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The World
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the military had proposed mobilising 450,000-500,000 more Ukrainians into the armed forces in what would mark a dramatic step up of Kyiv's war with Russia. The Ukrainian leader told his end-of-year news conference it was a "highly sensitive" issue that the military and government would discuss before deciding whether to send the proposal to parliament. (Reuters)
Denmark will let the U.S. base soldiers and equipment on its territory permanently “after the Scandinavian country reversed decades of foreign policy to become the last nation in the region” to sign a defense cooperation agreement with the U.S. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “has pushed Sweden, Finland and Denmark all to sign such deals with the U.S. in recent days, a way of deepening security ties with the main military force in the west.” (Financial Times)
The USS Carl Vinson “docked in Singapore this week, in a display of America's military prowess in Southeast Asia amid a spat between China and the Philippines in nearby disputed waters. U.S. Navy vessels call at Singapore “from time to time, and officials described the visit as part of ‘daily routine global operations.’ But the nuclear-powered Vinson, which docked on Sunday, has arrived at a particularly sensitive time,” with Chinese and Philippine vessels “embroiled in skirmishes in the nearby South China Sea.” (Nikkei Asia)
Could China’s dispute with the Philippines derail plans to resume military talks with US? (South China Morning Post)
Nicaragua has expelled the International Committee of the Red Cross, meaning there is no longer any independent group with access to the growing number of political prisoners, who say they face regular human rights abuses. President Daniel Ortega’s government has violently quashed any form of resistance — including sentencing a Catholic bishop to 26 years in prison and threatening the winner of the Miss Universe beauty pageant.” (Semafor)
French lawmakers gave their final approval to a contested bill that toughens rules for immigrants, giving President Emmanuel Macron a policy victory that nonetheless exposed cracks in his centrist majority. The bill, a compromise reached between Macron's party and the conservative opposition, illustrates the rightward shift in politics in much of Europe, as governments try to fend off the rise of the far-right by being tougher on immigration. (Reuters)
“In a bombshell decision, Colorado's Supreme Court ruled that former President Donald Trump's candidacy in the state's primary next year is prohibited on constitutional grounds. The first-of-its kind ruling stems from a lawsuit” over Trump’s alleged participation in insurrection on January 6, 2021. The court put the decision on hold until early January to allow for appeals. (NBC News)
4 takeaways from the Colorado Supreme Court’s disqualifying Trump: 1) The historical and political impact may exceed the direct impact; 2) The court disagreed with a judge who ruled presidents were different; 3) A Trump traffic jam is converging on the U.S. Supreme Court; 4) A long-running 14th Amendment effort reaches a milestone. (Washington Post)
The Senate confirmed 11 nominees to four-star military posts, “marking the end of Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s remaining holds over senior promotions.” (Politico)
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) “has vowed to block the multibillion-dollar sale of U.S. Steel to the Japanese company Nippon Steel, calling the potential deal ‘outrageous.’” Fetterman is the former mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania, “which is home to a major U.S. Steel plant.” In a video posted from the roof of his Braddock house, which overlooks the plant, Fetterman criticized the proposed sale, “decrying U.S. Steel for selling itself ‘to a foreign nation and company.’” (The Guardian)
Nippon Steel’s US bet could be ‘catalyst’ unleashing Japan M&A wave. (Financial Times)
Economy
Denmark’s Maersk is the latest shipping giant rerouting its vessels “due to transit the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden would take the Cape of Good Hope route around the south of Africa after a spate of attacks by Houthi militants from Yemen.” Around 30% of all global container trade passes through the Suez Canal. (CNBC)
Shippers have already diverted about $35 billion in cargo from the Red Sea amid fears of attacks. (CNBC)
The European Central Bank says banks in Europe “must prepare for the risk of funding sources becoming ‘more volatile’ next year.” The ECB said lenders “weathered the high interest rates, market turmoil and economic strains of 2023 well and ended the year with ‘solid’ capital and liquidity positions, but that big challenges remained.” (Financial Times)
“Christmas has not yet arrived,” but some Chinese traders are already packing up and calling it a year. Total exports were down 5.2% in the first 11 months of 2023, while imports were down six percent. “Exports to the key U.S. market fell by the biggest margin, down 13.8% in the year to end-November, while those to the EU and Southeast Asia fell by 11% and 5.5%, respectively.” (Nikkei Asia)
Volkswagen and labor representatives “have agreed to measures for a cost-cutting drive” that will yield 11 billion in gains by 2026. The measures, “which come after two months of talks amid intensifying competition in the electric age, include speeding up development and production times, reducing staff costs and implementing a more efficient procurement strategy.” (Reuters)
Single-family housing starts in the U.S. “surged to more than a 1-1/2-year high in November and could gain further momentum, with declining mortgage rates and incentives from builders likely to draw potential buyers back into the housing market.” Single-family starts were up 18%, reaching the highest rate since April 2022, while overall housing starts were up 14.8%. (Reuters)
Bitcoin miners are “getting an additional boost from the frenzy in nonfungible tokens in recent weeks.” Revenue for all miners on the blockchain has already risen by around 60% to $2.5 billion in the fourth quarter.” That is “the highest level of revenue since the first quarter of 2022.” (Bloomberg)
Why bitcoin is up by almost 150% this year (The Economist)
Kern County, California, is on track to become the next big site for warehouses. The county, which is “the southern gateway to the San Joaquin Valley,” is “poised to become the next frontier for Southern California’s warehouse industry, valued at hundreds of billions of dollars. Farmland once heralded for its high-quality soil is now being eyed for its location in the heart of the state, near major highways.” (Los Angeles Times)
Technology
Masimo CEO Open to Settling Apple Watch Rift But Says ‘It Takes Two to Tango’: Masimo Corp. Chief Executive Officer Joe Kiani, head of the medical device maker that has put Apple Inc.’s smartwatch on the brink of a US ban, said he’d be open to settling with the company. The executive said the “short answer is yes,” when asked if he’d settle, but he declined to say how much money he’d seek from Apple. Kiani said he would “work with them to improve their product.” (Bloomberg)
Pharmacy chain Rite Aid must stop using facial recognition for five years as part of a settlement with the US FTC, which said the tech falsely flagged customers. (Bloomberg)
Approximately 102 million U.S. customers “will get a payout as Google shells out $700 million to settle an antitrust lawsuit brought by state prosecutors over the high fees it charges app developers.” Google will pay $630 million into a fund that will be divided among the customers, and will pay “an additional $70 million for a fund to be used by the states to resolve other related claims.” (Washington Post)
The White House backing an auto industry effort “to standardize Tesla’s electric vehicle charging plugs for all EVs in the United States, part of a broad effort to stimulate their sales to help combat climate change.” The U.S. lags behind EV sales “in such countries as China and Germany.” One key reason is “the limited availability of charging infrastructure across the country.” (Associated Press)
These Tesla Wannabes Are Running Out of Road (Wall Street Journal)
Amazon announced that two of its prototype Internet satellites “equipped with infrared lasers transferred data at 100 gigabits per second over a distance of nearly 1000 kilometers. The company says all of its upcoming 3236 Project Kuiper satellites will include such interlinks.” Rival SpaceX’s Starlink system “has been experimenting with optical interlinks for about a year.” (IEEE Spectrum)
Starlink signals can be reverse-engineered to work like GPS — whether SpaceX likes it or not (MIT Technology Review)
McKinsey researchers say generative AI “could add $43 billion annually to America's already stark racial wealth gap over the next two decades, with Black workers also facing a higher risk of job loss thanks to automation.” The report concludes that AI “threatens to automate half of all jobs that don't require a 4-year degree and that pay over $42,000 a year.” (Axios)
Xfinity says attackers who breached one of its servers in October “also stole customer-sensitive information from its systems.” On October 25, Xfinity “found evidence of malicious activity on its network between October 16 and October 19.” Following an investigation, Xfinity determined that the data breach affected nearly 36 million people. (Bleeping Computer)
Smart Links
How Europe is dominating tech regulation. (Axios)
VR market keeps shrinking even as Meta pours billions of dollars a quarter into metaverse. (CNBC)
Facebook Is Being Overrun With Stolen, AI-Generated Images That People Think Are Real. (404 Media)
Toshiba to be delisted after 74 years, faces future with new owners. (Reuters)
Why UBS Wants to Be the No. 6 Investment Bank in the U.S. (Yes, No. 6). (Wall Street Journal)
FTX resolves dispute with Bahamian liquidators. (Reuters)