• Biden pardons his son: President Joe Biden has pardoned his son Hunter Biden, reversing the president’s past promises not to use the extraordinary powers of the presidency for the benefit of his family.
• Sweden cable-cutting case: Sweden’s prime minister says his government has formally asked China to cooperate in explaining the recent rupture of data cables on the Baltic Sea bed in an area where a China-flagged vessel was sighted.
• Largest climate change case: The top United Nations court has taken up the largest case in its history, hearing the plight of several small island nations combating the impact of climate change.
• Georgia unrest: Georgia’s president, locked in a standoff with her own government, appealed to European countries on Dec. 2 to confront what she described as a Russian attempt to impose control on her nation.

Read these news briefs.

California is spearheading anticipated legal action by Democratic states against Trump 2.0. The move by the biggest U.S. state to challenge a Republican president mirrors how Texas has led opposition to the Biden administration.

Syria’s devastating civil war, responsible for more than 300,000 deaths, was never officially resolved. While lightning gains last week by rebels opposed to President Bashar al-Assad were opportunistic, they also indicated years of patient preparations.

Who should decide the best way to protect vulnerable children – their parents, or the state? That question lies at the heart of the biggest transgender rights case in U.S. Supreme Court history.

Our reviewer sees potential for two new holiday films, “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” and “That Christmas,” to become seasonal favorites. Both stories, he says, explore the same question: What makes Christmas meaningful?

When monumental problems feel daunting, finding agency in our corner of the world helps us regain a sense of control. As our writer learned, a collective of people acting locally is powerful.

Well, you don’t see this every day in America’s polarized politics.

Last week, the leaders of each party in Minnesota’s House of Representatives announced that committee chairs in the chamber will be equally divided come Jan. 14 when a new Legislature convenes. Two people will share custody of one gavel on each of 23 panels.

In addition, the leaders of each party (both women) are working on a plan to share the role of speaker in the tied chamber – a Democrat at some times, a Republican at others.

The reason for this amazing amity across the aisle?

The Nov. 5 election resulted in an evenly split state House (67-67), assuming legal challenges in two races don’t stand up.

“What makes it work is if people respect each other and have a fundamental decency,” Rep. Melissa Hortman, current House speaker and a member of the state’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, told Minnesota Public Radio. Her counterpart, GOP House Leader Lisa Demuth, told Twin Cities PBS, “This is going to force the ability to work together from the very start” and provides a “perfect opportunity” for civility.

In the state’s Senate, Democrats will still hold a one-seat advantage. And Gov. Tim Walz, who was the 2024 Democratic vice presidential candidate, still holds veto power. Yet, as Ms. Demuth told WCCO radio, “[Voters] have chosen balance. They’ve sent us back equally, not one party above the other or below in the House.” A big test for the House will come by May when the state Legislature must pass a two-year budget.

This model of balanced leadership may be an underappreciated aspect of U.S. politics. “Moderates are often overlooked in contemporary research on American voters,” wrote six political scientists in a 2022 academic paper using statistical analysis.

Conventional wisdom holds that American voters are polarized, the scholars wrote, but most voters “give a mix of liberal and conservative responses on surveys and few are consistently and firmly on one side of the aisle.” Moderate voters are also “especially consequential” in driving political accountability and candidate selection.

Through forced bipartisanship, Minnesota’s incoming House members may soon show Americans that not all voters are of a single ideological dimension. With a spirit of equality and an ear for listening, politicians need not govern with a winner-take-all mentality or stay in power through partisan gerrymandering. Minnesota may well live up to its nickname as the North Star State.