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The World
China is rebuilding the base where it tested its first nuclear weapon six decades ago. The activity in China’s remote northwest “is the strongest evidence yet that Beijing is weighing whether to test a new generation of nuclear arms that could increase the lethality of its rapidly expanding missile force.” (New York Times)
Xi Jinping told President Biden during their recent summit that Beijing “will reunify Taiwan with mainland China but that the timing has not yet been decided, according to three current and former U.S. officials.” (NBC News)
The U.S. freed a close ally of President Nicolás Maduro in exchange for the release of 10 Americans imprisoned in Venezuelan “and the return of a fugitive defense contractor known as ‘Fat Leonard’ who is at the center of a massive Pentagon bribery scandal.” The deal “represents the Biden administration’s boldest move yet to improve relations” with Venezuela. (Associated Press)
EU negotiators have agreed on landmark border measures “to stop illegal migration in boats across the Mediterranean or through the Balkans in an agreement dubbed a ‘dark day for Europe’” by refugee groups. The “‘migration pact’ comes after years of wrangling and still faces opposition from Poland and Hungary to burden-sharing quotas.” (Times of London)
Vladimir Putin announced that he will be reviving the Stalin-era practice of a march of Russian athletes in Red Square next year. The athletes’ parade “was part of a Soviet tradition that the population should always be physically ‘ready for labor and defense’ and marks Russia’s latest step towards the return of the Soviet era.” (Times of London)
Poland’s new Prime Minister Donald Tusk shut down the 24-hour TVP Info public television news channel as his “new pro-EU administration pushed to assert control over state media.” Tusk’s government says the channel “had become a mouthpiece of the rightwing former government.” (Financial Times)
India’s lower house of parliament passed sweeping criminal law bills after suspending at least 141 members. While opposition politicians “have been suspended before, the high number this time has prompted critics” to accuse Prime Minister Narendra Modi “of purging dissent to push forward his Hindu nationalist agenda.” (Semafor)
A protest march in Buenos Aires against President Javier Milei’s economic agenda “began with isolated clashes between demonstrators and federal police riot squads, who tried in vain to force the protesters to march on the sidewalk to avoid blocking traffic.” Milei and several of his ministers traveled to the headquarters of the Argentine Federal Police to monitor the march. (Agencia EFE)
China has suspended a $6.5 billion currency swap agreement with Argentina “just 10 days into the tenure of the new president, who campaigned on breaking ties with China.” (South China Morning Post)
President Biden is privately frustrated that he “can’t show off physical construction of many projects that his signature legislative accomplishments will fund” before next year’s election. Administration officials say Biden has “griped that even as he travels the country to tout historic pieces of legislation like the bipartisan infrastructure law, it could be years before the residents of some of the communities receiving federal funds see construction begin.” (CNN)
Economy
U.S. stocks pulled back Wednesday, pausing a rally that sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average to record highs. The S&P 500 fell 1.5% in its biggest one-day percentage drop since September. The Dow industrials shed about 476 points, or 1.3%, and the Nasdaq Composite eased 1.5%, marking their worst days since October. All three indexes were positive as of early Wednesday afternoon, then sold off to finish the session. (Wall Street Journal)
EU finance ministers “have bowed to German pressure for tough debt-reduction rules, as part of a deal to phase in a sweeping overhaul” of the EU budget framework. The framework, reached “after months of haggling,” gives member states “greater independence on agreeing debt and deficit plans with Brussels, but only within tight spending limits demanded by fiscal hawks.” (Financial Times)
US and UK tighten enforcement of Russian oil price cap: Rules aim to make it harder to circumvent measures to limit Kremlin revenues. (Financial Times)
“The next entertainment mega deal may be on the horizon.” Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav and Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish spoke this week about a potential merger. If it came to pass, the merger “would bring together two of the entertainment industry’s biggest players, with WBD owning the Warner Bros. film and TV studios, HBO, and the former Turner and Discovery cable channels. It also operates the Max streaming service.” (Hollywood Reporter)
Citigroup is shutting down its global distressed-debt group “as CEO Jane Fraser pushes ahead with her overhaul of the bank.” Citigroup is getting out of “businesses with poor returns to bolster the bank’s odds of hitting Fraser’s performance targets.” (CNBC)
Toyota is recalling one million vehicles, including Camrys, Corollas, Highlanders, Lexuses, and RAV4s, over a “defect that could cause airbags not to deploy, increasing the risk of injury.” The affected vehicles have sensors in the front passenger seat that may have been manufactured improperly. (Associated Press)
New York AG Letitia James is suing SiriusXM, accusing the company “of trapping customers in subscriptions and finding ways to prevent them from canceling.” James said an investigation “discovered that the company ‘forces its subscribers to call or chat online with an agent to cancel a subscription, then deliberately draws out those interactions as part of its strategy’ to prevent subscribers from canceling their packages.” (CNN)
Workers at a Wells Fargo bank branch in Albuquerque voted to form a union, making them the first employees of a major US bank to unionise in the latest sign of the resurgence of the labour movement in America. The workers, who voted 5-3 in favour of organising, will be part of Wells Fargo Workers United, a union formed in 2021 that is associated with the Communications Workers of America. The election was overseen by the National Labor Relations Board. (Financial Times)
Technology
Apple “is ramping up production of the Vision Pro mixed-reality headset, setting the stage for a launch by February.” Production of the headset” is running at full speed at facilities in China and has been for several weeks.” On Wednesday, Apple sent an email to software developers “encouraging them to ‘get ready’ for the Vision Pro by testing their apps with the latest tools and sending their software to Apple for feedback.” (Bloomberg)
Apple fails in bid to delay Apple Watch sales ban. (CNBC)
“Has Twitter (now X) become more right-wing?” An examination of the accounts of Twitter-friendly senators since Elon Musk bought the platform sheds some data. (The Economist)
House Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers “is drilling down on Shein’s data privacy practices and its relationship with the Chinese Communist Party as the fast-fashion giant moves closer” to a U.S. IPO. In a letter to Shein, McMorris Rodgers asked “about the user data it collects and the communications it has had with the Chinese government.” Similar letters were sent to Alibaba, Temu, and TikTok. (CNBC)
GM has bought out about half of its 2,000 U.S. Buick dealers “based on their decision to not sell electric vehicles.” GM told dealers to either “invest at least $300,000 to sell and service EVs, or exit the Buick franchise.” Those dealers who are exiting Buick can “continue to sell other GM models, such as Chevrolet or GMC, that often account for a higher percentage of sales.” (Wall Street Journal)
Panasonic, which supplies to Tesla, “said it is dropping its plan to build a battery factory in Oklahoma after ‘careful deliberations,’ without going into specifics. The plant would have been its third in North America.” (Nikkei Asia)
Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is stepping down a week from Friday. His exit “comes just two months after some big Xbox leadership changes that saw Sarah Bond promoted to Xbox president” and Matt Booty promoted to president of game content and studios, “including overseeing Bethesda and ZeniMax studios. Now Booty is getting even more responsibilities with Bethesda, Activision Blizzard, and Xbox Game Studios all under his watch.” (The Verge)
Smart Links
House Dysfunction by the Numbers: 724 Votes, Only 22 Laws Enacted. (New York Times)
Americans May Be Taking on Too Much Pay Later ‘Phantom Debt’. (New York Times)
FedEx tumbles after sober results; Express unit disappoints Wall Street. (Reuters)
Tesla blamed drivers for failures of parts it long knew were defective. (Reuters)
Swimming Pools and Granite Countertops: How College Dorms Got So Expensive. (Wall Street Journal)
Rite Aid banned from facial recognition tech use for 5 years after faulty theft targeting in stores. (Associated Press)