Good morning! Today is National Kiss a Ginger Day. Do with that what you will.

 MIDDLE EAST 

🌍 US and UK attack Houthis

Early this morning, the United States and the United Kingdom launched retaliatory attacks on Houthi targets in Yemen. President Biden, as commander-in-chief, authorized the strikes. A host of allies supported the move — Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and South Korea.

The Houthis: The Houthis are a political and military organization in Yemen, just south of Saudi Arabia (which is just south of Israel). They’re involved in Yemen’s ongoing civil war and control a big chunk of its territory near the Red Sea. They’re funded by Iran. Lately, they’ve attacked passing ships (dozens of times since November). That causes major shipping delays and endangers US Navy personnel who respond.

Updates: The Houthis let up last week after a final warning from the US and its allies. That peace didn’t last more than a few days, though. The attacks began again this week with increasing intensity. And came with a warning from Houthi leaders that any US retaliation would be avenged. Two days later, the US and UK bombed more than a dozen Houthi sites in Yemen.

Related news: The International Court of Justice began hearings yesterday on a case brought by South Africa. The ICJ is part of the UN and is based in The Hague, Netherlands. The court’s rulings are binding but difficult (if not impossible) to enforce. South Africa is accusing Israel of genocide in its war with Hamas. They’re basing that claim on their reading of the 1948 Genocide Convention they both signed. Israel obviously thinks the case is absurd. The ICJ should have an initial sentence in a few weeks (but the full case could take years).

 MONEY 

🪙 SEC OKs BTC ETF

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the sale of Bitcoin ETFs. This is a big deal for the crypto industry. Here’s what that word salad means.

SEC: An independent federal agency (meaning they’re not part of a bigger department, like Treasury). These guys regulate the financial industry. Large companies report loads of financial information to the SEC. The SEC also goes after crimes like insider trading and fraud.

BTC: Bitcoin. Fake internet money that’s now very real. Currently ~$46,000 a pop. It can be annoying to buy, so a lot of people want to do it via ETFs rather than dealing with actual Bitcoin.

ETF: Exchange Traded Funds. These are collections of other investments that are traded on the stock market as one item. Want to buy gold without actually buying gold? Buy a gold ETF. And now you can do that with Bitcoin.

The SEC approved the sale of 11 Bitcoin ETFs on Wednesday. Those hit the market yesterday morning and did $4.6 billion in trades.

 SCANDAL 

🏛️ House Republicans vs. Hunter Biden

Aah, the Hunter Biden scandal. Republicans think it’s a huge deal. Democrats don’t think it matters at all. Regardless, we’ve got a few updates.

First, the younger Biden pleaded not guilty yesterday to federal charges that he engaged in a four-year scheme to avoid $1.4 million in taxes. If convicted, the max penalty is 17 years in prison.

On Wednesday, Republicans on two House committees (Oversight and Judiciary) voted to hold Hunter Biden "in contempt of Congress" (obstruction, basically). Biden defied Republican demands that he testify (in private) about a possible impeachment investigation into his father. The contempt vote would still need to be approved by the entire House. If it passed, the Justice Department would have power to bring charges (but likely wouldn't).

 POLITICS: 

🔵 St. Paul, Minnesota (the state's capital) just became the first known large U.S. city to have an all-female city council. All seven women are younger than 40. And they’re all Democrats (though city council elections are technically nonpartisan and parties aren’t listed on the ballot).

🔴 Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former UN Amb. Nikki Haley debated on Wednesday. Neither candidate landed a knockout blow and nothing funny happened (like this). DeSantis attacked Haley, claiming she fought only for her donors. Haley awkwardly mentioned her anti-DeSantis website like 13 times (DeSantisLies.com). Haley talked about how her husband is in the military. DeSantis responded saying he himself was in the military. This was the final debate before Iowans go to the polls (in their own special way) on Monday to kick off the Republican nominating process.

🔴 The man who should’ve run in 2012, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, dropped out of the presidential race hours before Wednesday’s debate (which he wasn’t invited to). This could benefit anyone (or no one) but has a chance of boosting Haley in New Hampshire. Most Christie supporters there say Haley is their second choice as she trails Trump by 14%, with Christie polling at 12%.

 BRIEFS: 

• The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) found Alphabet (Google’s parent company) illegally refused to bargain with a YouTube union

• The Biden administration will give $620 million to state and local governments to build EV charging stations

• Amazon’s Twitch service is laying off hundreds of workers (about 35% of its staff)

• After employees harassed a Massachusetts couple by sending them live spiders, cockroaches, and more, eBay owes them $3 million

• Chesapeake Energy is buying rival Southwestern for $7.4 billion to form the nation’s biggest natural gas producer

• The Texas Supreme Court is refusing to take a case brought by the pro-secession Texas Nationalist Movement

 TRIVIA 

First Lady Jill Biden earned a doctorate in education (an Ed.D.) in 2007. She’s the first first lady to hit that mark. And only one president has done so.

Question: Who was the only American president to have a doctorate? This one’s a Ph.D. We’re not counting J.D.s here (sorry not sorry, lawyers).

 WORLD 

🇺🇸 USA: Inflation last month was 50% higher than expected. Just kidding. Sort of. Analysts expected December’s inflation rate would be 0.2%. It was 0.3% (big news!). That gives 2023 an annual rate of 3.4% — much lower than 2022’s rate of 6.4%. Inflation’s usually in the 1-2% ballpark. So it’s still high but much better than it was.

🇹🇷 Turkey: NATO members Turkey, Romania, and Bulgaria agreed yesterday to work together to clear floating mines in the bordering Black Sea. The mines were deployed as part of the Ukraine-Russia war but have drifted and now threaten shipping lanes.

🇦🇫 Afghanistan: Afghanistan's Taliban government is cracking down on dress code violations. They've detained dozens of women recently for allegedly modeling or wearing hijabs improperly.

🇺🇦 Ukraine: Political controversy over drafting new soldiers continues as the military asks for 500,000 conscripts. As the war drags on, Ukraine’s war strategy has become more defensive — they’ve begun digging fortified trenches near the frontlines.

 QUOTE 

 SNACKS 

🏈 Football: The GOATs are moving on in both college and the NFL. Alabama’s Nick Saban is retiring (he won them 6 national championships). Over in New England, the Patriots and coach Bill Belichick (he won them 6 Super Bowls) have “mutually agreed” to part ways. Do they know saying it was mutual makes it sound decidedly not mutual?

📱 Gadgets: The brand new Rabbit R1 sold out all 10,000 units on day one. The goofy little orange device costs $199 (plus cell service) and claims to be to your phone what ChatGPT is to the web. It uses its own AI system to control apps for you. Coming to a nerd near you in March.

🚢 TikTok: Mike and Nancy are on the world’s longest cruise. They’re traveling the globe for the next nine months via Royal Caribbean. The latest drama? Three weeks in, the ship is already running out of wine. No problem, though: Nancy likes liquor, too.

 ANSWER 

That would be President Woodrow Wilson, Ph.D. Wilson served as a Democrat from 1913-1921. Earlier, he used that Ph.D. (probably?) as president of Princeton University and governor of New Jersey.