Donald Trump sued the Des Moines Register and its now-retired pollster, Ann Selzer, on Monday, alleging that her off-the-mark November election poll constituted “election interference.” The suit is the latest instance of the president-elect and his allies taking news outlets to court over content he finds objectionable.

Brought under a state law prohibiting deceptive ads, the lawsuit claims that the Nov. 2 survey showing Kamala Harris 3 points ahead of Trump in a state he ended up winning by 13 points was meant to harm him. The newspaper said the lawsuit is without merit.

Though legal scholar Clay Calvert told NBC News that the odds of Trump prevailing in this case are “slim to none,” he said the president-elect is likely pursuing it as part of a strategy to intimidate the media.

Rare Trump v. media win

Earlier this week, ABC News made the surprise move of settling out of court a defamation lawsuit Trump brought against it by agreeing to give $15 million to his future presidential foundation:

• Trump had sued over anchor George Stephanopoulos saying on air that the former president was “found liable for rape” in New York (technically, a jury found Trump liable for sexually assaulting journalist E. Jean Carroll).
• First Amendment scholars argue that to win in court, Trump would’ve needed to clear a high legal bar of proving that the network knowingly published false defamatory statements, or was reckless with fact-checking.

The settlement unsettled media law experts, who worry that it’ll embolden Trump—who has lost several libel lawsuits against news organizations in the past—to keep suing, creating a chilling effect, per the Financial Times.

Other media outlets defending against Trump…include CBS, which he recently sued for $10 billion, claiming it edited its preelection 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris to deceive voters. Meanwhile, a lawyer for Trump’s defense secretary pick, Pete Hegseth, warned the New Yorker and Vanity Fair of potential legal action over forthcoming articles describing his allegedly troubled past (including details he denies), the New York Times reported.—SK

Ukraine says it assassinated a top Russian general. Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, a senior commander accused of using chemical weapons against Ukrainian troops, was killed by a bomb hidden in a scooter outside a residential building in Moscow yesterday, officials said. The explosion also killed his assistant. A day before the assassination, Ukraine brought charges against Kirillov, accusing him of war crimes. Russia called the killing a “terrorist act.” Kirillov is the highest-ranking Russian official to be killed inside Russia since the country invaded Ukraine in 2022.

The FTC banned hidden concert and hotel fees. If FTC Chair Lina Khan is going to do anything before she’s replaced next year, you can bet on it being a junk fees crackdown. In a 4-to-1 vote yesterday, the Federal Trade Commission passed a rule requiring ticket sellers and hotels to disclose total prices upfront, following the establishment of similar rules for airlines and credit cards earlier this year (though those have been held up in court). According to the FTC, the rule would save US consumers 53 million hours of sifting through websites to find out the true costs of their purchases. Andrew Ferguson, President-elect Trump’s pick to replace Khan as chair, was the only objector.

🚙 Honda and Nissan are reportedly discussing a merger. The Japanese automakers—the eighth- and ninth-largest in the world, respectively—are considering joining forces, Japan’s Nikkei reported. The move would largely be made to better compete with Tesla and Chinese companies in the EV market. A combined Honda-Nissan would also challenge Toyota as the top manufacturer in Japan. Any deal could reportedly be expanded to include another Japanese automaker, Mitsubishi.—AE

A spunky CEO, a beloved product, and a cheeky billboard: That’s how software company Databricks became one of the most valuable private companies in the world. This week, it raised $10 billion—one of the largest fundraising rounds in Silicon Valley history—that values the company at $62 billion.

What’s Databricks? Your favorite company’s favorite company. Databricks software enables companies to sift through vast data that needs more sophisticated analysis than a Google Sheets pivot table. It’s used by a range of corporations, from Walgreens to the MLB’s Texas Rangers, and it’s beloved by engineers—many of whom say they couldn’t do what they do without it.

How it got here: Databricks has become Silicon Valley royalty under CEO Ali Ghodsi, who’s implemented a cost-cutting strategy and made a series of successful acquisitions:

• It had 60% year over year revenue growth last quarter.
• The company expects over $3 billion in annualized revenue for the fiscal year ending in January.

What’s next? Opinions are mixed on whether Databricks will go public now that it’s received a cool $10 billy from big-name VC backers like Andreessen Horowitz and Thrive Capital. But it’s setting itself up well: The cash will be used to buy back employees’ company shares and offset the taxes, a key to retaining big talent.—CC

There are fewer barriers than ever to making your own chicken quesadilla in a Taco Bell Cantina. The chain announced it will introduce chicken nuggets to its menu tomorrow, and while no one is trying to argue that the restaurant serving Doritos Locos tacos is authentic Mexican cuisine, the addition is a little out of character.

The nuggets—only available for a limited time—are marinated in jalapeño buttermilk flavor and then coated in a mixture of breadcrumbs and tortilla chips. They come with the choice of three dipping sauces: jalapeño-infused honey mustard, spicy ranch, or a chile tomato “Bell Sauce.”

All in on poultry. Taco Bell isn’t just trying to score a spot on the never-ending barrage of nugget ranking lists. The company said its younger customers want nuggies. After ripping the OG shredded chicken soft tacos from our sauce-stained hands in 2020, Taco Bell debuted its “Chicken Cantina Menu” last year, and now 1 in 4 orders includes an item from that menu, it said.

Big picture: As beef prices continue to climb, fast-food chains are relying heavily on chicken as a cheaper alternative. The amount of chicken products eaten at the drive-thru behemoths has grown 11% since 2019, according to market research firm Circana.

Watch: Craving more on the chicken wars? We’ve got the video for you.—MM

If your only frame of reference for a cabbie’s mental state is Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver, you’re in for a surprise. Just 1% of operators of the yellow vehicles die from Alzheimer’s, compared with about 4% of the general population, according to a new study reported on by Stat News. Experts attribute this to drivers’ navigation skills, which exercise the part of the brain that’s one of the first to break down from the disease (the hippocampus).

But it’s unclear if this phenomenon will last, as cab drivers increasingly rely on GPS instead of their own ability to find the fastest way across town during rush hour. Per the study, people in jobs that use predetermined routes—like pilots and bus drivers—do not have lower rates of Alzheimer’s.—AE