Hopes of an NCIS x Nathan Fielder crossover series are more alive than ever.

On Wednesday, Axios reported that Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav met with Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish to discuss a potential merger of the two media conglomerates. Paramount, whose chairwoman Shari Redstone is reportedly shopping around for a buyer, has $15 billion in debt. Meanwhile, WBD, which has worked this year to reduce its own debt (now $45 billion), is apparently open to acquiring a rival like Paramount to better compete with Disney and Netflix.

A combination of WBD’s and Paramount’s streaming services could seriously shake up the streaming wars:

• Max and Discovery+, owned by Warner Bros., and Paramount+ have a combined 158 million subscribers, which would create the world’s second-biggest service, behind Netflix with 247 million subs, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• WBD would get the best of Paramount’s franchises, like Mission: Impossible, Terminator, and Star Trek, while Paramount users would have access to the DC universe, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings from Warner Bros. Discovery.
• Paramount would also fill a gaping hole in WBD’s programming: NFL rights.

But it’s still early

Even though US antitrust regulators have been saying “no deal” more than Howie Mandel lately, executives are confident a deal would go through, according to Axios. That’s primarily because WBD doesn’t own a broadcast network (Paramount owns CBS). But a merger would still come with scrutiny: The combined company could hold as much as 35%–40% of the linear TV market, per the Wall Street Journal.

Comcast might be in the mix, too…NBCUniversal (owned by Comcast) isn’t in merger discussions right now, but WBD’s talks with Paramount could be a tactic to draw out NBCU and see if it’s a better match, CNBC reported.

Zoom out: The two CEOs just met for lunch—no papers are signed yet. But if it goes through, the deal could headline a big comeback for M&A in 2024. With the Fed set to slash interest rates, mergers that have waited for a more stable economic environment are ready to bust out the gate.—CC

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US and Chinese militaries are on speaking terms again. For the first time in over a year yesterday, the highest-ranking US military officer, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke with his Chinese counterpart. The top brass hopped on a video call to discuss “global and regional security issues” and the need for lower-level talks. In 2022, China’s military stopped talking to the US in response to what it saw as a provocative trip to Taiwan taken by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. But President Biden and China’s leader, Xi Jinping, recently met in San Francisco and agreed that the two superpower militaries should resume talking regularly to diffuse tensions.

A deadly mass shooting shook the Czech Republic. A student at Charles University in Prague killed at least 14 people and injured dozens more yesterday. He’s also suspected of killing his father earlier in the day and two other people last week. Students were told to barricade themselves in classrooms, and some had to crouch on a ledge to escape the shooter. Police sealed the area and said the perpetrator had been “eliminated.” The interior minister called the devastating violence unprecedented in the country, which has a low gun crime rate. Authorities said that the gunman might have been inspired by a shooting in Russia earlier this year.

There might be a problem with your Honda. The Japanese carmaker said yesterday that it’s recalling 22 Honda and Acura models released between 2017 and 2020 over a faulty fuel pump impeller. The component helps deliver gas to the engine, and a defective one might cause a car to stall or fail to start, though Honda says it has not received any reports of crashes or injuries related to the issue. Still, the problem means 2.5 million vehicles in the US will be recalled. Affected vehicle owners can get their fuel pump replaced free of charge once the automaker starts sending notices in February.

Angola is taking its oil and going solo. The African nation said it was leaving the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) yesterday, becoming the latest on a growing list of countries ditching the Saudi-led club as its power wanes.

Why? Angola, which was one of OPEC’s largest African oil producers, got pretty peeved at the cartel when it cut Angola’s oil output quota by 25% in November.

Big picture: OPEC wants to be able to throttle production or slam its foot on the…gas whenever necessary to maximize oil profits, so it needs oil-producing bigwigs. With Angola’s departure, the group is down to 12 members (an additional 11 ally countries comprise OPEC+, which Brazil will join next year).

Recently, oil prices have been hovering around $75 per barrel (they dropped $1 after Angola announced its departure, before regaining some), even after the cartel lowered production to try to boost prices, upsetting some members. Indonesia, Ecuador, and Qatar have all left the group in the last seven years.

OPEC’s power is ebbing. The group only controls ~51% of the world’s crude oil market share, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the lowest since it expanded in 2016 to include OPEC+ countries. And countries outside of OPEC and OPEC+ are filling the gaps as the organization pulls back. The US Energy Information Administration said US crude oil output hit a record 13.3 million barrels per day last week. Plus, the market is shrinking as the world turns to greener alternatives. Oil demand is expected to peak before 2030, according to the IEA.—MM

A $4 billion plan to create a new elite soccer league across the pond may be getting a second wind, thanks to a fresh court ruling that’s essentially the legal version of letting your younger sibling come, too.

ICYMI…in 2021, a dozen of the best soccer clubs in Europe announced they would join the new European Super League—a high-paying competitor to the UEFA Champions League—but many of them quickly backed out after widespread public disapproval. UEFA and FIFA threatened to sanction clubs participating in the Super League, effectively killing it…

…until now. The European Court of Justice ruled yesterday that UEFA and FIFA acted unlawfully by restricting clubs’ movements in 2021 and that they can’t forbid new competition from forming. The company behind the Super League, A22, then released an updated plan to…

• Replace the Champions League with a 64-club men’s competition and a 32-club women’s competition.
• Stream the Super League for free on a new platform that would make money from advertising, premium subscriptions, and sponsorships.

Many clubs have responded with sarcastic encouragement for the new league’s second attempt, as fans remain united against the idea. It’s not without its supporters, though: Spanish juggernauts Real Madrid and Barcelona are backing the venture.

Not on his watch. Yesterday, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak vowed to ban Premier League clubs from joining the Super League.—ML

Stat: You won’t be subjected to more Travis Kelce ads during Saturday’s NFL game on Peacock—at least not in the fourth quarter. The NFL and the NBCUniversal-owned streaming platform promise a completely commercial-free final quarter for the game between the Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Chargers, a first in league history. The ad-free finale means the game will have about 40% fewer ads than normal and an additional 12 minutes of “game-related content,” per Adweek. Peacock, which will be fine with losing out on the ad revenue if it can convert viewers into paying subscribers, recently ponied up $110 million for the exclusive rights to a Jan. 13 playoff game, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Quote: “Duplicative language without appropriate attribution.”

Most people would just call that plagiarism, but Harvard is not most people. That’s the language the elite university used to describe issues with the 1997 doctoral dissertation of its president, Claudine Gay. Plagiarism allegations were surfaced by conservative critics following Gay’s controversial appearance before Congress earlier this month to discuss antisemitism on college campuses. Harvard stood by Gay after that fiasco and reaffirmed its support amid this newer scandal, promising that the president “will update her dissertation correcting these instances of inadequate citation.”

Read: The new American Dream is to get MrBeast to pay off your debt. (TechCrunch)

The feeling of getting a 5/5 on the Brew’s final News Quiz of the year has been compared to closing your laptop one final time before the holiday break.

It’s that satisfying. Ace the quiz.

Watch: Good Work investigates why the Winklevii are in court again.

Bonus watch: It’s the holiday season, which means it’s time to re-up that gum commercial that made everyone cry.

Contain yourself: A deep dive into the office cubicle’s big comeback.

Tour de shame: A list of the world’s worst tourists of 2023.

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