Forecasters wanted to discount Black Friday this year, but they should have known discounts only make Black Friday stronger. Despite analysts’ tepid outlook, the shopping holiday generated a record $9.8 billion in online sales in the US, a 7.5% increase over a year ago, according to Adobe Analytics.

Here’s a look behind the numbers.

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Shopping on your phone: $5.3 billion of online sales (54%) were done through a mobile device, and that method is expected to overtake desktop purchasing during this holiday season for the first time, according to Adobe. Using separate data, Salesforce reported that 79% of all shopping traffic (browsing + buying) happened on mobile handsets.

Buy now, pay later: Americans are turning to BNPL more than ever to stretch their holiday shopping budget. The use of BNPL—which allows shoppers to spread payment over multiple installments—soared 47% from a year ago to $79 million on Black Friday, per Adobe. It’s another sign of resilience for a sector battered in the post-Covid economy: BNPL giant Klarna recently reported its first quarterly profit in four years.

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Store-branded credit cards. That credit card you own because an employee at the register asked if you wanted it seven years ago and you said yes to get 10% off that purchase you were making? Shoppers are not playing that game anymore, the WSJ reports. New store card registrations were down 37% last year compared with 2015, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Possible explanations: Interest rates can top 30% on some store-branded cards, and bargain-hunting Americans are now less loyal to particular brands, switching retailers last year at a higher rate than at any point since Covid began, per McKinsey.

Cyber Monday is also projected to crush

Don’t expect things to slow today—Adobe predicts a record $12 billion in sales on Cyber Monday, a 5.4% increase over last year and the biggest online shopping day in US history. Retailers are set to cut prices by 30% on electronics, one of the biggest sales drivers over the past week.

We won’t leave you hanging: Here are 175 Cyber Monday deals.—DL

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Israel–Hamas cease-fire holds as hostages and prisoners swapped. Israel and Hamas completed their third exchange on Sunday, which included the first release of an American hostage—a four-year-old girl. The swap, if completed today, would result in a total of 50 women and children hostages held by Hamas exchanged for 150 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. The prime minister of Qatar, the country that brokered the deal, told the FT that efforts to extend the four-day cease-fire past Monday will depend on Hamas finding dozens of women and children hostages who are being held by civilians and gangs. In the US, three students of Palestinian descent were shot and wounded by a white man near Burlington, VT, Saturday night, according to police. Authorities are investigating the shooting as a possible hate crime.

“Dutch Donald Trump” wins big in the Netherlands. Europe’s rightward march gained momentum last week when Geert Wilders’s far-right People’s Party For Freedom won a surprising majority in Parliament, opening the door for the anti-Islam, anti-immigration populist to become prime minister of the historically socially liberal Netherlands. Wilders has indicated he will dial back his hardline policy proposals (which include banning the Koran and mosques in the country) to gain the support from moderates he needs to become the country’s leader. But his victory is a microcosm of the significant gains made by the once-shunned far-right across Europe as residents express their discontent with surging migration, meager economic growth, and high inflation.

Riots in Dublin caused by far-right protesters. A riot in Dublin that police said was Ireland’s worst violence in decades led to 34 arrests and was fueled by an online misinformation campaign following multiple stabbings. On Thursday morning, a knife attack outside of a school wounded three students, a childcare worker, and the alleged perpetrator, leaving one of the children in critical condition as of Friday. Far-right online groups began to spread false information that the assailant was an immigrant, although the BBC reported he was an Irish citizen. By Thursday night, the rumors led to right-wing protesters rampaging through the streets of Dublin, setting vehicles on fire and clashing with police. Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar promised to modernize his country’s laws against “incitement to hatred” in the coming weeks.

Last week, prominent men, including hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, NYC Mayor Eric Adams, Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose, actor Jamie Foxx, and more, were sued in New York for sexual abuse or harassment that allegedly took place decades ago.

The timing was no coincidence: These suits were filed before a New York law called the Adult Survivors Act expired on Thursday. The law, which went into effect on Nov. 24, 2022, gave adult survivors one year to file civil abuse and harassment claims no matter when in the past the alleged incidents may have happened. The lifting of the statute of limitations was intended to recognize that the trauma inflicted on survivors may have prevented them from coming forward previously.

Former President Trump was the first person to be sued under the law. He was found liable for sexually abusing the writer E. Jean Carroll in the ’90s and was ordered to pay her $5 million in damages. Trump and other men named in suits last week deny the accusations.

While the celeb cases have grabbed headlines, most of the 2,500+ lawsuits filed under the Adult Survivors Act in the past year have alleged abuse at state prisons and local jails, according to the AP. Others have claimed harassment at businesses, including airports, spas, and hospital systems.

Zoom out: New York joins a handful of other states, including California and New Jersey, that have enacted “lookback windows” that temporarily remove the statute of limitations for sexual assault claims.—NF

Major climate summit in Dubai: COP28, the year’s most important meeting on climate change, will begin in Dubai on Thursday. The two-week summit will be the first opportunity for nearly 200 countries to take stock of how they’re meeting (or not meeting) their emissions goals set forth in the 2015 Paris Agreement. The UN released a report in September showing most countries are falling short of their commitments, which, following the warmest summer globally on record, could give them a kick in the butt to buckle down.

Beyoncé is coming to theaters: Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé will premiere worldwide on Friday. The movie will follow the global superstar throughout her 56 shows from The Renaissance Tour that wrapped in October. It’s the second concert film from a music icon to hit theaters this year—Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour has earned nearly $250 million worldwide.

Cybertrucks are on their way: Tesla will hold a “Cybertruck delivery event” on Thursday at its factory in Austin to celebrate the first deliveries of its electric trucks. It shouldn’t be an overly lengthy event—the company said that only 10 trucks will be shipped that day. Elon Musk first announced the Cybertruck in 2019 and recently lamented, “We dug our own grave with Cybertruck.”

Everything else…

• Giving Tuesday is tomorrow.
• The market’s rally will be tested by inflation data released Thursday.
• Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will debate California Governor Gavin Newsom on Fox News on Thursday. Why? Unclear. Sean Hannity will serve as moderator.
• A set of six Argentina jerseys worn by Lionel Messi in last year’s World Cup will hit the auction block on Thursday. It could be the most valuable collection of sports memorabilia in history.

Stat: The US is now producing more crude oil than ever—13.2 million barrels per day, per the Energy Information Administration, topping the pre-Covid peak of 13.1 million. That copious amount is nearly double the volume from a decade ago and up from the ~5 million produced when Obama entered the White House, Bloomberg’s Steven Dennis points out. The US is the world’s largest oil producer by a country mile, accounting for 21% of global oil production in 2022. Saudi Arabia is in second place, at 13%.

Quote: “This is insane”

Elon Musk seemingly can’t comprehend what’s happening in Sweden. The country’s postal workers are refusing to deliver Tesla license plates, the latest action resulting from 130 mechanics who want their union recognized by the car company. Other workers in Sweden—where about nine out of 10 employees are union members—have supported the mechanics in ways that Musk may not consider sane: Along with the country’s postal workers, dockworkers are blocking Tesla deliveries to the country’s ports and electricians are no longer availing their services for Teslas.

Read: A doctor tried to renew his passport. Now, he’s no longer a citizen. (Washington Post)

DIY: The periodic table of tools.

Listen/watch: DJ sets in the world’s most magnificent places.

Naming help: This website helps you find bilingual baby names that appear in two languages or cultures.

Grape expectations: Your red wine headache may not be about quality or volume.

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