WSJ Minute Briefing - OpenAI Targets $100 Billion Fundraising Round

Plus: The European Union commits to a $105 billion loan to Ukraine, that doesn’t include tapping frozen Russian assets. And, Sony continues to beef up its entertainment business by taking control of the ‘Peanuts’ franchise. Luke Vargas hosts.


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Up First from NPR - Brown University Suspect Found Dead, Epstein Files Deadline, Kennedy Center Renamed

The suspected gunman behind the shooting at Brown University and the killing of an MIT professor has been found dead. The Justice Department faces a deadline to release files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. And the board of the Kennedy Center has voted to change the name of the cultural hub to the Trump Kennedy Center.
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Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Robbie Griffiths, Megan Pratz, Jay Vanasco, Lisa Thomson and Alice Woelfle.

It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas.

We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. Our technical director is Carleigh Strange.

And our Executive Producer is Jay Shaylor.

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Marketplace All-in-One - Bytes: Week in Review – Micron’s big earnings, Oracle’s data center woes and “slop” is Merriam-Webster’s word of the year

Building artificial intelligence tools requires a lot of graphic processing units, and those GPUs need huge amounts of ultra-fast memory to feed them data. Micron Technology is one of a handful of memory chip makers that has been selling a whole lot of memory, thanks to the AI boom.


Plus, cloud company Oracle's data center debt is coming under scrutiny. And Merriam-Webster names the word of the year for 2025: slop.


Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Anita Ramaswamy, columnist at The Information, to learn more on this week’s Marketplace Tech Bytes: Week in Review.

WSJ What’s News - EU Backs $105 Billion Ukraine Loan

A.M. Edition for Dec. 19. Europe throws Kyiv a fiscal lifeline in a move officials say could give Kyiv more leverage in negotiations over ending the war, but fail to agree on a plan to tap frozen Russian assets. Plus, OpenAI aims to raise as much as $100 billion to pay for its ambitious growth plans in a market that has started to cool on the artificial-intelligence boom. And WSJ Tokyo bureau chief Jason Douglas explains how interest-rate rises in Japan could push up borrowing costs in the U.S. Luke Vargas hosts.


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The Daily - Trump Says the Economy Is Good. Is It?

With anxieties building over affordability, President Trump made a push to reassure Americans just as the government released long-awaited data that raised new questions about the economic health of the nation.

Tony Romm, who covers economic policy for The New York Times, discusses how Mr. Trump is trying to take control of the issue, and Ben Cassleman, The Times’s chief economics correspondent, explains what the latest numbers tell us about why people are still so frustrated.

Guest:

  • Tony Romm, a reporter in Washington covering economic policy and the Trump administration for The New York Times.
  • Ben Casselman, the chief economics correspondent for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

Photo: Doug Mills/The New York Times

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

 

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

The Daily Detail - The Daily Detail for 12.19.25

Alabama

  • Sen. Tuberville says US military is forcing Venezuela regime out of power
  • AJ McCarron is officially the football coach for Birmingham Stallions
  • Salesforce from CA dumps SPLC metrics for determining "hate groups"
  • BLM co-founder of Birmingham chapter arrested for domestic violence
  • New state law allows treatment and transfer of injured K-9 officers
  • DHR in Alabama testing new security features on EBT cards in 11 counties

National

  • Brown University shooter found dead in storage unit from self inflicted wound
  • HHS Secretary Kennedy prohibits any transgender procedures for minors
  • FBI in MN details a comprehensive fraud scheme now into Billions of dollars
  • GA Lt. Governor calls Fulton county DA Fani Willis a "disgrace" after hearing
  • President Trump declares Christmas Day and Day after as federal holidays

The Ezra Klein Show - The Opinions: Bernie Sanders and Ruben Gallego

What will America’s story be after President Trump? My colleague David Leonhardt did a great series on that question this year, talking to a number of leading politicians. I thought two of those episodes, with Senator Bernie Sanders and with Senator Ruben Gallego, would be of particular interest to you.

And they’re great to listen to as a pair. Sanders and Gallego have strong views about where the Democratic Party went wrong and how it can win back working-class voters in particular — views that have a lot of overlap but also some interesting shades of difference. So I wanted to share both conversations.

You can learn more about our sister show “The Opinions” here — and subscribe wherever you find your podcasts.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.