Good morning, and happy Solar Eclipse Day. In today’s edition:

• 📦 International packages could soon get more expensive
• 🤖 Apple + home robotics?
• 🌒 The path of totality is about to be packed

… and more.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a 4.67-minute read (1,244 words).

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

"No person becomes rich unless they enrich others."

–Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919)

Later today, President Biden is expected to announce a series of new proposals aimed at wiping out large amounts of federal student loan debt held by Americans who fall under certain categories, according to multiple reports.

If at first you don’t succeed… The expected proposals come just under a year after the Supreme Court struck down the Biden administration’s original $400 billion student loan forgiveness program, which aimed to cancel at least $10,000 in debt for 40+ million US borrowers.

Try, try again: The new regulations will require borrowers to fall into specific categories to receive an unspecified amount of debt relief – a strategy the Biden admin says has stronger legal footing than its previous failed attempt at forgiving student loans on a nationwide scale.

These categories reportedly include:

• Borrowers whose loan balance is now bigger than the amount originally borrowed due to interest.
• People who can demonstrate financial hardship that impedes them from repaying their student loans.
• Those who have been paying down their student loans for at least 20-25 years (depending on the type of loan).
• Borrowers who went to for-profit college programs deemed “low-value” based on average salaries for graduates.

Zoom out: Outside of its failed attempt at mass student loan forgiveness, the Biden admin has moved forward with more narrow student debt forgiveness for ~4 million Americans since 2021, totaling nearly $144 billion.

👀 Looking ahead… After the proposed regulation is released this week, the Education Department will collect additional public comments and issue a final rule in the coming months.

• Once the rule is finalized, it’s widely expected to face legal challenges from Republican attorneys general, who will again try to convince the courts to block it.

📊 Flash poll: Do you agree with the Biden admin’s new plan to forgive an unspecified amount of student loan debt for American borrowers who meet specific criteria?

• Yes
• No
• Unsure/other

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🌍 Russ Cook, aka the "Hardest Geezer," became the first person to run the length of Africa within a year. After embarking in late April of last year, the 27-year-old UK man finally completed his 9,500-mile trek through 16 African countries on Sunday afternoon. Cook had originally planned to run a marathon per day without any rest days – but visa complications, health scares, a kidnapping, and an armed robbery ended up delaying his run. Cook’s expedition raised $800,000+ for charity.

🇮🇱 Israel disciplined several officers for their roles in Gaza drone strikes that killed seven foreign aid workers. Israel’s military dismissed two officers and reprimanded three others over the attack, saying they had mishandled critical information and violated the army’s rules of engagement. Israeli officials said a military investigation found the drone team spotted what they assumed was a weapon over the shoulder of one of the aid workers, and mistook them for Hamas militants. The World Central Kitchen, which employed the foreign aid workers, said its workers weren’t armed, and had coordinated its movements with Israel’s military ahead of time.

🇲🇽🇪🇨 Mexico cut diplomatic ties with Ecuador after Mexico’s embassy in the country was raided. On Friday, Ecuadorian police raided the Mexican embassy in the capital city of Quito and arrested former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas on corruption charges. Glas had been residing in the Mexican Embassy since December, and was granted political asylum hours before the raid. Mexico’s government said the embassy raid – which is almost unprecedented in the international community – will be challenged at the World Court for intruding on Mexican sovereign territory.

Shein hauls and Temu ads, prepare thyself for a change – it could soon get more expensive to ship low-value packages to America. The US Department of Homeland Security said on Friday that it’s going to be giving greater scrutiny to its de minimis exception, a trade rule designed to facilitate the flow of small packages that allows parcels valued under $800 to enter the US duty-free per person per day.

The minimis has been maximized

In 2023, over 1 billion de minimis packages came through US customs, up from 134 million packages in 2015.

• Two of the biggest drivers of this explosive growth? Retailers Shein and Temu, which together account for 30+% of all packages shipped to the US daily under the de minimis exemption.

A repeal could have a real impact on US pocketbooks… Eliminating the de minimis exception would add $20–$30 to each transaction, the Associated Press reports. This would make it difficult – read: financially impossible – for businesses like Shein and Temu to keep selling to US consumers at the same prices, and also impact costs for major shippers such as FedEx, UPS, Amazon, and DHL.

… but potentially a positive effect elsewhere. The National Council of Textile Organizations argues the de minimis exception hurts American businesses, and has led to the closure of multiple factories in the US. It could also be allowing a fair amount of illegal drugs like fentanyl, as well as goods made with forced labor (slavery), to enter the country illegally, due to these packages receiving less scrutiny.

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💬 Quoted… “[The] next big thing.”

• Siri could finally be getting a physical form. Engineers at Apple are currently exploring a push into home robotics amidst pressure to find new sources of revenue, according to a recent Bloomberg report. Apple’s efforts, which are considered to be in the early research stages, include a mobile robot that can follow users around their homes, as well as a table-top device that uses a robotic arm to move around a display and mimic a human on the other side of a FaceTime call.

🌒🚗 Stat of the Day: An estimated 5 million Americans are traveling to view this afternoon’s rare total solar eclipse, per the Federal Highway Administration – or roughly the equivalent of 20-30 Super Bowls happening all at once. Experts predict the influx of people across the path of totality – from Texas through Maine – will lead to massive traffic jams lasting as long as 12+ hours following the eclipse. Double whammy: the vast majority of US locations in the path of totality are projected to experience cloud cover this afternoon (the white in the above pic☝️).

🤔 Did You Know?... Looking to act out your Star Wars fantasies? Consider heading to France. Since 2019, the country’s fencing federation has officially recognized lightsaber dueling as a competitive sport.

📰 Worth a Read: The notorious pirate king who vanished after a treasure heist at sea → (Smithsonian Magazine)

• ☝️ The Statue of Liberty was struck by a bolt of lightning during a severe, but brief storm in New York City last week.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with Olyra

• 💰 US markets closed up across the board on Friday (S&P: +1.1%; Dow: +0.8%; Nasdaq: +1.2%).
• 💼 The US economy added 303,000 jobs in March, higher than analysts expected, while the unemployment rate fell slightly to 3.8%.
• 🙅🚘 Tesla is canceling its plans to build a $25,000 electric car due to strong competition from Chinese automakers, per Reuters; CEO Elon Musk denied the report.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🏆 Women’s March Madness: No. 1 South Carolina beat No. 1 Iowa 87-75 to win the national championship, completing the 10th undefeated season in NCAA D1 women’s basketball history. | 🏀 Men’s March Madness: No. 1 UConn will face off against No. 1 Purdue in the national championship, which tips off at 8:20 ET tonight.
• 🍿 Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire led the domestic box office in its second weekend with $31.7 million; Monkey Man placed second in its opening weekend with $10.1 million.
• 📺🔐 Disney+ will start cracking down on password sharing in June, with plans to extend to all 150 million subscribers by September.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Commons

• 🐸🔊 Some amphibians use high-pitched screams outside the frequency of human hearing to ward off predators, per a new peer-reviewed study.
• 🧬🧓 Younger generations appear to be aging faster at the cellular level than their predecessors, which could explain why cancer cases among young folks have been rising for years, according to new research presented this weekend.
• 😡 Venting when angry doesn’t help reduce the feeling of anger – though calming activities like yoga, mindfulness, progressive muscle relaxation, and deep breathing can help do the trick, per a new study.

*From our partners: 👏 Commons users reduce carbon emissions by 20% and save $200 per month… They get cashback for sustainable purchases like public transit, EV chargers, and farmers' markets, and also get tips for living sustainably. Get the Commons app free via this link.

MISCELLANEOUS

• 🫨 A rare earthquake centered near Lebanon, New Jersey, caused buildings to shake across the East Coast on Friday morning; no injuries or major destruction was reported from the 4.8-magnitude quake, which marks the strongest felt in the New York City area since 1884.
• 🎰 A single winning ticket to the $1.33 billion Powerball jackpot was sold in Oregon; it marks the eighth-largest lottery prize in US history.
• 🌉🚢 The Port of Baltimore could be fully functional by the end of May after operations were disrupted by the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge late last month, per Maryland Gov. Wes Moore.

CLICKBAIT

• 🏙️🏃 Ranking America's healthiest and unhealthiest cities in 2024.

Monday: One week before Tax Day

Tuesday: The parents of the Oxford, MI, school shooter face sentencing

Wednesday: The House is set to send impeachment articles for Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to Senate

Thursday: The Masters tees off, with a gold green jacket on the line; President Biden hosts the leaders of Japan and the Philippines

Friday: National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day

On Friday, we covered the total solar eclipse that’ll be seen across some parts of the US later today, marking a rare celestial event that won’t happen again until 2044.

❓ Our question to you: Are you planning to take time out of your regular schedule to watch the solar eclipse on Monday?

• 👍 Yes: 59%
• 👎 No: 29%
• 🤷 Unsure/other: 12%

Click here to read some of the most-interesting longform responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 3,710 votes and 334 longform responses.

A copy of Action Comics No. 1, the 1938 comic that introduced Superman to the world, just sold for an, ahem, supersized $6 million at auction. 

• According to UPI, the comic book was inspected by collectible-grading service CGC and received a grade of 8.5/10, making it the third-highest graded copy of the 100 Action Comics No. 1 left in the world.

Guess the definitions of the following Greek/Latin root words.

1. Astr
2. Civ
3. Culp
4. Etho
5. Fus

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1. Astr = Star (e.g., asterisk, astrology)
2. Civ = Citizen (civility, civilization)
3. Culp = Blame (culpable)
4. Etho = Custom (ethology)
5. Fus = Pour (transfusion)