'Influenza Activity'
What You Need To Know
Today’s posts that caught my eye:
At least 25 U.S. states or territories recently have had "very high" or "high" rates of influenza activity, according to the latest CDC data.
The US will have a record number of female governors in 2023.
Elon Musk’s aerospace business SpaceX just ordered one of the larger advertising packages available from Twitter.
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The World
G-20 Discord Likely to Thwart Efforts to Boost Sagging Global Economy: With the specter of recession looming over the global economy, reviving flagging growth will be near the top of the agenda at a summit for the leaders of the Group of 20 advanced and developing economies. The problem: Discord among G-20 members is a big reason for the slowdown. Europe may already be slipping into recession as Russia throttles its energy supplies in retaliation for Western sanctions over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Inflation spurred by that conflict is squeezing consumers and businesses around the world and heaping pressure on poorer countries through spiraling import bills for food and energy. (Wall Street Journal)
Biden, Xi to revive 11-year relationship at Bali summit: In 2011, then-U.S. vice president met Chinese counterpart five times over six days. Today’s meeting comes at a time of deep acrimony between the two superpowers over thorny issues such as Taiwan and trade. And although it will be their inaugural face-to-face summit as heads of state, few world leaders have spent as much one-on-one time with Xi as Biden. (Nikkei Asia Review)
Crypto exchanges race to soothe clients’ nerves after FTX collapse: Binance, the world’s biggest crypto trading venue, as well as smaller rivals including Crypto.com, OKX and Derebit, have vowed to publish proof that they hold sufficient reserves to match their liabilities to customers. Coinbase, the US-listed exchange, has also sought to distance itself from the crisis that has engulfed FTX. Tether’s eponymous US dollar stablecoin — the largest in the industry — has faced approximately $3bn in redemptions in the past four days, underscoring how traders are yanking funds out of the digital asset market. (Financial Times)
The FTX collapse is the subject of scrutiny from government investigators in the Bahamas, who are looking at whether any "criminal misconduct occurred," the Royal Bahamas Police said on Sunday. (Reuters)
Michael Lewis — the most talented and successful non-fiction writer working today — embedded with FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried for the past six months and is making the collapsing cryptocurrency exchange the centerpiece of his next book. (The Ankler)
Australians are being warned to expect a growing wave of Russian cyberattacks that hold more companies to ransom and spread concern among customers in a trend linked to state support for criminal gangs. Security experts believe cybergangs are scaling up their attacks and changing their behavior as they gain a form of protection from Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Sydney Morning Herald)
New pact between Britain and France to stem flow of migrants: The new deal will for the first time entail British officers being stationed in French control rooms and sharing live intelligence. The French government will also pledge to increase significantly the number of officers patrolling Channel beaches to detect and disrupt crossings. (The Times)
The Taliban have banned women from visiting all parks in Kabul, excluding them still further from public life in Afghanistan. A spokesman for the Vice and Virtue Ministry told the BBC those managing parks in the capital had been told not to allow women in. The group claims Islamic laws were not being followed at parks. Under Taliban rules on segregating people by gender, women have been allowed to visit parks on three days every week - Sunday, Monday, Tuesday - and men on the remaining four. Now women won't be allowed even if accompanied by male relatives. (BBC)
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi signaled that Democrats will seek to extend the federal debt ceiling during the lame-duck session of Congress, avoiding a potential fight with Republicans that she said could threaten the US’s credit rating. (Bloomberg)
Post-election news:
More Republicans Prefer DeSantis to Trump in 2024: A new YouGov poll conducted after the midterm elections finds more Republicans and Republican-leaning Independents now say they’d prefer Ron DeSantis as their 2024 presidential nominee over Donald Trump, 42% to 35%. (Political Wire)
Florida Republicans eye further abortion restrictions after big gains in the Legislature. Incoming Florida Senate President Kathleen Passidomo on Friday said she would support restricting abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy as long as there are exceptions for victims of rape and incest. (Politico)
Far-right gun group says its members have switched allegiance from Trump to Ron DeSantis for the 2024 presidential election. The announcement is notable given that Trump worked hard to cultivate support from 2nd Amendment advocates during and after his presidency. (Insider)
The US will have a record number of female governors in 2023. Still, the record-setting number – 12 – will represent a small fraction of the top executives across the 50 states. The previous record of nine female governors serving concurrently was set in 2004. (CNN)
Colorado set to legalize ‘medicinal psychedelics.’ Colorado looks poised to legalize magic mushrooms after the group opposing the ballot question conceded defeat. Proposition 122 has garnered 51.4% of the vote, although the referendum was still too close to call officially. Colorado would become the second state to legalize psychedelics, following Oregon’s 2020 passage of a similar ballot question. (STAT News)
A crisis on campus: Yale students struggling with mental health issues fear exile. At Yale, suicidal students are pressured to withdraw, then must apply to get back into the university -- an approach under increasing attack from mental health activists and alumni. (Washington Post)
3 million middle and high school students use tobacco products. Tobacco use at any age is unsafe, but it’s a particular problem for young people because it can set the stage for lifetime addiction. A new CDC study found that nearly 1 in 9 middle and high school students currently use tobacco products, which translates into an estimated 3.08 million students. For the ninth year in a row, e-cigarettes were the most popular product overall and cigars were the most commonly used form of combustible tobacco. (STAT News)
At least 25 U.S. states or territories recently have had "very high" or "high" rates of influenza activity, according to the latest CDC data. The data suggests this year's flu season is hitting the U.S. harder and earlier than in previous years, especially in the south. (Axios)
Worry About Catching COVID-19 Lowest Since June 2021. (Gallup)
Economy
Voters Approve Tens of Billions of Dollars in Muni Projects: U.S. voters said yes to tens of billions of dollars for road-paving, school-building and other local projects last Tuesday, promising a new wave of bonds for eager investors. The voters approved $57 billion out of the $63 billion in ballot measures for which results are available, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. If that 90% approval rate holds steady, the total amount of new municipal debt authorized Tuesday will come to about $90 billion, the most from any election day in the data, which goes back to 2012. (Wall Street Journal)
The U.S. Fed may consider slowing the pace of rate increases at its next meeting but that should not be seen as a "softening" in its commitment to lower inflation, Federal Reserve Gov. Christopher Waller said. Markets should now pay attention to the "endpoint" of rate increases, not the pace of each move, and that endpoint is likely still "a ways off," Waller said in response to a series of questions on monetary policy at an economic conference organized by UBS in Australia. "It depends on inflation." (Reuters)
Disney CEO Bob Chapek announced companywide cost-cutting measures and told division leaders that layoffs are likely. The austerity measures, which include a ban on all but essential work travel and a freeze on new hires for all but a few critical positions, come days after Disney reported lackluster quarterly earnings and a $1.5 billion quarterly loss at its streaming business, significantly wider than Wall Street analysts had predicted. (Wall Street Journal)
Labor Market Mystery: Where Are the Older Gen Z Workers? There are half a million fewer workers in their early 20s working or actively seeking a job now versus before the pandemic, and economists want to know why. (Wall Street Journal)
Technology
US chipmakers reel from sharp boom to bust: Qualcomm has sliced 25 per cent from its revenue guidance for the current quarter as weaker consumer spending hit smartphone sales. The forecast came as some of the leading chipmakers issued surprisingly weak sales and profit projections and signaled a round of job cuts ahead. Among those to take an axe to their forecasts, AMD warned that sales of processors for PCs this quarter would be down 40 per cent from last year, with profit margins also surprisingly weak. Intel, which cut revenue forecasts again after a big reduction the previous quarter, signaled thousands of job lay-offs ahead with a plan to cut as much as $10bn from its costs by 2025. (Financial Times)
South Korea caught in the middle of US-China chip war, but American export control requests unlikely. (South China Morning Post)
Tesla is sharing its EV charging connector design in an effort to encourage network operators and automakers to adopt the technology and help make it the new standard in North America. Tesla said in a blog post Friday that its design and specification files are available for download. The company said it is “actively working with relevant standards bodies to codify Tesla’s charging connector as a public standard.” (TechCrunch)
Digital ad and linear TV ad spending by the top crypto advertisers in the US plummeted in the past few months amid the cryptocurrency markets' sharp decline. (Digiday)
Elon Musk’s aerospace business SpaceX just ordered one of the larger advertising packages available from Twitter, which Musk recently took over in a contentious, $44 billion deal. The campaign is to promote the SpaceX satellite internet service, Starlink, in Australia and Spain. The ad package, known as a “takeover” at Twitter, typically costs $250,000 or more for brands advertising on the social media platform. (CNBC)
Smart Links
Meta is killing Portal and both its unreleased smartwatches. (The Verge)
As world population hits 8 billion, China frets over too few babies. (Reuters)
Ben Sasse’s Contract at Florida’s Flagship Has Lots of Perks. But Not Tenure. (Chronicle of Higher Education)
Jeff Bezos awards Dolly Parton $100m to fund good causes. (The Times)
German podcast listeners double in four years (PodNews)
One Step Closer to ‘IUD For Men’: Doctors Inject First Humans with Male Contraceptive Gel. (MedCityNews)
Russian zookeeper kidnaps animals from Kherson, Ukraine says. (Washington Post)
Good News
Don Was Ill. Six Buddies Reunited 58 Years After Graduation to Help Him. When friends discovered that a classmate needed help, they responded in the spirit of their all-boys high school motto: ‘Men for Others.’ (Wall Street Journal)
He recorded his Nana’s songs. Now, at 95, she’s nominated for a Latin Grammy. ‘Sometimes, I pinch myself,’ Angela Alvarez said of her nomination for best new artist. (Washington Post)
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