Today's quick hits

🇸🇾 Syrian rebels captured most of Aleppo in a surprise offensive. A rebel alliance led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a US-designated terrorist group, began seizing control of large portions of the major northern city of Aleppo from Syrian government forces early Saturday, and continued to make territorial gains yesterday amid counterattacks. The surprise rebel invasion comes after years of military stalemate in Syria’s 13-year ongoing civil war, and marks the most significant change in the war’s balance of power in nearly a decade.

🍿 Clams and Hollywood execs are in the same mood (happy). The five-day Thanksgiving weekend turned in its best US box office performance in history, generating an estimated ~$420 million. Only one other Thanksgiving period had ever surpassed $300 million. Moana 2 topped the charts with $221 million, the best ever Thanksgiving opening for a movie and well above analysts’ expectations of $135 million–$145 million. Wicked became the highest-grossing Broadway adaptation of all time at the domestic box office, turning in ~$118 million in estimated ticket sales for the holiday to bring its total domestic haul to ~$262 million. Demand from moviegoers was so high this weekend that AMC at one point was experiencing a 13-minute wait time to purchase tickets online.

📝 Elon Musk files injunction to stop OpenAI’s transition to a for-profit company. Per TechCrunch: Musk is accusing OpenAI, its CEO Sam Altman, Microsoft, and some others involved with OpenAI and/or Microsoft of various illicit activities, such as discouraging investors from backing OpenAI rivals like Musk’s own AI company, xAI, and benefitting from “wrongfully obtained competitively sensitive information” via OpenAI’s connections with Microsoft. Musk’s attorneys claim that if their injunction, filed late Friday, isn’t granted, OpenAI, which is reportedly spending ~$5 billion/year, might “lack sufficient funds” to pay damages were the court to eventually rule in Musk’s favor. OpenAI’s response: “Elon’s fourth attempt, which again recycles the same baseless complaints, continues to be utterly without merit.”