Decline of the dinner party, relief for severe depression, online dating revolution: Catch up on the day’s stories
CNN
By Daniel Wine, CNN
Editor’s Note: CNN’s 5 Things newsletter is your one-stop shop for the latest headlines and fascinating stories to start and end your busy day. Sign up here.
Welcome to 5 Things PM! Severe depression can upend your life. A promising new clinical trial suggests that stimulating the body’s largest nerve — with a device implanted underneath the collarbone — may offer relief.
Here’s what else you might have missed during your busy day:
5 things
A declining art: Hosting people in your home for dinner creates an intimacy that you just don’t get when meeting them at a restaurant or a bar. But people are busy, broke and burnt out. CNN culture writer Harmeet Kaur explains why the dinner party is all but dead.
Looking for love: Personalized chatbots dating on your behalf. AI concierges fielding questions about potential matches. Advanced algorithms predicting compatibility. Online dating is on the verge of radical change.
Building immunity: The holiday season can be intense with everyone traveling, shopping, hosting family and friends and other commitments. To reduce your chances of getting sick, make these three things habits.
Ancient predator: A saber-toothed creature that vanished more than 250 million years ago is believed to be the oldest of its kind. Experts say the discovery in Spain could help shed light on the earliest relative of mammals.
Don’t go there: From New York City to Paris to Kyoto, these are the tourist attractions you can’t visit in 2025 — or probably ever again.
Watch this
Household helper: Tech companies are racing to be the first to bring humanoid robots to people’s homes. One company’s prototype, known as NEO, can do laundry and make coffee — and it could be available to the public as soon as next year.
Top headlines
• What’s at risk if Congress doesn’t fund the government by Friday night
• Federal complaint reveals new details about notebook found with Mangione
• DOGE wants to ditch DEI. That would impact more people than you may think
458
That’s how many workplace murders there were last year — an average of nearly nine a week.
Check this out
Decked out: Nowhere does festive charm quite like Europe. From Vienna to Gothenburg, here are the towns and cities that revel in Christmas.
Quotable
Family feud: Five-time NBA champion Dennis Rodman apologized to his daughter after she criticized him for being absent for much of her life.
Quiz time
Which one of the 12 teams in the College Football Playoff is undefeated?
A. Texas
B. Oregon
C. Boise State
D. Arizona State
Scroll down for the answer.
Good vibes
Music therapy: Army veteran Wayne Hoey never leaves home without his saxophone. It paid off during a recent flight delay in Atlanta when Hoey got out his sax and began playing Christmas tunes for his fellow passengers.
Thanks for reading
Quiz answer: B. The Oregon Ducks are the No. 1 seed with a 13-0 record entering the playoff. Test your knowledge with CNN’s news quiz in tomorrow morning’s 5 Things newsletter.
Check out all of CNN’s newsletters.
5 Things PM is produced by CNN’s Chris Good, Meghan Pryce and Kimberly Richardson.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.