Good morning. In this edition:

• 🏡 Americans are moving less
• 🪐 Ancient Moon-creating planet
• 🚀 Russian space mishap

…and much more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~3.83-minute read (1,020 words).

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"The purpose of life is to discover your gift. The work of life is to develop it. The meaning of life is to give your gift away."

–David Viscott (1938-1996)

Packing your things up and hitting the road for greener pastures used to be a common rite of passage in America. But now, it’s becoming as rare as a renter actually reading their lease before signing.

• Roughly 1 in 9 people (11%) changed residences last year, a record low in data going back to 1948, according to a new analysis by rental listing site Point2Homes.
• That's down from ~14% a decade ago, 20% in the 1960s, and ~30% in the 1900s.

Not all states are equal: New Jersey (7.8%) and New York (8.5%) had the lowest shares of movers in 2024 by a relatively wide margin, while residents moved most in Alaska, Oklahoma, and Colorado (~14% apiece).

Driving the moves (or lack thereof)

Several factors are keeping Americans more rooted than ever before:

• Rise in homeownership: Roughly 65% of Americans own a home today, up from ~45% at the start of the 20th century. And homeowners are far less likely to move than renters.
• Increase in quality of life: Americans’ living conditions have improved over the decades, removing the pressing need for many people to move away in the hopes of building a better life.
• Remote work flexibility: The increase in WFH following the pandemic means more Americans can do their jobs from anywhere, and don’t have to keep moving to be closer to a new job or shorten their existing commute.

Bottom line: Analysts say America’s reduced mobility rates over the years has likely contributed to slower economic growth. Fewer Americans moving limits labor market flexibility, slows wage growth, and potentially reduces innovation as workers are less likely to move for better opportunities.

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Some of the world’s top scientists recently discovered that the Moon was an inside job.

While that sentence sounds like a mashup of your cousin’s two favorite conspiracy theories, it’s actually the conclusion of a peer-reviewed study published last month in Science.

When worlds collide

The study builds upon the theory that the Moon was created by a Mars-sized ancient planet named Theia slamming into the Earth some ~100 million years after the formation of our solar system (or ~4.5 billion years ago).

By looking at chemical clues in rocks from our planet, the Moon, and space (aka meteorites), scientists say they found remnants of Theia that show the ancient planet was built from the same construction materials as early Earth.

• Their findings suggest Theia was born in the inner solar system closer to the Sun than Earth, and eventually drifted outwards and collided with our planet.
• The Moon that resulted from this collision is mostly made up of material that originally belonged to Theia, according to computer models.

However…While Theia is considered the prime suspect for explaining the Moon’s origins, there are several other hypotheses popular with certain scientists.

They include capture theory, where the Moon was a wandering body that became captured in Earth’s orbit; the accretion hypothesis, where the Moon was first created alongside Earth; and fission theory, where Earth was moving so fast that some material broke away and became the Moon.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🛒 Shopify experiences major Cyber Monday outage disrupting transactions for some merchants on its e-commerce platform.
• 🤖 Nvidia is taking a $2 billion stake in chip software designer Synopsys as part of a broader computing and AI engineering partnership.
• 🪙 Bitcoin fell by 6+% over a 24-hour period ending Monday afternoon, before recovering slightly; the cryptocurrency is now trading around $86,000.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🏟️ NY Mets owner Steve Cohen wins approval to build an ~$8 billion casino next to the team’s stadium in Queens; it’s one of three major casino projects approved by NYC officials.
• 📺 Lawyers for Sean “Diddy” Combs demand Netflix withdraws four-part documentary series on Diddy, which airs today, claiming it uses “illicitly” acquired footage; series production team—led by Diddy’s longtime rival 50 Cent—denies the claims.
• 🏈🎓 Kentucky fires head football coach Mark Stoops after 13 seasons; Stoops was the longest-tenured SEC coach. | Michigan State hires former Northwestern head football coach Pat Fitzgerald, after firing coach Johnathan Smith last week.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 📱 Kids who own smartphones at age 12 had 31% higher odds of depression, 40% higher odds of obesity, and 62% higher odds of insufficient sleep than peers who didn't, new study reveals.
• ⚡🪐 NASA’s Perseverance rover captures what’s believed to be the first evidence of lightning on Mars; the effect is much smaller than lightning bolts, and more similar to static electricity.
• 🐺 Most domestic dogs alive today carry some recent wolf DNA, according to a recent genetic analysis of ~2,700 canines.

US, WORLD & POLITICS

• ✈️ US air travelers without a Real ID or passport will be charged $45 starting February 1, up from the TSA's originally proposed $18.
• 🧑‍⚖️ Luigi Mangione, the 27-year-old accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson one year ago, appears in NYC courtroom for pretrial hearing; he faces nine state charges, in addition to federal charges that could carry the death penalty.
• 🏛️ Federal prosecutors convict 59 people in a series of massive welfare fraud schemes in Minnesota that stole $1+ billion in state taxpayer funds over five years; prosecutors say the perpetrators were largely Somali. | Federal appeals court disqualifies Alina Habba, President Trump’s former personal lawyer, from serving as US attorney for New Jersey.

☝️ Russia’s ability to launch astronauts to the ISS remains in limbo following a mishap during last week’s launch of a Soyuz rocket (pictured above). While the rocket itself headed to space without incident, its exhaust knocked into a service platform and caused heavy damage.

🤔 Did you know? The brain is one of the most metabolically expensive organs in the human body. On average, our brains consume ~20% of the body's entire energy supply, despite making up just ~2% of all body weight.

📰 Worth a read: The woman who puts America to sleep

🖱️ What we’re clicking:

• I have high levels of forever chemicals in my blood; what can I do about it?
• A 1982 physics joke gave birth to the emoticon
• The happiest kids have parents who do these 9 things with them every morning

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Yesterday we covered the recent National Guard shooting in Washington, D.C., as well as sweeping federal immigration changes unveiled after the suspected shooter was found to be a 29-year-old man from Afghanistan who immigrated to the US.

❓ Our question to you: In general, do you agree with the new federal immigration changes enacted in response to last week’s National Guard shooting in D.C.?

• Yes: 33%
• No: 61%
• Unsure/other: 6%

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

+Note on sample size: We received 747 votes and 67 longform responses.

❓Trivia: Which bird has the largest wingspan of any living species?

🎓 True or false?… Great white sharks have no natural predators.

🤔 Riddle me this: I have one eye, but can’t see. What am I?

👞 A UK town rallied behind their local cobbler when a corporate shoe repair chain planned to open a location nearby, with a petition to reject the corporate newcomer receiving 1,000+ signatures and effectively ending new building plans.

❓Trivia: The wandering albatross

🎓 T/F: False, orcas can prey on them

🤔 Riddle: A needle (or storm)

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