From around the globe to out your backdoor, here are the topics to keep you relevant and up-to-date.

Listen to Tuesday’s discussion here.

• On the night of Dec. 21, the winter solstice, the two largest planets in our solar system, Jupiter and Saturn, will appear so closely aligned in our sky that they will look like a double planet. This incredibly rare “Christmas Star” is making its appearance for the first time in 800 years. 
• The new height of the world’s highest peak, Mt Everest, is 8,848.86 meters (29,031.7 feet), which is approximately 2 feet taller than Nepal’s previous measurement and about four meters (13 feet) higher than China’s reading
• Since COVID-19 arrived in the United States more than 10 months ago, it has infected 13.5 million people across the country, or 1 in 24 U.S. residents. How many of them do you know?
• 6,000 years of arrows emerge from melting Norwegian ice patch. The record-setting discovery of 68 projectiles from the Neolithic to the Viking Era also upends ideas on how ice both preserves and destroys archaeological finds.
• Gov. Gavin Newsom gave a 90-minute press conference Monday in which he unveiled a coronavirus exposure app and public education campaign. The app, “CA Notify,” launches Thursday. Once enabled, it notifies users when they come in close contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. Newsom said the app protects user privacy and doesn’t gather personal information like your name or location. Around 250,000 people used the app and 60 were notified of exposure during a pilot program at some California universities
• A UK grandmother has become the first person in the world to be given the Pfizer COVID-19 jab as part of a mass vaccination program.
• Break dancing (or “breaking”) will officially be an Olympic sport in the 2024 Paris summer games. It will be the latest new-wave sport to join the Olympic program, following sports like climbing, skateboarding and surfing, all of which will debut in Tokyo next summer.
• No surprise here, Cyber Monday was the biggest US e-commerce day ever, with online sales reaching a record $10.8B — up 15% from last year