Is EU’s Fine on X Retaliation for Refusing Secret Censorship Deal?

Trump on Netflix-Warner deal

Data undercuts AI job doom narrative

EU vs Musk

Trump said that Netflix already holds a “very big market share,” and absorbing Warner Bros. would push that dominance “up a lot.”

Trump added: “I’ll be involved in that decision.”

Despite the warning, Trump praised Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos, calling him “a great person” who has done “one of the greatest jobs in the history of movies.”

The Netflix–Warner deal would combine Netflix with Warner’s film studio and HBO Max, giving the combined entity roughly 30% of the U.S. subscription streaming market.

Paramount and Comcast both lost the bidding war, though Paramount has claimed its offer raised fewer competition issues.

⭐ Editor’s Pick: Trump will announce a $12 billion aid package for farmers impacted by low crop prices and tariff policies. (BBG)

Bessent said the U.S. economy will close the year with 3% real GDP growth, citing a robust holiday season. (CNBC)

U.S. consumer sentiment rose to 53.3 in early December from 51.0 in November, topping forecasts. (INV)

China’s exports to the U.S. declined by double digits, dropping 29% in November, despite a recent trade truce. (YF)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: Kraken Robotics shares, up over 1,000% since 2023 amid surging defense and undersea tech demand, draw Wall Street attention with a consensus Buy rating, according to MarketBeat. (MB)

Morningstar identified 10 undervalued growth stocks for long-term investment, including Coloplast, Tyler Technologies, and BAE Systems, selected for trading below fair value estimates. (MS)

Motley Fool recommended buying nuclear energy stocks Cameco, Centrus Energy, and Constellation Energy to capitalize on surging demand from data centers. (MF)

Analysts view Rocket Lab's recent 50% dip from highs as a buying opportunity, with a consensus price target of $58.17 implying over 18% upside, according to MarketBeat. (MB)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: Trump announced approval for manufacturing inexpensive, safe "tiny cars" in the U.S., urging automakers to start production immediately. (INV)

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon warned that Europe's slow bureaucracy and "weak" economy pose a “real problem” to the bloc. (X)

IBM is nearing a roughly $11 billion acquisition of data-software firm Confluent (WSJ).

⭐ Editor’s Pick: Coinbase resumed onboarding users in India after a two-year pause, citing regulatory progress, with full services planned for 2026. (TC)

Farcaster announced a pivot to prioritize the platform's wallet features over its decentralized social media efforts. (TB)

Robinhood is acquiring Indonesian brokerage Buana Capital Sekuritas and crypto trader Pedagang Aset Kripto to enter the market. (CNBC)

MetaMask integrated Polymarket into its mobile app, allowing users to trade prediction markets directly from the wallet while earning rewards points. (MM)

Crypto lawyer Jake Chervinsky highlighted unresolved issues—stablecoin yield restrictions and DeFi regulatory protections—delaying Senate progress on the market structure bill. (X)

The October spike in layoffs tied to AI was an anomaly, with total announced layoffs falling 53% in November, according to the latest Challenger Gray report.

Only 6,280 layoffs in November were attributed to AI.

For the entire year to date, AI accounts for just 4.7% of total layoffs, a figure likely inflated due to companies self-reporting causes.

A recent Yale Budget Lab study examining 33 months of post-ChatGPT labor data found “no discernible disruption” from AI.

AI is now estimated to be responsible for up to half of U.S. GDP growth, driven largely by a massive infrastructure buildout.

Construction wages tied to AI infrastructure projects have climbed 25–30% in many areas.

⭐ Editor’s Pick: "Non Player Combat," billed as the world's first fully AI-generated reality TV show, launches on YouTube featuring six synthetic contestants in a “deathmatch” competition. (ES)

Mastercard plans to launch Agent Pay in February 2026, enabling AI shopping agents to securely search, select, and pay for products on behalf of users. (WJ)

Google's Gemini 3 Pro set new vision AI benchmarks in complex visual reasoning, outperforming rivals like OpenAI's GPT-5.1 in select categories. (TK)

Meta acquired AI wearables startup Limitless, maker of a pendant device for recording and transcribing conversations. (YF)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: Italian researchers deploy an AI-powered robot to reconstruct fragmented ancient frescoes from Pompeii, piecing together thousands of shards. (CNN)

Chinese robotics firm EngineAI's CEO was kicked to the ground by its T800 humanoid robot in a staged demonstration video aimed at proving the machine's capabilities are real. (CNN)

Digital artist Beeple unveiled "Regular Animals," a series of robotic sculptures featuring hyper-realistic tech billionaires like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, at Art Basel Miami Beach. (DEC)

Abrazo Scottsdale Campus deployed two MAKO robotic systems to enable surgeons to customize knee, hip, and shoulder replacement procedures with enhanced precision. (FOX10)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: Lulu Cheng Meservey, the PR advisor known for urging founders to bypass traditional media, has raised $40 million for a new venture capital fund. (AX)

AI startup Aaru, which simulates user behavior for instant market research, raised a Series A led by Redpoint Ventures at a $1 billion valuation. (TC)

Lemurian Labs, developer of hardware-agnostic portability software for AI workloads, raised $28 million in a Series A round co-led by Pebblebed Ventures and Hexagon. (EET)

AI-for-science startup ChemLex raised $45 million led by Granite Asia to launch a self-driving drug discovery lab. (TNG)

X product head Nikita Bier confirmed the termination, tweeting: “Your ad account has been terminated.”

Bier accused the EU of exploiting an Ad Composer tool to artificially boost the reach of a post announcing the fine, using a deceptive link format mimicking a video.

Last year, Elon Musk accused the European Commission of offering X a “secret illegal deal” to quietly censor speech in exchange for avoiding daily fines up to 6% of global revenue.

Musk said: “The other platforms accepted that deal. X did not.”

The Commission sought to force X to hire a large EU-based moderation team for “misinformation” removal, with limited appeal rights, a source told Pirate Wires at the time.

⭐ Editor’s Pick: Trump's new National Security Strategy prioritizes mass migration over terrorism, marking a shift from Middle East focus to Western Hemisphere dominance and border security. (WH)

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz's (D) political future is jeopardized by a Somali fraud scandal, with allies advising against a reelection bid as investigations may reveal further misconduct. (HILL)

The CDC vaccine advisory panel voted to end the universal hepatitis B birth dose recommendation. (FOX)

Former DOGE engineer Sahil Lavingia now works at the IRS to modernize taxpayer software. (WIR)