Autonomy, March Madness, and Celebrating St. Patrick's Day

Good morning. It's Monday, March 18, and we're covering the start of a long-awaited fraud trial, one of the best sports week of the year, and much more. First time reading? Sign up here.

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Science & Technology

In partnership with hear.com

> Engineers develop AI-assisted wearable electronic patch allowing patients who lack the use of vocal cords to communicate verbally (More) | Robotics startup Figure debuts humanoid robot powered by ChatGPT (More, w/video)

> US Defense Department contracts with Elon Musk-owned SpaceX to develop global spy satellite network, according to reports; $1.8B deal with the company's Starshield program was inked in 2021 (More)

> Scientists discover new way the Ebola virus replicates inside the body; discovery may lead to new preventive treatments for the deadly disease (More) | How Ebola works (More, w/video)

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Business & Markets

> Markets close lower Friday (Dow -0.5%, S&P 500 -0.7%, Nasdaq -1.0%), with S&P 500 notching second straight week of losses ahead of Wednesday's Federal Reserve policy statement (More)

> US trade regulators launch probe into social news aggregator Reddit over deals it struck with AI companies to license user data to train AI models (More) | News comes ahead of platform's initial public offering, with the company's valuation estimated near $6B; see previous write-up (More)

> Grant Thornton to sell majority stake in US arm to private equity firm Mountain Capital; company is the seventh-largest American accounting firm (More)

Politics & World Affairs

> Early results show Russian President Vladimir Putin wins reelection with over 85% of the vote for fifth presidential term; thousands appeared to heed late opposition leader Alexei Navalny's call to protest (More) | See previous write-up (More)

> Supreme Court today will review whether federal officials violated the law by urging social media to remove COVID-19 and election-related posts deemed false or misleading (More)

> South Sudan shuts down all schools in anticipation of a two-week heat wave (More) | North Korea fires ballistic missile into the sea of Japan as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits South Korea following days of joint military exercises (More)

See St. Patrick's Day photos from across the US.

Divorces are down to prepandemic levels.

Snakes are the new high-protein superfood.

Visualizing the relationship between health spending and poverty.

What the name of every US state (and its capital) actually means.

Brain activity shows dogs improve concentration and relaxation.

Degraded coral reefs benefit from speakers with healthy reef sounds.

Conservationists plan aerial assault on out-of-control mice.

Clickbait: The $495K Michelin-star meal designed for space.

Historybook: President Grover Cleveland born (1837); Actress and first Black Miss America Vanessa Williams born (1963); Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov becomes first person to walk in space (1965); Queen Latifah born (1970).

"The wiser you get, the more experience you have, and the more you see people for who they are as human beings, as opposed to figures you have to fight against."

- Vanessa Williams

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