We might all have to start watching Instagram Reels in earnest. A three-judge federal appeals court denied TikTok’s petition yesterday to overturn the sell-or-ban law that President Joe Biden signed earlier this year.

Politicians on both sides of the aisle have been hemming and hawing about TikTok poisoning the youth for a while, but in April, Biden signed a bill requiring TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app to a US company or face a ban.

• Lawmakers cited national security concerns, claiming that the company could hand over data on its 170 million US users to the Chinese government.
• TikTok’s lawyers say the law violates freedom of speech—an argument that the most recent court decision rejected.

Trump’s TikTok takes: The ban is expected to go into effect on Jan.19, 2025, just one day before Donald Trump’s inauguration. Trump tried to ban the app with an executive order during his first term, but has since changed his tune, saying he would fight to protect the app in order to prevent Meta’s Facebook from getting more business. Still, members of his proposed cabinet are split over supporting the ban.

TikTok has two options

Sell before the deadline. This may be the most unlikely option, as the company has said many times that even if it wanted to, Beijing would stop the sale (it’s China’s most successful app globally). Plus, the cost of the app could be $200+ billion, and any buyers with that much cash would have a hard time fitting it into their portfolio without antitrust problems.

Fight. TikTok has promised to appeal the latest decision, hoping to let SCOTUS make the decision. “The Supreme Court has an established historical record of protecting Americans’ right to free speech,” a spokesperson for the company said after yesterday’s ruling. But even if the Supreme Court hears the case, there’s a possibility it ultimately punts TikTok’s fate to the incoming commander-in-chief.—MM

The labor market rebounded with 227,000 new jobs. Following October’s hurricane- and strike-affected hiring slowdown, the market bounced back in November by adding 227,000 jobs, which beat estimates. The data confirmed that the measly 12,000 jobs added in October (revised up to a 36,000 gain) were the result of costly strikes and natural disasters cutting into job growth—and not a worrying overall trend. Analysts expect that the positive report all but guarantees the Fed will slash interest rates again later this month.

The USDA ordered milk testing for bird flu. Companies that handle raw milk, like bulk transporters and dairy processors, must comply with the Department of Agriculture’s mandate, NBC News reported. More than 700 herds across 15 states have been affected by the H5N1 strain, which scientists say could pose a risk to humans. Testing will start Dec. 16 in California, Colorado, Michigan, Mississippi, Oregon, and Pennsylvania.

Fallout from the UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting. As police continue to search for the suspect, executives across the US are reportedly on edge, while companies are upping security for their leaders. Allied Universal, which provides security for 80% of Fortune 500 companies, said its phones are “ringing off the hook,” the New York Times reported. Meanwhile, several healthcare companies, including CVS, have removed executives’ images and bios from their websites. On UnitedHealth Group’s official Facebook post about CEO Brian Thompson’s murder, the majority of users reacted with the laughter emoji.—AE

The venn diagram of Trump Administration 2.0 and Forbes 400 is basically a circle. Trump has nominated at least 10 billionaires (or billionaire spouses) to cabinet positions and other top roles, making the incoming presidential team the wealthiest in history.

Just his cabinet nominees are collectively worth more than $9 billion, according to New York Magazine. Though Biden’s cabinet is also a moneyed persons club, its wealth amounted to just $118 million in 2021, per Forbes.

Loaded lot

To name just a few of Trump’s staff picks who won’t have trouble renting in DC:

• Education Secretary nominee Linda McMahon shares a $3.2 billion fortune with her husband, WWE founder Vince McMahon.
• The prospective US Ambassador to France, Charles Kushner, is a real estate tycoon worth $2.9 billion—and the father of Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
• Entrepreneur-turned-astronaut Jared Isaacman, who’s nominated to head NASA, has $1.8 billion.

And while not officially part of the administration, the world’s wealthiest person, Elon Musk (worth $348 billion), will co-head the newly formed “Department of Government Efficiency” with biotech billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy.

Looking ahead: Details of potential conflicts of interests, and the exact bank balances of Trump’s picks—like the Treasury Secretary nominee Scott Bessent, a prominent hedge fund manager with unknown finances—will crystallize as they file public financial disclosures due soon after their nominations become official.—SK

What doesn’t burn you down completely makes you shinier: After more than five years of construction, France’s Notre Dame Cathedral officially reopens today, looking more pristine than before the 2019 fire that wrecked it.

Centuries of soot, gone. Restoring the treasured building required cleaning every surface that got contaminated by the melted lead roof. Workers wiped so much age-old grime off the walls and ceiling that it looks like a whole new “cream-colored” building inside, Patrick Sisson wrote for Fast Company.

Dozens of world leaders, including First lady Jill Biden and President-elect Donald Trump, are expected in Paris today for Notre Dame’s move-that-bus moment, which French President Emmanuel Macron managed to deliver, thanks to:

• Nearly $1 billion in donations, largely from the families behind French luxury titans including LVMH, Gucci-parent Kering, and L’Oreal.
• About 2,000 architects, historians, and trade workers who used laser scans and traditional building techniques to reconstruct everything from the iconic 315-foot spire to the roof, gargoyles, and 1,200 trees worth of support beams.

Modern twists: The attic got a new misting system, Paris 2024 Olympics organizers donated one of three new bells, and there’s a controversial contest to design one of the cathedral’s stained-glass panels.

Looking ahead…the renovation cost about $740 million, so Notre Dame has leftover money for its next phase of restoration—preserving structural integrity.—ML

“It’s almost a certainty this property will experience a flood” is not what you want to hear a flood expert say about your new $295 million coastal compound. Then again, if you are buying a $295 million coastal compound, you probably don’t care.

That dilemma will face whoever buys nine-acre Gordon Pointe, the Naples, Florida, palace that’s believed to be the most expensive property for sale in the US, the Guardian reported. It’s surrounded by water on three sides, sports its own yacht berth, and has 24 bathrooms. But all those toilets will be for naught when it floods...which it will. According to the nonprofit flood analysis group First Street Foundation, Gordon Pointe has a 68% chance of flooding in the next 15 years and a 95% chance in the next 30 years. One expert told the Guardian that insurance for the property is likely to cost seven figures annually, due to the risk of climate-related disasters. But that’s par for the course for Florida, where home insurance was already the costliest in the country before rising 42% last year.—AE