Good morning. In this edition:

• 🇺🇸 The tariff seesaw
• 🧬 23andMe files for bankruptcy
• 🎶 The perfect song length, according to data

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~4.53-minute read (1,204 words).

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"The person who never made a mistake, never made a discovery."

–Samuel Smiles (1812-1904)

President Trump indicated yesterday that he might soften upcoming reciprocal tariffs against US trading partners, and also announced new levies on countries that buy oil or gas from Venezuela, marking the latest recalibration of his administration’s tariff plans.

Catch up quick: Trump has repeatedly called April 2 "Liberation Day," in reference to new wide-ranging reciprocal tariffs scheduled to take effect a week from tomorrow.

• The President has previously said the reciprocal tariffs would involve responding to any duties on US exports by enacting identical duties on the other country (involving the same products and same rates).
• But he appeared to soften that stance yesterday, saying the reciprocal tariffs could stop short of equalizing US duties with other countries, and that some nations could be exempt.
• Trump also announced a 25% tariff on countries purchasing oil or gas from Venezuela over the flow of migrants from the country to the US. The move would result in an effective 45% US tariff on imports from China, a top destination for Venezuela’s crude oil exports.

Riding the tariff seesaw

Many business leaders have struggled with making sound investment decisions in the face of the Trump admin’s on-again, off-again trade war. Perhaps the biggest question for companies is whether the tariffs are short-term, or here for the long haul.

• The Trump administration says tariffs are a temporary tool meant for achieving narrow policy aims, like reducing fentanyl and illegal immigration from Canada and Mexico.
• But Trump also says tariffs are part of a long-term rewiring of the global economy to favor more US manufacturing, as well as a potential major driver of federal revenue – both of which imply they’ll remain in place indefinitely.

Markets have seesaw’d, too. Major US stock indices closed up sharply yesterday following multiple reports that said the Trump admin is planning lesser, targeted tariffs for April 2 (S&P: +1.8%; Dow: +1.4%; Nasdaq: +2.3%). More broadly, stocks rose last week to snap a month-long losing streak partly driven by uncertainty surrounding US tariff policies.

Drink If… is the party game from Dyce Games that gives you and your pals 800 hilarious reasons to drink thanks to your questionable life choices. You’ll learn lots about your friends, and possibly some things you wish you didn’t.

The rules are simple:

• ☝️ First player draws a card and reads the question
• 🍻 Every player who answers yes takes a drink
• 🏆 Finish your drink first and win

Just remember to have fun and always drink responsibly.

23andMe is preparing to become absorbed into the genealogical tree of some other company. The ancestry startup filed for bankruptcy and launched a sale process late Sunday night, and also announced the resignation of longtime CEO Anne Wojcicki.

How we got here: 23andMe first rocketed into the mainstream in the late 2000s, with its at-home DNA testing kits granting insights into family histories and genetic profiles based on a simple saliva sample.

The company’s valuation peaked at ~$6 billion soon after going public in 2021. But a steep drop in demand, along with a 2023 data breach exposing millions of customers’ personal info, has dropped its valuation to ~$19.5 million as of yesterday’s close.

The big question

23andMe’s financial distress and bankruptcy filing has led many of its 15+ million customers to wonder: What does a sale mean for the vast amounts of genetic data the company stores?

• According to legal experts, this virtually unprecedented repository of genetic info––considered one of 23andMe’s core business assets––can essentially be sold to the highest bidder.
• 23andMe had already been using genetic data from customers to develop drugs with pharmaceutical company GSK, meaning a new buyer would likely seek similar opportunities.

But there’s a way out: Customers who wish to permanently delete their data from 23andMe can do so via a process accessed through their account settings.

Looking ahead…23andMe says it will continue operating throughout the upcoming bankruptcy and sale process.

“Let’s start selling colorful, flavored drinks” = the “let’s start a podcast” of the fast-food world. Chains are increasingly adding high-margin drinks to their menus in a bid to appeal to younger consumers.

• Chick-fil-A offers seasonal Pineapple Dragonfruit drinks.
• Wendy’s current lemonade lineup includes blueberry pomegranate and pineapple mango flavors.
• Yum Brands’ Taco Bell installed a beverage concept called Live Mas Café inside one of its California locations.
• McDonald’s is in its second year of testing CosMc’s, its drinks-focused spinoff (menu above).

The chase for a Gen Z sales bump

Data shows the last-letter generation comes from the most diverse backgrounds and are the most open to new flavors. They’re also more likely to indulge in “little treat” culture, CNBC reports. Wendy’s craft lemonades “over-[index] with Hispanic consumers and Gen Z,” the chain’s US Chief Marketing Officer Lindsay Radkoski said at a recent investor event.

Looking ahead…Wendy’s wants to make inroads with the ~30% of its customers that don’t add a drink to their order, while Taco Bell is aiming to build a $5 billion beverage business by 2030. And competition should be honey badger-level fierce. Smaller beverage chains Swig, 7 Brew Drive Thru Coffee, and Gong Cha are among the 10 fastest-growing quick-service restaurant chains by sales, according to restaurant market research firm Technomic.

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All dogs are precious in their owners’ eyes––but in terms of cold hard cash, one individual stands above the rest.

Last week, prominent Indian collector S Sathish shelled out $5.8+ million to buy the world’s most expensive dog, named Cadabomb Okami. The “wolfdog,” who represents a cross between a Caucasian Shepherd and wolf, is widely believed to be the first of his kind.

At just eight months old, Okami is already 2.5 feet tall and weighs ~165 pounds. He’ll join the 150+ other dogs owned by Sathish, who runs a high-end farm in Bengaluru, India, where crowds pay thousands of dollars to view rare breeds from around the world.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🚗 Hyundai will invest $21 billion to build out its US manufacturing capabilities; plans include a $5.8 billion steel mill in Louisiana.
• ✈️ United Airlines is raising annual fees for its lounges and rewards credit cards.
• 📝 The FBI launched a new task force to investigate attacks targeting Tesla.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

in partnership with Arro

• 🏆 Conan O’Brien was honored with the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. | ☕️ The Office celebrated its 20th birthday yesterday.
• 🎤 K-pop girl group NewJeans announced an indefinite hiatus after a South Korean court ruled against its five members in a long-running dispute with record label Ador.
• 🏀 Warren Buffett’s long-running $1 million March Madness bracket challenge has its first winner.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• ⚱️ Archaeologists in Egypt discovered a second ancient pharaoh’s tomb in as many months, though this one's identity isn’t yet known; prior to this year, the last ancient pharaoh tomb to be unearthed was in 1922.
• 🪐 NASA’s Curiosity rover discovered the largest organic compounds ever seen on Mars; they date back ~3.7 billion years to roughly the same time as the earliest-known signs of life on Earth. | 🚀 SpaceX launched a new national security satellite into space yesterday as part of a US Space Force contract.
• 🧠 The human brain may start “eating” its own fatty tissue for fuel when starved of energy, per a new study involving the brains of marathon runners.

MISCELLANEOUS

in partnership with MANSCAPED®

• 🙏 Former Rep. Mia Love (R-UT), who became the first Black Republican woman in Congress in 2014, passed away at 49 following a battle with cancer.
• 🏛️ The Trump admin asked the Supreme Court to block a judge’s order requiring the DOJ to reinstate 16,000+ probationary employees that were recently fired.
• 📲 The editor-in-chief of The Atlantic revealed he was inadvertently included in a highly-sensitive Trump administration Signal chat on airstrikes in Yemen.

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👆 A new volcanic vent recently opened at Yellowstone National Park, which sits atop one of the world’s largest and most active “supervolcano” systems.

🤔 Did You Know? The Emoji Movie was the first film to publicly screen in Saudi Arabia after the country lifted its 35-year ban on cinema in 2018.

📰 Worth a Read: What's the perfect song length? A statistical analysis

🖱️ Clickbait: Vrbo’s most remarkable vacation rentals of 2025

Yesterday we covered how Columbia University agreed to a series of reforms demanded by the Trump administration, marking the first step in negotiations over $400 million in federal funding revoked due to allegations of antisemitism.

❓ Our question to you: In general, do you agree with the Trump admin’s recent moves to address what it sees as longstanding culture problems on US college campuses?

• 👍 Yes: 41%
• 👎 No: 49%
• 🤷 Unsure/other: 10%

Click here to read some of the most thoughtful longform responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 2,675 votes and 286 longform responses.

Here are five stats from this past week that made our team go “whoa.” Hopefully you will, too.

• 🥳 The chances that an average American attended a party on any given weekend has fallen from 1/16 in 2004 to 1/25 in 2024, per federal data.
• 🐦 Twitter’s 12-foot, 560-lb bird logo—known as “Larry”—sold at auction to an unknown buyer for ~$34,400.
• 🏘️ The number of unoccupied bedrooms in homes across the US has increased ~8x since 1970.
• 🪦 Annual deaths are projected to start outpacing annual births in the US by 2033, per the Congressional Budget Office.
• 🌎 56% of all US engineers who have Ph.D.s were born abroad.

🍦 Gelato shops near the Vatican released “Hallelujah!,” a new flavor to celebrate the Pope’s release from the hospital. It includes the Pope's favorite: gianduia, an Italian combination of roasted hazelnuts and pure chocolate.

🌳 The UK government is planting 20 million trees and creating 6,178 acres of new woodland in the west of England as part of a "national forest" drive.

📜 Four-year-old Ford Thomas from England has a new pen pal across the ocean after sending out a message in a bottle.

❓ Trivia: What’s the most abundant element in the universe?

🦜 True or False? Toucans have the largest beak-to-body ratio of any bird.

🤔 Riddle Me This… What’s at the beginning of every end, and the end of every place?

k

e

e

p

s

c

r

o

l

l

i

n

g

❓ Trivia: Hydrogen

🦜 T/F: True

🤔 Riddle: The letter "e"