The Wall Street Journal

Welcome back. In today's edition we hear from employees coming to terms with the fact that they might never work from home again. Plus, the drugs that young bankers use to get through their days—and nights.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo says investment, more than export controls, will keep the U.S. ahead of China.

While Russia is mass-producing machinery at state-owned industries, Ukraine has spawned hundreds of entrepreneur-led defense startups by slashing regulation and cutting taxes.

Four Americans reveal how they live on pensions after retirement.

Two U.S. Navy pilots ejected from their jet fighter over the Red Sea after being caught in “an apparent case of friendly-fire,” U.S. Central Command said.

The EU opened a formal investigation into TikTok over concerns foreign actors used it to interfere in Romanian presidential elections.

🔗: https://trib.al/9vavMSa At a recent Gamblers Anonymous meeting in New York, Mitch, a suburban dad of three, stood in front of more than a dozen members in a church basement. He is haunted by the rising price of bitcoin—and the riches that could have been his, he said. Up around 40% since Election Day, bitcoin prices are on a wild ride. What would have happened, he wondered out loud, if he had just left his bitcoin in a digital wallet and handed it over to his wife? Then he reminded himself and the group that he was never able to just buy and hold. “I needed more and more,” Mitch told the group. “I’m a sick, compulsive gambler. That’s why I keep making these meetings. I don’t trust myself.” One attendee told him to stop eyeing cryptocurrency prices. Another reminded him of the toll trading had taken on his family and asked: “What’s more important, crypto or your kids?” Doctors and counselors say they are seeing more cases of compulsive gambling in financial markets, or an uncontrollable urge to bet. They expect the problem to worsen. Some who are desperate to stop trading are turning to self-help groups like Gamblers Anonymous. More than 30 people interviewed by The Wall Street Journal, many of whom regularly attend GA meetings, shared their struggles with compulsive gambling in financial markets. Read more: https://trib.al/9vavMSa

The ways dismiss workers are evolving during another season of end-of-year layoffs. Some employers no longer feel obligated to deliver bad news face to face, or even over a Zoom call. A pink slip can come via a text message and email. 🔗: https://trib.al/f9YJ2CA

🔗: https://trib.al/3kb7gfE James Bond’s latest foe: Amazon. Nearly three years after Amazon acquired the right to release Bond movies through its $6.5 billion purchase of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio, the relationship between the family that oversees the franchise and the e-commerce giant has all but collapsed. When it comes to Bond’s future, the power lies in the hands of Barbara Broccoli, who inherited the control from her father, Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, and who for 30 years has decided when a new Bond movie can go into production. She has told friends she doesn’t trust algorithm-centric Amazon with a character she helped to mythologize through big-screen storytelling and gut instinct. This fall, she characterized the status of a new movie in dire terms—no script, no story and no new Bond. To friends, Broccoli has characterized her thoughts on Amazon this way: “These people are f— idiots.” Read more about the Broccoli-Amazon feud that's scuttled any near-term hope of a new Bond film: https://trib.al/3kb7gfE

Private prisons and other companies are preparing to cash in on what President-elect Donald Trump has billed as “the largest domestic deportation operation in American history”.