Good morning. The holidays are a magical time to shower our kids (or nieces and nephews) with gifts, ease into some much-needed QT with the fam, and… pray for one more year before our bundles of joy learn the truth about Santa.

But don’t worry. When it inevitably happens, you can just redirect the subject to The Real Miracle of Christmas: the fact that all their gifts manage to get shipped and delivered on time.

Think about it. Every year, people all around the world go on a shopping frenzy, often waiting until literally the day before to buy their gifts. Then, through the hocus-pocus magic of “logistics,” the hardworking folks of the shipping industry, aka the true Santas of Christmas, deliver your gifts safely and right in the nick of time. How do they do it?!

Genuinely, we have no idea. But we do know there’s another Santa who deserves some milk and cookies. Better yet – a thank you note with a big ol’ tip.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 3.87 minutes to read.

“You become a worrier by practicing worry. You become free of worry by practicing the opposite.”

–Norman Vincent Peale (1898-1993)

We have two to report today:

1. In yesterday’s Speed Round about the World Cup, we said the Golden Boot is the World Cup finals MVP, when it’s actually given to the tournament’s top goal-scorer.
2. In yesterday’s Week Ahead section, we said the House Jan. 6 Committee will hold its final public hearing on Wednesday. In reality, the last hearing was yesterday, though the committee’s final report will be released on Wednesday (more on that later in this issue).

Apologies for any confusion, and thanks to everyone who wrote in to let us know!

In an effort to introduce more transparency into our reporting, we’ll be keeping a running total of the number of corrections we issue. These are the 31st and 32nd corrections out of the 245 newsletters we’ve published so far this year.

If Shakespeare was from Boston and wrote a play about modern music, its opening line would probably be: “Popular songs, shall I compare thee to a long-burning candle? Because thou art getting wicked-shawt.”

According to a recent Billboard report, 38% of the top 10 hits so far this year have been sub-three-minutes, compared to 4% in 2016. And that’s just one data point in a long list.

• Since 2000, Billboard Hot 100 songs have trended down from ~4:10 minutes to 3:30. In 2021, the top 50 tracks on Billboard’s year-end Hot 100 averaged 3:07.
• A 2020 analysis of 160,000 Spotify songs dating back to 1930 discovered there was a steady decline in mean song duration from 1990 (4 mins 19 secs) to 2020 (3 mins 17 secs).

🎶⏱ Driving the trend… Tl;dr – no one really knows for sure. But there are a few ideas, the most simple just being that attention spans are shrinking across the board. Per a 2015 research report from Microsoft, the average human attention span was 12 seconds in 2000, but had decreased to eight seconds (one second shorter than a goldfish) by 2013.

Another theory focuses on the money-making incentives for artists. Streaming services like Spotify or Apple Music have grown to comprise 65% of the music industry’s overall revenue, and they pay out royalties on a per stream basis. This calculation doesn’t take overall listening time into account (just initial listening time), potentially giving artists an incentive to create shorter tracks. Plus shortform video apps, like TikTok, Reels, etc., that are being used by artists to drive streams skew towards popularizing song snippets, per Billboard.

🍿 Zoom out: Interestingly enough, at the same time hit songs are getting shorter, the most popular movies are getting longer. A recent What to Watch analysis comparing the historical runtimes of the US box office top-ten found that 2021’s most popular movies were 21 minutes longer than the average runtime of the top-ten movies released in 1981.

🇪🇺 The EU filed an antitrust complaint against Meta yesterday that carries a potential fine of up to $11.3 billion. The EU’s executive arm accused the tech giant of breaching antitrust laws by handicapping competitors of its own classified ads service – Facebook Marketplace – that attempt to advertise on FB or Instagram. A separate EU investigation launched in June 2021 is focusing on whether Meta unfairly uses advertisers' data to give itself an edge in the online classified ads sector.

🇷🇺 Russia launched dozens of self-detonating drones in Kyiv yesterday morning, damaging critical infrastructure. The assault, which knocked out power to three areas in the region, marks Moscow’s third air attack on the city over the past six days. Ukrainian forces said they managed to shoot down 30 of the 35 kamikaze drones before they detonated. The fresh missile strikes came days after Ukrainian authorities’ brought nine damaged power stations back online, restoring electricity to some 6 million residents.

🌎 The UN’s COP 15 biodiversity conference reached a new global deal to protect more of the Earth’s land and water. The new agreement, which covers every nation in the world except the US and the Vatican, includes a commitment to protect 30% of land and water considered important for biodiversity before the end of the decade, up from 17% of terrestrial and 10% of marine areas that are currently protected. Overall, the deal lays out a suite of 23 environmental targets. But it’s probably worth mentioning that the group’s last ten-year agreement failed to achieve any of its 20 goals on a global scale.

😪 Jobs, kids, animals, alarms. There’s no getting used to being jarred awake every day, so when we find something that turns the volume down – even slightly – it feels like a real luxury…

😊 The Daily Good is a 30-second newsletter delivered each weekday where you can find soothing playlists, sustainable recipes, inspiring articles, and more. Each edition feels like you’re hearing from a trusted friend—and includes self-care tips and encouragement, good news, sustainable shopping recs, and nourishing recipes.

🧘‍♀️ We can’t change having to leave our warm, cozy beds every morning, but we can definitely do things to relax our minds, improve our moods, and get our day started right.

Join 225,000 readers, and start your day with something good.

The House Jan. 6 committee broadcast the last of ten public hearings yesterday, where its members – 7 Democrats and 2 Republicans – unanimously voted to refer former President Donald Trump to the Justice Department for four potential criminal charges.

☝️ First things first: Congress doesn’t have the power to bring charges or initiate a criminal investigation, but it can call for the Justice Department to launch a probe. These requests, or criminal referrals, don’t hold any legal weight or influence over the DOJ’s decisions.

• At the moment, the Justice Department is running a separate investigation into the events of Jan. 6. This probe is led by an independent special counsel, and will make its own determination of what – if any – charges to bring against former President Trump.

⚖️ What are the charges?... The four alleged offenses laid out by the committee are:

1. Obstruction of an official proceeding
2. Conspiracy to defraud the United States
3. Conspiracy to make a false statement
4. Insurrection

The committee also made a criminal referral of John Eastman, a lawyer acting as then-President Trump’s attorney in the weeks leading up to and during Jan. 6, for obstruction of an official proceeding, and voted to refer House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), as well as Reps. Scott Perry (R - PA), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), and Jim Jordan (R - OH), to the House Ethics Committee for refusing to comply with subpoenas.

👀 Looking ahead… The Jan. 6 committee is expected to publish its final report tomorrow, after which it’ll disband with the forming of a new Republican-led House in January. You can read an exec summary of said final report here.

+Dive deeper: From the Left | From the Center | From the Right

Yesterday, the Biden administration unveiled a new plan that establishes a goal of reducing America’s homeless population by 25% over the next two years.

🏘️ Background: An average of 2,500 people/day in the US have exited homelessness since 2017, per the US Interagency Council on Homelessness. But roughly the same amount of people have lost housing over the past five years. Meaning the overall US homeless population has remained relatively stable at 550,000–600,000 individuals.

📑 Now, back to the plan… Among other things, the White House’s 104-page platform ordered federal agencies to work with local governments to reduce unsheltered homelessness, expand housing, and attempt to prevent homelessness before it happens. The plan requests an increase of $360 million on top of its current $8.7 billion budget to fund these programs, though other details are scarce.

• The Biden administration also committed itself to a policy called “Housing First,” or the idea that people should be housed before underlying problems like addiction or mental illness are addressed.

🇺🇸 Elsewhere: NYC, Portland, and Los Angeles each announced plans over the past two months aimed at reducing homelessness in their respective cities.

💬 Quoted…​​ “It was all a dream.”

Get ready for a Juicy (😉) bit of news: This past Friday, a hyper-realistic avatar of the rapper Notorious B.I.G., who passed away in 1997 at the age of 24, performed hits like the aforementioned “Juicy,” “Big Poppa,” and “Warning” – all “live” within Meta’s Horizon Worlds metaverse platform.

🏢 Stat of the Day: Office occupancy in the average American city is sitting around 47% of pre-pandemic levels, per Kastle, a building security firm.

🤯 Did You Know?... The TV show Unsolved Mysteries has actually solved more than 260 cases over its 15-plus year span.

📖 Worth a Read: The World-Changing Race to Develop the Quantum Computer → (The New Yorker)

What message does your style send to the world? Fit and fearless? Laid back yet nuanced? Whatever it is, style is a lot more than just what you wear, and has a profound effect on our self-esteem and interactions with others.

🤔 Our question is: Do you feel your clothes actually represent your personality or were they just the closest thing you could find? Do they truly scream you, or did they just scream, hey you, buy this now?

👖 If you want to uniquely express yourself while having complete control of your style, check out unspun jeans…

• You can pick out every detail; fit, fabric, wash, waist rise, and more. unspun jeans are specifically manufactured to your body shape, thanks to a 3D iPhone scan – perfect fit guaranteed.👌

🍩🎁 Still need a last-minute gift? DONUT Readers can save 20% on Digital Gift Cards with code DONUT – delivered instantly (sorry fedex) via email. 🏃💨 !

Get jeans that actually suit your style from unspun.

• ☝️ You’re looking at a 1964 image from longtime MIT professor Harold "Doc" Edgerton that he described as part art, part electrical engineering; he used this pic in a famous lecture titled “How to make applesauce” where he explained the pioneering tech used to create the image.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🐦🗳️ Twitter users voted yesterday on whether CEO Elon Musk should step down, with 57% of the 17 million votes cast saying Musk should go.
• 🚗⚡ EV maker Lucid closed a $1.5 billion funding round, the company announced yesterday.
• 🎮 Epic Games agreed to pay $520 million to settle Federal Trade Commission allegations of violating the privacy of minors and misleading players into making unintended purchases; it's one of the largest FTC settlements to date.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• ⚖️ Harvey Weinstein was found guilty of one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault in an LA court yesterday. | Amber Heard and Johnny Depp settled their defamation case yesterday, per a Deadline report; Heard will pay Depp $1 million.
• 🧩🧸 “Kidults” – aka people 12 years and older – make up 25% of the roughly $9 billion in toy sales per year, The NPD Group reported yesterday; this cohort is also the industry’s largest driver of growth per the report.
• 🇦🇷⚽ Argentina is celebrating last Sunday’s World Cup victory today with a parade in Buenos Aires; the country has declared a national holiday so all citizens "can express their deepest joy for the national team."

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• ⚔️ Attila the Hun may have attacked Rome in the 5th century to save his people from starvation, per a new peer-reviewed study that reconstructed climate data from tree rings.
• 🔒📧 Google announced plans to roll out end-to-end encryption for Gmail Workspace users starting January 20.
• 🏭 Coal use across the globe is projected to set a new record high of 8.8 billion tons this year, the International Energy Agency reported yesterday, with China accounting for over 50% of total consumption.

EVERYTHING ELSE

• ✈️ Thirty-six people were injured, 11 of them seriously, after a flight from Phoenix to Hawaii experienced “severe turbulence” yesterday. | Separately, five people were hospitalized yesterday after sustaining minor injuries from turbulence on board a flight from Brazil to Houston.
• ⚠️ The FBI issued a public safety alert Monday about a recent increase of financial "sextortion" schemes targeting children and teens, primarily boys.

CLICKBAIT

• 🕗⬅️🕘 A physicist came up with math that shows 'paradox-free' time travel is plausible.
• 🫖🤯 Did you know coffee was once illegal in parts of Europe and the Middle East? The world’s favorite psychoactive beverage was vilified before becoming a morning staple. Learn more about a traditional tea that’s facing a similar stigma today. (Hint: it’s coffee’s cousin...)*

*Sponsored post

Yesterday, we covered the National Labor Relations Board’s support for a lawsuit that alleges athletes at the University of Southern California are joint employees of the school, the Pac-12 conference, and the NCAA.

❓ Our question to you: Do you think college athletes should be classified as employees?

• 👍 Yes: 21%
• 💰 Only if their sports program generates a net profit: 18%
• 👎 No: 46%
• 🤷‍♀️ Unsure/other: 15%

Click here to view some long-form responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 8,273 votes, and 648 longform responses.

Joyce DeFauw recently accepted her diploma from Northern Illinois University – 71 years after she initially enrolled.

The 90-year-old began her studies in 1951, with a plan to graduate with a degree in home economics. She dropped out of school, however, when she fell in love and decided to start a family. 

• Now that her kids (and grandkids, and great-grandkids) are grown, Joyce decided to go back to school and finish what she started. 

📚🎓 Chase those dreams... “At times I wanted to quit, but I didn’t.” Joyce, who had to learn how to use a computer for the first time for her remote classes, said. "It’s nice to finish something you started... I know it can be difficult, but everything in life has its ups and downs.”

❓ Trivia: What was the original use of cellophane?

📅 True or False?... A.D. stands for "approximate date".

🤔 Riddle Me This: What kind of coat is best put on wet?

(keep scrolling for the answers)

👆 Check out the referral prizes you can get, just for introducing people you know to little old us. 

What to do: Copy your unique link below, then send it to anyone who you think would like the DONUT. Once you hit each milestone, you'll get an email with a link to claim your prize. (Pro tip: there's no need to ration points, you're entitled to a prize at each tier.)

Start referring.👇

❓ Trivia: To protect tablecloths from wine spills.

📅 T/F: False – it stands for Anno Domini, which is Latin for "in the year of our Lord"

🤔 Riddle: A coat of paint