Good morning. The US men's national team qualified for the World Cup in Qatar last night after failing to do so in 2018. All they had to do was not lose by six goals against Costa Rica, and they managed to only lose by two. Ted Lasso's got seven months to whip this team into shape. —Neal Freyman, Max Knoblauch, Jamie Wilde | | | |  | Nasdaq | 14,442.27 | | | | | S&P | 4,602.45 | | | | | Dow | 35,228.81 | | | | | 10-Year | 2.354% | | | | | Bitcoin | $47,210.60 | | | | | Apple | $177.77 | | | | *Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 11:00pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean. | - Markets: Sorry, we totally jinxed the stock market's rally with our top story yesterday. Stocks tumbled after the yield curve inverted (considered a recession warning), and Apple's historic 11-day win streak also came to an end.
- Ukraine: US intelligence officials said that Russian President Vladimir Putin is receiving bad information from his "yes men" advisers over how the war is progressing and the state of the economy under sanctions. The White House is publicizing the findings, which were originally classified, in order to open up Putin's eyes to reality and cause him to reconsider the assault.
| | | | Photo Illustration: Dianna "Mick" McDougall, Photo: Getty Images Zuck's been watching a little too much House of Cards. According to a Washington Post report, Meta hired a top Republican consulting firm to help spread negative messages about rival TikTok in a campaign reminiscent of Frank Underwood's political schemes. The consulting firm, named Targeted Victory, orchestrated anti-TikTok opinion pieces in local newspapers, proactively pushed for negative TikTok coverage across the media, and worked behind the scenes to pressure lawmakers into increasing their oversight of the app. Here are a few specific examples from the campaign. (Warning: You might need a napkin because they are juicy.) - Pushing stories about harmful TikTok trends: Targeted Victory enlisted local operatives to promote stories about some social media trends—such as the "Slap a Teacher TikTok challenge"—that might freak parents out. Thing is, the challenges referenced in the stories began on Facebook, not on TikTok.
- Orchestrating letters to the editor: Two anti-TikTok letters to the editor ran on the same day, March 12, in the Denver Post and Des Moines Register. Both pieces were the brainchildren of Targeted Victory, though it was never disclosed that a consulting firm working on behalf of Meta was involved.
Meta's response Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said, "We believe all platforms, including TikTok, should face a level of scrutiny consistent with their growing success." TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese tech giant ByteDance, has certainly been scrutinized over its ties to the Chinese government and its impact on the mental health of young people. Earlier this month, a number of state attorneys general launched a probe of the app's effects on young users' mental health. Meta, meanwhile, is desperate for someone else to play the role of the social media bad guy. While its long-term success hinges on its big metaverse play, those ambitions are being overshadowed by a short-term shellacking at the hands of TikTok. Facebook lost daily users for the first time in its history in the final quarter of 2021. During that earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg repeatedly blamed TikTok for snagging users' attention, saying, "People have a lot of choices for how they want to spend their time, and apps like TikTok are growing very quickly."—NF | | Rich Fury/Getty Images  Bruce Willis is "stepping away" from acting. The action star's family said Willis was recently diagnosed with aphasia, a condition that makes it more difficult for people to communicate. Willis's films, including Pulp Fiction, The Sixth Sense, and the Christmas classic Die Hard, have grossed more than $5 billion at the global box office.
 Ukraine humanitarian update: More than 4 million people have left the country since Russia's invasion began. When combined with the 6 million displaced internally, that means more than 25% of the population has been forced to leave their homes due to the war. The UN has also verified 1,189 civilian deaths in Ukraine, though the actual count is probably much higher.
  A Covid-era border policy will come to an end. The Biden administration is expected to lift Title 42, a rule introduced by the Trump administration that cracked down on immigration at the US' land borders. It was originally intended as a measure to curb the spread of Covid, but health experts say there's no reason to have the policy at this point in the pandemic.
| | Francis Scialabba On Monday, I (Max) received a text message from myself offering some good news: I'd paid my bill for March and, as a treat, I was sending myself a "little gift" for my troubles. Obviously, texting myself little gifts isn't something I normally do (maybe I should…), and the message was blatant spam. Apparently, though, I wasn't alone. According to Verizon, thousands of users have received similar texts from themselves—apparently the work of "bad actors." Verizon has begun working with the FBI and the Secret Service to identify the source of the apparent phishing attempt, adding that, "virtually all wireless providers have faced similar fraudulent activity in recent months." While I didn't click the link included in my text to myself, The Verge reported that it would have gone to the Russian state media network Channel One Russia, which feels like an odd gift tbh. - A Verizon spokesperson said there's no indication that the fraudulent activity originated in Russia.
Zoom out: The FTC received more than 375,000 reports of text message fraud in 2021—with losses for link-clickers totalling $131 million.—MK | | TOGETHER WITH FLORA GROWTH | | And we're catching whiffs of a flowering investment opportunity with Flora Growth. Flora Growth is leading the way in global cannabis expansion, receiving an export quota of 43,600 kg of high-THC cannabis from the Colombian government. They've also signed an export deal with Israel's Artos Ltd. Yep, Flora Growth's expansion is in full bloom, and growing right alongside it is a prominent investment opportunity. Especially now, with Flora Growth acquiring JustCBD, a leader in CBD consumables with an audited revenue of $28M in 2020. JustCBD has even begun a build-out of brick-and-mortar stores in the EU. Looks like there's no curbin' this herb. Want in on all this growth? Learn more about investing here. | | Fabletics, Inc. In her first business venture outside of music, Lizzo is partnering with Fabletics to build a size-inclusive (XS to 6X) shapewear brand called Yitty. Come its launch April 12, Yitty will enter a shapewear market that's currently in recovery mode, since "blob" was the body shape of choice during the pandemic. - After falling 24% in 2020, shapewear sales bounced back 41% last year, per NPD Group.
- Though compression clothing sales haven't returned to pre-pandemic levels, the market could grow to be worth $3.9 billion by 2028, compared to $1.9 billion in 2020, Grandview Research estimates.
Competition to be the next Spanx is tight Kim Kardashian's label, Skims, is already worth $3.2 billion three years after launch. Rihanna's also built a $3+ billion underwear brand, Savage x Fenty. But Lizzo thinks her company can carve out a niche: shapewear so bright and fun customers will wear it on the outside, too. And in Fabletics, Lizzo's found a partner that understands the celeb branding game—it was co-founded by actor Kate Hudson.—JW | | NASA Stat: The Hubble Space Telescope just took a pic of the most distant star ever seen: Earendel, which is Old English for "morning star." Earendel is 12.9 billion light-years from Earth and was formed less than 1 billion years after the Big Bang. It's also 50x bigger than the sun. Your move, James Webb. Quote: "We have a very entitled generation that has never had to sacrifice." BlackRock President Rob Kapito warned that, due to widespread shortages of food, workers, and housing, "this generation is going to go into a store and not be able to get what they want" for the first time. French Toast Crunch was actually discontinued in 2006, but okay. Read: The slap wasn't the only astonishing thing about the Oscars. (New York Times) Ask: The fourth crewed Blue Origin flight is scheduled to blast off this morning. If given a free ticket on the rocket, would you go?  Yes
 No
| | - The Biden administration is considering a huge release of oil from US reserves to combat supply shortages and high gas prices, Bloomberg reports.
- Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger earned 1,711x the salary of the average worker at the company in his first 11 months on the job.
- The share of positive drug tests among US workers hit the highest level (4.6%) last year since 2001.
- The ruble has bounced back to where it was before the war began on Feb. 24 and all the Western sanctions that came with it.
| | A+ Twitter account: Chaotic nightclub photos. Business deep dives: See the early pitch decks of 29 unicorn companies, including "AirBed&Breakfast" and LinkedIn. Also, check out this free course that teaches you the basics of equity. Freakonomics Radio tells you things you always thought you knew—but didn't—and things you never thought you wanted to know—but do. Discover the hidden side of everything. Humble brag: we went to SXSW. We were there to understand all the ways the world's greatest creatives make the world's greatest work. To help us make sense of it all, we spoke to the creative collaboration experts at WeTransfer. Read all about what we learned at SXSW here.* *This is sponsored advertising content | | Brew Mini: Today's Mini is just plain cool. Play it here. Three headlines and a lie Three of these news headlines about Will Smith's slapping of Chris Rock at the Oscars are real, and one is faker than La La Land's best picture win. Can you spot the odd one out? - 'The Slap' shows why Apple should shake up its events
- Jim Carrey: I'd sue Will Smith for $200 million over slap
- Will Smith taught kid named Chris how to slap before Oscars debacle
- 5 recipes for roasted sheet pan vegetables that will slap harder than Will Smith
| | These days, everyone is an entrepreneur, whether you like it or not. So step up your business-building IQ with Founder's Journal, a bite-sized podcast hosted by Morning Brew's co-founder and executive chairman, Alex Lieberman. These episodes will get you hooked: This editorial content is supported by Attentive. | | | Written by Neal Freyman, Max Knoblauch, and Jamie Wilde Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here. WANT MORE BREW? Industry news, with a sense of humor → - Emerging Tech Brew: AI, crypto, space, autonomous vehicles, and more
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