Today Briefly

Today Briefly

Demand for professional Santas and other seasonal retail workers has cooled this holiday season, reflecting a broader decline in seasonal hiring.

Mark Rivers leads Canyon Ranch, emphasizing wellness-focused hospitality, disciplined early routines, and expansion of resorts, spas, and residential developments.

A 90-minute $430 Restructuring & Rebalancing Facial uses craniosacral, lymphatic, TMJ techniques plus tools like tuning forks, LED lights and gemstones to reshape and relieve the jaw and face.

A positive working environment boosts creativity, productivity, retention, and long-term business success through workspace, wellbeing, feedback, burnout prevention, and development.

Digital nomad life blends freedom and excitement with loneliness, stress, and high cost, rewarding some but proving challenging and unsustainable for many.

Digital nomad life often appears glamorous but frequently involves loneliness, stress, high costs, and unmet expectations despite some people finding it rewarding.

Interstellar object 3I/ATLAS shows anomalous comet-like behavior prompting speculation about possible non-natural origins, including deliberate seeding by advanced life.

Galaxy Cluster Abell 209 contains over 100 galaxies about 2.8 billion light-years away whose combined mass gravitationally lenses and stretches background galaxies.

Public sector organizations must improve timely, transparent access to personal care records for care-experienced individuals, addressing bureaucracy, delays, and unexplained redactions.

Digital billboards with cameras have been installed in hundreds of residential buildings, raising privacy and advertising concerns among residents and civil-liberty campaigners.

Designers approach problems through three complementary lenses—creative, scientific, and strategic—each a distinct strength that enables effective UX work.

Palantir's surveillance technologies, close US military and ICE ties, and CEO Alex Karp's evolving politics raise concerns about concentrated power and threats to privacy.

Intel and Tata formed an alliance to explore local manufacturing, packaging, advanced packaging, and AI-tailored PC solutions aimed at India's growing compute market.

Private license plate reader networks give police extensive surveillance access without the transparency and legal safeguards applied to public law enforcement ALPR systems.

Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise and Nokia expanded their partnership to deliver end-to-end fibre-based campus networking and Optical LAN solutions across industries, enabling multi-gigabit services and consolidated infrastructure.

Choose between thought-shaped interfaces atop legacy systems or rebuilding software from the ground up to faithfully represent human thought and preserve agency.

EU users can choose fully personalized ads by consenting to full data sharing or less personalized ads by sharing less personal data, from January 2026.

Design problems usually stem from unclear thinking, not Figma; clarify users, goals, and business needs before high-fidelity prototyping.

Instagram and Facebook users in the EU can choose to limit personalised ads beginning January 2026 to meet EU Digital Markets Act requirements.

AI-driven data centers rapidly increase electricity demand, reshape energy markets, raise prices, and accelerate deployment of both clean-energy and fossil-fuel technologies.

Ad spend on creator media is rising rapidly but measurement and infrastructure lag, leaving most advertisers unable to link creator spend to revenue or business outcomes.

Agentic AI promises transformative business impact but faces high project failure rates, unclear value, escalating costs, and unmet productivity gains.

AI increases employees' speed and work quality across industries, with IT and marketing reporting the largest productivity gains.

Updated Week 15 NFL power rankings place teams 1-32, noting divisional shifts, surprising team and individual statistical leaders, and special-teams standouts.

The Colorado Rockies will hire Alon Leichman as pitching coach to improve a struggling staff and address pitching and analytics deficiencies.

Free Social Media University teaches aspiring creators industry skills through online and in-person masterclasses, mentorship, and community access to a global creator network.

Pete Carroll ordered a late field goal to create extra time for an onside kick, requested 8 seconds, and prioritized strategy over public opinion.

A federal judge vacated and declared unlawful President Trump's executive order pausing wind energy leasing and permitting as arbitrary, capricious, and in violation of U.S. law.

Oliver Sacks reshaped patient realities, sometimes fabricating details, linked healing to storytelling, and felt guilt while seeking personal awakenings.

Unsustainable food and fossil fuel production causes $5 billion of environmental damage per hour and urgent systemic transformation is required to avoid societal collapse.

Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant opened a second retail location at Marin County Mart in Larkspur, expanding beyond its long-standing Berkeley storefront.

Immediate coordinated global action to shift to sustainable agriculture, restore ecosystems and clean energy can avoid massive economic losses and protect the poorest.

Stark, serif typography gives American Canto a classic, fashion-magazine look while the memoir's rollout is slowed by scandal and mixed critical reception.

Mets engaged with free-agent Michael King via video meeting; signing him would cost draft picks and international pool money but could bolster rotation short-term.

Instagram now allows users to reshare Stories from public accounts to their own Story via an "Add to Story" option.

Forkable replaced real restaurant photos with AI-generated images, including fake Boichik Bagels, prompting restaurateurs' anger and concerns about misleading customers.

A woman trapped in a repeating November 18 remembers prior loops and must change herself to alter others’ lives and the day’s outcomes.

Red Lobster's Brownie Overboard is a dry, unimpressive brownie overloaded with excessively sweet sauces, making the dessert difficult to enjoy despite the ice cream.

The HealthGreen PunchMax Protein PowerBowl packs 100 grams of protein into an extreme, wet, meat-heavy lunch bowl that promises exaggerated strength gains and emotional consolation.

London's Metropolitan Police is deploying facial recognition technology to curb illegal e-bikes, prompting privacy and legality concerns.

Communicators must strengthen writing and editing skills and integrate AI thoughtfully to preserve a distinct, trustworthy, and human brand voice while meeting business goals.

Vanpool programs can cut commuting costs dramatically, reduce congestion and parking demand, boost office attendance by lowering commute barriers, and support sustainability goals.

Writing a book revealed an introverted temperament through solitary work, focused routines, and preference for small-group interactions.

The FTC denied Scott Zuckerman’s petition and kept a ban preventing him from offering, promoting, selling, or advertising any surveillance app, service, or business.

An unplanned month in Mexico City provided healing, restored sanity, and immersion in present through local interactions, sensory experiences, and deliberate disengagement from distressing news.

Belgium rejected using frozen Russian assets as collateral for a reparations loan, citing major economic, financial and legal risks and potential legal action.

Short turnarounds and injuries made Gameweek 14 difficult for FPL managers; five free transfers will help manage AFCON-related absences.

Wine Enthusiast opened its first physical SoHo flagship at 27 Greene Street, offering monthly pours, accessories, consultations, and event programming.

Bay Area offers diverse holiday events including themed dinners, wine and Champagne experiences, family markets, performances, and cultural festivals for winter celebrations.

Belarus-launched balloons repeatedly closed Vilnius airport, causing major disruptions and prompting Lithuania to call the incidents deliberate hybrid attacks amid Belarus-Russia tensions.

CAT, FC Barcelona's expressive yellow, blue, and claret mascot, became a surprise commercial hit when its first official plush rapidly sold out.

Barcelona monitor Nico Schlotterbeck as an exploratory option for central defence, but he is not a top target and Dortmund want a January decision.

New York's 2025 exhibitions highlighted local artists, reimagined the sublime, examined bodily politics, and revealed precarious media-arts funding and institutional controversies.

FC Barcelona identified about 500 member-led illegal ticket resales, cancelled offending tickets, and pursued disciplinary actions including possible membership expulsions.

Cowboys' kickoff coverage ranks near worst in NFL, yielding fourth-most return yards and regularly surrendering advantageous opponent starting field position.

U.S. strikes on a vessel suspected of carrying Venezuelan drugs killed survivors and raised legal and potential war-crime questions.

Six new stained-glass windows for Notre-Dame, designed by Claire Tabouret, will be exhibited at the Grand Palais despite protests over replacing 19th-century monochrome windows.

Wynn Al Marjan Island is a $5.1bn, art-filled resort opening in 2027 in Ras Al Khaimah featuring 1,500 rooms and a newly licensed casino.

The Cowboys must win all remaining games and rely on two Eagles losses to secure the NFC East and a postseason berth.

Ann Michael Maye gained social-media fame for daily baking videos and "Bakemas", sharing recipes and bringing leftovers to the Patriots facility.

Congestion pricing in New York City reduced PM2.5 air pollution by 22% in the toll zone and surrounding boroughs during the first six months.

Mumford and Sons perform two O2 Arena shows in London on 10 and 11 December 2025 while touring their latest album, Rushmere.

Maple Leafs can still reach the playoffs if full centre health boosts defensive play, physical bottom-six contributions, and consistent secondary scoring despite a poor start.

Three men in Germany are on trial accused of following a former Ukrainian soldier for Russian intelligence, allegedly preparing intelligence missions and a possible assassination.

Google provides three-year coverage for Pixel 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL display faults and extends Pixel 9 Pro Fold warranty to three years.

Letterboxd is offering four festival-acclaimed films as time-limited, region-restricted digital rentals through its Video Store from December 10 to January 9.

Abundance is an inner state uncovered by softening, creating space, trusting the breath, and allowing life to flow rather than chasing or forcing outcomes.

Morgan Geekie's scoring surge and Buffalo's split performance (strong PK, weak even-strength defense) are defining early 2025-26 NHL trends.

Toronto Maple Leafs delivered a strong defensive performance, winning 2-0 over the Tampa Bay Lightning and earning crucial divisional points.

Approximately 80% of offline conversions uploaded to Google Ads are not being recorded, disrupting ROAS bidding and causing significant reporting and performance drops.