Time's Top Stories

Although the holidays this year will be socially distanced for many, fans of a certain breed of period drama can get their thrills at home with the Christmas Day release of Bridgerton, Shonda Rhimes’ soapy, sexy new romance series for Netflix.

Even with the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris ticket winning by a larger margin than any challenger since Franklin Roosevelt in 1932, the disappointment over the Democratic Party’s performance in Congress and state legislatures has led to internal division.

All eyes are on new appointments to President-elect Joe Biden’s Administration, with great speculation about which policies those appointees will change first. In particular, reproductive-rights supporters wonder what protection the Biden Administration can provide for abortion now that the Supreme Court has six votes to overturn or to further eviscerate the core holding of Roe v. Wade.

As 2020 draws to a close, and as we break bread with our loved ones this holiday season, we might consider turning our thoughts and prayers towards our neighbors who aren’t so lucky. In the richest country on earth, approximately 50 million Americans, including 17 million children, are suffering from food insecurity, a level of hunger in this country not seen since the Great Depression.

Pixar films are the most philosophical of the animation world, and the fact that they deal overtly with existential problems or anxieties might sometimes trick us into believing they’re better or deeper than they actually are. In Pixar’s latest, Soul, a jazz musician, voiced by Jamie Foxx, suffers a near-death experience just as he gets his big break.

NASHVILLE — An explosion linked to a vehicle rocked downtown Nashville on Christmas morning, sending shattered glass and debris over a wide area and rocking nearby buildings. The Metro Nashville Police Department said via Twitter that the explosion occurred at 6:30 a.m. Friday and that state and federal authorities were on the scene, as were emergency crews including the fire department.

On Nov. 6, Georgia became the epicenter of America’s complicated political landscape, voting narrowly to elevate now President-elect Joe Biden and triggering two runoff races that will determine the balance of the Senate. Georgia now holds the key to whether Biden gets to ride in the fast lane with his agenda, or be stuck on the side of the road. The state’s fast rise to political relevance can be explained by two forces: increased voter turnout and changing demographics.

(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday pardoned former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law, in the latest wave of clemency to benefit longtime associates and supporters. The actions, in Trump's final weeks at the White House, bring to nearly 50 the number of people whom the president in the last two days has granted clemency.

Between the glitzy parties, secret backstories and climactic murder in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel The Great Gatsby, there’s a tiny detail that readers may have missed: right before he gets in a car with antagonist Tom Buchanan—the ride that kicks off the novel’s tragic end—narrator Nick Carraway realizes he’s forgotten his own birthday.

All of the things you need to know now from the editors of TIME