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The World
A traffic jam of oil tankers has built up in Turkish waters after western powers launched a “price cap” targeting Russian oil and as authorities in Ankara demanded insurers promise that any vessels navigating its straits were fully covered. Under EU sanctions that came into effect, tankers loading Russian crude oil are barred from accessing western maritime insurance unless the oil is sold under the G7’s price cap of $60 a barrel. (Financial Times)
India will prioritize its own energy needs and continue to buy oil from Russia, as Western governments press Moscow with a price cap to squeeze its earnings from oil exports. Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar made the comments after holding talks with his visiting German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, in which they discussed bilateral relations and Russia’s war in Ukraine. Jaishankar said it isn’t right for European countries to prioritize their energy needs but “ask India to do something else.” (Associated Press)
EU countries cut gas demand by a quarter in November even as temperatures fell, in the latest evidence that the bloc is succeeding in reducing its reliance on Russian energy since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. (Financial Times)
In the UK, millions will have their Christmas travel plans ruined after Britain’s biggest rail union announced a new wave of strikes to hit the festive getaway. The RMT has said that workers will walk out from 6pm on Christmas Eve until 6am on December 27. (The Times)
Also in the UK, five million patients were unable to book a GP appointment when they tried to make one in October, Labour Party analysis has suggested. Another two million people faced a wait of more than a month to see their doctor, the highest number since the records began, in 2017, and 4.3 million waited for more than a fortnight. (The Times)
China's capital Beijing dropped the need for people to show negative COVID tests to enter supermarkets and offices, the latest in an easing of curbs across the country following last month's historic protests. "Beijing readies itself for life again" read a headline in the government-owned China Daily newspaper, adding that people were "gradually embracing" the slow return to normality. (Reuters)
Economists Split Over China’s 2023 Outlook: Growth projections range from 4% to 6%, as the country eases the strict ‘zero-Covid’ policy, which hobbled its economy. (Caixin Global)
South Korea's Yoon draws closer to ASEAN, keeping distance from China. President welcomes Vietnam's PM in latest move of new Indo-Pacific strategy. (Nikkei Asia Review)
After some 15 years of delays, the Department of Homeland Security pushed the deadline for enforcement of the Real ID Act by an additional 24 months. The 2005 law, which mandates that U.S. travelers must carry more than a standard driver’s license to board a domestic flight, was set to go into effect on May 3, 2023. Travelers now have until May 7, 2025, to update their documents. The Real ID Act is a post-Sept. 11 law that requires U.S. travelers flying within the United States to show Transportation Security Administration agents either a security-enhanced driver’s license or another T.S.A.-approved form of identification like a passport. (New York Times)
Economy
There’s a hidden risk to the global financial system embedded in the $65 trillion of dollar debt being held by non-US institutions via currency derivatives, according to the Bank for International Settlements. In a paper with the title “huge, missing and growing,” the BIS said a lack of information is making it harder for policy makers to anticipate the next financial crisis. In particular, they raised concern with the fact that the debt is going unrecorded on balance sheets because of accounting conventions on how to track derivative positions. (Bloomberg)
PepsiCo is laying off workers at the headquarters of its North American snacks and beverages divisions, a signal that corporate belt-tightening is extending beyond tech and media. Hundreds of jobs will be eliminated. The cuts affect the company’s North America beverage, snacks, and packaged-foods business. (Wall Street Journal)
Fed to Weigh Higher Interest Rates Next Year While Slowing Rises This Month: Brisk wage growth may lead officials to consider raising policy rate above 5% in 2023 while approving a 0.5-point increase in December. (Wall Street Journal)
London office values “to fall by 38%” driven by “likely recessionary impacts” amid working from home and rising unemployment, according to Citi. (The Times)
The US and European Union committed to resolving differences over the American Inflation Reduction Act, which the EU says provides unfair subsidies to US manufacturers and threatens to undermine the transatlantic relationship. The US and EU indicate a plan to end electric vehicles subsidies dispute, both wary of China and Russia. The two sides agreed to align industrial policies at latest meeting of Trade and Technology Council, with Europe urging to see results ‘this year’. (Bloomberg, South China Morning Post)
Ford CEO says 65% of U.S. dealers agree to sell EVs under company’s investment programs. (CNBC)
Japan's exports of agricultural products are on track to hit a record annual high, amid the depreciating yen and rebounding global demand fueled by receding pandemic concerns. Exports of agricultural, forestry, and fishery products and food hit 1.12 trillion yen ($8.34 billion) for the 10 months through October, marking the second time ever that the figure has passed the 1 trillion-yen mark. (Nikkei Asia)
Texas’s Crypto Mining Boom Is Starting to Look More Like a Bust: Energy costs, competition lead some to bankruptcy, default State sought to lure miners with cheap power, lax regulations. (Bloomberg)
Technology
Apple and Nvidia are set to be two of the first customers for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.'s new plant in Arizona, which is slated to begin making some of the world's most advanced chips as early as the end of next year. (Nikkei Asia Review)
Apple supplier Foxconn expects its COVID-hit Zhengzhou plant in China to resume full production around late December to early January. The world's largest contract electronics maker later on Monday said revenue in November fell 11.4% year on year reflecting production problems related to COVID-19 controls at the major iPhone factory. (Reuters)
Chris Miller won the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award for Chip War, his timely and important account of the global battle for semiconductor supremacy. (Financial Times)
Chinese apps TikTok, Temu and Shein take on Amazon in US in e-commerce push during holiday shopping season. Pinduoduo has seen early success with its Temu app, which briefly topped download charts in November, as ByteDance launched a TikTok shopping feature in the US. The companies are trying to follow the success of fast-fashion e-tailer Shein, but analysts say taking on Amazon on its home turf is an uphill battle. (South China Morning Post)
Salesforce said Stewart Butterfield, the chief executive and co-founder of the messaging app Slack Technologies, plans to leave the company next month. Butterfield’s departure comes after Salesforce said last week that co-CEO Bret Taylor would depart the company in January, leaving Chairman Marc Benioff the sole CEO of the company he co-founded. Taylor was credited as the architect of Salesforce’s 2020 deal to buy Slack for $27.7 billion, Salesforce’s biggest acquisition ever. (Wall Street Journal)
Salesforce executive exits help push stock to its lowest point since March 2020. (CNBC)
88K and counting: While the U.S. jobs market overall remains tight, the tech sector is feeling the sting. By Crunchbase’s tally, at least 88,000 U.S. tech sector employees have lost their jobs so far in 2022. The latest cuts came from DoorDash and Kraken, among others. (Crunchbase)
Live Event
Today, 7:15 pm ET: Avoiding Disaster: U.S.-China Relations. A conversation with Professor Jia Qingguo, Visiting Scholar, former Dean of the School of International Studies at Peking University and Distinguished Fellow at Stanford; Thomas Fingar, Shorenstein APARC Fellow in the Institute for International Studies at Stanford University; and Michael McFaul, Director at the Institute for International Studies, the Ken Olivier and Professor of International Studies. (Register: Stanford University)
Smart Links
Google’s Sundar Pichai Has More Direct Reports Than the CEOs of Meta, Amazon, Apple. (The Information)
Nike officially terminates partnership with Kyrie Irving. (ESPN)
Cheap loans set to give young Greeks a shot at a home of their own. (Financial Times)
Australia records first current account deficit in three years. (Reuters)
The child care worker shortage is slowly easing. (Axios)