POLITICO Nightly: The year’s best political movies

 

BY CALDER MCHUGH Director Christopher Nolan speaks on stage about his movie "Oppenheimer" on April 26, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada. | Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images NIGHTLY FLIX — If you’ve been a regular reader of POLITICO Nightly this year, you’d know that there’s been more than enough to keep politics junkies entertained: from a consequential speakership fight to fights over the soul of the Democratic party to criminal indictments of former President Donald Trump to TikTok’s Ron DeSantis obsession . But beyond all of the headlines out of D.C. or Iowa that have kept us all voraciously reading and watching and discussing, sometimes the best way to excavate political truth is through fiction: art that makes us think a little more deeply or that gives us a new perspective on politics. This year, the movie industry has (often, certainly not all the time) provided us with just that — a solid slate of films that have been the highlights of the best movie year in a long time, many of which have had a lot to say about modern politics. Here is Nightly’s list of movies that said something interesting about our politics and values — and, of course, kept us entertained. Anatomy of a Fall: A French courtroom drama directed by Justine Triet that might have the most beautiful setting captured on film this year — a cabin in the French Alps — descends quickly into darkness after Daniel (Milo Machado Graner), a young boy who’s visually impaired, finds his dad dead. Daniel’s mother Sandra Voyter (Sandra Hüller) is immediately suspected and finds herself in the midst of a very public trial in France. The film, which is in almost equal parts English, French and German, is concerned with themes of family, justice, memory and the blending of fact and fiction. It’s also a fascinating look into how the French legal system works, and how different it is from its American counterpart. Oppenheimer: Christopher Nolan’s epic biopic of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) might reach emotional heights during the Trinity test, but it is directly concerned with questions of politics throughout. Oppenheimer, suspected of being a communist, finds himself at first jettisoned from the nuclear project — and then decades later, from American political life. As Nolan trains the camera on Oppenheimer’s face in essential moments in the film, we see him reckoning with questions of his own responsibility for Hiroshima and Nagasaki and setting off a world in which we’re always trying to build a bigger bomb. Barbie: The other (and much more profitable) half of the biggest movie weekend in years, Barbie might be based on a doll introduced in the late 1950s, but the political questions it considers are all of the moment. When Barbie (Margot Robbie) and Ken (Ryan Gosling) leave a world in which women are in control and find themselves in modern-day Los Angeles, they’re each confronted with existential questions about what it means to be a man or a woman outside the artificial world of a Barbie dream house. Brought to life by Greta Gerwig, the film has launched all kinds of opinions and disagreements about its politics and message — its cultural impact is impossible to ignore. Poor Things: Propped up by a virtuosic performance from Emma Stone as Bella Baxter, a woman reanimated and set out into the world by Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe), Poor Things is a journey into the strange, steampunk-filled mind of director Yorgos Lanthimos. We watch as Bella discovers the world beyond a laboratory and transforms, along the way participating in a beautifully choreographed number with Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo, in a hilarious turn). Lanthimos has a predilection for the bizarre that makes the film aesthetically fascinating, but the heart of his movie is about questions of our responsibility to others. If someone without any context were dropped into the world, how would they learn about it and understand it for themselves? The Sweet East: Still in very limited release, The Sweet East is the debut feature from Sean Price Williams. It follows Lillian (Talia Ryder), a high school senior on a school trip to Washington D.C. who’s separated from her classmates during a bungled arcade shooting. The film becomes a journey into the nooks and crannies of America, as Ryder confronts a white supremacist rally and meets disgruntled professor Lawrence (Simon Rex), travels to New York and finds a director and producer (Ayo Edibiri and Jeremy O. Harris) casting a film on colonial America and a host of other strange characters who all project some of their own fantasies onto Lillian. The story, which resists having a pat political message, instead confronts more complex and difficult questions about modern day America, and in particular the East Coast. It also looks beautiful — Williams’ background as a cinematographer who shot features like Good Time comes through here in his portrayal of cityscapes and the country alike. The Killer: What looks at first like a classic assassin film in a stark setting from David Fincher quickly transforms into much more than that. We’re treated to an ongoing monologue from the titular killer (Michael Fassbender), who insists on repeating phrases like “forbid empathy” and loves The Smiths (the soundtrack to the whole film). The thing is, despite his many skills, he’s not as perfect at his job as one might originally believe from his own monologuing. As he sets off on a revenge journey, we’re taken around the world and watch as elements of our political and economic system are subtly parodied by Fincher — and help to prop up Fassbender’s amorality. BS High: The only documentary on the list, BS High is a sports movie about a school that barely played sports and wasn’t really a school at all. You may remember an August 2021 incident in which a “high school” called Bishop Sycamore — advertised as an athletic training academy — was destroyed in a nationally televised football game by IMG Academy. As it turned out, the high school didn’t exist. The documentary goes beyond the incident and gets plenty of access to Roy Johnson, the coach who created the scam. The end result is a product that’s at home in a now long line of scammer and grifter movies and TV shows. Johnson is, by all accounts, proud to talk openly about his own grift and how he pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes. He’s the sort of character that’s existed around the world for centuries, but is increasingly common in America today: he’s a leading member of the age of the scammer. May December: Loosely based on American teacher Mary Kay Letourneau and her relationship with one of her students that lasted into adulthood, May December follows actress Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman) as she drops into the lives of Gracie Atherton (Julianne Moore) and Joe (Charles Melton) as she does research for a role in a biopic. As Berry and Atherton, Portman and Moore play off of each other well, both constantly sizing the other one up. Melton also gives a true breakout performance that’s the heart of the film, as he plays a character that seems 13 and in his 30s all at once. The politics here exist within the deeply screwed up family dynamic, but just because they exist within the home doesn’t mean they’re any less potent. Killers of the Flower Moon: For decades, Martin Scorsese has made movies about American greed and excess; he’s one of the most nakedly political filmmakers of the century. But for a long time, a segment of the moviegoing public has attached to many of these epics — Goodfellas, Casino, The Wolf of Wall Street — by training in on the excess and the rise rather than the fall. In some ways, it’s hard to totally blame them: he makes greed look really good, to paraphrase one of his contemporaries. But in his later period, he’s been much more direct about peeling back that facade to reveal the rot underneath. That’s true in Killers of the Flower Moon more than any of his other works. The film continues to look beautiful, but it’s three and a half hours of the brutality of Americans, with white men plundering the land and fortune and lives of our native population. If it wasn’t clear before, Scorsese seems to be saying, this is what it’s been about all along. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at cmchugh@politico.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @calder_mchugh . PROGRAMMING NOTE: We’ll be off next week for the holidays but back to our normal schedule on Tuesday, Jan. 2.   GLOBAL PLAYBOOK IS TAKING YOU TO DAVOS! Unlock the insider's guide to one of the world's most influential gatherings as POLITICO's Global Playbook takes you behind the scenes of the 2024 World Economic Forum. Author Suzanne Lynch will be on the ground in the Swiss Alps, bringing you the exclusive conversations, shifting power dynamics and groundbreaking ideas shaping the agenda in Davos. Stay in the know with POLITICO's Global Playbook, your VIP pass to the world’s most influential gatherings. SUBSCRIBE NOW .     WHAT'D I MISS? — Supreme Court won’t decide for now whether Trump is immune from prosecution: The Supreme Court has denied special counsel Jack Smith’s request for urgent consideration of Donald Trump’s claim that he’s immune from prosecution for his bid to subvert the 2020 election. The decision is a blow to Smith’s hopes to keep Trump’s March 4, 2024 trial on track. He argued in his petition to the court that the speedy resolution of Trump’s claim of presidential immunity is of urgent national interest. — Biden extends marijuana pardons to convictions on federal lands, Washington, D.C.: President Joe Biden is pardoning thousands of people who were convicted of use and simple possession of marijuana on federal lands and in the District of Columbia, the White House said today, in his latest round of executive clemencies meant to rectify racial disparities in the justice system. Biden is also granting clemency to 11 people serving what the White House called “disproportionately long” sentences for nonviolent drug offenses. — FAFSA delay poised to rattle most cash-strapped college applicants: The federal government’s monthslong delay in rolling out a new financial aid form is threatening to squeeze out the low-income applicants who need the money the most . The Education Department typically releases the Free Application for Federal Student Aid on Oct. 1, but a long-awaited overhaul of the form has pushed back the debut until the end of December this year. School counselors and other advocates fear students with the least amount of money could decide not to pursue a degree if they can’t navigate the compressed process. Counselors are scrambling to connect with students after the holidays to ensure they complete the form in time to figure out which colleges are within their financial reach. NIGHTLY ROAD TO 2024 HOW BAD IS THE MICHIGAN TAPE? — A newly unearthed recording of Donald Trump and Ronna McDaniel pressuring two county officials in Michigan not to certify the 2020 election could be the very definition of shocking but not surprising news, writes POLITICO. On one hand, the fact that Trump and McDaniel called Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, the two GOP canvassers in Wayne County, has been known for some time and is included in the House Jan. 6 committee’s report. Furthermore, Americans have already heard audio of Trump pressuring elections officials in another jurisdiction, and those efforts are already a core part of Jack Smith’s election subversion case in Washington. But several prominent lawyers say the Nov. 17, 2020, phone call — revealed in detail Thursday by the Detroit News — presents new and significant legal peril to the former president and current GOP frontrunner, even if the political ramifications are already baked into the 2024 presidential race. Andrew Weissmann, a former DOJ prosecutor, suggested on X last night that the recording could open the door to a federal bribery charge: “Trump and Ronna McDaniel — Offering a thing of value to a public official to violate oath of office = a crime.” Others see new fuel to power Smith’s election subversion case as well as something that Georgia prosecutors might use to bolster their own case against Trump. RUNNING UP THE SCORE — President Biden’s campaign and affiliated groups are amping up their efforts in South Carolina, pouring in money and staff ahead of the first Democratic primary in February in an effort to generate excitement for his campaign in the state, writes the New York Times. It seems, at first glance, to be a curious political strategy. Few incumbent presidents have invested so much in an early primary state — particularly one like South Carolina, where Mr. Biden faces no serious primary challenger, and where no Democratic presidential candidate has won in a general election since Jimmy Carter in 1976. But the Biden campaign sees the effort as more than just notching a big win in the state that helped revive his struggling campaign in 2020, putting him on the path to winning the nomination. It hopes to energize Black voters, who are crucial to Mr. Biden’s re-election bid nationally, at a moment when his standing with Black Americans is particularly fraught. SABOTAGING NIKKI — Donald Trump’s allies, MAGA media influencers and even his son are sending the Republican frontrunner a message as he begins to ponder potential vice president picks: Don’t even think about choosing Nikki Haley , writes POLITICO. The effort to kill off Haley’s veep buzz before it truly takes off has come as the former U.N. ambassador and ex-South Carolina governor is gaining momentum in the Republican primary. It has prompted speculation she’d be a logical choice as a running mate for Trump, who has maintained a wide polling lead and remains the strong favorite for the Republican nomination. Her rise has caught the attention of the former president, who has recently quizzed people outside his campaign for their impressions of Haley, according to three people familiar with the conversations. AROUND THE WORLD US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield raises hand to vote during the Security Council meeting at United Nations headquarters, Friday, Dec. 22, 2023.  After many delays, the U.N. Security Council adopted a watered-down resolution Friday calling for immediately speeding up aid deliveries to desperate civilians in Gaza but without the original call for an “urgent suspension of hostilities” between Israel and Hamas. | Yuki Iwamura/AP RESOLVED — The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution today to ramp up international humanitarian aid to Gaza, after days of negotiations amid a push from the U.S. to tone down the language, POLITICO reports. Both the U.S. and Russia ultimately abstained from the vote, allowing the resolution to pass with unanimous support from the rest of the Security Council, which includes the United Kingdom, China and France as permanent members. The vote on the resolution, penned by the United Arab Emirates, was delayed for four days in hopes of avoiding a U.S. veto. In the end, a week of tense negotiations yielded text that the U.S. had said Thursday night it would not vote down. Language that originally called for a cease-fire was changed instead to call for “urgent steps” to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza and “create the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities.” The resolution urges all parties in the conflict to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza through all border crossings. It also requests that the U.N. secretary-general appoint a coordinator to facilitate the delivery of aid. PLANTING A FLAG — The United Kingdom has more than doubled the number of diplomats posted in San Francisco since 2018 and now has 40 in its Northern California consulate — including policy and trade specialists who offer expertise to lawmakers and agency employees writing state policies, reports POLITICO. It’s comparable to the footprint of an embassy in a medium-sized country. California and the U.K. have always had a close relationship; the country is one of the state’s largest sources of foreign direct investment, rivaled only by Japan. Britain’s attention to California reflects the state’s growing influence in the global economy and partisan gridlock in Washington that has made the Golden State a de facto regulator for major industries. “If you influence the state of California, that has significant heft at the federal level, too,” British Consul General Tammy Sandhu said during an interview on a fall evening at her office in a high rise off San Francisco’s Market Street. “What we recognize is that you can actually achieve a lot — sometimes more — at the state level.” Moments later, Sandhu walked briskly down the hall to host a reception for Matt Clifford , a top artificial intelligence adviser to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The event drew local tech executives and elected officials, including San Francisco Supervisors Rafael Mandelman and Ahsha Safaí and advisers to state Sen. Scott Wiener. Clifford, who was in town to tour Artificial Intelligence labs, mingled with the group as they sipped California wines and snacked on appetizers in a conference room decorated with British flags.   POLITICO AT CES® 2024 : We are going ALL On at CES 2024 with a special edition of the POLITICO Digital Future Daily newsletter. The CES-focused newsletter will take you inside the most powerful tech event in the world, featuring revolutionary products that cut across verticals, and insights from industry leaders that are shaping the future of innovation. The newsletter runs from Jan. 9-12 and will focus on the public policy-related aspects of the gathering. Sign up today to receive exclusive coverage of the show .     NIGHTLY NUMBER $572 million The amount of money that Florida State University is claiming that the Athletic Coast Conference — the athletic conference of which FSU is currently a part — would cost the university in fees and forfeited revenues due to “draconian” withdrawal penalties in a new lawsuit if the school attempted to leave the conference. FSU is also accusing the ACC of restraint of trade, breach of contract and a failure to perform under Florida law for an alleged “mismanagement” of its media deals with ESPN. RADAR SWEEP BUBBLEGUM LAKES — Bright pink bodies of water have existed naturally around the world for years — but could climate change be causing more lakes and ponds to turn pink? At Keālia Pond National Wildlife Refuge in Hawaii, recent reports of unusually pink waters have brought this question to light. The rosy-pink hues are normally caused by bacteria that are now growing in warmer waters. The phenomenon is even causing some Australian scientists to predict more pink lakes and ponds will pop up in Australia — which could be trouble to the natural ecosystem, such as migratory birds that use the water. In this article for Smithsonian Magazine, Margaret Osborne looks at why the bright pink waters could be appearing more in years to come and what that could mean for ecosystems around the world. PARTING IMAGE On this date in 1989: A crowd of people holding umbrellas are pictured in front of the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin, as East and West Berlin celebrate the opening of the square around the gate in Germany. The landmark had been closed for 28 years after the former East German government built the Berlin Wall that divided the city during the Cold War. | Jockel Finck/AP Did someone forward this email to you?  Sign up here .   Follow us on Twitter Charlie Mahtesian @PoliticoCharlie Calder McHugh @calder_mchugh   FOLLOW US

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POLITICO NIGHTLY: The year’s best political movies and television shows

 

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BY CALDER MCHUGH AND KATHERINE LONG

Tom Cruise as Capt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in “Top Gun: Maverick.” | Paramount Pictures

NIGHTLY FLIX — Political junkies had a lot to watch this year. Aside from wall-to-wall coverage of the midterm elections, there was the summer spectacle of the Jan. 6 Committee hearings (which one critic named as one of his top TV shows of 2022 ). But wide-angle shots of congressional hearings and talking heads predicting doom for Dems weren’t the only political content — on the small screen and the big — this year. Satires of the rich, meditations on cancel culture, depictions of revolution and American exceptionalism were everywhere we looked. In that spirit, here is Nightly’s list of movies and television shows that said something interesting about our politics and values — and, most importantly, kept us entertained. Tár: A beautifully designed epic from director Todd Field, Tár tells the (fictional) story of famous conductor Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett) as she spirals out of control while rehearsing Mahler’s 5th Symphony. It might sound like a tough sit, but it’s a dynamic, darkly funny look at how fame, and the power that comes with it, can lead to evil, destruction and madness. Tár imagines herself to be above the dominant discourse online or in classrooms, but as the political dance that comes with fame changes, she plows forward without regard for others or how she might be held to account. The film will surely spark discussions about cancel culture, but it’s also about power, abuse and the relationship between boss and worker or teacher and student. It’s such a realistic depiction that it had people on the internet asking whether Lydia Tár is a real person . Andor: Disney’s need to milk Star Wars content and ride the nostalgia train has made for a handful of lackluster shows, such as “The Book of Boba Fett” and “Obi-Wan Kenobi.” But “Andor” is a breath of fresh air. The basis of the Star Wars franchise has always been political, and “Andor” dares to explore the quotidian intricacies of both the Empire and the Rebellion in a way that previous films and series have avoided. In this prequel to the “Rogue One” film, the main character Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) practically stumbles upon the Rebel cause after initially spurning the fight against the Empire. We see the ways in which the Empire travels from planet to planet as unforgiving imperialists, and how their stifling, authoritarian reign impacts the financial stability and health of those it preys upon. The reason “Andor” succeeds is because it ties back to the original Star Wars message that people everywhere are surviving however they can, and that very little is black and white. NOPE: Director Jordan Peele’s latest effort doesn’t deal as explicitly in the political as either of his first two films. Unlike, say, 2017’s “Get Out,” there are no characters proudly proclaiming they’d vote for Obama for a third time if they could. Without spoiling too much of the plot, “NOPE” asks questions about what it means to put “the other” on display. What seems like an alien life-form arrives around a farm; how each character deals with this — treating it as something to be feared, something to be conquered, something to be gawked at — speaks to their own motivations and how Americans deal with anything they deem unfamiliar or foreign. The White Lotus: According to “White Lotus” creator Mike White, while the first season of the HBO dramedy focused on wealth, season two was all about sexual politics. There was plenty of time to watch rich people cavorting around Sicily, but a sharper focus on interpersonal dynamics took the show to new heights in its sophomore effort. In one episode, a couple horrifies their friends with their pronouncement that they no longer watch the news — and may not have voted. “It’s just too depressing,” Daphne (Meghann Fahy) says. What the characters don’t realize is that they’re distillations of the privileged, clueless rich themselves. White creates spot-on depictions of everything from the desires of “banker and tech bros” to the white male guilt of Albie (Adam DiMarco), a son of affluence who wants nothing but to prove that he’s different from his misogynistic father and grandfather. All of the guests at The White Lotus are in search of some kind of salvation, and willing to take a wrecking ball to the people and places around them to find it. The Menu: There was no shortage of “eat the rich” satires on screen this year, including “Bodies, Bodies, Bodies,” “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” and, to an extent, “The White Lotus.” “The Menu,” though, takes things to new heights — guests at an immersive restaurant experience on an island are treated to a meal that quickly turns sinister. The restaurant industry critiques are a bit sharper than the political ones, and director Mark Mylod has a sense for how to move the camera to depict the wealthy guests at their most callous, thanks to his time working on “Succession.” Top Gun: Maverick: There’s little that’s more American than “Top Gun.” “Maverick,” the sequel to the 1986 classic, did big business in the box office by playing the hits, so to speak — a bunch of (good looking) fighter pilots who believe in service to their country while also having some fun. As Derek Robertson wrote about the movie in POLITICO Magazine this summer , “after years of Twitter, Trump, Covid, social upheaval, and an ever-more-bland, oppressive pop-cultural sameness, a large number of Americans are desperate for permission to collectively feel good about our life, country and culture, without any of the attendant political baggage.” Atlanta: In its four-season run, “Atlanta” pushed the boundaries of classic storytelling. What began as a drama about an up-and-coming rapper in Atlanta ended with episodes in seasons three and four — both out this year — about cancel culture, how money and power corrupts, and death and remembrance. Throughout it all, showrunner and star Donald Glover imbued a nuanced understanding of race in America like nothing else on television. “Atlanta” was never simple. Kimi: A fast-paced, frenetic thriller from Steven Soderbergh, “Kimi,” which stars Zoë Kravitz in the titular role, is a pandemic-era drama that actually works. Kimi, an agoraphobe whose anxiety has only gotten worse throughout Covid, hears a message during her work (from home) on a new smart speaker from a woman who claims she’s in trouble. As Kimi pushes her concern for what’s on the message up the chain of command, she realizes that the company she works for is trying to bury this information. She’s forced to go outside and confront the world. Kimi comes home with an understanding that big tech has invaded our lives, that the government has structures in place to allow it to do so and that resistance to powerful, faceless corporations can be deadly. RRR: A three-hour epic set in a British colonized India in the 1920s, “RRR” manages to surprise audiences again and again. The Telugu-language film follows two powerful revolutionaries (based on real Indian revolutionaries) who are practically unstoppable against the British regime, but their clashing motives become a wrench in their friendship and goals. Rama Raju (Ram Charan) is one of Britain’s top soldiers, with the ability to fight a crowd of 500 men and come out victorious. Komaram Bheem (N. T. Rama Rao Jr.) is a motorcycle-wielding member of the Adivasian God tribe who travels to Delhi to save a young girl who was “bought” by the British empire. “RRR” celebrates the reclaiming of one’s land from imperial overlords, shown through song and dance and action-packed, slow-motion-driven battles. It is a film that explores the lengths one is willing to go to take down an oppressive regime. Dishonorable mention: Don’t Worry Darling: All the drama at Cannes aside, Olivia Wilde’s biggest budget directorial effort yet tried to wade into questions of incel culture, the evolution of women’s rights and the postwar American experience. It fails spectacularly. All the high-minded concepts are over-wrought and under-considered, and the movie feels like it was made by a group of people who have been in Hollywood for so long that they’ve completely misunderstood the social and political ills actually plaguing the country. It’s the closest thing we got in 2022 to 2020’s Imagine video . Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Contact tonight’s authors at cmchugh@politico.com and klong@politico.com or on Twitter at @calder_mchugh and @katherinealong . We’ll be off from Dec. 26 to Jan. 2 for the holidays. Nightly will resume its regular programming on Jan. 3.

THE NEW CONGRESS

THE SANTOS SAGA — Republican Rep.-elect George Santos stands accused of fabricating major portions of his biography, from his Jewish ancestry to what companies he worked for. But disgust for Democrats is so strong among some voters in the district whose seat he flipped, they’d rather have a fabulist representing them in Congress, reports Janaki Chadha and Julia Marsh . “Of course it bothers me,” Daniel Zimmerman, a 70-year-old registered Democrat, told POLITICO as he left a local pharmacy Thursday in Great Neck, a waterfront enclave in the heart of the district. But, he added, he’d vote for Santos again. “Right now I’m a Republican because Democrats, they’re destroying our country. I don’t like the president.” John Catsimatidis, a Republican billionaire and political powerbroker who often hosts fundraisers at his Long Island home, said GOP leaders “should have done a lot more due diligence” on Santos before he was elected. But, Catsimatidis said, Santos “should be held to the same standard as” Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D), who exaggerated his military service record when he ran for the Senate in 2010. But not everyone in Santos’ soon-to-be district was willing to easily forgive. Joanne, a 66-year-old Manhasset resident who wasn’t comfortable sharing her last name, said she wouldn’t cast a ballot for Santos again. But she also said she doesn’t think much of politicians from either party. “All of them, they’re getting away with it. And he’s going to get away like the Democrats are getting away [with it]. Everyone in politics, it’s all lies now,” the registered Republican said. Bruce Blakeman, the Nassau County executive and a Republican, said in an interview with POLITICO that he’d withhold judgment until he heard Santos’ remarks.

WHAT'D I MISS?

Staff members of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol pose for a group photo following the committee's last public hearing. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

— Seven takeaways from the Jan. 6 committee’s final report: The Jan. 6 select committee’s long-awaited final report recounted almost every step of Donald Trump’s last-ditch plan to stay in power and slammed home its conclusion: The former president should never hold elected office again. But the end product of the committee’s year and a half of investigative work painted a more comprehensive picture of Trump’s attempt to stop the certification of electoral votes that would seal his loss of the White House to President Joe Biden. Cobbling together nearly 1,200 witness interview transcripts and hard-won documents, the 845-page report uncovers themes and patterns that select panel members clearly hope are of use to the Department of Justice. — House sends $1.7T government funding bill to Biden: The House today approved a mammoth $1.7 trillion funding package , capping a chaotic week as party leaders dashed to avoid a shutdown and an intensifying winter storm just days before Christmas. The spending bill, which includes a pile of high-profile year-end priorities from Ukraine aid to an election law overhaul, will be Democrats’ final legislative act before surrendering their House majority to Republicans in January. And with their post-midterm leverage boost, GOP leaders successfully negotiated huge hikes to the bill’s military spending, adding billions of dollars beyond what Biden sought, to the consternation of many progressives. — Biden signs defense bill repealing military vaccine mandate: Biden signed an $847 billion defense policy bill today, killing his own administration’s mandate that troops receive the Covid vaccine. The National Defense Authorization Act, which prescribes military policy and budget priorities each year, cleared Congress this month with overwhelming bipartisan support. The compromise bill also prescribes a whopping $45 billion increase to the defense budget proposed by the Biden administration and would mark a roughly 10 percent increase in military spending over last year. — Tax forms reveal steep legal fees for voting rights group founded by Stacey Abrams: The voting rights organization founded by Stacey Abrams, Fair Fight Action, spent an additional $12 million in legal fees in 2021, bringing its running total to $37.7 million from 2019 through 2021 alone , according to new filings by the group. A significant portion of the fees went to a single voting rights case that ended this September when a judge rejected the group’s final claims in a bench trial. The recently filed federal 990 form for 2021 also shows that the group paid an additional $4.4 million to the self-described boutique law firm of Abrams’ former campaign chairperson and longtime friend, Allegra Lawrence-Hardy. — Black voters are moving to the suburbs — and transforming American politics: The latest story in POLITICO Magazine’s “Next Great Migration” series shows how the percentage of Black Americans living in suburbs has increased steadily since 2000 , while the percentage of Black Americans in cities has decreased at the same time. Today, more than one-third of Black Americans live in suburban areas — the fastest-growing areas in the country for Black people. This realignment is already leading to suburbs that are more friendly to Democrats, though challenges in sustaining and growing that political power remain.

AROUND THE WORLD

THEY’RE WATCHING — TikTok’s parent company ByteDance accessed the data of two journalists and other users in an attempt to track down company leaks in revelations that will likely intensify security concerns in the West about the popular video app’s Chinese ownership, writes Clothilde Goujard . ByteDance employees in China and the U.S. inappropriately pulled the data including the IP addresses —which reveal a person’s general location — of journalists from BuzzFeed News and the Financial Times and people they had connected with via TikTok, according to an internal investigation. ByteDance had tried unsuccessfully to identify staff who had shared internal company documents with the reporters. The news comes as Congress is set to vote this week to ban TikTok from U.S. federal government phones over fears about privacy and national security. There is also growing European concern over the case. “We expect clear explanations and irrevocable commitments from TikTok,” tweeted French digital minister Jean-Noël Barrot today. “France and Europe will never compromise on the freedom of the press.” The investigation conducted by an outside law firm was revealed in emails that ByteDance’s general counsel Erich Andersen sent to employees on Thursday and were shared on Thursday with media outlets including The New York Times. It followed previous reports alleging the company had gathered U.S. users’ data, including their location, phone numbers and birthdays.

NIGHTLY NUMBER

5.5 percent The amount that prices rose in November from a year earlier , down from 6.1 percent in October and the smallest increase since October 2021. It marks another sign that the long surge in consumer prices appears to be easing.

RADAR SWEEP

CASH RULES EVERYTHING AROUND ME — Eight months ago, the Central African Republic — one of the poorest countries in Africa — celebrated its status as the only country in Africa to adopt Bitcoin as a legal currency . The decision was rooted in decades of colonial rule from the French, which included a “colonial currency.” Bitcoin was something different, but it comes with its own risks; a downturn in the crypto space has imperiled the project. Ben Hunte reports for VICE.

PARTING WORDS

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Kamala Harris hold a Ukrainian flag signed by members of Ukraine's military given to them by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

ASK THE AUDIENCE — Over the past week, we’ve asked you to write to us about the year’s most important news stories. We’re grateful for all the responses — including from our readers around the world. Here are your rankings of the top stories from 2022, along with excerpts from some of the most interesting answers: 1. The Russian invasion of Ukraine: “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine effectively created the perfect storm,” wrote Constantinos St. Loizides of Nicosia, Cyprus. “First, large scale war in Europe with loss of life among civilians, with the risk at any time of escalating into a nuclear confrontation by strategic dint or even by accident; Energy price hikes of tremendous proportions; Huge disruption of food supply lines; After COVID, further deterioration of commerce through logistics and transportation challenges. The invasion also highlighted, to weary citizens of democratic nations, the growing numbers of autocracies around the world, especially China.” Karlis Streips of Riga, Latvia adds about the invasion: “I give most of the credit to President Zelensky, who no one expected to be a true war leader, but that is exactly what he has become.” 2. The January 6th Committee: “The careful and systematic investigation conducted by the Committee, and the Committee’s rational conclusions and referrals to the Justice Department, refuted the image of a spontaneous event and revealed a long-planned and organized attempt to overthrow the rule of law and the peaceful transition of power in our democracy,” wrote Dennis Hopwood of Milton-Freewater, Ore. Patricia Palmer of Boston added that she was most impressed during the hearings by “the gutsy, principled Liz Cheney” and Alitha Young of Round Pond, Maine, said that “[the committee is] helping to secure our precious democracy. What could be more essential or important than that?” 3. America’s southern border: “My nomination would be the de facto open southern border of the United States, with the Biden Administration showing no real interest in controlling it.” wrote Thomas Farrelly of Seattle, Wash. “The story is barely covered by progressive media, including Politico.” 4. The Santos scandal: “The extraordinary level of fabrication by Rep-elect George Santos in his distributed resume, public statements, falsified government filings and outright disrespect for his constituents and the Constitution [is a huge story],” wrote in Sal Samperi of Naples, Fla. “The Santos case is the epitome of destructive disinformation that leads to a completely unwarranted outcome.” As a bonus, we also got two interesting notes about media and entertainment. “The continuing biggest story is the media’s addiction to profit over truth,” said William Donelson of Memphis, Tenn. Longtime film critic Daniel M. Kimmel of Somerville, Mass. told us about the state of his side of the industry: “...even as people are returning to movie theaters after the worst of the pandemic, there seems to be a real shift. Many movies are released on streaming services either simultaneously with their theatrical releases or shortly thereafter. While I’ve attended some press screenings this year, I’m reviewing mostly from at home screeners that I can watch from secure apps on my TV. It’s not the end of movie theaters, but it’s a significant change in how we consume movies and I’ve been hearing predictions of this for forty years. It seems to be finally happening.” Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here .

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