Good morning, and a warm welcome to our new readers.

In today’s edition:

• 🇺🇸 Inauguration Day
• 🤔 What’s next for TikTok?
• 💰 Hedge funds <3 fees

… and more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~4.18-minute read (1,113 words).

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“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.”

–Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

Donald Trump was officially inaugurated as America’s 47th President yesterday afternoon, in a ceremony at the US Capitol that featured a 30-minute inaugural address.

Several hours after taking office, Trump began signing a series of 50+ planned executive orders aimed at quickly implementing his agenda across the country and rolling back many of the Biden administration’s policies.

A quick breakdown:

Immigration: Among other things, Trump declared a national emergency at the US-Mexico border, allowed the US military to deploy troops there, reinstated the “Remain in Mexico policy” forcing asylum seekers to stay in Mexico, and declared an end to birthright citizenship. (We’ll be taking a closer look at the immigration-focused orders in tomorrow’s Dose of Discussion.)

Energy and the environment: Trump declared a national energy emergency enabling the federal government to loosen curbs on fossil-fuel exports, remove energy project permits, fast-track power-plant construction, and roll back many of the Biden admin’s policies promoting electric vehicles. He also began withdrawing the US from the 2015 Paris climate agreement for a second time.

Tariffs and trade: Trump directed federal agencies to study trade policies and evaluate America’s current trade relationships with China, Canada, and Mexico – but stopped short of imposing new tariffs on his first day in office.

Gender and DEI initiatives: Trump rolled back federal protections for transgender people, declaring the government only recognizes two immutable sexes: male and female. He also terminated all diversity, equity, and inclusion programs within the federal government.

“America First”: ​​Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. He also reverted the name of North America’s highest mountain from Mount Denali back to Mount McKinley.

👀 Looking ahead…While many of the executive orders take immediate effect, others are directions that Trump’s federal agencies will carry out in the coming weeks and months. Some executive orders are expected to face legal challenges in the near future.

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Creators who posted secret-revealing videos🤝Regret.

Following a voluntary shutdown on Saturday night, TikTok’s US service was restored around midday Sunday. The move followed a promise from now-President Donald Trump to issue a Day 1 executive order extending the ban’s deadline; he signed one to halt federal enforcement for 75 days on Monday.

But legal and political questions remain.

• The ban technically took effect Sunday. And legal experts say it’s unclear if an executive order can temporarily halt a law – passed by Congress and upheld by the Supreme Court – from taking effect.
• TikTok is currently unavailable for download on both Apple and Google’s app stores, which experts say is due to the risk of potential legal penalties. The ban stipulates that any company found working to support TikTok faces fines of $5,000/user – which, multiplied by the app’s ~170 million US users, could add up to a lot of dough.

On a potential sale: Search engine startup Perplexity AI has reportedly submitted a bid to merge itself with TikTok US; former LA Dodgers owner Frank McCourt is spearheading “The People’s Bid for TikTok”; and Elon Musk has been floated as another potential suitor (which ByteDance denies). Experts say any potential sale of TikTok’s US operations is unlikely to include the app’s algorithm, given opposition from Beijing.

✍️ Full circle: Trump kicked off the TikTok-ban process with an executive order in 2020 – and now, with an executive order, could be keeping it alive.

A top AI company is preparing to release a Ph.D.-level agent, according to a new Axios report. Dr. Jack R-AI-yan, reporting for duty🫡.

It’s probably OpenAI. CEO Sam Altman is attending a closed-door meeting with US government officials on January 30 to demonstrate new tech he believes will showcase the economic power of AI, per Axios and the NY Times.

What are AI agents?

Artificial intelligence tools that can perform multi-step tasks with minimal human supervision, such as booking travel. Anthropic already launched an agent; Microsoft has unveiled AI tools to automate tasks like sending emails and managing documents; and Google is working on its own AI agent, according to The Information ($).

The potential breakthrough: An AI agent that can perform tasks to accomplish an objective at a level similar to a Ph.D.-possessing human. In a recent Joe Rogan Experience episode, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he foresees AI agents replacing mid-level software engineers at his company sometime this year.

But…The AI hype train may be outrunning its tracks. Data constraints remain, and models are still prone to hallucinations. Investors and companies also benefit from feeding into hype to juice valuations and secure funding.

📰 In other AI news: OpenAI last week released an Economic Blueprint detailing how artificial intelligence can bring about an era of “re-industrialism” in the US.

The news can be relentless and time-consuming, but The Knowledge is a London-based daily newsletter that condenses current events into a 5-minute read full of sharp commentary and funny anecdotes.

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BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🪙 Bitcoin hit a new all-time high of $109,241 ahead of Trump’s inauguration; the crypto was trading at ~$103,700 as of 4:25 pm ET Monday.
• 🚫 18,000+ Costco workers voted to authorize a strike when their contract expires on January 31.
• 📝 Mark Uyeda, a Republican member of the SEC, was tapped by President Trump to lead the agency.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

in partnership with Kanguro

• 🏆 CFB National Championship: The Ohio State Buckeyes beat the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to take home this year’s title; it's the program's first national championship since 2014. | 🏈 NFL Playoffs: The Commanders, Eagles, Bills, and Chiefs advanced; see the full playoff picture. | 🏀 Unrivaled, a new 3-on-3 women’s professional basketball league, made its debut on Friday.
• 🍿 Disney’s Mufasa topped the weekend box office with $15.5 million; it’s the lowest #1 for MLK weekend in 30 years.
• 📰 Apple suspended its AI-powered news notifications over inaccurate summaries of headlines and stories.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🦠💉 Natural weight loss drug? Researchers discovered a natural process that boosts the body’s natural production of the GLP-1 hormone in a similar fashion to drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy.
• 🦧 Chimpanzees experience contagious urination, similar to contagious yawns among humans, per a new study.
• 🚫🚀 SpaceX’s Starship has been grounded by the FAA pending an investigation into last Thursday’s midflight explosion, which reportedly caused property damage in the Caribbean.

MISCELLANEOUS

in partnership with Pique Life

• 🥶 220+ million Americans are currently shivering; freezing temps and snowfall are expected across the US – including southern states – through Wednesday.
• 🤝 The Israel-Hamas ceasefire began in Gaza Sunday morning after an initial three-hour delay; both sides officially agreed to stop fighting for 42 days.
• 🏛️ Vivek Ramaswamy is getting out of DOGE: The biotech entrepreneur and former GOP presidential candidate is reportedly leaving the Trump admin’s new cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency to run for governor of Ohio; Elon Musk will lead DOGE alone. | ✍️ President Biden issued a slew of last-minute preemptive pardons before leaving office yesterday, with recipients including five members of Biden’s family, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and General Mark Milley. | ✍️ President Trump issued full pardons to nearly all 1,500+ defendants involved in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol; he also commuted the sentences of six others.

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Hedges + hedge funds – both are familiar with trimming a little something off the top. Nearly half of the $3.7 trillion in profits earned by hedge funds globally since 1969 have ended up back in their pockets in the form of fees ($1.8 trillion), per a first-of-its-kind estimate from LCH Investments, a fund of hedge funds.

• LCH also found hedge funds have claimed 50.4% of gains over the past two decades as their returns have slowed, up from ~30% of gains between 1969 and the early 2000s.

How it works: Hedge funds typically charge a fixed management fee set at 2% of total assets, in addition to keeping 20% of all profits as a performance fee in years where they make money (a “carry”). And when hedge funds lose money, their clients take the entire hit in addition to paying the fixed costs.

☝️ Cities, states, and institutions across America observed Martin Luther King Jr. Day yesterday with parades, marches, job fairs, and other events aimed at honoring Dr. King’s legacy.

🤔 Did You Know? A 2016 study found that when healthy rats were given poop from humans with depression, the rats themselves also developed depression-like symptoms.

📰 Worth a Read: What's the secret to Denmark's happy work-life balance?

🖱 Clickbait: Do bay leaves actually add flavor, or is it all a con?

Here are five stats from this past week that made our team go “whoa.” Hopefully you will, too.

• 🍿 Disney is responsible for 32 of the 56 movies (57%) that have ever grossed $1+ billion globally, after Moana 2 reached that mark this weekend.
• 📝 33% of all scientists in academia stop publishing research within five years of their first paper, while nearly 50% stop publishing within 10 years.
• 🪙 President Trump launched a memecoin on Friday – and as of Sunday, the $TRUMP coin had grown his net worth from ~$7.2 billion to ~$64 billion (on paper), before its value fell by nearly half.
• 🤖🏫 26% of US teens say they’ve used ChatGPT for schoolwork – double the share recorded by Pew Research in 2023.
• 🏈 The NFC North had the highest combined winning percentage of any division since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger (.662) – but went 0-3 in the playoffs.

On Friday, we covered how Israel and Hamas agreed to a preliminary ceasefire deal, in a step that could mark the beginning of the end for the 15+-month war in Gaza.

❓ Our question to you: What are your thoughts on the preliminary Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal?

• “I truly hope that for the people of Gaza and the hostages/prisoners on both sides, that the cease fire actually happens. No one deserves to endure what is occurring in this war. It is heartbreaking.”
• “I’m not a supporter of negotiating with terrorists. I hope the hostages are released, I think most of them unfortunately will not be alive. I predict that any agreement with Hamas will not last and they will soon resume hostilities.”
• “Not great, for Israel mostly. Israel gives up a thousand prisoners known to be terrorists. They receive, maybe, 94 prisoners and bodies of prisoners. Hamas maintains control of Gaza. This will just happen again in another decade.”

Click here to read more of the most thoughtful longform responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 2,118 votes and 207 longform responses.

🐾🏛️ There’s good news for dog owners in Italy. A recent program founded by the company Bauadvisor is providing free dog-sitting services for museum-goers around the country.

❤️🥹 Devoted dad Andy Emmott just donated his kidney to a stranger: an 11-year-old girl named Amber. The young girl reminded Andy of his daughter, Sarah, who passed away at eight years old after kidney complications.

📣 🏈 Army Chief Warrant Officer Alissa Guzman went undercover as a high school football team's Viking mascot with one goal in mind – to surprise her daughter Harmonee, who had no idea her Mom was coming home after a four-month deployment. Experience the surprise.

It's time to guess the definitions of the following Greek/Latin root words.

1. Acu
2. Chir
3. Coll
4. Dorm
5. Eso

1. Acu = Sharp (e.g., acupuncture)
2. Chir = Of the hands (chiropractor)
3. Coll = Neck (collar)
4. Dorm = Sleep (dormitory)
5. Eso = Within (esoteric)