The Pandas Are Live in D.C.

It's been a whirlwind of a week. President Trump took office Monday, and the news cycle hasn’t seen a break since. On day one, the president made some sweeping executive actions, pardoning several of the January 6th rioters and signing an order to redefine birthright.

On day two, President Trump announced that OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle would partner on a new, $500 billion AI infrastructure “company” called Stargate. According to news reports, Stargate is a massive private-sector investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States. However, not all his tech buddies were bursting at the seams. Elon shared some interesting and slightly awkward comments on X following the announcement. In other AI news, DeepSeek unveiled its R1 model, which the Chinese startup claims meets, if not exceeds, the performance of OpenAI’s o1 model released last year.

In other Trump news, on Thursday, he signed an executive order to declassify files related to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. Honestly, I’m here for this – what happened to JFK?

The World Economic Forum took place this week. Many executives and delegates spent the majority of time early in the week watching the U.S. from afar as Trump took office. AI, climate, and social media were among the hot topics discussed in Davos. Spain’s Prime Minister took the stage mid-week, pushing the EU to rein in social media and enforce an “EU digital identity wallet.”

In the U.S., competitors are rushing in to fill the TikTok void following last week’s pending ban. Since taking office, President Trump has signaled he may save the app from complete banishment as he welcomes a U.S. buyer. Until then, he’s signed an executive order halting the banishment and providing a liability shield to business partners of the popular video app. According to?the order, it's a 75-day pause, and companies that work with TikTok will not be liable for doing so.

In other app news, the co-founder of travel search engine Kayak has launched a new app called Steppin. The app locks consumers out of social media until you go for a walk. I'd also like it to remind me to move the laundry to the dryer and take out the garbage.

CNN was plagued by layoffs this week. Nearly 200 employees were laid off as the news organization announced a shift toward digital growth and prepares to launch a streaming service. Unfortunately, Los Angeles County is still battling Santa Ana winds and ramped fires. Thousands have evacuated after another fire, the Hughes Fire, broke out on Wednesday. Further South, firefighters battle a brushfire near UCSD on Thursday. While parts of the Midwest and East Coast are faced with snow and ice.

And while pigs still can’t fly, Bourbon Street saw snow for the first time. And if you’re looking for new videos, in the absence of TikTok, the Pandas have arrived and have their own livestream.

Happy Friday and good luck for those still holding on to Dry January. You're almost there.

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President Trump 2.0 First Five Days

• Trump Pushes for Early Renegotiation of U.S. Trade Deal With Mexico, Canada
• Trump Says He Intends to Impose 10% Tariffs on Chinese Imports on Feb. 1
• A List of Trump’s Key Executive Orders—So Far
• Tech Leaders Pledge Up to $500 Billion in AI Investment in U.S.
• Government website offering information on reproductive rights goes dark on Trump’s first day
• Trump announces 25% tariffs coming to Canada and Mexico on Feb. 1
• These tech leaders have jobs in the Trump administration
• 3 of the Most Important Trump Executive Orders on Climate
• Trump’s War on DEI Freezes Diversity Work Across Federal Government
• Trump signed an order ending DEI. Here’s what it means for Fortune 500 companies

• News: Reddit Users Boycott X Links After Elon Musk’s Gesture at Inaugural Event
• News: College isn’t dead to Gen Z yet. Enrollment just hit a post-pandemic high
• News: Professors teaching Gen Z say they’re more anxious than millennials and have already given up on the American Dream
• Health: The Alcohol Industry Is Hooked on Its Heaviest Drinkers
• Health: How diversifying the medical profession leads to better health outcomes for all
• Health: The Dueling Science Behind How Alcohol Affects Your Health
• Travel: These Frequent Fliers Are Done With Loyalty Programs
• Travel: Sustainable Travel: Maximizing Visitors’ Positive Impact on Locals
• Travel: Prices: A Mixed Outlook on Flights, Hotels and Cruises
• Tech: OpenAI’s ‘Operator’ Agent Can Buy Groceries, File Expense Reports
• Tech: Trump Signs Executive Order in Attempt to Stall TikTok Ban
• Tech: American TikTokers Get a Taste of Chinese Censorship as They Rush to RedNote
• Tech: The Internet Should Be ‘Neutral,’ but Congress Should Not
• Tech: Stripe mistakenly sent some workers an image of a duck as it announced 300 lay offs
• Tech: OpenAI’s new Operator is a step into AI’s agentic future
• Tech: ‘The Brutalist’ used AI voice editing. Is that such a crime?
• Tech: ‘Students will benefit from fewer distractions in the classroom’: Pinterest CEO supports phone-free schools
• Tech: Apple is facing a ‘fork in the road year’ on AI, but has one clear advantage, analysts say
• Tech: Meta Spending to Soar on AI, Massive Data Center
• Auto: Jeep Maker Stellantis Brings Back American Classics After CEO Exit
• Business: UnitedHealthcare Announces New C.E.O.
• Business: Netflix Raises Prices Across Plans, Reports Record Jump in New Subscribers
• Business: CEOs Launch War Rooms, Hotlines to Cope With Trump’s Order Blitz
• Business: Top Companies for Customer Satisfaction
• Business/DEI: The D.E.I. Retreat Has Some Notable Holdouts
• Business/DEI: Costco upholds its DEI policies as Amazon and Walmart scale theirs back
• Business/DEI: How Trump’s Assault on DEI Will Ripple Across Corporate America
• Workplace: 40% of stressed out business leaders are considering leaving their roles and it’s creating a ‘structural breakdown’ in the talent pipeline
• Entrepreneurship: Meet the Gen Zers who launched their side hustles before even starting high school—now they’re making a fortune as their own bosses
• Impact: Michael Bloomberg to fund UN climate body after Trump exits Paris agreement
• Impact: If you think Big Oil is trying to manipulate you on social media—you’re right
• Impact: 47% of the EU’s electricity now comes from clean energy
• Personal Finance: U.S. credit card defaults soar; total debt hits 12-year high
• Personal Finance: American Express CFO says spending picked up at year-end, thanks to millennials and Gen Z
• Personal Finance: 61% of young adults are financially stressed, report finds. Here’s one safety net that can help
• VC: Baton, led by a former Zillow executive, raises $10 million to help small businesses find buyers.
• Housing: U.S. Homes Sales in 2024 Fell to Lowest Level in Nearly 30 Years
• Politics: Musk Plan for Retooling Government Takes Shape, but Big Questions Loom
• International: Hamas Names Four Hostages It Says Will Be Released Saturday
• Food: Egg Prices Are High. They Will Likely Go Higher.
• Design: Lego’s new brick set is a science class in a box
• Retail: Retail apocalypse: 15,000 stores could close in 2025, with Party City, Big Lots, Walgreens, 7-Eleven, Macy’s on the doomed list
• Retail: Target rolls back DEI initiatives, the latest big company to retreat
• Marketing: How TikTok’s near-death experience actually boosted the brand
• Workplace: Return-to-office policies are ‘creeping up,’ researcher says. Many workers would rather quit