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The World
As spending climbs and revenue falls, the coronavirus is forcing a global reckoning: A rising ‘debt tsunami’ that threatens even stable, peaceful middle-income countries. Around the globe, the pandemic is racking up a mind-blowing bill: trillions of dollars in lost tax revenue, ramped-up spending and new borrowing set to burden the next generation with record levels of debt. In the direst cases — low- and middle-income countries, mostly in Africa and Latin America, that are already saddled with backbreaking debt — covering the rising costs is transforming into a high-stakes test of national solvency. “I consider the risk to be very high of an emerging-market debt crisis where a lot of countries run into problems at once,” said Harvard economist Kenneth Rogoff, former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund. “This is going to be a rocky road.” (Washington Post)
The House moved on two fronts to force President Trump from office, escalating pressure on the vice president to strip him of power and committing to quickly begin impeachment proceedings. In a letter to colleagues, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House would move forward on Monday with a nonbinding resolution calling on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment, and wrest the powers of the presidency from Mr. Trump. She called on Pence to respond “within 24 hours.” Next, Pelosi said, the House would bring an impeachment case to the floor. (New York Times)
Business reaction:
JPMorgan is pausing contributions for both Republicans and Democrats for “at least” the next six months. Citigroup is also pausing PAC donations to all lawmakers during the first quarter. Bank of America said that the “appalling violent assault on the U.S. Capitol” will factor into decisions for donations ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. (CNBC)
Marriott International Inc, the world’s largest hotel company, and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) said they will suspend donations to U.S. lawmakers who voted last week against certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. (Reuters)
The PGA of America announced that next year's PGA Championship event will no longer take place at Trump's New Jersey golf course as planned following a vote. (Associated Press)
All the platforms that have banned or restricted Trump so far: Reddit, Twitch, Shopify, Twitter, Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Tiktok, Apple, Discord, Pinterest, and as of las night, Stripe will no longer process payments for President Trump's campaign, which continued to fundraise. (Axios)
Vaccine distribution keeps confronting confusion: In Texas, amid clogged phone lines and ethical dilemmas, health providers scramble to roll out vaccine with little state guidance. In FL, ‘“It became sort of lawless,” as the vaccine rollout turned into a free-for-all. In NY, Gov. Cuomo loosened rules for the second time in two days after unused vaccines were thrown in the trash. (Texas Tribune, New York Times, New York Times-2)
Over 40 Stanford students test positive in a week as the university cancels plans — after reaffirming them repeatedly — for undergraduates to return to campus for the winter quarter. (San Francisco Chronicle, Stanford Daily)
Mainland China saw its biggest daily increase in Covid-19 cases in more than five months, the country’s national health authority, as new infections in Hebei province surrounding Beijing continued to rise. Some 700,000 doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine landed in Israel. (Reuters, Jerusalem Post)
China's state media lashed out at the latest move on Taiwan by the departing Trump administration, accusing U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of "seeking to maliciously inflict a long-lasting scar on China-U.S. ties." Separately, Chinese leaders at the annual meeting of the Communist Party body overseeing justice, prosecutorial and police agencies urged law enforcement officials to tighten their hold to ensure social stability as the world enters a “turbulent period” and the global pandemic causes “chaos in the West.” (Nikkei Asian Review, South China Morning Post)
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been elected as general secretary of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea at the party's first congress in nearly five years. Kim's younger sister and close aide, Kim Yo Jong, was excluded from the list of alternate members of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the ruling party. (Nikkei Asian Review)
A nationalist won a landslide victory in the Kyrgyzstan presidential vote, as Sadyr Japarov — dubbed ‘Kyrgyz Trump’ — has risen from felon to elected head of state in three months. (Financial Times)
Economy
The Labor Department suspended enforcement of Donald Trump’s executive order restricting diversity training by government agencies and contractors that the president labeled "divisive" and "un-American” after a federal court judge blocked it. (USA Today)
U.S. banks Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley will delist 500 Hong Kong-listed structured products, following a U.S. ban on investments in companies Washington deems linked to China’s military. (Reuters)
Cryptocurrencies plunged on Monday, with bitcoin dropping more than 12% to a one-week low as rising U.S. yields lifted the dollar broadly and hurt non-income paying assets. Bitcoin fell as far as $33,447, its lowest since Jan. 6. Ethereum which often moves in tandem with bitcoin, fell as much as 20% to a one-week low of $1,007.51. (Reuters)
Hyundai Motor and Apple plan to sign a partnership deal on autonomous electric cars by March and start production around 2024 in the U.S. (Korea IT News)
Technology
CES 2021: The world’s largest tech show trades Las Vegas for cyberspace. This week’s show will be held online—and exhibitors and attendees aren’t quite sure what to expect. Meanwhile, the event will be lighter on gadget news and heavier on thoughtful discussions about what technology is supposed to mean in our lives. Trends to watch: All pandemic everything; education; future of work; transportation; 5G; the TikTok effect. (Wall Street Journal, Source Code)
Kohler's CES 2021 bathroom designs include touchless toilets and a $16,000 tub. (Cnet)
About halfway between St. Paul, MN, and Fargo, ND, there's a town called Wadena. According to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau estimate, some 4,094 people live in the Minnesota town. There's a small bank there called Mid-Central National Bank. Historically, it's been where farmers and other locals in the area have stored their money. And although that bank is roughly 1,350 miles from Wall Street and 1,900 miles from Silicon Valley, it may well be the home to the future of banking. In September, Jiko, a Berkeley-based fintech startup, completed a years-long process to acquire Mid-Central National Bank. It was part of a plan to be able to offer what the company's co-founder and CEO, Stephane Lintner, calls the future of "money storage." (Protocol)
How a Google deal put a small security company on the map: A little over a decade ago, Yubico was an obscure security company founded in Sweden, with only five full-time employees. Then Google came along and signed up to use Yubico’s product—a tiny hardware doodad that acts as physical security key when plugged into the USB port on a PC—to protect its employees. That deal put Yubico on the map, leading many of the internet’s biggest companies, including Microsoft, Amazon and Apple, to also adopt those tiny devices, known as YubiKeys, to ensure that hackers don’t compromise their employees’ online accounts. (The Information)
Smart Links
With success in vaccines, scientists try to turn mRNA against autoimmune diseases. (STAT News)
Berlin remains Germany’s most innovative state. (ING Innovation Index)
The Earth is spinning faster now than at any time in the past half century. (Space.com)
IOC seeks Covid vaccines for athletes in second wave so Olympics can go ahead. (The Guardian)
School went online — including MIT’s swimming test. (Wall Street Journal)
Survey: Americans think Big Tech isn’t so bad after all. (TechCrunch)
Paris agrees to turn Champs-Élysées into 'extraordinary garden.' (The Guardian)