Good morning. In today’s edition:

• 🦧 Chimp civil war
• 🥤 McDonald’s new energy drinks
• 🍿 Alternate Breaking Bad ending

…and much more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~4.20-minute read (1,116 words).

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"The more you extend kindness to yourself, the more it will become your automatic response to others."

–Wayne Dyer (1940-2015)

A group of African chimpanzees are giving Game of Thrones a run for its money.

Scientists believe they’ve documented the first observed “civil war” in a group of wild chimpanzees, in a study published Thursday in Science.

This behavior, featuring lethal conflict between two groups that were once closely affiliated, had previously thought to be unique to humans.

How things went down

The Ngogo chimpanzees in Uganda make up the largest known group of wild chimps on Earth. For about 20 years (1995-2015), the group coexisted in harmony, forming social hierarchies and generally keeping the peace.

But starting around 2015, cracks started to form. By 2018, the group had split into two factions: the Western and Central communities, with their formerly shared home turf turning into a border routinely patrolled by chimps.

• Over the next seven years, the smaller group began launching coordinated, lethal attacks that started off targeting rival adult males, but later expanded to younger chimps too.
• Researchers have recorded at least 24 chimpanzee deaths in the ongoing conflict, though they believe the true number is higher.

What sparked the split?

One leading theory is that the chimps became victims of their own success after the group grew unusually large, with members starting to feel competition for resources and mates from within their own community despite abundant resources.

Another centers around a series of three surprisingly human-like catalysts in the lead-up to all-out civil war.

1. Six adults mysteriously died in 2014, which could have disrupted social networks and weakened social ties across the subgroups.
2. The following year there was a change in the alpha male, which researchers say coincided with the first Western-Central community split.
3. A respiratory epidemic in 2017 killed 25 chimps across both groups, with one adult male who died being "among the last individuals to connect the groups," per the study.

History repeats itself: Researchers say genetic evidence suggests that a similar chimpanzee “civil war” probably happens once every 500 years among the animals.

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Forget star power or Oscar-worthy scripts. The real box office strategy is appealing to people who can’t see the screen without a booster seat.

The blockbuster two-week opening of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is the latest proof that family movies are currently running the show in Hollywood.

The numbers back it up. The top domestic movie in each of the last two years was PG-rated. Inside Out 2 led the pack in 2024, while Zootopia 2 took home the title last year en route to becoming the highest-grossing Hollywood animated film ever. And the latest Italian plumber-led animated PG hit from Universal has jumped out to an early lead in 2026.

Spoiler alert: it’s not the adults

Nearly 60% of Gen Alpha (anyone 12 or younger) prefer watching movies in theaters compared to at home, making them more likely to do so than any other generation, per a National Research Group report. In other words: while older audiences are harder to drag off the couch, families are still showing up, even with higher ticket prices and endless streaming options.

This is lifting the entire industry: Domestic box office revenue is up 26% year-over-year, marking the strongest start for the industry since the pre-Covid era, according to Comscore.

Looking ahead…There are 26 wide-release PG movies slated for 2026, up from 24 in 2025 and 18 in 2024. Top titles include Minions & Monsters, Toy Story 5, and The Cat in the Hat.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🤖 US business adoption of AI crosses 50% for the first time in March, up from 35% one year ago, per Ramp AI Index; Anthropic rises from 7% market share to ~31% year-over-year, approaching OpenAI (35%) at the top.
• 🥤 McDonald’s announces plans to add energy drinks and specialty sodas to its menu, including a Dirty Dr Pepper and a Red Bull Dragonberry Energizer.
• 🚨 OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s home attacked for second time in three days on Sunday morning; 20-year-old suspect in Molotov cocktail attack on Friday is charged with attempted murder and attempted arson, with two other suspects arrested in Sunday’s incident for negligent firearm discharge.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🎭 Model-actress Ruby Rose accuses singer Katy Perry of sexually assaulting her at an Australian nightclub two decades ago; a rep for Perry calls the claims “categorically false.” | Britney Spears enters rehab following her March arrest for driving under the influence.
• 📝 1,000+ film/TV stars and creatives sign open letter opposing Paramount Skydance’s pending acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, citing concerns about a lack of competition once two of Hollywood’s “Big Five” studios have merged.
• 🏀 UConn’s Azzi Fudd selected by Dallas Wings with #1 pick in last night’s WNBA Draft. | Bucks head coach Doc Rivers stepping down following a 32-50 season that snapped a 9-year playoff streak for Milwaukee.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🐜🧼 Tiny cone ants climb inside the mandibles of larger harvester ants and clean them, per newly published study; it’s the first time such a behavior has been observed in ants, though it’s also been seen in some species of “cleaner fish.”
• 🚰 Fluoride in drinking water shows no effect on IQ or brain function up to at least age 80, per new long-term study published in PNAS.
• 🧬 The Oslo patient, a 63-year-old man who’s one of a handful of people ever cured of HIV, was able to beat the disease by absorbing a genetic mutation from brother (via stem-cell transplant) that made him resistant to HIV, new study reveals.

US, WORLD & POLITICS

• 🏛️ Two House members—Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) and Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX)—separately announce plans to resign from Congress in the wake of sexual-misconduct allegations.
• 🏫 Los Angeles Unified School District is racing to sign a last-minute deal with its employees’ union to avoid a strike, which could shut down America’s second-largest school district starting today.
• 📰 Federal judge dismisses President Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal and owner Rupert Murdoch; Trump claims he was defamed in a WSJ article that published a purported birthday letter from Trump to Jeffrey Epstein.

👆 You’re looking at some of the winners from the World Press Photo Contest, celebrating some of the most powerful photojournalism images from the past year. The 2026 edition received 57,000+ entries across 141 countries

🤔 Did you know? There’s an alternate ending to Breaking Bad on the last season’s DVD set where Bryan Cranston plays the role of his Malcolm in the Middle character Hal waking up from a nightmare that’s the events of Breaking Bad.

📰 Worth a read: Nursing is the surefire new path to American prosperity.

🖱️ What we’re clicking:

• 9 of the best small towns in America
• Coachella’s porta-potties could plant a forest
• Hawaii is turning ocean plastic into roads to fight pollution

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Yesterday we covered newly published federal data that shows fertility rates among women in the US fell again in 2025 to reach a new record low, as an increasing number of Americans delay having kids or opt against children entirely.

❓ Our question to you: Which of the following best describes your current situation?

• I have children: 48%
• Don’t have kids, but want them: 13%
• Don’t have kids, and don’t want them: 39%

❓ Follow-up question: What is your current age range?

• Under 20: 0% have kids | 60% want kids | 40% don’t want kids
• 20-26: 29% have kids | 64% want kids | 7% don’t want kids
• 27-33: 43% have kids | 17% want kids | 40% don’t want kids
• 34-40: 47% have kids | 12% want kids | 41% don’t want kids
• Over 40: 71% have kids | 0% want kids | 29% don’t want kids

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

+Note on sample size: We received 550 votes and 104 longform responses.

🏘️ For your next Zillow surf: The annual salary needed for a single person to afford the average home in each state.

🌕 Artemis III and beyond: What’s next for NASA after its resounding Moon mission success?

👀 Watch: This catchy rap song helps you learn how to count to 100 in Vietnamese.

📈🥳 Become a better investor in just 5 minutes… Get market trends and insights anyone can understand with The Average Joe investing newsletter – and stick around for the humor and memes. Join 200,000+ readers and subscribe FREE to The Average Joe.*

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❓ Trivia: How many states does the Appalachian Trail pass through?

🪐 True or false?… Neptune was first discovered by direct observation through a telescope.

🤔 Riddle me this… What has one eye but cannot see?

🍾 A young boy’s beachside discovery of a decades-old message in a bottle has sparked a search for its long-lost author. What started as a curious find has now turned into a real-life mystery, with the boy's family embarking on a search to reconnect the message with the person who sent it.

❓ Trivia: 14

🪐 T/F: False; Neptune was the first planet discovered using math

🤔 Riddle: A needle (we’d also accept: a storm | a potato with one bud)

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