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The World
Former vice president Mike Pence received a subpoena from the special counsel investigating key aspects of the sprawling probe into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and former president Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, according to a person familiar with the matter. Jack Smith — the special counsel appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to lead the day-to-day operations of the investigation — is also heading a separate criminal probe into Trump’s possible mishandling of classified documents at his Florida home. The Pence subpoena is related to Jan. 6, according to the person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly. The subpoena comes after months of negotiations between the Justice Department and Pence. (Washington Post)
The balloon episode has led to a surge in U.S.-China tensions at a time when the relationship is already at one of its lowest points in decades. Although top American officials say they intend to keep channels of communication with China open, the clashing narratives over the balloon are sowing more conflict. And the Biden administration has begun a campaign to inform countries around the world of the extent of China’s spy balloon program and its violations of sovereignty, in the hope that other nations will push back against Chinese espionage activities. Officials have said they have not found any evidence that suggests the balloon could carry weaponry. (New York Times)
Citigroup has been dropped from the group of banks poised to handle the biggest-ever municipal-bond transaction from Texas after the state’s attorney general’s office determined the firm “discriminates” against the firearms industry, barring it from underwriting most government borrowings in the state. The Texas Natural Gas Securitization Finance Corp. board took action to “reconstitute” the syndicate on the $3.4 billion deal. Citigroup had been listed in the original iteration of the underwriting firms approved by the board in May and is no longer included in the final group. (Bloomberg)
Thanks to Covid, half of kids were below grade level in at least one subject: Half of students across the country started the academic year below grade level in at least one subject, according to federal survey data released Thursday. The results add to other research that suggests many students face a halting climb back from the tumble of the pandemic. The finding, estimated by school leaders nationwide, was virtually unchanged from a year earlier and 13 percentage points worse than the typical year before the coronavirus. (Washington Post)
NASA is planning a science mission to Mars that will ride up aboard a New Glenn — Blue Origin’s first big government contract for the as-yet-untested launch vehicle. New Glenn is the much, much larger sibling of the suborbital New Shepard rocket that so many celebrities and rich folks have gone to the edge of space in. Announced in 2016, the launch vehicle would compete with SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy and other heavy-lift options. But 6 years later, we have yet to see a New Glenn in one piece, let alone ready to launch a Mars mission. (TechCrunch)
An outbreak of the H5N1 influenza virus in mink, reported in January, has ramped up long-standing fears about how far ‘bird flu’ might spread. Serious concerns about a human pandemic were triggered by a bird-flu outbreak in Hong Kong in 1997, when it killed six people. But the virus seems to ebb and flow, making it unpredictable — and worrying. It is already ravaging populations of wild birds and becoming a major problem for the agricultural industry. And scientists say that the world’s poor response to the COVID-19 pandemic suggests that whatever happens, we’re not ready for it. (STAT News)
Younger Americans’ Interest in the Super Bowl Is Down From Last Year: 66% of U.S. adults ages 18-34 say they plan to watch the game, down 9 points from 2022, according to a new survey. (Morning Consult)
Economy
Mortgage rates rose this week after four weeks of declines, as a stronger-than-expected jobs report suggested the Fed would continue hiking its benchmark lending rate in its battle against inflation. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.12% in the week ending February 9, up from 6.09% the week before. A year ago, the 30-year fixed-rate was 3.69%. (CNN)
Steepest Home-Price Declines in Fourth Quarter Were in the West: San Francisco was the hardest hit, posting a 6.1% median single-family existing-home sales price decline compared to a year earlier. San Jose median prices fell 5.8%, and Los Angeles and Sacramento also posted year-over-year price declines in the quarter. (Wall Street Journal)
Foreign investors start 2023 with record $21bn push into China stocks: Analysts said the recent surge in foreign demand for China stocks was driven by positive economic data published after the lunar new year holiday, which had helped reassure some investors who had remained skittish about the country’s growth outlook even after it began dropping President Xi Jinping’s economically disruptive zero-Covid policy. (Financial Times)
China’s consumer inflation accelerated last month as the Lunar New Year holiday spurred demand following the nation’s reopening from Covid Zero. The consumer price index rose 2.1% from a year earlier, matching the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. That followed a 1.8% year-on-year gain in December. Core inflation, which doesn’t include volatile food and energy prices, rose to 1% — the highest since June. (Bloomberg)
Fall in gasoline use in gas-guzzling US heralds shift for global markets: The gas-guzzling heyday of the world’s largest oil market is receding as more efficient cars, the arrival of mass-market electric vehicles and the rise of working from home prompt US motorists to burn less petrol. The 8.78mn barrels a day of petrol consumed in the US last year was 6 per cent lower than record volumes sold before the coronavirus pandemic. Consumption will continue to decline in 2023 and 2024, the US Energy Information Administration forecast. US petrol accounts for about 9 per cent of global oil use. The prospect of stagnant or falling demand holds broad implications for energy markets and carbon emissions. “The consensus is we are not going to get back to pre-Covid levels of consumption,” said Robert Campbell, head of energy transition research at consultancy Energy Aspects. (Financial Times)
Technology
7 problems facing Bing, Bard, and the future of AI search: 1) AI helpers or BS generators? 2) The “one true answer” question; 3) Jailbreaking AI; 4) Here come the AI culture wars; 5) Burning cash and compute; 6) Regulation, regulation, regulation; 7) The end of the web as we know it. (The Verge)
Elon Musk fires a top Twitter engineer over his declining view count: On Tuesday, Musk gathered a group of engineers and advisors into a room at Twitter’s headquarters looking for answers. Why are his engagement numbers tanking? “This is ridiculous,” he said, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the meeting. “I have more than 100 million followers, and I’m only getting tens of thousands of impressions.” One of the company’s two remaining principal engineers offered a possible explanation for Musk’s declining reach: just under a year after the Tesla CEO made his surprise offer to buy Twitter for $44 billion, public interest in his antics is waning. Employees showed Musk internal data regarding engagement with his account, along with a Google Trends chart. Last April, they told him, Musk was at “peak” popularity in search rankings, indicated by a score of “100.” Today, he’s at a score of nine. Engineers had previously investigated whether Musk’s reach had somehow been artificially restricted, but found no evidence that the algorithm was biased against him. Musk did not take the news well. “You’re fired, you’re fired,” Musk told the engineer. (Platformer)
Elon Musk’s Twitter Tenure Draws Criticism From Jack Dorsey: Platform’s co-founder uses new social network to fault Twitter’s owner. (Wall Street Journal)
Yahoo plans to lay off more than 20% of its total workforce as part of a major restructuring of its ad tech unit. The cuts will impact more than 50% of Yahoo's ad tech employees — more than 1,600 people. The changes will end Yahoo’s years-long effort to compete directly with Google and Meta for digital advertising dominance. (Axios)
A Manhattan federal jury concluded that an artist's NFT versions of Hermes' famous Birkin bags violated the French fashion house's trademark rights. In one of the first intellectual-property trials over the popular digital tokens known as NFTs, the jury found artist Mason Rothschild's unauthorized "MetaBirkins" were likely to confuse consumers. The jury awarded Hermes $133,000 in damages for trademark infringement, dilution, and cybersquatting. (Reuters)
Smart Links
PayPal CEO Dan Schulman to leave at end of 2023. (CNBC)
Dealmakers are operating in a new normal for antitrust scrutiny (Axios)
Jeep reveals its most expensive Wrangler SUV ever, topping $115,000. (CNBC)
Chick-fil-A to test plant-based sandwich next week at three locations. (Associated Press)