AP: Royal Photo Appears 'Manipulated'

Good morning and happy Monday. Over the weekend, we all had to turn our clocks forward to mark the start of daylight savings time. We apparently have an insect-loving New Zealand postal worker to blame. Have a great start to your week!

In Today’s Brief

• Aliens: DOD finds no proof of contact

• Gaza: Bibi says Biden is ‘wrong’

• No Labels: Candidate name emerges

• TikTok: Shark Tank takeover?

• USWNT: Wins W Gold Cup title

... and more

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Top Tips

1) Royal mess

Kensington Palace has thrown gasoline on the firestorm surrounding Princess Kate's health.

• What happened: The palace released a photo of Kate and her children on Sunday, claiming Prince William recently took it. The Associated Press, Reuters and other news agencies published it, only to retract it after concluding it was manipulated. The AP reported it found inconsistencies with the alignment of Princess Charlotte's left hand.

• Catch up: Kate has not been seen in public since Christmas Eve. She had an unspecified abdominal surgery on Jan. 16 and spent two weeks in the hospital. The palace said she did not have cancer and would return to royal duties no later than Easter, but information has been scarce since.

• Big picture: The palace media office is closed on weekends and did not immediately respond to the retractions. But whatever is said will likely do little to quell the growing conspiracy theories and scrutiny amid Prince Charles' cancer diagnosis and the never-ending Prince Harry drama.

2) Papal pushback

The Vatican is doing damage control after Pope Francis appeared to suggest Ukraine should surrender to Russia.

• What happened: The pontiff said, "I believe that the stronger one is the one who sees the situation, who thinks of the people, who has the courage of the white flag, to negotiate." The comments surfaced in a partial transcript of an upcoming interview with a Swiss broadcast outlet.

• The response: The Ukrainians protested the comments; Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba insisted the nation would not capitulate and referenced alleged Vatican inaction during World War II. Other European leaders denounced the Pope's comments.

• The backtrack: Holy See spokesman Matteo Bruni said interviewer Lorenzo Buccella first used "white flag" language in the exchange. The Vatican said the Pope believes negotiations are not a surrender and advocates for a peaceful end to hostilities.

3) Starry night

It was Oppenheimer's evening at the 96th Academy Awards.

• Top honor: Oppenheimer won Best Picture, while Christopher Nolan was named Best Director. The film won seven Oscars in total to top Poor Things' four.

• Acting awards: Cillian Murphy won Best Actor for his work in Oppenheimer. Emma Stone won her second Oscar for Best Actress in Poor Things. Oppenheimer's Robert Downey Jr. and The Holdovers' Da'Vine Joy Randolph won the Best Supporting Actor and Actress awards.

• Other notes: The Zone of Interest won best international feature, while 20 Days in Mariupol won for best documentary. Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash made a surprise appearance for Ryan Gosling's performance of I'm Just Ken and host Jimmy Kimmel cracked a joke about former President Donald Trump's critique of his performance.

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Quick Tips

U.S. News

• The Department of Defense said there is no evidence aliens have visited Earth. A report to Congress also found most UFO sightings were misidentified aircrafts and objects (More)

• Two National Guard members and a Border Patrol agent were killed in a helicopter crash near the U.S.-Mexico border. The aircraft went down Friday afternoon near Rio Grande City in Texas; a third National Guard member was injured (More)

• Alabama Sen. Katie Britt denied she attempted to mislead voters with her rebuttal to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union. Britt has been criticized for using a graphic anecdote that pre-dated President Biden's tenure to attack his border security policies (More)

World News

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected President Biden's criticism of Israel's war strategy in Gaza. Netanyahu said Israel still plans to invade Rafah, which it says is Hamas' last stronghold (More)

• American personnel were evacuated from the U.S. Embassy in Haiti while extra security was deployed to the facility. The White House has ruled out sending troops into the Caribbean country as gangs attempt to overthrow the sitting prime minister (More) 

• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan indicated he will leave office after his term expires in 2028. Erdogan has pulled the NATO member state toward authoritarianism during his tenure; he said the law prevents him from seeking another term (More)

Campaign News

• Former Georgia Lt. Gov Geoff Duncan is reportedly a contender to be the No Labels group's independent presidential candidate. Duncan, a Republican, is a former professional baseball player and current CNN analyst (More)

• President Biden's re-election campaign raised $10M in the 24 hours following his State of the Union address. Biden's campaign had close to $60M on hand, according to its most recent federal filings (More)

• Montana Rep. Matt Rosendale said he will not seek re-election. Again. The Republican has backed out of his second House run after a failed Senate bid (More)

Business & Markets

• Major indexes closed lower on Friday. The Dow capped its worst week since October (Dow -0.18%, Nasdaq -1.16%, S&P 500 -0.65%).

• Shark Tank star Kevin "Mr. Wonderful" O'Leary expressed interest in buying TikTok. Congress may force Chinese parent company ByteDance to divest the social media app in the U.S. (More)

• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was reinstated to the company's board of directors following an internal investigation. Altman was initially removed amid the chaos surrounding his brief firing last year (More)

Entertainment & Sports

• The U.S Women's National Team beat Brazil, 1-0, to win the inaugural W Gold Cup. Lindsey Horan's goal was the different to win the regional soccer tournament final in San Diego (More)

• Oscars Best Picture nominee The Holdovers faces plagiarism accusations. Simon Stephenson alleges the film is "forensically identical" to a script he wrote in 2013 (More)

• Illumination and Nintendo have greenlit a sequel to The Super Mario Bros. Movie. The animated film grossed over $1.3B and was the second-highest-grossing film in 2023 (More)

Quick Hitters

• Feel Good: When students at Providence College learned a popular overnight dorm security guard had not seen his family in over a decade, they sprung into action. They surprised the man with plane tickets to fly back to Nigeria later this year.

• Be Safe: The FDA has warned consumers in seven states to avoid mussels from parts of Newfoundland. The potentially contaminated seafood was shipped to Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania; it may have gone to other states.

• Go Deep: The Federal Reserve wants to see inflation fall to 2% before it cuts interest rates. The backstory behind the philosophy is unexpected.

• Not Good: Two Batik Air pilots have been suspended for falling asleep while flying their plane. One of the pilots woke up in time to get the Indonesian commercial airline flight safely on track.

• Take Note: U.S. cities still pay people to move to their zip codes. For example: You can earn a package worth up to $15K to relocate to an Indianapolis suburb.

• OPTIMIZE ME: Researchers “found convincing evidence that higher intake of ultra-processed foods was associated with 50% increased risk of cardiovascular disease-related death, a 48% to 53% higher risk of anxiety and common mental disorders, and a 12% greater risk of type 2 diabetes”

Want more health and wellness news? Subscribe to our brand new newsletter, Optimize Me, and start living a healthier life through diet, exercise, sleep, and mindfulness:

Watch This

CBS News visited a town in Arkansas where a community has rallied to make sure a Walmart staffer always has a ride to work.

Links

• Gift bags at the Oscars are worth almost $200K 🤩

• Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama died at 68 ✏️

• Wales just hosted the world's longest tug-of-war 🪢

• Looking back at the internet's historic firsts 🛜

• A rare Lego piece has sold for $18K 💰

• Influencers are paid to promote knockoffs from China

• This primary season was one of the shortest ever 🗳️

• How raw milk explains America's political landscape

• Yellowstone National Park got a $40M gift for staff housing 🏕️

• Poisonous turtle meat killed nine people in Tanzania 🐢

Looking Ahead …

Oprah Winfrey will host an ABC primetime special discussing weight-loss medications like Ozempic. An Oprah Special: Shame, Blame and the Weight Loss Revolution will air March 18; it will feature doctors and pharmaceutical leaders.

Question of the Day

Last week’s results:

Do you have any interest in Mike Tyson's return to boxing?

• Absolutely not (62%)

• It will be cool (15%)

• We’ll see what’s going on in July (13%)

• I doubt it actually happens (10%)