Good morning. In this edition:

• 💡 Hydrogen energy breakthrough?
• 🏡 Airbnb’s reinvention tour
• 🤔 What’s older: sharks or trees?

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~4.44-minute read (1,182 words).

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"Attitude, not aptitude, determines altitude."

–Hilary "Zig" Ziglar (1926-2012)

As laid out in a new study, scientists from Canada and the UK have created a first-of-its-kind recipe to find white hydrogen, an element that represents a near-unlimited source of renewable energy, in deposits around the Earth. Or in other words—now they’re cooking with gas.

Let them cook: Discovering such reservoirs could help accelerate a global energy transition. But up until now, scientists have lacked much understanding of where natural hydrogen is located.

Why hydrogen?

The No. 1 element on the periodic table is widely considered the cleanest source of natural fuel upon being burned, since it produces pure water as a by-product. In theory, hydrogen could replace fossil fuels in factories, trucks, ships, and planes, eliminating up to half of all global carbon emissions.

But…The gas (or liquid) warrants a “handle with care” warning—it’s extremely flammable, opening the door to accidents. Plus, most naturally occurring hydrogen exists in combination with other molecules and requires energy-intensive processes to extract, which is counterproductive to reducing emissions.

• However—natural hydrogen (called white hydrogen because of its purity) could be a game-changer, since it doesn’t require any extra energy to refine before burning.

Big picture: The Earth's crust contains enough hydrogen to meet our current energy needs for ~170,000 years, according to the study’s authors. And while it’s still unclear how much can be accessed and profitably extracted, the researchers’ new recipe will make it easier to hunt for hydrogen reservoirs.

In other energy-transition news: EVs replaced ~1.3 million barrels of oil/day last year, with that figure expected to grow to ~5 million barrels/day by 2030, according to new International Energy Agency figures.

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Turn the page: Airbnb is entering a new chapter. The company that started as a couch-surfing app this week announced a series of updates that will allow its ~150 million users to do more than just book a vacation stay at a cute condo in a walkable neighborhood.

• Users can now order services directly to their Airbnb, such as chefs, spa therapists, personal trainers, and professional makeup artists—all vetted by the company, who says they carry an average of ten years on the job.
• Airbnb is also reinvigorating its experiences business, a failed experiment it paused in 2023. The rebranded “Experiences” option will be available via the homescreen, offering 19 categories of bookable events across 650 cities—including celebrity-centric experiences like a Sunday Funday with Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes and a “day of glam, dancing and espresso” with popstar Sabrina Carpenter.

It’s also a social media play: Airbnb plans to roll out connection-based features later this year, including a group-chat feature for people who participate in an experience together where messages, photos/videos, and other recs can be shared.

Big picture: The company is in the midst of a $200+ million transformation—born from a Jerry Maguire-style manifesto written by CEO Brian Chesky in late 2023—into a book-anything services app. As he puts it: “Now you can Airbnb more than an Airbnb.”

Meet the new HBO—same as the old HBO.

Warner Bros. Discovery is bending the knee and reverting the name of its streaming service back to HBO Max, two years after initially changing the name to Max.

• The platform has now evolved from HBO Go (2008) → HBO Now (2015) → HBO Max (2020) → Max (2023) → HBO Max (June 2025).

Viewers are Max’d out

WBD’s latest move represents a pivot from its plan to brand Max as a competitive global streamer for all audiences. Rather than offering “everything for everyone,” HBO Max will instead go back to its roots, with a focus on providing high quality content and unique original storytelling for adults and families.

• “This evolution has been influenced by changing consumer needs, and the fact that no consumer today is saying they want more content, but most consumers are saying they want better content,” WBD said.

Big picture: Alongside the name announcement, WBD said its streaming business has improved its profitability by ~$3 billion over the past two years. The company aims to have 150+ million global HBO Max subscribers by the end of 2026, up from ~122 million currently.

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The key to raising money in 2025: slap “AI” all over your pitch deck.

More than 70% of all venture capital investment in North America went to AI and machine learning startups in Q1 2025, up from 35% over the same period one year earlier, according to new data from research firm Pitchbook.

• On a global scale, AI startups took $73 billion from VCs last quarter—already more than half of 2024’s total AI deal value.

Mo’ money, mo’ problems: Experts say VCs piling into AI companies at such high rates means their investment outcomes will be very uneven—resulting in many winners, but also a lot of losers.

Overheard: “When a new market comes along, VCs kind of lose their head a bit, and just flood in without really understanding the underlying economics of a category. The jury is out on the economics of a lot of them,” 645 Ventures co-founder Nnamdi Okike told Pitchbook.

• ✈️ Qatar Airways signed a deal with Boeing to buy up to 210 planes.
• 📝 Netflix's ad tier has 94 million monthly active users; up 20 million from its last publicly disclosed figure in November. | Uber will allow users to lock in a fixed price for their most common trips; riders can pay $2.99 to lock in a price for 30 days or $50 of savings, whichever comes first.
• ⚖️ UnitedHealth Group is reportedly under investigation for possible Medicare fraud.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

in partnership with MorningSave

• 🧑‍⚖️ Erik and Lyle Menendez, brothers who have spent more than three decades in prison for the murder of their parents, are eligible for parole after a LA judge resentenced them to 50 years to life in prison yesterday.
• 📱TikTok announced a new “AI Alive” tool allowing users to turn static photos into short-form videos.
• 📺 Bridgerton was renewed for Seasons 5 and 6 by Netflix; the streamer also confirmed Season 4 will premiere in 2026. | The 2025-26 NFL schedule was fully revealed last night.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• ⚛️ The Large Hadron Collider managed to turn lead into gold—but only for a brief moment; three protons were ejected from lead atoms, turning them into gold atoms for less than a second.
• 🪐 The first visible aurora on Mars was recently spotted by NASA’s Perseverance rover.
• 🦷 The FDA will conduct a review of ingestible fluoride supplements for kids at elevated risk of developing cavities, with the goal of removing them from the market.

US, WORLD & POLITICS

in partnership with Cambodia Pilates Retreats

• 📖 Top Biden admin officials were significantly more worried about the President’s health decline than they publicly let on, and questioned whether he could be relied on in a middle-of-the-night crisis, per excerpts from an upcoming book by CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios' Alex Thompson.
• 🌍 Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend direct peace negotiations with Ukraine in Turkey scheduled for today, avoiding a face-to-face meeting with Ukraine’s Zelensky; it will be the first Russia-Ukraine peace talks since March 2022. | President Trump met with new Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa yesterday, marking the first encounter between leaders of both countries in 25 years.
• 🏛️ RFK Jr. testified in his first Senate hearing as Health Secretary yesterday, which was temporarily interrupted by protesters, including Ben & Jerry’s founder Ben Cohen. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

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☝️ Pope Leo XIV witnessed the unsealing of the papal apartments within the Apostolic Palace this weekend; the building dates back to the 15th century, and holds offices, museums, a library, and the Sistine Chapel.

🤔 Did You Know? Sharks are older than trees. Fossil evidence suggests the toothy beasts have been around for ~450 million years, while the first trees took root ~350 million years ago.

📰 Worth a Read: The US nuclear base hidden under Greenland’s ice for decades

🖱️ Clickbait: Japan Perfected 7-Eleven. Why Can’t the US Get It Right?

Yesterday we covered how President Trump’s decision to accept a ~$400 million luxury plane from the Qatari government has raised concerns—a debate that comes as Trump officially embarked on a trip to the Middle East to sign economic deals.

❓ Our questions to you:

1a. Do you agree with President Trump’s decision to accept a ~$400 million luxury plane from the Qatari government to serve as Air Force One during his presidency?

• Yes: 23%
• No: 66%
• Unsure/other: 11%

1b. In general, do you agree with Trump’s latest diplomatic moves in the Middle East (Saudi Arabia’s $600 billion investment, and lifting all sanctions on Syria)?

• Yes: 35%
• No: 41%
• Unsure/other: 24%

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

+Note on sample size: We received a combined 2,958 votes and 312 longform responses.

🦘 The Cleveland Zoo welcomed a little joey earlier this month. The new baby Matschie’s tree kangaroo is the first from parents Modi and Kiari, according to the zoo. 

🐷 The 44th annual BBQ Fest on the Neuse in Kinston, North Carolina, claimed the Guinness World Record for largest whole-hog cookoff in the world, welcoming 40,000+ people for the event.

🐊 Adam Sandler shared a meaningful (and hilarious) tribute to his iconic "costar" from Happy Gilmore—Morris the alligator, who recently passed at the Colorado Gator Farm.

With 850+ spoken languages, this country (pictured above) is the most linguistically diverse in the world. Can you name it?

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Papua New Guinea