Fortress Russia | Elon’s Space Junk | Sony’s Deal Replay

Plus: 10 Things You Didn’t Know, Or Forgot, About The Beijing Olympics That Have Nothing To Do With Triple Axels

Good morning.

The Biden administration warned on Monday that the Kremlin’s “inner circle” would bear the cost of a further escalation in Ukraine but President Vladimir Putin’s long-standing plan to fortify Russia’s economy could dent the impact of new sanctions. We also learn if Elon Musk can get sued for crashing a rocket on the Moon, and how Sony has responded to Microsoft’s video games landgrab with its own deal to buy Destiny studio Bungie. And finally, here are the ten things you need to know about the pandemic-stricken Winter Olympics in Beijing.

In The News Today

A close relative of the omicron coronavirus variant—known as BA.2 —is more infectious and better at infecting vaccinated people, a Danish study has found, sparking concerns of an even more transmissible strain as it rapidly outpaces other variants around the world.

As diplomatic talks continue to avert further conflict in Ukraine, the Biden Administration confirmed on Monday that it was preparing personal sanctions against the Kremlin’s elite “inner circle”.

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Stocks are off to an ugly start for this year with the S&P 500 posting its worst month since March 2020. Here are eight numbers charting January’s wild ride for investors.

In early March, anyone who might be secretly living on the far side of the Moon will be experiencing their very own “Don’t Look Up” situation with a discarded SpaceX rocket expected to smash into the lunar surface. That poses the question: can SpaceX be held liable for its space junk?

How can Russian President Vladimir Putin afford the costs—both direct and indirect—of a possible new war in Ukraine? Building one of the world’s largest gold reserves is just one part of his “Fortress Russia” strategy.

The Northeast has mostly dug out from a historic nor’easter that brought blizzard conditions and travel across much of the Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast to a standstill. The financial hit for airlines from this weekend’s 5,000 canceled flights might be smaller than you might think.

A wave of consolidation in the video game industry has seen Sony swoop on Bungie, the studio behind the Halo franchise, for $3.6 billion just two weeks after Microsoft announced its blockbuster $75 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Viral puzzle game Wordle has also been snapped by the New York Times.

While a flurry of Federal Election Commission filings has revealed that megadonor and hedge fund tycoon George Soros has poured $125 million into a super-PAC ahead of the midterms, while West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, who has stalled much of President Joe Biden’s agenda over the last year, has attracted donations from at least 25 billionaires, including at least 10 who previously backed Donald Trump.

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As companies increase their reliance on cloud providers to store vital data, a rash of outages from Amazon Web Services (AWS) has riled clients, with some looking to hedge their bets with access to other platforms.

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Leadership development professionals must focus on helping employees ascend to reach their full potential through three areas: mental and psychological safety; belonging; and esteem.

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