U.S. News

• The U.S Senate passed the House's continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown late last night with an 87-11 bipartisan vote; President Biden has said he will sign the bill (More)
• A Michigan judge said former President Donald Trump can appear on the primary ballot in the state, denying a lawsuit that claimed the insurrection clause of the 14th Amendment disqualified him; Trump also won a similar case in Minnesota, but both rulings did not address his general election ballot eligibility (More)
• Tammy Murphy, the wife of New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, announced she is running for the state’s U.S. Senate seat held by indicted Sen. Bob Menendez; Menendez may still seek reelection while Rep. Andy Kim has also declared for the Democratic primary (More)

World News

• Iceland remained on high alert for a volcanic eruption that scientists still believe is imminent as hundreds of earthquakes continue to occur each day; residents of Grindavik, an evacuated town, were once again allowed to briefly return to town to collect essential belongings (More)
• Colombia has begun sterilizing its wild hippopotamuses to control a population that it fears could increase nearly 10x by 2035; the animals are not native to the country but were illegally imported for drug kingpin Pablo Escobar’s private zoo in the 1980s (More)
• The European Union is expected to place sanctions on diamond imports from Russia, a measure it has previously shied away from to protect Belgium’s diamond industry; Russia produces 33% of the world’s diamonds (More)

Entertainment & Sports

• Major League Baseball owners are expected to sign off on allowing the Oakland Athletics to move to Las Vegas today; it will be baseball’s first franchise relocation in nearly 20 years (More)
• Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel will return as host of the 2024 Academy Awards; this will be his second straight year hosting and fourth time overall (More)
• Former Rolling Stone part-owner Meng Ru Kuok has purchased pop-culture website Gawker; Kuok has bought the domain name and trademarks but not the archives and says he plans to reinvent the site (More)

Business & Markets

• Major indexes closed higher again yesterday as the momentum from soft inflation numbers continued (Dow +0.47%, Nasdaq +0.07%, S&P 500 +0.16%)
• Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro called for a federal antitrust investigation into Warner Bros. Discovery’s tactic of shelving completed films for tax write-offs; the studio has reversed course on canceling Coyote vs. Acme after scrapping past works (More)
• General Motors has purchased Tooling & Equipment International, a small company that has been integral to Tesla’s construction process; the acquisition is a sign GM is aiming to make up ground in the electric vehicle market (More)

Tips & Tricks

• Feel Good: Evelyn Konrad and Ruth Zimbler were best friends in Vienna, Austria, before their Jewish families fled the Nazis in the early days of the Holocaust; the women figured they would never see each other again, only to be reunited in their 90s when Evelyn saw Ruth’s name in the newspaper
• Sneak Peek: This may be Hollywood’s most ambitious crossover yet – here is the trailer for Merry Little Batman, a trippy-looking animated film that involves the Caped Crusader’s son trying to save Gotham City from The Joker at Christmas while his dad – who has a beard for some reason? – is preoccupied
• Flip Through: Keeping with the holiday theme, How The Grinch Lost Christmas! is an official sequel to the classic children’s book authorized by the Dr. Seuss estate that tells the story of what happened after The Grinch became a changed man and embraced the holiday; you can find it here on Amazon
• Just Missed: U.S. Postal Service officials predicted the agency would break even in the recently-completed fiscal year and then begin turning profits in 2024 and beyond; the USPS instead lost $6.5B in the 2023 FY after mail volume and revenues slipped, with more losses predicted next year
• Still Here: Scientists in Indonesia were ecstatic when cameras caught footage of a creature long presumed extinct; the long-beaked echidna, a quilled, egg-laying mammal similar to a platypus, had not been observed since 1961
• On Stage: Actress Gwyneth Paltrow’s high-profile ski accident civil trial has inspired a musical; Gwyneth Goes Skiing will have a limited 10-day run next month at London’s Pleasance Theatre from Dec. 13-23
• Life Hack: We all tend to focus on what we are eating when dieting or considering our health, but what we drink can often have an even more significant impact on our well-being; experts say we should think twice about what we order the next time we are at a bar or our nearby coffee shop

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