The 2026 Winter Olympics kicked off in Milan, Italy, featuring a vibrant opening ceremony, while the business world saw significant developments, including a weight-loss drug withdrawal and company restructuring. The opening ceremony, held at Milan's San Siro Stadium, included fireworks, a performance by Mariah Carey, and a dancing stovetop espresso maker, according to NPR Politics.
Simultaneously, Hims & Hers Health Inc. announced it would stop selling a copycat version of Wegovy, a new weight-loss pill, just two days after its launch. This decision followed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's crackdown on such treatments, as reported by Fortune. Novo Nordisk AS, the maker of the original Wegovy, had called the move illegal and threatened action. Analysts had previously hailed the new Wegovy pill as a successful drug launch.
In the corporate sector, Jack Dorsey's Block Inc. began a business overhaul, potentially cutting up to 10% of its workforce. Fortune reported that the payments firm was notifying hundreds of employees about possible job eliminations during annual performance reviews. The company, which had fewer than 11,000 employees as of late-November, is retooling its business model and staffing since 2024 to operate more efficiently.
Meanwhile, the Super Bowl continues to dominate American television, drawing massive audiences despite potential drops from last year's record-breaking viewership. According to Fortune, the 2025 Super Bowl attracted nearly 128 million TV viewers, the most-watched program in U.S. history. Even if this year's broadcast, on NBC, sees a decrease, it is still expected to draw twice the audience of any other live U.S. television program. The NFL's championship's success is attributed to its scarcity.
In other news, the next generation of nuclear energy is seeing a tipping point as Meta and other hyperscalers begin dealmaking with companies like Bill Gates’ TerraPower and Sam Altman-backed Oklo, according to Fortune. Chris Levesque, a former Navy submarine operator, joined TerraPower a decade ago and realized the nuclear sector had stalled for decades. The only major U.S. expansion in nearly 30 years was the Vogtle project in Georgia, which took 15 years and cost over $35 billion, more than double the planned budget and timeline.
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