☕️ Pokémon with guns

Netflix body slams its streaming competition... [Advertisement] January 24, 2024 [View Online]( | [Sign Up]( | [Shop]( [Morning Brew]( PRESENTED BY [Knightscope]( Good morning. Is it OK to eat snow? That’s the question dividing the internet after Reese Witherspoon went viral for her “Snow Salt Chococcino” recipe (ingredients: cold brew, salted caramel, chocolate sauce, and…snow from her backyard). Faced with pushback, Witherspoon argued her concoction was safe. Scientists generally agree that it’s fine to eat snow, provided you help yourself to small quantities and the snow is fresh from recent accumulation. Chicago claims to have the best snow in the country, but we prefer New Haven-style. —Cassandra Cassidy, Sam Klebanov, Matty Merritt, Adam Epstein, Neal Freyman MARKETS Nasdaq 15,425.94 +0.43% S&P 4,864.60 +0.29% Dow 37,905.45 -0.25% 10-Year 4.142% +4.8 bps Bitcoin $39,122.15 -1.00% Alibaba $74.02 +7.85% *Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 1:00am ET. [Here's what these numbers mean.]( - Markets: Stocks were [mixed]( yesterday, as the Nasdaq rose and the S&P 500 notched a third straight record high, but the Dow closed lower due to some weak company earnings. Shares of China-owned Alibaba shot up on reports of a new stimulus package in the country.  STREAMING [Netflix just pinned its streaming rivals]( [The Undertaker and John Cena at WrestleMania]( WWE Wanna know what it’s like to get knocked out by an RKO? Every streaming service that isn’t Netflix might know the feeling. Yesterday, Netflix announced a $5 billion deal with WWE, cementing its position as the winner of the streaming wars. The 10-year agreement will bring WWE’s flagship show, Monday Night Raw, to the platform in the US, UK, Canada, and Latin America in 2025. This means that Raw, which may or may not continue on Monday nights on Netflix, will not air on linear TV for the first time in its 31-year history. - Netflix will also stream all WWE shows, like SmackDown and NXT, outside the US. - Annual live events, including WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Royal Rumble—in addition to documentaries and other WWE projects—will all be on Netflix. What’s next for the ’flix? The deal marks Netflix’s largest foray yet into live sports, after years of its executives saying the company wasn’t interested in sports rights. (They said their platform wouldn’t have ads either—look how that turned out.) If a landmark wrestling deal wasn’t enough for one day, Netflix also posted its Q4 earnings, headlined by 13.1 million new subscribers—its largest Q4 increase ever, blowing past estimates of 8–9 million. Its stock jumped more than 8% in after-hours trading. In a letter to its shareholders, Netflix basically said “good luck” to other streamers that consider teaming up to take down the king… - The company said it has no interest in “acquiring linear assets” and that further media consolidation won’t “materially change the competitive environment.” - Netflix maintained that it’s bullish on investing in new content at a time when other streaming platforms are cutting back. (Though Netflix has done some [trimming]( of its own.) We’ll do it live: Netflix is hosting the 30th annual SAG Awards show in February, and the Netflix Slam, a tennis match between Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz, in March. Hopefully those go better than the Love Is Blind reunion.—CC   PRESENTED BY KNIGHTSCOPE [This guy’s 10% happier than you]( [Knightscope]( Picture this: You’re unwinding in the pool with a cool drink in your hand, all while your investments work hard to put extra income in your bank account. This isn’t just a dream—with [Knightscope’s Public Safety Infrastructure bonds]( it’s a reality. [Knightscope bonds]( pay 10% annual interest in cash for up to five years. That means you can sit back, relax, and watch your investment grow without lifting a finger. Why is a company like Knightscope (Nasdaq: KSCP) offering you this deal? Simple: to help deploy more of their innovative, AI-powered security robots nationwide. Grab your float, lean back, and let your money work for you. [Discover more about Knightscope’s bond investment opportunity and start earning 10% interest today](. WORLD [Tour de headlines](#) [New Hampshire residents vote in their state primary]Joseph Prezioso/Getty Images Trump won the New Hampshire GOP primary. The former president defeated former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, the only serious challenger remaining in the field. Haley will likely now face pressure to drop out, as New Hampshire was widely considered her best and last chance to beat Trump. Next up on the Republican primary schedule is Haley’s home state, where she’s down by 30 points, according to many polls. On the Democratic side, President Joe Biden easily beat Rep. Dean Phillips despite not even appearing on the ballot (he received write-in votes instead). Biden boycotted the primary after New Hampshire refused to comply with the Democratic National Committee’s decision to make South Carolina the first state to vote. Oppenheimer led all films with 13 Oscar nominations. Christopher Nolan’s historical epic earned nods for [best picture]( best director, best actor (Cillian Murphy in the titular role), and much more. Right behind was Poor Things and Killers of the Flower Moon with 11 and 10 nominations, respectively. Oppie’s dominance marked a pivot for Academy voters, who in recent years have generally favored smaller movies over studio blockbusters. Barbie, meanwhile, garnered eight noms, including one for best picture—but director Greta Gerwig and star Margot Robbie were snubbed. The Oscars will be handed out March 10 on ABC. Condé Nast staffers walked off the job to protest layoff plans. More than 400 employees staged a [one-day walkout]( on Tuesday in response to the media giant’s plan to cut 5% of its workforce. The company, which owns Vogue, GQ, and Vanity Fair, also announced that it’s folding the music website Pitchfork into GQ, and laying off a number of its staff. A-list star Anne Hathaway reportedly walked out of a Vanity Fair photo shoot in solidarity with union members after she was informed of the work stoppage. The walkout comes amid a particularly dreadful period for online and print media, as the Los Angeles Times, Vox Media, Vice Media, and several other companies have conducted layoffs in recent months. AIRLINES [United is fed up with Boeing]( [Boeing Max 10]( Jason Redmond/Getty Images You’re over making dinner plans with your chronically flaky friend, and United feels the same way about Boeing. The airline will [no longer count]( on Boeing delivering the delayed Max 10 next-gen planes it ordered, United’s frustrated CEO Scott Kirby said on CNBC’s Squawk Box show yesterday. The smh statement from one of Boeing’s biggest customers comes after a terrifying safety incident on an Alaska Airlines flight this month led to the indefinite grounding of all 737 Max 9 jets. United has more Max 9s than any other airline, and having to send all 79 of them to the hangar has led the company to “at least build a plan” for its fleet without the Max 10. - Kirby said the Max 9 grounding became “the straw that broke the camel’s back for us” and that he wants Boeing to deal with its manufacturing woes faster. - United projects a bigger-than-predicted loss in the first quarter of 2024 and higher costs due to the plane issues. Boeing’s latest stumble follows years of quality issues and production delays, while its overseas rival Airbus thrives. The European consortium [surpassed Boeing]( as the biggest planemaker in the world in 2019: It won 2,100 net orders last year, compared to Boeing’s 1,300. Passengers are weary too…travel site Kayak said many users sought to avoid 737 planes, so it added a specific query filter for Max 9 flights.—SK   TOGETHER WITH INVESCO [Invesco]( Keep an  on innovation. Want exposure to multiple companies currently at the forefront of innovation and across an array of sectors? Invesco QQQ ETF gives you access to [100 impactful Nasdaq companies]( in a single investment. That’s right—it can be that simple. Empower tomorrow’s innovations with today’s insights [here](. Invesco Distributors, Inc. GAMING [Turns out everyone wants “Pokémon with guns”]( [Monster in Palworld on top of giant machine gun.]( Palworld/Pocket Pair The only thing better than success is success years after everyone made you a meme. The video game Palworld, which has been mockingly referred to as “Pokémon with guns” since its announcement in 2021, [sold]( over 6 million copies in its first four days and has broken at least one record on the platform Steam. Developed by Japanese company Pocket Pair, the open-world survival game allows players to build settlements, farm, and spend hours smashing rocks. You also fight and trap little monsters that closely resemble Pokémon. But in Palworld, you can violently fire machine guns at them. It’s a hit. Whether because recent (actual) Pokémon games have kinda flopped, or because gamers just appreciate that Pocket Pair created a hodgepodge of their favorite games, Palworld has taken the internet by storm. As of last night, it was the top-selling game—and the most played game—on Steam, with over 1.8 million concurrent users. Are Pikachu lookalikes legal? Some observers have pointed out that some of the creatures in Palworld are so similar to Pokémon that their 3D models [fit perfectly together](. Pocket Pair’s CEO has vehemently denied copying anything, while Pokémon-owner Nintendo has declined to comment so far. Legal experts say the games and creatures are just different enough for Palworld to get away with it.—MM   GRAB BAG [Key performance indicators](#) [A cutout of a company director sitting on a chair]Francis Scialabba Stat: If your company’s director is old enough to have hung out with William the Conqueror, that’s probably a red flag for regulators. [In a study]( of 472 million shell companies, Moody’s Analytics found 21 million “red flags” that are potentially being used to commit financial crimes. One company listed its director at a spry 942 years old. Another reported over $2 billion in revenue in 2019 despite only having one employee. Thousands of companies have directors either older than 123 or younger than five. Others registered their addresses at the Egyptian pyramids. Though many shell companies run legitimate businesses, Moody’s says that cracking down on these improprieties would help cut into the $1.6 trillion that’s laundered annually. Quote: “I’m aspirationally Jewish.” Elon Musk aspires to many things—putting humans on Mars, implanting chips into our brains, and, apparently, being Jewish. The billionaire was attending a [conference on antisemitism]( in Krakow, Poland, when he made the comment shortly after he visited the Auschwitz concentration camp, where more than a million Jews were killed during the Holocaust. Musk was criticized last year for seemingly endorsing an antisemitic post on X and for allowing antisemitism and other bigoted content to thrive on the platform following his 2022 acquisition. At the conference, Musk also said he’s “Jewish by association” because he has Jewish friends. Read: The surreal story of a woman who spent 500 days alone in a cave. ([The New Yorker]( NEWS [What else is brewing](#) - [Charles Osgood]( the longtime CBS Sunday Morning anchor and radio host, died at 91. - [The Chiefs-Bills playoff game]( broke the record for the most-watched NFL divisional round game of all time, with 56 million viewers. - [India’s stock market]( topped Hong Kong’s to become the fourth-biggest in the world. - [Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson]( received $30 million in stock awards and was given full ownership of his stage name in exchange for joining the board of TKO Group, which owns WWE and UFC. - [Apple]( reportedly delayed the launch of its self-driving car from 2026 to 2028 at the earliest. - [Gallup research]( found that unhappy employees cost US companies $1.9 trillion in lost productivity last year. RECS [Wednesday to-do list] Tour de TV: [The hotels]( where HBO is filming Season 3 of The White Lotus. Smile: A photographer trained rats to take [selfies](. Protect your info: This new [iPhone setting]( makes it a lot harder for a thief to steal money and photos off your device. Live deliciously: Yelp’s [top 100]( US restaurants for 2024. Banish bedroom anxiety: MysteryVibe’s [Tenuto 2]( is the only doc-recommended vibrator clinically proven to combat ED—aaand give both partners a climactic finish. [Take 25% off]( *A message from our sponsor. GAMES [The puzzle section](#) Word Search: Vice presidents are often overlooked, but they hog the spotlight in today’s Word Search. [Play it here](. Oscars trivia How can you resist a little Academy Awards trivia, especially the day after the nominations were announced? Here are six clues about the Oscars. If you go 6/6, you probably watch too many movies. - The individual who’s won the most Oscars (hint: He died in 1966.) - The first film to win best animated feature when the category debuted in 2001 - The actress with the most best actress wins - The actor with the most best actor wins - The youngest winner of best original screenplay - Three films have won the Big Five Academy Awards (best picture, director, actor, actress, and screenplay). Can you name one of them? SHARE THE BREW [Share Morning Brew]( with your friends, acquire free Brew swag, and then acquire more friends as a result of your fresh Brew swag. We’re saying we’ll give you free stuff and more friends if you share a link. One link. Your referral count: 0 [Click to Share]( Or copy & paste your referral link to others: [morningbrew.com/daily/r/?kid=a905682a]( ANSWER - Walt Disney - Shrek - Katharine Hepburn won four times (one was a tie with Barbra Streisand in 1969). - Daniel Day-Lewis won three times. - Ben Affleck was 25 when he won the award for Good Will Hunting with Matt Damon, who is two years older than Affleck. - It Happened One Night, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and The Silence of the Lambs Word of the Day Today’s Word of the Day is: spry, meaning “active or lively,” especially of an old person. Thanks to Kyle from Tampa, FL, for keeping us young with the suggestion. Submit another [Word of the Day here](. Tuesday’s Word of the Day was: facade, meaning “the front of a building or an artificial effect.” Thanks to Lydia from Fort Lee, NJ, for keeping it real with the suggestion—and apologies to all our WOTD-heads for leaving it out yesterday. ✢ A Note From Knightscope This is a paid advertisement for Knightscope, Inc.’s Reg A offering. Please read the offering circular at [(. Written by [Adam Epstein]( [Neal Freyman]( [Cassandra Cassidy]( Sam Klebanov, and [Matty Merritt]( Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up [here](. 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