Good morning and welcome back. On today's docket:

• Will the world's biggest retailer enter the metaverse?
• We recap last week's US–Russia meetings
• And MrBeast made a boatload of 💰 in 2021 (surprise!)

⏰🚀 Ready, Set, Go: Today's newsletter takes 4.50 minutes to read.

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."

–Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

The US death rate from cancer has dropped 32% over the past three decades, according to the American Cancer Society’s annual report published last week. That translates to around 3.5 million prevented deaths.

🤔 What’s going on?... People are being diagnosed earlier and living longer due to better access to care, higher screening rates, and improved treatments. But the biggest change? We’re not smoking as much.

• The cancer death rate in the US mostly went up during the 20th century, largely due to the smoking epidemic. It peaked in 1991, with 215 out of every 100,000 people dying from cancer.
• Since then, the cancer death rate has steadily decreased. In 2019, about 146 out of every 100,000 people died from cancer.
• The fastest declines in history have actually happened over the last two years on record – from 2016 to 2017 (2.2%), and from 2017 to 2018 (2.4%).

✋ Yes, but... While lung cancer, the most common type of cancer overall, is decreasing, prostate cancer, the most common type of cancer among men, and breast cancer, the most common type of cancer among women, increased slightly. Cervical cancer also remains particularly problematic.

📝 Worth noting: 42% of cancers can potentially be prevented, according to the report.

• That includes 19% that are caused by smoking and 18% that are caused by drinking alcohol, poor nutrition, physical inactivity, and obesity.

📸 The big picture: Even though the death rate keeps declining, cancer is still the second most common cause of death in the US. Only heart disease kills more people.

• This year, the American Cancer Society estimates nearly 2 million people will be newly diagnosed with cancer. More than 600,000 people are expected to die from the disease.
• The lifetime probability of being diagnosed with invasive cancer is ~40% for men and ~39% for women.

+Caveat: Cancer data lags, so the most recent numbers available are all from before the pandemic. Covid adversely affected diagnoses and treatment for cancer, according to the report.

💻 The streaming giant has raised its monthly subscription price by $1 to $2 per month in the US and Canada, Reuters first reported on Friday. This is the company's sixth wide-scale price increase since 2014, and its first since late 2020.

• The US and Canada is Netflix's largest region with 74 million streaming customers as of September 2021. It accounted for nearly 44% of the company's revenue in Q3 2021, or about $3.3 billion.
• Since Netflix already has a wealth of subscribers across North America, adding more is a challenge – so price hikes are an obvious way to make more money (which is why it's part of the company's long-term strategy).
• At the same time, Netflix is competing with several other streaming services like Disney+, HBO Max, Hulu, Apple TV+, etc., for attention and has been spending big on content to keep up.
• The company previously said it would spend $17 billion on programming in 2021. It hasn't disclosed spending for 2022.

+Worth noting: This price change hasn't impacted existing subscribers yet, only new ones. If you already have an account, the hikes will be rolled out "gradually" and you'll receive an email 30 days before the new price goes into effect.

+Go deeper: The streaming wars keep getting more interesting.

🇺🇦 After meeting with Russian officials in Geneva and Brussels last week, the US and Western allies said they're no closer to resolving the escalating situation in Ukraine, where ~100,000 Russian troops have surrounded the country on three sides.

• Russia wants NATO to swear off future expansion into Ukraine and other former Soviet nations, curb the alliance's existing ties with those countries, and restrict military deployments into their territory. NATO has repeatedly rejected those terms as "nonstarters."
• On Friday, Biden administration officials accused Russia of sending operatives into Ukraine to stage a "false-flag operation" that would give President Vladimir Putin the pretext to invade.
• On Saturday, Microsoft's threat intelligence arm issued a warning after detecting a highly destructive form of malware targeting computer networks in Ukraine. The company didn't explicitly blame Russia, though Moscow has a history of targeting Ukraine and other countries with similar attacks.

From the Right: WSJ

From the Left: NBC News

Social media has become a necessity for many of us, especially in pandemic times. But it’s not without its downside – specifically when it comes to our sleep quality. 😪

🔢 By the numbers… According to The Sleep Foundation:

• 70% of us check social media after getting into bed.
• 21% of adults wake up to check their phones throughout the night.
• The blue light emitted from our device screens has a stimulating effect that’s the opposite of what we need to unwind before sleeping.

🙌Off to dreamland… Luckily, our friends at Beam worked hard to bring you an ethical, health-conscious sleeping solution: Dream Powder. Available in Cinnamon Cocoa or White Chocolate Peppermint (for a limited time), this delicious hot bedtime drink is packed with quality ingredients to make you 😴.

🤤 And while you’re there… make sure to check out the entire Beam store. They sell a lot of other cool stuff trusted by some of the most productive people on Earth. We’re talking products to help you hydrate, energize, recover, focus – or pretty much anything else that positively affects your day-to-day performance.

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Get the sleep (and productivity!) you deserve

🛒 Walmart filed several new trademarks late last month indicating plans to start selling virtual goods, including its own cryptocurrency and collection of NFTs. In doing so, it joins a growing list of retailers taking part in the metaverse movement:

• Nike has also filed a slew of trademark applications signaling its intent to sell virtual branded sneakers and apparel, and recently teamed up with Roblox to create an online world called Nikeland. Last month, it bought the virtual sneaker company RTFKT (pronounced “artifact”).
• Both Under Armour and Adidas’ NFT debuts last month sold out within hours and are currently fetching high prices on OpenSea. Gap has also started selling NFTs of its iconic logo sweatshirts.
• Urban Outfitters, Ralph Lauren, and Abercrombie & Fitch have filed trademarks in recent weeks indicating they intend to open virtual stores.

+That’s a big number: Monetization of metaverse users in the US alone could be worth $8 trillion, according to Morgan Stanley.

☝️ Front-page news… A single page from a 1984 Spider-Man comic sold for $3.36 million at auction. It marks the first-ever appearance of Spider-Man’s black symbiote suit, which would later develop into the anti-hero Venom.

🏈 The road to the Super Bowl… The NFL’s first Super Wildcard Weekend was a mixed bag. Some games came down to the wire (Bengals over Raiders, 49ers over Cowboys), while others were pretty much blowouts from start to finish (Bills over Patriots, Bucs over Eagles, Chiefs over Steelers, Rams over Cardinals). View the updated playoff bracket.

🍿 I Scream, you Scream… The slasher franchise’s return to theaters snagged the top box office spot from Spider-Man: No Way Home, earning ~$35 million over the four-day weekend.

• Fun fact: The film cost $25 million to produce.

🎾 Game, Set, Match… The Australian government canceled Novak Djokovic’s visa again on Friday, with its immigration minister citing health and “good order” considerations.

• The world’s no. 1 tennis player is now banned from Australia for up to three years and could also have trouble attending the upcoming French and US Opens due to similar vaccination policies.
• The Australian Open began yesterday (click here for the latest updates).

💬 Quoted… "After an investigation, we learned that Dr. Schlissel, over a period of years, used his University email account to communicate with that subordinate in a manner inconsistent with the dignity and reputation of the University."

• Context: The University of Michigan fired President Mark Schlissel after receiving an anonymous complaint alleging he had an inappropriate relationship with an employee.

📺 Stats of the day: YouTube edition…

1. 'Baby Shark’ became the first video ever to reach 10 billion views.
2. MrBeast beat out 10-year-old toy reviewer Ryan Kaji as the top-earning content maker of 2021 with $54 million in revenue, per Forbes.

🤯 Did you know?… A rare side effect of some chemotherapy treatments is losing your fingerprints.

📖 Worth a read… Five of MLK Jr.'s most memorable speeches.

• 👆 An underwater volcano in the South Pacific erupted on Saturday, creating a tsunami that hit Hawaii, Japan, Peru, New Zealand, Tonga's largest island, and even the West Coast; at least one person was killed.
• 🕍 Four hostages held at gunpoint in a Dallas synagogue for over ten hours on Saturday were freed/escaped unharmed; the assailant, who died, was later identified as a UK national demanding the release of his sister, a Pakistani neuroscientist convicted of trying to kill US soldiers in Afghanistan.
• ❄️ More than 50 million people across the eastern US were under winter weather alerts as of yesterday; hundreds of thousands are without power following a storm; more than 4,200 flights were canceled on Sunday and Monday.
• 🚫 “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli, who is serving a 7-year prison term for unrelated financial crimes, was banned from the pharma industry for life and fined ~$65 million.
• 🚲 Peloton is set to begin charging customers hundreds of dollars more for its Bike and Tread products, citing inflation and heightened supply chain costs.
• 📅 Yesterday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Take a look at some of the celebrations across the US.

Fatima Madrigal is starting the year off with a bang by celebrating the birth of her twins, Alfredo and Aylin, who were delivered 15 minutes apart on New Year's Eve. 

👶👶 'Miracle' babies... Of course, all newborns are unique – but this California duo is especially so. The twins were born on different days in different years, a one in two million chance according to the hospital.

• Alfredo joined the world late on December 31, 2021, while his little sister Aylin was born precisely at midnight in 2022. 

What’s the highest denomination bill ever printed in the US? (Bonus points if you can name the president gracing its front)

A) $1,000

B) $10,000

C) $100,000

D) $1,000,000

(keep scrolling for the answer)

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C) $100,000

The $100,000 bill, featuring the face of President Woodrow Wilson, was actually a gold certificate that was never circulated or issued for public use.

• The Bureau of Engraving and Printing created them during the Great Depression in 1934 for conducting official transactions between Federal Reserve banks.
• Only 42,000 of the bills were ever printed.