Daniel Bach

What are they facing in the new year?

So there is a lot for lawmakers to take care of when they return from the holidays in January.

What can we expect from the political side when that debate begins again?

Right.

So a complex political calculus facing Republicans there, and one that isn't made any easier by the fact that Trump hasn't given the party a clear line on this.

That's national politics reporter Sabrina Siddiqui for us in Washington.

Sabrina, thank you for this.

Thank you so much.

And finally, the numbers are in for the third installment of Disney's Avatar.

According to the studio, Avatar Fire and Ash opened to an estimated $345 million worldwide, which is the second biggest launch this year.

That is well below 2022's Avatar The Way of the Water, which opened to about $435 million.

Ben Fritz covers the entertainment industry for The Journal and says that box office-wise, Hollywood is still some ways away from its pre-pandemic heyday.

So as I said, very mixed here.

For Avatar, the bar for success is especially high due to the size of its production costs, though Disney executives hope Fire and Ash will benefit from the same box office staying power that earlier installments of the franchise enjoyed.

Now, that's it for today's show.

But before we go, heads up, we put out the latest installment of our USA 250 series on What's News Sunday, this time looking at the generations-long push and pull over worker safety in America.

And that's it for What's News for this Monday morning.

Today's show was produced by Hattie Moyer.

Our supervising producer was Christina Rocca.

And I'm Daniel Bach for The Wall Street Journal.