Bump and Grind: “People are also increasingly avoiding news. ‘The proportion that says they avoid the news, sometimes or often, has doubled in Brazil (54%) and the U.K. (46%) since 2017 — and also increased in all other markets,’ the authors write. In the U.S., the increase is smaller: 42% of U.S. respondents said that they ‘sometimes or often actively avoid the news’ in 2022, up from 38% in 2017.” As traditional news use declines, online news isn’t making up the gap. Nieman Lab: “The pandemic brought a bump in news consumption that now seems to be fading away.” (Yeah, the pandemic brought a bump in news consumption the same way Miami in the 80s brought a bump in coke snorting.)

+ Driving Miss Lazy: “Automakers reported nearly 400 crashes over a 10-month period involving vehicles with partially automated driver-assist systems, including 273 with Teslas, according to statistics released Wednesday by U.S. safety regulators.” (These numbers don’t mean much unless we know roughly how many crashes would have occurred with humans fully in control.)

+ Buzz Kill: After banning the new Buzz Lightyear movie for a same-sex cartoon kiss, Saudi authorities seize rainbow toys for promoting homosexuality. (The Saudis are getting more and more like Florida every day.) Related: A far-right plan to riot near an Idaho LGBTQ event heightens safety concerns at Pride.

+ Paleodontist: Ancient teeth offer new insight on how the Black Death emerged and spread globally. “Analysis of DNA pulled from a burial ground in modern-day Kyrgyzstan dates the plague’s explosion to the year 1338.” (We should get to the bottom of this Covid thing any day now…) And, “Alaska’s Koyukuk River was the site of an interesting discovery. During a float down the river, a group of University of Virginia professors spotted a woolly mammoth tusk along the riverbank.” NPR: A sighting reveals extinction and climate change in a single image.

+ K-Stop: “What’s next for him, RM, V, Jin, Suga, J-Hope and Jimin?” BTS Announces Break to Focus on Solo Careers.