In agreeing to give $15 million to Trump's presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit, ABC News broke the first rule of resisting autocracy: "Don't obey in advance." / AP, American Crisis
Related: "Trump and his picks threaten more lawsuits over critical coverage." / The New York Times [+]
Florida banned local authorities from overseeing worker safety in high temperatures -- an investigation now finds businesses haven't reported at least half of their heat deaths. / Tampa Bay Times
A New Jersey gubernatorial candidate comes under fire for faking a Spotify Wrapped that shows Springsteen as his top five songs of the year. / NJ.com
See also: A montage of Bruce Springsteen performing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" from 1978 to 2016. / YouTube
"A vicar has been forced to apologise after telling a group of schoolchildren aged 10 and 11 that Father Christmas was not real." / BBC News
Eighty years ago on Christmas Day, a plane carrying big band legend Glenn Miller went missing without a trace. / NPR
Congress tells Apple and Google to be prepared to remove TikTok from their app stores on Jan. 19. / Reuters
Related: This time around the ban isn't over China, but about TikTok's refusal to curtail pro-Palestinian content. / Matzko Minute
"Now I'm a network and nobody can tell us what the fuck to do." Before MTV there was Night Flight, whose original creator has relaunched the subculture haven. / Pitchfork
A car customizer hopes to get a Cybertruck approved for British roads, where sharp angles on vehicles are forbidden because of the threat to cars and pedestrians. / WIRED
Built with a reverse set of amino acids and sugars, synthetic "mirror cells" pose an "unprecedented risk" for all life, scientists warn. / Smithsonian Magazine
The founder and lead of Google Quantum AI suggests the speed of its new chip may be because it's borrowing "computation from parallel universes." / Newsweek
As dinosaur fossils hit record-breaking auction prices, a fractional investment platform plans to offer up shares in a Stegosaurus skeleton later this week. / Observer
Not for the squeamish: Tales of 18th-century dentistry. / The Quack Doctor
The world's oldest surviving bond just turned 400 years old and pays €13.61 of interest a year. / Financial Times
Say goodbye to the rest of your day with this mashup of Google maps and Wikipedia entries. / Matthew Siu