For years, pharmaceutical companies have been racing to develop a market-ready GLP-1 weight-loss pill to join the ranks of popular injectables. Today, Novo Nordisks oral version of Wegovy is officially available for purchase.
The Wegovy pillwhich has been in clinical trials for over two years and was approved by the FDA on December 22is the first and only oral GLP-1 medication for weight loss in adults available in the U.S. According to a press release from Novo Nordisk, the pill hit the market on January 5 at more than 70,000 U.S. pharmacies and several popular telehealth providers.
Per a KFF health tracking poll released in November, 1 in 8 Americans were already taking a GLP-1 medication for weight-loss. The new Wegovy pill likely represents an incoming era of even more widespread access to GLP-1 weight-loss drugs.
We know there are people who are interested in addressing their weight but have been waiting on the sidelines for a medicine that was right for them, Ed Cinca, Novo Nordisks senior vice president of marketing and patient solutions, said in the press release. For many of them, he added, the wait is over.
As of this writing, Novo Nordisks stock is up about 4% since the announcement. Heres what to know about the companys new pill.
How much does the Wegovy pill cost?
Like the injectable version of Wegovy, its pill form will require a prescription from a doctor. Its available in multiple doses, including 1.5 milligrams (which is considered a starter dose, to help the body build up a tolerance), 4 mg, 9 mg, and 25 mg.
Novo Nordisk says prices for self-pay patients will start at $149 per month for the 1.5 mg dose. The 4 mg dose will also be available for $149 per month through April 15, 2026, then $199 per month after. The highest dose of 25 mg will be available for $299 per month.
Where is the Wegovy pill available?
Starting today, the Wegovy pill is available at more than 70,000 pharmacies, including CVS and Costco, as well as telehealth providers like Ro, LifeMD, Weight Watchers, NovoCare Pharmacy (Novo Nordisks direct-to-patient service), GoodRx, and more.
For its part, GoodRx (which is a healthcare company that provides coupons and savings to be applied in pharmacies) announced in its own press release that it will help consumers access the Wegovy pill at a variety of pharmacies for its lowest price of $149 per month at the 1.5 mg and 4 mg dosages. The news comes after GoodRx first joined forces with Novo Nordisk in September to offer the lowest-ever out-of-pocket prices for injectable Ozempic and Wegovy.
Stocks rose in morning trading on Wall Street Monday to kick off the first full week of the new year, led by energy and technology companies.
The S&P 500 rose 0.7%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 639 points, or 1.3%, as of 10:55 a.m. Eastern. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.8%.
Markets in Asia and Europe were mostly higher.
Energy companies and the oil market were a key focus after U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a weekend raid. The price of U.S. crude jumped 1.4% to $58.13 per barrel. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, rose 1.2% to $61.50 per barrel.
President Donald Trump has floated a plan for U.S. oil companies to help rebuild Venezuelas oil industry. Chevron surged 5% and Exxon Mobil rose 2% for some of the strongest gains in the market.
After years of neglect and international sanctions, Venezuelas oil industry is in disrepair. It could take years and major investments before production can increase dramatically. But some analysts expect its current output of about 1.1 million barrels a day could double or triple fairly quickly.
Big banks also made solid gains. JPMorgan Chase rose 3.4% and Bank of America jumped 2.6%.
Wall Street is also watching the technology sector as the industry kicks off its annual CES trade show in Las Vegas. Nvidia rose 0.3% and Intel jumped 2%.
Investors are particularly focused on advancements in artificial intelligence, or AI. The sector led the broader market to a series of records in 2025 on expectations that AI will continue to drive advancements and profits for a wide range of technology companies. The latest updates on AI from influential technology companies could help shed more light on whether the big investments are worth the potential financial risks.
Companies like Nvidia have been heavily investing in the technology, while investors on Wall Street have made those companies among the most valuable in the world. Their outsized valuations now drive much of the movement for major indexes.
Gold gained 2.8% and the price of silver soared 8%. Such assets are often considered safe havens in times of geopolitical turmoil. The metals have notched record prices over the last year amid lingering economic concerns brought on by conflicts and trade wars.
Treasury yields held relatively steady in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.18% from 4.19% late Friday. The yield on the two-year Treasury, which moves more closely with expectations for what the Federal Reserve will do, fell to 3.46% from 3.48% late Friday.
Wall Street will get several economic updates this week that will also be watched by the Fed as it determines interest rate policy.
On Monday, the Institute for Supply Management released its manufacturing index for December showing the sector continued shrinking. More importantly, the business group will release its December report on the services sector on Wednesday. The services sector makes up the bulk of the U.S. economy and it grew, even if only slightly, throughout most of 2025.
Reports on the job market later this week, which include updates for job openings and overall employment, will be a bigger focus for the Fed. The central bank has been weighing a slowing job market against risks for rising inflation as it decides whether to cut interest rates. It cut its benchmark rate three times late in 2025, but inflation has remained above its 2% target and that has made the Fed more cautious.
Wall Street still expects the Fed to hold rates steady at its upcoming meeting later in January.
Damian J. Troise, AP business writer
AP business writer Elaine Kurtenbach and AP video journalist Mayuko Ono contributed to this report.
While most EVs tip the scales at several tons, a new featherweight electric sports car weighs half as muchor lessthan others on the road.
Longbow, the U.K.-based startup behind the sleek EV, plans to bring its first vehicle to market later this year with a limited run of 150 cars, starting at 84,995, or roughly $110,000. A high-performance version of the design is on display at CES this week.
The companys aim is to reverse the car industrys weight problemsomething that’s especially an issue for EVs that have large batteries inside. Heavier vehicles have bigger carbon footprints, use more energy, and are more dangerous in a crash for pedestrians. They also wear out roads faster (as well as tires, which spew more microplastic pollution the more weight they carry).
[Photo: Longbow Motors]
Everything gets better when you remove weight, says Mark Tapscott, cofounder and CTO at Longbow. Still, most of the industry has been moving in the opposite direction.
We really see automotive in generaland EVs specificallyare getting increasingly heavier,” says Longbow CEO Daniel Davey. “When they become heavier, that requires more resources, requires bigger batteries, bigger motors. It’s kind of the opposite of marginal gains.”
The Chevy Silverado, for example, can weigh as much as 8,900 pounds. Even the smaller Nissan Leaf can weigh 4,200 pounds. Longbows Speedster weighs around 1,973 pounds.
[Photo: Longbow Motors]
A lighter car, by design
The car uses lightweight materials, prioritizing options with the lowest environmental impact. A lot of manufacturers will move towards carbon fiber, but it is the single worst material you can use for the environment, says Tapscott. It breaks easily. It’s difficult to maintain. You wear out the car quickly. Instead, the car uses a custom aluminum chassis designed to maximum stiffness while minimizing weight. It also includes natural fiber composites and thermoplastics.
Each design decision was made with lightness in mind. The handbrake is manual, for example, which makes it weigh less, but also makes it more effective and cheaper and quicker to develop.
The design team kept the car intentionally simple. Instead of chasing unnecessary specslike a 600-mile battery range when a typical commute might be 30 miles, or a four-second sprint from zero to 60the design is pared down to the essentials.
[Photo: Longbow Motors]
It’s similar to the approach that the startup Slate has taken as it works on a low-cost electric truck. “What they’ve done in the truck space I think is kind of revolutionary,” says Davey. “Because they’re saying, ‘You know all those things you pay loads of money that you don’t need? Well, you could not have them and not pay all the money if you’d like.’ And I think people like that idea.”
[Photo: Longbow Motors]
The world doesn’t need faster numbers,” says Tapscott. “It needs better experiences. And so that’s why we talk about what the car is, what it does, how it feels, rather than what battery chemistry we have.
They took time to find the right off-the-shelf components for the vehicle. The car on display at CES has innovative motors built into each wheel. The company hasn’t yet announced whether that feature will be available in the first cars that come out this year, but it’s another way that it can cut weight even further.
[Image: Donut Labs]
A typical drivetrain, with a central motor that connects to each wheel, might have around 100 parts that can weigh a couple of hundred pounds and take up valuable space. By placing motors in the wheels, it eliminates those components and works more efficiently. Donut Labs, the Finnish startup that designed the new motors, says that they can also reduce the cost of making a vehicle by $1,000 to $2,000. Having motors in the wheels also makes cars more responsive.
“It makes the car drive in a way that you cannot experience otherwise,” says Marko Lehtimäki, CEO of Donut Labs.
[Photo: Longbow Motors]
A more sustainable car that’s longer-lasting
Because of Longbow’s careful approach to sustainability, manufacturing the car has a lower carbon footprint than a typical gas car. When it’s driven, it also uses less electricity per mile than other EVs because it weighs less. (The lower weight also means that it can have a range of up to 280 miles on a charge, even though it uses a smaller battery than a typical EV.)
The company also designed the car to last as long as possiblewith an unprecedented pledge to help keep each car on the road for 100 years. The first step: trying to design a classic car that people will want to keep for life rather than replace.
[Photo: Longbow Motors]
“It has to start with design,” says Tapscott. “No one wants to drive the Fiat Multipla anymore because it was the ugliest car ever built. So a core tenet of being available for a hundred years is that people want the car. Desirability. We looked at design that is timeless, not radically modern. We are drawing more inspiration from cars of the past.”
The materials are also made to last. The aluminum chassis, for example, won’t rust or corrode. The parts are designed for repair. When possible, the engineers chose 3D printing for certain parts, like clips or brackets, so that they can easily be remade later on demand decades from now.
[Photo: Longbow Motors]
The car is also designed to be fun to driveanother way, obviously, to convince drivers to keep the same car in use longer. The light weight is an important part of the experience.
“I think most people today haven’t actually experienced what a lightweight car is like to drive,” says Tapscott. “Even a lightweight hatchback or economy [sedan] are all well over 3,000 pounds or so. So when you start driving something that’s under 2,000 pounds, everything changes. The way it handles corners, under acceleration, under braking, everything gets better when you get lighter. I think any racing driver will explain that the weight is the most important thing you have.”
[Photo: Longbow Motors]
Their aim is to design the best sports car in the world, not just the best electric version. “You need to meet people where they are,” says Tapscott. “And you need to meet petrol on an even playing field, and do that with a really aspirational car that’s better. It just happens that it has one full green credential as well.”
That mandate will extend beyond sports cars, though that’s where the company is beginning. “Our mission is to quickly make all cars better and lighter for people and the planet,” says Davey. “That’s really by showing a way to an industry that has lost itself by just adding all this excess weight to everything that they do.”
When I was Chief of Staff at CoinDesk, I was in charge of the publication’s approach to AI. One of the earliest debates our internal AI committee had was about whether we should allow AI to index our articles or not.
Most of the people on the committee thought we should block AI crawlers. While the fury of media copyright lawsuits had yet to begin, the issue had gotten some traction, and it was easy to make the case that we shouldn’t give our content away to AI companies to summarize unless we were compensated in some way.
But one person boldly made the case for the other side: He argued that, if AI becomes the new way people find information, shutting ourselves out of AI services would mean our storiesand more broadly, the ongoing narratives around themwould be cut out of the amalgamated answers that the people using AI would read. We would be conceding that ground to competitors to not just get referrals (which, we knew even then, would be few), but to establish consensus. We would no longer be the authority on the things we write about, at least for those who find information through AI portals.
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The cost of silence
Little did I know that largely academic debate at the time would become the centerpiece of the AI conversation nearly three years later. Today, information presence in AI summariesfor brands, for public relations, and for the mediais of great interest, and poorly understood. For publishers, the issues of copyright and compensation are ongoing. But regardless of how those conflicts are resolved, AI has become the primary interpreter of their content for a large and growing audience.
The committee didn’t have a name for it back then, but the idea of taking the opposite course of blocking, and actually encouraging AI to index your content, is now called generative engine optimization or GEO (sometimes the first word is substituted for “answer,” or AEO). When I’ve previously written about GEO, it was mostly in the context of why publishers would even want to do it. After all, if AI is taking your content and summarizing it without sending users to your site, what’s the benefit?
There are reasons, but I think it’s more informative to flip the question around: What’s the cost if you don’t? And that is relinquishing your influence on the consensus around the topics in your domain.
The risk isn’t the loss in trafficthat’s lost anyway. Audiences are turning to AI as their information guides no matter what publishers do. What a publisher risks losing is their role as the chief interpreter of events. By reporting facts and validating claims, journalists have historically set the baseline for others to react to. Without those inputs, AI will paint a poor picture of reality.
The thing is, even if a publisher opts out of AI summarization, there will always be someone else who republishes the information who doesn’t (an important foundational concept of copyright law is that, although works are copyrightable, the underlying facts and ideas aren’t). Except now that set of facts is put through their lens, and that will define the first draft that machines reuse. Will the answer be inadequate and incomplete? Probably. But as use of AI increases, it’ll be what most interpret as the truth.
That’s why I think framing AI blocking as an existential dilemma kind of misses the point. Blocking AI from indexing your content means blocking yourself from having a say in what a rapidly expanding portion of the world counts as truth. A publisher prioritizing GEO means finding the value in what can’t be captured by traditional metrics like traffic and time on site. Victory in the new battleground of the AI summary will be measured by a different set of criteria: citations in AI answers, influence on narratives, and long-tail impact on trust and authority.
Shaping truth at scale
None of this is to say publishers should just let the AI companies crawl as much as they want and settle for no compensation. If anything, measuring and showing that your content is the source of consensus is hard proof of how valuable the content is. Lawsuits naturally focus on consent, copyright, and compensation, but the rise of GEO reveals what’s really being contested: Who gets to shape meaning at scale.
Demonstrating how specific content influences AI answers is currently a challenge, but that’s about to change. Led by marketers, PR agencies, and brands, there’s a strong push to better understand GEO and how strategies around content, technical factors, and communication can help AI take notice of certain narratives over others. Like SEO, it will always be more art than science, but by this time next year I suspect the field of GEO won’t look nearly so nascent.
On top of that, AI will be an even bigger informational gatekeeper than it is today. Litigation over compensation is important and necessary, but it shouldn’t keep the media from competing to be included in the new crucible where truth is formed. Journalists may no longer control the interfaces where people get information, but they still control the facts. Asserting that role in an AI world doesn’t mean you stop fighting for a better one.
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A massive 243-kilogram (535-pound) bluefin tuna sold for a record 510 million yen ($3.2 million) at the first auction of 2026 at Tokyo’s Toyosu fish market.The top bidder for the prized tuna at the predawn auction on Monday was Kiyomura Corp., whose owner Kiyoshi Kimura runs the popular Sushi Zanmai chain. Kimura, who has won the annual action many times in the past, broke the previous record of 334 million yen ($2.1 million) he set in 2019.Kimura later told reporters he was hoping to pay a bit less for it, but “the price shot up before you knew it.”The auction started when the bell rang, and the floor was filled with torpedo-shaped fish with their tails cut off so bidders could examine meat details such as color, texture and fattiness while walking around the rows of tuna.The pricey fish was caught off the coast of Oma in northern Japan, a region widely regarded for producing some of the country’s finest tuna, and costs 2.1 million yen ($13,360) per kilogram ($6,060 per pound).“It’s in part for good luck,” Kimura said. “But when I see a good looking tuna, I cannot resist I haven’t sampled it yet, but it’s got to be delicious.”Hundreds of tuna are sold daily at the early morning auction, but prices are significantly higher than usual for the Oma tuna, especially at the celebratory New Year auction.Due to the popularity of tuna for sushi and sashimi, Pacific bluefin tuna was previously a threatened species due to climate change and overfishing, but its stock is recovering following conservation efforts.
Associated Press
With the start of the New Year squarely behind us, it’s once again time for the annual CES trade show to shine a spotlight on the latest tech that companies plan to offer in 2026.The multiday event, organized by the Consumer Technology Association, kicks off this week in Las Vegas, where advances across industries like robotics, healthcare, vehicles, wearables, gaming and more are set to be on display.Artificial intelligence will be anchored in nearly everything, again, as the tech industry explores offerings consumers will want to buy. AI industry heavyweight Jensen Huang will be taking the stage to showcase Nvidia’s latest productivity solutions, and AMD CEO Lisa Su will keynote to “share her vision for delivering future AI solutions.” Expect AI to come up in other keynotes, like from Lenovo’s CEO, Yuanqing Yang.The AI industry is tackling issues in healthcare, with a particular emphasis on changing individual health habits to treat conditions such as Beyond Medicine’s prescription app focused on a particular jaw disorder or addressing data shortages in subjects such as breast milk production.Expect more unveils around domestic robots too. Korean tech giant LG already has announced it will show off a helper bot named “CLOiD,” to handle a range of household tasks. Hyundai also is announcing a major push on robotics and manufacturing advancements. Extended reality, basically a virtual training ground for robots and other physical AI, is also in the buzz around CES.In 2025, more than 141,000 attendees from over 150 countries, regions, and territories attended CES. Organizers expect around the same numbers for this year’s show, with more than 3,500 exhibitors across the floor space this week.The AP spoke with CTA Executive Chair and CEO Gary Shapiro about what to expect for CES 2026. The conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
What are the main themes we can expect this week?
Well, we have a lot at this year’s show.Obviously, using AI in a way that makes sense for people. We’re seeing a lot in robotics. More robots and humanoid-looking robots than we’ve ever had before.We also see longevity in health, there’s a lot of focus on that. All sorts of wearable devices for almost every part of the body. Technology is answering healthcare’s gaps very quickly and that’s great for everyone.Mobility is big with not only self-driving vehicles but also with boats and drones and all sorts of other ways of getting around. That’s very important.And of course, content creation is always very big.Is 2026 the year we finally see humanoid robots in people’s homes?You are seeing humanoid robots right now. It sometimes works, sometimes doesn’t.But yes, there are more and more humanoid robots. And when we talk about CES five, 10, 15, 20 years now, we’re going to see an even larger range of humanoid robots.Obviously, last year we saw a great interest in them. The number one product of the show was a little robotic dog that seems so life-like and fun, and affectionate for people that need that type of affection.But of course, the humanoid robots are just one aspect of that industry. There’s a lot of specialization in robot creation, depending on what you want the robot to do. And robots can do many things that humans can’t.
Will we start seeing more innovative use of AI tools in entertainment?
AI is the future of creativity.Certainly AI itself may be arguably creative, but the human mind is so unique that you definitely get new ideas that way. So I think the future is more of a hybrid approach, where content creators are working with AI to craft variations on a theme or to better monetize what they have to a broader audience.
Any interesting AI-powered devices or services that consumers will want to buy?
We’re seeing all sorts of different devices that are implementing AI. But we have a special focus at this show, for the first time, on the disability community. Verizon set this whole stage up where we have all different ways of taking this technology and having it help people with disabilities and older people.
Are you concerned about a potential AI bubble?
Well, there’s definitely no bubble when it comes to what AI can do. And what AI can do is perform miracles and solve fundamental human problems in food production and clean air and clean water. Obviously in healthcare, it’s gonna be overwhelming.But this was like the internet itself. There was a lot of talk about a bubble, and there actually was a bubble. The difference is that in late 1990s there were basically were no revenue models. Companies were raising a lot of money with no plans for revenue.These AI companies have significant revenues today, and companies are investing in it.What I’m more concerned about, honestly, is not Wall Street and a bubble. Others can be concerned about that. I’m concerned about getting enough energy to process all that AI. And at this show, for the first time, we have a Korean company showing the first ever small-scale nuclear-powered energy creation device. We expect more and more of these people rushing to fill this gap because we need the energy, we need it clean and we need a kind of all-of-the-above slution.
Shawn Chen, AP Technology Editor
Is cable television truly dead? The markets are about to test the hypothesis.
Shares of Versant Media Group began trading on the Nasdaq Monday under the ticker symbol VSNT, effectively completing Versant’s spinoff from parent company Comcast Corporation.
Versant comprises a bundle of cable television networks and similar digital businesses, with notable properties including MS NOW (formerly MSNBC), CNBC, USA Network, Golf Channel, Oxygen, E!, and SYFY.
It also includes online platforms such as Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, GolfNow, GolfPass, and SportsEngine.
Peacock, the popular streaming service owned by NBCUniversal, will remain under the Comcast umbrella, as will the NBC broadcast network and the cable channel Bravo.
How is Versant performing on its first trading day?
Before trading commenced on Monday, Versant shares were trading at $46.65. Shares had been offered as when-issued stocks on December 15 for $55 per share.
In early trading on Monday, Versant stock fell more than 12% shortly after the markets opened. The stock was trading at under $41 a share as of this writing.
Versant is going public at a time when cable television subscriptions are at a multi-year low, challenged by online streaming services. A report from S&P Global, published in December, found that traditional cable subscriptions peaked way back in 2012 at more than 101 million American households.
Last year, penetration levels were less than half of that.
There have been recent glimmers of hope, however: During the third quarter of 2025, pay TV operators actually added more than 300,000 subscribers, the first net gain in eight years, when 318,000 new net subscribers were added during the third quarter of 2017, according to a research report from MoffettNathanson.
“Scale, strategy, and leadership”
Mark Lazarus, Versants CEO, says he is optimistic about the new company’s future. “As a standalone company, we enter the market with the scale, strategy and leadership to grow and evolve our business model,” Lazarus said in a statement to Fast Company.
Versant’s stock will be closely watched by media investors who are awaiting the fate of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), which last month agreed to be acquired by Netflix.
That deal does not include WBD’s cable networks, which include CNN, TNT, and many others, and which are expected to be spun off into their own company. However, rival Paramount Skydance has been aggressively pursuing the entire company with hostile takeover bids.
When the conservative TV network Newsmax went public last year, shares initially topped $265 at the beginning of April. But as of January 5, they are trading at less than $8.
Versants spinoff from Comcast was originally announced back in November 2024. A filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) showed that during 2024, Versants assets generated more than $7 billion in revenue, which was a decline from the two previous years.
In his reflections on the 2025 Wall Street Journal CEO Council summit held in December, WSJ Leadership Institute president Alan Murray noted that CEOs are not actually preoccupied with AI, tariffs, or geopolitics. Instead, theyre focused on something far more fundamental: people and culture. How do you build an organization that can adapt, collaborate, and innovate amid persistent volatility?
That instinct is correct. Yet one of the most effective tools for strengthening culture and developing talent remains surprisingly underusedskills-based volunteering (SBV).
In a world shaped by geopolitical conflict, climate disruptions, pandemic aftershocks, and unpredictable supply chains, companies need employees who can navigate complexity with creativity and resilience. Skills-based volunteering is a proven, powerful way to build those capabilities while contributing meaningfully to communities and giving employees the purposeful work they crave. SBV is unlocking the next wave in talent potential and catalyzing the workforce of the future.
WHY SBV DESERVES MORE CORPORATE ATTENTION
SBV matches employees professional expertise with community-based organizations needs. Its impact goes well beyond traditional volunteering, to include:
1. Leadership development and creative problem solvingWorking with nonprofits and social enterprisesoften in resource-limited or rapidly changing environmentsexposes employees to new perspectives and teaches agility, systems thinking, and cooperation across differences. These are the exact qualities CEOs describe as essential, but are difficult to cultivate internally.
2. Strengthens culture and engagementEmployees increasingly seek meaningful work and a sense of purpose. SBV offers both. It reconnects teams to shared values, supports well-being, and fosters belonging at a time when engagement across industries remains low.
3. Produces multi-layered returnNonprofits and other host organizations benefit from much-needed skills and networks. Communities receive unprecedented support and critical insights. Employees grow professionally and personally. Companies advance ESG commitments while enhancing their cultures. Few corporate initiatives produce value across so many dimensions.
4. Builds cross-sector fluencyFrom climate resilience to healthcare access to food security to digital equity, the next decade of business challenges will require collaboration across government, civil society, and industry. SBV gives employees practical experience navigating those intersections, a form of strategic literacy that will soon be indispensable.
This is why companies across industriesfrom technology and finance to logistics and manufacturinghave integrated SBV into their leadership and culture strategies.
A GLOBAL CONTEXT
Two developments underscore the timeliness of SBV. The first is that the United Nations designated 2026 as the International Year of Volunteers for Sustainable Development.
Although not a major campaign, the initiative still signals a broader recognition that volunteer-driven actionespecially skills-based engagementis essential for achieving the UNs Sustainable Development Goals. Companies that embrace SBV now will be better positioned to contribute meaningfully to that global effort.
Second, each January, the World Economic Forum in Davos convenes leaders to tackle the worlds most pressing challenges.
Davos is built around the search for solutions. SBV is a solution already available: a practical mechanism for aligning business capability with community needs, strengthening culture while improving outcomes for society. If even a portion of the companies gathering there committed to a coordinated SBV effort, the impact could be immediate and globally resonant. SBV is a practical, proven way to build the resilient, purpose-driven cultures companies say they want while contributing to the broader stability and well-being the world urgently needs.
A NOTEWORTHY SBV DEVELOPMENT
Against this global backdrop, two organizations known for advancing SBVPyxera Global (my organization) and Common Impactannounced that we are uniting our efforts. This alliance is designed to accelerate the work both have been doing for decades.
We will retain our brands and long-standing relationships, but integrate strategically to help companies deploy SBV more effectively at a time when the need is acute. Our alignment reflects a broader shift occurring across the social impact sector: moving from fragmented initiatives to more collaborative, systems-oriented approaches.
Our work also extends beyond SBV into partnerships focused on climate action, circular supply chains, economic opportunity and digital inclusionfurther evidence that cross-sector partnership is becoming an essential strategy for addressing complex global challenges.
THE LEADERSHIP OPPORTUNITY HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT
Alan Murray is right: The central challenge facing CEOs is not technological but human. Yet culture doesnt transform through messaging campaigns or structural reorganizations. It transforms through experiencesthrough opportunities that deepen empathy, expand perspective, and develop new skills.
Skills-based volunteering offers exactly that. The companies that embrace it now will be better equipped to navigate the challenges ahead, and to help solve them.
Deirdre White is CEO of Pyxera Global.
Hollywood kicked off 2026 with “Avatar: Fire and Ash” atop the box office for the third straight week and with hopes for a blockbuster-filled year after a disappointing 2025.In three weeks of release, “Fire and Ash” has cleared $1 billion worldwide. The third chapter in James Cameron’s Pandora epic collected $40 million over its third weekend in North American theaters, according to studio estimates Sunday.“Fire and Ash” is doing its biggest business overseas; it’s grossed $777.1 million internationally thus far. The Walt Disney Co. on Sunday trumped the $1 billion milestone as “cementing another monumental achievement for James Cameron’s groundbreaking franchise.”But over the holidays, it wasn’t just about the weekend ticket sales. The whole week was a lucrative one for Hollywood, with most schools still out. What drove ticket sales, beyond “Avatar”? Sydney Sweeney, Timothée Chalamet and “Zootopia 2.”The most sustained success over the holiday collider in theaters belonged to a movie that opened all the way back in November. Yet Disney’s “Zootopia 2” has had remarkable staying power. It landed in second place with $19 million, dipping a mere 4% from the previous weekend.The animated sequel has amassed $1.59 billion in six weeks. That makes “Zootopia 2” Disney’s second highest grossing animated movie ever, trailing only 2019’s photorealistic “The Lion King” ($1.66 billion).“The Housemaid,” the twisty thriller starring Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried, also emerged as a holiday-season hit for Lionsgate. It collected $14.9 million over the weekend, giving it $75.7 million domestically over three weeks. It dipped only 3% from last weekend. Internationally, “The Housemaid,” which cost a modest $35 million to make, has added $57.3 million.Just as Sweeney’s star power is propelling “The Housemaid,” so is Chalamet’s with “Marty Supreme.” The A24 release also held well in its third weekend, grossing an estimated $12.6 million. After two weeks of wide release, Josh Safdie’s frenetic table tennis tale has grossed $56 million in North America, passing the director’s previous film, “Uncut Gems” ($50 million worldwide).Just about everything playing in theaters saw small drops from the previous weekend. Sony’s action comedy “Anaconda,” starring Jack Black and Paul Rudd, dipped 31% to collect $10 million in second weekend. Focus Features’ “Song Sung Blue” dropped only 17% in its second weekend with $5.9 million. The Hugh Jackman-Kate Hudson Neil Diamond cover band movie has earned $25 million domestically.With “Avatar: Fire and Ash” and a wide variety of smaller hits, Hollywood started 2026 strongly. Overall sales were up 26.5% from the same weekend in 2025, according to data firm Comscore.The movie industry is coming off a poor 2025, where domestic moviegoing continued to slide. U.S. and Canada ticket sales in 2025 amounted to $8.9 billion, a 2% increase from the year earlier, according to Comscore, but about 20% below pre-pandemic levels. That slight improvement was notably less than anticipated and was also boosted by higher ticket prices. Actual tickets sold declined from more than 800 million in 2024 to around 780 million in 2025.The industry is now awaiting a potentially seismic shift with Warner Bros., one of the most theatrical-friendly studios, agreeing to sell to Netflix. That $83 billion deal awaits regulatory approval.Yet studios are cautiously optimistic 2026 could be the best box-office year of the decade. A release slate filled with marquee franchises, including new “Toy Story,” “Avengers,” “Spider-Man,” “Super Mario Bros” and “Dune” movies, has raised hopes of a turnaround.
Top 10 movies by domestic box office
With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:
“Avatar: Fire and Ash,” $40 million.
“Zootopia 2,” $19 million.
“The Housemaid,” $14.9 million.
“Marty Supreme,” $12.6 million.
“Anaconda,” $10 million.
“The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants,” $8.2 million.
“David,” $8 million.
“Song Sung Blue,” $5.9 million.
“Wicked: For Good,” $3.3 million.
“Five Nights at Freddy’s 2,” $2.7 million.
Jake Coyle, AP Film Writer
J. Crew just revealed its apparel collection with the U.S. Ski & Snowboard teams for the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. Its an ode to retro ski aesthetics that even the most amateur athlete (or viewer) can get behind.
The 26-piece collection, which includes everything from graphic sweatshirts and refined knitwear to ball caps, wool socks, and cozy leggings, is the first installment of J. Crews three-year-long partnership with U.S. Ski & Snowboard, announced in March. Prices for the entire J.Crew U.S. Ski & Snowboard collection range from $49.50 to $498. It will be available online and in select J. Crew stores starting January 8.
Each product collection is inspired by vintage logos and archival Olympic patches, blending touches of sportiness with laid-back, aprs-ski leisure. To package that aesthetic with this first launch, J. Crew has created an advertising campaign called Alpine People, featuring members of the U.S. Ski & Snowboard team in a lighthearted spot that feels like Wes Anderson dropped onto the slopes in the ’70s.
[Photo: Courtesy of J. Crew]
Its a refreshing approach to Olympic-branded gear, which has been most closely associated with Ralph Laurens buttoned-up take on Americana aesthetics since that brand started designing Team USAs ceremony outfits in 2008. Where Ralph Laurens Team USA collection for the 2026 Games has a more polished, preppy vibe, J. Crews collection feels both effortlessly casual and aspirationala balance that can be tricky to achieve in a sport with a reputation for elitism.
Vintage references offer a new route into chalet core
In recent months, weve seen other brands put their own spin on ski apparel, including Nike x Jacquemuss futurism-meets-80s Aprs Ski collection, launched in late November, and North Face x Skims sporty, neutral-chic line, launched in early December. J. Crews interpretation, with its charmingly retro design and loungewear focus, feels like the best collection for hunkering down in a chalet with a hot beverage, even if youve never put on a set of skis in your life.
To conceptualize the new skiing collection, J. Crews team started by consulting archival imagery of both ski apparel brands and Olympic games past.
“We spent a lot of time immersed in the archives, both our own and U.S. Ski & Snowboards,” says Olympia Gayot, J. Crews creative director of womens and childrens design. “We traveled to their headquarters and poured through historic imagery of the team and past Olympic moments, everything from old uniforms and outerwear to pins, patches, and ephemera that captured the spirit of different eras of the sport.”
Details like the collections recurring red, white, and blue stripes and U.S. Skiing” shield patch have a clear tie to vintage Olympic patches, which often featured the same color scheme and motiftypically alongside imagery like a torch, the Olympic rings, and, for skiing events, an illustration of an athlete descending the slopes.
[Photo: Courtesy of J. Crew]
Dynamic athlete illustrations star in their own right across multiple items in this collection. One sleek line drawing shows a skier zooming down the slopes, which features on a comfy graphic tee and crew neck; as well as another of an athlete with their skis crossed mid-jump.
“While we always start with our archives and brand DNA, the real inspiration for this collection comes from the sport itself, the skiers, the Olympics, and the energy of elite athletes,” Gayot says.
Typographic call backs to American ski resorts of yesteryear
The whole J. Crew Olympic skiing collection, and its accompanying campaign, is tied together by an ultra-70s sans serif typeface, complete with blocky letterforms, bold curves, and a funky combination of caps and lowercase letters. Examples of this typeface appear in the apparel collection almost everywhere theres lettering, as well as in the bright yellow, Wes Anderson-style captions that appear on the Alpine People campaign video.
The typeface callsback to similar styles used in vintage ski apparel and destinations, including the Sugarloaf Ski Resort in Carrabassett Valley, Maine, which once had a groovy wordmark with a near-identical look.
“Youll see the vintage references reinterpreted in a way that feels timeless but also unique for this moment,” Gayot says. “Those elements show up across the collection as embroidered patches, knit-in graphics, and printed details, creating a through line that connects the heritage of both brands to the pieces in a way that feels thoughtful, nostalgic, and distinctly our own.”
