🔥 Survivor: Office Edition

❄️ Winter Storm Update

Nearly 75% of the lower 48 U.S. states were under snow cover yesterday, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (compared with 45% just one week ago).

• At least 20 people have died as of Tuesday evening, per the AP. More than 3.7M customers across the U.S. are without power, according to PowerOutageUS (3.2M+ in Texas).

More: Texas Gov. Greg Abbot (R) called on the state legislature to investigate the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) in the wake of power outages across the state.

📝 NAACP + Thompson Trump Lawsuit

The NAACP and Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), the House Homeland Security Committee chairman, filed a lawsuit yesterday against former President Donald Trump, his lawyer Rudy Giuliani, and others for alleged conspiracy to incite the January 6 Capitol riot.

• The suit, which names Trump, Giuliani, and two extremist groups – the Oath Keepers & Proud Boys – cites the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act in accusing the defendants of civil rights violations for conspiring to prevent Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election.

More: The KKK Act, the third of a series of increasingly stringent Enforcement Acts, was designed to eliminate extralegal violence and protect the civil and political rights of four million freed slaves after the Civil War.

🇰🇵 North Korea Hacking Attempt

North Korean hackers tried to break into the computer systems of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and steal information on COVID vaccines and treatments, South Korea’s spy agency disclosed yesterday (per a local lawmaker). The news follows reports last year of suspected North Korean attempts to hack into nine healthcare firms’ networks, including AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.

More: It is currently unknown whether the most recent cyberattack was successful.

☝️ One Last Thing…

🎥 As part of a documentary called The Missing Princess – which aired last night and is only available in the UK – the BBC released secret footage showing the daughter of UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum claiming she is being held hostage in a “villa converted into a jail.”

🏠 Hail Hydrogen

The UK announced plans to open the country’s first houses with appliances fueled exclusively by hydrogen this April. The two semi-detached homes will be open to members of the public, who can view appliances and see how they compare to existing ones.

More: The move is part of a broader UK effort to reduce its carbon footprint.

🌳 Separately (but climate-related): Tech giant IBM announced its commitment to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2030.

⚖️ Legal Eagles

• North Dakota’s state senate voted against a piece of legislation that would have enabled software developers in the state to bypass app store fees charged by Apple and Google.
• A federal judge denied a request from Citigroup to claw back roughly $500M the bank mistakenly paid out of its own pocket, in what the judge called “a banking error of perhaps unprecedented nature and magnitude.” Dig deeper.

🤖 Meet Mr. Marcus

Goldman Sachs unveiled Marcus Invest yesterday. The low-cost digital platform within its existing Marcus banking app automatically rebalances investors’ wealth across a portfolio of stocks and bonds based on models developed by the firm’s investment strategy committee.

• Historically, Goldman Sachs has targeted consumers with at least $10M for its wealth management services – however, Marcus Invest will be available to any investor who can meet an account minimum of $1K, with an annual fee of 0.35%.

📈Separately (but investing-related): The price of bitcoin briefly rose above $50K for the first time yesterday, peaking at around $50,500.

⏰ Catch Up Quick:

• Amazon acquired Australia-based e-commerce platform Selz last month, but didn’t publicize the deal. Selz offers tools to help businesses launch their own online stores, similar to Shopify.
• The European Consumer Organisation filed a complaint against TikTok with the European Commission yesterday, accusing the short-video social media platform of violating multiple EU laws. Dig deeper.
• Adidas announced plans to sell or spin-off its Reebok brand, 15 years after it originally purchased the U.S. fitness label for $3.8B. Analysts estimate Reebok to be worth $1.2B today.

☝️ One Last Thing… (or two)

🍫 Vegan KitKats are coming later this year.

🚨 Breaking: SpaceX reportedly raised a funding round of $850M that values the company at $74B.

🎨 Paint the Town

Image via GoodNewsNetwork.

Prior to Mardi Gras (which was yesterday), the city of New Orleans canceled parades and other festivities for the first time in over 40 years.

• Instead of painting floats, two popular New Orleans artists began transforming porches and balconies across the city to help their neighbors celebrate the holiday safely at home.

🛳💍 Sea It to Believe It
With cruises unable to sail for the foreseeable future, Captain Kate McCue has taken to TikTok to track her time at sea. Millions watched this month as she planned and implemented an epic engagement for two crew-members on board her ship.

🐢 I Like To Move It
What inspires you to do a happy little dance? For Turnip, a tortoise at the Tennessee Aquarium, it’s cold showers. One zookeeper caught the grooving tortoise on video this week.

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