Good morning. In today’s edition:

• 📲 American TikTok
• 🚨 Minneapolis ICE update
• 🥜 Peanut-butter pay raises

…and much more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~4.21-minute read (1,121 words).

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“Goodness is the only investment that never fails.”

–Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

TikTok’s years-long standoff with Washington has ended not with a ban(g), but with a firm handshake.

Late last week, the Chinese-owned short-form social media app finalized a $14 billion deal to create a new American entity, avoiding the looming threat of a US ban that’s been in the works for years.

How we got here: The TikTok ban saga began in mid-2020, when President Trump’s administration sought to force a sale of TikTok’s US operations to an American buyer. Courts later blocked that effort, allowing the app to keep operating.

• Momentum towards a ban resumed in April 2024 when President Biden signed a Congress-approved bill that would bar TikTok’s app from the US without a sale, prompting another lawsuit extending the standoff.
• But in early 2025, President Trump had a change of heart and sought to achieve a split ownership arrangement between ByteDance and US owners.

That's exactly what happened

Under the new deal, ByteDance will retain 19.9% ownership of TikTok’s US operations, while managing investors Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX will split 45% of the company. Most of the remaining shares of US TikTok will be owned by ByteDance investors.

TikTok exec Adam Presser will lead the new US-based app as CEO alongside a seven-member, majority-American board of directors.

• ByteDance will still own its valuable content algorithm, but plans to lease a copy to the owners of TikTok’s US entity.
• The Chinese tech giant won’t have access to information about TikTok’s American users, or retain any influence over the US algorithm.

Looking ahead…For most US users, the app itself likely won’t feel any different, at least at first. The main difference thus far is updated terms and conditions expanding TikTok’s ability to target ads, and to track locations of users who grant permission.

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This Valentine’s season, Spotify is trying to arrange a meet-cute between users’ audiobook libraries and their bookshelves.

The media giant is testing a first-of-its-kind tool called Page Match that would allow users to seamlessly jump between a physical book and its audiobook counterpart, according to a new Android Authority report.

How it works

When switching from page to playback, users would scan a page of their physical book using their phone’s camera.

• Spotify would then sync the audiobook to the exact spot in the text, using optical character recognition (OCR) to read the page, identify the passage, and match it with the correct timestamp in the audiobook.
• Page Match would also allow users to jump from audiobook back to print, with Spotify showing the page where they should pick up after listening.

There is a catch…Page Match hasn’t been officially announced by Spotify. The feature was uncovered by Android Authority after the outlet did some digging through the code of Spotify’s Android app; it’s still very much in the rumor stage.

Zoom out: Audiobooks are currently the fastest-growing segment of the entire publishing industry, with annual revenues jumping by 13% to reach ~$2.2 billion in 2024.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 📈 The price of gold has surpassed $5,000/oz for the first time in history in yesterday’s trading, reaching as high as $5,100+ before falling back slightly. | Silver prices hit an all-time high above $116/oz (+14.6%) before falling back to a ~5% gain as of evening trading.
• 🤖 Nvidia announced a $2 billion investment in AI infrastructure provider CoreWeave; shares of CoreWeave closed up nearly 6%.
• 🌏 President Trump announced plans to hike certain tariffs on South Korea from 15% to 25% in response to what he said is the country’s failure to enact a trade deal with the US; the tariffs would cover imported South Korean autos, pharmaceuticals, and lumber.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🎶 A$AP Rocky’s Don’t Be Dumb debuts at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart, marking the rapper’s third album to reach the top.
• 📰 USA Today Co. is acquiring The Detroit News and plans to keep running the newspaper alongside rival Detroit Free Press, which it already owns.
• 🏈 Browns rookie QB Shedeur Sanders reportedly added to Pro Bowl Games roster as an AFC replacement, after several top QBs were passed over due to injury; Sanders completed 56.6% of his passes for 1,400 yards with 7 TDs and 10 INTs across eight games.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🧑‍🚀 Four astronauts who will become the first humans in 50+ years to fly around the Moon have begun the quarantine process ahead of a possible launch; NASA’s Artemis II mission has launch windows from February-April, starting as early as next Friday.
• 💉 American Academy of Pediatrics recommends children be vaccinated against 18 diseases; the guidance is largely unchanged from last year, but now differs from recently overhauled CDC guidelines calling for vaccines against 11 diseases.
• 🪐 Hot, black ice deep within Neptune and Uranus is likely responsible for the planets’ constantly rotating magnetic fields, per new research; this “superionic water” forms under extreme temperatures and pressures, and acts as both a solid and a liquid.

US, WORLD & POLITICS

• 🏛️ President Trump is sending his border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis to oversee federal immigration operations following Saturday’s fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by an ICE agent; Trump and MN Gov. Tim Walz (D) had what both described as a "productive" phone call yesterday; Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino and some federal agents will be leaving Minnesota today, per local leaders and multiple reports.
• 🌨️ A powerful winter storm continued to hit much of the US with freezing rain and heavy snowfall, causing 5,000+ US flight cancellations and 6,500+ delays; at least 29 deaths have been attributed to the dayslong storm.
• 🌍 A US aircraft carrier and its accompanying warships reportedly arrived in the Middle East, giving Trump more options should he choose to attack Iran; in an Axios interview, Trump declined to discuss his plans, but stressed that Iran’s leaders “want to make a deal” with the US.

☝️ You’re looking at a map of the healthiest and unhealthiest states in America, ranked across 99 measures—including average physical activity, smoking rates, and air quality—by the United Health Foundation in its annual America’s Health Rankings report.

🤔 Did you know? The hushed, quiet feeling during and after a snowfall is due to it being an excellent sound absorber. Fresh, fluffy snow absorbs ~60% of nearby sound on average, a figure that’s similar to commercial foams and fibers used in cars and buildings. But the opposite is true after snow melts and refreezes, with it becoming smooth, hard, and reflective to sound waves.

📰 Worth a read: The nostalgia factory that’s made millions flipping old Polaroids

🖱️ What we’re clicking:

• What are peanut butter-style pay raises?
• Highly successful people do 3 things that many neglect
• Tips for staying happy when it's cold out

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Yesterday we covered the fatal shooting of 37-year-old US citizen Alex Pretti by ICE agents carrying out a federal immigration operation in Minneapolis, marking the second death of a US citizen in an ICE-related shooting there in recent weeks.

❓ Our question to you (long-form): What are your thoughts on the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by ICE agents in Minneapolis?

• “The clear disconnect between the truth that is presented with video evidence and the malicious and hyperbolic language used to lie about events by our own federal government is terrifying. I will continue to believe the evidence, call these actions murder, pray that Congress will step up and do their job, and continue to vote with my conscience.”
• “These people are not peaceful protesters. You don't take a gun to a peaceful protest. It's too hard for ice agents who want to make it home at the end of the day to their families to distinguish between the two. To me federal law is the rule. The states should HAVE to cooperate with the federal ICE agents to take the illegal people off the streets.”
• “It's difficult to process this event, knowing that I do not possess all the facts in the incident. Based on video I have been able to see, this incident quickly escalated from what I would consider a calm situation to a fatal shooting. The actions of the Federal officers go totally against the grain of DOJ training policy that was reviewed and revised several decades ago.”

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

+Note: Some comments may be edited for length/clarity; Sample size: We received 89 longform responses.

🐻‍❄️ Trivia: Who painted The Creation of Adam, which forms part of the Sistine Chapel's ceiling?

🎓 True or false?…The Leaning Tower of Pisa was intentionally built at an angle.

🤔 Riddle me this: What living thing has a heart that doesn’t beat?

🐷 One year ago, Tim Andrews became one of the world’s first patients to receive a genetically modified pig kidney. Now, the kidney disease patient has made history again, becoming the first to later receive a human kidney.

🐻‍❄️ Trivia: Michelangelo

🎓 T/F: False

🤔 Riddle: An artichoke

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