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Happy Monday! Russia’s state space corporation recently accelerated plans to build a nuclear power plant on the moon within the next decade. And it’s not alone: NASA hopes to construct a lunar nuclear reactor by 2030. In other news, lifeforms were detected on the moon after they sent communications stating, “Not in my backyard!”
Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories
- President Donald Trump announced on Thursday evening that the U.S. had conducted strikes against what he described as ISIS targets in northwestern Nigeria. The operation was coordinated with Nigeria’s military and killed “multiple” Islamic State terrorists, U.S. Africa Command added. Nigerian officials confirmed that Abuja’s coordination with the U.S. military included intelligence sharing and that the country’s president, Bola Tinubu, had approved the operation beforehand. Citing a U.S. military official, the New York Times reported that more than a dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched from a U.S. naval ship and struck two Islamic State-linked camps in the area. The attack followed Trump’s threats to intervene in Nigeria on behalf of Christian communities that have faced violence at the hands of Islamic militants in Africa’s most populous country, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth indicated Friday that there may be “more to come.”
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago to discuss negotiations for a revised U.S.-backed, 20-point peace plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war. The meeting followed a phone call between Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin, which the U.S. president described as “good and very productive.” But Zelensky’s visit concluded without any major breakthroughs due to what Trump called “one or two very thorny issues,” and it came amid a wave of deadly Russian attacks on Ukraine. Overnight Saturday, Russia launched nearly 500 drones and 40 missiles at residential buildings and energy infrastructure in Kyiv, killing one person and wounding 27 others, according to Ukrainian officials. Poland scrambled fighter jets in response to the Russian attack on the Ukrainian capital, though Polish officials noted that its intelligence did not detect any violations in Polish airspace.
- In an interim docket decision on Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration could not deploy federalized National Guard troops in Illinois, leaving in place a lower court order that temporarily blocked the deployments while litigation continues. Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Neil Gorsuch dissented. Trump first announced the mobilization of National Guard forces in the Chicago area in October, but a federal district judge blocked the move the same month after the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago challenged the deployment in federal court—a ruling largely upheld by an appeals court. While the Trump administration had argued that Illinois and Chicago could not bring a legal challenge in federal court, the Supreme Court wrote that the federal government had thus far “failed to identify a source of authority that would allow the military to execute the laws in Illinois.” To learn more, read Amy Howe’s SCOTUSblog article breaking down the decision.
- A Palestinian man from the West Bank carried out a ramming and stabbing attack in northern Israel on Friday, killing a 68-year-old man and a 19-year-old woman before a civilian witness shot and wounded him. One day later, Israeli officials began a two-day counter-terrorism operation in the northern West Bank city of Qabatiya, where the alleged attacker resided, and arrested two of his brothers who were found to be working illegally in Israel. The flare-up came ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with Trump, set for today, during which the leaders are expected to discuss the next phases of Israel’s simmering conflicts against Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Islamic Republic of Iran. On Saturday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told Iranian state media that his country is in a “total war with the United States, Israel, and Europe” and claimed to be “more prepared” than ever for the next phase of fighting.
- A Mexican naval plane transporting medical patients crashed into Gavelston Bay in Texas last Monday, killing six people on board, including a 2-year-old child. Two survivors were rescued, including one woman who was saved by a Texan resident who had witnessed the crash. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said authorities had lost contact with the plane about 10 minutes before the crash, adding that officials were probing the cause of the incident. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board has also announced an investigation into the crash.
Roll Credits
The year 2025 was nothing if not eventful. Over the past year, TMD has covered everything from two Middle East ceasefires to a government shutdown to the appointment of a new pope—not to mention a new president. But 2025 also delivered some standout moments in pop culture, and we wanted to share some of our favorite television shows and movies of the year as it comes to a close.
Declan Garvey, Executive Editor: Pluribus
As the creator of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, Vince Gilligan can essentially do no wrong in my eyes; I was pot-committed to his next show from the moment he first announced that he was developing it with Rhea Seehorn (Saul’s Kim Wexler) as the lead.
Three years later, Pluribus was well worth the wait. It centers on Carol Sturka, one of about a dozen people who retain their humanity after an extraterrestrial virus converts billions into an ostensibly peaceful and harmonious collective “hive mind” set on meeting the survivors’ every need.
The premise is refreshingly unique, the cinematography is as stunning as you’d expect from Gilligan, and the production quality reflects the reported $15-million-per-episode budget. Some viewers have criticized the show’s deliberate pacing, but in an increasingly frenetic and over-the-top media environment, that is ultimately part of its charm—and a key part of its characters’ development. Pluribus grapples with some of the most pressing issues of our time: loneliness amid hyper-connectivity, individuality in a time of conformity, and the purpose of struggle in a world seeking to eliminate all forms of friction.
Charles Hilu, Reporter: KPop Demon Hunters
The best movie I watched this year was, hands down, KPop Demon Hunters. Though I’m not much of a KPop fan (not that I dislike it; I’m just not well-versed), I found myself listening to the music long after I watched the film. In addition to the soundtrack, its unapologetically silly premise—a girl band that performs music by day and fights demons by night—serves as a gateway to rather profound themes, such as confronting one’s own brokenness and the possibility of redemption. All this is present along with gorgeous animation and hilarious dialogue.
Steve Hayes, Co-Founder and CEO: Jay Kelly
The plot of Jay Kelly is a familiar one: An ambitious professional—in this case an actor—neglects and abuses those around him in pursuit of fame or money or glory, only to realize belatedly that his priorities were misplaced and that there are costs to the behavior that contributed to his success. If the story isn’t novel, Jay Kelly is worth watching because of the clever way in which director Noah Baumbach tells it. Kelly, played by George Clooney, gets his big Hollywood break by accident, when he accompanies a friend to an audition and masterfully ad libs his read. The friend is left behind and, after Kelly achieves global fame as a leading man, so too is the director who chose him for the role. When an older, reflective Kelly travels to Italy to attend a tribute in his honor, he finds that the people he’d like to join him for the ceremony—the colleagues, friends, and family whom he’s neglected over the years—and the deep attachments he longs for simply aren’t there. The film very effectively pulls the audience through a series of epiphanies as Kelly attempts—quickly and inadequately—to repair the damage when he attempts to create them. Clooney plays the brash and arrogant Kelly well, as you might expect, but offers a convincing and affecting performance as the wistful older actor, too. Adam Sandler, who plays Kelly’s agent, is quite good in a role that explores the complications of a one-way friendship.
James Sutton, TMD Reporter: Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
Wake Up Dead Man, the latest installment in the Knives Out franchise, was the most fun I had in theaters this year, and in a while. Daniel Craig returns as Benoit Blanc, with a ludicrous accent as always, but he’s completely blown off the screen by Josh O’Connor, playing an idealistic young priest trying to clear his name after being assigned to a congregation under the grip of a reactionary, extremely online priest, who suffice it to say, does not have the best interests of his flock at heart. O’Connor’s serious, thoughtful faith plays wonderfully off of Craig’s arch skepticism, but his struggle to stay true to his vocation grabs your interest far more than the (admittedly, also engrossing) mystery. One scene in particular, when O’Connor’s priest is on the phone with a particularly annoying supplicant, offers the most positive depiction of Christianity in a Hollywood movie that I’ve ever watched.
Alex Demas, Reporter: Roofman
Does anyone remember that guy in Charlotte, North Carolina, who robbed dozens of McDonald’s franchises by cutting through their roofs, got caught, went to prison, escaped, and then secretly lived inside a Toys “R” Us for half a year? Well, Derek Cianfrance made a movie about him, and it was a surprise standout for me this year. It’s not the sort of film that’s trying to scoop up awards and prestige, which is exactly why it works. It’s funny, fast-paced, nostalgic, and unexpectedly heartwarming—a perfect movie to watch with your family over the holidays.
Ross Anderson, TMD Editor: Dispatch
OK, I’m cheating. Dispatch is neither a film nor a TV show—it’s a video game. But it was released in episodes, has voice-acting and animation that surpasses most shows on TV, and tells a deeply engrossing story, so I’m counting it. Made by some of the team formerly at the famed Telltale Games, Dispatch tells the story of Robert Robertson: a fallen superhero turned office worker for a corporate superhero company who has to “dispatch” superheroes to complete various tasks (and navigate workplace drama and office romance along the way). The writing is sharp and often moving. The cast, led by Aaron Paul of Breaking Bad, is super. And I’ve replayed its soundtrack and score dozens of times. The worldbuilding has plot holes, and the narrative suggests that your player choices matter more than they do—but it’s a new superhero property that’s not boring, cynical, or darkly ironic, and it was the most engaging story I experienced all year. Oh, and it has a great title.
Kelsey Dallas, SCOTUSblog Managing Editor: KPop Demon Hunters
My family arrived late to the KPop Demon Hunters party. We didn’t watch the movie until early October—but by the end of that month, we had seen it about 15 times. My young kids, my husband, and I all love the catchy songs (we dance to them while getting ready for school and work in the morning), and I also love the movie’s core message: You don’t save the world by pretending to be perfect; you save the world by sharing your faults and fears with others, and allowing them to do the same.
Rachael Larimore, Managing Editor: Sinners
Ryan Coogler’s Southern Gothic film starring Michael B. Jordan as twin brothers Smoke and Stack seeking to open up a juke joint in their hometown would have been a treat if it had been merely a tribute to blues music and black resilience in 1930s Mississippi. But the film was far more ambitious than that, and the gambles Coogler took in incorporating elements of the supernatural and turning a visually stunning period picture into a full-on horror movie more than paid off. The film opens with Miles Caton’s Sammie Moore, bedraggled and wounded, showing up at his father’s tiny church, midservice, clutching the neck of a broken guitar. As his father embraces him and exhorts him to give up the “sinning ways” of a musician, Sammie flashes back—in snippets too short to provide a clear picture—to the events that left him bloodied and dirty. That tension and foreboding is a constant undercurrent in the film, from the scene where Smoke and Stack purchase a sawmill from a white man who calls them “boys,” to Stack’s interactions with Mary, his former lover played by Hailee Steinfeld, to the moment some unexpected guests show up at the juke joint. The biggest scene in the movie features a five-minute blues performance from Sammie that grapples with faith and music and spirituality, but also bends time and space. But Coogler also advances the narrative in quietly powerful scenes—Smoke’s reunion with estranged wife Annie, the brief moments right after the juke joint opens where everything seems to be going well, and especially when Delroy Lindo’s Delta Slim talks about the blues with Sammie. It’s a movie that stays with you for days after watching.
Mike Rothman, President: Billy Joel: And So It Goes and Mr. Scorsese
I very much enjoyed the Apple TV Martin Scorsese documentary, Mr. Scorsese, and was pleasantly surprised by how much more there was to learn about Billy Joel from HBO Max’s documentary on the legendary singer.
Peter Gattuso, TMD Reporter: Andor
My childhood self would likely be apoplectic to hear that my favorite Star Wars installment doesn’t feature any lightsabers. Instead, Andor season 2 brings us boardroom meetings focused on energy policy and access to rare minerals, imperial bureaucrats debating procedure, and financial schemes that secretly back the rebellion against the Galactic Empire. We see Genevieve O’Reilly as Mon Mothma, the rebellion’s leader in the original trilogy, drinking and dancing through her daughter’s wedding to escape her growing disillusionment with the people who made up her community. We see the drive of an antagonist dissipate as he slowly discovers the Empire’s shortcomings, not because he’s switched to the side of the rebels or “good guys,” but because he struggles to accept the realization that his ambitions were essentially pointless. As a friend of mine said to me following the Andor series finale: “The show treats death so subtly.” The demise of beloved characters arrives not with an epic duel or a glorious battle, but with a quick flash that almost feels meaningless. The show strips away the sense of invisibility traditionally associated with Star Wars protagonists, with even the most heroic scenes portraying vulnerability and unease that is not at all alien, but very much human.
Valerie Pavilonis, Ideas Editor: Severance
What’s artistic, brooding, and weird, yet not so weird that you’re totally turned off? A few of my New York acquaintances, for sure. But I’m talking about Severance, the Apple TV+ psychological dramedy that concluded its second season last spring with a bloody bang. The lighting is perfect, the setting is just real enough to feel eerily familiar, and the question of how far we’ll go to escape pain is, if not answered, circled with precision. Best watched under blankets, with the blinds drawn.
Today’s Must-Read
Just three years ago, Yuma, Arizona, was ground zero for the southern border crisis. In 2022, more than 1,000 migrants per day crossed through the sector. Today, that number is in the single digits. Dispatch Staff Writer Grayson Logue reports from now-quiet Yuma, where local leaders recall the overwhelming surge that some likened to an avalanche, struggling with “a national problem the community couldn’t handle and the federal government was neglecting to address.” But as encounters hit their lowest levels since the Nixon administration, those same leaders worry Washington still hasn’t learned the right lessons about managing future surges.
Toeing the Company Line
In Other News
- A 77-year-old gunman opened fire at a sheriff’s office in Wallace, Idaho, wounding one law enforcement official and two civilians. Officers shot and killed the suspect, and investigators are still working to determine the assailant’s motive.
- FBI Director Kash Patel said he directed agency resources to Minnesota to investigate and “dismantle large-scale fraud schemes exploiting federal programs.”
- Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents near Baltimore shot and wounded an illegal immigrant who, according to Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, was attempting to avoid arrest and “drove his van directly at ICE officers.”
- A federal district judge ruled that Trump was legally permitted to charge U.S. companies a $100,000 fee for H-1B foreign worker visas, writing that Congress had delegated such authority to the executive.
- Fire department officials in Portland, Maine, said that a fire had blazed through the city’s historic port area, the Custom House Wharf, damaging buildings and sinking one boat.
- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post urging Senate Republicans to “end the filibuster.”
- A man went on a stabbing spree in the South American country of Suriname, killing nine people, including five children.
- Italian authorities arrested nine people suspected of “belonging to and having financed” Hamas, alleging that the individuals funneled more than $8 million to the terrorist group under the guise of humanitarian aid.
- Libyan army chief Gen. Muhammad Ali Ahmad al-Haddad died after a private jet he was aboard crashed shortly after taking off from the Turkish capital of Ankara, an incident Libyan officials attributed to an unspecified technical malfunction.
- A bomb explosion at a mosque in Homs, Syria, killed eight people and injured 18 others in a predominantly Alawite neighborhood. Syrian officials described the blast as an act of terror.
- Voters in the West African country of Guinea began voting in the nation’s first presidential election since a 2021 military coup. Gen. Mamadi Doumbouya, the junta leader who led the crackdown on opposition candidates, is projected to win.
- A Malaysian court handed down a 15-year prison sentence extension and $2.8 billion fine to former Prime Minister Najib Razak, who has been in custody since 2022 after being found guilty of corruption.
- New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a state law requiring that certain social media platforms—which feature algorithm-driven feeds, auto-play features, or endless scrolling—display messages warning about associated mental health risks for younger users.
- A federal district judge temporarily blocked Texas from enforcing a state law that requires app stores to implement age-verification measures, ruling that the statute likely violates the First Amendment.
- Russia’s central bank announced that it intends to cut sales in the foreign exchange market by about 50 percent in the first half of 2026.
- For the first time in Argentine President Javier Milei’s tenure, the country’s legislature voted to pass an annual budget bill for 2026 rather than extending the 2023 budget.
- Ben Sasse reflects on his terminal cancer diagnosis. (Wall Street Journal)
- Michael Strain considers the roots of (and possible solutions to) Trump’s affordability problem. (Project Syndicate)
- Noah Smith warns Europe against embracing deindustrialization. (Noahpinion)
- Theodore Bunzel and Tom Donilon lay out what the U.S. can do to prepare its skies for future drone attacks. (Foreign Affairs)
- Peter Suderman explores how mythic storytelling fuels the Hollywood film industry. (New York Times)
- Jay Nordlinger dissects the “Heritage American” movement. (The Next Move)
NBC News: Trump Jokes About Santa Giving a Child ‘Clean, Beautiful Coal’ for Christmas
Fielding calls as part of the U.S. military’s annual NORAD Tracks Santa event, Trump asked one caller what she wanted for Christmas.
“Not coal,” said the caller, an 8-year-old girl.
Trump jokingly corrected her by saying, “You mean clean, beautiful coal.”
The Guardian: AI’s Safety Features Can Be Circumvented With Poetry, Research Finds
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