The Short List

Wed Dec 18 2024

Laura L. Davis | Audience Editor

@lauradavis

The Supreme Court is wading in to a potential ban on TikTok. The Starliner astronauts stuck at the International Space Station have had their homecoming delayed yet again. And the ethics report on former Rep. Matt Gaetz might become public after all.

👋 Hey, Wednesday! Laura Davis here. Ready for the news? It's ready for you. Scroll on.

But first: A jaw-dropping discovery. 😱 A homeowner in New York saw something sticking up from the ground. It turned out to be a complete mastodon jaw fossil.

Supreme Court to hear challenge to TikTok ban

With the clock ticking down on a possible ban on TikTok in the United States, the Supreme Court said Wednesday that it would review whether a law requiring the video app be sold or face a ban in the U.S. violates the First Amendment.

What's going on: The court said it would hear arguments in the case on Jan. 10, ahead of a Jan. 19 deadline for TikTok's China-based parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app or have it banned from app stores and web hosting companies in the U.S.

Behind the challenge: TikTok wants the high court to overturn a lower court's ruling that national security concerns justify a ban, in spite of the potential infringement on the free speech rights of Americans who use TikTok.📱 We break it down.

Gaetz report to be released after all

The House Ethics Committee in the coming days will release its report on former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz after a secret vote earlier this month, according to multiple reports.

What's in the report? It is expected to deal with allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use – allegations for which Gaetz was under investigation by the House Ethics Committee. The former Florida lawmaker has denied the allegations.

What to know: The vote is an about-face for the committee, which had declined to release the report in November after Gaetz resigned during his brief time as President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for U.S. attorney general. 👉 What we know about the report.

•	Gaetz says he 'often sent funds' to girlfriends.

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., withdrew his bid to become attroney general on Nov. 21 over continuing allegations of sexual impropriety. President-elect Donald Trump appointed him on Nov. 13, 2024.

Amanda Andrade-Rhoades, Amanda Andrade-Rhoades / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Real quick

•	Zap it and put it in a bag: What the military is doing about drones.
•	Could genetic testing save your life? What to know.
•	$3 billion later, how Elon Musk, SpaceX changed this Texas town.
•	End of the road: These car models won't make it to 2025.
•	Are your plastic utensils toxic? Alarming study gets an update.
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State of emergency declared over bird flu

California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency Wednesday to combat bird flu, which has spread to more than a quarter of all the state's dairies in the past month and infected 34 people.

What it means: The emergency declaration expands the amount of money Newsom can spend fighting the H5N1 virus, which was first detected in California cows in August, and has swept across the nation's largest dairy-producing state.

What about people? All human infections reported so far had been mild until Wednesday, when federal officials said a Louisiana resident hospitalized with a presumptive bird flu infection has the nation's first case classified as "severe." 👉 Here's what we know now.

•	Watch: As bird flu spreads, how chickens are killed for food becomes a concern.

Starliner astronauts still stuck

NASA's Starliner astronauts have had their homecoming delayed yet again. Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore weren't supposed to be at the International Space Station beyond a few days in June when they reached the orbital outpost on the inaugural flight test for Boeing's Starliner spacecraft. But their return was delayed multiple times until NASA finally decided that the safest route would be to send the pair back to Earth on a SpaceX Dragon vehicle in February. Now, the astronauts will be spending at least another month in orbit after NASA said the launch of a replacement crew was delayed. 🚀 What's next for the crew.

A break from the news

•	🎄Cozy up: Our recipe for the best eggnog cocktail.
•	🎁 Do I buy something for my boss? Our tips for office gift-giving.

Laura L. Davis is an Audience Editor at USA TODAY. Say hi sometime! laura@usatoday.com. Support quality journalism like this? Subscribe to USA TODAY here.

Fed reduces key interest rate by quarter point, predicts fewer cuts

U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell departs after speaking at a press conference where he announced the Fed had cut interest rates by a quarter point following a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee on interest rate policy in Washington, U.S., December 18, 2024.

The Fed trimmed a key interest rate by a quarter percentage point, its third straight rate cut. But it forecast fewer 2025 cuts amid inflation uptick.

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