Good morning. It’s Tuesday, March 18—the sweet spot of March when you finally accept that tax season is happening, whether you like it or not. That’s right, we’re deep in tax season, and no, you still can’t write off emotional damage.

But look, brighter days (literally) are ahead. Warmer weather is on the way, tax refunds will show up (eventually), and Tuesday means you’re one step closer to the weekend. Take the win and enjoy the stories.

Today’s stories:

• NASA’s stranded astronauts finally get a ride home

• Spirit Airlines cheers as Southwest kills free bags

• Meta borrows Musk’s playbook for fact-checking

• Texas breaks records for wind and solar power

• Ted Lasso Season 4 is officially happening

• Gender pay gap shrinks… at a snail’s pace

• Pepsi drops $2B on hipster vinegar soda

• Manhattan rent hits record highs—again

• iOS 19 is Apple’s biggest makeover yet

  and more…

Markets climbed on Monday, extending their comeback from a four-week losing streak fueled by Trump’s chaotic tariff rollout and sinking consumer confidence.

The S&P 500 rose 0.64% to 5,675.12, while the Nasdaq inched up 0.31% to 17,808.66. The Dow led the charge, gaining 353 points (0.85%) to 41,841.63, helped by Walmart and IBM. All three major indexes notched back-to-back wins.

But don’t pop the champagne yet—CFRA’s Sam Stovall warns this could just be a “counter-trend rally,” predicting the S&P 500 could still slip to 5,400, a 4% drop from here. So, a rebound? Yes. A smooth ride? Not quite.

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Gender Pay Gap Shrinks... at a Glacial Pace

After two decades of progress, women in the U.S. now earn 85 cents for every dollar a man makes—up from 81 cents in 2003. At this rate, full parity should arrive just in time for humanity’s first Mars colony. Younger women (ages 25-34) fare better, making 95 cents on the dollar, but the overall gap still sits at 15 cents. Back in 1982, it was a 35-cent gap, so technically, things have improved—just very slowly. 

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Spirit Airlines smells opportunity. Southwest is killing its “bags fly free” perk, and Spirit Airlines is thrilled. CEO Ted Christie, fresh out of bankruptcy, says it’s the perfect time to steal Southwest’s passengers. Southwest says the change will boost revenue, and investors are eating it up—stock’s up 15%. But for flyers, the deal just got worse. Meanwhile, Spirit is leaner, meaner, and still charging for carry-ons, but at least it’s upfront about it. Oh, and it just turned down a $2 billion buyout from Frontier because apparently, it’s playing the long game.

PepsiCo drops $2 billion on hipster vinegar soda. PepsiCo is buying Poppi, the prebiotic soda brand with apple cider vinegar and vibes, for nearly $2 billion. Turns out, while traditional soda sales keep tanking, gut-friendly fizzy drinks are thriving—so much so that even Coca-Cola launched its own version. Pepsi was supposed to roll out a similar drink under its Soulboost brand but scrapped it, deciding it was easier to just buy Poppi instead.

NASA’s Stuck Astronauts Finally Get to Go Home

After nine months in orbit, NASA’s two stranded astronauts are finally getting their ticket home. A SpaceX capsule carrying their replacements docked at the ISS on Sunday, bringing fresh faces from the U.S., Japan, and Russia. The new crew will spend a few days getting the grand tour from Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams before the two space veterans squeeze into a different SpaceX capsule—one that's been parked up there since last year—for their long-overdue ride back to Earth.

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Texas might accidentally save the planet. Texas just shattered records for wind, solar, and battery power—all while still pretending it runs on pure oil and barbecue sauce. In one week, the ERCOT grid cranked out an all-time high: 28,470 megawatts of wind, 24,818 megawatts of solar, and 4,833 megawatts of battery power. Two years ago, batteries barely managed 766 megawatts—now they’re outpacing nuclear plants.

iOS 19: Apple’s biggest makeover in years. Apple is reportedly giving iOS 19 a massive redesign, with Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman adding fuel to the rumors. The update is expected to borrow heavily from visionOS, bringing more transparency, new window styles, and circular buttons instead of the classic rounded squares. The overhaul won’t stop at iPhones—macOS and iPadOS are getting similar treatments. And it’s not just about aesthetics. Apple execs claim the update will make iOS “simpler, faster, and easier to use”. Expect the big reveal at WWDC in June 2025, where Apple will likely use the hype to distract from its Apple Intelligence fails.

Meta’s new fact-checking tool. Meta’s new Community Notes feature—its crowdsourced answer to fact-checking—will use open-source tech from Elon Musk’s X. In a blog post, Meta admitted it’s basically building on X’s work but promises to tweak the algorithm to fit Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. Zuckerberg first pitched Community Notes in January after scrapping third-party fact-checking in the U.S. Now, contributors—anyone over 18 with a verified phone number—can weigh in on posts from politicians, public figures, and even Meta itself. Ads are off-limits, and flagged posts won’t be penalized, just given “extra context.” Experts warn this system is flawed and easy to manipulate, but Meta insists safeguards are in place. The beta test launches this week, and if all goes well (or at least not disastrously), the program will expand nationwide.

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Ted Lasso Kicks Off Season 4

Jason Sudeikis just confirmed that Ted Lasso season 4 is happening. On the New Heights podcast with Jason and Travis Kelce, he casually dropped, “That’s what we’re writing. We’re writing season 4 now.” This time, Ted’s coaching a women’s team—something teased in season 3 when Keeley pitched Rebecca the idea of an AFC Richmond women’s squad. Sudeikis called it “exciting” and “daunting” since they already told the story they set out to tell, but there’s more to explore.

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Manhattan rent hits record high. Winter usually cools NYC’s rental market, but this year, it’s hotter than ever. Manhattan’s median rent hit a record $4,500 in February—up 6.4% from last year. Forget negotiating. A quarter of all Manhattan rentals sparked bidding wars, with landlords luring renters in with reasonable listings, only to watch them fight over who can pay more. One Upper West Side one-bedroom started at $3,700 and ended up renting for $800 above asking. Experts blame the madness on an uncertain economy, hesitant homebuyers, and return-to-office mandates. Whatever the cause, renters are learning the hard way: the only thing colder than a New York winter is a landlord’s heart.

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TikTok of the day: watch here