Apple’s TV service, already synonymous with a mustachioed American soccer coach, is about to become synonymous with American soccer.

The tech company agreed to broadcast every Major League Soccer (MLS) game for the next 10 years in a landmark deal for the streaming industry’s big push to acquire live sports rights. With the deal, MLS becomes the first major US sports league to hand over its exclusive global media rights to a digital media shop.

The details: Fans of the MLS will have to subscribe to a new service embedded in the Apple TV app to watch all the games, but won’t be hit with any blackouts or restrictions. Apple is paying a minimum of $250 million a year for the rights to air MLS, according to the Sports Business Journal.

The way we watch sports is changing

As pioneer Netflix conceived of it, streaming was meant to offer an escape from all the news, sports, and weather we’re constantly bombarded with. Netflix and chill, right?

But live sports, which can draw eyeballs like no other type of content these days, have become too attractive for streaming services to ignore—especially as they try to differentiate themselves among the approximately 3 bazillion other companies all competing for the same customers.

After overcoming some initial technical difficulties, streamers are increasingly making live sports a core value proposition for their services:

• Amazon made waves last year by securing the exclusive rights to 15 Thursday Night Football games beginning in 2023.
• Disney added to its robust sports streaming lineup with a deal to exclusively air 75 regular-season NHL games on ESPN+ and Hulu.
• NBCUniversal’s Peacock is the destination for the Olympics and Premier League matches, while Paramount Global’s Paramount+ features the Masters and March Madness. We could go on…

So what about Netflix? In 2018, co-CEO Reed Hastings declared, “We don’t do (live) news, we don’t do (live) sports. But what we do do, we try to do really well.”

That formula isn’t really working anymore, as Netflix loses subscribers and its stock tanks. So just as the company has pivoted to embrace an ad-supported tier, it could dip a toe into live sports as well. And what better place to start than with Formula 1, which has surged in popularity in the US in large part due to Netflix’s Drive to Survive series? According to Insider, Netflix is one of several companies in the running to buy US F1 rights starting next year.—NF

Reschedule your Yellowstone trip. The beloved national park was shut down Monday and visitors were evacuated as heavy flooding caused rockslides and mudslides, and damaged roads and power lines. Forecasts show even heavier rains in the coming days, so the park will be closed at least through Wednesday. Superintendent Cam Sholly said, “We will not know timing of the park’s reopening until flood waters subside and we’re able to assess the damage throughout the park.”

BTS is taking a hiatus that isn’t a hiatus. During an annual dinner celebrating their founding, global sensation BTS announced that they would be taking a hiatus to focus on individual projects as solo artists. The reason for the pause? Members cited exhaustion and pressure around schedules. The band’s label later clarified that they were not in fact going on hiatus, although members will spend more time exploring solo projects at the moment.

Anyone got travel recs for Saudi Arabia? President Biden is heading there next month to meet with leaders including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, as Biden tries to reset relations with a country he once promised to make a “pariah” due to its woeful human rights record. But Biden’s bigger priority now is taming record US gas prices, and during his visit, he’ll press MBS to increase Saudi oil production and bring supply more level with demand.

1,100 Coinbase employees, or 18% of its workforce, are being laid off via a message in their personal email inboxes—because Coinbase blocked workers from their corporate email accounts before telling them the news.

In announcing the layoffs, CEO Brian Armstrong wrote that “we grew too quickly” since the start of 2021, and that now it’s time to “manage expenses” and “increase efficiency.”

This wasn’t entirely unexpected. Even before these mass layoffs, the crypto exchange rescinded offers to hundreds of recent recruits, and froze future hiring.

Candidates whose offers were torn up are miffed—especially those who turned down cushy, traditional tech and finance jobs to join Web3. One of those unlucky recruits, Ashutosh Ukey, told Bloomberg, “I would say my experience with Coinbase strayed me away from working in crypto. In the immediate future, I am looking into more long-established tech firms.”

Ukey’s return to tried-and-true sectors could become a common sentiment as crypto enters its villain era: Other crypto companies, including Gemini, Crypto.com, and BlockFi, collectively announced plans to lay off thousands of workers this month.

Bottom line: If crypto looked like loaded nachos to prospective talent last year, now it’s more like a pile of soggy chips.—JW

New York’s top court ruled on Tuesday that an elephant—even a particularly intelligent one—can’t be considered a person. So just to keep track of recent updates: Elephants are not people, but bees are fish.

The case, called the most important animal rights case of the century, involved Happy, a female Asian elephant who has been at the Bronx Zoo for 40+ years. In a 5–2 vote, the state Court of Appeals rejected an animal rights group’s claim that Happy is being illegally detained and deserves to be transferred to a larger elephant sanctuary. In the ruling, the court determined that habeas corpus—a fundamental right protecting against unlawful detainment—does not apply to nonhuman animals.

The Nonhuman Rights Project asserted that Happy has been in a form of solitary confinement—living on about one acre of land, separated from the zoo’s other Asian elephant by a fence. Elephants are social animals, traveling in herds over wide swaths of land, and given their self-awareness (in 2005, Happy became the first of her species to pass a mirror self-recognition test), activists consider this form of containment to be cruel.

Looking ahead…a similar case in California involving three elephants is currently underway, and an online petition seeking to end Happy’s confinement at the Bronx Zoo has garnered more than 1.4 million signatures. To read more about Happy, we recommend Jill Lepore’s piece in The Atlantic.—MK

Stat: Chai Pani, a spot that serves Indian street food in Asheville, NC, was named the most Outstanding Restaurant in the US by the James Beard Foundation Awards. And Mashama Bailey of The Grey in Savannah, GA, was awarded Outstanding Chef. See the entire James Beard winners list here for foodie recs.

Quote: “If the legislation ends up reflecting what the framework indicated, I'll be supportive.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he liked what he saw in a gun reform bill currently being written by a bipartisan group of senators. McConnell’s support would go a long way toward getting the 60 votes necessary for the bill to pass the Senate.

Read: A Titanic fraud? (The Coast)

People are all right: A young fan asked baseball player Joey Votto to make a TikTok with her, and…he did.

People are all right x2: Another video that will make you smile.

For the transportation geeks: Feast your eyes on models of transit stations all over the world.

Pikdoku: We’ve got a new game for you to try today, and it’s called Pikdoku (pictures + sudoku). Check it out and let us know what you think.

Internet browser trivia

Microsoft is pulling most support for Internet Explorer today, meaning the browser is effectively entering retirement. Instead of hosting a party and making corny speeches, let’s celebrate Internet Explorer’s nearly 27-year career with internet browser trivia.

We’ll give you a year, and you have to name the most popular internet browser (the one with the most market share) then.

1. 1996
2. 2002
3. 2011
4. 2018

Olympian Shawn Johnson East explains why gold medals weren’t enough. Listen or watch now.

Master your finances: We have two challenges with Money Scoop to make you smarter about budgeting and investing in just four weeks—sign up here.

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1. Netscape
2. Internet Explorer
3. Internet Explorer
4. Chrome

Here’s a video showing their relative popularity through the years.