Good morning. In today’s edition:

• 🦠 Ebola update
• 🎓 Harvard to limit A’s
• 🏕️ Summer camps for grownups

…and much more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~3.71-minute read (987 words).

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“Whoever is happy will make others happy too.”

–Anne Frank (1929-1945)

A rare Ebola strain is spreading through Central Africa, and health officials say the outbreak may have gone undetected for weeks before anyone realized.

• The World Health Organization says the outbreak involves the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, a lesser-known variant with no approved vaccine or treatment.
• So far, officials have reported ~600 suspected cases and nearly 140 suspected deaths, primarily in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), though the outbreak has already crossed at least one border into Uganda.

Containment efforts face an uphill climb

The outbreak is unfolding in a region plagued by armed conflict and mass displacement. Initial Ebola tests also came back negative due to the rarity of the strain, delaying confirmation as the virus spread.

The WHO on Sunday declared the outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern,” its second-highest level of alert, as cases continue rising across the region.

There is some good news: Ebola doesn’t spread through the air like Covid or other major epidemics. Instead, transmission requires direct contact with bodily fluids, making large-scale outbreaks less likely.

WHO and aid groups are ramping up testing, contact tracing, and treatment efforts while researchers push to develop vaccines targeting the little-researched Bundibugyo strain.

Zoom out: Ebola isn’t the only rare virus drawing concern. The CDC is currently monitoring 41 people across the US in connection to an Andes Hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship earlier this month.

So far, there are 11 confirmed cases worldwide and three fatalities, with 18 Americans currently quarantined in federal facilities out of precaution. Health officials say the risk to the general American population for both hantavirus and Ebola remains very low.

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The “How’s school going?” portion of kids’ pediatric checkups is starting to carry a lot more weight.

Mental health concerns brought up during routine pediatric care visits for kids have jumped sharply over the past decade, according to a new study published this week in JAMA Network Open.

The analysis used health insurance claims for nearly all insured children in Massachusetts between 2014-23, with a final sample of ~1.8 million kids.

Here’s what they found

Visits tied to anxiety-related diagnoses rose by more than 250% over the study period, while overall pediatric visits involving mental health concerns rose by over 70% (from 5.7% of visits to 9.7%).

• ADHD remained the most commonly addressed condition in pediatric primary care, rising to 6.7% of visits from 5.0%.
• Diagnoses involving autism spectrum disorder (+300%), trauma (+100%), and depression (+33%) also showed significant increases.

But…Researchers say the spike doesn’t necessarily mean childhood mental health disorders rose at the same pace. Increased screening, greater awareness among parents, and earlier recognition by doctors likely all played a role, alongside pandemic-era stress that intensified many kids’ emotional and behavioral struggles.

Big picture: Nearly 50% of US children with mental health disorders go untreated, per the CDC, with the most common roadblocks including financial costs, appointment shortages, and a lack of experienced local providers.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🤖 OpenAI is preparing to file an IPO in the coming days or weeks, potentially as early as Friday, per WSJ report. | Meta begins laying off ~10% of its workforce (~8,000 employees) and reassigning thousands of others to AI-focused roles.
• 📈 US stocks close up across the board as oil prices drop ~6% to fall below $100/barrel. (S&P: +1.1% | Dow: +1.3% | Nasdaq: +1.5%) | Nvidia reports record sales and income for the April quarter, with results largely driven by computing hardware sales.
• 📰 James Murdoch, son of media titan Rupert Murdoch (WSJ, NY Post, Fox News), is acquiring roughly half of Vox Media for ~$300 million; deal includes Vox’s podcast network and New York magazine.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 📺 The Late Show With Stephen Colbert airs its final episode tonight following controversial network cancellation last year.
• ⚽️ Fox Sports announces its lineup of anchors, analysts, and in-studio talent for this summer’s FIFA World Cup. | 🏈 Steelers QB Aaron Rodgers, 42, confirms this upcoming NFL season (his 22nd) will be his last before retiring.
• 🎶 Billy Joel condemns upcoming movie based on his early career, Billy & Me, alleging that the film team does not have his approval, rights to his music, or his life rights.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🥚 Colossal Biosciences announces development of 3D-printed artificial eggshell that successfully hatched 26 chickens; breakthrough marks a step towards the de-extinction company’s efforts to revive New Zealand’s 12-foot-tall, flightless moa.
• 🦖 Tyrannosaurus rex and other meat-eating dinosaurs evolved to have tiny arms because they developed strong, powerful heads to attack prey, causing their arms to shrink due to lack of use, new study finds.
• 🪐 Neptune’s moon Nereid is likely the only intact survivor from an ancient set of moons destroyed early in the solar system’s history, likely by Neptune’s largest moon Triton; that’s per a new analysis of data from NASA’s James Webb telescope.

US, WORLD & POLITICS

• 🎓 Harvard faculty vote to cap the number of A’s at 20% per course in effort to curb grade inflation; the policy, which doesn’t apply to A-minuses, comes after ~60% of Harvard grades were A’s in 2024-25.
• ⚖️ Trump admin sues to block Minnesota’s first-of-its-kind statewide ban on prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket.
• 🇨🇺 Former Cuban president Raúl Castro, 94, charged with murder and other counts by US gov’t over the Cuban military’s 1996 shootdown of two civilian planes, which killed four people.

👆A sleeping Gaia is soaking up the spring sunshine at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show. The sculpture appears in a garden titled On the Edge by designer Sarah Eberle, which took home Garden of the Year honors.

🤔 Did you know? The South Pole in Antarctica is technically on actual land—buried beneath 9,000+ feet of ice—while the North Pole is located on frozen ice floating in the Arctic Ocean.

📰 Worth a read: Failure to lawn: Lessons from a dying patch of turfgrass

🖱️ What we’re clicking:

• Summer camps for grownups are all the rage
• The most beautiful restaurant job in California keeps losing its chef
• How to order Korean food like a Korean

Last chance for an MK IV Supra… Enter with Alltroo for a chance to win a Twin Turbo Fast & Furious legend plus $25k cash (US only) while supporting the Paul Walker Foundation. Last chance to enter.

🎶 Listen to this: Spotify released a limited-time feature for its 20th anniversary that recaps your entire listening history.

📖 Read: These parents are buying homes for their kids—with strings attached

🌌 Cosmic odometer: How many miles have you traveled through space since being born?

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❓ Our question to you: In general, do you think the recent rise of teen sobriety across America due to various factors is a positive or negative trend?

• Positive: 73%
• Negative: 16%
• Unsure/other: 11%

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

+Note on sample size: We received 531 votes and 54 longform responses.

Greece is located on what peninsula?

💨 The largest clean energy project in US history has officially started generating electricity. SunZia Wind’s 916 turbines in New Mexico are now sending power west across a 550-mile transmission line, helping California break its wind-generation record eight times over the past four weeks.

The Balkan Peninsula

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