Good morning! The weekend edition is 691 words, a 3-minute read.

What’s on tap: 

• Ukraine, Russia, US talks

• Athlete with cancer wins around the world race

• Why is snow white?

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Today’s Big Story

Olympic Snowboarder Kingpin Arrested

• Former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding was arrested Thursday in Mexico City and flown to the US on Friday to face charges for running a multinational drug trafficking ring. Wedding competed in the 2002 Winter Olympics but was previously convicted of cocaine conspiracy in 2010. After his release from prison, he allegedly built a drug operation working under the protection of the Sinaloa Cartel and had been hiding in Mexico for more than a decade.

• Authorities say Wedding orchestrated multiple killings and used semitrucks to move cocaine between Colombia, Mexico, Southern California, and Canada. He was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list with a $15 million reward. The manhunt lasted over a year and involved authorities from five countries. Thirty-six people were arrested in connection with the operation.

• Wedding is also charged with orchestrating the killing of a federal witness in Colombia to avoid extradition. He allegedly used a Canadian website to post the witness's photo for identification before the victim was shot at a Medellín restaurant. He is expected in court on Monday.

Someone just spent $236,000,000 on a painting. Here’s why it matters for your wallet.

The WSJ just reported the highest price ever paid for modern art at auction.

While equities, gold, bitcoin hover near highs, the art market is showing signs of early recovery after one of the longest downturns since the 1990s.

Here’s where it gets interesting→

Each investing environment is unique, but after the dot com crash, contemporary and post-war art grew ~24% a year for a decade, and after 2008, it grew ~11% annually for 12 years.*

Overall, the segment has outpaced the S&P by 15 percent with near-zero correlation from 1995 to 2025.

Now, Masterworks lets you invest in shares of artworks featuring legends like Banksy, Basquiat, and Picasso. Since 2019, investors have deployed $1.25 billion across 500+ artworks.

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Shares can sell quickly, but my subscribers skip the waitlist:

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_{*Per Masterworks data. Investing involves risk. Past performance not indicative of future returns. Important Reg A disclosures: masterworks.com/cd}

Saturday’s Quick Hits

• TikTok avoided a US ban by creating a new American company with investors including Oracle. The deal lets over 200 million users keep the app with new data protections and a retrained algorithm. ByteDance keeps a minority stake and will license its algorithm to the new entity. President Trump praised the deal, ending years of uncertainty after Congress required TikTok to find a new owner or face shutdown. (More)

• Ukraine, Russia, and the US held their first joint peace talks on Friday since Russia's invasion nearly four years ago. The Abu Dhabi meeting followed overnight discussions between Trump's envoys and Putin. Trump said a deal might be "getting close," but Russia demands Ukraine withdraw from eastern territories it still controls, while Ukraine refuses to give up land. Zelenskyy called the talks "a step" toward ending the war. (More)

• Internal Google documents filed in a lawsuit show the company viewed schools as a way to build lifelong customers while acknowledging that YouTube can be unsafe and distracting for students. Presentations described creating a "pipeline of future users" through Chromebooks and Google platforms, with one stating that acclimating children early would create loyalty "potentially for life." The documents were filed by families and school districts suing tech companies for marketing addictive products to children. (More)

• The US officially left the World Health Organization on Thursday, one year after President Trump ordered the withdrawal. The administration said the WHO "strayed from its core mission" and mishandled COVID-19. Public health experts warned that leaving will hurt America's ability to track emerging diseases and respond to outbreaks. Meanwhile, California became the first state to join the WHO. (More)

• The United Arab Emirates will fund a planned community in Rafah for Palestinians displaced by Gaza's war. Residents will receive education, healthcare, and water, but must submit to biometric data collection and security checks to enter. The project has Israeli military approval and will be built on land being cleared of rubble and tunnels. It's the first reconstruction project in Israeli-held Gaza. (More)

Weekly Dose of Positive

• French sailor Charlie Dalin won the Vendée Globe while battling cancer, sailing solo around the world in 64 days. He completed the race with a six-inch tumor, taking daily immunotherapy. (More)

• A $3.2 million grant connected 150 Kentucky farms with 90 school districts, enabling them to serve locally sourced meals. Students rate the food highly, and schools maintain from-scratch cooking despite funding ending. (More)

• Delta Airlines will pay $1.3 billion in profit sharing to employees, the airline industry's largest payout. Workers receive 3-5 weeks' salary despite shutdown challenges. (More)

• Over 100 Pittsburgh Presbyterian churches raised $75,000 to erase $14 million in medical debt for 12,500 residents. (More)

Extra Credit

What happened to hotel bathroom doors?

Why does snow look white?

80 more-interesting questions to ask than “How are you?”

Clickbait: A deer robs a bank.