Good morning. In this edition:

• 🧮 How “Liberation Day” tariffs were calculated
• 🥑 Chipotle’s insatiable desire for avocados
• 🐛 Caterpillar memories

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~4.55-minute read (1,210 words).

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Reminder: There will be no Dose of Discussion today, since we took a 360° look at Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs yesterday.

“The most virtuous are those who content themselves with being virtuous without seeking to appear so.”

–Plato (428 B.C.E. – 347 B.C.E.)

On Wednesday night, superstar Shohei Ohtani hit a walk-off home run to lift the LA Dodgers past the Atlanta Braves and into the MLB’s all-time record books.

• The Dodgers, who entered Opening Day with the highest title odds in the league’s last 20+ years, are now the first defending champs to ever start the season 8-0.

It’s the latest example of how the gap between MLB spendthrifts and thrifty spenders is growing wider than Michael Strahan’s front teeth, as top teams and players continue to dominate the league’s money conversations.

The payroll chasm

Despite MLB adding a new tier to its luxury tax system in 2022 to reign in big spenders, the LA Dodgers—thanks in large part to a 25-year, ~$8.4B local TV deal—will spend ~$550M dollars on player salaries and luxury tax penalties this year, a record amount. Billionaire investor Steve Cohen’s New York Mets aren’t far behind at $400M+.

Fall down the ladder…and you’ll find the Miami Marlins, with a payroll of ~$70M, while three other teams—the Rays, White Sox, and A’s—all come in under $90M.

Based on a widely used measure of economic inequality known as the Gini coefficient, MLB spending on payroll/luxury tax projects to be the most unequal since at least 1985.

But…While throwing out cash like Stratton Oakmont at an office party can almost guarantee a playoff spot—since 1998, teams with a top-five payroll have averaged 89 wins/season vs. 74/season for the bottom five—it doesn’t appear to correlate to championships.

• Sixteen organizations have won the World Series since 1998, the most of any major American sport.
• There hasn’t been a repeat champion in baseball since the Derek Jeter-led Yankees claimed three straight from 1998 to 2000.

Looking ahead: The current collective bargaining agreement between MLB and its players’ union expires after the 2026 season. And when it does, owners appear poised to push for a salary cap—something the players’ union vehemently opposes, potentially setting up a summer without baseball. In 1994, the last time owners seriously pushed for a cap, the World Series was canceled because the players all went on strike.

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On Wednesday, President Trump unveiled a flat 10% tariff on all imports, with higher rates for certain nations the White House considers “bad actors” on trade, in a bid to boost domestic manufacturing and raise revenue.

But how did his administration come up with the exact percentages for each nation?

The tariff formula

In a statement explaining its methodology, the US Trade Representative detailed a formula that divides each country’s trade surplus with the US by its total exports, based on 2024 Census Bureau data.

That figure was then divided by two, producing the “discounted reciprocal tariff” rate imposed by the Trump admin. In countries where the US ran a trade surplus or trade was roughly even, a flat 10% tariff was applied.

For example:

• China had a trade surplus of $295 billion with the US last year on total exports of $438 billion, representing a ratio of 68%. Dividing by two per the formula yields a 34% tariff rate.
• The UK had a trade deficit with the US, so they received a 10% tariff.

Tariff turmoil: A handful of companies yesterday halted or canceled production at plants in Canada and Mexico, citing new US tariffs. US stocks lost $3.1 trillion in market value, marking their largest decline since March 2020 (S&P: -4.8% | Dow: -4.0% | Nasdaq: -6.0%). And some nations are vowing retaliatory tariffs against the US—including China, Canada, and the EU—while others are aiming to strike a deal with the Trump admin.

Adolescence earned itself a seat at the adult’s table. The limited series has entered Netflix’s top-10 most popular English-language TV series of all time, according to new data released by the streamer—coming in at #9 with 96.7 million views, knocking Stranger Things Season 3 (94.8 million) down to #10 and Bridgerton Season 2 (93.8 million) completely off the list.

That was fast: Adolescence pulled off this feat in just 17 days—and without a major marketing push. Netflix measures its most popular series lists accounting for 91 days of viewership, meaning it’ll likely keep climbing.

Creating social waves

In the weeks since its release, Adolescence—which explores the questions that arise when a 13-year-old boy is accused of the fatal stabbing of a girl in his school—has sparked conversations about child and adolescent social media use, and the dangers that often come along with it.

Connected to real-life issues: UK nonprofit Everyone’s Invited has collected thousands of anonymous testimonies from women and girls describing groping, assault, sexist name-calling, inappropriate touching, and other abusive behavior they experienced on school grounds. Of those submissions, ~1,600 took place in elementary schools.

In case you were curious…The show currently carries a 73% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes (99% critic) and an 8.3/10 on IMDB.

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Chipotle purchased ~5% of all the avocados consumed in the US last year, or 132 million lbs, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal. Holy guacamole.

About nine in 10 avocados imported to the US come from Mexico. But in order to satisfy demand—around 50% of its customer orders include guac—the fast-casual chain has been working for nearly a decade to diversify its sourcing of the pitted green fruit.

Over the last seven years, Chipotle has sourced avocados from Colombia, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, and Guatemala. Previously, ~85% of the fast-casual chain’s avocados came from Mexico, leaving it exposed to things like cross-border trade issues; in 2024, about half did.

Not done searching yet: The company is reportedly researching how to grow avocados in Florida.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• ✈️ Southwest Airlines’ new policies, such as charging for checked bags for the first time, could backfire, Fitch Ratings said Thursday.
• 🍿 Hershey is buying popcorn brand LesserEvil for a reported $750 million.
• 🕵️ A former Rippling employee admitted in court to spying for rival Deel. (Background: Here’s where it all started)

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

in partnership with The Knowledge

• 📺 The Simpsons was renewed for its 40th season; it extends the show's record as the longest-running scripted prime-time series. |🧑‍🍳 The James Beard Foundation announced its list of finalists for the 2025 James Beard Award, given to America's best restaurants and chefs.
• 📱 The Trump admin said it would announce a plan for TikTok by tomorrow. (Dive deeper: Multiple TikTok bids are on the table)
• 🏀 March Madness: The women’s Final Four tips later today in Tampa; the men’s Final Four tips tomorrow in San Antonio.

*From our partners: 🗞️🧠 Make the news manageable…The Knowledge is a London-based newsletter that brings you the sharpest commentary, and the funniest anecdotes daily via an enjoyable 5 minute read. Subscribe to The Knowledge and join 140k+ readers free.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🐒 Bonobos can combine sounds into larger semantic structures; it indicates a trait known as non-trivial compositionality, once thought to be uniquely human.
• 🤖 Engineers developed a large language model to solve multistep logistical problems with reasoning similar to that of humans; the approach showed an 85% success rate on problems such as optimizing the route of robots on a factory floor.
• 📡 DARPA, thanks to SpaceX, inadvertently discovered a new technique to identify objects reentering through Earth’s atmosphere. | 🛰️ One of Russia’s secret Kosmos satellites appears to have released an unknown object while in orbit.

US, WORLD & POLITICS

in partnership with NoNetz

• ⛈️ Violent storms and potentially historic rainfall sweeping across the South and Midwest US has killed at least six people; the storm system is expected to remain through this weekend.
• 🗽 New York City Mayor Eric Adams is running for reelection as an Independent, meaning he’ll avoid the Democratic primary in June and appear on the ballot this November.
• 🇭🇺 Hungary is withdrawing from the International Criminal Court; the announcement came hours after Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu—who’s sought under an ICC arrest warrant—arrived for a state visit.

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👆 Vacheron Constantin released what’s advertised as the most complicated wristwatch ever produced; the Les Cabinotiers Solaria Ultra Grand Complication contains 41 complications—aka functions beyond basic timekeeping—and 1,521 individual components.

🤔 Did You Know? Studies suggest that moths and butterflies retain some memories of being a caterpillar—even after their entire bodies were liquefied during metamorphosis.

📰 Worth a Read: The booming, high-stakes arms race of airline safety videos

🖱️ Clickbait: Warren Buffett suggests reading a 19th century poem when stocks fall

Yesterday we covered how President Trump unveiled a series of wide-ranging “Liberation Day” tariffs that analysts say represent the biggest overhaul to US trade policy since the post-World War II era.

❓ Our question to you: Do you agree with the Trump’s decision to impose wide-ranging “Liberation Day” tariffs?

• 👍 Yes: 21%
• 👎 No: 69%
• 🤷 Unsure/other: 10%

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

+Note on sample size: We received 2,739 votes and 306 longform responses.

🐈‍⬛ Black cat adoptions have seen a significant uptick since the release of French animated film Flow, which follows a black cat navigating a new life alongside other animals after their home is destroyed in a flood.

🧠 13-year-old Sofia Kot Arcuri has been invited to join Mensa International after receiving the highest possible score on the IQ test—ahead of Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.

👗 Kerry Jones is a self-proclaimed “dopamine dresser,” using bright colors and bold outfits to reflect and improve her mood. Check out some of her looks.

🍄 That’s trippy: Create online psychedelic art using liquid motion, distortion, shadows and light.

🍿 Explore: The Library of Congress offers a "National Screening Room" with access to 500+ movies for free.

🤔 We dare you: To use this free tool that generates random challenges for parties, workouts, couples, and dares.

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*A message from our partners

Here's the deal: You take our weekly news quiz, and we calculate how well you paid attention this week. Let’s do this.

Below are three lists of ingredients. Your job is give us the completed dish they make.

☝️ Recipe #1:

• Sourdough
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• Salt & pepper
• Lacinato kale
• Gouda cheese

✌️ Recipe #2:

• Butter
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• Eggs
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• Nutmeg
• Thyme
• Olive oil

3️⃣ Recipe #3:

• Lemon zest
• Sugar
• Flour
• Baking powder
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☝️ Recipe #1: Soupy toast

✌️ Recipe #2: Ravioli gnudi

3️⃣ Recipe #3: Lemon scones