The last time this many Nordic people were battling one common enemy, they were wearing Gjermundbu helmets. Since October, Swedish workers and labor groups from neighboring countries have joined a growing strike against billionaire Elon Musk’s EV company, Tesla.

It all started on October 27, when about 130 mechanics walked off their jobs at 10 garages in Sweden after Tesla said it wouldn’t sign a collective bargaining agreement with the powerful Swedish union IF Metall. Musk is staunchly anti-organized labor, but almost 90% of workers in Sweden are covered by collective agreements.

Since the initial walk-off, several other Swedish unions have joined in solidarity strikes:

• One of Tesla’s Swedish vendors, Hydro Extrusions, said its workers will not make a component for the company.
• Unions representing workers who paint the cars, clean Tesla’s offices, and service 70 charging stations in the country have also dropped their paint brushes, vacuums, and…um, electric tester things… in solidarity.
• Postal workers stopped delivering license plates to Tesla. The company sued so it could bypass the mail and pick up the plates and registration numbers on its own. The lawsuit is still floating around the Swedish legal system, but an appeals court judge told Tesla “no <3” and more unions got mad that Musk was trying to go above their heads.
• Even the Swedish Transport Workers’ Union said it will cease picking up trash at all of the company’s workspaces in the country starting Sunday.

Also…dockworkers in Denmark aren’t unloading Teslas, and unions in Finland and Norway are preparing to stop business associated with the company if it doesn’t sign an agreement soon. Plus, 16 regional investors have written strongly worded letters to Tesla’s board, and PensionDanmark and Denmark’s teacher pension fund dumped a combined $100 million in Tesla stock. Tesla hasn’t responded publicly, but is hiring a “Nordics public policy” expert.

Looking ahead…this won’t be the last organized labor woe that Musk has to deal with. The United Auto Workers said last month it has plans to organize Tesla and other nonunionized carmakers across the US.—MM

Just last month, an iconic Picasso painting shattered expectations when it sold for a whopping $139m at auction. Impressive, considering it was purchased for around $1m in the late 1960s.

But there’s a surprising group of investors also celebrating this sale: 61k everyday users of one investment platform.

Why? Because that platform, Masterworks, enables anyone to invest in blue-chip paintings by artists like Picasso and Banksy for just a fraction of the cost. When Masterworks sells a painting, investors can get a return.

This way, not only the billionaires of the world can benefit from the art market.

As a special partner, Morning Brew readers can skip the waitlist to join here.

“Fat Leonard” included in US–Venezuela prisoner swap. Venezuela sent back to the US the former defense contractor known as “Fat Leonard”—who pleaded guilty to overcharging the US Navy by ~$35 million but cut off his ankle bracelet and fled to the South American nation while under house arrest—as part of a larger deal that represents improving relations between the countries. Under the arrangement, the US freed Alex Saab, an associate of Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro who was accused of money laundering, and Venezuela freed 10 American prisoners, many of whom the US considered wrongfully detained.

Warner Bros. and Paramount honchos in merger talks. In case the media landscape wasn’t looking consolidated enough for you, several publications reported yesterday (based on anonymous sources) that the two major players are in early merger discussions. Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav reportedly met with Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish to discuss the potential deal. Zaslav is also said to have spoken to Paramount Chair Shari Redstone, who is eager to sell the company to address its debt and has also considered other buyers. If the two media powerhouses reach a deal, it would likely face scrutiny from antitrust regulators.

Once high-flying Bird files for bankruptcy. The electric scooter company, which was once the fastest startup to reach a $1 billion valuation, sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection yesterday. Bird, founded in 2017, went public via SPAC in 2021 with a $2 billion value at its debut, but just a year later, it was already looking more like a sad scooter ditched by the side of the road with a $70 million value. It was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange in September after its share price dropped even further. The company hopes to use the bankruptcy process to sell off its assets. Bird said its Canadian and European units are not part of the bankruptcy and will operate normally.

The third-largest drugstore chain in America got in some hot water this week with federal regulators who claim Rite Aid never told customers that it was using facial recognition software on them while they bought batteries and Alka-Seltzer—or that the AI system was falsely flagging people as wrongdoers.

Rite Aid agreed yesterday not to use this technology for five years after the Federal Trade Commission accused the company of causing “emotional and reputational harm” to customers at some stores between 2012 and 2020. According to the FTC, Rite Aid’s facial recognition system…

• Incorrectly identified innocent customers as shoplifters thousands of times and, in one instance, prompted a search of an 11-year-old girl.
• Generated 900+ match alerts to one person’s picture in its database in 130 stores during a five-day period.
• Was mostly used in areas with large Black, Latino, and Asian communities, where it was also more likely to return false-positive matches.

Despite accepting the ban, Rite Aid said it disagrees with the FTC’s accusations and already stopped using the tech more than three years ago.

You’re being scanned…facial recognition is gaining ground in retail and at some events venues: Earlier this year, Madison Square Garden came under fire for using the tech to turn away lawyers involved in lawsuits against the company.—ML

A billionaire’s former gardener could be bequeathed a fortune, and he doesn’t even have to carry his employer up the slopes of Mount Doom to get it.

Nicolas Puech, a billionaire descendant of the founder of French luxury designer Hermès, is seeking to change the fate of his fortune by adopting his 51-year-old former gardener. The green-thumbed gentleman, if adopted, would stand to inherit at least half of Puech’s estimated $13 billion estate.

It’s a big if. Adult adoption laws in Switzerland, where they live, are strict and have complex requirements. Adoption aside, Puech’s plan faces legal obstacles from his own charity, the Isocrates Foundation, with which he has an inheritance contract. If Puech, who is not known to have children, were to suddenly adopt an heir, at least 50% of his Hermès shares would go to a son instead of the foundation, which called the potential move “void and unfounded.”

As for the why…many speculate that the unusual succession plan could have something to do with a yearslong corporate feud between Hermès and luxury conglomerate LVMH: According to Bloomberg, Puech became a family outcast for his role in the fight, which led to his leaving the board of Hermès and supposedly falling out with the rest of the fam. Neither Puech’s lawyer nor Hermès have commented on the matter.—CC

Stat: Houthi attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea have forced over $80 billion in cargo to be diverted and caused an oil price spike that pushed gas prices toward their biggest jump since August. But there’s a group the shipping route snarl has been good for: the shareholders of shipping companies. Bloomberg calculated that, as of yesterday, the combined value of the 47 largest shipping companies had risen by $22 billion since December 12, when the attacks became more prominent. With boats taking a longer route (and ditching the Red Sea, where insurance costs have soared), vessels will be in shorter supply even as customers maintain the same demand.

Quote: “When you think about traditional financing models, banks don’t really look at a startup elf company as being investment-worthy.”

It may be as big a part of Christmas as fighting with your mom while wearing matching pajamas now, but back in 2004, no one would publish The Elf on the Shelf. So, the family that created it racked up credit card debt, sold a house, and cashed in 401(k)s to fund the first 5,000 copies of the book and the dolls that report to Santa that went with them, Co-CEO Christa Pitts told Bloomberg. Their intuition that selling North Pole narcs would pay off was good: They’ve sold 21 million elf dolls globally, and their holiday empire is estimated to be worth at least $100 million, per Bloomberg.

Read: Inside the New York Times’s big bet on games. (Vanity Fair)

Watch: Why Coke tastes different at McDonald’s.

Do the math: Economists explain how rich Kevin’s family is in Home Alone. And here’s what their trip to Paris would cost today.

Travel tip: The bus stops in this Japanese town are all shaped like fruit.

Read: Authors pick their favorite books of 2023. Or get inspired by the New York Public Library’s most checked-out books.

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