🌏 Lina Khan’s parting words

Plus: JPMorgan Chase joins the full return-to-office pivot.

Lina Khan
Lina Khan
Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. (Getty Images)

Good morning, Quartz readers!


HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Meta is going to start doing things Elon Musk/X-style. The social media giant is eliminating fact-checkers in favor of community notes to crowdsource misinformation-busting.

This holiday shopping season was the “most mobile of all time.” Adobe says smartphones, flexible payment options, and competitive discounts helped drive record online spending.

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Medical debt will soon be banned from credit reports. A new Biden administration rule will help 22,000 mortgages get approved each year.

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A massive bluefin tuna sold for $1.3 million. It’s The priciest New Year’s catch ever sold at the Tokyo market.

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JPMorgan Chase is going full return-to-office. The bank’s tens of thousands of workers who operate on a hybrid schedule will no longer have that option.


An Nvidia freight frenzy

Though its most high-profile product might be the semiconductors it produces for AI data centers, Nvidia also has inroads into the budding self-driving truck industry. It just announced a new partner for DRIVE Thor chips, the delivery company Aurora Innovation.

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Aurora’s stock shot up tremendously after the news, though it’s not the only name Nvidia is working with on that front. Trucking companies Volvo and Waabi are also in the mix.

Why is Wall Street so excited about an Nvidia-Auroro partnership? Quartz’s Britney Nguyen explains what’s driving the enthusiasm.

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Lina Khan’s parting words

Lina Khan was the Biden-administration scourge of corporate America. Her leadership of the Federal Trade Commission was marked by aggressive antitrust policy.

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As she prepares to step down when Donald Trump is inaugurated, she left some parting words for her potential replacement. Specifically, she hopes her successor avoids letting conglomerates like Amazon and Meta avoid market concentration legal action with “some type of settlement that’s cheap, that settles for pennies on the dollar and lets them escape from a liability finding in court.”

What else did Lina Khan suggest the next FTC chair do? Quartz’s Bruce Gil runs down her comments.

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⚖️ Tesla is being investigated by the feds over its A.S.S. technology

🌮 Taco Bell is adding more menu items to compete in the value wars

🧪 Google’s anti-aging company just released “disappointing” drug trial results

🧑‍✈️ Airlines’ pilot shortage could worsen as the hiring pipeline shrinks


SURPRISING DISCOVERIES

YouTube is taking on TikTok in Asia — for e-commerce supremacy. The Alphabet subsidiary’s YouTube Shopping initiative is going up against the currently dominant TikTok Shop.

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A big source of ethical cotton might not be so ethical after all. A major Indian supplier of sustainable textiles is accused of sourcing its wares from farms staffed by child laborers. (paywall)

The NFL remains America’s favorite thing to watch on TV — by far. Of the 100 broadcasts that had the highest ratings in 2024, 72 were professional football games.

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Some people are able to score big-name concert tickets for less than a fast food meal. One deal-hunter saw Bruce Springsteen in Philadelphia for just $8. (paywall)

The Christmas spirit will live on for a few more days in an elephant’s belly. The Berlin Zoo feeds unsold Christmas trees to its residents of various species.

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