'Rewriting History'
What You Need To Know
Today’s posts that caught my eye:
Hot Spot 1: Belarus. Days after Belarus forced some thousands of migrants over the border to Poland, two nuclear-capable strategic bombers went on a training mission over Belarus, and Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko threatened to cut the transit of gas and goods through Belarus to Europe if the EU imposes further sanctions on his regime.
Hot Spot 2: China. Chinese President Xi became enshrined in the Communist Party’s official firmament of era-defining leaders. He also warned Asia-Pacific leaders against joining Biden’s plan to strengthen alliances to counter China’s economic and military rise, while U.S. Secretary of State Blinken said the U.S. and its allies would “take action” if China used force to alter the status quo over Taiwan.
Growth is slowing for streaming services, and the slowing growth among most streaming services may suggest pandemic gains are waning as more people return to outside activities and out-of-home work.
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The World
Chinese leaders pave way for Xi's 3rd term and beyond: China’s Communist Party delivered Xi Jinping a breakthrough that will help secure his political future — by rewriting history. Senior party officials in a closed-door meeting in Beijing approved a decision reassessing the party’s 100-year history and enshrining Mr. Xi in the party’s official firmament of era-defining leaders. The move, signaled in an official summary of the meeting, elevated Mr. Xi to a stature alongside Mao Zedong, the founder of the country’s Communist rule, and Deng Xiaoping, the chief architect of its economic takeoff. (Nikkei Asian Review, New York Times)
Chinese President Xi Jinping warned Asia-Pacific leaders against joining Joe Biden’s plan to strengthen alliances to counter China’s economic and military rise, adding attempts to “draw ideological lines” or to “form small circles on geopolitical grounds” were bound to fail. Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. and its allies would “take action” if China used force to alter the status quo over Taiwan. Blinken did not say what sort of action he was referring to. (Financial Times, South China Morning Post)
Russia sent two nuclear-capable strategic bombers on a training mission over Belarus for a second straight day in a strong show of Moscow's support for its ally amid a dispute over migration at the Polish border. The Belarusian Defense Ministry said two Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers practiced bombing runs at the Ruzany firing range, located in Belarus just over 37 miles east of the border with Poland. As part of the joint training, Belarusian fighter jets simulated an intercept, the ministry said. The missions marked the second time in two days that Russia sent its nuclear-capable bombers into the skies over Belarus. (U.S. News & World Report)
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko threatened to cut the transit of gas and goods through Belarus to Europe if the EU imposes further sanctions on his regime over the migrant crisis on the Belarusian-Polish border. (Financial Times)
Tens of thousands of far-right protesters marched through Warsaw as the crisis on the border of Poland and Belarus escalated. Polish ministers had said that they were braced for imminent “attacks” on the country’s eastern frontier before the annual demonstration, which is Europe’s biggest far-right march. (The Times)
UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak admitted that the government needs to “do better” as he broke his silence on the sleaze rows that have engulfed the Conservative Party. The chancellor told Sky News: “Just reflecting over recent events, I think for us as a government it’s fair to say that we need to do better than we did last week — and we know that.” (The Times)
Germany crossed 50,000 new daily coronavirus infections for the first time today, while also registering 235 new deaths from the virus. They previously reported on Wednesday 39,676 new cases, which was also a record at the time. Virologist Christian Drosten said the country could witness as many as 100,000 more deaths from the virus and called for urgent action. (Deutsche Welle)
Moderna says Covid vaccine has fewer breakthrough cases than Pfizer’s. (CNBC)
House Republicans who backed the infrastructure bill are facing vicious backlash: One caller instructed Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois to slit his wrists and “rot in hell.” Another hoped Representative Don Bacon of Nebraska would slip and fall down a staircase. The office of Representative Nicole Malliotakis of New York has been inundated with angry messages tagging her as a “traitor.” In the days since 13 House Republicans broke with their party leaders and voted for the $1 trillion legislation last week, they have been flooded by menacing messages from voters — and even some of their own colleagues — who regard their votes as a betrayal. (New York Times)
North Texas principal resigns to end fight over whether he was teaching “critical race theory.” James Whitfield, the first Black principal at mostly white Colleyville Heritage High School, chose to resign but remain on paid administrative leave until 2023 in a settlement with the school district. (Texas Tribune)
U.S. and China issue joint pledge to slow climate change: ‘We both see that the challenge of climate change is an existential and severe one,’ Chinese envoy says in announcing agreement. (Washington Post)
Economy
Joe Biden’s White House is scrambling to tame soaring inflation as rising prices threaten to undercut the US economic recovery, jeopardize his spending plans and doom the Democratic party’s chances in next year’s midterm elections. The fight against inflation marks a big shift in economic strategy for Biden compared with his early months in office, when the administration’s main goal was to revive the pandemic-hit US economy with a jolt in demand through fiscal stimulus. But battling high prices has now become a large focus for Biden’s economic team after incoming data have confounded its expectations that inflationary pressures would be shortlived. On Wednesday, the US consumer price index showed a 6.2% gain in October from the previous year, its fastest increase since 1990. (Financial Times, Washington Post)
Mohamed El-Erian: Fed’s inflation miscalculations risk hurting the poor: The slower the response to increasing prices, the greater the threat of contractionary forces for the economy. (Financial Times)
American home buyers are having to pounce faster than ever to clinch a deal, forcing many of them to make snap decisions about what house to purchase and where to live. Home sales between July 2020 and June 2021 sat on the market for a median period of only one week before going under contract. That’s down from three weeks a year earlier and marks a record low in data going back to 1989. The rapid turnover helps explain how the number of homes sold rose to multiyear highs during the Covid-19 pandemic, even as the inventory of homes for sale remained stubbornly low. (Wall Street Journal)
Zillow sells 2,000 homes in dismantling its house-flipping business. (Wall Street Journal)
New mortgage refinance programs are expanding to reach more homeowners. (CNBC)
UK economic growth slowed dramatically from 5.5% in 2Q21 to only 1.3% in 3Q21 on the back of weaker consumer spending and supply chain bottlenecks. The figure is slightly below the consensus forecasts of 1.5%. (The Times)
Avis, the latest meme stock, is driving the Dow Transports Index. Shares of the car-rental company have been soaring, and their outsize influence could make that index a less reliable gauge of the broader stock market. (Wall Street Journal)
Technology
Sony has cut PS5 production targets from 16M to 15M by March 2022, due to component and logistics constraints, as PS5 first-year sales fall behind PS4. (Bloomberg)
In its latest push to lure more business customers to its services, Facebook is integrating its enterprise product that offers video and collaboration tools with Microsoft’s business software. The integration between Workplace from Facebook and Microsoft Teams will allow employees who use both services the chance to access content from one another without having to switch back and forth. It also will allow employees to stream their video meetings from Teams to Workplace groups, where they can then type comments and use Facebook reactions. (Washington Post)
Disney makes the trend clear: Growth is slowing for streaming services. Disney announced added 2.1 million subscribers for its fiscal 4Q21, which ended Oct. 2. That’s down from 12.6 million added the previous quarter. Slowing growth was also the story at AT&T’s WarnerMedia and ViacomCBS. NBCUniversal’s Peacock added “a few million more subscribers” but didn’t reveal a new figure. Only Netflix bounced back in 3Q21, reporting 4.4 million subscriber net additions compared to just 1 million adds in 2Q21. The slowing growth among most streaming services may suggest pandemic gains are waning as more people return to outside activities and out-of-home work. (CNBC)
Disney is latest firm to announce metaverse plans: Mickey Mouse and Princess Elsa are heading to the metaverse after Walt Disney said it was preparing a virtual world for fans of its characters. Disney CEO Bob Chapek said the company was preparing to take the leap into virtual reality. (The Guardian)
Discord CEO Jason Citron says the service has no plans to add crypto and NFT tools, after backlash to an internal concept he shared on Twitter. (TechCrunch)
Smart Links
Elon Musk sells around $5 billion in Tesla stock. (Wall Street Journal)
An IPO made her India's newest billionaire. (The Broadsheet)
Bill Ackman tries to win neighbors’ support for divisive glass penthouse. (Financial Times)
Teachers humiliated in videos posted by children on TikTok. (The Times)
Wall Street banks generated $7.2bn in fees from rise and fall of GE. (Financial Times)
Andreessen Horowitz plans to raise roughly $6.5 billion for new venture funds. (Wall Street Journal)
Obituary: F W de Klerk, South African president, 1936-2021. Last leader of the apartheid era, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela. (Times Live)
Good News
Steelers' Najee Harris helps renovate homeless shelter where his family once lived: Pittsburgh Steelers rookie running back Najee Harris has burst onto the scene this year, but what he's done off the field has been even more impressive. (Bleacher Report)
They’re just like the rest of us! New Zealand Prime Minister was trying to host a Facebook Live session… but her daughter’s bedtime interfered with the session.
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