The Know Daily - Friday 22 December 2023

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Happy Friday!

Esther here, finding it more than a bit surreal to be bringing you our final newsletter of 2023! I hope you’ll all be able to wind down over the next week or so - I’m looking forward to returning home to Birmingham, where I plan to binge detective dramas, eat lots of cheese and do very little else.

But at the same time, I tend to find the festive season - amidst all the shopping, travelling and cooking - pretty stressful. If this is something you relate to, you might like this week’s guide to living in the moment this Christmas. You’ll also find plenty of recs to keep you entertained over the next couple of weeks, along with our end-of-year quiz - just keep scrolling!

From the whole team, a big thank you to all you wonderful readers - and especially to our friends of The Know. We simply would not exist without our supporters, so if you’re able to this festive season, please consider joining us.

Happy holidays - we’ll be back in your inboxes on Friday 5 January (and posting on Instagram in the meantime)! 💜 

Esther x

Staff Writer

If you’ve enjoyed reading our emails throughout 2023, please consider becoming a friend of The Know. For less than £1.25 a week, you’ll help keep our content free for all and ensure we can pay our team a fair wage.

POLITICS & GLOBAL AFFAIRS

🇺🇸 Donald Trump is not an eligible candidate for next year’s US presidential election, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday, removing his name from the state ballot.

🇬🇧 UK Labour leader Keir Starmer backed cross-party calls to legalise assisted dying, as campaigners say they are close to gaining majority support among MPs for a law change.

⚽ Uefa and Fifa’s ban on clubs joining a breakaway European Super League was unlawful, the European Court of Justice ruled on Thursday. 

CULTURE

🎄 Italy’s far-right ruling party proposed a new law to “safeguard” school nativity scenes and prevent schools from “modifying the essence of Christmas”. 

🏛️ The British Museum announced a £50m deal with oil giant BP to fund extensive renovation works, a move decried by climate campaigners as “completely indefensible”. 

📙 Mills & Boon said it will launch a list of “spicy” new book titles next year that are specifically aimed at “wooing TikTok book lovers”. 

WORK & INNOVATION

🎥 Paramount Global and Warner Bros Discovery held talks for a potential merger; Axios said the move would “create a news and entertainment behemoth”. 

🚀 A site in the Shetland Islands in Scotland was chosen as the location for the UK’s first spaceport for vertical rocket launches, set to begin in 2024.

🚰 California regulators green-lit rules to allow agencies to recycle wastewater into drinking water.

UPLIFTING STUFF

⛪ Same-sex couples can now be blessed by Catholic priests, in a “radical change” in policy for the Vatican.  

🖼️ The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York said it would return 16 ancient artefacts to Cambodia and Thailand.

🐺 Five grey wolves were released into Colorado’s Rocky Mountains on Monday, in what The Verge described as a “spectacular show of efforts to conserve the endangered species”. Watch the moment of their release here.

📰 Read: We’re going all in on roundups for our final edition of 2023 (!) and this one from The Guardian on the best books of 2023 features something for everyone. We’re already dreaming of curling up under a blanket with a good book…

📺 Watch: Godzilla Minus One (out in cinemas now), The Winter King (ITVX), Percy Jackson and the Olympians (Disney+), Cindy la Regia: The High School Years (Netflix). 

🎧 Listen to: The 30 best albums of 2023, according to Time Out. Or are you looking to channel Christmas vibes and Christmas vibes only? You’ll love this listicle.

🧑‍🍳 Cook: Probably a Christmas dinner. This Guardian guide to cooking the perfect Christmas dinner may be from 2010, but it’s one we reach for time and time again! 

🎁 Do: Sort those last-minute festive gifts! If you’re looking for inspo, the first section of our bumper gift guide may help - and we particularly love the look of this drink tasting with a twist or this somewhat unusual subscription service.

We list jobs with qualities we know our readers are looking for: purpose-driven opportunities, flexible and female-founded environments, and employers who champion mental health.

Our top jobs this week include roles at humanitarian aid organisation Unicef, anti-food waste charity The Felix Project and the Royal Horticultural Society.
 
Want to reach 200,000+ women with your latest roles? Email [email protected] if you’d like to list a job with us.

In Monday’s newsletter, we asked how many of you were “morning people”, after a new study found that early risers may have their ancient ancestors to thank for the trait. While more of you preferred lie-ins, the results were closely tied:

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ Yep, I love rising early (113)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 No, lie-ins all the way! (147)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ I'm not one or the other (47)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ I'm not sure (5)

312 Votes

“I see the benefit of being a morning person so much and I’ve tried but it definitely just seems to be against my nature 😭,” wrote one reader. “I dislike the constant emphasis placed on the notion that it’s only by getting up early that one can be productive,” said another - which is certainly food for thought!

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