74.
• 🎥 Marvel Studios fired Beau DeMayo, creator of the upcoming animated Disney+ series X-Men ’97, less than two weeks before its March 20 premiere.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Olyra

• 🌊 Marine researchers who set out to record life hidden in the world’s oceans have discovered ~100 potential new species.
• 👣 The optimal number of daily steps to counteract a highly sedentary lifestyle is between 9,000-10,000, per a new study – though 50% of the benefits kick in around 4,000-4,500 steps/day.
• 🧑‍🚀🌊 A four-person crew of astronauts onboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule safely splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico yesterday, closing out a six-month stay at the ISS.

*From our partners: 🤤🫐 NEW Blueberry-Filled Breakfast Biscuits… Fresh from our friends at Olyra, Blueberry joins Raspberry and Strawberry as the newest flavor in their collection of soft baked bites. 100% organic. Low sugar, high fiber, limited supply. Save 20% on Olyra with code DONUT20.

MISCELLANEOUS

• 🚫📹 Airbnb banned the use of indoor security cameras in properties listed on its short-term rental platform.
• 🗳️ President Biden officially secured the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination after four state contests yesterday; former President Trump officially clinched the 2024 Republican presidential nomination last night. | 📝 Robert F. Kennedy Jr. confirmed he approached NY Jets QB Aaron Rodgers and former wrestler/actor/Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura about serving as his running mate on a third-party presidential ticket. 
• 🏛️ Special counsel Robert Hur testified before the House yesterday regarding his investigation into President Biden’s handling of classified records, which didn’t result in any criminal charges. (The investigation | From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

CLICKBAIT

• 🙈📲 How to play Instagram's hidden DM game.

Bill Moczulewski is a night-shift janitor at a local Walmart. And though he's legally blind, the dedicated hard-worker walks close to a six-mile trip each way to get to work. 

🚙 Help your neighbor... The janitor was walking to his store one day, when neighbor Christy Conrad pulled over to offer him a ride. As she learned more about his story, Christy decided to drive Bill as often as she possibly could.

• As her schedule started to get busier, Christy started a Facebook group in hopes of finding Bill more rides.

Now, the group is 1,500 members strong, with people often competing over who can drive Bill first. "There's a lot of good people in this world, all over the place, you know?" Bill shared with CBS.

How it works: We provide an incorrect stat. Then you guess whether the actual number is over or under the given value.

• 🤤 2: How many liters of saliva the average human mouth produces each day.
• 🐌 500 million: The number of snails served in restaurants every year.
• ⚡ 8: How many times more likely men are to be struck by lightning than women.

(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. 🤤 Under, between 1 and 1.5 liters
2. 🐌 Over, it’s around 1 billion
3. ⚡ Under, it’s 4x