Good morning. On today’s docket:

• 👍 Congress approved the US military’s annual budget
• 📉 Rents are on their way down
• 📽️ The National Film Registry just got a little bigger

… and more.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be about a 4.77-minute read.

P.S. First time reading? Subscribe here for free.

“One loses many laughs by not laughing at oneself.”

–Mary Engelbreit (b.1952)

This week, the House and Senate both overwhelmingly approved a new $886 billion defense spending and policy bill, sending the measure to President Biden who is expected to sign it into law shortly.

The bipartisan defense package is $28 billion higher compared to the previous year, and represents ~14% of America’s overall federal budget (the third largest line item behind Social Security and Medicare). It authorizes a wide range of provisions for the fiscal year 2024, including:

• A 5.2% pay raise for all US service members, the largest annual bump in over two decades.
• $14.7 billion towards deterring China in the Indo-Pacific region and increasing the frequency and scale of US military exercises in the area.
• A two-year extension of the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which provides funding for companies to produce weapons and military services for Ukraine.

The bill also extends a controversial law allowing the US to monitor the communications of foreign nationals without a warrant, which has been called into question after the FBI admitted it used the measure to spy on Americans.

Zoom out: The Department of Defense could only account for roughly half of its $3.8 trillion worth of assets in the 2023 fiscal year – a big fat audit “F,” according to a report published last month.

The Pentagon has now failed six straight audits dating back to 2018, when its first such inspection occurred. (And if you’re wondering how many other government agencies are unable to pass an audit, the answer is zero.)

👀 Looking ahead… US lawmakers are still negotiating the Biden admin’s $106 billion national security supplemental request, which includes $60 billion in military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine and nearly $14 billion to assist Israel in its conflict with Hamas.

📊 Flash poll: In your opinion, is the US government spending too much, too little, or about the right amount on its defense budget?

• Too much
• Too little
• About the right amount

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🇷🇺 Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated his commitment to the Ukraine war in an annual televised event. During a four-hour press conference, which marked the first time Putin has fielded questions from journalists or the public since invading Ukraine in February 2022, the Russian president took a hardline stance calling for the “denazification” of Ukraine and the country’s unconditional surrender. The address came days after Putin announced plans to run for a fifth term in office when Russia holds elections next March. Separately, the EU agreed yesterday to officially open membership talks with Ukraine after bypassing objections from Hungary.

🌎🦟 Dengue fever cases in the Western Hemisphere reached their highest level in recorded history. Over 4 million cases of dengue, which causes a severe flu-like illness that can be fatal if left untreated, have been reported throughout the Americas and Caribbean this year, surpassing the previous record of 3.2 million cases in 2019. Rising temperatures are extending the habitat of mosquitoes farther north and south in addition to increasing the speed the virus develops inside the mosquito, leading to higher viral loads, a higher probability of transmission, and longer seasons.

🇪🇺 An EU-funded project launched an encyclopedia of historical European smells. Odeuropa is a research project created in 2020 that uses AI to identify smell-related aspects of historical texts and images from 16th- to early 20th-century Europe. Its Encyclopedia of Smell History and Heritage contains 120 scents across a wide range of categories, including car interiors, the plague, love, and tea.

The median rent in Manhattan, America’s largest rental market, fell last month on an annual basis for the first time in over two years, per a new report from real-estate firms Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel.

The report found Manhattan’s median monthly rent in November fell to $4,000, down from a record-high $4,400 in August and 2.3% lower compared to one year ago. It attributes this recent dip to several factors, including:

• The Fed’s recent series of rate hikes
• A growing supply of empty Manhattan apartments
• Local renters reaching their “affordability threshold” and becoming unable to pay higher prices

Big picture: The national median asking rent in November fell 2.1% from the prior year to reach $1,967, marking the biggest annual drop since February 2020, according to Redfin. However, US rents are still 22% higher compared to November 2019, and 4% shy of record-high levels reached this past August.

👀 Looking ahead… Economists say median rent prices are expected to decrease once the Fed starts cutting interest rates next year, since lower mortgage rates will incentivize would-be homeowners – who are currently priced out of buying and stuck in the rental market – to purchase a property.

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This week, the Library of Congress unveiled its annual list of 25 films to be inducted into the National Film Registry (NFR) for preservation. And it’s giving nostalgia.

What is the National Film Registry?... Established with the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, the NFR’s stated purpose is to aggregate and preserve a list of works deemed significant to American culture.

Films become eligible for the list 10 years after their release, and the public can nominate movies for consideration each year. The final 25 are then chosen by the Librarian of Congress.

• One interesting thing: The NFPA of 1988 – passed in an era notably absent of streaming platforms – came about after several prominent filmmakers and industry players, including Frank Capra and Martin Scorsese, advocated for Congress to enact a film preservation bill in order to avoid commercial modifications of classic films (like editing for TV), which they saw as negative.

📝🍿 This year’s inductees… include the two most recent films on this list – 12 Years a Slave (2013) and 20 Feet from Stardom (also 2013) – as well as classics like Lady and the Tramp, Terminator 2, Apollo 13, and Love & Basketball.

In the holiday spirit? The list has options, with both Home Alone (1990) and The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) making the 25-film cut.

See the full list here.

💬 Quoted… "I will now have the opportunity to finally shed this 'Larry David' persona and become the person God intended me to be.”

• In perhaps the most Larry David way ever, HBO and Larry David yesterday announced that the next season of Curb Your Enthusiasm will be the show’s last. The hit show, HBO’s longest-running series, first debuted in 2000 and ran for eight seasons, then went on a six-year hiatus. But you can’t keep Larry David away forever – Curb came back to the air in 2017 for four more seasons, the last of which begins February 4.

🏀 Stat of the Day: Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green has played in 15 games so far this NBA season… and has been kicked out of three of them. The latest ejection occurred on Tuesday, when he struck Phoenix Suns center Jusuf Nurkic in the face and was subsequently tossed out of the game. The NBA has suspended Green indefinitely following the incident.

🤔 Did You Know?... Private donations to US colleges and universities totaled $59.5 billion last year, up from ~$14.8 billion during the 1980-81 school year (adjusted for inflation), according to the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. And, similar to group projects, only a few people deserve the credit. In 2022, more than 80% of the donations came from 1% of the donors.

📰 Worth a Read: The top findings from public surveys in 2023 → (Pew Research)

• 👆 The winners of the 20th annual International Photography Awards were unveiled this week, with nearly two dozen photographers selected out of thousands of entrants.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with Nutrafol

• 💰 US markets closed up across the board (S&P: +0.3%; Dow: +0.4%; Nasdaq: +0.2%); the Dow set a new record-high for the second straight day. | 🏘️ Mortgage rates dipped below 7% for the first time since August; the average 30-year mortgage rate currently sits at 6.95%.
• 🚘 GM-owned Cruise is laying off 900 employees, or 24% of its workforce; the move comes a day after Cruise dismissed nine “key leaders.” | 🏢 Ernst & Young is laying off ~130 partners across all US businesses.
• 🐭 Trian Fund Management, an activist hedge fund pushing for changes at Disney, nominated its founder Nelson Peltz and former Disney CFO Jay Rasulo to the media giant's board.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🏈 College football bowl action kicks off on Saturday with a slate of seven games. | 🏐 Nebraska will face defending national champs Texas in the NCAA women’s volleyball national championship on Sunday.
• 🐭 The earliest version of Mickey Mouse, depicted in the 1928 short film “Steamboat Willie,” is set to enter the public domain on January 1, 2024.
• ✅🎤 Pennsylvania lawmakers approved a resolution recognizing 2023 as the “Taylor Swift Era”; the bill was passed on Wednesday, Swift’s 34th birthday.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Auxx-Lift

• 🛰️🌐 Amazon announced its coming Project Kuiper internet satellites will feature a next-gen speed-boosting technology known as laser links, following a successful field test.
• ⏰ Many people who like getting up early can credit their “morning person” trait to genes inherited from Neanderthal ancestors, per a new study.
• ☀️💪 The Sun released its strongest solar flare since 2017 yesterday, NASA announced; it could dramatically increase the visibility of the Northern Lights in the coming days, though the flare’s exact size and trajectory is still unclear.

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MISCELLANEOUS

• 🐷💰 The DOJ charged four men with operating an international “pig-butchering” scheme – aka an increasingly popular scam that involves cold-messaging victims and building a rapport with them to extract money – that cost victims more than $80 million.
• 📝 The US government’s terrorism watchlist has grown to include ~2 million people since it was created following 9/11, and has nearly doubled in size over the past six years, per a new CBS Reports investigation.
• ⚖️ A former Facebook diversity strategist pleaded guilty this week to stealing more than $4 million from the tech giant.

CLICKBAIT

• ⌚📅 Will this be the last Christmas you can get an Apple Watch?

We've always asked why the chicken crossed the road... but what about what the chicken wore across the road? We know the question has been nagging you, so luckily, here's the answer: Nubz the chicken would tell you he wore one of his 64 pairs of shoes, of course.

😎🐓 A fashion legend... After the disabled chicken lost his toes to a parasite, Nubz's owner realized he got around easier by wearing a tiny pair of slippers she had put on the bird to ease the pain.

• Nubs eventually started wearing her tiny shoes every day to get around. When the chicken went viral online, strangers started sending him shoes from around the world.

💬 What they're saying: "They’ve been a great blessing," said Nubz's owner Meech Davignon. "It’s surreal to have so many people love my tiny little chicken."

Coming at you hotter than noon on the Fourth of July, it’s the DONUT’s weekly news quiz.

Find out how your news superpowers stack up against our team.

Below are three lists of ingredients. All you have to do is give us the completed dish they make.

☝️ Recipe #1:

• Chopped spinach
• Olive oil
• Yellow onion
• Garlic
• Mascarpone cheese
• Parmesan cheese
• Salt
• Ground pepper
• Eggs
• Half-and-half
• Crushed red pepper
• English muffins

✌️ Recipe #2:

• Cream cheese
• Sour cream
• Chives
• Dijon mustard
• Capers
• Lemons
• Black pepper
• Smoked salmon
• Aleppo pepper

3️⃣ Recipe #3:

• Sliced pickles
• Flour
• Italian seasoning
• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic powder
• Buttermilk
• Eggs
• Breadcrumbs
• Canola oil

(keep scrolling for the answers)

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Start referring.👇

1. Spinach florentine breakfast casserole
2. Smoked salmon dip
3. Fried pickles