promoearn: This is 2020

Thursday, January 2

A woman wears glasses as she waits to celebrate New Years Eve in Times Square on Dec. 31, 2019 in New York City. Because of the mild weather, a larger than usual crowd of people visiting from all over the world is expected to watch the ball drop.

This is 2020

The US Embassy in Baghdad faces extensive damage. Your smart TV is spying on you. It's Thursday's news.

The FDA is banning fruit- and mint-flavored vaping products. Julián Castro dropped out of the 2020 presidential race. And there's been mysterious drone sightings in the Midwest.

It's Alex P. and Alex C. and we are the Alexes. Or Alexz? 🤔 We haven't quite figured it out yet.

But first, a mythical race of female warriors that inspired fictional heroes such as Wonder Woman and Xena the Warrior Princess, may have been more than ancient Greek lore.

The Short List newsletter is a snappy USA TODAY news roundup. Subscribe here!

Our New Year's resolution for you: Don't abbreviate 2020

The new year is giving scammers an easy way to forge documents, but you can protect yourself with an easy New Year's resolution: Stop abbreviating 2020 . Why? This year's abbreviation is easily changeable and could be used against you. The concern is that scammers could easily manipulate a document dated "1/1/20" into "1/1/2000" or even "1/1/2021." The solution is easy: There's no harm in writing the full date. Writing the month out can also help. Write this: January 15, 2020. Not this: 1/15/20.

'Simply isn't our time': Julián Castro drops out of 2020 race

Julián Castro, former Housing and Urban Development secretary in the Obama Administration, ended his presidential bid Thursday. "I've determined that it simply isn't our time," Castro said in a roughly four-minute-long video and campaign montage posted on Twitter. Castro, 45, was the only Latino candidate to run for president in 2020. The Texas Democrat stood at 1.2%, according to an average of polling from Real Clear Politics. So who's still running and who has dropped out? We're keeping track.

•	Author and activist Marianne Williamson, who is a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, has laid off her entire campaign staff.

Democratic presidential candidate and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro looks on in the spin room after the Democratic presidential debate at Texas Southern University on Sept. 12, 2019, in Houston, Texas.

Justin Sullivan, Getty Images

What everyone's talking about

•	LeBron James on former NBA Commissioner David Stern: "He definitely should have something named after him" after turning the league into a global empire.
•	Kelly Osbourne sets the record straight about her father Ozzy Osbourne's health.
•	"I had nowhere to go": Mississippi hunter battles a rattlesnake in a deer stand.
•	A body found in an Idaho cave more than 40 years ago has been identified as an outlaw who escaped jail in 1916.
•	Tim Allen's "Last Man Standing" returns tonight, picks family politics over Trump.

US Embassy in Baghdad faces extensive damage

A burned and charred reception area, smashed windows and vandalized rooms. New images from the U.S. Embassy in Iraq reveal how bad the damage is following days of protests by Iranian-backed militia members and their supporters. The Pentagon sent hundreds of troops to the region.

•	Demonstrators began to disperse Wednesday, and no deaths or serious injuries have been reported.
•	Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delayed a trip to Ukraine and several Central Asian countries to focus on the situation in Baghdad.
•	Photos: Look inside the damaged U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

attack

usat

FDA bans fruit- and mint-flavored vaping products

The Food and Drug Administration will ban fruit- and mint-flavored products used in e-cigarettes and vaping products while allowing vape shops to sell flavors from tank-based systems . The FDA will begin enforcing the new rule within 30 days, and the regulatory agency will target companies that market to youths. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said the new rule aims to "strike the right public health balance" by targeting products widely used by children while allowing vaping as a "potential off-ramp" for adults who want to quit smoking. The long-anticipated action comes amid a sharp rise in teenagers vaping nicotine and THC and a vaping-related lung injury epidemic that has hospitalized 2,561 and led to 55 deaths.

Real quick

•	A toddler's dad died battling wildfires. The 1-year-old boy was awarded his bravery medal.
•	The family of a 72-year-old man who suffered the most serious harm of the five victims in a machete attack at a Hanukkah party says his "prognosis is not good."
•	As impeachment trial looms, senator jurors look to get creative on the 2020 campaign trail.
•	Graduate school workers at Harvard end strike. Whether it worked remains to be seen.

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a... drone?

There's been mysterious drone sightings this week in northeastern Colorado and Nebraska. Yes, you read that sentence correctly . The drones reportedly have 6-foot wingspans and fly between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. in grid-like patterns, 150 to 200 feet in the air in groups of six to 10. And as of right now, no one really knows what they're doing or why they're doing it. "There are many theories about what is going on, but at this point, that's all they are," said Yuma County Sheriff Todd Combs. Local sheriff's offices, police departments and federal government agencies have scheduled a meeting Jan. 6 to develop a plan to identify who or what is controlling these drones.

Your smart TV is spying on you 🧐

Those smart TVs that sold for unheard of low prices over the holidays come with a catch. The price is super low, but the manufacturers get to monitor what you're watching and report back to third parties, for a fee. It doesn't have to be this way. You have the controls to opt out. With just a few clicks, you can stop the manufacturers from snooping on you in the living room.

A break from the news

•	AI in 2020 and beyond: Create a digital replica of your aging parent or yourself.
•	Is Audible—Amazon's audiobook service— actually worth the money?
•	"New year, new me!" Here's how to stick to your New Year's resolutions.