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The World
Russia says it is abandoning the southern city of Kherson. On November 9th Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s defence minister, and General Sergei Surovikin, appointed as the commander of Russian forces in Ukraine weeks earlier, met Russian commanders and acknowledged that Russia’s position in Kherson had become untenable. The “most sensible option” in the circumstances, said General Surovikin, would be to establish a new defensive line on the eastern side of the Dnieper river. (Economist)
Vladimir Putin will not attend G20 summit in Bali, Indonesian official says. (The Guardian)
A European charity ship carrying 234 migrants rescued from the Mediterranean Sea has set sail for France after Italy’s new rightwing government refused to allow the vessel to dock, drawing fierce criticism from Paris. (Financial Times)
Under Xi Jinping, Women in China Have Given Up Gains: In China’s state-media narrative, the Communist Party can pride itself on “historic achievements” on women’s causes during Xi Jinping’s tenure. By other measures, women have lost ground under Mr. Xi. Since 2012, when Mr. Xi took power, there has been a drop in women’s labor-force participation, a crackdown on feminists and a new focus on women’s role in the family. China has dropped 33 places to the lower third in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report, to No. 102 in the 2022 ranking of more than 100 countries, down from No. 69 in 2012. (Wall Street Journal)
China’s economic tsar sends rare message, warnings to future policymakers: Vice-Premier Liu He, 70, has been instrumental in the development of China’s economy over the past decade, but drastic policy shifts could affect his legacy. Liu reiterates the importance of boosting domestic demand and making supply-side reforms, but not reverting to full isolationism. (South China Morning Post)
Xi Jinping has told the People’s Liberation Army to “focus all its energy on fighting” in preparation for war, a Chinese Communist party mouthpiece has reported. Pictures of Xi, who recently secured a third term as party leader, in his army uniform during a visit to a command centre featured prominently on the front page of the People’s Daily. (The Guardian)
Georgia is on track to become the center of the political universe over the next four weeks, as control for the U.S. Senate could once again hinge on the results of a runoff in the state. Neither Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) nor Republican Herschel Walker cleared 50 percent during Tuesday’s election, forcing a sprint to a head-to-head matchup on Dec. 6 between the two candidates. On Wednesday, Warnock led Walker by just over 35,000 votes, but Georgia law requires a runoff if no candidate clears 50 percent. (Politico)
Supreme Court to Hear Nursing Home Case That Could Affect Millions. The country’s highest court will decide whether Americans who rely on public assistance can sue states when they believe their rights have been violated. (Scientific American)
South Dakota looks like it will now expand Medicaid, with 56% of voters backing Amendment D to provide health coverage to some 40,000 additional people. The approval also extends expansion's winning streak at the ballot box, following successful campaigns in recent years in half a dozen other states, including Idaho, Missouri, and Oklahoma. There are still 11 states that haven't expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, but South Dakota is seen as the last one where voters might force their leaders' hands by approving it through a ballot measure. (STAT News)
Economy
Amazon Becomes World’s First Public Company to Lose $1 Trillion in Market Value. The result is a combination of rising inflation, tightening monetary policies and disappointing earnings updates triggered a historic selloff in the stock this year. Shares in the e-commerce and cloud company fell 4.3% on Wednesday, pushing its market value to about $879 billion from a record close at $1.88 trillion on July 2021. Amazon and Microsoft Corp. were neck-and-neck in the race to breach the unwelcome milestone, with the Windows software maker close behind after. (Bloomberg)
Financial markets bet on an end to China’s “zero-covid” policy. Is China about to abandon its struggle with covid-19? Judging by recent moves in the markets, you might think so. Rumours that China had assembled a reopening committee inspired a big rally in the country’s shares, the offshore yuan and even the price of copper in the early days of this month. A social-media message that helped circulate the idea was subsequently dubbed the “trillion-dollar” tweet. If nothing else, the market movements were a reminder of the costs of China’s “zero-covid” strategy, which requires mass testing and frequent lockdowns to stamp out the disease. Few policies are so economically damaging that mere rumours of their repeal can create so much wealth so quickly. A reopening could lift the value of China’s shares by 20% or $2.6trn, according to Goldman Sachs. (The Economist)
Amazon’s HQ2 project is stuck in the past. Amazon’s HQ2, with the first phase scheduled to finish in 2023 and a second phase green-lit in April, has become a test case for what happens when your timing just couldn’t be worse: planning for millions of square feet of office space before one incredible, unimaginable event made new offices the least convenient thing you could build. Today the rumble of construction trucks and the din of jackhammers are the soundtrack of life in Crystal City, the neighborhood where, theoretically, thousands of Amazon workers will report to new offices a year from now. The project is envisioned as a white-collar 21st-century paradise, complete with interlacing parks, child care centers, and even a facial spa. It sounds so utopian, so ideal, so … 2019. (Protocol)
Real-estate company Redfin Corp. laid off 13% of its staff on Wednesday and closed its home-flipping unit, saying the operation was both too expensive and too risky to continue. The Seattle-based company, which operates a real-estate brokerage and home-listings website, said the decisions were made because it is predicting that the real-estate market is going to be smaller next year and its home-flipping business is losing money. It previously laid off 8% of its workforce in June of this year. (WSJ)
Shares of Merrimack, a dormant drugmaker, soar after cancer drug succeeds in trial. The company, which has no employees or any active research programs, more than doubled Wednesday because of a $225 million windfall that it will receive due to the success of a treatment for pancreatic cancer. The approved cancer drug, called Onivyde, was once owned by Merrimack, but was sold in 2017 to the French drugmaker Ipsen. The deal gave Merrimack $575 million in cash, plus the potential for another $450 million in future cash payments contingent on Onivyde winning additional regulatory approvals. (STAT News)
Technology
Binance Walks Away From Deal to Acquire FTX. "As a result of corporate due diligence, as well as the latest news reports regarding mishandled customer funds and alleged U.S. agency investigations, we have decided that we will not pursue the potential acquisition of FTX.com," a spokesperson told CoinDesk. "In the beginning, our hope was to be able to support FTX’s customers to provide liquidity, but the issues are beyond our control or ability to help. Every time a major player in an industry fails, retail consumers will suffer. We have seen over the last several years that the crypto ecosystem is becoming more resilient and we believe in time that outliers that misuse user funds will be weeded out by the free market.” (CoinDesk)
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s largest contract chip maker, is preparing another multibillion-dollar factory investment in Arizona. TSMC plans in the coming months to announce it will build a cutting-edge semiconductor plant north of Phoenix, beside another chip factory that the company committed to in 2020. The scale of the investment is expected to be roughly similar to the $12 billion it committed two years ago. (Wall Street Journal)
Apple knows exactly how much you use its apps. Apple often boasts of its commitment to user privacy and data anonymization, and in many instances, the tech giant does provide ways for consumers to guard against a fair amount of invasive tactics like ad tracking. But as a new investigation reveals that dedication to personal digital preference largely stops where the company’s own apps are concerned. The new research, co-conducted by two security researchers at the software company Mysk, shows the level of scrutiny iPhone users receive while accessing official apps like Apple TV, Music, Books, and Stocks is both startling detailed and potentially worrisome. (Popular Science)
AWS Preps ‘Bastion’ Cloud Service for Advertisers. Amazon Web Services is preparing to unveil a cloud service to help companies improve the way they target ads to potential customers without violating data privacy laws, according to three people with knowledge of the product. The move comes as advertisers try to recover from, and get ahead of, Apple’s and Google’s restrictions on their ability to track consumers online. (The Information)
Tesla recalls over 40,000 cars to address power steering flaw. Elon Musk's electric-car manufacturer says the vehicles' power-steering assist system may fail on rough roads or after hitting a pothole. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it could require greater steering effort, especially at low speeds, increasing crash risks. It was unaware of any injuries or deaths in connection with the problem, it said. (BBC)
Electric vehicle maker Rivian affirmed that the company is on track to hit its annual production target of 25,000 vehicles despite unpredictable supply chain crunches and component shortages. (TechCrunch)
Smart Links
Goldman Sachs promotes 80 new partners in most diverse class ever. (Financial Times)
America’s slow-moving, confused crypto regulation is driving industry out of US (Ars Technica)
Florida university leaders approve $1M salary for Sasse. (Politico)
Why There Isn’t an RSV Vaccine to Combat the Current Surge (Slate)
The surprising benefits of blue spaces (BBC)
California bans flavored vapes and menthol cigarettes. (STAT News)
Paul Allen’s Art Collection Sets Record With $1.5 Billion Sale. (Wall Street Journal)