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🌏 Donald Trump x Elon Musk?

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🌏 Donald Trump x Elon Musk?

Good morning, Quartz readers!


HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Donald Trump is close to collabing with Elon Musk. The presidential candidate wants the tech billionaire to lead a “government efficiency commission.” 

Google is gearing up for another antitrust trial. The first one was about its search dominance, and this one is about its ad tech dominance.

JetBlue actually made out pretty good during the CrowdStrike outage. The carrier raised its revenue guidance because it sopped up its competitors’ stranded passengers.

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Kroger promised to cut prices. Of course, it would have to be allowed to merge with Albertsons first.

Verizon is buying $20 billion in internet fiber. It’s acquiring Frontier Communication to boost its reach.


CHICAGO FED PREZ SAYS ECONOMIC VIBES ARE WHATEVER

Austan Goolsbee says that America is getting tantalizingly close to a so-called “soft landing” where the Federal Reserve has successfully raised interest rates to bring inflation down without destroying the economy.

From his presidential perch at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Goolsbee says that things are getting to the point that he and his colleagues can focus less on doomer vibes and more on data points that seem to be painting a rosier picture of the country’s fiscal well-being.

Quartz’s Rocio Fabbro chatted with Goolsbee about his outlook on where things go from here and whether the Fed is behind the curve on getting there.

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THAT’S A MIGHTY BIG MATTRESS

Family offices are gaining ground on hedge funds as the favorite safe havens of the wealthiest people’s wealth, says Deloitte.

The consultancy expects the fortunes stowed with the investment vehicles to reach $9 trillion by 2030 — nearly triple the amount from just a few years ago — as the upper-est crust grows tired of sharing its returns with riff-raff who don’t share a bloodline.

Quartz’s Madeline Fitzgerald explains not just what a family office is, but what the concept’s growing popularity means for the future of global finance.


MORE FROM QUARTZ

🦾 OpenAI hit 1 million paid business users for ChatGPT — with possible price increases coming

💰 Mark Cuban says Kamala Harris will definitely not tax unrealized capital gains

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📱New Mexico sued Snapchat for allowing ‘sextortion’ and sexual abuse targeting children

🎄 Half of Americans will start their holiday shopping even before Halloween

💉An Eli Lilly experiment could let insulin-using diabetes patients avoid 313 injections

🏈 These are the 10 wealthiest sports franchise owners in America


SURPRISING DISCOVERIES

A newly found antibody could be a beat-all COVID-19 vaccine. Scientists think they may have found a treatment that can recognize slippery changes in the virus’s spike protein.

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Cats might be hiding how much they like playing fetch. A survey of cat people says 41% of them “sometimes, frequently or always” bring back thrown objects.

Colonial Americans rioted over pine trees. The British Crown’s efforts at conservation were fairly unpopular.

A dye used for Gatorade might turn your skin clear. Scientists tried using yellow-tinting tartrazine on mice first; humans might get their turn, too, one day.

Michael Jordan has been trying to sell his house for 12 years. The basketball star lowered his price from $29 million to $14.855 million in 2015 — 1+4+8+5+5=23, his playing number — and hasn’t budged since.


Did you know we have two premium weekend emails, too? One gives you analysis on the week’s news, and one provides the best reads from Quartz and elsewhere to get your week started right. Become a member or give membership as a gift!

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Our best wishes on a safe start to the day. Send any news, comments, economic vibes, or transparent skin pics to talk@qz.com. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Melvin Backman and Morgan Haefner.

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Video: Trump Mocks Obama, Biden in His Presidential ‘Walk of Fame’

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Video: Trump Mocks Obama, Biden in His Presidential ‘Walk of Fame’

new video loaded: Trump Mocks Obama, Biden in His Presidential ‘Walk of Fame’

The White House unveiled new plaques near the Oval Office mocking some of President Trump’s predecessors. The new display distorts history and aligns with Mr. Trump’s worldview.

By Chris Cameron and Jackeline Luna

December 18, 2025

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Is ISIS making a comeback? : Sources & Methods

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Is ISIS making a comeback? : Sources & Methods
The terrorist group has been linked to the mass shooting in Australia and a deadly attack in Syria. What do these two attacks reveal about the group’s strength?Host Mary Louise Kelly speaks with Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman and Middle East correspondent Jane Arraf about how the Islamic State has adapted in a post-caliphate world and what American forces are doing in Syria.Email the show at sourcesandmethods@npr.orgNPR+ supporters hear every episode without sponsor messages and unlock access to our complete archive. Sign up at plus.npr.org.
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BBC Verify Live: Fact-checking Trump’s unusual new White House presidential plaques

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BBC Verify Live: Fact-checking Trump’s unusual new White House presidential plaques

Videos show rebels on the move in eastern DRC city Uvirapublished at 12:49 GMT

Peter Mwai
BBC Verify senior journalist

We have verified video showing fighters belonging to the Rwandan-backed M23 rebel group on the move in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), after M23 announced a withdrawal from the city of Uvira in South Kivu province which it seized a week ago.

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The M23 had taken contorl of Uvira despite a ceasefire deal agreed between the governments of Rwanda and DRC and had come under increasing diplomatic pressure to withdraw its forces from the city.

The DRC government has reacted with scepticism, with a spokesperson asking on XL “Where are they going? How many were there? What are they leaving behind in the city? Mass graves? Soldiers disguised as civilians?”

We can’t tell where they are heading, but in the footage we have verified the fighters, together with vehicles, move north past the Uvira police headquarters.

We confirmed where the clips were filmed by matching the distinctively painted road kerbs, buildings and trees to satellite imagery.

The leader of the Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC), a coalition of rebel groups which includes the M23 group, had announced on Monday that the group would withdraw from the city as a “trust-building measure”.

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It followed a request from the US which has been mediating between the governments of Rwanda and DRC.

The rebels remained present in the city after the announcement but on Wednesday M23 spokesperson Willy Ngoma announced the group had begun withdrawing troops. The group said it intends to complete the withdrawal today, but has warned against militarisation.

Image source, X
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