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The Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments today in a case that could determine TikTok's fate in the US.
At issue is a bipartisan law requiring ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, to sell its stake in the app or face a ban by Jan. 19. TikTok, with more than 170 million US users, is asking the court to block the law's enforcement, citing First Amendment concerns. The Biden administration says the law is necessary to address national security risks posed by ByteDance's potential ties to the Chinese government.
TikTok said it could shut down the app by Jan. 19 if the Supreme Court does not intervene. President-elect Donald Trump filed a brief last month requesting the court delay the deadline, seeking time for his incoming administration to pursue a political resolution, a reversal from previous attempts to ban TikTok during his first term.
Separately, ByteDance appears to be preparing for a potential TikTok ban by promoting its Lemon8 app, encouraging users to migrate to the platform as a contingency plan. |
A nearly two-mile ice core extracted from Antarctica's ice sheet contains what is likely the world's oldest ice, estimated to have formed over 1 million years ago. The extensive ice core—which is longer than eight Eiffel Towers—is expected to shed light on the timeline of ice age cycles on Earth and reveal connections between the planet's temperature and atmospheric conditions.
Researchers with the European-funded team of 16 scientists drilled at the remote site over the course of four summers at temperatures nearing minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit. As snow falls and freezes on the continental ice sheet (see diagram), it solidifies layer upon layer of ice and effectively traps samples of the atmosphere over millennia, including air, particles, and even viruses. The ice then becomes a historical record of Earth's climate shifts. Learn how ice cores work here.
A previous, slightly shorter ice core extracted by the group demonstrated heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels over the last 800,000 years never reached the amounts seen since the Industrial Revolution. |
Devastating fires in Southern California continued unabated yesterday, including a number of blazes tearing through prominent Los Angeles neighborhoods. At least ten deaths have been confirmed—though officials say the toll is likely higher—and nearly 180,000 people have been ordered to evacuate.
Officials said the largest of the blazes, the Palisades Fire, destroyed thousands of structures in affluent coastal neighborhoods between Malibu and Santa Monica (see map) and was just 6% contained as of early this morning. On the east side of the city, the Eaton Fire was also completely uncontained though growth had significantly slowed. See photos of the damage here and Ring camera footage from one Palisades home here.
Exceptionally high wind gusts, in particular Santa Ana winds sweeping westward from the desert and toward the coast (see explainer), carried flaming embers for miles, raising the risk of new fires across the city. Conditions are expected to improve today but persist into the weekend.
The fires could be the costliest in US history, with early estimates of $20B in insured losses and $50B in economic impact. Read more about how wildfire risk has caused home insurers to leave the region here. |
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Sports, Entertainment, & Culture |
> Notre Dame tops Penn State 27-24 to advance to college football national championship; Texas takes on Ohio State tonight (7:30 pm ET, ESPN) in the other semifinal matchup (More) | NFL postseason kicks off tomorrow with the Wild Card round (More) |
> "Wicked" hauls in $70M in its first week of video-on-demand sales, a record for a Universal release (More) | WWE's "Monday Night Raw" brings in 2.6 million US viewers in its Netflix debut, more than double their 2024 average (More) |
> NBA postpones Los Angeles Lakers-Charlotte Hornets game last night due to wildfires; Lakers head coach JJ Redick loses home in fire (More) | Actress Jamie Lee Curtis donates $1M to fire relief efforts (More) |
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> Jeff Bezos-owned Blue Origin delays first launch of its heavy-lift New Glenn rocket from early this morning to Sunday; see updates here (More) |
> New study suggests the outer ear structure of mammals evolved from the gills of ancient fishes and marine invertebrates (More) |
> Researchers engineer two new CRISPR enzymes that operate without triggering an immune system response; results may lead to safer, more efficient gene editing technologies (More) | How CRISPR splices and dices our genes (More) |
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> December US jobs report to be released today; economists expect a gain of 155,000 jobs, down from 227,000 jobs in November, with the unemployment rate forecast to hold steady at 4.2% (More) |
> Kroger to pay $110M to settle Kentucky lawsuit accusing the supermarket chain's pharmacies of helping to fuel the opioid epidemic between 2006 and 2019 (More) | Dive deeper into opioids, including how the drug works (More) |
> JCPenny merges with Sparc Group, owner of brands including Aéropostale and Brooks Brothers, to form new joint venture called Catalyst Brands (More) |
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> President-elect Donald Trump faces sentencing in New York today in criminal hush money case; he was found guilty in May for falsifying business records to cover up payments made to Stormy Daniels in run-up to the 2016 election (More) |
> Accused mastermind of 9/11 attacks scheduled to plead guilty today in war court on Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba; details of plea deal haven't been publicly released but include avoiding the death penalty (More) |
> Lebanon's army chief, Joseph Aoun, elected as country's president after 12 failed attempts to fill the role since October 2022, when the former president's term ended (More) | Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado arrested following antigovernment protests on eve of President Nicolás Maduro's inauguration (More) |
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> When the Lights Are Too Bright
The Ringer | Nate Rogers. What began with an aggravated Redditor lamenting the excess glare of car headlights today–which have roughly doubled in brightness in the past 10 years–turned into an exposé of regulatory gaps in the auto industry. (Read)
> Gladiators of Anatolia
Archaeology Magazine | Tolga İldun. In the cities of ancient Anatolia, gladiatorial games featured slaves, former soldiers, and even volunteers who could potentially gain wealth, fame, and liberation if victorious. (Read) |
> A History of Slipping on Banana Peels
Secret Base | Jon Bois. Banana peels have posed a real threat to humans throughout history, with this video covering more than 300 individual cases of slips documented in American local newspapers since 1867. (Watch)
> The Life and Work of Beethoven
The Rest is History | Tom Holland, Dominic Sandbrook. Discover the story behind composer Ludwig van Beethoven, who continued to compose some of his greatest works even after becoming deaf. (Listen) |
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