As additional military aid for Ukraine stalls in Congress and the death of Putin’s No. 1 critic Alexei Navalny has jacked up the urgency to confront Russia, supporters of arming Ukraine are using a new persuasive tactic: They argue that helping Ukraine is a major benefit to the American economy.

At the Munich Security Conference, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told Bloomberg that plugging Ukraine with weapons would lead to more business for US defense contractors and preserve a lucrative US–Europe trading relationship that’s threatened by Putin’s aggression. And last week, President Biden’s top economic adviser Lael Brainard stressed “how important [Ukraine] funding is for employment and production around the country.”

Branding it as “investment,” not “aid”

Of the $61 billion earmarked for Ukraine, 64% would flow back to US defense contractors that make the weapons, the Biden administration said. Indeed, since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly two years ago, industrial production in the US defense and space sector has surged 17.5%, per the Fed.

That’s a reflection of orders not just from the Pentagon, but also from European governments buying new military hardware and replenishing inventory they’ve sent to Ukraine.

• Poland ordered $30 billion worth of Apache helicopters, M1A1 Abrams tanks, and other equipment.
• Germany is buying 35 F-35A Lightning jets from Lockheed Martin and 60 Chinook helicopters from Boeing in deals worth nearly $20 billion.

In terms of European purchases from US defense companies, “The past few years are equal to the prior 20 years,” military industry analyst Myles Walton told the WSJ. Military spending by Europeans has come under attack by GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump, who said he’d encourage Russia to invade NATO countries that don’t spend enough on defense.

Big picture: It’s unclear whether these economic arguments will move House Speaker Mike Johnson to take up the foreign aid bill, which has passed the Senate but faces opposition from some Trump-allied House members who are skeptical of sending more funds to Ukraine. Nothing will happen for the next two weeks, because lawmakers have left town for winter break.—NF

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Donald Trump wants to sell you sneakers. When you owe hundreds of millions of dollars, you raise money any way you can. At a sneaker convention in Philadelphia on Saturday, the former president unveiled a new sneaker line, “Never Surrender High-Tops,” one day after a judge ordered Trump to pay $355 million in a civil fraud case and three weeks after another judge ordered him to pay E. Jean Carroll $83 million in a defamation case. The gold sneakers adorned with a US flag went quickly—all 1,000 pairs priced at $399 apiece sold out in hours. Do not fret if you want athletic gear from a man who went 4-for-29 at the plate as a baseball player in high school: There are still low tops available at $199 each. The sneaker drop comes as Trump is expected to drain his fund for legal fees by the summer.

No one’s heating their home this winter. And even if you are, it’s cheaper than in the past. Natural gas prices have fallen to their lowest levels since 1995, thanks to record production and the warmest American winter on the books, the FT reported. US natural gas production reached its highest point in history in December, hitting 105.5 billion cubic feet a day in the Lower 48 states. Meanwhile, Americans haven’t felt the need to crank up the heat given the mildest winter since reliable records began in the 1950s. Surging supply and minimal demand have caused natural gas prices to plummet 50% in just one month.

Madame Web is the latest superhero movie to flop. Moviegoers were not interested in researching spiders in the Amazon. The widely panned Dakota Johnson/Sydney Sweeney vehicle made just $25.8 million at the domestic box office in its debut, the worst-ever opening for a Sony superhero movie and a major financial boondoggle, given its reported budget between $80 million and $115 million. To put the numbers into context, the universally mocked Sony project Morbius managed to make $39 million during its opening weekend in April 2022. Madame Web’s poor showing can’t be blamed on a slow overall weekend, since the Bob Marley biopic One Love amassed $33.2 million and has earned $51 million since it was released on Valentine’s Day.

A Canadian tribunal ruled in favor of a customer who was given incorrect information about bereavement fare discounts from an Air Canada chatbot, a rare win for humans in the ongoing battle against our rising AI overlords.

In 2022, Jake Moffat asked a chatbot for help booking a last-minute flight to attend his grandmother’s funeral. The chatbot told Moffat to book the flight and request a refund within 90 days. However, Air Canada denied his ~$450 refund, saying bereavement abatements cannot be applied retroactively.

Air Canada initially offered Moffat a $200 coupon and promised to update the chatbot, but Moffat decided to take the airline to a civil tribunal. The airline’s arguments included:

• The chatbot was a separate legal entity “responsible for its own actions.”
• Moffat should not have trusted the chatbot and should have double-checked the info.

One tribunal member called the arguments “remarkable,” which sounds like the polite Canadian way of saying “ridiculous.”

Call them r Canada because they’ve dropped the Ai. After the ruling, the airline appears to have removed chatbot services from its website. Finally, a robot that lost its job to a human.—DL

A historic moon landing could happen Thursday. If all goes to plan this week, a US spacecraft will land on the moon for the first time since 1972. The Odysseus lunar lander from Houston-based Intuitive Machines had a successful launch last Thursday and is on its way to the south polar region of the moon in an attempt to find water. A soft landing would be a much-needed win for NASA’s push into private partnerships: In January, the Peregrine lander from Astrobotic failed in its attempt to land on the moon.

Retail earnings season begins on Tuesday. The American shopper (aka most of you) will be the star of the show this week when Walmart and Home Depot report their earnings for the holiday quarter. Nvidia will also try to keep its historic hot streak going when it reports on Wednesday—expectations are through the roof.

Conservatives will rally around Trump at CPAC. Donald Trump, Argentinian President Javier Milei, and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem will be among the speakers at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), a prominent gathering of conservatives that kicks off Wednesday in Maryland. It’s expected to be an Apprentice-style audition for Republicans vying to become Trump’s running mate in the upcoming election.

Everything else…

• The MLS season begins Wednesday with Lionel Messi and Inter Miami facing Real Salt Lake. All matches at the outset will feature replacement officials, as the Professional Soccer Referees Association continues to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement.
• Water Tribe, rise up: A live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender hits Netflix on Thursday.
• Baseball is so back. Spring training games begin Thursday.
• Four years after he was fired from the show for making racist and homophobic comments, comedian Shane Gillis will host Saturday Night Live.

Stat: Is polyamory actually becoming more popular, or is everyone just talking about it because it’s fun to talk about? At least according to Tinder, the youths seem to be quite interested in having multiple romantic partners. Over 40% of Gen Z users were open to or seeking non-monogamous relationships, compared to 52% who prefer monogamous relationships. In total, about one-third of American singles say they’ve had a consensually non-monogamous relationship, in Match’s most recent Singles in America study.

Quote: “Apparently, Putin would never ever say his name, so I thought, tonight, people who believe in freedom, we must say his name. Not just remember it, but say it.”

On stage at the Sphere in Las Vegas, U2 frontman Bono paid tribute to Alexei Navalny, the imprisoned Russian opposition leader who died under mysterious circumstances last week. During the band’s cover of Crowded House’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over,” Bono led the audience in a chant of Navalny’s name and spoke about Ukraine’s fight against Putin’s invading forces. “To these people,” Bono said, “freedom is not just a word in a song. For these people, freedom is the most important word in the world.”

Read: A bunch of handy charts about climate. (Noahpinion)

Learn: Insiders spill their industry’s secrets that most people don’t know.

Go splitsies: One German TV show asked contestants to split things perfectly down the middle.

Lemon party: A lemon festival in the French Riviera sculpted thousands of fruits into athletes to celebrate the upcoming Olympics in Paris.

Fold and tuck: These guys know how to make a bed.

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