Good morning. Today’s newsletter is a doozy – let’s rock ‘n roll🤘.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be about a 4.83-minute read.

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"Silent and listen is the same word, just misspelled."

–CyHi the Prynce (b.1984)

Former President Trump was the clear winner of Iowa’s first-in-the-nation GOP caucus held Monday evening, earning 51% of the vote with 99+% of votes counted.

• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis placed second with just over 21%, while former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley finished in third with 19%.
• Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who placed fourth at just under 8%, officially suspended his campaign following Monday’s election and endorsed Trump. No other GOP candidate earned more than 1%.

Why it matters: Iowa's first in the nation status means it acts as an initial performance indicator for candidates, similar to a weed-out course in college. But the winner of Iowa’s caucus isn’t typically a reliable predictor of the presidential nominees from either party, according to recent history.

Prior to Monday, the three most recent Republican caucuses in Iowa were won by Ted Cruz (2016), Ron Paul (2012), and Mike Huckabee (2008) – none of whom went on to represent the GOP in the presidential election. The same was true for Democrats in 2020, when Joe Biden placed fourth in Iowa.

• However, Iowa’s caucus is still an important tool for gauging which candidates are in the running to claim victory in November. Over the past five decades, every eventual US president – aside from Bill Clinton (1992) and Biden – has finished within the top three of Iowa’s caucus.

👀 Looking ahead… The next Republican nominating contest is scheduled for January 23 in New Hampshire. The first Democratic presidential primary also takes place in New Hampshire on the same date – though President Biden has opted to withdraw from the ballot to comply with the Democratic National Committee's election calendar, which has South Carolina holding the first primary on February 3.

📊 Flash poll: In your opinion, will former President Trump be the GOP nominee for the 2024 presidential election?

• Yes
• No
• Unsure/other

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🇵🇹🐕 Guinness World Records suspended a Portuguese mastiff’s title of the world’s oldest dog. Bobi, who lived in Portugal, was reportedly 31 years and 5 months old (aka 170+ human years) when he died last October, breaking the previous record by two years. But Guinness took paws after a recent Wired investigation discovered there’s no evidence to confirm or deny Bobi’s registered birthday, and that genetic testing can’t provide Bobi’s precise age. Bobi’s title is temporarily suspended pending an ongoing Guinness investigation.

🇺🇸🇾🇪 The US is reportedly re-designating the Iranian-backed Houthi militant group as a terrorist organization. The placement, which will be formally announced today, reverses an earlier decision by President Biden to remove the Houthis from US terrorist lists over concerns it hurt prospects for peace talks and damaged Yemen’s economy. Yesterday’s report came hours after the US military launched its second airstrike against the Houthis in the past week, and a Houthi missile struck a commercial vessel in the Red Sea for a second straight day. Separately, two US Navy SEALs are missing off the coast of Somalia after participating in a mission to seize missile components headed for Houthi militants.

🇨🇳 Apple is offering a rare discount on its products sold in China. The deal, which runs from January 18-21, will offer discounts as high as $70 off the iPhone 15 and other Apple products. The announcement comes as Apple saw a 3% annual decline in iPhone sales in China last year, which analysts largely attribute to two reasons: 1) rising competition from local players like Huawei and 2) new laws banning foreign devices in many state-backed agencies and companies.

A federal judge pulled a Dikembe Mutombo and blocked JetBlue’s $3.8 billion deal to acquire Spirit Airlines yesterday, marking a victory for the Justice Department which previously sued to stop the merger.

• JetBlue shares rose more than 10% on the news, before later giving back half of those gains, while Spirit’s stock nosedived more than 50% and remained around that level.

The ruling: The judge agreed with the DOJ’s argument that JetBlue’s acquisition of Spirit would harm consumers by removing an ultra-low-cost airline that puts pressure on competitors to keep down fares. The DOJ cited statistics that show average ticket prices in a given area decrease by 20% across all airlines when Spirit starts offering flights there (though that figure doesn't include $100 checked bags or $5 waters).

• The airlines say they disagree with the court’s ruling, framing the merger as necessary to create a viable competitor to the four largest carriers that dominate US air travel (American, Delta, United, and Southwest).
• JetBlue and Spirit are currently considering their next steps, which could include a legal appeal.

It hasn’t been a banner year for the US airline industry so far. Delta, the largest US airline, last week lowered its 2024 earnings projection due to supply chain issues and economic uncertainty, causing stock prices across the entire industry to fall 4%-11%.

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💬 Quoted… “I am uncomfortable growing Tesla to be a leader in AI & robotics without having ~25% voting control. Enough to be influential, but not so much that I can’t be overturned.”

• Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to X yesterday to state that unless he has 25% control of Tesla – nearly double his ~13% stake – he would prefer to build products outside of the automaker. And where do AI and robotics come into play? 95% of Tesla’s revenue currently comes from its automotive activities, but Musk has touted future products like Optimus, a humanoid robot, that “ultimately will be worth more than the car business and worth more than full self-driving.” Boosting the billionaire's ownership to one-quarter of voting control would effectively force Tesla to give him a major payout, restructure its shares, or pull another financial lever, per CBS.

🍿 Stat of the Day: TV and film production in Hollywood following 2023’s industry-wide strikes has been like a night owl trying to get out of bed in the morning – slow to get going again. Overall location filming was down 32.4% in 2023 compared to 2022, figures that include both commercials and reality TV, neither of which were directly impacted by the strikes. And in Q4 2023, ”shoot days” for both scripted TV production and feature films were down significantly compared to 2022 (~85% and 57%, respectively).

🤔 Did You Know?... It may not feel like it with all the recent news stories documenting airplane fuselages blowing out in midair as well as runway collision-close calls, but flying in America has never been safer. The biggest US commercial airlines have now gone nearly 15 years without a fatal crash – quite a statistical feat considering there have been more than 100 million flights over that span.

📰 Worth a Read: The great dollar store backlash → (The Hustle)

• ☝️ NASA and Lockheed Martin recently unveiled their new experimental X-59 QueSST, a “quiet” supersonic jet capable of traveling at 1.4x the speed of sound without creating a sonic boom.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with Hers

• 💰 US markets closed down across the board (S&P: -0.4%; Dow: -0.6%; Nasdaq: -0.2%).
• 👑 Restaurant Brands, owner of Burger King, is spending ~$1 billion to buy the largest US franchisee of BK. | ⛽ Berkshire Hathaway purchased from the Haslam family the remaining 20% stake in Pilot Travel Centers that it didn't own; the price was undisclosed.
• 🚗🍻 Uber is shutting down Drizly, the alcohol delivery company it purchased for $1.1 billion in 2021; the company says consumers prefer to order everything from one app instead of one for alcohol, one for food, etc.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🏈 Jason Kelce, the longtime Eagles All-Pro center whose brother you may have heard of, reportedly told his teammates he’s retiring from the NFL.
• 📰 The Baltimore Sun, Maryland's largest newspaper, has been sold by hedge fund Alden Global Capital to David Smith, the exec chairman of local TV company Sinclair.
• 👽🕷️ A new trailer for Spaceman, a movie starring Adam Sandler and Paul Dano (as an alien spider), dropped yesterday.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Binoid

• 🧠 Workers who use their companies’ mental health benefits didn’t feel any better than their coworkers who didn’t participate, with the sole exception of volunteering, per a new Oxford University study.
• 🌿💊 Marijuana use isn’t linked to an increase or decrease in a person’s use of illegal opioids, per a new peer-reviewed study.
• 🚀💰 The global space industry raised $12.5 billion in capital last year, per a new report; it marks a 34% increase from 2022, but still below the record $15.3 billion brought in during 2021.

*From our partners: 🤤 A delicious dose of THC-P… Get Blueberry Pie, Pina Colada, and Sour Cherry Lime flavors with Binoid THC-P Mixed Gummies, known for inducing an intense body and head buzz. Save 30% + free shipping – on top of a 50% markdown – with code DONUT30.

MISCELLANEOUS

• 🥶 Nearly 80% of the US will experience below-freezing temperatures over the next week, with daily cold records set yesterday in cities across Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas; more than 8,000 US flights were canceled or delayed yesterday due to cold weather.
• 🏛️ Congressional leaders from both parties announced a $78 billion bipartisan deal featuring an expansion of the child tax credit, as well as a series of tax breaks for businesses.
• ⚖️ The Supreme Court will hear arguments later today in a case that could sharply limit the power of many federal agencies to regulate the environment, health care, finance, and other activities.

CLICKBAIT

• 🤔🌕 Why landing on the moon is proving more difficult today than 50 years ago.

The Hershey Bears hockey team broke a record last week that had nothing to do with the actual game – and had everything to do with an excessive amount of stuffed teddy bears. 

It's raining cats and dogs (and bears)... The annual Hershey Teddy Bear Toss consists of fans tossing stuffed animals into the rink. Once the announcer declares, “Let the sweet cuddly mayhem commence," all pandemonium breaks loose.

• After the toss, the stuffed animals are collected and donated to over three dozen local charities as part of the club’s Hershey Bears Cares program.

🧸 🔢 By the numbers: The 2023 Teddy Bear Toss game broke the team's record, with 74,599 stuffies collected. Over the past 22 years, the project has collected nearly a half million cuddly creatures for children in need.

❓ Trivia: What was the first hip-hop single to hit #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100?

🦈 True or False?... Greenland sharks can live for over 200 years.

🤔 Riddle Me This: What do you buy for dinner, but never consume?

(keep scrolling for the answers)

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❓ Trivia: "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice

🦈 T/F: True, and possibly for up to 500 years.

🤔 Riddle: Silverware