On this updated version of Hot off the Wire (posted Dec. 2 at 6:42 a.m. CT):

• The Senate passed a bill Thursday to bind rail companies and workers to a proposed settlement that was reached between the rail companies and union leaders in September.
• President Joe Biden indicated he would be willing to talk with Russian President Vladimir Putin if the Russian leader demonstrated that he seriously wanted to end the invasion of Ukraine.
• A federal appeals court has halted an independent review of documents seized from former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate, removing a hurdle the Justice Department said had delayed its criminal investigation into the retention of top-secret government information.
• The Supreme Court says the Biden administration program to cancel student loans will remain blocked for now, but the justices have agreed to take up the case in late winter.
• The nation's first trial over a ban on gender-confirming care for children has ended and is now in the hands of a federal judge. U.S. District Judge Jay Moody didn't indicate Thursday when he would rule on whether to overturn Arkansas' ban, which he temporarily blocked last year.
• Barack Obama is urging Georgia Democrats to keep pushing voting turnout for Sen. Raphael Warnock. The former president and the senator rallied Thursday in Atlanta ahead of Warnock's Tuesday runoff with Republican challenger Herschel Walker.
• Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! museum, an iconic part of the Atlantic City Boardwalk, is closing on Dec. 31.
• Twitter has suspended rapper Ye after he tweeted a picture of a swastika merged with the Star of David. Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, has made a series of antisemitic comments in recent weeks. Also, the rightwing-leaning social media site Parler says a deal to be acquired by Ye, first announced in October, is off.
• In sports, the Bills became division leaders again, college football's playoff will soon feature a much larger field, the Mavericks did not enjoy their trip to Detroit, an AP top-5 team got an unpleasant surprise, and the Devils tasted defeat.

On the original version of Hot off the Wire (posted Dec. 1 at 3:55 p.m. CT):

• The Senate has moved quickly to avert a rail strike that the Biden administration and business leaders say would greatly damage the economy. The Senate passed a bill Thursday to bind rail companies and workers to a proposed settlement that was reached between the rail companies and union leaders in September.

• President Joe Biden is hosting a state dinner Thursday evening with French President Emmanuel Macron, and Biden signaled that he may be willing to tweak aspects of his signature climate legislation that have raised concerns with France and other European allies.
• The Supreme Court says the Biden administration program to cancel student loans will remain blocked for now, but the justices have agreed to take up the case in late winter.
• An official says lava from the world’s largest volcano shouldn’t be able to reach the main highway across Hawaii’s Big Island for at least a week.
• A report from the Commerce Department showed that prices rose 6% in October from a year earlier.
• A coroner says two children were among five people found dead at a suburban Chicago home following what police called a “domestic-related incident."
• The nation’s new 988 hotline, intended to help anyone experiencing a mental health emergency, was out of service for several hours Thursday.
• The Voice of America says the Taliban have banned FM radio broadcasts from VOA and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Afghanistan.
• German authorities say a 72-year-old woman has been arrested after she allegedly switched off her hospital roommate's ventilator twice because she was bothered by the sound it made.
• An honorary member of the Buckingham Palace household has resigned after repeatedly asking a Black woman who runs a charity for survivors of domestic abuse what country she “really came from.’’
• Award-winning “Squid Game” actor Oh Young-soo will stand trial on charges of indecent assault after a woman accused him of inappropriately touching her in 2017.
• The Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center in New York was lit Wednesday night following a star-filled concert.
• Wildfires in Colorado in the summer of 2020 have caused long-term damage.

—The Associated Press