UPDATE: Dec. 13, 2022, 1:30 p.m. EST This story has been updated with the latest items on sale for Amazon’s Very Merry Deals event. Here’s a look at our favorites for the day:

• BEST KITCHEN DEAL: Nespresso VertuoPlus Deluxe Coffee and Espresso Machine by Breville — $149.95 $199.95 (save $50)

• BEST AMAZON DEVICE DEAL: 2022 Fire HD 8 Plus tablet — $64.99 $119.99 (save $55)

• BEST LAST-MINUTE GIFT: Kodak Mini Shot 2 Retro Portable Wireless Instant Camera & Photo Printer — $79.99 $149.99 (save $70)

• ANOTHER LAST-MINUTE GIFT: Cricut Easy Press 2 (9×9) — $99 $189 (save $90)

• BEST GIFT CARD DEAL: Panera Bread $50 gift card — $40 $50 (save $10)

As of Dec. 13, Amazon is repackaging a ton of Black Friday and Cyber Week deals (plus adding a few new ones) for its first Very Merry Deals event.

Naturally, Amazon has been in holiday mode since mid-October, kicking off holiday savings with its first Prime Early Access Sale. Black Friday and Cyber Monday came and went, and are now being followed up with one last pre-holiday savings extravaganza. Best Buy had the same idea.

The Very Merry Deals event runs through Dec. 21, with sale items marked with a green “arrives before Christmas” label. This might be your last chance to avoid a frantic last-minute gift idea brainstorm or expedited shipping chaos — so shop as early as you can.

Some deals will likely see a more permanent residency throughout the event’s duration (Echo devices, Fire tablets, and Kindles). Others may stick around for a few days at a time (select Nespresso machines have been 25% off for days now), while Deals of the Day will pop up and be gone within 24 hours. To keep track of sale prices during the event, look back at this post for updates, peep the “upcoming” tab on the Very Merry Deals event page, or add an item to your watchlist for a head’s up if it goes on sale.

If you aren’t about to doomscroll through over 300 pages of stuff on sale, here’s a quick look at what the Very Merry Deals event has to offer by category:

Unique gift ideas

• Up to 35% off 23andMe DNA kits

• Up to 51% off LED indoor gardening kits from AeroGarden

• Up to 35% off Tile Bluetooth item finders

• Up to 43% off Cricut machines and extensions

Kitchen

• Up to 25% off Nespresso coffee and espresso machines

• Up to 46% off Instant Brands air fryers, mixers, and more

• Up to 40% off SodaStream sparkling water makers and bundles

• Up to 35% off Stasher reusable silicone bags

• Up to 58% off Calphalon cookware

Tech

• Up to 33% off Google Pixel smartphones, Pixel Buds, and Pixel Watches

• Up to 54% off Logitech G gaming products

• Up to 29% off Bose headphones and speakers

• Up to 40% off Samsung QLED TVs and projectors

• Up to 33% off LG OLED and QNED 4K TVs

• Up to 33% off Fitbits

• Up to 55% off Samsung memory and drives

• Up to 30% off eero mesh WiFi systems

Home

• Up to 35% off Roombas

• Up to 69% off home essentials like bedding, pillows, curtains, and more

• Up to 63% off National Tree artificial Christmas trees and wreaths

• Up to 20% off Casper mattresses and bed frames

• Up to 26% off baby products

Amazon devices

• Up to 46% off all-new Fire tablets

• Up to 50% off Echo devices

• Up to 59% off Echo Show devices

• Up to 23% off Kindles

• Up to 46% off Fire TV sticks

Toys

• Up to 47% off Melissa & Doug

• Up to 58% off Playskool, Barbie, TeeTurtle, Tonka, and more

• Up to 58% off favorite character toys from Pokémon, Cocomelon, Paw Patrol, Disney, and more

• Up to 32% off National Geographic science and activity kits

Argentina will take on Croatia in a semifinal FIFA World Cup clash at the Lusail Iconic Stadium.

Both the 2021 Copa América champions and the 2018 runners-up will be hoping to progress to the final with a win at the 80,000-seat venue in Lusial.

Argentina narrowly reached the semifinals by beating Netherlands on penalties in their 2-2 quarterfinal clash.

Meanwhile, Croatia head into this game after securing a win against Brazil following a penalty shootout.

Argentina vs Croatia kickoff time

Kickoff time for the Argentina vs. Croatia match is set for 2 p.m. ET on December 13 at the 80,000-seat venue in Lusial.

How to watch Argentina vs Croatia on streaming or free TV

World Cup 2022 fans in the U.S. have a choice of options when it comes to livestreaming games at the tournament.

You can watch every game on the FOX Sports family of networks, which are the official English-language broadcast partner in the United States.

The Argentina vs. Croatia match will be shown on FOX, with broadcasters Telemundo and Universo also showing the game.

Fans who prefer to use live TV streaming services have options including FuboTV, Sling TV, YouTube TV.

Those looking to stream the games online in English can use the Fox Sports App for $19.99 per month. Spanish speakers can use Peacock Premium, which is $4.99 per month – however it will contain ads. Ad-free Premium Plus costs $9.99 monthly.

When are the other semifinal games?

Teams will need to win in their semifinal game in order to secure a spot in the final.

• Tuesday, Dec. 13: Argentina vs. Croatia

• Wednesday, Dec. 14: France vs. Morocco

FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, also known as SBF, has been arrested by Bahamian authorities, after the U.S. government filed unspecified criminal charges against him. U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams confirmed the former cryptocurrency billionaire’s arrest via Twitter.

“Earlier this evening, Bahamian authorities arrested Samuel Bankman-Fried at the request of the U.S. Government, based on a sealed indictment filed by the SDNY,” Williams said. “We expect to move to unseal the indictment in the morning and will have more to say at that time.”

Though details are currently scarce, the U.S. is expected to request Bankman-Fried’s extradition — a request the Bahamas has indicated it intends to honour.

“The Bahamas and the United States have a shared interest in holding accountable all individuals associated with FTX who may have betrayed the public trust and broken the law,” the Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis said in a statement shared with press. 

“While the United States is pursuing criminal charges against SBF individually, The Bahamas will continue its own regulatory and criminal investigations into the collapse of FTX, with the continued cooperation of its law enforcement and regulatory partners in the United States and elsewhere.”

FTX was a cryptocurrency exchange that spectacularly collapsed earlier this year, filing for bankruptcy in November as Bankman-Fried stepped down from his role as CEO. 

Before its dramatic implosion, FTX had been the fourth-largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world. Then the company secretly lent $10 billion worth of its customers’ assets to Bankman-Fried’s trading firm Alameda Research, using it to bet on other cryptocurrencies without said customers’ authorisation.

Predictably, this didn’t work out. At least $1 billion worth of customers’ cryptocurrency apparently just disappeared, while hackers reportedly took off with almost $500 million more.

The FTX scandal was dramatic enough that Amazon has even ordered an eight-episode limited series on it. Now the show may have its finale.

From his mansion in the Bahamas, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has pretty much spoken with anyone who’d give him a platform in order to explain why his crypto empire failed.

U.S. federal prosecutors would very much like to know what happened too, which is why there are now multiple investigations into FTX and its founder over allegations of fraud, manipulation, and more.

According to Bloomberg, the U.S. Department of Justice is currently looking into millions of dollars that were allegedly transferred out of FTX and to the Bahamas, where Bankman-Fried resides. The money appears to have been moved while FTX froze withdrawals for its own customers.

In addition to this latest investigation, according to the New York Times, U.S. prosecutors are also looking into whether Bankman-Fried (who also goes by SBF) manipulated the market earlier this year and helped play a role in the collapse of the stablecoin Terra and its sister token Luna. The collapse of those two cryptocurrencies sent the entire crypto market into a downward spiral this past summer. The founder of Terra and Luna, Do Kwon, is currently on the lam, hiding from an international arrest warrant from South Korean authorities.

These two newly publicized investigations would be in addition to the previously known inquiries regarding whether SBF acted improperly when sending FTX customer funds over to Alameda Research in order to make risky investments.

It has now been a month since FTX filed for bankruptcy. What was once one of the biggest crypto exchanges in the world crumbled in a matter of days following reports that its affiliated hedge fund, Alameda Research, was using FTX customer funds to make trades and was actually insolvent.

Billions in clients’ money is lost and billions more has gone unaccounted for. So, people have asked, why is Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder — and, up until the collapse, CEO — of FTX, still a free man? Likely complicating the investigations is just how SBF and FTX’s employees ran the business.

“Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here,” said FTX’s new CEO, John Ray III, who was appointed following the bankruptcy. It should be noted that Ray is the same individual who was brought in after Enron’s collapse in 2001. 

SBF has also been quite public with his version of what happened, sitting down for numerous interviews with mainstream media and even random crypto advocates in Twitter Spaces. SBF claims he didn’t do anything improper and the collapse of his crypto empire was simply due to bad business decisions on his and his company’s part.

While critics have poked holes in SBF’s claims, it seems like we will soon officially know more about the alleged criminal activity SBF is believed to have taken part in.

Who can forget the cringeworthy interview on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon earlier this year where host Fallon and Paris Hilton gushed over their Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs?

Well, that Tonight Show segment is now part of a class-action lawsuit against dozens of celebrities who promoted Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs along with its parent company Yuga Labs. 

According to the two plaintiffs who filed the complaint, Yuga Labs “schemed” with celebrities like Fallon, Hilton, Madonna, Kevin Hart, Justin Bieber, and Snoop Dogg, in order to artificially pump up the price of Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, and defraud their fans who invested.

The suit was filed in federal district court in Los Angeles on Dec. 8. The plaintiffs are looking for at least $5 million for themselves and others who were affected.

Additional celebrities named in the lawsuit include Gwyneth Paltrow, Post Malone, Stephen Curry, and Serena Williams among others.

There are other notable names included in the suit too, such as Williams’ husband, Reddit founder Alex Ohanian and Amy Wu, an investor who recently left FTX, the failed cryptocurrency exchange founded by Sam Bankman-Fried.

One particular standout name being sued is Guy Oseary, talent manager for Madonna, U2, and other musical superstars. Oseary is a partner in Yuga Labs and also manages a number of celebrities involved in promoting Bored Ape NFTs. In addition, Oseary is an investor in Moonpay, a crypto payment platform that has basically acted as a concierge service for many celebrities’ NFT transactions.

And that multi-level relationship stringing everything together is at the heart of the complaint. The plaintiffs say Oseary recruited celebrities he had a relationship with and Yuga Labs paid them to endorse Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs through Moonpay. Then those celebrities would go and promote Bored Ape NFTs to their fans without disclosing the arrangement. For example, that very Tonight Show segment with Fallon and Hilton showing off their Bored Ape NFTs and talking about why they purchased them, is explicitly described in the lawsuit.

“In our view, these claims are opportunistic and parasitic,” said a Yuga Labs spokesperson in a statement provided to a number of outlets. “We strongly believe that they are without merit, and look forward to proving as much.”

Critics have previously pointed out the close relationship between celebrities, their talent agents, and those agents’ investments in crypto companies that their talent then promotes. 

This most recent crypto class action lawsuit follows one that was filed against Larry David, Tom Brady, and Giselle Bündchen last month for their promotion of FTX.

As for Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT owners, their non-fungible token investment is currently down big. The floor price for a Bored Ape NFT peaked in April at around $430,000. Currently, the floor price for a Bored Ape NFT is around $86,000.

Those eager to purchase a blue checkmark are in luck: at long last Twitter is relaunching Twitter Blue.

Twitter announced that it will relaunch Twitter Blue tomorrow (Dec. 12) in a tweet yesterday. Twitter Blue was previously delayed as the social media platform tried to figure out how to avoid Apple’s 30 percent fee on in-app purchases. To compensate for the fee Twitter is now charging $8 a month on web and $11 through its iPhone app.

Tweet may have been deleted
(opens in a new tab)

So what does the subscription fee now get you? Access to edit tweets, 1080p video uploads, reader mode, and of course, the coveted blue checkmark. Twitter will also be reviewing accounts before bestowing them with blue checkmarks and will remove blue checkmarks and re-review Twitter Blue accounts anytime they change their handle, display name, or profile photo. The announcement didn’t specify what makes an account ineligible for a blue checkmark.

It will deal with confusion over what is an official account by making everything more complicated. Twitter is phasing out the “Official account” profile tag and introducing gold and grey checkmarks. Gold checkmarks will be for businesses, while grey will be for government and multilateral accounts.

May we never have to hear about Twitter Blue again.

Saturday Night Live‘s Weekend Update host shares why Brittney Griner’s release was “actually a great trade.”

The WNBA star was freed in a prisoner exchange this week. Russian arms dealer, Viktor Bout, was returned to Russia as part of the deal. Riffing on sports trades, co-host Colin Jost jokes, “It’s actually a great trade because Bout was only averaging five points and two rebounds a game.”

The duo also tackled Krysten Sinema leaving the Democratic Party (a plea for attention), as well as Raphael Warnock’s win, and former President Donald Trump calling for the Constitution to be terminated.

Jost ended by poking fun at New York City SantaCon: “the annual reminder that while Santa may exist, God doesn’t.”

Steve Martin and Martin Short reprised their iconic Father of the Bride characters, George Banks and wedding planner Franck Eggelhoffer, respectively, in a spoof on Saturday Night Live.

In Father of the Bride 8, the titular bride, Annie Banks (Heidi Gardner), is ready to give marriage an eighth shot, but the Banks are understandably financially and emotionally drained. The parody plays with the premise of the classic 1991 Nancy Meyer rom-com and riffs on endless franchises. Chloe Fineman tests out her Diane Keaton impression as the mother of the bride, Nina, who became a Lyft driver to pay for the weddings and Kieran Culkin shows up to remind us that he played Annie’s kid brother all those years ago, and grown Matty Banks still talks like a child.

Martin and Short’s Only Murders in the Building co-star, Selena Gomez, popped in to name her price as a wedding singer ($1.8 million) rounding out the star-studded sketch.

In a very special presentation of “Science Classroom,” Saturday Night Live hosts Steve Martin and Martin Short teach a science lesson about snow with the help of junior volunteers Lonnie (Cecily Strong) and Josh (Mikey Day).

Lonnie and Josh aren’t the brightest but they’re trying their best and they’re definitely testing the patience of Martin and Short. If you’ve ever wanted to know the frustration behind being a teacher, well this sketch is for you.

It’s understandable that some might have a hard time answering science questions but even knock-knock jokes are met with baffling responses. Honestly, thinking about this skit has frustrated me more than the hosts. I need a break.

The holidays are here and Christmas is right around the corner—but sometimes it feels like the world is falling apart. How do you cope with existential dread and the thought of dealing with your drunk uncle? Well, the cast of Saturday Night Live has the answer: just block everything out.

Yes, that’s right, in a very special musical cold open Kenan Thompson, Cecily Strong, Ego Nwodim, Bowen Yang, and Sarah Sherman share how they keep their cool during the holiday season—in the unhealthiest ways possible. Whether that’s falling into a bad alcohol addiction that gets you banned from Burger King or living in a state of delusion that keeps your mental health in shambles, just block it all out and bury it deep inside your soul…until Christmas.

“But what happens in January?” Sherman asks.

“Oh, then we explode,” Strong sings. “We freak out and threaten our ex. We drink to the point where we contemplate murder and accept Venmo payments for sex.”

Yikes.