| | | | | | | Presented By Walmart | | | | Axios AM | | By Mike Allen · Dec 24, 2022 | | 🕯️ It's Christmas Eve. The world waits. Smart Brevity™ count: 1,162 words ... 4½ minutes. Edited by Jennifer Koons. | | | | | | 1 big thing: Ukraine's Christmas miracle | | A Christmas tree yesterday amid the darkness of Sophia Square in Kyiv, Ukraine. Photo: Felipe Dana/AP Ten months after Vladimir Putin's invasion, the West remains united in supporting Ukraine — a signal the West is more unified overall than many experts believed, Axios World editor Dave Lawler writes. - Why it matters: Neither the sheer scale of the global response, nor the West's ability to maintain it, seemed inevitable — or even likely — when the invasion began.
"If anybody had told you in January that Europe as a whole, led by Germany, would be doing everything they can to cut fossil fuel dependence on Russia, you'd have said they were crazy," said Ivo Daalder, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO. - "And yet, that's what they're doing."
🔭 Zoom out: Arms shipments to Ukraine over the year are without precedent, at least since World War II — and they're still increasing. - Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to Washington was largely a lovefest. And when President Biden was asked about Western unity fraying in 2023, he replied he's "not at all worried."
🪞 Flashback: The Kremlin's plans were predicated on taking Kyiv quickly, and essentially forcing the West to accept its victory as a fait accompli, said Alexander Gabuev of the Carnegie Endowment. - Ukraine's success in rebuffing that advance and retaking territory encouraged its Western backers to send a growing array of weapons.
- Evidence of Russian atrocities in cities like Bucha increased the momentum behind sanctions.
🔮 What's next: Putin seems to be wagering that he can wait out the West — particularly if his strikes on cities push more refugees to Europe, and the lack of Russian gas deepens Europe's energy crisis, Gabuev says. Share this story. |     | | | | | | 2. ✈️ Story time: How my nephew is getting home | | Above is a computer model of the coldest Christmas Eve in decades, with white colors showing the coldest wind chills. 🧠 What you can do: United, American and Delta have fee waivers available for changing flights, Axios' Herb Scribner writes. 💡 Pro tip: Sweet-talking can work. - My nephew Anders, who has been persistent with Costco and fast-food personnel since he was a little guy, had his flight from Newark to Portland, Ore., canceled yesterday — and was rebooked for the 27th!
- My sister Cathie texts: "you best believe anders and a supervisor spent 2 hours figuring out options and 🤞🤞🤞 he has something for" today.
Go deeper: Advice if your flight is canceled. | | | | | | | | 3. 🐦 Tesla's sinking stock |  Data: Yahoo Finance. Chart: Axios Visuals Tesla stock fell 18% this week alone — and has dropped around 65% in 2022, The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription). - Why it matters: Elon Musk's "ability to use his shares at Tesla to raise money, by selling or borrowing against them, has been complicated by their rapid downdraft."
What's happening: Tesla is falling because of high interest rates, and because Tesla investors worry Musk is distracted. The bottom line: Musk is worth about $140 billion — about $50 billion of that in Tesla shares. | | | | | | | | A message from Walmart | | Walmart helps families save on the things they need most | | |  | | | | Over 37 million Americans have diabetes. With Walmart, they can save up to 75% compared to the cash price of branded insulin. This adds up to more than $15 million saved across America since June 2021. Learn more about how Walmart helps families live better. | | | | | | 4. 🏛️ One of the most active Congresses ever | | Photo: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters Above: Speaker Pelosi leaves the Capitol yesterday after the House sent President Biden a $1.7 trillion spending bill, passed mostly along party lines (225-201): - "This will probably be my last speech as Speaker of the House on this Floor, and I'm hoping to make it my shortest," she said. "Members have planes to catch, gifts to wrap, toys to assemble, carols to sing."
"Yes indeed, the goose is getting fat," Pelosi continued. "We have a big bill here, because we have big needs for our country." Speaker Pelosi waves the gavel on opening day of the 117th Congress — Jan. 3, 2021. Photo: Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call via AP 🖼️ The big picture: The 117th Congress, which opened with the unfathomable attack on the Capitol, wound up as one of the most consequential legislative sessions in memory, AP's Lisa Mascaro writes: - This Congress passed monumental legislation — including a bill making one of the most substantial infrastructure investments in a generation, and another federally protecting same-sex and interracial marriages.
- Senators confirmed the nation's first Black woman, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, to the Supreme Court.
- The Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act passed, making lynching a federal hate crime — after more than 120 years and some 200 failed efforts to pass such legislation.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer compared this session to the LBJ and FDR eras, which produced some of the most lasting laws: - "These two years in the Senate and House ... were either the most productive in 50 years Great Society, or most productive in 100 years since the New Deal."
Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images Above: Workers move furniture from the Speaker's suite yesterday. | | | | | | | | 5. ⚖️ Rapper Tory Lanez convicted of shooting Megan Thee Stallion | | Tory Lanez, Megan Thee Stallion. Photos: Amy Harris, Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP In a courtroom that turned chaotic after a trial that seethed with tension, an L.A. jury found rapper Tory Lanez guilty of three felonies in the 2020 shooting of hip-hop star Megan Thee Stallion, AP reports. - The attack left her wounded with bullet fragments in her feet.
- Lanez — handcuffed and led to jail while wearing a powder pink coat with matching pants — could spend 20+ years in prison.
Why it matters: The case became a "referendum on the treatment of Black women in hip-hop and beyond," the N.Y. Times writes (subscription). 🔎 Between the lines: As happened with Amber Heard during the defamation case in which she and Depp's accused each other of abuse, much of the online coverage turned Megan Thee Stallion into the person "being judged," Jemele Hill wrote for The Atlantic. - Go deeper: "How Tory Lanez trial bloggers are shaping the conversation around Megan Thee Stallion" (NBC).
| | | | | | | | 6. 🦸 1 fun thing: Weather hero | | Image: KWWL News 7 Mark Woodley — a sports reporter for KWWL News 7, the NBC station in Waterloo, Iowa — got called in to do outside weather reports during yesterday's endless morning show. He got crankier by the hour. - When the chipper anchor asked from the warm studio how he was "feelin' out there," Woodley replied: "The same way I felt about eight minutes ago when you asked me that same question. ... It's absolutely fantastic, Ryan!"
Woodley should get an Emmy for this: "How do I get that StormChaser 7 duty?! ... That thing's heated. The outdoors, currently, is not heated." Image: KWWL News 7 "What better time to ask the sports guy to come in about five hours ... earlier than he would normally wake up, go stand out in the wind and the snow and the cold and tell other people not to do the same," Woodley ranted. - "This is a really long show. ... Can I go back to my regular job?"
Woodley tweeted a supercut of his storm hits: "This is what you get when you ask the sports guy to come in to cover a blizzard in the morning show." It now has 7 million views. | | | | | | | | A message from Walmart | | Walmart helps save families up to 75% on insulin | | |  | | | | Since June 2021, families across America have saved more than $15 million on insulin. Thanks to Walmart's low-cost private brand, shoppers can save up to 75% off the cash price of branded insulin. Learn more about how Walmart helps families live better. | | | | 📨 Thanks for sharing your holiday weekend with us. Please invite your friends to sign up to get their daily essentials — Axios AM, PM and Finish Line. |  | | Are you a fan of this email format? Your essential communications — to staff, clients and other stakeholders — can have the same style. Axios HQ, a powerful platform, will help you do it. | | | |
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