Good morning. If you buy a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts tomorrow you’ll get a second dozen for a dollar. Appropriately, tomorrow’s date is 12/12 — the day of dozens. There’s no better time to bring donuts to work than when they’re on sale.

Japanese slugger Shohei Ohtani just became the world’s highest-paid athlete. The 29-year-old signed a ten-year deal with the MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers worth a whopping $700 million.

A preview of today’s issue:

• The Haudenosaunee Confederacy

• Hong Kong’s new “elections”

• The FDA’s gene-editing approval

• And much more!

Here’s today’s edition of The Elective:

 OLYMPICS 

Biden backs Native lacrosse team at 2028 L.A. Olympics

President Biden said he supports the Haudenosaunee Confederacy lacrosse team competing under their own flag at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The L.A. games will mark the inclusion of Olympic lacrosse for the first time since 1908. And the Haudenosaunee want to compete. Why? They invented the sport (about 1,000 years ago).

The people: The Haudenosaunee Confederacy is a cross-border group of six Native American and First Nations peoples in the U.S. and Canada — the Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca, and Tuscarora. You might know them by the name Iroquois.

Since 1985, they've had their own team in World Lacrosse competitions. That makes them the world’s only indigenous group sanctioned for international competition. They’ve won the bronze medal in each of the past three tournaments.

The IOC: The International Olympic Committee has thus far denied the request. The Olympic Charter says athletes must represent "an independent state recognized by the international community." And teams must compete in at least five sports.

• Indigenous athletes are eligible to compete for whichever country they hold citizenship. No indigenous team has ever competed.

• People from nations with geopolitical issues can compete as independent athletes— that’s how a select few Russians will participate in Paris next year after their country was banned (for the obvious reason).

The Haudenosaunee expressed their "sincere gratitude" for Biden’s support. Unfortunately for them, he plays no role here. All Olympic decisions are made exclusively by the 107 members of the IOC.

Zoom out: Decisions on the inclusion of indigenous, international, subnational, or other unrecognized groups are naturally political. Should the IOC grant this request, places with active secession movements (like Scotland and Catalonia) will be next in line. That’s a delicate political situation the IOC will want to avoid.

 NEWS 

🏛️ Economy: According to the (thrillingly-named) Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. economy grew by 199,000 jobs in November while the unemployment rate fell to 3.7%. In light of that good news, Wall Street analysts believe the Federal Reserve will cut its interest rate in May. That interest rate — the federal funds rate — is, in effect, the rate banks charge other banks when they lend cash to one another. That rate plays a big role in the interest rate you get on car, home, and business loans. In other good economic news, two chunks of the stock market, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq, closed Friday at prices higher than they’ve seen since early 2022. A third portion, the Dow, closed higher for the sixth straight week. That’s its longest positive run since 2019.

🏫 Universities: In light of a viral Congressional testimony, University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill has "stepped down" (aka: she got canned). Last week, the presidents of Penn, Harvard, and MIT testified that calling for the "genocide of Jews" somehow does not violate their campus codes of conduct. They said a violation only occurs if "it crosses into conduct." Yeesh. Obviously, all three have since apologized. Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, at a ceremony to light the National Menorah, said their "lack of moral clarity is simply unacceptable." Since October, the schools have together lost hundreds of millions of dollars in donations amid accusations of antisemitism.

 POLITICS 

🔴 The Republican National Committee will no longer host 2024 presidential primary debates. The previous four debates were hosted jointly by the RNC and a rotating cast of news networks. The networks will be the exclusive hosts of future debates. Three are currently on the schedule for January — one from ABC and two from CNN. The RNC’s increasingly strict requirements for inclusion winnowed last week's outing to just four candidates (down from eight in August). Donald Trump has repeatedly called on the RNC to cancel the debates, citing his dominating poll numbers. The committee has also taken hits from lower-polling candidates (most of whom have since dropped out) for its strict rules on debate participation.

🔵 Houston elected a new mayor on Saturday. John Whitmire, a moderate Democrat, destroyed U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee with over 64% of the vote. Whitmire has served in the Texas state legislature for over 50 years. Because who wouldn’t want to waste away in the statehouse for half a century? He'll take office as leader of America's fourth-largest city next month. Unlike many U.S. cities, Houston uses a strong-mayor system of government, so Whitmire will have actual administrative power. Unfortunately for Congressional staffers, Jackson-Lee will remain in the House. Long ranked one of the worst bosses in Congress, her median staffer (or in her words, "f---ing idiots") stays on for just over seven months.

🔴 U.S. Sen. Thom Thillis (R) wants attorney Bill Graham (no relation to Billy) to be North Carolina's next governor. Graham's biggest rival in next year's Republican primary is first-term Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (the first Black person to hold that post). Robinson was a political nobody when a viral speech on gun rights to the Greensboro, NC city council launched him into statewide office. Since then, he's been a lightning rod for controversy. Despite the state's Republican lean, Democrats have won seven of the last eight North Carolina gubernatorial elections. Thillis's endorsement of the more moderate Graham is a signal to party donors that Graham is the man to end that streak. The likely Democratic nominee is state Attorney General Josh Stein.

 TRIVIA 

 WORLD 

🇭🇰 Hong Kong held (useless) local elections yesterday. These are the first ballots cast since the mainland Chinese government took over the city in 2019. In a loss for democracy, all candidates must now be approved by the Chinese Communist Party.

🇦🇷 Argentina inaugurated its new president yesterday. Libertarian outsider (and former sex coach) Javier Milei promised radical changes that began on day one. He already cut the number of cabinet ministers from 18 to nine. That 143% inflation won't fix itself.

🇺🇦 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attended Javier Milei's presidential inauguration in Argentina yesterday. He made the stop as he swung through Latin America courting funding for Ukraine's war effort. He will meet with President Biden at the White House tomorrow.

🇮🇱 As Congress debates the issue, the Biden administration approved the sale of 14,000 tank shells (worth $107 million) to Israel. Federal law (the Arms Export Control Act) allows this during specific emergencies.

🇪🇺 The European Union passed sweeping new AI regulations. The AI Act bans a host of web-scraping techniques used by AI companies and levies huge fines for violations. Proponents of the measure say it makes Europe a "global standard setter."

🇨🇦 Many immigrants are now leaving Canada. The high cost of housing is pushing many immigrants right back to the countries they once fled. To ease pressure on the housing market, the government will cap future immigration numbers starting in 2025.

 BRIEFS 

💊 The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) just approved the U.S.'s first CRISPR medication. The drug will treat sickle cell disease. CRISPR is a revolutionary, Nobel Prize-winning technology that modifies human genes. The U.K. also approved the treatment.

🇺🇸 During World War 2, the Japanese military captured 41 Alaskans when they took control of Attu — the westernmost Alaskan island far closer to Russia than to the mainland. Now, aged 84, the final captured Alaskan has passed away.

⚖️ Donald Trump wants to stop his federal trial for election obstruction. He says he's immune to prosecution because he was president during the alleged crime. His judge denied the claim but Trump wants his case halted while he appeals that denial.

🔥 The very important people at the Unicode Consortium approved 118 new emojis this year. Among the fresh meat: a lime, a mushroom, and 108 of the same little people you already have but now, critically, facing right instead of left.

💸 Former Fox News host and Boomer favorite Tucker Carlson announced the launch of his own subscription site. For $6 per month, your uncle can get unlimited access to Carlson's thoughts, musings, and merchandise.

⚖️ Most abortions in Texas are illegal. But late last week, a Texas judge granted a Dallas-area woman permission to get one under the state’s health-related exception rules. A day later, the Texas Supreme Court put that decision on hold.

 QUOTE 

 ANSWER 

2024 Summer: Paris, France

2026 Winter: Milan, Italy

2028 Summer: Los Angeles, CA

2030 Winter: TBD

2032: Summer: Brisbane, Australia