Gifts That Can Save Lives: Bloomberg Philanthropies to Match Donations to Kristof Holiday Impact Prize Honorees Through Jan. 31 (New York Times)
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Over the weekend, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof announced the 2025 honorees for the Kristof Holiday Impact Prize. 

Since 2009, Kristof has written an annual New York Times “holiday gift guide” column to bridge a philanthropic gap: connecting readers who want to help but don’t know how with high-impact nonprofits that are often off most donors’ radar but can do much more with additional resources.

This year’s honorees are: 
 
Vision To Learn, which provides free eye exams, vision screenings, and eyeglasses to children in need across the United States – and is one of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ partners through its Vision Initiative. 
 
Helen Keller International, which helps treat and prevent neglected tropical diseases causing blindness and disability by providing free medicine and corrective surgeries in 20 countries around the world.

And the Mutual Aid Sudan Coalition , which delivers lifesaving humanitarian aid – including food, shelter, and medicine – to the millions of Sudanese people impacted by conflict.

The column has raised the profiles of organizations working on the very issues Kristof covers in his journalism—health, education, human rights and women’s rights, both domestically and abroad. The Holiday Impact Prize includes an initial cash award plus reader donations, which last year totaled more than $17 million for the honorees.

For the first time in the prize’s history, Bloomberg Philanthropies is matching all donations from New York Times readers through January 31, multiplying the impact of the column and supporting these remarkable organizations in advancing their work.

“Every year, the Kristof Holiday Impact Prize shines a light on impressive organizations improving lives around the world," said Mike Bloomberg. “This year, Bloomberg Philanthropies is glad to partner with Nick and his generous readers to help these nonprofits make an even bigger impact - and help more people benefit from their good work.” 
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Over the past six years, the annual appeal has raised more than $59 million for nonprofits and created transformative impact for over 2.1 million people around the world who have benefited from their services.

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Learn more and donate at kristofImpact.org and read the New York Times column here. 

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Ukraine Latest

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Ukraine Says Heavy Lifting on US Peace Proposal Lies Ahead (Bloomberg)
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Ukraine signaled that key sticking points remain in peace talks with the US after senior officials hailed progress in winning more favorable terms for Kyiv from a proposal backed by Donald Trump during discussions on Sunday in Geneva, Switzerland. 

Both sides described the talks as making progress toward a deal after the plan presented last week kicked off a flurry of diplomatic wrangling over the weekend. Any agreement would require sign-off by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Negotiations will continue at the working level in the coming days. Trump’s proposed Nov. 27 deadline to secure Ukraine’s support for the plan isn’t set in stone and could drift into the following week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said after the meeting in Switzerland.
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Behind-the-Scenes Diplomacy: Secret US-Russia Talks Led to Plan That Blindsided Ukraine (Bloomberg)

The controversial 28-point plan suddenly presented by the Trump administration to Ukraine as a take-it-or-leave-it proposition mere days ago was mostly the result of several weeks of behind-the-scenes negotiations between Trump adviser Steve Witkoff and his Russian counterpart Kirill Dmitriev. The talks excluded not only Ukraine and its allies but also some key US officials.

Euro Allies: Finland’s Stubb and Italy’s Meloni Spoke to Trump on Ukraine (Bloomberg)

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“The key right now would be to get a ceasefire,” Finnish President Alexander Stubb said, adding that negotiations between 11 concerned nations, including Canada and Japan, and the US over the plan are now underway. It’s in the strategic interest of the US to support Ukraine, he said.

Watch Finnish President Alexander Stubb’s interview with Bloomberg TV from the G-20 summit in Johannesburg here. 

What I'm Reading

Econ Strain: US Consumer Sentiment Falls to Near Lowest on Record (Bloomberg)

US consumer sentiment fell in November to one of the lowest levels on record as Americans’ views of their personal finances soured.
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While Americans’ inflation worries have ebbed, they remain anxious about the high cost of living and job security. The report showed the probability of personal job loss climbed to its highest level since July 2020.

Continuing claims for unemployment insurance — a proxy for those receiving benefits — rose early this month to a four-year high, suggesting jobless Americans are finding it harder to land new jobs.

White-Collar Lag: Americans With Four-Year Degrees Now Comprise a Record 25% of Unemployed Workers (Bloomberg)

Americans with four-year college degrees now comprise a record 25% of total unemployment, underscoring a sharp slowdown in white-collar hiring this year.

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Statistics show the unemployment rate for bachelor’s degree-holders rose to 2.8% in September, up half a percentage point from a year earlier. Other levels of education, by contrast, registered little or no increase over the same period.

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Meltdown: Crypto Crash Is Eroding Wealth for Trump’s Family and Followers (Bloomberg)
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The value of a Trump-branded memecoin has fallen by about a quarter since August. Eric Trump’s stake in a Bitcoin mining venture has shed roughly half its value from its peak. And shares of Trump’s social media company, which started hoarding Bitcoin this year, are hovering near an all-time low.
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The selloff is part of a broader rout that’s wiped out more than $1 trillion in value across the digital-asset world. The Trump family’s fortune has fallen to about $6.7 billion from $7.7 billion in early September, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a decline largely tied to its growing portfolio of crypto ventures.

Everyday investors, who have more ways than ever before to invest in Trump-linked projects, stand to feel greater pain. Any speculator who bought Trump’s memecoin at its peak after it was announced on inauguration weekend, for instance, would have lost almost the entire value of their investment by this month.

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Market Divide: After Nvidia’s Earnings Pop, the AI Trade Gets More Complicated (Bloomberg)

Public Health Alert: Moderna is Most Shorted Stock in S&P 500 as Americans Skip Jabs (Financial Times)

Vaccine-maker Moderna has become the most shorted company in the S&P 500, with its share price slumping to its lowest level since before the Covid-19 pandemic as people skip jabs.

After months of anti-vax rhetoric from US health secretary RFK Jr, the number of Americans getting Covid shots is down about 24% from this point last year, according to the Financial Times.

Big Apple Bond at the Oval Office: Inside Trump and Mamdani's Surprising Bond of Convenience (Axios)

For all the hype of a conflict, President Trump and NYC's next mayor, Zohran Mamdani, had a surprising bond when they met Friday in the Oval Office: populist outsiders, lovers of the Big Apple, and two politicians who each want what the other has, according to Axios. 

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For a few minutes, Mamdani — whom Trump had called a communist — and Trump, whom Mamdani had called a fascist, gave a glimpse of how they might find common ground by putting aside vast partisan differences and working together, or at least appearing to. At a minimum, they put on a show with head-turning congeniality.

How the Right Responded: Mamdani's Meeting with Trump Scrambled the MAGA-Sphere (New York Times)

TX Map Reinstated: Supreme Court Revives GOP-Drawn Texas Voting Map for Now (Bloomberg)

Georgia's New Open Seat: Marjorie Taylor Greene to Quit Congress After Trump Feud (Bloomberg)

Escalation: Brazil's Lula Plans Call With Trump Amid Venezuela Conflict Fears (Bloomberg)

Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he plans to contact Donald Trump to express concern over the US military buildup near Venezuela, warning that the situation could destabilize South America.

Flight Risk:  Bolsonaro Arrested Over Fears He Planned to Flee Brazil  (Bloomberg)

Jair Bolsonaro’s efforts to avoid jail went awry Saturday, when police detained the former Brazilian president after he took a soldering iron to a court-mandated ankle monitor and sparked fears that he planned to flee.

Bolsonaro was sentenced in September to 27 years and three months in prison for attempting a coup d’état following his loss to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

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UK Econ: Rachel Reeves to Freeze Rail Fares in UK Cost-of-Living Push (Bloomberg)
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The UK government said it would freeze rail fares in the upcoming budget, as Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves seeks to help voters with the cost-of-living and curb inflation.
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The freeze will cover season tickets, peak returns for commuters and off-peak returns between major cities in England, the Treasury said in a statement. Such regulated train fares typically rise in line with inflation, with the price changes taking effect in March.

G20 Watch: Mark Carney Says World Can Move on Without US, Stresses New Ties (Bloomberg)
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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said the world can make progress on a range of issues without the US, and that consensus reached at a Group of 20 leaders’ meeting in Johannesburg this weekend carries weight despite a boycott by President Trump’s administration. “It’s a reminder that the center of gravity in the global economy is shifting,” Carney told a press conference in Johannesburg.

South Africa, the G-20 host this year, defied the US by releasing a declaration from the meeting.

Future of Diplomacy: France's Emmanuel Macron, Who Called NATO Brain Dead, Warns of End to G-20 (Bloomberg)

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COP30 Outcomes: Climate Talks Conclude, Exposing Deep Fault Lines on the Global Stage (Bloomberg)
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With the conclusion of COP30, nearly 200 countries agreed to an eight-page document that calls for stronger efforts on national goals on emissions and boosting financial support to poor countries that need help defending against intensifying heat, storms and droughts.

But the outcome revealed deep fractures, particularly around which countries should pay for adaptation and how to get the world off fossil fuels. The Global Mutirão decision, a title using the Brazilian hosts' term for collective action, left out key provisions about winding down fossil fuel use that had been the benchmark for success by dozens of more ambitious countries.

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🎧 Today’s Daily Read Podcast is Up! This AI-powered edition takes a deep dive into new research on how it's possible to learn a new language later in life. One example: As a lifelong learner, Mike Bloomberg has been studying Spanish for many years. Listen now on Spotify  and  Apple Podcasts.

Media News: Daily Mail Owner Reaches £500 Million Deal to Buy Telegraph (Bloomberg)

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Box-Office High: ‘Wicked’ Sequel’s $150 Million Debut Is Relief for Cinemas (Bloomberg)

Wicked: For Good, the second film in a two-part series based on the hit Broadway musical, collected $150 million in ticket sales in its first weekend in US cinemas, a welcome hit for theaters after a dry spell over the past couple months.

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Cool Archaeology in London

From Roman Ruins to Bloomberg HQ: Walking the City’s Most Significant Archaeological Stretch (The Times - UK)

Bloomberg's European headquarters in London is located on one of the UK’s most significant archaeological sites and includes an ancient temple dedicated to the Roman god Mithras.
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Today it takes barely 200 paces to go from one end of the ruins to the other, but it crosses 2,000 years, touching the ruins of a Roman temple and the glass and steel headquarters of modern corporations, according to The Times. 

In 1954, archaeologists working across from the church found the remains of a Roman temple dedicated to Mithras, the god of an all-male mystery cult.

During the Bloomberg excavation in the early 2010s, more than 14,000 Roman items were uncovered, including ones of leather and wood that were preserved in the waterlogged soil. One artifact was the earliest written invoice found in Britain, a sign of how long commerce has been conducted here beside the banks of the old Walbrook, The Times reported.

As the steward of the site and its artifacts, Bloomberg created the London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE, offering the public a new way to experience this historic landmark. 

Free and open to the public, it showcases the ancient temple, a selection of Roman artifacts found during the recent excavation, and a series of contemporary art commissions inspired by the archaeology of the site. Visitors can explore curated guides of the Mithraeum from anywhere by downloading the Bloomberg Connects mobile app. Click here to reserve tickets for the Mithraeum.

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Best of Late Night

On a late-night post on President Trump's Truth Social platform, where he said that ABC should fire Jimmy Kimmel:

“Talk about a snowflake, this guy. Every five weeks, he flips out and wants me fired. If you got this many threats from a neighbor, you’d have no problem getting a restraining order. The judge would be like, ‘Yeah, sounds like the guy’s nuts.’”
-- Jimmy Kimmel

“He posted this, I think this is interesting, at 12:49 a.m., 11 minutes after the show ended on the East Coast. Which is nice, he watches us live. Hi, Mr. President! How are you? I’ll tell you, it’s viewers like you who keep us on the air—ironically.”
-- Jimmy Kimmel

On the looming release of more Epstein files: 

“President Trump signed a bill into law that orders the Justice Department to release the Epstein files, and the legislation includes several loopholes. For example, they could release them into the sea.”
-- Seth Meyers

And from The Daily Show: America might be getting sick of RFK Jr. as health secretary, but he doesn't appear to be going anywhere. While you won't find his brand of non-professional medical advice on "Grey's Anatomy" or "The Pitt," you can find it on a bold new medical drama: RFK Hospital. Click the photo below to watch. 

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