Must Reads

• Buffalo, New York, was named the country's No. 1 Christmas destination: See the rest of the list​

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• 2025 has been a banner year for northern lights — and these award-winning photos captured auroras at their best

Culture

Italian Cooking Gets Cultural Heritage Designation, UNESCO's Most Expansive Inscription

Call your nonna: Italian cooking is now among the nation's many cultural emblems recognized by UNESCO. The cuisine, and its surrounding techniques and traditions, will be inscribed on the "intangible cultural heritage" list, which encompasses customs, skills, and knowledge central to communities' cultural identities. Other entries honor specific recipes, culinary customs, and regional cuisines from around the world — like French gastronomy or Korean kimchi — but Italy's new inscription is the most expansive yet.
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According to UNESCO, the entry covers various aspects of Italy's food culture, from an emphasis on sustainability to the inextricable tie between cooking and community. Luigi Petrillo, who advocated for the inscription, told The Washington Post the bid was focused on Italian cooking "as an act of love."
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And the country seems to be feeling quite proud of its world-first designation — as you can see above, the news was projected on the outside of Rome's Colosseum this week. Other new additions to the intangible cultural heritage list include Iceland's swimming pool culture, the Indian festival of Diwali, and the Moroccan caftan — check out more of the entries.

Together With EnergyX

Everyday Investors Miss Out on Unicorn Opportunities, but Not This One

In 2013, "unicorn" was coined for a private startup worth over $1 billion. Why? Rarity.
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Companies like Airbnb and Uber earned it with new, exciting tech. But regular people couldn't invest until they IPO'd at $47 billion and $82 billion valuations, missing the biggest gains. Now, a new private startup earned it, and this time, you can invest.
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Meet EnergyX. The company's patented tech can recover up to three times more lithium than traditional methods. With 2040 lithium demand expected to outstrip current production by 18 times, that's a big edge.
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Now, they're moving toward commercial production, tapping into over 100,000 acres of lithium deposits in Chile, a potential $1.1 billion annual revenue opportunity at projected market prices.
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​Invest in EnergyX today and join the 40,000-plus people backing this unicorn.*

Health

World-First Treatment Rids More Patients of a Previously Incurable Cancer

In 2022, a teenage girl with a previously incurable cancer was deemed cancer-free thanks to a novel treatment developed by scientists at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital and University College London. Three years later, not only is Alyssa Tapley still free of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, a rare and aggressive blood cancer, but eight other children and two adults have now also received the treatment, with promising results.
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The world-first gene therapy uses a technology called base editing, which was invented in 2016, to pinpoint and change the molecular structure of just one of the four fundamental units of DNA. In a recent clinical trial, scientists used it to alter healthy donor T-cells, a type of white blood cell that helps the immune system, so they could find and destroy cancerous T-cells. If the therapy succeeded, patients proceeded to receive a bone marrow transplant to replenish their immune system.
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Published Monday, the trial results show that 82% of patients went into deep remission after the base editing therapy, and 64% were in ongoing remission three to 36 months after the transplant. "A few years ago, this would have been science fiction," co-author Waseem Qasim told the BBC. "We have to basically dismantle the entire immune system. It's a deep, intensive treatment, it's very demanding on the patients, but when it works, it's worked very well."

Science

Cats Became Our Pets Relatively Recently, Study Finds

Cats are such a ubiquitous part of our culture that it may be hard to imagine a world — or even just an internet — without them as our pets. But according to a recent study, cats' decision to bond with humans may have occurred much more recently than previously thought. All modern cats are descendants of the African wildcat, but scientists have long been unsure where, how, and when they began forming close, lasting relationships with people.
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Many experts believed the process began about 10,000 years ago in the Levant, at the dawn of agriculture. But after analyzing cat bones from archaeological sites in Europe and Anatolia, as well as modern wildcats, an international team of researchers concluded that felines' path to domestication began only 3,500 or 4,000 years ago, and in North Africa.
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"Instead of happening in that area where people are first settling down with agriculture, it looks like it is much more of an Egyptian phenomenon," study co-author Gregor Larson told the BBC.
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Eventually, cats traveled the globe, valued for their role as natural pest control on ships and farms. Based on the recent analysis, they likely reached Europe around 2,000 years ago, traveling around the continent with the Romans before moving east.

In Other News

1. Inside a distant galaxy, a black hole with the mass of 30 million suns is creating 130 mph winds (read more)
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2. "Almost like a miracle": A medication made from donated blood plasma is saving babies from botulism (read more)
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3. A newly discovered state of matter, "corralled supercooled liquid," exists in limbo between solid and liquid (read more)
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4. Raking in $4.2 million, a painting of an English duke is the most expensive Elizabethan portrait ever sold (read more)
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5. A wild beaver with mysterious origins has made a home in Norfolk, England, for the first time since the 1500s (read more)

Something We Love

In Our Time: History by BBC Radio
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​This podcast is perfect for learning about the history of the world in small, digestible chunks. Longtime host Melvin Bragg would invite experts from various fields to discuss topics like Catherine of Aragon and the Industrial Revolution. Bragg announced his departure this fall, but you can still go back and listen to the 1,000-plus episodes he recorded while we wait for journalist Misha Glenny to take over the new season in January. Pro tip: The soothing British accents make the show a top choice for listening before bed.
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​– Rebekah Brandes, Assistant Editor

Inspiring Story

Strangers on a train — rom-com edition

After a not-so-successful first date, Payal Pandya boarded a crowded London train, where a kind stranger offered her a seat. Unbeknownst to her, that man would become her future husband. This isn't a film plot, but a real-life romance: One year ago, Pandya and her now-fiancé, Steve Higgs, met aboard the 11:09 London Northwestern Railway service from Euston toward Milton Keynes. Although they only spoke briefly, they hit it off and reconnected shortly after. On their "encounter-versary," Higgs popped the question on the very same service — and Pandya gleefully accepted (here are some pics from the proposal).

Photo of the Day

More than 100 Christian Dior pieces are now on display for the first time at the fashion house's Paris flagship. The new exhibition showcases never-before-seen items from the private collection of the late couturier Azzedine Alaïa, alongside 50 others from the Dior archives. Standouts include several pieces designed by Dior himself, such as a circa-1952 Marcel Pagnol evening dress with a silk bolero and 1949 suit with "fairground" lapels in wool crêpe. See a few of the pieces up close.​

Shop at Quince for the Athlete in Your Life This Christmas

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Odds & Ends

⚾ The AP's Male Athlete of the Year is a repeat offender
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🧄 Garlic can actually give you fresher breath (science says so)
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📈 Be in the know on what's shaping the market right now*
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👩‍❤️‍👨 Finding love — and tying the knot — at water aerobics
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Quote of the Day

"'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free."

– JOSEPH BRACKETT