HigherIQ — Friday, January 23, 2026

Good morning. It's Friday, January 23rd, and welcome to your daily HigherIQ briefing. Trump's envoys just wrapped marathon overnight talks with Putin in Moscow, TikTok finally has an American owner (sort of), and a massive winter storm is about to wallop half the country. Plus, a vampire movie just shattered an Oscar record that stood for decades, and tonight you can watch a man climb a 101-story skyscraper with no ropes — live on Netflix. Let's get into it.

We'll start in Moscow, where U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met with Russian President Vladimir Putin for talks that stretched past 3 a.m. The subject: ending the war in Ukraine. The Kremlin's message was clear — the territorial issue needs to be resolved before any deal can happen. That's a reference to Moscow's demand that Kyiv withdraw its troops from the eastern regions that Russia illegally annexed in 2022 but never fully captured. The meeting came hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sharply criticized European allies at Davos for what he called their slow and fragmented response to Russia's nearly four-year invasion. "Europe looks lost," Zelenskyy said, urging the continent to become a global force rather than a collection of countries hoping someone else will solve the problem. "Europe loves to discuss the future but avoids taking action today." The issue of land concessions is expected to dominate as Russian, Ukrainian, and U.S. officials hold additional talks in the United Arab Emirates today. The big question remains whether Ukraine will accept giving up territory it considers sovereign. Zelenskyy has previously insisted that any peace deal must restore Ukraine's internationally recognized borders. Russia, which controls roughly 20 percent of Ukrainian territory, has shown no willingness to retreat. The marathon length of the Moscow meeting — and the fact that territory was the central sticking point — tells you this won't be resolved in a single summit. After nearly six years of will-they-won't-they, TikTok has finally sealed a deal to form a new American entity. The video-sharing app announced yesterday that it struck an agreement with a group of non-Chinese investors to create TikTok USDS Joint Venture. Adam Presser, who had been TikTok's head of operations, will serve as CEO of the new independent company. Here's how the ownership breaks down: ByteDance, TikTok's Chinese parent company, will retain a 19.9 percent stake — just under the threshold that would give it control. Silver Lake, Oracle, and MGX will be the managing investors. Critically, TikTok's algorithm — the secret sauce that keeps 170 million Americans glued to their phones — will be hosted in Oracle's American data centers, addressing the core national security concern that user data could be accessed by the Chinese government. The deal resolves a saga that included approximately a million twists and turns: President Trump initially threatening to ban the app during his first term in 2020, then-President Biden signing a bipartisan national security law in 2024 to force a sale, and Trump's executive orders last year keeping the app alive while he searched for a buyer. Whether this satisfies the lawmakers who wanted a complete separation from ByteDance remains to be seen — some may argue that any ByteDance stake is too much. But for the average user, nothing changes immediately. The app you've been scrolling will keep serving you videos of people doing inexplicable dances and explaining complicated topics in 60 seconds. The algorithm that knows you better than you know yourself stays intact. If you're anywhere from New Mexico to the East Coast, stock up on supplies today. A severe winter storm is expected to affect more than 200 million Americans across 2,000 miles starting tonight. The National Weather Service is warning of heavy snow, sleet, and "treacherous freezing rain" beginning in the Southwest on Friday and pushing toward the East Coast through Sunday. The most dangerous conditions are expected from Texas through the Carolinas, where significant ice accumulation could down power lines, make roads impassable, and snarl air travel for days. Airlines are already waiving change fees in anticipation of widespread cancellations. If you've got weekend plans that involve driving or flying, now's the time to adjust. In what can only be described as poetic timing, Senator Ted Cruz was spotted on a flight out of town yesterday as his home state braces for the storm. If that sounds familiar, you might remember the 2021 incident when Cruz flew to Cancun during a deadly winter storm that left millions of Texans without power. History doesn't always repeat, but sometimes it rhymes. Now for something you can watch from the safety of your couch — though you might find yourself gripping the armrests. Tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern, Netflix is broadcasting something unprecedented: Alex Honnold, the legendary rock climber who famously scaled Yosemite's El Capitan without ropes in the Oscar-winning documentary Free Solo, will attempt to climb Taipei 101. That's a 1,667-foot, 101-story skyscraper in Taiwan's capital. With no ropes. No harness. No safety net. Live. If he makes it, it will be the highest urban free solo climb ever completed. Netflix is airing the two-hour event with a 10-second delay — just in case something goes wrong that viewers shouldn't see. Honnold hopes to finish in under two-and-a-half hours. The hardest part will be the middle 64 floors, which feature distinctive overhanging sections resembling bamboo boxes. Each one requires him to climb nearly 100 feet of steep terrain before reaching a balcony where he can rest briefly. Then he does it again. Eight times total. When asked about the risks — Honnold is now married with two young children — he told the New York Times that his calculations haven't changed much. He's reportedly being paid mid-six figures for the climb. No, he doesn't have life insurance. Honnold has spent over a decade dreaming about climbing this particular building, and he describes the challenge as "the perfect sweet spot where it's hard enough to be engaging for me and obviously an interesting climb." The Oscar nominations dropped yesterday, and a vampire movie just made history. Ryan Coogler's Sinners received 16 nominations — more than any film ever. That breaks the record of 14 previously held by Titanic, La La Land, and All About Eve. The film earned nominations for best picture, best director for Coogler, and best actor for Michael B. Jordan, who plays twin brothers running a juke joint in 1930s Mississippi. It's Jordan's first Oscar nomination. Sinners isn't your typical horror film. Set during the Jim Crow era, it uses vampires as an allegory for the horrors Black Americans faced in the South — racism, violence, and the constant threat of having everything taken from you. Coogler has said the film is a love letter to his late uncle from Mississippi. The film also notched nominations for supporting actors Delroy Lindo and Wunmi Mosaku. Coming in second with 13 nominations is Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another, starring Leonardo DiCaprio. The Oscars air March 15 on ABC, hosted by Conan O'Brien. A few quick hits before we go. Markets continued climbing for a second day after Trump backed off his Europe and Greenland threats — the Nasdaq was up about 1 percent, with the S&P and Dow each gaining around half a percent. President Trump filed a $5 billion lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase and Jamie Dimon yesterday, accusing the bank of closing his accounts for political reasons after January 6th. JPMorgan says the lawsuit has no merit. The timing is notable: Dimon had just criticized Trump in Davos, calling the president's proposed credit card rate cap an "economic disaster". And finally, something a little quieter. Deep in the Ecuadorian Andes, an ancient forest called the Yanacocha Reserve has become the last sanctuary for the Black-breasted puffleg, a tiny hummingbird teetering on the edge of extinction. Measuring just 3.5 inches, it's one of the most threatened species on the planet. The International Union for Conservation of Nature estimates that only 150 to 200 of these birds remain in the world. They're identifiable by the striking white feathers around their legs — like tiny trousers — which contrast with their deep metallic black chests. Conservationists founded the reserve 25 years ago to protect this single species, but they've ended up preserving an entire ecosystem. "We realized we were conserving an entire ecosystem, not just one species," one conservationist told the Associated Press. It's a reminder that sometimes saving one small thing means saving much more — and that these fragile corners of the world deserve our attention even when the headlines are loud. That's your briefing for this Friday. If you're in the storm's path, stay safe this weekend. If you're watching Honnold climb tonight, maybe keep a pillow nearby to hide behind. Stay informed, stay curious, and we'll see you tomorrow for Saturday's briefing.