“Prepared to row naked” - A guy who’s rowing across the Atlantic Ocean with his brother. They’re wearing nothing. Naturally.

RATE NIGHT

THE STORY

Yesterday, the Fed went on a third date with the economy and said ‘my place or yours?’ It raised interest rates for the second time in a decade.

WHY THE HOLD OUT?

A hard breakup called the financial crisis. Since ’08, the Federal Reserve’s been keeping rates near zero - thinking that if it’s cheaper for people to borrow money, they might boost the US economy by buying NBD things like a house or car. But the economy’s hard times lasted longer than expected. So the Fed kept holding out on raising rates. Last year, after some signs of life from the economy, it finally said ‘let’s do this’ and raised rates for the first time in almost a decade. Since then, the economy’s been crushing it. Unemployment’s down, and customers are spending. And President-elect Donald Trump’s pro-business policies have some thinking the economy will stay on the up and up. So now, the Fed’s putting out again. And plans on doing so three more times next year.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR ME?

Right now, not much. But higher rates mean that borrowing money for things like buying a house, or waiting to pay off your credit card bill, could get more expensive in the next few years.

theSKIMM

This rate increase and the ones to follow are a big vote of confidence from the Fed. Now, it’s up to the economy to keep this good thing going.

REPEAT AFTER ME...

WHAT TO SAY WHEN NO ONE IS SURPRISED THAT YOU’RE RUNNING LATE FOR DINNER...

Oops, I did it again. Same with Yahoo. Yesterday, the company said ‘we’ve been hacked.’Again. This time it says more than a billion user accounts were hit by a data breach in 2013. There’s a reason you’re having deja vu. Earlier this year, Yahoo revealed that it was hacked back in 2014, and the personal info of 500 million users was stolen. It was one of the biggest data breaches…ever. Until now. This all comes after Yahoo spent years on the struggle bus thanks to not-so-great-revenue and disappearing ad dollars. After a lot of back and forth, earlier this year Verizon said ‘fine we’ll bite,’ and agreed to buy Yahoo’s core businesses for almost $5 billion. Verizon was already feeling ‘meh’ about the deal after the first hack happened. Now with this second hack, it may be getting cold feet altogether. Meanwhile, yesterday Yahoo said it doesn’t really know how this breach happened. But names, email addresses, telephone numbers, etc. might’ve been stolen. Now, it’s requiring users to change their passwords. Good idea.

WHAT TO SAY TO YOUR FRIEND WHO’S SCARED OF NEEDLES BUT HAS TO GET A FLU SHOT...

I’ll be there for you. That’s what President-elect Donald Trump’s saying. Yesterday, he had a lunch date with Silicon Valley. Tim Cook, Sheryl Sandberg, and Elon Musk RSVP’d ‘yes.’ Unclear what exactly they discussed but it reportedly included topics like jobs and encouraging innovation in the US. Who didn’t get the invite? Twitter’s CEO. That’s apparently because Twitter didn’t approve an emoji that Trump’s campaign team wanted for the hashtag #CrookedHillary. Sad! Speaking of Hillz, remember the CIA’s concerns about Russia meddling in the US election to help Trump win? Yesterday, a report came out that Russian President Vladimir Putin was personally involved in how hacked DNC material was leaked, apparently because of a personal “vendetta” against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. So, there’s that.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE WATCHING...

Aleppo. Yesterday, residents trapped there were told they’d be allowed to leave the Syrian city. Again. Aleppo is Syria’s largest city. And it’s been ground zero in the country’s five year-long civil war ever since rebel groups (some backed by the US) took over in 2012. In recent months, Syrian President Assad’s forces (backed by Russia and Iran) have ramped up efforts to take it back. The fighting has been especially intense in the last few days, with Assad’s forces reportedly executing civilians on the streets, including children. Many people trapped in the city turned to social media to post final goodbye messages. Then earlier this week, the rebels agreed to a ceasefire deal that basically amounted to a surrender to Assad. The deal was supposed to include a safe route for residents to leave. That didn’t happen. Now, it looks like evacuation plans are back on. Except then this morning, some residents trying to leave were attacked by Assad’s forces. Apparently evacuations are still a go though. TBD on just how safe they end up being.

WHAT TO SAY WHEN YOU FIND OUT YOUR CO-WORKER CAN BEATBOX...

You’re full of surprises. Just like the Philippines’ President Rodrigo Duterte. Earlier this week, Duterte admitted that he has “personally” killed suspected criminals in the past. Normal. Duterte won the presidency earlier this year in big part for promising to crack down hard on the country’s drug crime problem. In his case, that translates to police pretty much shooting on the spot anyone suspected of dealing or using drugs. Thousands of people have been killed. Then there was that time Duterte called President Obama a “son of a b*tch.” Now, it turns out he also has experience killing people. All the qualities you want in a man running a country.

WHAT TO SAY TO YOUR FRIEND WHO’S EXPECTING TWINS...

Some strong swimmers there.

THING TO KNOW

Phubbing: Phone snubbing. When your SO spends more quality time with their phone than with you. “Her” IRL.

BALLS

John Fassel: The new temp coach for the Los Angeles Rams. The old coach was fired earlier this week because the Rams can’t seem to do that thing called winning. Now, Fassel’s in charge. He’ll be put to his first test tonight when the Rams face off against the Seattle Seahawks.

PS: There’s more balls where that came from. We have an NFL calendar in our app to make sure you know what’s up on the field and when to watch.

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SKIMM BIRTHDAYS

* indicates Skimm’bassador. Party pants on.

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