Good morning. It's Wednesday, Nov. 12, and we're covering House lawmakers returning to Washington, the first in a series of auctions to fund public television, and much more. First time reading? Join over 4.5 million insatiably curious readers. Sign up here.
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The House reconvenes today and is expected to vote on a Senate bill to reopen the government. The vote comes on the 43rd day of the US' longest shutdown.
Seven Democrats and one independent joined 52 Republicans to pass the Senate bill, which would fund much of the government through January. The Agriculture Department—which facilitates SNAP food benefits to 42 million Americans—would be funded through September 2026. The bill does not extend COVID-era healthcare subsidies for 24 million people who purchase plans under the Affordable Care Act. Democratic leaders had sought to make reopening the government conditional on extending those subsidies, due to expire Dec. 31. ACA marketplace premiums are projected to rise up to 30%, from 18%, without an extension. Federal health subsidies cost an estimated $1.8T in 2023, roughly 7% of the US gross domestic product.
Separately, airlines canceled an estimated 6% of flights at 40 of the US' busiest airports yesterday amid ongoing air traffic controller shortages. |
An Arctic blast swept across the eastern half of the US this week, driving temperatures 15 to 25 degrees below average and affecting over 190 million people. The first major winter storm of the 2025-26 season was fueled by a sharp dip in the jet stream that pulled polar air from Canada nearly three weeks before meteorological winter officially begins Dec. 1.
The winter storm set record daily lows from Alabama to Tennessee and brought rare freezes to the Deep South. Snowfall reached as much as 18 inches in Michigan, while parts of Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin saw more than a foot of lake-effect snow. About 7.5 inches of snow was reported in the Smoky Mountains, with some snow reported as far south as northern Georgia. Florida experienced wind chills in the 30s, triggering warnings as stunned iguanas fell from trees, paralyzed by the cold.
Temperatures are expected to begin rebounding today as the system shifts farther east. See photos here. |
The first three of 30 original Bob Ross paintings were sold at an auction yesterday in Los Angeles, with additional sales planned in London, New York, and Boston. Auction earnings will be given to US public television stations, which saw $1.1B in federal funding cuts this year over concerns of bias and obsolescence.
The pieces sold yesterday are "Cliffside" ($115K, painted in 1990); "Home in the Valley" ($229K, painted in 1993); and "Winter’s Peace" ($318K, painted in 1993). Ross' landscapes are rarely seen on the open market—he painted them under a work-for-hire deal, giving Bob Ross Inc. ownership of nearly all of them (w/video).
Ross was known for his calm demeanor and catchphrases like "happy little trees." He hosted 403 episodes of "The Joy of Painting" from 1983 to 1994, following a 20-year US Air Force career. He died from lymphoma in 1995 at age 52. Hear more about Ross' impact here. |
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Sports, Entertainment, & Culture |
> MLB reaches agreement with sportsbooks to cap bets on individual pitches at $200; news follows indictments of pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz (More) | Cristiano Ronaldo confirms 2026 World Cup will be his final tournament with Portugal (More) |
> Sally Kirkland, Oscar-nominated actress best known for "Anna," dies at age 84 (More) | Four-time NBA All-Star Michael Ray Richardson, banned from league for drug use, dies at age 70 (More) | Jimmy Kimmel's bandleader Cleto Escobedo III dies at age 59 (More) |
> "KPop Demon Hunters" ruled ineligible for British Academy Film Awards, or BAFTA Awards (More) | Pope Leo to host special Vatican audience Saturday with artists from across the film and TV industry (More) |
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This Card Is a Reward-Seeker's Dream |
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> Meta's chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun, to depart company and launch his own AI startup; LeCun won the 2018 Turing Award, leaves amid Meta's push toward superintelligence (More) | What is superintelligence? (1440 Topics, w/video) |
> Doctors demonstrate first remote, robot-assisted thrombectomy; a specialist in Scotland successfully removed a brain clot from a cadaver in Florida using a remotely guided robot (More) |
> Use of GLP-1 weight loss drugs cuts risk of death in colon cancer patients by more than half over five years; drug may help reduce inflammation and other mechanisms that promote tumor growth (More) | The best resources we've found on semaglutides (1440 Topics) |
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> US stock markets close mixed (S&P 500 +0.2%, Dow +1.2%, Nasdaq -0.3%); Dow closes at record high as CoreWeave (-16.3%) pulls down Nasdaq (More) |
> SoftBank sells entire stake in Nvidia for $5.83B and part of its stake in T-Mobile for $9.17B; sales of shares reportedly will be used to help fund the Japanese firm's expected $30B investment in OpenAI (More) |
> Sonder to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy after Marriott International terminates licensing agreement with the short-term rentals and boutique hotel operator (More) |
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> US Navy's largest and most advanced aircraft carrier—the USS Gerald R. Ford—arrives in Caribbean amid tensions with Venezuela (More) |
> Kansas county agrees to pay more than $3M over 2023 law enforcement raid on small-town weekly newspaper (More) | See previous write-up (More) |
> At least 12 people killed, 27 wounded in Pakistan after suicide bombing attack outside a district court in Islamabad (More) | At least 20 dead in Turkish military plane crash in Georgia after taking off from Azerbaijan (More) |
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> Learn how big an asteroid needs to be to cause significant damage on impact (w/video)—and all the best resources we've found on asteroids. |
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Clickbait: The ultimate humblebrag.
Historybook: American suffragist and civil rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton born (1815); Josef Stalin gains undisputed control of the Soviet Union (1927); Actress and Princess of Monaco Grace Kelly born (1929); Actor Ryan Gosling born (1980); Comic book writer Stan Lee dies (2018).
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