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Britain’s Channel 4 last week produced a stunningly real-looking parody video of Queen Elizabeth’s annual Christmas Day message that the network claims highlights the dangers of "deepfake" technology.

Michelle Gao / CNBC : From working remotely to benefiting from the new normal, tech companies led the way in pandemic response, but fell behind in stopping COVID-19 misinformation   —  - Tech companies were the first to cancel events and send workers home because of Covid concerns in early 2020.

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Reuters : Mastercard SpendingPulse: US online holiday sales from Oct. 11 to Dec. 24 grew 49% YoY, for a 19.7% share of overall retail sales, up from about 13.4% in 2019   —  (Reuters) -U.S. retail sales rose 3% during this year's expanded holiday shopping season from Oct. 11 to Dec. 24 …

Pro wrestling star Jon Huber, known as Brodie Lee in All Elite Wrestling and Luke Harper in WWE, died Saturday. He was 41.

Steven Overly / Politico : Facebook critics say a general animosity toward Facebook in Washington may push the Biden administration into taking more proactive measures against the company   —  Joe Biden has said he's no fan of Facebook.  Now he has an opportunity to show it as he assumes landmark policy and legal battles against the company.

New York’s Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is rumored to be mulling a primary challenge to US Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer.

Election officials in Georgia are gearing up for the possibility that next month’s Senate runoff elections may spend weeks in litigation before a final winner is determined.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger on Saturday called out President Trump and House Republicans who back his "crazy conspiracies" and denials that he lost the election to President-elect Joe Biden.

President-elect Joe Biden on Saturday called on President Trump to sign the coronavirus stimulus bill -- warning that failing to do so would have "devastating consequences" for millions of Americans.

A Christmas morning fire killed two children and sent others fleeing for their safety by jumping from a second-floor window of a Detroit home, officials said.

Will Knight / Wired : David Silver, a principal research scientist at DeepMind, on AlphaGo, AlphaZero, and MuZero, applying reinforcement learning to real world problems, and more   —  David Silver of DeepMind, who helped create the program that defeated a Go champion, thinks rewards are central to how machines—and humans—acquire knowledge.

"Club Kid Killer" Michael Alig was found dead on Christmas Eve of an apparent drug overdose, officials said Friday.

The two candidates raised a little over $100 million each.

A judge in Georgia on Thursday rejected a Republican Party suit to limit ballot drop box hours -- ahead of the crucial Senate runoffs next month.

MacRumors : Apple's system status page is showing issues with “iCloud Account and Sign In” since Christmas morning, as users complain about problems with device activation   —  Apple's status page shows an ongoing issue with “iCloud Account and Sign In” since early Christmas morning.

Taylor Swift fans are in an uproar after the singer was removed from a famous Nashville mural celebrating country music legends and replaced with Brad Paisley.

Jessica Simpson showed off her fit frame on Christmas Day while wearing a form-fitting onesie.

Jeremy Miller called out his "Growing Pains" co-star Kirk Cameron for hosting maskless caroling protests around Los Angeles.

USPS has agreed to treat mail-in ballots in Georgia’s Jan. 5 Senate runoff elections as express mail.

President Trump on Saturday defended his veto of the National Defense Authorization Act, calling it a "travesty" and again claiming it is a "gift" to China, Russia and Big Tech companies.

Georgia Rep.-elect Andrew Clyde arrived in the nation's capital with the unique distinction of already having a federal law named after him.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said she would have accepted an offer to serve as Joe Biden’s running mate — but admitted to relief at not being picked.

Paresh Dave / Reuters : Laptop and desktop manufacturers are still months away from fulfilling outstanding orders as sales see a renaissance; shortages won't ease until 2022   —  OAKLAND, Calif. (Reuters) - The world stocked up on laptop and desktop computers in 2020 at a level not seen since the iPhone debuted in 2007 …

Country music stars and Nashville's pro sports teams shared their reactions Christmas Day after a shocking explosion in the Tennessee capital interrupted what many expected to be a mostly quiet holiday with loved ones.

Sarah Fallon / Wired : Profile of Ray Holt, who in the 1960s jointly developed the F-14 Tomcat's Central Air Data Computer, considered by some to be the first microprocessor   —  In a weird way, I've known Ray Holt all my life, but I never knew what he had accomplished—or how his inventions wove their way into my own family.

Ionut Ilascu / BleepingComputer : Microsoft's patch for a zero-day privilege escalation Windows bug in June did not fix the vulnerability, which could still be exploited with some adjustments   —  Back in June, Microsoft released a fix for a vulnerability in the Windows operating system that enabled attackers to increase …

Jordan Novet / CNBC : 2020 political campaigns secured emails with physical security keys from a nonprofit working with Google and Microsoft; source says Biden's campaign used keys   —  - Keys from the likes of Google and Yubico became a hit among campaign workers this year, including in Joe Biden's campaign.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said she would have accepted an offer to serve as Joe Biden’s running mate — but admitted to relief at not being picked.

Julia Alexander / The Verge : 2020 has been the beginning of major streaming exclusivity plays, forcing users to pay for four or five services as big studios prioritize their own platforms   —  End-of-year turnover is always rough, and it's going to get worse  —  Two of the biggest movies people want to talk about this week …

Washington Post : A study using 96K searches found that Google News put far more national news outlets than local outlets at the top of search results, even for local queries   —  Our audit reveals that Google News sends readers — and advertising dollars — away from local news outlets.

Eudora Wang / DealStreetAsia : Uniontech Software, a Chinese startup that makes Linux-based operating systems, raises $168.2M Series A led by state-owned investment firm Beijing E-Town   —  Chinese operating system (OS) startup Uniontech Software Technology has garnered 1.1 billion yuan ($168.2 million) …

Nicole Sperling / New York Times : As streaming platforms like Netflix have grown, political films they used to seek out, like The Dissident, on the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, are being shunned   —  Bryan Fogel's examination of the killing of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi had trouble finding a home among the companies …

President-elect Joe Biden’s dogs Champ and Major wished Americans a merry Christmas on Thursday — and gave the public a glimpse of what the White House is in for next month.

Eudora Wang / DealStreetAsia : Tencent-backed Meishubao Education, a Chinese startup providing online art classes to users aged 3 to 18, has raised $210M Series D led by TPG's The Rise Fund   —  Meishubao Education, a Tencent-backed Chinese online art education platform, announced on Thursday the completion of a Series D round …