• ☝️ You’re looking at a ranking of America’s drunkest (red/purple) and driest (green) counties, according to IntoxiStates. See where your county ranks here.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with Pique LIfe

• 📉 US markets rose in 2024 (S&P: +23%; Dow: +13%; Nasdaq: +29%) but fell yesterday, in the first day of trading in 2025 (S&P: -0.2%; Dow: -0.4%; Nasdaq: -0.2%).
• 💼 US initial jobless claims fell by 9,000 to 211,000 in the week ended December 28; it’s their lowest level in eight months. | 🏠 The US average 30-year mortgage rate rose to 6.91% as of January 2, up from 6.85% a week earlier, per Freddie Mac;
• 🤔 Short seller Hindenburg Research revealed a bet against Carvana; claims the user-car retailer's recent turnaround is a “mirage” propped up by unstable loans and accounting manipulation.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🏈 CFB Playoff: Penn State, Texas, Ohio State, and Notre Dame advanced to the semifinals. | ⭐ The 2025 NFL Pro Bowl roster was announced.
• 🙏 Sports broadcasting legend Greg Gumbel died at 78. | 🙏 Lenny Randle, dubbed “the most interesting man in baseball,” died at 75.
• ⚖️ Actor/director Justin Baldoni filed a $250 million lawsuit against the NY Times over a December 21 article it published regarding Baldoni and Blake Lively on the set of It Ends With Us. | 👥 Season 2 of Squid Game set Netflix’s premiere week viewing record, with 68 million views worldwide in the first four days following its release; Netflix’s Christmas Day NFL broadcasts also set a record for the most streamed NFL games ever in the US, with ~65 million viewers.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with “Rate My Friends” from Dyce Games

• ☄️ The ongoing Quadrantid meteor shower is expected to reach peak activity early this morning.
• ⚡⚛️ Constellation Energy signed a 10-year, $840 million deal to supply the US government with enough energy to power ~1 million homes annually; ~40% of the energy supplied will come from nuclear sources.
• 🛰️☀️ NASA's Parker Solar Probe, which launched in 2018, made its closest-ever approach to the Sun, coming within 3.8 million miles of the surface in its eighth and final flyby.

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MISCELLANEOUS

• 🥶🇺🇸 A cold wave is expected to bring freezing temperatures up to 20°F colder than normal across the central and eastern US this month, per Commodity Weather Group.
• 🇨🇳 China’s government issued a series of punitive trade measures against dozens of US companies – including Boeing, Raytheon, and Lockheed Martin – ahead of expected Trump administration tariffs. | 🇰🇷✈️ A passenger jet traveling from Thailand crash-landed in South Korea on Sunday, killing 179 of the 181 passengers onboard.
• 🧑‍⚖️ President-elect Trump asked the Supreme Court to pause a law that would ban TikTok unless its US operations are sold off by Chinese parent ByteDance. | 🏛️ The new House of Representatives will vote for a speaker later today; current speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) can only afford one “no” vote from the GOP caucus. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

CLICKBAIT

• 🤔🌌 Dark Energy May Not Exist: Something Stranger Might Explain The Universe.