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The World
Scientists “delivered a striking dose of reality to the United Nations: it’s ‘becoming inevitable’ that countries will miss the ambitious target they set eight years ago for limiting the warming of the Earth. The ominous estimate points to the growing likelihood that global warming will shoot past 1.5 degrees Celsius before the end of this century.” (Politico)
International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva on Sunday “underlined the case for carbon pricing at the COP28 climate summit, saying that the oil and gas industry recognizes ‘the writing on the wall.’” (CNBC)
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says the alliance “should be ready for bad news from the Ukrainian front as Kyiv continues to defend against Russia’s all-out invasion.” He told German broadcaster ARD, “We have to support Ukraine in both good and bad times.” NATO “‘should also be prepared for bad news,’ Stoltenberg added, without being more specific.” (Politico)
EU leaders risk leaving Ukraine empty-handed at a perilous moment in its war against Russia as divisions over finances threaten a €50bn lifeline for Kyiv and Hungary vows to thwart its EU membership talks. EU member states are far from reaching a deal over topping up the bloc’s joint budget — including €50bn for Ukraine — ahead of a summit in Brussels on December 14-15, said officials involved in the discussions. (Financial Times)
The White House is “evaluating potential consequences after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro missed an end-of-November deadline to release detained Americans.” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told CBS, “We were extremely concerned that they didn’t take those two extra steps — release of political prisoners and getting our wrongfully detained Americans home.” (Bloomberg)
Venezuela goes ahead with vote to grab a slice of oil-rich Guyana (Times of London)
The U.S. will deploy “ground-based intermediate-range missiles in the Indo-Pacific in 2024, a U.S. official told Nikkei, establishing its first arsenal in the region since the end of the Cold War to enhance deterrence against China.” Options under consideration include land-based versions of the Standard Missile-6 and the Tomahawk cruise missile. (Nikkei Asia)
At least four people were killed and at least 50 injured when a bomb exploded during a Catholic Mass in the Philippines on Sunday morning. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. condemned the attack, “blaming ‘foreign terrorists,’ as police and the military strengthened security in the country’s south and around the capital Manila. (Reuters)
The Bharatiya Janata Party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi “is poised to win three of the four key state elections in India ahead of the crucial general elections next year.” The BJP “has a commanding lead” in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan, while the opposition Congress Party leads in Telangana. “More than 160 million people or a sixth of India’s electorate were eligible to vote in the polls held in November.” (BBC News)
“Vietnam has been rocked by its largest corruption scandal to date” following the arrest last month of the chairperson of real estate developer Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group on charges of embezzling nearly $12.4 billion — “the equivalent of more than 3% of the country’s GDP” — from Saigon Commercial Bank, “of which she was a majority stakeholder, over several years.” (DW)
World’s Best Performing Office Market Has Occupancy of Over 98%: Seoul’s office market sees tenants compete over space; lack of new office supply has pushed up rental prices. (Bloomberg)
Climate change, costly disasters sent Texas homeowner insurance rates skyrocketing this year. Texas rates have increased 22% on average so far in 2023, twice the national rate. More billion-dollar disasters have occurred in Texas this year than any other year on record. (Texas Tribune)
The Supreme Court “will hear oral argument Monday on the remaining sticking point in the yearslong effort to settle litigation” against Purdue Pharma over its prescription painkiller OxyContin “that has ballooned into nearly 3,000 cases. A multi-billion-dollar agreement is at stake.” The court’s decision could “finally start the flow of payments from the company” and the Sackler family — or “blow up the painstakingly negotiated settlement, leaving the fate of the company and the urgently sought payments up in the air.” (New York Times)
Ron DeSantis says he will win the Iowa caucuses in six weeks despite trailing Donald Trump by 30 points and losing ground to Nikki Haley, who is threatening to jump into second place. DeSantis, who just completed a tour of all of the state’s 99 counties and who is endorsed by Gov. Kim Reynolds, told NBC, “We’re going to win Iowa. I think it’s going to help propel us to the nomination.” (Politico)
Economy
“After a historic run-up in inflation, Americans are now starting to see something they haven’t in three years: deflation.” Economists say goods prices “likely have further to fall, which will ease inflation’s return to the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, perhaps as early as the second half of next year.” (Wall Street Journal)
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said that his nation “will never join the OPEC+ group of oil-producing nations as a full member and instead only seeks to participate as an observer.” He said, “Brazil will never be a full member of OPEC, because we don’t want to be. What we want is to influence.” (Reuters)
“Defaults by Chinese borrowers have surged to a record high since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, highlighting the depth of the country’s economic downturn and the obstacles to a full recovery.” More than 8.5 million people, roughly one percent of working-age Chinese adults, “are officially blacklisted by authorities after missing payments on everything from home mortgages to business loans.” (Financial Times)
Alaska Airlines will buy Hawaiian Airlines, “debt and all, for $1.9 billion, the carriers said Sunday.” Both carriers’ brands will remain intact “while expanding the fifth-largest U.S. airline to a 365-plane fleet and joining American Airlines, British Airways and Cathay Pacific in the oneworld Alliance loyalty program.” (New York Daily News)
It’s not just prospective students who are giving up on business schools—so are the professionals who admit them. In the past two years, at least eight admissions directors have left their jobs at schools ranked by Bloomberg Businessweek, including Stanford, Harvard and Columbia. Several have taken posts at other universities, while at least two have become student admissions consultants; most were industry veterans. The timing of these departures struck several current and former admissions officers and observers as coincidental. Still, all of these sources acknowledge that the Covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath intensified pressures on admissions teams. “For anyone working at an academic institution during Covid, it was a lot,” says Shelly Heinrich, an associate dean for admissions at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business. “Testing centers were closing, you could no longer take tests. The borders were closed. One of the reasons I love my job is we travel all around the world—and Covid put a stop to it.” (Bloomberg)
French, UK and Spanish institutions top new ranking of European business schools. (Financial Times)
Technology
Saudi Arabia is moving into the video game industry. Saudi entities have recently invested in Activision Blizzard, EA, Nintendo, and others, and through the Saudi Public Investment Fund, “the kingdom has acquired mobile developer Scopely for $4.9 billion and esports organizations ESL and Faceit for $1.5 billion. A further $13 billion has been earmarked ‘for the acquisition and development of a leading game publisher.’” (The Verge)
Amazon has purchased three Falcon 9 rocket launches from rival SpaceX “beginning in mid-2025 to help deploy the retail giant’s network of Kuiper Internet satellites.” Last year, Amazon “bought up most of the Western world’s excess launch capacity from everyone but SpaceX.” But the Falcon 9 “is the only rocket with any openings in its launch schedule that could make up a shortfall from delays caused by Amazon’s other launch providers.” (Ars Technica)
Richard Branson will not put more money into Virgin Galactic, the “lossmaking space travel company” he founded 19 years ago, “saying his business empire ‘does not have the deepest pockets’ any more.” Virgin Galactic said last month that it was cutting jobs and suspending commercial flights for 18 months. (Financial Times)
Japanese chipmaker Fuso Chemical “is sinking deeper in debt because it’s refusing to raise prices to cover mounting capex costs.” The small company “is bearing the cost to help churn out bigger volumes of sophisticated chips without asking customers for more. That’s despite holding a more than 90% share of the world’s silica used to polish silicon wafers” and serving clients including Intel, Samsung, and TSMC. (Bloomberg)
Smart Links
Bitcoin tops $40,000 for first time in 19 months as peak rates bet spurs buying. (Financial Times)
Google Postpones Big AI Launch as OpenAI Zooms Ahead. (The Information)
Climate tech is back — and this time, it can’t afford to fail. (MIT Technology Review)
Why TikTok is dangerously good at making you spend money. (Los Angeles Times)
How a Canadian company became the world’s best acquirer of tech firms. (The Economist)