House Republican leaders sent their members home for a six-day break Thursday without revealing any plan to avoid a looming government shutdown.  The Senate, meanwhile, voted to withdraw U.S. support for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen as punishment for the killing of dissident columnist Jamal Khashoggi—a rebuke of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and President Donald Trump, who has sought to minimize the crown prince’s responsibility. —Josh Petri

Here are today's top stories

Global debt hit a record $184 trillion last year, equivalent to more than $86,000 per person—more than double the average per-capita income. Borrowing is led by the U.S., which just posted the widest November budget deficit on record.

After flooding the U.S. market in recent months, Saudi Arabia plans to slash exports to the world’s largest oil market in the coming weeks in an effort to dampen visible build-ups in crude inventories.

The cryptocurrency price plunge isn’t only an economic story—it’s political, too. It marks the general public’s resistance to the ideological techno-utopia promised by Bitcoin evangelists. Will the currency ever recover? 

Maria Butina on Thursday pleaded guilty to acting as an undeclared Russian agent in the U.S. and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. Butina admitted operated as a Kremlin agent as she befriended NRA leaders and influential conservatives.

Trump's tax cuts made a difference in 2018, but it wasn't the one backers were hoping for, Bloomberg Businessweek reports.

Former employees of Kellogg Co. are suing the company. Their claims? They allege the cereal giant shouldn’t have sued them earlier this year. And why did Kellogg go after its employees in the first place? Well, for suing the company, of course.

What's Joe Weisenthal thinking about? The Bloomberg news director is wondering if one of the modern tenets of investing, holding a a 60-40 split between stocks and bonds on the assumption that one will do well if the other is doing badly, still holds true. There have recently been sustained periods where they both go down at the same time. How much investing is predicated on this crude stocks/Treasuries relationship? What would cause that relationship to end? And how ugly would it be if it did?

What you'll need to know tomorrow

• BMW and Porsche just beat Tesla to the three-minute charge.
• Airlines are struggling to deal with racist passengers.
• A billionaire vanished. Then his empire boomed. 
• Virgin Galactic took a big step towards space tourism.
• Instacart will no longer deliver groceries from Whole Foods.
• UN climate negotiations are getting heated.
• Looking for a vacation? Our traveler editor picks her top five spots.

What you'll want to read tonight

Sex No Longer Sells: Modesty Has a Moment

In an industry where putting a black model on the cover of a fashion magazine still counts as news, the huge followings of stylish Muslim women have given brands the courage to think beyond primarily white, waiflike images and embrace a broader range of bodies and cultures.

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