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Welcome to exhausted America 2025: Most adults are more than a little fine with doling out cash as gifts, and many plan to be asleep before midnight on New Year’s Eve, according to a new AP-NORC poll. About 6 in 10 Americans say cash or gift cards are very acceptable as holiday presents, but theyre much less likely to say that about a gift that was purchased secondhand or re-gifted, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Cash is OK for the grandkids I guess, said Nancy Wyant, 73, in rural central Iowa. But Im a gift giver. Come New Year’s Eve, she’ll be fast asleep before 2026 rolls around. At our age, we don’t do anything, the retired bus driver said with a laugh of herself and her live-in partner. Hes set in his ways. They’ll be joined by the 44% of Americans who say they wont stay up to greet 2026, according to the poll. About half of U.S. adults age 45 or older wont make it to midnight, compared with around one-third of adults under age 45. Consider 23-year-old Otis Phillips in Seattle, an outlier for his age. He, too, will turn in early. Its one of the holidays that doesnt really feel special to me, said the master’s student. Most say cash makes an acceptable holiday gift Cash is a safer gift for younger adults. The poll found about two-thirds of Americans under 45 say cash is a very acceptable holiday gift, compared with 55% of adults age 45 or older. Everythings too expensive nowadays. And I dont want to go buy a gift for somebody and then it turns out they dont like it. So cash, said Gabriel Antonucci, 26, a ski resort cook in Alaska, about an hour outside of Anchorage. Most people at least grudgingly accept various gift types, with about 9 in 10 saying cash or gift cards are at least somewhat acceptable and about 6 in 10 saying the same for secondhand gifts and re-gifted items. Teresa Pedroza, a 55-year-old mom of two adult sons in central Florida, is mostly not on board. I don’t like it when kids say they want cash, or I should get teenagers gift cards, she said. It kind of takes some of the charm away from gift giving. But she acknowledged reaching for cards a time or two out of convenience. About three-quarters of adults under age 45 say secondhand gifts are at least somewhat acceptable, compared with about 6 in 10 adults age 45 or older. About 4 in 10 adults age 45 or older say secondhand gifts are somewhat or very unacceptable. Many keep holiday decor up beyond the new year It’s not just your pesky neighbors who leave their holiday decorations up into January. About one-third of U.S. adults say theyll leave them up after New Years Day. Its more common for people to leave their decorations up after the holiday season than to put them up early, according to the poll. About 2 in 10 Americans say they put up holiday decorations before Thanksgiving. I just had my husband bring down the bins. If we werent expecting company, I wouldnt even bother to decorate, honestly. Im tired of doing that, said Pedroza, the Florida mom of two. Many will celebrate Christmas Day with sports About one-quarter of U.S. adults say theyre planning to watch sports on Christmas Day, while only 5% will head for a movie theater. Men are much likelier than women to say theyll watch sports on Christmas, and older Americans are much more likely than younger Americans to tune in. About 2 in 10 adults under age 45 say they plan to watch sports on Christmas, compared with about 3 in 10 adults age 45 or older. Phillips does plan to break out his red sweater with the green Christmas tree that one of his grandmothers knitted for him a couple of years ago. She made all kinds of things for me growing up, he said. This is by far my favorite. Phillips has it in rotation for his part-time job as a grocery checkout clerk. He’s the outlier once again. Women are much likelier than men to say theyll wear a holiday sweater or accessories. Gifts for pets and Elf on the Shelf About 3 in 10 U.S. adults say they will give a gift to their pet this year. In Iowa, Wyant’s nearly 3-year-old boxer-Great Dane mix named Indy is among them. She’s a very spoiled dog, Wyant said. Shes got too many toys, so she’s getting treats this year. She loves her treats. And the red felt elf that parents move around the house every night as a Santa spy to see which kids have been naughty or nice? Only about 1 in 10 U.S. adults say theyll do Elf on the Shelf. Noooo, Pedroza said when asked if she’d ever done the elf for her kids. My younger son was very well-behaved. I didn’t have to use any kind of tactics. ___ The AP-NORC poll of 1,146 adults was conducted Dec. 4-8 using a sample drawn from NORCs probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 4 percentage points. By Leanne Italie and Amelia Thomson-Deveaux, Associated Press
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Warner Bros. is telling shareholders of the company that it believes a $72 billion buyout offer from Netflix is superior, and to reject a hostile takeover bid from Paramount Skydance. Paramount went hostile with its bid last week, asking shareholders to reject the deal with Netflix favored by the board of Warner Bros. Paramount is offering $30 per Warner share, or $77.9 billion, to Netflixs $27.75 per share. A Warner Bros. merger with either company would alter the landscape in Hollywood and will face intense scrutiny from U.S. regulators as it would impact movie making, consumer streaming platforms, and, in Paramounts case, a major source of news for millions of people. The competing offers set the stage for combining some of the most beloved entertainment properties. Netflixs vast library includes Stranger Things and Squid Game,” while the much smaller Paramount owns its Hollywood studio and major TV networks like CBS and MTV. Both covet Warner, which owns Warner Bros. Pictures, HBO, and the Harry Potter franchise. “Whichever media company, if any, ultimately secures (Warner), controls the calculus of the streaming wars and so much more, said Mike Proulx, vice president and research director at research firm Forrester. Both offers will face regulatory scrutiny, an issue President Donald Trump has already weighed in on. Here’s what to know about the three players and what the bids mean for the entertainment industry. A look at the offers CEO David Zaslav has been seeking offers for Warner Bros. Discovery since at least October, when he said the company might be open to selling all or parts of its business. Paramount said Monday it had submitted six proposals to Warner over a 12 week period before its offer was rejected in favor of Netflix. So Paramount decided to go straight to Warner shareholders with a bid it says is worth about $79.9 billion, or $30 per share in cash. Paramount, unlike Netflix, is also offering to buy the cable assets of Warner, and asking shareholders of the company to reject the Netflix bid. Paramount CEO Larry Ellison said the offer is worth about $18 billion more in cash than the competing cash-and-stock bid from Netflix. The Paramount deal includes help from investors such as Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner and funds controlled by the governments of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, according to a regulatory filing. Netflix is offering a combination of cash and stock valued at $27.75 per Warner share. Its offer values Warner at $72 billion, excluding debt, but it is not bidding on Warner-owned networks such as CNN and Discovery. Before Paramount’s bid, the Netflix deal was expected to close in the next 12 to 18 months, after Warner completes its previously announced separation of its cable operations. Competing bids make an eventual deal more likely Matthew Dolgin, senior equity analyst at research firm Morningstar, said there are still many unknowns, including whether Netflix will now sweeten its bid. But, he said, a competing offer makes it more likely that Warner will eventually be acquired. With Paramount now also being involved formally with an offer to shareholders, its even more likely to us that Warner gets acquired, because its no longer a single decision that may or may not hinge on regulatory approval, he said. Shareholders have until Jan. 8, 2026, to vote on Paramounts tender offer. Donald Trump weighed in earlier Another wild card could be President Trump. He already weighed in on the deal, saying that the Netflix offer to buy Warner could be a problem because of the size of the potential size of the audience. The Republican president said he will be involved in the decision about whether the federal government should approve the deal. Paramount’s CEO is the son of Oracle founder Larry Ellison, an ally of Trump. Federal regulators under Trump approved Paramounts $8 billion merger with Skydance in July. Regulatory scrutiny awaits either deal On the Netflix offer, state or federal regulators could be most concerned about the massive size of a combined Netflix and Warner subscription service, said Morningstar’s Dolgin. Netflix is already the worlds largest streaming service. That’s less of a concern with the Paramount deal, because its streaming service is smaller and has as smaller international footprint than Netflix. But regulators may raise red flags over the combination of the Paramount and Warner film and television studios, because relatively few of those remain, Dolgin said. A pattern of media acquisitions As streaming platforms have matured, more media companies are seeking growth through acquisitions. Warner Bros. Discovery itself was created in 2022 when U.S. telecom giant AT&T Inc. spun off and then combined its WarnerMedia operations with Discovery Inc. In 2021, Amazon said it would buy MGM, the movie and TV studio behind James Bond, Legally Blonde and Shark Tank.” Disney bought Fox’s entertainment service in 2019. Technology always faces this pattern of startups, lots of different players, legacy companies getting in on the action, and then ultimately lots of consolidation, said Forrester’s Proulx. And this is the state that were in right now in the streamng wars saga, and in 2026 well see continued consolidation. Mae Anderson, AP business writer
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China is exploiting partnerships with U.S. researchers funded by the Department of Energy to provide the Chinese military with access to sensitive nuclear technology and other innovations with economic and national security applications, according to a congressional report published Wednesday. The authors of the report say the U.S. must do more to protect high-tech research and ensure that the results of taxpayer-funded work don’t end up benefiting Beijing. They recommended several changes to better protect scientific research in the U.S., including new policies for the Department of Energy to use when deciding whether to fund work that involves Chinese partnerships. The investigation is part of a congressional push to raise a firewall blocking U.S. research from boosting China’s military buildup when the two countries are locked in a tech and arms rivalry that will shape the future global order. Investigators from the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and the House Committee on Education and the Workforce identified more than 4,300 academic papers published between June 2023 and June of this year that involved collaborations between DOE-funded scientists and Chinese researchers. About half of the papers involved Chinese researchers affiliated with China’s military or industrial base. Particularly concerning, investigators found that federal funds went to research collaborations with Chinese state-owned laboratories and universities that work directly for Chinas military, including some listed in a Pentagon database of Chinese military companies with operations in the U.S. The report also detailed collaborations between U.S. researchers and groups blamed for cyberattacks as well as human rights abuses in China. The Energy Department routinely funds advanced research into nuclear energy and the development and disposal of nuclear weaponry, along with a long list of other high-tech fields like quantum computing, materials science and physics. It doles out hundreds of millions of dollars each year for research. The department oversees 17 national laboratories that have led the development in many technologies. The report followed a number of congressional investigations into federally funded research involving Chinese scientists and researchers. Last year, a report released by Republicans found that partnerships between U.S. and Chinese universities over the past decade had allowed hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding to help Beijing develop critical technology that could help strengthen its military. Another investigation this year revealed that the Pentagon in a recent two-year period funded hundreds of projects in collaboration with Chinese entities linked to China’s defense industry. The Energy Department has failed for decades to take steps to ensure the research it funds doesn’t benefit China, the report’s authors found. They made several recommendations to tighten the rules, including a new standardized approach to assessing the national security risks of research, as well as requirements that the department share information about research ties with China with other U.S. government agencies to make it easier to spot problems. These longstanding policy failures and inaction have left taxpayer-funded research vulnerable to exploitation by Chinas defense research and industrial base and state-directed technology transfer activities, the authors concluded. The Department of Energy did not immediately respond to questions about the report and its recommendations. A message seeking comment was left with the Chinese Embassy in Washington. Rep. John Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican who chairs the select committee, said in a statement that the investigation reveals a deeply alarming problem: The Department of Energy failed to ensure the security of its research and it put American taxpayers on the hook for funding the military rise of our nations foremost adversary. Moolenaar this year introduced legislation aimed at preventing research funding in science and technology and defense from going to collaborations or partnerships with foreign adversary-controlled entities that pose a national security risk. The legislation cleared the House but failed to advance to become part of the annual sweeping defense policy bill. It was met with strong opposition from scientists and researchers, who argued that the measures were too broad and could chill collaboration and undermine America’s competitive edge in science and technology. In an October letter, a group of more than 750 faculty members and senior staffers from American universities told congressional leaders overseeing the armed services that the U.S. is in a global competition for talent. They called for very careful and targeted measures for risk management” to address security concerns. David Klepper and Didi Tang, Associated Press
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