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The World
Beijing promises a crackdown on misconduct after bond defaults: China’s financial regulators have vowed to crack down on people “running away” from their debts after a slew of bond defaults rocked the country’s onshore market. The Financial Stability and Development Committee agreed to adopt a zero-tolerance approach and will punish all kinds of “debt evasion” to protect investors. (Financial Times, South China Morning Post)
The U.S. reported record hospitalizations for the 12th straight day, while AstraZeneca says COVID-19 'vaccine for the world' can be 90% effective. In El Paso, TX, after previously resorting to using inmates from the county jail to move bodies, 36 members of the National Guard are now woking in local mortuaries. In Nevada, gaming establishments, bars, restaurants and other businesses will be capped at 25% capacity, while November is on track to be North Dakota's deadliest month. However, the U.S. Operation Warp Speed chief said the first immunizations could arrive on Dec. 12 and predicted life could be back to normal around May, if the immunization plan goes well. In Riyadh, the G20 leaders closed their summit with calls for coordinated response to the pandemic. In the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is to announce the return of Christmas shopping, gyms and outdoor sport across England as the government prepares to lift lockdown. (Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Texas Tribune, Las Vegas Sun, Bismarck Tribune, The Guardian, Washington Post, The Times)
As college students hit the road after an eerie pandemic semester, the big question is: Will the virus go home with them? A look at the University of Wisconsin. (Washington Post)
The Trump administration is close to declaring that 89 Chinese aerospace and other companies have military ties, restricting them from buying a range of U.S. goods and technology. Meanwhile, a two-star Navy admiral overseeing U.S. military intelligence in the Asia-Pacific region has made an unannounced visit to Taiwan, a high-level trip that could vex China. Separately, the U.S. formally withdrew from the Treaty on Open Skies, a decades-old pact meant to reduce the chances of an accidental war by allowing mutual reconnaissance flights by parties to the 34-nation agreement. The exit comes six months after President Trump first announced his intention to withdraw, saying Russia has been violating the pact. (Reuters, Nikkei Asian Review, Washington Post)
Russian President Putin said he’s ready to work with any U.S. leader, but still isn’t ready to recognize the election victory of Joe Biden: “We will work with anyone who has the confidence of the American people. But that confidence can only be given to a candidate whose victory has been recognized by the opposing party, or after the results are confirmed in a legitimate, legal way.” (Bloomberg)
Antony J. Blinken, a defender of global alliances and one of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s closest foreign policy advisers, is expected to be nominated for secretary of state, a job in which he will attempt to coalesce skeptical international partners into a new competition with China. In a 2013 profile, the Washington Post wrote: “But what sets him apart from the other intellectual powerhouses in the inner sanctum is a life story that reads like a Jewish high-society screenplay that the onetime aspiring film producer may have once dreamed of making. There’s his father, a giant in venture capital; his mother, the arts patron; and his stepfather, who survived the Holocaust to become of one of the most influential lawyers on the global stage. It is a bildungsroman for young Blinken — playing in a Parisian jazz band, debating politics with statesmen — with a supporting cast of characters that includes, among others, Leonard Bernstein, John Lennon, Mark Rothko, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, Abel Ferrara and Christo.” (New York Times, Washington Post)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mossad chief Yossi Cohen reportedly joined U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Neom, Saudi Arabia. Netanyahu used a private plane that left Israel at 5 p.m. on Sunday and returned after midnight. (Jerusalem Post, Washington Post)
Ethiopia tells Tigrayans to ‘save themselves’ ahead of assault on capital, as the army plans to encircle city of 500,000 people with tanks and artillery, as Ethiopia's prime minister has given forces in the northern region of Tigray 72 hours to surrender. In Guatemala, hundreds of protesters broke into Guatemala’s congress and burned part of the building amid growing demonstrations against President Alejandro Giammattei and the legislature for approving a budget that cut educational and health spending. (Financial Times, BBC News, The Guardian)
Fearful of covid lawsuits, jittery school officials are buying new — and frequently costly — insurance policies. (The74million.org)
Economy
The World Economic Forum in Davos announced its themes for this year’s virtual meeting during “a crucial year to rebuilt trust.” The five program themes are: (WEF)
Designing cohesive, sustainable, resilient economic systems (25 January)
Driving responsible industry transformation and growth (26 January)
Enhancing stewardship of our global commons (27 January)
Harnessing the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (28 January)
Advancing global and regional cooperation (29 January)
Coronavirus spurred companies to hoard cash, but now they’re starting to dole it out: Kohl’s, Marathon Oil and Darden are resuming dividend payments, a sign they believe the pandemic’s worst is behind them. (Wall Street Journal)
Far fewer women than men are promoted in the finance industry unless they first ask for seniority, a sign of institutional gender bias, according to a new study in Australia. The survey of 2,000 finance industry professionals showed 76% of men were offered a promotion at least once without requesting it, compared with 57% of women. Other findings: Men are offered promotions much more often, and ion average men in fund management paid twice as much as women. (Bloomberg)
FedEx ramps up for Covid-19 vaccine distribution: FedEx’s cold chain network, backed by a fleet of refrigerated trucks and experience carrying half a million dry ice shipments a month, gives it a leg up in competition to transport vaccines once production begins, some experts believe. “The logistics of deploying a vaccine to citizens of the world with vastly different levels of economic and supply chain capabilities is a nightmare scenario that could take all of 2021 and 2022 to fully play out, a vastly under appreciated reality, in our view,” researchers said. At least nine big pharmaceutical companies hav bought air freight capacity with FedEx for November through January. (Daily Memphian)
Robinhood announced that Vlad Tenev will be the company's sole chief executive, ending an arrangement in which Tenev and cofounder Baiju Bhatt have shared the top job since the company's launch in 2013. The move comes amid ongoing speculation that Robinhood plans to go public in the coming months, and after the company raised $660 million in a recent Series G funding round. (Fortune)
Diverse employees are struggling the most during COVID-19. In every country, members of diverse populations reported additional challenges and felt them more acutely than their nondiverse counterparts. While geography plays an important role in employee experience during the pandemic, our survey data also show that women, LGBTQ+ employees, POC, and parents are having the hardest time. (McKinsey)
Technology
How Facebook is trying to reposition itself as a gaming platform with its big bet on cloud gaming: Facebook VP of Play Jason Rubin explains the company's battles with Apple, the technical challenges of delivering cloud games, Microsoft's deal to distribute its own xCloud games, and the importance of the new Player Name policy. When Facebook shifted to a mobile-first strategy, games largely fell by the wayside for the company. Yet mobile is generally thought to represent at least half of the global $160 billion video game industry. (Protocol, The Verge)
The incredible history of the promise of video calling: Underestimating how important luck can be in determining how fast customers will adopt an innovative technology helps explain the perennial tendency of business forecasters to get the future wrong. “Before very long,” the engineering journal Cassier’s Magazine predicted in July 1912, “when the telephone call comes, there will appear with it the face of the person who is talking.” That would make it “unnecessary for many people to travel to and from their work at all,” minimizing “the great crush and crowding back and forth in our great cities.” (Wall Street Journal)
Sports tech startups find a home base in Indianapolis. Over the past five years, investors have pumped $2.2 billion into Indiana-based startups and approximately $1.3 billion into startups based in Indianapolis specifically. (Crunchbase)
Smart Links
New test reveals AI still lacks common sense. (USC)
The first AI model that translates 100 languages without relying on English data. (AI.Facebook)
Smartphone screen time linked to preference for quicker but smaller rewards. (Science Daily)
Bucket list travel is being booked in record numbers for 2021 and beyond. (Barron’s)
Delta will block middle seats through March. (Washington Post)
How Chicago became the most vermin-infested town in the US. (The Guardian)
Wrigley Field receives federal landmark status. (Chicago Tribune)
Homebound listeners are tuning in to music-streaming services. (Wall Street Journal)
Learn More (Today, 1 pm ET): Populism & Trends in Foreign Policy: A Conversation with Rory Stewart. Stewart is a Senior Fellow at the Jackson Institute, Yale University; a former UK MP; and former UK Secretary of State for International Development. (Harvard Belfer Center)
Oxford Dictionaries has expanded its word of the year to encompass several "Words of an Unprecedented Year.” (BBC News)