'Thanksgiving Travel'
What You Need To Know
Today’s posts that caught my eye:
Tech layoffs send H-1B visa holders scrambling for new jobs: Hundreds of people in the US on temporary work visas may need to leave the country if they can’t find new sponsors.
UC Berkeley and Stanford joined top law schools boycotting the U.S. News & World Report rankings. It was another blow to the influential ratings service after Harvard, Yale, Columbia and Georgetown also withdrew from participation.
Stores offer steep holiday sales as inventory piles up.
Thank you for subscribing. Know someone who should check out the newsletter? Let them!
The World
OPEC oil producers are discussing an output increase, the group’s delegates said, a move that could help heal a rift between Saudi Arabia and the Biden administration and keep energy flowing amid new attempts to blunt Russia’s oil industry over the Ukraine war. A production increase of up to 500,000 barrels a day is now under discussion for OPEC+’s Dec. 4 meeting, delegates said. The move would come a day before the European Union is set to impose an embargo on Russian oil and the Group of Seven wealthy nations’ plans to launch a price cap on Russian crude sales, potentially taking Moscow’s petroleum supplies off the market. (Wall Street Journal)
China is turning to an old friend in corporate America to bolster communications with the U.S., as President Xi Jinping tries to stabilize the bilateral relationship while gearing up for greater competition between the two powers. A few days before Mr. Xi’s summit last week with President Biden, according to people with knowledge of the matter, Beijing dispatched a delegation of senior policy advisers and business executives to New York to meet with a U.S. counterpart group set up by insurance executive Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, one of the most successful American businessmen in China. Wall Street executives have long held a special place in Beijing’s corridors of power. Beijing has viewed Mr. Greenberg, 97 years old, as what Chinese leaders call an “old friend of China.” Mr. Greenberg, a decorated World War II veteran and a major Republican donor, is the chief executive of insurance and investment firm C.V. Starr & Co. and former CEO of insurance giant American International Group Inc. (Wall Street Journal)
The world’s baby shortfall is so bad that the labor shortage will last for years, major employment firms predict. Using World Bank projections and analyzing employment trends across several countries, economists found the number of people of working age (15 to 65) is set to decline in the coming years. That means hiring will be more difficult and workers will have more leverage over employers. The decline in people of working age will partly stem from an aging population, the number of deaths exceeding births, and reduced immigration. For example, the U.S. and U.K.’s population growth will be driven solely by net migration. And in the U.K., deaths are projected to exceed births by 2025. (Fortune)
In male-dominated North Korea, leadership prospects of Kim Jong Un's daughter are uncertain. Although the unexpected appearance of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s daughter raised speculation that she could be a successor in the making, analysts say it would be an unprecedented uphill struggle in the male-dominated dynasty. Each change at the top in North Korea has raised the prospect of a leadership vacuum or collapse of the Kim dynasty, which has ruled the country since its founding in 1948. (Reuters)
A year in, the Taliban has escalated its war against girls’ education in Afghanistan: Women and girls across Afghanistan are grappling with the Taliban’s hard-line vision for the country and its plan to turn back the clock not only on their education but also their very presence in public life. The group claims it has no interest in restoring its 1990s regime, when girls were banned from school and almost all jobs, and endured corporal punishment for violations such as not wearing a burqa in public. Yet every few months, new decrees are issued on which careers women may have, how far they may travel without a male guardian and what they may wear outside the home. One edict said the most devout women wouldn’t leave the house at all, unless there’s need. (Los Angeles Times)
Indonesian rescue workers were racing to reach people still trapped in rubble after an earthquake devastated a West Java town a day earlier, killing at least 162 people and injuring hundreds, as officials warned the death toll may rise. (Nikkei Asia Review)
Former members of Amy Coney Barrett’s secretive faith group, the People of Praise, are calling on the US supreme court justice to recuse herself from an upcoming case involving gay rights, saying Barrett’s continued affiliation with the Christian group means she has participated in discriminatory policies against LGBTQ+ people. The former members are part of a network of “survivors” of the controversial charismatic group who say Barrett’s “lifelong and continued” membership in the People of Praise make her too biased to fairly adjudicate an upcoming case that will decide whether private business owners have a right to decline services to potential clients based on their sexual orientation. (The Guardian)
Anti-abortion groups blame GOP silence for election defeat: The divisions among anti-abortion groups and Republican leaders threaten to undercut a movement that for decades has shaped party platforms, tipped the scales in primaries, and helped steer the federal judiciary rightward. (Politico)
Second migrant bus from Texas arrives in Philadelphia: Immigrant advocates wonder if buses with migrants from the Texas border will keep coming this week during the Thanksgiving holiday. (Texas Tribune)
Alabama pausing executions after third failed lethal injection. (Politico)
Between April and August, the number of monthly abortions performed in the United States decreased by more than 5,000 following the ban or restriction of the procedure by several states after the Supreme Court overturned precedent Roe v. Wade. Data from activist group Society of Family Planning now shows safe haven locations that some abortions have shifted to following the decision. (Statista)
As Americans head into the holiday season, a rapidly intensifying flu season is straining hospitals already overburdened with patients sick from other respiratory infections. More than half the states have high or very high levels of flu, unusually high for this early in the season, the government reported Friday. Those 27 states are mostly in the South and Southwest but include a growing number in the Northeast, Midwest and West. This is happening when children’s hospitals already are dealing with a surge of illnesses from RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, a common cause of coldlike symptoms that can be serious for infants and the elderly. And COVID-19 is still contributing to more than 3,000 hospital admissions each day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Portland Press Herald)
UC Berkeley and Stanford joined top law schools boycotting the U.S. News & World Report rankings. It was another blow to the influential ratings service after Harvard, Yale, Columbia and Georgetown also withdrew from participation. (Los Angeles Times)
The two largest freight rail unions split their votes on agreeing to a contract, a mixed signal in a monthslong, high-stakes negotiation that could lead to a shutdown of the nation’s freight rail network starting next month. (Politico)
Airlines enter new, stretched-out Thanksgiving travel window: The holiday stands as a test of airlines’ recovery and their ability to get travelers to their destinations on time after a chaotic summer. (Washington Post)
AAA says 55 million people across the country are planning to travel over 50 miles for the holiday, making it the third-busiest Thanksgiving since they started tracking data in 2000. (WBUR)
Economy
Fed’s Mester wants more progress on inflation before ending interest rate hikes. Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester said that recent data has been encouraging, but that the progress is only a start. However, Mester said she’s on board with smaller interest rate increases than the Fed has been implementing lately. (CNBC)
‘We like anything with the Harrods name on it’: luxury brands report booming sales. One after another, luxury goods companies have reported bumper sales and profits, as the world’s wealthy enjoy a “roaring 20s” age of decadence similar to the boom in the postwar period a century ago. The company behind Moët & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot, Krug and Dom Pérignon this week said it was “running out of stock on our best champagnes” as it struggles to meet “pent-up demand” for the finest fizz as parties take off following the full easing of coronavirus restrictions. (The Guardian)
Stores offer steep holiday sales as inventory piles up. The supply-chain woes that thwarted holiday shoppers last year are mostly resolved. Instead, Walmart, Target and Kohl's are among major chains that have reported surging inventory levels as people stopped shopping for stay-at-home products like pajamas and electronics. (Axios)
Are the Federal Reserve’s Rate Increases Working? The Federal Reserve this year has raised interest rates at the fastest pace since the 1980s, making it increasingly expensive to borrow money as it seeks to slow consumer and business demand and drive inflation lower. So far, those moves are making more of a splash than a wave. The Fed has lifted interest rates to nearly 4 percent this month from just above zero in March, and those moves are clearly rippling through financial markets. The housing market has slowed as mortgage rates have surged, and some specific industries — most notably technology — are feeling the pinch. But other parts of the economy, including consumer spending and the labor market, have proved surprisingly resilient to the central bank’s interest rates changes. (New York Times)
New York Cannabis Farms Have $750 Million of Weed — and Nowhere to Sell It. By almost all metrics, New York’s cannabis market rollout should be in the final innings. The state began handing out growing licenses to more than 200 farms last spring and farmers have since sowed seeds, tended to rows of plants all summer, and just in the last few weeks, finished harvesting. Now, hundreds of thousands of pounds of weed — worth hundreds of millions of dollars — is ready to be sold at dispensaries. There’s one hitch: Instead of being shipped to retail stores, the weed is just piling up. Though a rampant gray market is already up and running, not one legal recreational dispensary has yet opened in New York, despite the state regulator’s repeated assurances that cannabis stores would be a fixture by the end of this year. (Bloomberg)
Photos and internal documents from a Beyond Meat Inc. plant in Pennsylvania show apparent mold, Listeria and other food-safety issues, compounding problems at a factory the company had expected to play a major role in its future. Products from the plant tested positive for Listeria, a harmful bacteria, on at least 11 occasions during the second half of last year and the first half of 2022, according to an internal document provided by a former employee concerned about conditions at the plant. The occurrence of the bacteria at the facility was confirmed by two former employees, who asked not to be named discussing private information about the company. While Listeria is frequently present at food plants, it’s more unusual for it to be found in the products themselves. (Bloomberg)
Technology
Amazon makes a new push into health care: As big tech companies face a brutal slow-down the hunt is on for new areas of expansion. Amazon, which is now America’s second-biggest business by revenue, is a case in point. In the final quarter of 2022 its sales are expected to expand by just 6.7% year on year. On November 17th Andy Jassy, Amazon’s chief executive, confirmed that the firm had begun laying off employees and would fire more next year. Mr Jassy said it was the most difficult decision he had made since becoming boss. But he also noted that “big opportunities” lay ahead. One that he highlighted is the largest, most lucrative and hellishly difficult businesses in America: health care. (Economist)
Tech Layoffs Send H-1B Visa Holders Scrambling for New Jobs: Hundreds of people in the US on temporary work visas may need to leave the country if they can’t find new sponsors. (Bloomberg)
Zoom shares drop on light forecast as company faces ‘heightened deal scrutiny’. Zoom made a slight downward revision to its revenue guidance, and investors responded by pushing the stock lower. Earnings topped estimates in the quarter, while revenue met expectations. (CNBC)
Senior Walt Disney executives led a rebellion against chief executive Bob Chapek in recent weeks, which resulted in his ousting and replacement with predecessor Bob Iger, according to people familiar with the matter. The covert campaign to overthrow Chapek, which began in the summer, came after the outgoing chief executive lost the confidence of some members of his top team during a tumultuous 33 months at the helm of the media empire. “A lot of people were approaching the board, Iger loyalists who felt marginalised,” said one person with knowledge of the talks. (Financial Times)
Iger to Receive $27 Million Yearly for Return as Disney CEO. (Bloomberg)
Iger announces first big moves in new tenure as Disney CEO: Restructuring and departure of Chapek right hand Kareem Daniel. (CNBC)
Smart Links
Tom Brady, Steph Curry FTX Endorsements Probed by Texas Regulator. (Bloomberg)
England’s stock of office space falls at fastest rate for 20 years. (Financial Times)
Is South Korea set to compete with US for sales as its military exports surge? (South China Morning Post)
Penguin Random House’s $2.2bn deal for Simon & Schuster collapses. (Financial Times)
Elon Musk's 2022 Wealth Loss Exceeds $100 Billion for First Time. (Bloomberg)
Soccer-mad Germans turning their backs on World Cup. (Associated Press)
Just 60% of NYC job listings include salary ranges—who’s complying and who’s not. (CNBC)
Good News
Americans Are More Excited for the World Cup Than Usual. (Morning Consult)
Angler lands one of world’s largest goldfish in French lake: Andy Hackett catches the Carrot, elusive 30kg leather carp-koi hybrid released into fishing lake 20 years ago. (The Guardian)
Thank you for subscribing to my newsletter. Know someone you think would like it?