Cheat Sheet - Send in the Drones: Retailers Ruined Christmas

Today: Beirut Car Bomb Kills Ex-Minister , Five Tea Party Challengers: The Ted Cruz Wannabes , Icebreakers to Rescue Trapped Ship December 27, 2013 Send in the Drones 1. Retailers Ruined Christmas How did this holiday go so wrong? From Black Friday overload to e-commerce's last-minute delivery disaster, this shopping season was a major turnoff for customers, writes The Daily Beast's Daniel Gross. Read it at The Daily Beast BLAST 2. Beirut Car Bomb Kills Ex-Minister A powerful car bomb near government headquarters in central Beirut has killed its suspected target, Lebanon's former Finance Minister, 62-year-old Mohammed B. Chattah and at least six others, according to Lebanese officials. Chattah, a former Lebanese ambassador to the United States, has been critical of Hezbollah and was currently involved with a Sunni party called the Future Bloc, a group that supports the rebels in Syria and is close to the insurgency's main backers, Saudi Arabia. The bomb is the first the capital has seen in several years, bringing the war in neighboring Syria closer than ever to Lebanon's central city. Both sides in Syria's civil war have threatened figures in Lebanon for their intervention. More than 70 could be injured. Read it at The New York Times SUPER STARS 3. The New Tea Party Challengers Come 2014, these five ambitious Senate hopefuls might storm their way onto Capitol Hill and change the Republican Party, with Ted Cruz as their hero. By Patricia Murphy. Read it at The Daily Beast FROZEN 4. Icebreakers to Rescue Trapped Ship After spending Christmas marooned in the Anarctic ice, the 74 people aboard the the MV Akademik Shokalskiy may be freed Friday. Snow Dragon, the Chinese icebreaking ship, has sailed through a cyclone as is on its way to the trapped Russian vessel. The ship was stranded on Tuesday after a blizzard moved the sea, freezing it around the ship. A French and Australian icebreaker are also on its way to the stranded ship. What happens if the icebreaking ships get trapped on the way? They'll need to be rescued, too. Read it at CNN OCCUPATION 5. Okinawa OKs New U.S. Base Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima has approved a plan to relocate a U.S. air base from Futenma to the less-congested Nago city, despite likely protests from residents who want the Marines out all together. The move will consolidate a massive U.S. troop presence; about half of the 50,000 troops in Japan are in Okinawa. But residents oppose the plan, saying they'll block roads and possibly use force to keep the relocation, which they fear will bring crime and pollution of a military base, from going forward. The Futenma bases' closure was agreed upon in 1996 but had stalled. Read it at The Los Angeles Times LOOK AT US! Iran: We're Making New Centrifuges This is within the rules of the nuke deal. PINK SLIP Unemployment Cuts Coming 1.3 million Americans to lose benefits. BRAIN DRAIN Concussions May Cause Alzheimer's According to new study. travel lottery Delta Honors Fare Glitch Some roundtrip tickets went for $25. Valar Morghulis GoT' the Most Pirated TV Show Beats "Breaking Bad." GET The Cheat Sheet A speedy, smart summary of news and must-reads from across the Web. You'll love the featured original stories on politics, entertainment, and more from The Daily Beast's diverse group of contributors. GET Culture Beast Weekly cultural recommendations from The Daily Beast. The Real Fight Club by Anna Brand The Year in Fashion Scandals by Toby Milstein The Sexless Postnatal Life by Aurora Snow

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