Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> Sony's PlayStation division to lay off 900 employees, roughly 8% of its workforce after missing its sales target for the PS5 console (More) | Disney's film production president Sean Bailey steps down after 15 years (More)
> Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan headline 2024 Outlaw Music Festival Tour; see full list of performers and concert dates (More)
> Spotify generates $4.5B for independent labels and artists (More) | Sean "Diddy" Combs accused by male music producer of sexual assault, now the fifth such lawsuit against Combs (More)
Science & Technology
> OpenAI asks judge to dismiss key part of New York Times copyright infringement lawsuit, accusing the news organization of "hacking" ChatGPT to produce copyrighted results (More) | See case background (More)
> Hearing live music triggers more brain activity in regions responsible for processing emotions than recordings of the same song, MRI study suggests (More)
> Researchers find striped marlin communicate with each other by changing the shade of their stripes during high-speed hunting; discovery sheds light on the evolution of predatory group behaviors in fish (More)
Business & Markets
> US stock markets close mixed (S&P 500 +0.2%, Dow -0.3%, Nasdaq +0.4%) as investors await this week's inflation data (More)
> Macy's to close 150 underperforming namesake stores, or about 30% of its total stores, by 2026; company expects to add new locations of higher-end department store Bloomingdale’s and beauty chain Bluemercury (More)
> Apple cancels decadelong project to develop autonomous electric vehicle, pivots to artificial intelligence (More) | Financial Times launches new investment arm for media and technology companies, makes first investment in future-of-work startup Charter (More)
SOURCE: 1440 News
Every year on Jan. 1, a new batch of copyrighted works and intellectual property enters the public domain. On Monday, the first versions of Mickey and Minnie Mouse, featured in the 1928 short “Steamboat Willie” (watch here), will become available for public use.
Russia launches 122 missiles, 36 drones against Ukraine.
At least 30 people were killed and 144 injured across Ukraine Friday from the attack. The Ukrainian military said it had intercepted most of the missiles and drones. The attack is considered the largest aerial barrage since the war between Russia and Ukraine began in February 2022. See war updates here.
South Africa accuses Israel of genocide in case brought to top UN court.
South Africa, which has been a critic of Israel's military campaign in Gaza and has compared it to South Africa's past apartheid regime, seeks an order from the UN's International Court of Justice to halt Israel's attacks and declare Israel in violation of the Genocide Convention (see 101). Israel maintains it is abiding by international law. Separately, tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza moved south to Rafah, while a delegation met in Egypt Friday for cease-fire talks. See war updates here.
World population projected to top 8 billion on New Year's Day.
The world's population grew by more than 75 million people this year, up 0.95% from New Year's Day 2023, according to the US Census Bureau. On Jan. 1, the population is expected to reach a little over 8 billion, from 7.9 billion a year ago. Next year, 4.3 births and two deaths are expected worldwide every second. Track the Census Bureau's US and world population clocks here.
California keeps Trump on state's 2024 primary ballot.
Former President Donald Trump will appear on the Republican ballot in California's Super Tuesday (March 5) presidential primary after Secretary of State Shirley Weber (D) published a list of official candidates, including Trump, late Thursday. The news came hours after Maine's secretary of state nixed Trump due to a 14th Amendment clause (see previous write-up). See a state-by-state tracker of challenges here.
At least eight people injured after huge wave batters California coast (w/video).
The massive 20-foot-plus wave crashed onto Ventura, California, flooding surrounding areas and sweeping up a truck. California has been experiencing huge waves this week as a result of low-pressure storm systems in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Coastal flooding and waves in the range of 15 to 20 feet are expected along California's coast through this evening.
SOURCE: 1440 News
The UN Security Council yesterday adopted a resolution for more humanitarian aid in Gaza, stopping short of calling for a full pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas. The legally binding resolution passed by a 13-0 vote; the US and Russia abstained.
Supreme Court declines to fast-track Trump's immunity dispute.
Special Counsel Jack Smith had previously requested the high court to immediately weigh in on whether former President Donald Trump is immune from prosecution in his federal election interference case. The issue will first be decided by an appeals court. The case is set to go to trial March 4 in federal court, but the case has been stayed while Trump pursues his immunity claim.
Key US inflation measure sees first monthly decline since April 2020.
The personal consumption expenditures price index—the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge—fell 0.1% month-over-month in November. The figure is the first monthly decline in more than three years. The index was up 2.6% from a year ago, down from 2.9% in October and below economist expectations. The Federal Reserve targets 2% annual inflation. The index measures costs consumers pay across a wide swath of items.
President Joe Biden issues federal pardon for marijuana use.
Biden pardoned US citizens convicted of using or possessing marijuana on federal lands and in the District of Columbia Friday. The pardoning is meant to alleviate barriers to employment and housing for those with criminal records for marijuana use and possession. Biden also commuted the sentences of 11 people who were serving decadeslong or life sentences for nonviolent drug offenses.
Japan eases weapons export policy, prepares to sell missiles to the US.
Japan said it will sell American-designed Patriot air defense missiles to the US after it revised its arms export guidelines this week. The decision marks the first time since post-World War II in which Japan is selling complete lethal weapons to its allies. Patriot missiles (see overview) are one of the most advanced in the world. Observers say the shipment could help the US aid Ukraine in its war against Russia.
A Malaysian national at the center of one of the largest US Navy corruption scandals in modern history will be returned to face sentencing after Venezuela agreed to his extradition as part of a prisoner exchange.
Chinese President Xi Jinping told US President Joe Biden last month that Beijing will seek to reunify with Taiwan while noting the timing is unclear, and China prefers to assume control of Taiwan peacefully, according to reports yesterday. Xi's comments came during a summit in San Francisco—meant to reduce tensions between the US and China (see overview)—and mark the first time he directly conveyed China's stance on Taiwan to Biden.
The European Union’s member states and its high-level institutions agreed to major migration reforms yesterday, the conclusion of a three-year debate finalized amid the continent’s highest migration levels since 2016. The New Pact on Migration and Asylum, which awaits formal ratification, comes six months before the next parliamentary elections (see how the EU works).
Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount in talks for potential global merger; the combined valuation of the two media giants is over $38B (More) | Media mogul Byron Allen offers to buy BET Media from Paramount for $3.5B (More)
Georgia, Alabama, and Ohio State highlight top 2024 recruiting classes for college football's national signing day (More)
Former NBA player Chance Comanche admits to Dec. 6 murder of woman in Las Vegas just hours after finishing an NBA G League game (More)
Study finds all major AI models were trained on datasets containing some amount of explicit images of children; advocates push for safeguards to prevent its use in image generation (More)
Scientists discover new class of drugs effective against antibiotic-resistant staph infection, responsible for 10,000 US deaths annually (More)
First direct evidence linking marine weather—dynamics in the ocean like waves and turbulence—with global climate observed by researchers (More)
Electric scooter company Bird files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, will sell some of its assets to existing lenders; Bird, founded in 2017, went public in 2021 via special purpose acquisition company merger (More)
Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick to step down Dec. 29; leadership change expected as part of Microsoft's acquisition of the video game company (More)
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh meets with Egyptian officials over cease-fire talks (More) | Death toll in Gaza surpasses 20,000 people, according to Hamas-run Health Ministry, while death toll in Israel stands near 1,400; see war updates (More)
Former President Donald Trump asks US Supreme Court to delay considering whether he is immune from federal prosecution in an election interference case while a federal appeals court weighs the issue (More) | Judge allows removal of Confederate memorial in Arlington National Cemetery to resume (More)
SOURCE: 1440 News
Gravitational waves from the aftereffects of the most powerful merger of two black holes observed to date detected by researchers; "ringing" effect comes from new black hole assuming a spherical shape (More) | General relativity 101 (More, w/video)
Google delays launch of Gemini, a large language model expected to compete with OpenAI's ChatGPT-4, until January; reports say the model has trouble with some non-English prompts (More)
Ancient redwood trees can recover from severe fire damage by tapping long-buried buds, which have laid dormant under their bark for centuries (More)
