Know someone who would like this newsletter? Forward it to them.
The World
US and China agreed to hold talks on nuclear arsenals, as U.S. anxiety grows at China’s expanding nuclear arsenal and its recent test of a hypersonic weapon. U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Joe Biden and Xi Jinping discussed the need for nuclear “strategic stability” talks in their virtual meeting on Monday. China has previously refused to hold nuclear talks, partly because the US has a much larger weapons arsenal. (Financial Times)
China’s history is revised, to the glory of Xi Jinping: Xi’s drive to extend his formidable power for years ahead reached a new pitch, when the Chinese Communist Party released its resolution on history yesterday that anoints him one of its revered leaders, hours after Xi held video talks with President Biden. The document represents the third such summation of history in the 100 years of the Chinese Communist Party. Scholars, investors and government analysts will parse the resolution for what it reveals about Xi’s worldview and intentions. Among the items: The Cultural Revolution was a catastrophe and Mao was responsible, while also reasserting its previous narrative on the decade of turmoil and bloody Tiananmen crackdown. (New York Times, South China Morning Post)
The U.S. asked China to release oil reserves to help stabilize soaring international crude oil prices. (South China Morning Post)
Germany’s energy regulator said it had “temporarily suspended” certification of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, dealing a setback to the Kremlin-backed gas project and sparking a rise in UK and continental European gas prices (Financial Times)
Gas prices in California reached an all-time high as the average price of a regular gallon soared to $4.682. It was the state’s second record-breaking day in a row. California’s numbers have surpassed those of the nation, which hovered at an average of $3.415 per gallon. (Los Angeles Times)
Japan floats surprise gasoline subsidy to cap prices at pump. (Nikkei Asian Review)
Iran has resumed production of equipment for advanced centrifuges at a site the UN’s atomic-energy agency has been unable to monitor or gain access to for months, diplomats familiar with the activities said, presenting a new challenge for the Biden administration as it prepares for nuclear talks. (Wall Street Journal)
Polish security forces turned water cannon on migrants who threw rocks across the Belarusian border, where thousands have gathered in a chaotic attempt to reach the EU. In posts on Twitter, the Polish border protection agency said water cannons had been used "against aggressive foreigners." (Reuters, Deutsche Welle)
India’s capital, Delhi, and several surrounding states have shut schools, imposed work-from-home orders and a full weekend lockdown of the city is being contemplated in an attempt to tackle the deadly levels of pollution that have yet again enveloped the region. Over the past weeks, in what has become a dreaded seasonal occurrence, Delhi has suffered pollution levels 20 times higher than the levels deemed healthy by the WHO and a thick brown smog settled over the city. (The Guardian)
The EPA finalized America’s first “national recycling strategy,” which aims to support the agency’s goal of achieving a 50% recycling rate by the end of the decade. The move came on National Recycling Day, and the same day President Biden is signing an infrastructure bill that included $350 million for solid waste and recycling grants. (Washington Post)
CDC adds more European destinations to its Level 4 travel list: Hungary, Iceland, the Czech Republic and Guernsey. (Washington Post)
Gallup's latest update on its annual Law and Order Index shows that the pandemic hasn't fundamentally altered how safe most of the world feels or shaken people's faith in the rule of law. The index itself is a composite score based on Gallup World Poll questions that ask people whether they are confident in their local police, feel safe in their neighborhoods, or were victims of theft or assault in the past year. Higher scores mean more people in a country feel secure. Although the U.S. typically does not make the top 10 most secure countries in the world, it did fare better than the global average in 2020, with a Law and Order Index score of 87. The U.S. is in the company of Spain -- which also scored an 87 -- and its neighbor to the north, Canada, which scored an 86. (Gallup)
Economy
U.S. consumers withstood rising inflation to power a burst of shopping ahead of the holiday season: Sales at U.S. retail stores, online sellers, and restaurants rose by a seasonally adjusted 1.7% in October compared with the previous month. The elevated spending level suggests solid holiday sales this season, lifting the economy as a whole. J.P. Morgan said it was upgrading its growth expectations, raising its forecast for 4Q21 U.S. GDP to 5% from 4%. (Wall Street Journal)
Walmart says it’s ready for holidays — but hasn’t yet seen huge wave of early shoppers. (CNBC)
Shell has been threatened with an exit penalty by Dutch opposition parties after the energy company’s decision to end its dual share structure and move its tax base to the UK triggered a political backlash in the Netherlands. The levy was first proposed by the opposition Dutch green party in 2020 to punish companies that left the Netherlands for jurisdictions with less onerous corporate tax regimes. (Financial Times)
Electric vehicle company Rivian has overtaken Volkswagen in market value, while rival start-up Lucid surpassed Ford, as shares in their largely unproven businesses soared following their recent stock market listings. Rivian’s market capitalization rose above VW after its stock increased 15%. Rivian’s value has doubled to $153bn since floating only last Wednesday. Lucid, a luxury electric carmaker run by former Tesla executive Peter Rawlinson, rose 24% after the company announced that orders for its first car had jumped to 17,000. The share rise gave the business a market capitalization of $91bn, $12bn more than Ford’s. (Financial Times)
Tesla's Musk exercises more options, sells $973 million for taxes. (Reuters)
Salaries for newly minted M.B.A.s are hitting record highs as consulting firms, banks and technology companies lure top business-school graduates into their ranks in a tight labor market. Both Penn’s Wharton School and the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business reported the median salary for this year’s graduates grew $5,000 to hit $155,000. It was Wharton’s highest-recorded median base salary, with 99% of students seeking jobs receiving an offer. Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business said the average annual salary for its M.B.A.s rose 4% compared with last year to more than $141,000—also a new high. (Wall Street Journal)
Companies have a lot more work to do to gain the confidence of their youngest employees. EY's 2021 Gen Z Segmentation Study found "60% of Gen Z say most people can't be trusted." Some takeways: (Protocol, EY)
48% of those surveyed said "most of the time people are just looking out for themselves." Despite the dismal sentiments, this is up from 2019 when 52% felt people were solely looking out for themselves — a small sign that trust is improving.
Mental health is a major focus among this generation. 67% said they are "moderately to extremely worried about their physical and mental health."
Many within Gen Z believe they will eventually work for themselves instead of a corporation. 45% said they are "very or extremely likely to start their own business one day."
63% of Gen Z "feel it is very or extremely important to work for an employer that shares their values," and most reported that they want to prioritize enjoying what they do in their future careers over money.
The worst of both worlds: Zooming from the office. A closer look at the New York work force, from a November survey of 188 major employers, showed that 8% of Manhattan office workers are back in the office full time, 54% are fully remote and everyone else — nearly 40% — is hybrid. Few are finding it a smooth transition period. Some companies used their tentative R.T.O. dates as an unwitting excuse to avoid questions about how to balance the needs of their remote and in-person employees. That has resulted in a mushy middle ground: video calls where remote workers have trouble hearing, a sense that people at home are missing out on perks (teammates), while those in the office are, too (pajamas). And the stakes aren’t just who is getting talked over in meetings. It’s whether flexibility is sustainable, even with all the benefits it confers. (New York Times)
Indian tech companies made big WFH promises. Now they’re calling millions of workers back. As attrition rates spike, Indian tech companies scramble to bring workers back to campuses. (Rest of World)
Technology
Nvidia's $40 billion bid for U.K. chip design developer Arm received another blow, as the country's Digital Secretary Nadine Dorries ordered the country's Competition and Markets Authority to conduct a six-month investigation of the deal over issues surrounding competition and national security. Once the digital secretary receives the report from the CMA's investigation, Dorries could rule that the deal runs afoul of public interest, and could force changes and concessions to the deal in order to eliminate the perceived consequences. Dorries could also find no reason to challenge the acquisition and punt it back to the CMA. (Protocol)
The global transaction volume of in-vehicle payments will exceed 4.7 billion by 2026, up from just 87 million in 2021. In-vehicle payments are those where payments are made via vehicle systems, without requiring the use of a smartphone to process the transaction. This extraordinary growth of over 5,300% in the next 5 years will be driven by increasing industry collaboration and initiatives from vehicle manufacturers, aimed at reducing the high level of fragmentation between different in-vehicle marketplaces. (Juniper Research)
Netflix announced a major expansion of its Top 10 lists, with weekly reports at top10.netflix.com detailing the most-viewed TV shows and movies globally (for both English and non-English titles) and in more than 90 countries. It has also enlisted professional services firm EY to audit its metrics, with those results to be released in 2022. It’s more viewing data than Netflix has ever provided publicly. (Variety)
Recruiting is broken for Gen Z tech candidates, as new tools give managers hope they can fix it. Startups like HIVE have popped up relatively recently targeting young job seekers and claiming to tackle the access problem. In 2014, after finding themselves shut out of Silicon Valley jobs, three students at Michigan Technical University launched Handshake to create a more-equal playing field for students looking for job opportunities. It now serves more than 9 million users and reached a $1.5 billion valuation in May. Even TikTok wants to help young people find jobs — the platform launched TikTok video resumes in July. (Protocol)
Smart Links
Private jet rush prompts plane shortage as rich dodge airline woes. (Financial Times)
Boston Red Sox owner Fenway Sports in talks to buy Pittsburgh Penguins. (Wall Street Journal)
Barbados to become first sovereign nation with an embassy in the metaverse. (Coindesk)
Taylor Swift, Jessica Simpson, and the power of ownership. (Fortune)
Venmo adds crypto price tracking. (Finextra)
Instacart pushes off IPO to focus on grocery services growth. (The Information)
First Green Bay Packers stock sale in 10 years launches at $300/share. (USA Today)