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4:40 PM ET, December 15, 2025

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 Top News: 
Kanis Leung / Associated Press:
Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai is found guilty of colluding with foreign forces and conspiring to publish seditious articles, and faces a possible life sentence  —  Jimmy Lai, the former Hong Kong media mogul and outspoken critic of Beijing, was convicted in a landmark national security trial …
Brian Steinberg / Variety:
Major brands were replaced by direct-response advertisers during commercial breaks of CBS News' December 13 town hall with Erika Kirk, moderated by Bari Weiss  —  During a Saturday-night town hall led by Bari Weiss, the recently named editor in chief of CBS News, most of Madison Avenue sought an off-ramp.
Chris Morris / Variety:
Acclaimed actor and director Rob Reiner, 78, and his wife Michele Singer were found dead in their home; LAPD is investigating the deaths as a homicide  —  Rob Reiner, who segued from starring in “All in the Family” to directing movies including “This Is Spinal Tap,” “A Few Good Men” and …
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Sara Fischer / Axios:
WSJ launches Free Expression, a newsletter-focused opinion brand that will be available via its own channels and Substack, initially offering free content  —  The Wall Street Journal on Monday launched “Free Expression,” a newsletter-focused opinion brand that will be available via its own channels and Substack.
Max Tani / Semafor:
Internal tests show WaPo launched its AI podcast feature despite 68%+ of generated scripts failed its standards, saying it would “iterate through” the issues  —  The Scoop  —  The Washington Post began putting out AI-generated podcasts even after internal tests found …
Alice Brooker / Press Gazette:
The Associated Press launches AP Verify, an AI-powered tool, including chatbot and geolocation, to help journalists authenticate text, photos, and videos  —  AP Verify helped find eyewitness videos from Charlie Kirk assassination.  —  Associated Press has launched an AI-powered tool …
Freddy Mayhew / Press Gazette:
PA Media, the UK's largest press agency, says it has adopted a “video-first” strategy to meet increased demand for live and vertical social media content  —  PA has adopted a “video-first” approach to its content offering in response to increased demand for live and vertical video content …
Elias Leight / Wall Street Journal:
Christmas music is more popular than ever, with listeners embracing it earlier in the year; by December 10, 20 of Spotify's top 25 tracks were Christmas-themed  —  One music manager described a holiday hit as a ‘little ATM machine’  —  The group Pentatonix are known for their a capella renditions of Christmas classics.
Reuters:
Internal documents: Meta earned $18B+ in annual ad sales from China in 2024, making up 10%+ of its global revenue, with $3B+ linked to fraudulent ads like scams  —  A Reuters investigation reveals the owner of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp decided to accept high levels of fraudulent advertisements from China.
Max Tani / Semafor:
In an internal memo, Axios CEO Jim VandeHei warns that the US is in “a post-news era” where “everyone has their own individual reality”  —  The co-founder and CEO of Axios is warning journalists that they've entered a “a post-news era where what matters, and has value, is information, not ‘the news.’”
Discussion: @jessicalessin
 
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 More News: 
Anna Heim / TechCrunch:
Berlin-based Mirelo, whose AI models can interpret video content to add matching sound effects, raised a $41M seed led by Index and a16z, after a $3M pre-seed
Rose Henderson / Bloomberg:
Memo: Greg Peters and Ted Sarandos lay out Netflix's WBD offer, moving to quell concerns about job losses and the end of theater releases, after Paramount's bid
 Earlier Picks: 
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
How media coverage of Trump's AI EO overstated federal authority over states and overlooked how the order's interstate commerce argument could backfire
Will McCurdy / PCMag:
Amazon rolls out Ask This Book to the Kindle iOS app, letting readers ask questions about plot or characters; authors can't opt out
Gene Maddaus / Variety:
Google has removed dozens of AI videos from YouTube that depicted Disney characters, after Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter flagging the links
 

 
From Techmeme:

Natalie Alms / Nextgov/FCW:
The Trump administration launches US Tech Force to recruit ~1,000 staffers from Apple, Meta, xAI, and others for two-year stints to modernize the government

Bloomberg:
iRobot files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and reaches a restructuring agreement to hand over control to its secured lender and main Chinese supplier Shenzhen Picea

Financial Times:
Sources: the UK government wants Apple, Google, and others to block explicit images at the OS level by default to protect kids and have adults verify their ages
 
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