• ☝️ You’re looking at some of the winners from the 2024 Nature Photographer of the Year competition; the winning photo (top-left) features the “holy grail” of wildlife photography: not one, but two elusive snow leopards.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 📉 US markets fell across the board last week (S&P: -2.0%; Dow: -2.3%; Nasdaq: -1.8%). | ✌️ US public companies announced 327 CEO changes this year through November; that's an 8.6% increase over last year and the highest number since tracking began in 2010.
• 🍏 Apple is exploring a Face ID doorbell and lock device as part of a push into smart home tech, per Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. | 🎉👎 Party City, the largest party supply store in the US, is closing all of its stores amid financial difficulties.
• ⚖️ The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is suing three of America's largest banks (Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo) for allegedly failing to protect customers from fraud on Zelle, the payment platform they co-own.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• ⚾ Rickey Henderson, the MLB’s all-time stolen bases leader, died at 65. | 📺 Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto is leaving the network after 28 years.
• 🍿 Sonic 3 topped the domestic box office, bringing in ~$62 million its opening weekend. | 🕵️ The James Bond franchise is reportedly on ice due to extreme creative differences between Barbara Broccoli, whose family owns the rights to the Bond character, and Amazon, which owns the rights to distribute Bond movies.
• ⚽ Netflix secured the US broadcast rights to the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2027 and 2031.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 💉😴 The FDA approved Eli Lilly’s weight-loss drug Zepbound for treating patients with sleep apnea, the most common sleep-related breathing disorder.
• 🏫🤖 Arizona officials approved a new online charter school where the academic curriculum is taught entirely by AI.
• 🤖 OpenAI’s new major AI project – officially called GPT-5 – is behind schedule, getting “crazy expensive,” and may not have enough data to work, per a Wall Street Journal report. (More: AI companies are struggling to build more advanced models)

MISCELLANEOUS

• ✈️💥 The US Navy apparently shot down its own plane over the Red Sea amid attacks against Houthi rebels, forcing two Navy fighter pilots to eject to safety, per the US military’s Central Command.
• 🏛️ Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX), 81, who hasn’t cast a vote in Congress since July, was recently discovered living in an assisted living home, per The Dallas Express; her son later confirmed “dementia issues” have kept her away from Congress; she’s set to leave office in January.
• 💰 Congress and President Biden approved a stopgap funding bill shortly after Friday’s midnight deadline, avoiding a government shutdown; the bill funds the government at current levels through March 14 and provides ~$110 billion in disaster relief and farming aid; it doesn’t include raising the federal debt ceiling, as requested by Trump. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

CLICKBAIT

• 🪨🤑 Rock Used as Doorstop For Decades Turns Out to Be Worth $1+ Million.