Know someone who would like this newsletter? Forward it to them.
The World
Joe Biden to send delegation to Taipei after Taiwan’s election: President Joe Biden plans to send a high-level delegation of former top officials to Taipei after the election in Taiwan on Saturday, a move that could complicate efforts by the US and China to stabilise their strained relationship. The White House has tapped James Steinberg, a former Democratic deputy secretary of state, and Stephen Hadley, a former Republican national security adviser, to lead the bipartisan delegation, according to five people familiar with the plans. Earlier in his administration, Biden dispatched two high-level delegations of former officials to Taipei to reassure Taiwan about US support in the face of pressure from Beijing. But sending such a delegation immediately after a presidential election is unusual — and will probably anger Beijing. The Chinese embassy in Washington responded to the Financial Times report of the delegation by saying that China “firmly opposes the US having any form of official contact with the Taiwan region”. It called on the Biden administration to “stop sending wrong signals to ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces and refrain from interfering in elections in the Taiwan region in any form”. (Financial Times)
China’s Ministry of Defense said Beijing “will never compromise or yield on the Taiwan issue’” in a statement issued after a U.S.-China military dialogue in Washington. The “stark language is standard for China but also underscores that the Chinese government is firmly committed to its core interests ahead of improved ties with the U.S.” (Axios)
China Relaxes Requirements for Visa on Arrival to Boost Tourism: China will ease some visa requirements to make it easier for foreigners to travel for business, education and tourism, a move that comes as the government seeks to rejuvenate a slowing economy. The National Immigration Administration outlined five steps including letting foreigners apply for re-entry visas, simplifying visa application, and allowing those who need to enter China urgently for work or other reasons to apply for port visas, or visa on arrival, China’s state broadcaster reported Thursday. (Bloomberg)
China will make foreign investment easier, vice premier tells foreign executives: The meeting comes as foreign investors have largely taken a wait-and-see approach to China amid uncertainty about the country’s economic trajectory and tensions with the U.S. “China will continue to deepen the reform and two-way opening-up of its capital market, facilitate cross-border investment and financing,” state media reported that He said. Separately, President Emeritus of Harvard University Lawrence Summers met with People’s Bank of China Governor Pan Gongsheng on Wednesday, according to a news release on the central bank’s website. (CNBC)
U.S., U.K. Warships Shoot Down Houthi Barrage in Red Sea: As U.S. considers retaliatory strikes in Yemen, Secretary of State Antony Blinken campaigns to contain regional conflicts. (Wall Street Journal)
Who are the Houthis? US officials accused Iran of being “deeply involved” in planning the Houthis’ assaults against shipping, saying the rebels have used Iranian drones and that Tehran provided “tactical intelligence” to the group. Iranian officials have praised the Houthis’ attacks, but have rejected US claims that Tehran has been involved in the planning or supplied the group with weapons. Tehran has insisted that militant groups within its Axis of Resistance — which also includes Hamas and Lebanon’s Hizbollah — act independently. The Houthis, who are members of the Zaydi Shia sect, are not as ideologically aligned with Iran as other Shia militant movements in the region. However, they have moved closer to the Islamic republic as they have fought a nearly nine-year war against a Saudi-led coalition that intervened in Yemen’s civil conflict after the Houthis ousted the Yemeni government. (Financial Times)
“Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist insurgent group” al-Shabab seized the crew of a UN helicopter in Somalia. Al-Shabab “set the helicopter on fire and seized most crew members after the aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing.” (Washington Post)
House Speaker Mike Johnson pleaded with his fellow Republicans to stop criticizing him and his budget negotiations on social media. Johnson made the remarks in a closed-door meeting of the GOP caucus. Conservatives are “slamming Johnson's topline budget agreement” with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, alleging that it “does not go far enough to include GOP priorities and cut spending.” (Axios)
The USDA says the Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer program will provide food benefits to nearly 21 million children. The USDA says the newly permanent benefit “is meant to supplement existing programs during the summer that have had a more limited reach.” (Associated Press)
The United Auto Workers announced that 30% of workers at its Tuscaloosa, Alabama, plant, making it “the second to reach that milestone in recent weeks, joining a Volkswagen factory” in Chattanooga, Tennessee, that the UAW “is also attempting to organize. The UAW is targeting U.S. factories of a dozen companies, including Tesla, Honda and Toyota.” (Washington Post)
Economy
“About 93% of U.S. households' stock market wealth is held by the top 10%.” While “a record high 58% of American households do own stocks via mutual funds or as individual shares, in the aggregate the amount of stock most of these folks own is tiny.” (Axios)
“Retailers chalked up solid gains in the final month to wrap up the holiday season,” according to the CNBC/NRF Retail Monitor, which excludes auto and gas. The monitor “rose 0.4% in December, down from a gain of 0.8% in November, when the holiday shopping season traditionally kicks off. It’s just below the long-run average of 0.6%.” (CNBC)
The SEC has approved spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds that could start trading as early as Thursday. Bitcoin will “effectively be listed on exchanges, giving it a pathway to investment portfolios alongside stocks and bonds.” (Axios)
Norway’s Parliament has approved a plan to open a large section of its northern waters for potential mining, making Norway “the first country to allow for commercial-scale deep-sea mining.” Oslo “has assessed that there are millions of metric tons of copper, cobalt, zinc, and thousands of tons of rare earth minerals on the sea bed, estimated to have a value of almost $100 billion.” (Semafor)
“Niger, Senegal, and Rwanda will be among the world’s highest growth economies in 2024, the World Bank said in its report on global economic prospects released this week.” Niger is forecast to grow at 12.5% this year, “driven by its oil sector which has made up for low uranium production. Its growth rate will only be surpassed by Guyana’s 38.2%,” which is also benefiting from an expanding oil sector. (Semafor)
Technology
A World Economic Forum report called “false and misleading information supercharged with cutting-edge artificial intelligence” the biggest immediate risk to the global economy. The WEF said AI-driven misinformation “threatens to erode democracy and polarize society.” (Associated Press)
OpenAI is in talks with CNN, Fox Corp. and Time to license their work, according to people familiar with the matter, in a growing effort to secure access to news content to build out its artificial intelligence products while facing allegations it’s ripping off copyrighted materials. The startup behind ChatGPT, a tool that lets users quickly crank out text, code and other content with simple prompts, is seeking to cut deals with numerous producers of news, video and other digital media that can be used to make the AI chatbot more accurate, relevant and up to date. OpenAI is also battling lawsuits alleging copyright infringement. (Bloomberg)
OpenAI is launching a subscription plan for ChatGPT “aimed at smaller, self-service-oriented teams.” ChatGPT Team “provides a dedicated workspace for teams up to 149 people using ChatGPT, as well as admin tools for team management. All users in a ChatGPT Team gain access to OpenAI’s latest models.” (TechCrunch)
Twitch is laying off more than 500 employees, or about 35% of its staff. In March of last year, “Twitch cut 400 roles as part of larger layoffs at parent company Amazon that saw 18,000 people lose their jobs.” (The Verge)
Amazon is also “cutting hundreds of jobs in its Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios division. Mike Hopkins, the executive who leads the division, announced the reduction in an email Wednesday morning, writing that ‘several hundred roles’ would be eliminated.” (Hollywood Reporter)
“Humanity's second ‘giant leap’ will have to wait an extra year.” NASA has pushed back its planned Artemis II mission to send astronauts to the moon “back to September 2025 from its original date of November of this year, NASA announced on Tuesday. The delay will also set back the launch of Artemis III, which would see two astronauts touch down on the surface of the moon, to September 2026, from its original 2025 date.” (USA Today)
Smart Links
More Than 20 Million People Have Signed Up for Obamacare Plans, Blowing by Record. (New York Times)
Amazon skips concessions to EU on iRobot deal (Politico)
Linux devices are under attack by a never-before-seen worm (Ars Technica)
At CES 2024, tech companies are transforming the kitchen with AI and robots that do the cooking (Associated Press)
Uranium prices hit highest level since 2007 (Semafor)