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The World
The recession tipped dozens of troubled companies into bankruptcy, setting off store closures, furloughs and layoffs. But several major brands doled out millions in executive bonuses just before filing for Chapter 11 protection. Since March, at least 18 large companies have rewarded executives with six- and seven-figure payouts before asking bankruptcy courts to shield them from landlords, suppliers and other creditors while they restructured. They collectively meted out more than $135 million, while listing $79 billion in debts. Meanwhile, corporate defaults are slowing, lifting the debt market, as Moody’s recorded just 11 defaults in August and September among U.S. borrowers. (Washington Post, Wall Street Journal)
The U.S. State Department approved the sale of hundreds of anti-ship missiles to Taiwan, brushing off threats by China to retaliate with sanctions on U.S. defense companies. The U.S. authorized the deal to supply up to 400 Harpoon missiles worth $2.4 billion to the self-governed island. Subsequently, China announced it will sanction Lockheed Martin, Boeing Defense, Space & Security and Raytheon, along with U.S. officials who played a role in the sale. Meanwhile, four Hong Kong activists entered the U.S. consulate today, just hours after the city’s police national security unit arrested the former leader of a pro-independence group ahead of his planned asylum bid at the diplomatic mission. (The Times, The Guardian, South China Morning Post)
China appears to have comprehensively lost the international battle for hearts and minds over its handling of coronavirus with most people believing it was responsible for the start of the outbreak and was not transparent about the problem at the outset. (The Guardian/YouGov-Cambridge Globalism Project)
Antibodies against the coronavirus declined rapidly in the British population during the summer, raising the prospect of waning immunity in the community. Meanwhile, a U.S.-run clinical trial of Eli Lilly’s antibody treatment will stop recruiting new patients due to “a low likelihood that the intervention would be of clinical value in this hospitalized patient population.” In Israel, the Mossad brought China’s vaccine to Israel in recent weeks to study and learn from it. In Italy, anti-lockdown protests erupted: Petrol bombs were thrown at Turin officers, while tear gas was used to disperse protesters in Milan, and thousands gathered in Naples. Separately, Prague, Strasbourg, Nuremberg, Frankfurt, and Berlin all cancelled their Christmas markets. The Czech Republic closed its borders to tourists as it battles Europe’s highest infection rate. Americans believe the federal government's handling of the pandemic has gotten significantly worse over time. (Reuters, Washington Post, Jerusalem Post, BBC News, Washington Post-2, Axios/Ipsos)
Russia hinted that it could deploy troops to Belarus to counter what it said was a build-up of NATO forces on its ally’s western borders amid an alleged plot by western states to topple President Lukashenko. Russia’s defense minister said the situation on Belarus’s borders with Poland and Lithuania was “turbulent” and that NATO “continues to build up its forward presence.” (The Times)
At least 66 million Americans have already cast their ballots, a historic figure that equals close to half of the total turnout in 2016 — all but ensuring, with early voting continuing through the weekend, that the majority of ballots will be cast before Election Day for the first time in history. Yesterday, after the most partisan confirmation vote for a Supreme Court justice in modern American history — the first time since 1869 that a justice was confirmed without a single vote from the opposing party — President Trump held a White House ceremony following the U.S. Senate’s 52-48 vote for his third Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett. (Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Reuters)
California’s wind-driven Silverado fire left two firefighters critically burned and forced more than 90,000 Irvine residents to evacuate. More than 500 firefighters were working to quell the blaze, which was sending smoke and ash across Southern California. (Orange County Register)
Economy
Sales of new U.S. single-family homes unexpectedly fell in September after four straight monthly increases. Meanwhile, the struggling rental market could usher in the next American housing crisis, as millions of renters are behind on their payments. (Reuters, Wall Street Journal)
Investors appear to be positioning for a speedy outcome to the presidential contest and dwindling volatility through yearend. U.S. stocks, particularly those in sectors most sensitive to higher economic growth, have ascended in October, while Treasury yields have jumped as bond prices have fallen. Bets on volatility falling through the end of the year in the derivatives market picked up, after months of investors positioning for rocky markets into January. Meanwhile, European shares sank to one-month lows as COVID-19 cases surge. (Wall Street Journal, Reuters)
Amazon is hiring 100,000 seasonal workers ahead of the holiday season. (Business Insider)
Yale endowment CIO David Swensen told firms that manage the school's money that diversity has moved front and center: Hire more women and minorities, or lose the university's backing. Firms will be measured annually on their progress in increasing the investment staff diversity, from hiring to training to mentoring to their retention of women and minorities. (Wall Street Journal)
China plans to phase out conventional gas-burning cars by 2035, with its latest goals calling for all new vehicles to be either 'new-energy' or hybrid. One result: The possibility of Teslas 100% made in China grows more realistic. (Nikkei Asian Review)
Technology
TikTok is moving into social ecommerce with a Shopify deal that will allow users to shop as they scroll through short-form videos. (Financial Times)
Pay-TV death spiral: The pandemic will drive cable and satellite TV providers to lose the most subscribers ever. (Axios/eMarketer)
Complex frenemy relationship: Why Facebook's cloud gaming won't be coming to your iPhone. Facebook launched its free cloud gaming platform on desktop and Google's Android mobile operating system but said it it couldn't offer the service on Apple's iOS because of Apple's "arbitrary" policies on applications that act like app stores. "Apple treats games entirely differently from every other form of content," said Jason Rubin, Facebook's VP of Play. (Axios, Source Code)
South Korea's Samsung Display received a license from the U.S. government to supply its panels to Huawei Technologies, making it the first company in Asia known to have been given the greenlight to continue doing business with the Chinese tech giant. (Nikkei Asian Review)
The Lincoln Project is looking to beef up its media business after the election. The group recently signed with the United Talent Agency and is weighing offers from different television studios, podcast networks and book publishers. The plan is part of the new trend of activists developing massive audiences for political influence that they are then able to spin into commercial media success. (Axios)
Smart Links
Zoom’s end-to-end encryption has arrived. (The Verge)
Science explains what Hollywood knows: Why your brain likes happy endings. (Wired)
Why the time change is trickier when working from home. (Wall Street Journal)
Individuals may legitimize hacking when angry with system or authority. (University of Kent)
New tool can diagnose strokes with a smartphone. (Penn State University)
Thanks to old dogs, robots now can learn new tricks. (Johns Hopkins University)
NASA discovered water on sunlit surface of Moon. NASA suggests there’s as much as 600 million metric tons of water ice there, which could someday help lunar colonists survive. (NASA, MIT Technology Review)