The Michigan Supreme Court upheld an appeals court decision that found that Donald Trump could appear on the ballot despite questions about his eligibility to hold elected office because of his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
The decision followed a bombshell ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court, which on Dec. 19 determined that Trump should be removed from the state’s primary ballot for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. A key difference between the decisions was that Colorado’s came after a trial that established an evidentiary basis to find that Trump incited a violent uprising. Lawyers in Michigan wanted a similar trial, but the courts turned them down.
The question of Trump’s eligibility is widely expected to be answered by the U.S. Supreme Court, and some form of challenge has been lodged in more than 30 states. Many of those have already been dismissed, and officials in some states, including California, have signaled that they are wary of trying to have him removed.
The Times sues OpenAI and Microsoft
The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft, the creators of ChatGPT and other popular A.I. platforms, for copyright infringement today. It is the first major American media organization to sue the companies.
The lawsuit contends that millions of Times articles were used to train chatbots that now compete with the news outlet, and cites several examples when a chatbot provided users with near-verbatim excerpts from Times articles that would otherwise require a paid subscription to view.
The suit does not include an exact monetary demand, but it says the defendants should be held responsible for billions of dollars in damages, and calls for the destruction of any chatbot models and training data that use copyrighted material from The Times.
Prospects for a Gaza cease-fire appear remote
Mediators in Egypt, Qatar and several other countries are floating proposals for a new cease-fire in Gaza. But Israel and Hamas, at least in public, have staked out seemingly intractable conditions, leading diplomats to say they believe a deal for a durable truce remains far off.
An ever-more-distant goal: Critics within and outside Israel have questioned whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s goal to eliminate Hamas — which he reiterated as a condition for a permanent cease-fire — was ever realistic. One former Israeli national security adviser called the plan “vague.”
Analysts think Israel could sufficiently degrade Hamas’s military capabilities to prevent it from repeating a devastating attack like Oct. 7. But even that limited goal is considered formidable.
The Chinese spy agency challenging the C.I.A.
Beijing’s Ministry of State Security is deploying A.I. and other advanced technology to go toe-to-toe with the U.S. as the two nations try to steal each other’s scientific secrets.
In recent years, the M.S.S. has built itself through wider recruitment, including of American citizens. The agency has also benefited from better training and a bigger budget to try to fulfill the goal of Xi Jinping, China’s leader, for the nation to rival the U.S. as the world’s pre-eminent economic and military power.
More top news
Health: Canada allows terminally ill people to get assistance ending their lives. It’s set to expand the practice to include people whose only medical condition is mental illness.
South Korea: The “Parasite” actor Lee Sun-kyun was found dead in Seoul yesterday. The police said they were investigating the death as a suicide.
Labor: Employees at multiple board game cafes in New York City have unionized this month.
Immigration: Secretary of State Antony Blinken met in Mexico City with Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico’s president, as a caravan of thousands headed north.
Ukraine: Russian authorities have taken thousands of children from Ukraine since the war began.
India: Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, the foreign minister, met with President Vladimir Putin yesterday on a five-day visit to Russia intended to reinforce economic and defense ties.
Business: Chinese video game company shares rallied, as investors seized on signals that the government was having second thoughts about proposed gaming regulations.
Weather: Midwesterners have been confounded by a record-breaking warm, snowless winter.
TIME TO UNWIND
The things they cherished
These seven artists left us this year. Here’s what they left behind.
Suzanne Somers was “exactly the same person” onstage as off, said her stepdaughter, Leslie Hamel, who had also been the designer of Somers’s stage costumes since the mid-80s. Her outfits linger, each a glitter-laden echo of the vampy, insouciant bombshell that Somers loved to portray.
Kwame Brathwaite, the photographer and activist who helped birth the “Black is beautiful” movement of the 1960s, left behind a 700-odd collection of vinyl records. “For him,” said his son, Kwame S. Brathwaite, “in African diaspora culture, music is a really important piece of how we record what’s happening and how we talk about the things that are happening in the world.”
Paul Reubens, the comic mastermind behind Pee-wee Herman, collected Elvis and Liberace miniatures, lava lamps and other American memorabilia. The actor David Arquette, a longtime friend, said he would hunt down the most “offbeat, kitschiest, weird, swirled-looking-faced” trinkets. At one point, his collections sprawled across 14 storage units.
We documented four more collections here. Take a look.
Considering a Dry January? Let us help.
It sounds simple enough: no alcohol for 31 days. It might seem even more appealing after a rowdy New Year’s Eve. So set yourself up for success with a few strategies in your back pocket.
We asked Dr. David Wolinsky, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences with Johns Hopkins Medicine, who specializes in addiction, for some tips. For starters, tell your friends and family about your goal. Accountability can help you stay the course. You might also want to avoid environments and situations that might cause you to want to drink.
Here’s the rest of Dr. Wolinsky’s Dry January playbook.
UNWIND DURING THE HOLIDAYS
We asked readers to share tips.
“I incorporate additional time with my horse and longer walks with my dog. It seems like the more time I get to spend with these beloved animals the better my ability to ‘reset’ becomes.” — Debra Farber from New Jersey.
Dinner table topics
Live in a favorite show: Streamers and networks are creating live experiences to promote series like “Squid Game” and “Only Murders in the Building.”
Connect with your true self: Transgender people have turned to video games where they can choose their roles and let their identities flourish.
A first post-divorce Christmas: A Modern Love contributor writes that while her tree tradition remained this holiday, she’s glad so much else has changed.
Watch ‘em and weep: In 2023, male film characters pouted, cried and raged elaborately after something they saw as their birthright was put in check.
WHAT TO DO TONIGHT
Cook: A creamy chicken stew is a spinach-artichoke dip reimagined for the stovetop.
Watch: “The year: 2023” on ABC tonight dives into big moments like the Eras Tour, Barbenheimer and the Hollywood strikes.
Groove: Our critics recommend these music collections that revisit songs from Whitney Houston, Joni Mitchell and others.
Exercise: Here are 12 workout moves for 2024 to help you feel strong and age well, no matter your fitness level.
Shop: These are the best Bluetooth speakers to have at home.
Play: Today’s Spelling Bee, Wordle and Mini Crossword. For more, find all our games here.
ONE LAST THING
A crab museum with serious things to say
In a time when museums are struggling to attract visitors, the Crab Museum in Margate, England, is going for absurdism.
Exhibits feature actual crab species from around the world, but that’s where the realism ends. One crabs holds a pint of beer, another clutches a cricket bat. One is dressed as a suffragist wearing a “Votes for Women” sash. The silliness is a Trojan Horse, sneaking in lessons about marine life and ecosystems, and it’s working. The Crab Museum now attracts around 80,000 visitors a year and other museums are taking notice.
Have an informative evening.
Thanks for reading. — Justin
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