President Trump has indicated that he is likely to leave the White House on schedule, without ever formally conceding to Joe Biden. On Thursday, Trump spoke of the upcoming "Biden administration," a rare acknowledgment that his time as president is ending. 

• When reporters asked if he would leave the White House in January, Trump said, "Certainly I will, but you know that."
• Trump's campaign headquarters is mostly empty, and his manager has not conducted a press call in three weeks.
• Trump told reporters on Thursday that he lacks enough time to demonstrate the widespread voting fraud that he has alleged without evidence.
• The Electoral College will vote on Dec. 14. The Senate's deadline for certified electoral votes is Dec. 23.

Ethiopia's civil war continues escalating, but a major milestone occurred yesterday with a military takeover of the city of Mekelle, the capital of the Tigray region. The United Nations says 500,000 people remain under imminent risk of military attacks. Even neighboring Eritrea is being bombarded with missiles.

Takeover:

• After a deadline lapsed on Saturday, Ethiopian federal troops began attacking the city of Mekelle by order of the country's prime minister Abiy Ahmed.
• On Saturday, at 8:24 p.m. local time, the U.S. Embassy in Eritrea said that "a loud noise, possibly an explosion, was heard in Asmara, likely emanating from outside the city." At 10:13 p.m. the embassy reported another half dozen explosions.
• Overnight, Ahmed said his army gained "full control" of the capital city, heralding the "completion" of their offensive.

Context:

• Military conflicts during Ethiopia's current civil war have lasted approximately four weeks.
• Ahmed has been trying to overcome the Tigray People's Liberation Front.
• Ahmed's federal troops began their incursion into Tigray three weeks ago.
• The hostilities have triggered a humanitarian crisis across the Tigray region and its capital, Mekelle.
• Neighboring Sudan has accepted tens of thousands of refugees since the conflict started.
• Hundreds of murders have occurred. Tens of thousands of people are displaced from their homes. Child soldiers are being enlisted. Shortages of food and fuel are widespread.
• Tigrayan rebels have fought Ethiopia's communist Derg regime for nearly 20 years and installed themselves as national leaders earlier this year.

The CDC's COVID-19 case count increased 176,572 in its latest 24-hour reporting period. 

• Deaths increased 1,283 on Saturday, bringing total deaths in the U.S. so far to 263,956.
• There are 89,834 people currently hospitalized with COVID-19 in the U.S, an all-time high.
• AstraZeneca will conduct an additional global trial to assess its vaccine safety. The CDC hopes to have a vaccine in public U.S. distribution by March.
• Some countries are experiencing a brief reprieve: England's partial lockdown will end this week. The number of ICU patients with COVID-19 in France has decreased for three weeks.

Global statistics:

• Worldwide, health officials diagnosed 478,223 new cases of COVID-19. The global death toll totals 1,452,608, including yesterday's 7,067 deaths.
• There are approximately 21 million globally active cases of the disease and approximately 40 million recoveries.
• A total 62,265,915 people have tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies since the start of the pandemic.

Penguin Random House is purchasing Simon & Schuster from ViacomCBS for more than $2B. Penguin Random House, owned by German company Bertelsmann, is already the largest publisher in the U.S. Acquiring Simon & Schuster, America's third-largest publisher, could make Penguin an unbeatable conglomerate and even raise antitrust questions.

More:

• Bertelsmann will pay a termination fee should the deal not be approved by authorities.
• Penguin will acquire Simon & Schuster's catalog of 30,000 titles, including those by Stephen King, Bob Woodward, and Mary Higgins Clark.
• Simon & Schuster still had a profitable year amidst the pandemic. Revenue grew 8% to $649M as of September.
• Publishers have increasingly consolidated in the past decade and depend on major tentpole titles for large portions of their revenue. Penguin and Random House merged in 2013 and Hachette bought Perseus Book Group's publishing division in 2016.

A version of this story first appeared in Inside Media.

QUICK HITS:

• During this holiday season, find out how SimpliSafe is protecting over 3 million homes with less markup and more security.*
• Canada placed restrictions on bulk drug sales across the U.S. border.
• The Singapore Stock Exchange, London's Aquis Exchange, and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) Web Services are testing a cloud-based stock exchange.
• Four subsidiaries of China's BGI Group sued a $46B American company, Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN), for infringing rapid DNA sequencing patents.
• The SEC has renewed its complaint that influential political lobbyist Jack Abramoff conducted an unregistered securities offering of a cryptocurrency called "AML Bitcoin." Abramoff and several other ex-White House officials connected to him are now convicted felons, sentenced to jail.
• Tony Hsieh, retired Zappos CEO, has passed away.
• Chinese police claim to have seized $4.2B worth of assets from a Ponzi scheme called PlusToken.
• Revtown's changing the denim game by applying the best parts of workout clothes—comfort, flexibility & durability—to jeans.*

*This is a sponsored post.

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