• ☝️ The Museum of Natural History in London unveiled the winners of its Wildlife Photographer of the Year People’s Choice Awards yesterday, which featured 25 images selected from nearly 60,000 entries.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 📈 US markets rose across the board (S&P: +0.4%; Dow: +0.7%; Nasdaq: +0.2%).
• 🏢 America's biggest office leases grew in size last year, reversing a three-year decline, per data from commercial real estate firm CBRE.
• 💼 Google is eliminating its goal of hiring more employees from historically underrepresented groups and is reviewing other DEI measures, citing “recent court decisions and U.S. Executive Orders.”

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

in partnership with the Picture This contest

• 📺 Speaker-maker Sonos is reportedly planning to release a high-end streaming box that combines content from numerous streamers – including Netflix, Max, and Disney+ – under a single, unified software experience.
• ✍️ College football’s national signing day has come and gone. Winners, losers, and takeaways from 2025 recruiting.
• 🤖🏈 OpenAI will air its first-ever TV commercial during this Sunday’s Super Bowl, per a Wall Street Journal report. | ⚖️🏈 Three men were charged by a federal grand jury in connection with the December burglary of Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow's home; prosecutors say the men are part of a South American theft ring.

🚨Free Giveaway Alert: Don’t forget to enter the Picture This contest for a free chance to win up to $2,500 worth of prizes! Contest ends next week.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🤖 Google released Gemini 2.0, its “most capable” artificial intelligence model suite yet, to the public; it includes bringing Google’s reasoning AI model to the Gemini app, which can interact with apps like YouTube, Search, and Maps.
• 🇺🇬💉 Uganda and the WHO launched the first-ever trial for a vaccine against the Sudan strain of the Ebola virus; an outbreak was declared last week.
• 🇨🇳⚛️ China is secretly building a massive “laser fusion” research facility ~50% bigger than the world’s largest such plant (located in the US), per satellite images; experts say it could have implications for nuclear weapons research and clean energy production.

MISCELLANEOUS

in partnership with Commons

• ✍️⚧️ President Trump signed an executive order aimed at banning transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports.
• 📝 The entire CIA workforce has been offered a buyout, in a move Trump admin officials say is aimed at bringing the agency in line with the President’s priorities.
• 🏛️ Most USAID workers will be "placed on administrative leave globally" starting tonight, per a statement posted to USAID's site. (Dive deeper: US foreign aid is under scrutiny from Trump admin)

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CLICKBAIT

• 🥚🕵️ The heist of 100,000 eggs in Pennsylvania becomes a whodunit that police have yet to crack.