Good morning. In this edition:

• 📲 The leaked Signal chat: A breakdown
• 💰 The biggest TV payout in history
• 📊 Poll results: Trump admin vs. the Supreme Court

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~4.42-minute read (1,177 words).

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“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

–Lao Tzu (6th-century B.C.)

Yesterday, The Atlantic released additional messages from top national security officials within the Trump administration—including VP JD Vance—that were inadvertently sent to its editor-in-chief on encrypted messaging app Signal.

Catch up quick: The Atlantic’s latest publication follows a contentious dispute between the White House and the magazine over whether classified information about military strikes in Yemen had been shared in an unclassified Signal group chat, in violation of government security procedures and possibly legal requirements.

• The situation began on Monday, when Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg—who was accidentally added to a Trump admin group chat on the platform—published a narrower set of Signal messages regarding military strikes in Yemen.
• The White House confirmed the authenticity of the messages, but officials including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard repeatedly denied that "war plans" and "classified materials" were shared.
• The Atlantic’s latest article details how Hegseth posted “attack plans” in the group chat containing specific times that F-18s, MQ-9 drones, and Tomahawk cruise missiles would be used to attack Houthi rebels in Yemen.

On Capitol Hill

The Signal saga has dominated congressional discussion so far this week. Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who were both in the Signal group chat, were thoroughly questioned by Congress about the situation on Tuesday, then returned for more testimony yesterday that began shortly after The Atlantic’s latest article containing new messages.

Looking ahead…Many Democratic and some Republican lawmakers have called for investigations into and/or resignations from the Trump administration in response to the Signal group chat blunder.

• On the flip side, many senior Republicans—including President Trump—portray the situation as an unfortunate mistake that doesn’t require harsh penalties or a hoax perpetrated by an anti-Trump journalist.

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The phrase “don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe” is increasingly emanating from TV speakers. YouTube accounted for 11.6% of time spent watching television in February, coming in at #1 in Nielsen’s recently released February 2025 Media Distributor Gauge.

It’s the Google-owned platform’s best share of TV to date, and the second time it’s topped the overall distributor list––ahead of Netflix, NBC, etc.––since Nielsen began tracking the data in November 2023.

Oldies have been goodies

YouTube’s performance last month was fueled in part by a group surprising to many analysts–– those old enough to remember when bell bottoms first became a thing.

• YouTube's TV viewing among adults 65+ has nearly doubled in the last two years (up 96%), with the demographic now representing a contribution similar to that from kids 2-11 (15.4% vs. 16.9%).
• YouTube viewership among 50-64-year-olds grew 62% in the same timeframe.

Big picture: YouTube TV viewership is rising, up 53% over the past two years. Meanwhile, Fox moved into third place behind Disney in February––its highest ranking to date––claiming 8.3% of US TV use, thanks in large part to a record-setting Super Bowl.

“You are what you eat” is more fact than fiction, according to new landmark research published in the journal Nature, which found people who follow a healthy diet with minimal ultra-processed foods are significantly more likely to age gracefully.

It represents the first-ever study to assess how diet impacts people’s ability to live independently and enjoy a good quality of life as they age, rather than focusing on disease development or mortality.

Methodology: Researchers tracked the diets and health of 105,000+ participants over the course of three decades.

• Their main focus was on the group that achieved “healthy aging” by age 70—meaning their memories were intact, they could perform basic physical tasks like climbing stairs or carrying groceries, and they hadn't developed depression or other major chronic conditions.
• This definition applied to just ~10% of all study participants.

The diet difference

After studying that 10% group, researchers identified eight specific diets most likely to reduce chronic disease development and increase overall healthy aging, including the Mediterranean diet and strictly plant-based regimens.

The diets all share many common themes, per the researchers. These include being rich in fruit, vegetables, whole grains, unsaturated fat, nuts, and legumes, as well as low in processed meat, sugars, and trans fat.

Bottom line: Diet isn’t the only factor that affects aging—physical activity, stress, smoking habits, and genetics can also play a role. But researchers widely agree it’s one of the major elements.

The Knowledge is a London-based free newsletter that makes news manageable. It takes just 5 minutes to read and uses all the best news sources in the world to bring things together that matter.

• “I think it’s brilliant, short and snappy, to the point, covering the interesting bits. Makes me feel informed. Not having to wade through rubbish to get there.”

Whereas most media outlets are relentlessly gloomy and negative, The Knowledge looks for positives. They try to be upbeat and lighten coverage of the big issues with jokes, quotes, and stories that lift the spirits.

A reality star known as the “Golden God” of Survivor Australia just scored a $5.8 million payout, representing the biggest cash prize in primetime TV history.

On the Season 2 finale of NBC’s Deal or No Deal Island—a spinoff of the original show featuring grueling island-related challenges to retrieve briefcases of cash—Australian David Genat repeatedly refused to make a deal because the top case of $12,232,001 was still in play.

• But, with just two cases left, Genat finally ended up making a deal with the banker for his record-high payout.
• It turned out to be a wise move, as his chosen case held just $75—meaning if Genat had passed on the offer, that’s all he would have won.

Big picture: Genat more than doubled the previous primetime TV record of $2.5 million, won by Jeopardy! legend and current host Ken Jennings following his streak of 74 consecutive victories.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 📉 US markets fell across the board (S&P: -1.1%; Dow: -0.3%; Nasdaq: -2.0%). | 📝 President Trump announced he's imposing a 25% tariff on "all cars that are not made in the United States"; said they'll go into effect April 2.
• 💰 Wall Street bonuses reached a record total of $47.5 billion in 2024 (up 34% YOY); the average annual bonus rose by almost a third, to $244,700.
• 💵🌳 Dollar Tree is selling subsidiary Family Dollar to a group of private-equity investors for ~$1 billion; it acquired the Family Dollar chain in 2015 for ~$9 billion.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

in partnership with Autio

• 🍿 Marvel unveiled the cast for Avengers: Doomsday. | 🤠 The trailer for Alec Baldwin’s new film Rust is here; the film was marred by the on-set death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
• 🥤 Steph Curry and Michelle Obama have partnered to launch a new healthier sports drink option called Plezi.
• 🏀 Milwaukee Bucks star Damian Lillard is out indefinitely with deep vein thrombosis (a blood clot) in his calf; the same condition ended Victor Wembanyama's season. | ⚾ It’s MLB Opening Day 2.0: See a full season preview + rankings for each team.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🤖📸 OpenAI announced plans to add image generation to ChatGPT, though it later delayed the rollout to free users due to higher-than-expected demand.
• 🚕 Waymo is expanding its driverless taxi service to Washington, DC, starting in 2026.
• ⚒️ Archaeologists in the UK discovered an “unprecedented” hoard of 800+ Iron Age artifacts dating back ~2,000 years; the items seem to have been purposefully burnt or broken as a show of power and wealth.

MISCELLANEOUS

in partnership with Four Leaf Rover

• 🌉 America’s infrastructure received a “C” grade in a once-every-four-year report card from the American Society of Civil Engineers; that’s up from a “C-” in 2021, and the highest grade since the report card was established in 1998.
• ⚖️ The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in favor of upholding Biden-era federal firearms laws that cover “ghost guns,” or homemade weapons assembled from kits.
• 🎓🏛️ A Turkish graduate student at Tufts University became the latest pro-Palestine international student to be detained by federal immigration authorities; the Tufts student isn’t facing charges, but had her student visa revoked; she recently co-wrote an opinion piece calling on Tufts to adopt a pro-Palestine stance and divest from companies tied to Israel.

*From our partners: 🛡️🐶 Modern life, natural protection for dogs…Protect from Four Leaf Rover combines hardy soil-based probiotics with gentle detoxifying clays and antioxidant-rich blueberries. This veterinarian-formulated blend supports digestive balance while helping your treasured companion process everyday environmental exposures. Save 35% with code DONUT35.

👆 A Wes Anderson retrospective exhibit—featuring thousands of props, puppets, and set pieces from the director's dozen films—recently opened in Paris.

🤔 Did You Know? In the original Snow White, published in 1812 by Brothers Grimm, the Evil Queen intended to eat Snow White’s organs to gain immortality—but instead, the Huntsman helps Snow White escape and fools the Queen with a pig’s organ. The cannibalistic story wasn’t toned down until Walt Disney created the animated film in 1937.

📰 Worth a Read: How the US’s Most Ambitious Plan to Remake Community College Cratered

🖱️ Clickbait: The man who finds melodies inside mushrooms.

Yesterday we covered how the Justice Department is currently fast-tracking many of its ongoing legal fights over the White House’s efforts to push the bounds of executive power, setting up Supreme Court showdowns over a wide range of Trump’s policies in the near future.

❓ Our question to you: In general, do you want to see Trump administration policies that have reached the Supreme Court be upheld or overturned?

• Upheld: 27%
• Overturned: 48%
• It depends on the policy: 21%
• Unsure/other: 4%

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

+Note on sample size: We received 2,857 votes and 319 longform responses.

📱 Sisters Jacqueline and Alexa Child are the proud founders of Dateability, a unique dating app for members of the disabled and chronically ill communities. Read their story here.

🐙 After an iceberg broke off an Antarctic shelf, researchers found an ecosystem underneath that is believed to have been thriving for decades, if not hundreds of years.

🤠 Police in Michigan put their rodeo skills to the test after being called to round up a loose miniature horse that "had a little too much fun" on St. Paddy's Day.

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The River Severn