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The World
US and Chinese military officials have held their first formal talks in over two years as Washington and Beijing follow through on an agreement struck by President Joe Biden and his counterpart Xi Jinping in November. The Pentagon said senior defence officials held two days of discussions this week in what were the first “Defence Policy Coordination Talks” since the previously annual engagement last occurred in 2021. Michael Chase, deputy assistant secretary of defence for China policy, led the talks with Major General Song Yanchao, deputy director of China’s Central Military Commission’s office for international military co-operation. (Financial Times)
China and India “are scrambling to expand their naval capabilities amid their growing rivalry in the Indo-Pacific region,” with both nations racing to put a third aircraft carrier into service. Taiwan's defense ministry expects China’s Fujian aircraft carrier to be commissioned next year, meaning it “could play a role should China launch an armed invasion of Taiwan.” (Nikkei Asia)
Taiwan election: Beijing gives details on Fujian cross-strait ‘model zone’, 3 days before island votes in new president (South China Morning Post)
North Korea's Kim visits arms factories amid criticism over trade with Russia. (Reuters)
The U.S. and Britain “have termed Bangladesh's election ‘not free and fair’ but said they would continue cooperation with Dhaka, casting some doubt on widespread assumptions that Western governments would take a tough stance over the South Asian country's controversial polls.” Within Prime Minister Sheikh Hasin’s party, “the statements were perceived as tacit acceptance” of the result. (Nikkei Asia)
Thirty-four-year-old Gabriel Attal has become France’s “youngest-ever prime minister and first openly gay one.” Elisabeth Borne resigned Monday “following political turmoil over an immigration law that strengthens the government’s ability to deport foreigners,” and President Emmanuel Macron is seeking “a fresh start” with Attal, the education who “had polled as the most popular minister in the outgoing government.” (Associated Press)
How France Fumbled Its Africa Ties and Set Off a Geopolitical Crisis (Wall Street Journal)
“German farmers angry about fuel subsidy cuts have launched a weeklong nationwide protest, putting Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s fragile center-left coalition in a bind. Scholz’s decision to end some tax breaks and subsidies for farmers was framed as tough medicine needed to cure the government’s budgetary ailments,” but it provoked farmers who have now “launched protests across the country, blocking roads and snarling commuter traffic.” (GZERO)
National Transportation Safety Board investigators looking into last week’s Boeing Max 737 fuselage blowout “have turned their attention to four bolts they’ve been unable to locate and said they may widen their investigation beyond the Max 9 variant after multiple airlines found loose parts.” (Bloomberg)
Boeing “met its jetliner delivery goals and recorded a 70% boost to annual net orders in 2023, reflecting a record-shattering year of sales for planemakers.” Boeing delivered 528 planes in 2023 and booked 1,314 net new orders “after allowing for cancellations, up from 480 deliveries and 774 net new orders in 2022.” (Reuters)
The White House “is launching a review of Cabinet protocols for delegating authority” in the wake of Austin’s “secret hospitalization.” Chief of Staff Jeff Zients has directed all Cabinet secretaries, departments, and agencies to “‘submit your existing protocols for a delegation of authority’ for review by Jan. 12.” (Axios)
Nikki Haley has trimmed Donald Trump’s lead in the New Hampshire Republican primary race “to single digits, according to a new CNN Poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire.” Trump is backed by 39% of respondents to Haley’s 32%, with Chris Christie at 12%, Vivek Ramaswamy at eight percent, and Ron DeSantis at five percent. The primary is January 23. (CNN)
In Iowa, which votes on Monday, Trump leads Haley by nearly four to one — 58% to 15% — with DeSantis at 14% and Ramaswamy at nine percent. (Morning Consult)
Economy
The World Bank says the global economy “is on course to record its worst half decade of growth in 30 years.” Global growth is forecast to slow “for the third year in a row in 2024, dipping to 2.4% from 2.6% in 2023” before rising “marginally to 2.7% in 2025.” However, the forecast says “acceleration over the five-year period will remain almost three-quarters of a percentage point below the average rate of the 2010s.” (CNBC)
The semiannual Global Economic Prospects report also warned that of “heightened uncertainty because of the two wars, a diminished Chinese economy and the increasing risks of natural disasters caused by global warming.” (New York Times)
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan will attend the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos next week, but Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, who both attended in 2022, will skip the event. President Biden is also not expected to attend. (Semafor)
“Following years of simmering investor backlash, political pressure, and legal threats,” companies are stepping back from environmental, social, and governance efforts widely known as ESG. Some business leaders “are now making a conscious effort to avoid the once widely used acronym for such initiatives,” and companies including Coca-Cola “are rebranding corporate reports and committees, stripping ESG from titles.” (Wall Street Journal)
General Motors “sold fewer vehicles in China than in the US for the first time since 2009, as consumers in the world’s biggest auto market increasingly opt for domestic brands.” GM deliveries in China dropped by about nine percent while U.S. sales jumped 14%. GM “has slumped in China since 2017, when it delivered 4.04 million vehicles — roughly double its total last year.” (Bloomberg)
China Surges to the Top of Global Auto Exports (Wall Street Journal)
“Unemployment in the eurozone fell back to a record low” of 6.4% in November, “defying recent economic gloom after the number of jobless people fell almost 100,000 from a month earlier.” (Financial Times)
Technology
Meta says it will “limit the type of content that teenagers on Facebook and Instagram are able to see, as the company faces mounting claims that its products are addictive and harmful to the mental well-being of younger users.” The company said the new protections “are designed ‘to give teens more age-appropriate experiences on our apps.’” Teenage users will be defaulted to the most restrictive settings and will be prevented from searching about certain topics. (CNBC)
OpenAI says The New York Times “‘intentionally manipulated’ its chatbot to regurgitate whole lines from the newspaper’s articles, as it fights a copyright lawsuit from the newspaper that poses a threat to how it develops its technology.” OpenAI said in a blog post that the Times lawsuit was without merit and that “the newspaper was not ‘telling the full story.’” (Financial Times)
A highly anticipated SEC decision on whether to approve a spot-Bitcoin exchange-traded fund quickly morphed into a major cybersecurity incident on Tuesday. The SEC’s X account was compromised and a fake post claiming that the agency had green lit plans for the products fueled a brief surge in the price of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency. It also has sparked an investigation by US authorities into how a social media account at Wall Street’s main regulator was compromised. (Bloomberg)
X will launch a peer-to-peer payments service this year. A company blog post “said the payments will unlock ‘more user utility and opportunities for commerce’ as the platform works to ‘revolutionize 2024.’ The blog post did not offer specific details about how the payments will work or when they will officially launch.” (CNBC)
Shares in networking hardware company Juniper soared by more than 20% after reports that Hewlett Packard Enterprise “was nearing a $13 billion deal for the networking gear maker to capitalize on the boom in artificial intelligence. A deal could be announced as early as this week.” (Reuters)
Smart Links
BlackRock cuts 600 staff as asset managers defend profit margins. (Financial Times)
Amazon’s Twitch to Cut 500 Employees, About 35% of Staff. (Bloomberg)
Pimco Predicts Equity-Like Returns From Bonds Even After Rally (Bloomberg)
Argentina monthly inflation seen at highest since 1990 in December. (Reuters)
US oil production forecast to reach new heights despite drilling slowdown. (Financial Times)
Bain picks first European as global chief executive (Financial Times)
How Astronomers Are Saving Astronomy From Satellites — For Now (New York Times)