Aid Deliveries, Final Four, and April Fools' History

Gaza Aid Ramps Up

The second in a series of aid ships departed from Cyprus over the weekend, carrying almost 400 tons of food and supplies en route to the Gaza Strip. The shipments have been coordinated by World Central Kitchen, a nonprofit led by celebrity chef José Andrés. 

The delivery will provide an estimated 1 million meals and follows a 200-ton shipment earlier last week. Aid imports before the war typically accounted for roughly two-thirds of food supplies in Gaza; see a breakdown of the aid gap since the current fighting began.

International groups have warned parts of Gaza may begin experiencing famine by early summer (see definition). Meanwhile, US-led construction of a temporary floating pier, which can reportedly handle up to 2 million meals per day, could be ready by early May. 

Separately, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces a deadline today to submit a new law exempting ultra-Orthodox Jewish citizens from compulsory military service. The highly contentious issue has split both Netanyahu's governing coalition and the broader public. 

See updates on the war here.

Huskies, Boilermakers, Tide, Wolfpack

The men's NCAA basketball tournament narrowed its field down to the Final Four yesterday, with No. 1 Purdue set to take on No. 11 NC State Saturday (6 pm ET, TBS), followed by No. 1 Connecticut facing No. 4 Alabama (8:50 pm ET, TBS). 

Defending champion Connecticut enters the final weekend having dominated their postseason path, outscoring their four opponents by a combined 111 points. Meanwhile, Alabama will enjoy the first Final Four in school history, having upset No. 1 North Carolina and beating No. 6 Clemson. Purdue looks to complete the ultimate rebound from its shocking first-round loss last year, while NC State has drawn parallels with its historic Cinderella run in 1983. See the full bracket here.

On the women's side, No. 1 South Carolina and No. 3 NC State punched their tickets to the Final Four yesterday. Two games remain today, including a highly anticipated rematch between Caitlin Clark and No. 1 Iowa and Angel Reese and No. 3 LSU (7 pm ET, ESPN). The two met in the title game last year, with LSU winning 102-85.

Gmail Celebrates Two Decades

Google's email provider, Gmail, turns 20 years old today, with an estimated 1.2 billion people worldwide using the free service, which has since become part of a suite of other products.

Gmail was launched as an invitation-only beta offering on April Fools' Day in 2004 before being widely released in 2007. Gmail was created by Google developer Paul Buchheit after a Google user lamented over existing email services at the time, particularly about their speed, limited storage space, and inability to properly search through information. The press release for the service was initially met with skepticism as Google was known for cracking April Fools' jokes (see list), including announcing the fake intelligence-boosting drink Google Gulp.

Gmail became the world's most popular email provider by 2012, overtaking Outlook, Yahoo Mail, and more (see animated chart). As of last year, Gmail accounts for roughly 30% of the global market share for email clients, behind Apple's 58% share. 

Read about Gmail's history here. 

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