Good morning. In today’s edition:

• 🚘🔌 The Biden admin revamped its plan to phase out new gas cars
• 💰 A new Apollo mission just took off from the launchpad
• 🤔 The Fed speaks on rate cuts

… and more.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be about a 5.09-minute read.

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“Victory is always possible for the person who refuses to stop fighting.”

–Napoleon Hill (1883-1970)

Following a year of lobbying and debate, the Biden administration yesterday finalized new rules on vehicle emissions that are aimed at accelerating widespread EV adoption.

• These new rules – which apply to all cars, SUVs, vans, and pickup trucks from model years 2027 to 2032 – aren’t written as a ban on the sale of gas-powered cars, like some individual US states have adopted.
• Instead, they set standards that apply across an automakers’ entire US fleet. This means companies can still make vehicles with higher emissions, as long as they also make enough low or zero-emission vehicles to average out their numbers.

The new rules also carry a more gradual startup period than regulators originally proposed in early 2023. But, like two forks of a road that later converge into the same path, they still arrive at the same final benchmark of at least 56% of all new vehicles sold in the US being fully electric by 2032.

The (projected) impact: According to the EPA, its new automotive standards will eliminate 7+ billion tons of CO2 emissions over their lifetime, equivalent to an entire year’s worth of US emissions from all sources. Officials also project the measures will deliver $100 billion in annual benefits to US consumers, including $46 billion/year in fuel savings from switching to EVs and $13 billion/year in health benefits from less pollution.

🚘🔌 Big picture: US EV sales grew by 47% last year to reach 1.2 million vehicles, or 7.6% of all new car sales. But over the past several months, the rate of growth has slowed considerably, with over a half-dozen major automakers delaying or walking back plans to increase their EV investments.

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🌍😊 The latest World Happiness Report rankings were just released. And Finland might as well change its national anthem to Pharrell’s “Happy,” because it ranked at the top of the list for the seventh year in a row – while the US fell from 15th last year to a record-low 23rd in 2024. The catalyst? American residents under 30 feel significantly worse about their lives compared to those aged 60+ – unlike in Central and Eastern Europe, where younger people typically reported higher levels of happiness than older folks.

🇧🇷 Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was indicted for allegedly falsifying his Covid vaccination status. The federal police indictment alleges that Bolsonaro and 16 others inserted false information into a public health database to make it appear as though the then-president and others in his circle had received the Covid vaccine. Brazil’s prosecutor-general will now decide whether to file charges, which would then be judged by the country’s Supreme Court.

🌏 Air pollution is a major problem in Asia. All but one of the 100 cities with the world’s worst air pollution are in Asia, according to new data from air-quality monitoring group IQAir. India was home to 83 of the 100 cities with the world’s worst air pollution in 2023, all of which exceeded the WHO’s air quality guidelines by more than 10x. An estimated 6.7 million people die each year from air pollution-related health issues, per WHO data.

Apollo Global Management, a private equity firm that owns the majority of Yahoo, has taken one big step for… itself and made an $11 billion offer to buy Paramount Global’s film and TV studio, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal citing sources familiar with the matter.

Content is king – and Paramount’s studio has long been an acquisition target. Per the WSJ, Netflix was among a number of companies that expressed interest over the past few years in buying just the studio, which is behind movies like Top Gun: Maverick and A Quiet Place.

However, Paramount’s board and controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, while open to an acquisition of the entire company, have resisted selling just the studio, which they consider the crown jewel of the company.

• Apollo apparently agrees – the firm’s $11 billion offer for just the TV and film studio exceeds the entire market cap of Paramount, which was ~$7.7 billion when news of the offer broke.

This leaves Paramount with a decision to make: Sell its studio and look for a buyer of its other assets – which include Paramount Plus, CBS, BET, Nickelodeon, and a number of other cable networks – move forward with a separate deal that keeps the company together, or keep holding out. The company is currently entertaining offers from Skydance Media and media mogul Byron Allen, and has also reportedly discussed a streaming partnership or joint venture with Comcast.

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After weeks of teasing, Lego has finally unveiled its collaboration with Dungeons & Dragons to celebrate the legendary roleplaying game’s 50th anniversary.

The 3,745-piece set, called “Red Dragon’s Tale,” is based on a winning design created by Lucas “BoltBuilds” Bolt for a Lego community contest, and will be available for purchase starting in early April for $360.

Here’s what that moolah gets you:

• A modularly designed castle with a tower, bridge, and tavern with a removable roof.
• A red dragon – “Cinderhol” – as well as six minifig adventurers: an orc rogue, elf wizard, dwarf cleric, gnome fighter, Dragonborn bard, and a “human with an anime-protagonist haircut,” to quote The Verge.
• An adventure book, available free via digital download or physical paperback for Lego Insiders, that you can play along with using the set.

Collabs aren’t just for influencers. Lego has tripled its team of digital experts over the past three years, and is focused on establishing content/game partnerships – but always with the goal of tying digital touchpoints back to physical play (like with this D&D set).

And this approach is working. On the back of its deals with Harry Potter and the Epic Games-owned Fortnite, Lego’s growth outpaced the broader toy market by ~10% in 2023 – a year that CEO Niels Christiansen described as “the most negative toy market in more than 15 years.”

💬 Quoted… “[The latest data] haven’t really changed the overall story, which is that of inflation moving down gradually on a sometimes-bumpy road toward 2%.”

• In a decision published yesterday, the Federal Reserve opted to keep baseline US interest rates steady for the fifth straight time, with the current range of 5.25%-5.5% representing a 23-year high. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the recent uptick in inflation readings for January and February hasn’t altered the central bank’s projection that it will cut interest rates a total of three times in 2024. A majority of economists currently project the Fed will implement the first rate cut following its June 11-12 meeting.

💰🏙️ Stat of the Day: The median income needed to live “comfortably” as a single person across 99 of the largest metro areas in America is $93,933, per a recent analysis from SmartAsset. A “comfortable” life is defined as having enough income to cover a 50/30/20 budget split between necessities like housing and food (50%), discretionary spending (30%), and savings (20%).

🤔 Did You Know?... Before oranges (the fruit) were introduced to Europe from Asia in the 15th century, the color orange existed in Europe, but without the name – it was simply called “yellow-red.”

📰 Worth a Read: Roads That Charge While You Drive: Can This Fuel a Future for EVs? → (WSJ)

• ☝️ A mountaintop estate in North Carolina was recently listed for $49.99 million, which, if sold at the asking price, would represent the highest price ever paid for a home in the Carolinas.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with AutoGive

• 💰 US markets closed up across the board (S&P: +0.9%; Dow: +1.0; Nasdaq: +1.3%); all three indexes ended the day at record highs. | 📊 Reddit begins trading on the NYSE today; the social media platform priced its stock at $34/share, the top of its anticipated range.
• 🏭 Intel is about to embark upon a $100 billion semiconductor spending spree.
• 👝 Hermes, the luxury-fashion brand, is facing a class-action lawsuit over the barriers its sales process creates for customers wanting to purchase Birkin bags.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🏀 The men’s March Madness First Round officially tips off later today, with 48 games scheduled over the next four days; the women’s March Madness First Round tips off tomorrow.
• 📸👑 Getty Images flagged another photo captured by Princess Kate as digitally altered; the image was released in 2022, and features the late Queen Elizabeth II surrounded by her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
• ⚾💰 The Los Angeles Dodgers fired the longtime interpreter for superstar pitcher/outfielder Shohei Ohtani amidst questions surrounding at least $4.5 million in wire transfers sent from Ohtani's bank account to a SoCal sports gambling operation; initially, an Ohtani spokesman said he transferred the funds to cover his interpreter’s gambling debts – but Ohtani’s camp later retracted that account and said he was “the victim of a massive theft.”

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Commons

• 🤥 A physicist who claimed to have discovered the world’s first room-temperature superconductor has engaged in consistent research misconduct, per a new report from the University of Rochester in New York (where he works).
• 🚀 SpaceX is aiming for a fourth test launch of its next-gen Starship rocket sometime in May; Starship achieved multiple milestones in its third test flight last week, though it broke apart while re-entering Earth’s atmosphere.
• 🏥 A new medical test can detect Parkinson’s disease using a skin biopsy, rather than waiting for symptoms that can take years to appear, per a new study published in JAMA.

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MISCELLANEOUS

• 🏦 A trio of boys ages 11, 12, and 16 – dubbed the “Little Rascals” – were arrested for robbing a bank in Houston last week.
• 🗳️ Bernie Moreno, a businessman endorsed by former President Trump, definitively won Ohio’s three-way Republican US Senate primary this week.
• ⚖️ A federal appeals court blocked Texas from enforcing its new immigration law that allows state officials to deport unauthorized migrants; the court order late Tuesday came hours after the Supreme Court declined to block the law pending an ongoing appeal.

CLICKBAIT

• 🤔🚀 Voyager, Chandrayaan, Curiosity: How do spacecraft get their names?

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

• Montreal man returns from vacation, gets letter from Quebec government saying he's dead → (CTV News)
• Motorcyclist With "Will Run" License Plate Flees Deputies At 145 MPH → (Florida World)
• English women’s league showdown delayed by teams wearing matching socks → (Associated Press)
• Montana man pleads guilty to creating ‘giant hybrid sheep’ → (FOX59)
• World's largest standing lantern constructed in China → (UPI)

Yesterday, we covered how a growing number of US cities and counties have experimented with guaranteed basic income programs that aim to combat poverty by providing direct, unconditional payments to lower-income Americans.

❓ Our question to you: In your opinion, are unconditional basic income programs for lower-income Americans a good idea?

• 👍 Yes: 36%
• 👎 No: 45%
• 🤷 Unsure/other: 19%

Click here to read some of the best responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 4,121 votes and 442 longform responses.

Animal lover Shannon Keith founded the Beagle Freedom Project in 2010, as part of an effort to rescue as many animals from testing facilities as she could.

In 2021, Shannon began partnering with an animal testing lab in Oklahoma to rehome animals when they were finished in experiments. While it broke her heart to know they were being used in tests, she was grateful to provide the animals with a second chance.

• Fast-forward three years, to the present – where Shannon has bought the testing site's property and transformed it into an animal sanctuary and rescue facility, ending testing on all 200+ animals that were on site when she sealed the deal. 

The name of the sanctuary? Freedom Fields.

💬 What she's saying: “Our ultimate goal, of course, is to get [the dogs] into homes, and until that happens, they are going to live there in the most luxury they could ever have," Shannon said. 

Which desert is located in the southeastern part of California, and is the location of Death Valley?

(keep scrolling for the answer)

The Mojave Desert

*Based on studies of topical minoxidil. Prescription products require an online consultation with a healthcare provider who will determine if a prescription is appropriate. Restrictions apply. See website for full details and important safety information.