A Day for Games

Here are a few you can play during the holidays.

When you look back on 2024, who comes to mind?

That’s the question my colleagues considered when they put together the latest edition of The Times’s annual Faces quiz. So far, a majority of Times readers recognized 36 out of 52 faces. See if you can beat that.

Some of the faces will be unmistakable for regular readers of The Morning. For others, it might help to ask a friend or a family member for help. (Or perhaps this has the makings of a good end-of-year competition: The loser bakes the winner a holiday treat.)

As a bonus, we asked readers to tell us the people they think we should have included in the Faces quiz. Here are the 12 most frequently mentioned figures. See how many you can name; the answers are at the bottom of the newsletter.

If you want more of a challenge, you’re in luck. We made three “hard mode” rounds of the Faces quiz for readers who want to test their knowledge of muckety-mucks in politics, sports and culture.

More games

• Another game worth checking out is How Fast Is That Going? In that quiz, we ask you to guess the speed in eight sports featured at the Olympics in Paris.
• The Times also unveiled a new daily game this year: Strands. It is a word search with a twist. Each puzzle has a “spangram” hidden inside it that describes the theme of the rest of the words. Try it out.
• If you prefer something more ruminative, consider the 10-Minute Challenge. All it requires is that you look at one piece of art for 10 minutes, uninterrupted, and see what you learn from it.
• Finally, I want to recommend this week’s Flashback history quiz. It’s a regular Times feature where you place notable events in chronological order, and this week’s quiz has a holiday twist.

THE LATEST NEWS

Politics

• A House Ethics Committee report accused Matt Gaetz, the former representative, of paying for sex, using illegal drugs and having sexual relations with a 17-year-old. Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing. (Here are five key points from the committee’s report.)
• Bill Clinton was hospitalized after developing a fever.
• Donald Trump has suggested in recent days that he wants to bring Greenland and the Panama Canal under American control.
• A pro-Trump group tried to persuade infrequent voters to turn out this year, and data from Arizona suggests the effort there worked.

International

• Bangladeshi students helped oust the government. Now they’re trying to rebuild a democracy.
• Women in Syria are searching for their missing sons in prisons and morgues. See photos from inside Syria.
• Britain’s House of Lords still has several dozen members who inherited their seats. That’s due to change next year. Meet one of the men who will be losing power.

Business

• President Biden will decide whether Japan’s Nippon Steel should be allowed to buy U.S. Steel, after a committee split on the question. He’s expected to block the deal.
• Baristas at Starbucks stores in the Los Angeles, Seattle and Chicago areas are due to finish a strike today, the union said.
• Honda and Nissan are considering joining forces. Previous auto industry mergers offer warnings.
• Elon Musk is trying to create a town in Texas. Nearly all residents are renters and SpaceX employees.

Other Big Stories

• Luigi Mangione, who is charged with killing UnitedHealthcare’s chief executive, pleaded not guilty in his first court appearance in New York.
• A suspect was charged in the fatal burning of a woman on the New York subway. He is a 33-year-old from Guatemala who is in the United States illegally.
• Haitian workers helped make a warehouse in central Ohio one of the most productive Amazon sites in the U.S. Many now fear they will have to leave the country.
• In California, part of the Santa Cruz wharf collapsed in high surf.
• Newly released video and reports indicate that sheriff’s deputies in California missed signs before a detainee hanged himself.

• Research finds that vaccines are not behind the rise in autism. So what is?

Opinions

We need a more engaged citizenry to defend against authoritarianism, Robert Rubin writes.

Here is a column by Margaret Renkl on our love for babies.

MORNING READS

White Christmas: Will you get snow this year? Check our map.

Her 363rd kill: New York City has a secret weapon in the war on rats — Katie the dog.

Sanitarium: A day inside a radioactive spa in Tajikistan where bathers steep in water naturally infused with radon.

Ask Vanessa: “Will there ever be true size diversity in fashion?”

Lives Lived: When the Museum of Modern Art in New York was planning a major expansion in 1997, Yoshio Taniguchi seemed like a long shot to be the architect. But he won the job, and it gained him international attention. He died at 87.

SPORTS

N.F.L.: The Packers beat the Saints, 34-0, in the first shutout across the league this season.

Women’s basketball: The W.N.B.A. superstar Sabrina Ionescu agreed to join Unrivaled, a new winter women’s basketball league that tips off in January.

N.B.A.: Joel Embiid, the 76ers center, was ejected for arguing a charge call.

ARTS AND IDEAS

Gone are the days of “Coexist” or “Free Tibet” — bumper stickers are getting weirder and more ironic. Frog Mustard is among the most prolific creators of absurd bumper stickers. The company’s recent popular items: stickers that read “On my way to get a lobotomy” and “I’m pro-sexualizing the green M&M and I vote!”

More on culture

• Marv, the bandit from “Home Alone,” is popular on TikTok.
• Teddy Blanks has become Hollywood’s go-to font designer. He created titles for “Barbie” and “Wicked.”
• In New York, celebrities all eat at the same restaurants because the management knows how to make them happy. Read how some places do it.
• L.G.B.T.Q. issues played a divisive role in the election. But queer entertainers like Chappell Roan and Billie Eilish were popular both online and offline this year.

THE MORNING RECOMMENDS …

Cook bacon in the oven for a crowd.

Pack formal clothing properly.

Turn simple cakes into showstoppers with a Bundt pan.

Eat some good tinned fish.

GAMES

Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was downhill.

And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands.

Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow.

The answers to today’s bonus Faces quiz are: 1. Gisèle Pelicot; 2. Taylor Swift; 3. Volodymyr Zelensky; 4. Luigi Mangione; 5. Shohei Ohtani; 6. President Biden; 7. Snoop Dogg; 8. Emmanuel Macron; 9. Keir Starmer; 10. Vladimir Putin; 11. Justin Trudeau; 12. Travis Kelce.

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