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Cybertruck blast puzzle, Biden steel blockade and net neutralization

 
Today's NATIONAL story

Police ID driver of exploded Cybertruck, can't see motive

What happened
Law enforcement officials said yesterday that a highly decorated Army Green Beret shot himself in the head right before a rented Tesla Cybertruck he drove from Colorado exploded in the valet lane of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday. Master Sgt. Matthew Livelsberger, 37, was on approved leave from his Special Forces unit in Germany, Army officials said. He was the only person killed in the blast, though seven bystanders suffered minor injuries.

Who said what
Military officials "remain baffled" at "how or why a model soldier with a stellar record" ended up at the center of what could be a "terrorist event," The Wall Street Journal said. That the exploding truck, "packed with off-the-shelf ingredients" like firecrackers and small propane canisters, caused so little damage also "prompted a lot of head-scratching," The New York Times said.

Livelsberger had the "skills and experience to produce a larger and more deadly explosion if he had wanted," The Washington Post said, citing a Special Forces officer who served with him. "I'm comfortable calling it a suicide with the bombing that occurred immediately thereafter," Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a news conference. "I'm not giving it any other labels."

What next?
Investigators have found "no definitive link" between the Cybertruck explosion and a truck attack in New Orleans that killed at least 14 New Year's revelers hours earlier, the FBI said. There were "striking — if superficial — similarities" between the incidents, the Post said, including that Livelsberger and New Orleans assailant Shamsud-Din Jabbar both served in the Army, including at the same North Carolina base and in Afghanistan, though there's no record their paths ever crossed.

 
 
Today's BUSINESS story

Biden expected to block Japanese bid for US Steel

What happened
President Joe Biden has decided to block the $14 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel by Japan's Nippon Steel, citing national security concerns, The Washington Post and The New York Times said this morning. 

Who said what
Biden's move deals a "probably fatal blow to the contentious merger plan," Reuters said, especially since President-elect Donald Trump has also "vowed to block the deal." Opposition to Nippon Steel's purchase of America's No. 3 steelmaker "blended election-year politics, nostalgia for a vanished era of American industrial supremacy" and competition with China, the Post said. The United Steelworkers union opposed the deal, but some of Biden's senior advisers "warned that rejecting a sizable investment from a top Japanese corporation could damage U.S. relations with Japan," a key ally.

Blocking the deal "would be an extraordinary use of executive power," especially for an outgoing president, the Times said, and the "departure from America's long-established culture of open investment" could have "wide-ranging implications for the U.S. economy."

What next?
Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel have "vowed to pursue legal action" if the government blocks the deal, the Post said. U.S. Steel could also "resume its search for a buyer," like No. 2 U.S. producer Cleveland Cilffs, or it could "opt to proceed as a stand-alone company."

 
 
Today's TECHNOLOGY Story

Appeals court kills FCC net neutrality rule

What happened
The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals dealt a decisive blow to net neutrality yesterday, ruling that the Federal Communications Commission lacked the authority to regulate internet providers like a public utility. The FCC first required broadband providers to treat all legal internet traffic equally — the goal of net neutrality — in the Obama administration. Donald Trump's Republican-led FCC overturned the rules in 2017, but with President Joe Biden's encouragement, a Democrat-majority FCC voted to reinstate net neutrality last April.

Who said what
The Supreme Court's ruling last June that federal agencies no longer get deference in interpreting regulations "means we can end the FCC's vacillations," Judge Richard Griffin wrote for the three-judge appellate panel. FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said consumers "have told us again and again that they want an internet that is fast, open and fair," and Congress should "heed their call" and "put open internet principles in federal law." FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, Trump's nominee to lead the agency, said he was "pleased" by the court's invalidation of Biden's "internet power grab," and more deregulation was coming.

What next?
Open-internet advocates could "seek review by the Supreme Court," Reuters said. But that's probably a dead end, former FCC official Marc Martin told The Washington Post. Attention-grabbing "future bad acts" by internet providers could "maybe bring a different Congress to act and give the FCC authority. Short of that, I think it's over."

 
 

It's not all bad

Through an innovative library, Paul Ninson gives his fellow Ghanaians the chance to learn about Africa's past, present and future via images. A photojournalist, Ninson was inspired by the countless pictures of the continent he saw while visiting museums and libraries in New York City. He launched the Dikan Center in Accra, with over 30,000 photobooks, a photo studio, computers and digital cameras. For Ghanaians to know their "true identity," they must be aware of their collective "history and background," Ninson told NPR.

 
 
Under the radar

Yesterday, the Netherlands opened archives to the public with information about 425,000 Dutch people who were accused of collaborating with the Nazis during World War II.

The Dutch Central Archives of the Special Jurisdiction have been available to researchers for the past 70 years, but this marks the first time that members of the public can view their contents. The archive's pages stretch about 2.3 miles long and are the "largest and most frequently consulted World War II archives in the Netherlands," the National Archives said in a press release. The pages contain "files about individuals suspected of collaboration with the German occupiers" during World War II, as well as information on "victims, resistance activities, hiding operations and much more."

Some descendants of the accused, as well as the Dutch government, are reportedly concerned over the publication of family histories, especially for those who were only accused. It's "a bit uncomfortable," said Connie, whose family is in the archive, to The Guardian. Others argue that publicizing the archives will help the Netherlands heal from its connection with the Holocaust. 

The record is "part of the repression by the Dutch of their memories of collaboration, after we had punished our military and political collaborators," Johannes Houwink ten Cate, an emeritus professor of Holocaust studies at Amsterdam University, told The Guardian. "My personal experience is that their feelings come to rest once they have seen the files. Making this open is an important step."

 
 
On this day

December 3, 1977

Apple Computer Inc. was incorporated by company co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, less than a year after the brand's first product, the Apple I computer, was released. Today, Apple is one of the largest and most recognizable companies in the world, with revenue of $391 billion in the fiscal year 2024.

 
 
TODAY'S newspaperS

The House votes on its next leader today, and even with President-elect Donald Trump "in favor," Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-La.) "bid unsure," The Washington Post says on Friday's front page. Johnson's bid "to lead again faces defiance" from hard-right Republicans, The New York Times says. "Despite GOP trifecta" in Washington, "can new Congress deliver results?" USA Today says. "FBI now sees New Orleans attack as solo act," The Wall Street Journal says. The Army veteran attacker "had trouble acclimating to college life," The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says. "Links sought in New Year's attacks" in New Orleans and Las Vegas, the Los Angeles Times says, though no ties have yet been found.

► See the newspaper front pages

 
 
Tall tale

Little dog, big force

A 3-year-old chihuahua named Obi Wan has become famous after his owner, shepherd Damaris Barbe, shared clips of the dog "careering around the flocks" she tends in the French Alps, said The Times of London. Although chihuahuas don't usually take on sheep-herding duties, Barbe said the breed is "brave, with a good character." Obi Wan takes it to another level, she added, and is "so confident,” the “other animals are afraid of him."

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Theara Coleman, Nadia Croes, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Devika Rao, Rafi Schwartz and Peter Weber, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Ethan Miller / Getty Images; Kyle Mazza / Anadolu via Getty Images; Patrick Gorski / NurPhoto via Getty Images; Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images