Good morning. In today’s edition:

• 🕵️ SCOTUS surveillance case
• 🏀 March Madness expansion
• 💕 “Burned haystack” dating method

…and much more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~3.53-minute read (940 words).

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"Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact."

–William James (1842-1910)

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments this week in a case that centers around the legality of “geofence warrants,” which are regularly used by law enforcement to access location data collected by big tech firms.

The case was brought by a man convicted in a 2019 bank robbery after being identified via a geofence warrant served to Google, which he claims violated the Fourth Amendment's ban on unreasonable searches.

How do geofence warrants work?

Law enforcement officials begin by defining a geographic area and timeframe within which a crime occurred, then seek approval from a judge to serve a geofence warrant to a large tech company.

• The big tech firm then pulls all of its relevant location data from devices in the specified zone using GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and cell signals.
• Investigators initially receive a list of anonymized device IDs, which are narrowed down over multiple steps until potential suspects emerge.
• At that point, police typically ask for—and receive—names and other personal information tied to their suspects.

These broad, location-based warrants have increasingly become an important part of law enforcement’s toolkit over the past decade. Most famously, geofence warrants were used to identify hundreds of people present during the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol.

The arguments

Supporters of geofence warrants say the privacy implications are overstated. Users voluntarily share location data with tech companies in exchange for services, meaning they should expect a limited right to privacy when visiting public places, supporters contend.

They also point to the effectiveness of geofencing in generating leads across a wide variety of criminal cases, especially when investigators lack a clear suspect.

On the flip side: Critics argue that geofence warrants lack the probable cause and specificity which the Fourth Amendment requires in order to search through the private information of every person in a given area.

They also warn that geofencing could be used by the government to spy on law-abiding citizens, including those engaging in lawful protests or political activity.

Looking ahead…SCOTUS appeared divided during Monday’s oral arguments, with justices disagreeing over whether geofence warrants violate the Fourth Amendment. A decision is expected by the end of the Court’s term in late June or early July.

📊 Flash poll: In general, do you support or oppose the use of geofence warrants by US law enforcement?

• Support
• Oppose
• Unsure/other

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BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🇦🇪🛢️ UAE announces plans to leave OPEC and OPEC+, dealing a blow to the global oil cartel; in-depth coverage to follow in tomorrow’s newsletter.
• 🤖 OpenAI recently missed internal targets for new users and revenue, raising concern among some company leaders about supporting its massive data center spending, per WSJ report. | Meta is reportedly preparing to unwind its acquisition of AI startup Manus after Chinese regulators blocked the $2+ billion deal on national security grounds.
• 🚘 General Motors reports significantly better-than-expected earnings due to ~$500 million tariff refund following recent SCOTUS decision; automaker also raises its 2026 guidance.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🏀 NCAA March Madness basketball tournament to expand to 76 teams from the current 68 for both men’s and women’s, per multiple reports. | ⚾ Philadelphia Phillies fire manager Rob Thomson amid 9-19 start to the season, tied for worst in the MLB.
• 📺 Laura Dern joins Season 4 of The White Lotus after Helena Bonham Carter left the show late last week; the Oscar-winning actress will play a newly written role.
• 📅 Ted Lasso announces Season 4 release date (August 5) and unveils teaser trailer. | Ariana Grande reveals eighth studio album, named Petal, is set for July 31 release.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 👂👻 Infrasound, or sound waves below the human hearing threshold, likely plays a key role in alleged hauntings reported across the world; these imperceptible sounds can come from sources like vibrating pipes, mechanical or climate control systems, and nearby traffic.
• 🧠 Neanderthal brains were more similar to Homo sapiens than previously believed, with less variation in brain size between the two groups than is present among modern-day humans, new research finds.
• 👃 Scientists develop first-ever comprehensive “smell map” charting receptors in a mouse’s nose, providing new findings about how the sense of smell works.

US, WORLD & POLITICS

• ⚖️ Former FBI Director James Comey is indicted over a social media photo of seashells arranged on a beach in the pattern “86 47”; officials say it constitutes a threat against President Trump, with 86 slang for "get rid of" and Trump being the 47th president; Comey says he assumed it was a political message, not a call to violence.
• 👑 UK King Charles III delivers address to US Congress hours ahead of state dinner hosted by President Trump; Charles’ remarks include repeatedly stressing the importance of the "truly unique" US-UK alliance.
• 🏛️ FCC orders accelerated review of ABC's local station broadcast licenses as it investigates claims that the network’s DEI policies are discriminatory; move comes days after President Trump condemned ABC for a joke made by late-night host Jimmy Kimmel last week, where he compared First Lady Melania Trump to an "expectant widow."

👆 Wildlife photographer Will Burrard-Lucas recently captured The Lion King IRL, using a camera trap set along a remote river crossing in Kenya’s Maasai Mara. His setup was originally meant to monitor black rhinos, but ended up catching a parade of wildlife passing through—including a kudu, a species of antelope that hasn’t been spotted naturally in the area for years.

🤔 Did you know? Three former US Presidents—Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama—have won Grammy awards. All three won their gold statues in the Best Spoken Word Album category for the audio narration of their books.

📰 Worth a read: Can men’s volleyball save American colleges from financial doom?

🖱️ What we’re clicking:

• The 50 greatest movie soundtracks of all time
• Inside the “burned haystack” dating method
• 115,000-y.o. human footprints discovered where they shouldn’t be

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How it works: We provide an incorrect stat. Your challenge is to guess whether the actual number is over or under the given value.

1. 🏙️ 50%: The percent of the world’s population who lives in cities
2. 🎧 2 hours/day: How much music the average person listens to
3. 🧠 100 billion: Number of neurons in the human brain

🐧 Spneb, the world's oldest known Humboldt penguin, just celebrated her 38th birthday at the Paradise Park Wildlife Sanctuary. Still as "sparkly and inquisitive as ever," the bird dug into an ice cake topped with fresh fish to mark the occasion. 

1. 🏙️ Over; 55%
2. 🎧 Over; ~2.8 hours/day
3. 🧠 Under; 86 billion neurons

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