Good morning. Let’s make like Jack Black in school and rock ‘n roll.🎸

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 3.90 minutes to read.

“The sweetest pleasure arises from difficulties overcome.”

–Publius Syrus (85 BC – 43 BC)

On Friday evening, the city of Memphis released four videos showing footage of the January 7 traffic stop that led to the death of 29-year-old Black motorist Tyre Nichols. You can watch them here. (WARNING: Contains graphic content and language.)

📹 A deeper dive… The footage was obtained from officer body cams and a security camera located on a nearby light pole. At first, it shows a group of three policemen stopping Nichols, pulling him from his car, and attempting to wrestle him to the ground using a taser, while Nichols can be heard saying “I didn’t do anything.”

• When Nichols ran away from the first three officers on foot, they intercepted him at another intersection along with two other officers.
• Then, the five officers – all of whom are Black – collectively wrestled Nichols to the ground using pepper spray, holding him there while repeatedly striking him with their fists, boots, and batons for about three minutes.
• Afterwards, they left Nichols propped against a squad car while officers can be seen fist-bumping and celebrating. It was more than 20 minutes before any sort of medical attention was provided to Nichols, despite two fire department officers with medical equipment arriving on the scene within ten minutes.

🚨 Why was Tyre Nichols initially pulled over?... Short answer: it’s still unclear. At first, the Memphis Police Department said Nichols was stopped for “reckless driving,” which under Tennessee state law includes offenses like running a stop sign or traffic light, illegally merging or switching lanes, failing to use a turn signal, and tailgating.

But Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis later walked back that claim, telling CNN on Friday that after “a pretty extensive look to determine what that probable cause was, we have not been able to substantiate that [Nichols was driving recklessly]. It doesn't mean that something didn't happen, but there's no proof.”

⏩ The aftermath: Nichols was eventually taken to the hospital and died three days later, with his family saying he was fatally beaten beyond recognition. The local medical examiner’s office hasn’t released Nichols’ autopsy results yet.

• The five officers depicted in the videos were fired on January 20, and arrested last Thursday on charges including second-degree murder, aggravated assault, and kidnapping.
• On Saturday, the Memphis Police Department disbanded its “Scorpion” unit, a hand-picked group established in 2021 to fight violent street crime. Its 40 members included the five former officers.

🇺🇲 Zoom out: Dozens of protesters gathered in several large cities across the US over the weekend for mostly peaceful demonstrations, which sometimes led to blocked traffic on highways. Overall, the AP reported that protests were smaller and more scattered than many officials and local businesses had expected.

📊 Flash poll (long-form): In your opinion, what can be done to reduce instances of police brutality in America? The best responses will be featured in tomorrow’s newsletter.

• Click here to leave a response.

🇨🇿 Retired NATO general Petr Pavel was elected as the Czech Republic’s newest president on Saturday. Pavel’s margin of victory over former PM Andrej Babis – 58.3% to 41.7% – marks the largest ever recorded in a Czech presidential election. The 61-year-old ran on a pro-Western platform, which included advocating for the legalization of same-sex marriage nationwide (same-sex civil partnerships are currently legal in the country, though they carry less rights). And his campaign seems to have caught the attention of Russia: Pavel earlier this week denied rumors of his own death, which were circulated by a fake campaign website and emails hosted by Russia's Yandex server.

🇨🇳 China’s top nuclear-weapons research institute has been buying American chips for decades, even though they’ve been banned from doing so since 1997, per a new WSJ report. The Journal analyzed procurement documents and research papers, published by a Chinese nuclear institute known as CAEP, and discovered the academy – through resellers in China – bought sophisticated computer chips made by US companies like Intel and Nvidia at least a dozen times over the past two-and-a-half decades. America’s 1997 ban on chip exports was intended to prevent foreign entities from using US-made products in nuclear-weapons research.

🇧🇷 Americanas, one of Brazil’s largest retailers, filed for bankruptcy last week after uncovering ~$4 billion in previously-undisclosed debt. The company’s stock has fallen nearly 90% so far this month – including 77% in a single day – after Americanas reported “accounting inconsistencies” totaling $3.9 billion, an amount that represented nearly twice the company’s market cap at the time of its disclosure. Americanas CEO Sergio Rial resigned last week nine days after taking the job, citing the undisclosed debt.

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Over the weekend, Avatar: The Way of Water passed Star Wars: The Force Awakens to become the fourth highest-grossing movie in history. The James Cameron-directed film has now brought in $2.117 billion at the global box office.

But does it have what it takes to be #1?

The Way of Water is currently ~$78 million away from Titanic, the #3 film on the list. Which if it keeps up – or even slows – its current pace, could be reached within a week. Over the past eight days, Avatar 2 has brought in an estimated $117 million at the global box office.

Though to reach the top-two highest-grossing films of all time, The Way of Water needs – as Bob Uecker would say – juuuuuuust a bit more. The original Avatar ($2.9 billion) and Avengers: Endgame ($2.8 billion) hold the top two spots on the list.

• One thing not in A2's favor: its exclusive theatrical window could be ending soon. Disney announced in Sept. 2021 that its remaining films would have a minimum 45-day exclusive theatrical release. If Way of Water follows that arrangement, it would hit Disney+ on Jan. 30 (today), which would take some steam out of ticket sales.

🍿 Bottom line: Regardless of where the box office actually ends up, Disney is already like the main character in all of its movies: coming out on top. Industry sources say the film needed to earn $1.5 billion to break even, while Cameron – who at this point should change his name to Tom Cruise after making an impossible mission look easy – previously said it would need to “be the third or fourth highest-grossing film in history” to turn a profit.

+Fun fact: James Cameron has now directed three of the top four highest-grossing movies ever. And Zoe Saldana has acted in four out of the top six.

💬 Quoted…​​ “It is the Academy’s goal to ensure that the Awards competition is conducted in a fair and ethical manner.”

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (aka the group in charge of the Oscars) is conducting an official review of its campaign procedures, per a statement released Friday.

While the Academy didn’t specify what prompted the review, Variety reported it involves a behind-the-scenes campaign conducted by supporters of the indie film To Leslie to promote its lead, Andrea Riseborough, for the Best Actress Oscar.

• To Leslie grossed $27,000 at the box office during its run last year. Though after Riseborough was nominated for Best Actress last week, the film was re-released to six theaters, making an estimated $250,000 this past weekend.

💼 Stat of the Day: More than 1 in 3 US job applicants (35%) admitted to lying during the hiring process, per a new survey conducted by ResumeBuilder.com.

🤯 Did You Know?... Sound waves travel further in cold weather. One memorable example: On the coldest day in Canadian history – negative 83°F – local residents reported “clearly” hearing others speaking and dogs barking from up to four miles away.

📖 Worth a Read: Meet the teacher embracing ChatGPT → (NPR)

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• ☝️ NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter recently snapped this photo of a formation that looks just like a bear’s face.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🏘️ The average US 30-year fixed mortgage rate is 6.13%, its lowest level since mid-September, per Freddie Mac data published late last week; at this time last year, 30-year rates averaged 3.55%.
• 🛏️🛁♾️ Bed Bath & Beyond announced plans to close an additional 87 stores and its entire Harmon chain of drugstores; the company is expected to file for bankruptcy soon.
• 📑 India’s Adani Group published a 413-page rebuttal to a report from short-seller Hindenburg Research that accused the conglomerate of engaging in “a brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme”; Adani said Hindenburg created a “false market in securities” that enabled the firm to “book massive financial gain through wrongful means.”

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 📺 ABC News fired GMA3 co-anchors Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes on Friday, a month after they were taken off the air following a Daily Mail report that they were both having extramarital affairs with each other.
• 🏈 Super Bowl LVII is set: The Philadelphia Eagles will face off against the Kansas City Chiefs; the Eagles beat the 49ers 31-7 yesterday, and Kansas City defeated Cincinnati 23-20. | Former Georgia QB Stetson Bennett, who earlier this month won his second-straight national championship, was arrested in Dallas on a public intoxication charge yesterday morning.
• 🎾 Novak Djokovic won a record 10th Men’s Australian Open yesterday, defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets; Djokovic is now tied with Roger Federer for most Grand Slam titles in men’s history, with 22. | Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, 24, won her first Grand Slam title on Saturday after coming back to beat Elena Rybakina in the Women’s Australian Open final.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• ❤️🧠 Voles can form enduring attachments with mates and provide parental care without oxytocin receptors, suggesting the so-called “love hormone” may not play as critical a role in bonding as previously believed.
• 🤖🎶 Google researchers created a new AI that can generate minutes-long musical pieces from text prompts, and can also ‘translate’ whistled or hummed tunes into other instruments.
• 🦠 The Massachusetts Department of Public Health recently said it detected two cases of a novel strain of gonorrhea that was more impervious to existing antibiotics than any other strain previously recorded in the US.

EVERYTHING ELSE

• 🗳️ Ronna McDaniel will serve a fourth term as chair of the Republican National Committee, after defeating challenger Harmeet Dhillon by a vote of 111 committee members to 51 on Friday. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)
• ✍️ Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) on Saturday signed a series of bills that: 1) prohibit transgender surgery for youth and disallow hormone treatments for minors who haven’t been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, and 2) allow families to receive scholarships to pay for education outside the public school system. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

CLICKBAIT

• 🔎📱 What it’s like to swap Google for TikTok.

On Friday, we covered a first-of-its-kind Secret Service report analyzing trends across dozens of mass attacks that occurred in public spaces around the US in recent years.

❓ Our question to you (long-form): In your opinion, what can be done to reduce the occurrence of mass attacks in America?

• “We NEED to work on our mental health situation. After working in a mental health office as an admin I can tell you the following with confidence: There aren’t enough therapists for the needs in the US. There are too many people who do not know how to access mental health. There aren’t enough affordable mental options for lower-income Americans. There’s also too much negative stigma around mental health.”
• “Better healthcare (especially mental health) and better education would go a long way to helping this problem. The solution isn’t gun control, although it’s not a bad idea, because it doesn’t address the root problem. Men are already sick and damaged by the time they go on a rampage, better to try to improve outcomes at an early age.”
• “I wish the answer was gun control but obviously illegal guns and nefarious people will always exist. The best thing we can do is have better mental health screening and affordable care. Even with insurance it is unattainable for many.”
• “The amount of guns, types of guns, and access to guns is absolutely ludicrous in this country, especially when an unprecedented number of people are struggling with mental health issues. Get rid of the assault weapons. Make gun owning incredibly difficult. Severely punish those whose carelessness permits adults and minors who shouldn’t have access to guns do harm to others. And provide more mental health support to everyone.”

Click here to read more of the best responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 469 longform responses.

Monday: National Croissant Day

Tuesday: The last commercial Boeing 747 ever is set to be delivered

Wednesday: First day of February, aka Black History Month; Fed expected to raise interest rates after its two-day meeting

Thursday: Groundhog Day; also, Groundhog Day

Friday: Labor Department publishes January jobs report

On January 16th, Australian runner Erchana Murray-Bartlett crossed the finish line of Melbourne's Pillars of Wisdom Marathon. 

Just the day before, she had crossed the finish line of a different marathon. 

And the day before that? Another.

🏃‍♀️ Some serious dedication... In fact, Erchana had been crossing marathon finish lines for 149 days before her final race. If confirmed, the feat will grant her the world record for most consecutive marathons.   

• Echana completed all her runs to raise awareness of the threats to Australia’s biodiversity. She ran the entire length of Australia, starting in Cape York in August and ending in Melbourne in January. 

💬 What she's saying: “Australia is fantastic," she shared. "It’s so beautiful, and that was one of the key things I wanted to get out of these runs; it was to showcase Australia’s beauty to the world."

*A shorter version of this story first appeared earlier this month in our Around the World section.

Can you guess the definitions of these Greek/Latin root words?

1. Neo
2. Sci
3. Tech
4. Cine
5. Lith

(keep scrolling for the answers)

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1. Neo = New (e.g., neoplasm, neonatal)
2. Sci = Know (science, conscience)
3. Tech = Skill (technician, technology)
4. Cine = Motion (cinema, kinetic)
5. Lith = Stone (lithology, monolith)