• ☝️ You’re looking at some of the winners from the 12th annual Mobile Photography Awards; the contest is the longest-running international competition open exclusively to photos shot and edited on mobile phones.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 💰 US markets closed up across the board yesterday (S&P: +0.9%; Dow: +1.2%; Nasdaq: +0.4%).
• 📉 Amazon will lay off ~9,000 employees, the company announced yesterday; the move follows ~18,000 job cuts that were announced in November; the company has ~1.5 million employees. | Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz stepped down yesterday, two weeks earlier than planned; he’s expected to testify in front of a Senate committee later this week regarding the coffee giant’s treatment of union organizing efforts.
• 👟 Foot Locker will close 400 stores by 2026, the company announced yesterday; the shoe store is aiming to become more relevant to young consumers by relaunching its retail brands and introducing experiential new store concepts.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• ⚡ Shazam! Fury of the Gods opened domestically to $30.5 million this past weekend, meeting analysts’ expectations; the sequel brought in about 43% less than the original Shazam!’s opening.
• ⚖️ Three men were found guilty yesterday in the murder of rapper XXXTentacion.
• ✌️🍿 Marvel Studios exec Victoria Alonso exited the company yesterday; she’s worked as an executive producer on every MCU film since The Avengers (2012).

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• ⚡🪐 Rolls-Royce landed a $3.5 million contract from the UK Space Agency to develop a working demo of a lunar nuclear reactor; if successful, the tech would be used to power an eventual base on the Moon. | Two of Uranus’ moons may have oceans of water beneath their surface that are actively blasting plumes of material into space, per a new study presented at last week’s Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.
• 🩺 Microsoft and its subsidiary Nuance Communications announced a new AI clinical notes application for health-care professionals; the GPT-4-powered app will automatically generate clinical notes following a patient’s visit.
• 🦠🦝 A new study that has yet to be peer-reviewed found evidence suggesting Covid first originated with raccoon dogs that were illegally sold in Wuhan. (What are raccoon dogs?)

EVERYTHING ELSE

• 🍎💉 A new USDA rule aimed at improving the transparency and standards of products labeled “organic” went into effect yesterday. | California announced a new $50 million contract with nonprofit drugmaker Civica Rx to create a state-owned brand of insulin that’ll be sold for $30/month.
• ⚖️ A New York federal judge ruled yesterday that the US Virgin Islands and women who accused the late investor Jeffrey Epstein of sexual abuse can proceed with a lawsuit claiming JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank AG knowingly benefited from Epstein’s sex trafficking scheme.
• 🏛️🚫 President Biden vetoed a bill yesterday that would have repealed a federal rule allowing retirement fund managers to consider environment, social, and governance (ESG) principles in their investment decisions; it’s the first veto of Biden’s term. (Background | From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

CLICKBAIT

• 😀🏫 The happiest colleges in the US, based on students’ selfies.

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