🌎 The best for the glitziest offices

Good morning, Quartz readers!

This is the final weekday Daily Brief of 2023. We’ll miss you! We’ll be back on Jan. 3, 2024.

Here’s what you need to know

Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global are exploring a merger. The talks, first reported by Axios, could spur a new streaming giant to compete with Netflix and Disney+.

Satellite images indicate that China is quietly rebuilding its remote nuclear testing site. The New York Times reported that the old base, Lop Nur, has undergone hundreds of upgrades and expansions.

The US Supreme Court will likely intervene directly in the country’s election next year. A Colorado court ruling that banned former president Donald Trump from the state’s ballot raises significant constitutional questions.

An airbag problem led to a recall of 1 million Toyota vehicles. The defect, detected in several models made between 2020 and 2022, could cause the safety features to fail to inflate.

Citigroup is closing its global distressed-debt group. The move is part of an overhaul that’s being led by the bank’s CEO Jane Fraser.

Venezuela and the US swapped prisoners. The former received a financier for president Nicolás Maduro, and the latter got 10 Americans and a fugitive at the center of a Navy bribery case.

Office landlords keep sweetening the deal for renters…

Incentives for US renters to stick with their office landlords have gotten increasingly bolder—especially for the glitziest places, known as Class A and Class A+ buildings.

Global real estate firm CBRE found that in 2023, top-tier building landlords of these glamorous digs offered renters an average of 10 free months over the life of their leases. That’s up from seven months free in 2019. Lease agreements typically span about nine years, according to CBRE.

“The increase in concessions underscores just how office tenants have an advantage in lease negotiations today,” said Mike Watts, president of CBRE’s investor leasing for the Americas. “It also illustrates an ongoing ‘flight to quality’ in which companies favor higher quality buildings that will help to entice employees to work from the office.”

…And US homebuilders are getting that jolly feeling again

The prospect of falling interest rates has the home construction industry breathing a sigh of relief.

In November, construction began on new homes in the US at an annualized equivalent of 1.6 million US housing units, and new permits were filed on 1.5 million units. The latter rose year-over-year for the first time since July 2022, suggesting that homebuilders are excited about conditions conspiring to bring customers back into the market.

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Our best wishes for a productive day. Send any news, comments, jajajas, and chimp hugs to [email protected]. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Morgan Haefner.