| Good morning. It's Thursday, Jan. 27, and we're watching the Supreme Court and major developments there today. Let's catch up on that and more. |
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 | Justice Stephen Breyer is retiring from the Supreme Court. | - The 83-year-old is the oldest of the nine justices and one of its three liberals. He is expected to step down by this summer.
- What this means: President Biden will get to pick Breyer's replacement while Democrats control the Senate, which confirms Supreme Court nominees. (We explain how the process works here.)
- Who could replace him? Biden has promised to choose an African American woman, which would be a first. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is at the top of the list.
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 | U.S. coronavirus hospitalizations are slowing down. | - The biggest drop is in the Northeast, where the omicron variant hit first. They're also falling in the Midwest and leveling off in the South but still rising in the West.
- What this means: The U.S. may be over the worst of the winter surge, but many hospitals are still face staffing and equipment shortages.
- In other news: There's a battle brewing in Virginia, where more than half of the school districts are defying the new governor's mask-optional order.
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 | Russia and the U.S. hit a diplomatic stalemate over Ukraine. | - What happened? The U.S. and its allies responded to President Vladimir Putin's demands yesterday, but didn't budge on his key issue: keeping Ukraine out of NATO, a Western military alliance.
- Russia's response: A top official warned that tensions would be "seriously complicated" if that demand isn't met.
- There are more than 100,000 Russian troops and equipment circling Ukraine.
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 | There's a "bomb cyclone" headed for the Northeast this weekend. | - What is that? A particularly strong and rapidly developing storm. It's forecast to bring heavy snow with possible blizzard conditions, winds and potential coastal flooding on Saturday.
- Eastern New England along I-95 could be hit hardest, including cities like Boston and Portland, Maine. New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., could also get snow.
- The caveat: Meteorologists can't predict the storm's exact path yet, so the forecast will update today and tomorrow.
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 | Neil Young's music isn't on Spotify anymore. | - Why? The artist (known for hits like "Heart of Gold" and "Harvest Moon") gave the platform an ultimatum over Joe Rogan and "fake information about vaccines."
- Rogan, who hosts one of Spotify's most popular podcasts, has repeatedly spread misinformation about coronavirus vaccines.
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 | A SpaceX rocket will crash into the moon in March. | - The Falcon 9 booster, which was left in space after a 2015 launch, will create a new crater on the far side of the moon when it crashes but shouldn't cause significant damage.
- Why this matters: Space junk is a growing problem — NASA tracks about 20,000 pieces — and this could be the first case of one unintentionally hitting the moon.
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 | Amy Schneider's history-making "Jeopardy!" run ended after 40 games. | - She lost to Rhone Talsma, a librarian from Chicago, last night, drawing a blank in Final Jeopardy. (The answer: "What is Bangladesh?")
- The 42-year-old from California had the second-longest winning streak of all time and was the show's most successful transgender contestant. She took home $1,382,800.
You're all caught up. See you tomorrow. But before you go … what should you do when the markets are going wild? Our financial columnist Michelle Singletary has some tips.  (Jordan Robertson for The Post) | Do you know someone who would like this newsletter? Share it with them. Prefer push notifications? Download The Post's app to get one when The 7 publishes. |
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