Why you should buy an EV soon, norovirus surge, human composting: Catch up on the day’s stories

By CNN

Published December 31, 2024 2:14 pm

CNN

By Daniel Wine, CNN

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👋 Welcome to 5 Things PM! Southerners in the US eat a heaping bowl of Hoppin’ John, people in Japan slurp up soba noodles and in Spain, traditionalists swallow 12 grapes at the stroke of midnight. Here’s a sampling of New Year’s food traditions around the world.

Here’s what else you might have missed during your busy day:

5 things

1️⃣ EV tax credits: If you’re thinking about buying an electric vehicle, better hurry. President-elect Donald Trump said he plans to eliminate the tax benefit, and weakening sales could make this an ideal time to get an EV — especially one of last year’s models.

2️⃣ Norovirus concerns: Cases of the common stomach bug are surging, and it can be extremely contagious with unpleasant symptoms. A doctor explains what to look for.
➕ After a long lull, Covid-19 levels are on the rise in the US.

3️⃣ Life after death: A company uses composting vessels to turn human remains into soil. It’s rising in popularity as an earth-friendly end-of-life alternative that’s less carbon-intensive than cremation and doesn’t use chemicals to preserve bodies in traditional burials.

4️⃣ ‘Ladies’ Night’: It’s usually great for business. Discounted food and drinks draw a crowd of women, which tends to draw more men. But a California restaurant is shutting down after settling a discrimination lawsuit, and it’s more common than you might think.

5️⃣ Terrible tourists: Biting a flight attendant. Strapping 300 tarantulas to your body. Simulating sex with an Italian statue. There were plenty of examples of bad behavior this year, so CNN’s travel team compiled a list of resolutions for all you globetrotters out there.

Listen in

🕯️ ‘Silent Night’: A choir from Maîtrise Notre-Dame de Paris music school performs a holiday classic in the newly restored Notre Dame cathedral.

Top headlines

• Massive power outage leaves nearly all of Puerto Rico in the dark
• Police identify 57-year-old woman as the victim of NYC fatal subway burning
• Stocks just did something they haven’t done in nearly three decades

100

📱 We crunched the numbers and came up with a list of the CNN content that you read, watched or listened to the most in 2024. Take a look.

Check this out

🎆 Happy New Year! Fireworks are lighting up night skies around the world as revelers ring in 2025. It takes 26 hours for the new year to be welcomed across 39 different time zones.

Quotable

🏠 Rental risks: Vacation sites like Vrbo and Airbnb may not be required to confirm that claims made by hosts who rent out their homes are true. Some use a decades-old internet law to dodge safety concerns.

Quiz time

♟️ The world’s No. 1 chess player Magnus Carlsen recently broke what rule at the World Blitz Chess Championship?
A. Wore jeans
B. Looked at his phone
C. Took a bathroom break
D. Trash-talked his opponent
⬇️ Scroll down for the answer.

Good vibes

🚵 To the extreme: Have you ever dreamed of running the length of Africa or climbing to the top of Mount Everest? The desire to push our limits is one most of us can appreciate — extreme athletes just take things further. These are some of their hard-to-believe feats.

Thanks for reading

👋 We’re taking a short break to ring in the New Year! The 5 Things newsletter will be back in your inboxes Thursday morning.
🧠 Quiz answer: A. The Norwegian chess champ refused to change out of his jeans, a breach of the tournament’s dress code.
📧 Check out all of CNN’s newsletters.

Today’s 5 Things PM was edited by CNN’s Alexandra Banner and Tricia Escobedo.

Article Topic Follows: CNN – National

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