Issue 20
January 3, 2024
FLASH Harvard president resigns
FLASH Maersk again pauses Red Sea operations
1 Israel drone strike in neighboring Lebanon kills Hamas leader
2 Tesla lags Chinese automaker BYD
3 Americans cancel streaming subscriptions
4 Sen Mendez faces new allegations
5 Biden coalition fraying
1996: first mobile flip phone goes on sale
FLASH Harvard president resigns amid plagiarism and antisemitism controversies
FLASH Maersk again pauses Red Sea operations, despite US protection
1 Israel drone strike in neighboring Lebanon kills Hamas leader
Hamas’s leader, Ismail Haniyeh, said in a televised address that seven members of the group had been killed in the strike in a suburb of Beirut, the Lebanese capital. Videos from the scene verified by The New York Times show at least one car engulfed in flames in front of a high-rise building as dozens of people gather in the area. (NYT)
Hamas froze talks for a second deal to release additional hostages held in Gaza after Israel assassinated deputy Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut, according to the Al Arabiya news outlet. (Jerusalem Post)
Hezbollah says killing 'won't go unanswered,' fires missiles towards Israeli border town. (Harretz)
2 Tesla falls behind Chinese automaker BYD in vehicle sales
Chinese automaker BYD for the first time topped Tesla as the world’s largest seller of electric vehicles on a quarterly basis, a sign of China’s emerging strength in the global market for battery-powered cars. (WSJ)
3 Americans increasingly cancel streaming subscriptions
About one-quarter of U.S. subscribers to major streaming services—a group that includes Apple TV+, Discovery+, Disney+, Hulu, Max, Netflix, Paramount+, Peacock and Starz—have canceled at least three of them over the past two years, according to November data from subscription-analytics provider Antenna. Two years ago, that number stood at 15%, a sign that streaming users are becoming increasingly fickle. (WSJ)
4 Sen Mendez faces new allegations
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) is facing a new set of federal bribery allegations in a superseding indictment unsealed Tuesday that accuses him of providing assistance to the government of Qatar as well as Egypt. While the indictment does not add charges, it makes public previously unknown allegations of corruption by the longtime lawmaker, who headed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee until he was charged in U.S. District Court in Manhattan several months ago. It is the second superseding charging document to be filed since Menendez surrendered in September. (Washington Post)
5 Biden coalition fraying
President Joe Biden heads into the election year showing alarming weakness among stalwarts of the Democratic base, with Donald Trump leading among Hispanic voters and young people. One in 5 Black voters now say they'll support a third-party candidate in November.
Biden now claims the support of just 63% of Black voters, a precipitous decline from the 87% he carried in 2020, according to the Roper Center. He trails among Hispanic voters by 5 percentage points, 39%-34%; in 2020 he had swamped Trump among that demographic group 2 to 1, 65%-32%. And among voters under 35, a generation largely at odds with the GOP on issues such as abortion access and climate change, Trump now leads 37%-33%. Younger voters overwhelmingly backed Biden in 2020. (USA Today)
1996: The first mobile flip phone, the Motorola StarTAC, goes on sale.
Thanks for reading!
In depth
West failing to ramp up missile production
A factory here west of Oslo produces a missile-defense system that can shoot down drones, helicopters and other airborne threats from almost 25 miles away. Capable of launching 72 missiles into the sky at once, the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System, or Nasams, is what protects the airspace over the White House. When first deployed in Ukraine in 2022, it recorded a 100% success rate shooting down cruise missiles and drones in its first few months. With the West confronting a rising number of potential threats, including Russia and China, orders are piling up for the Nasams from Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace.
“I’ve never seen anywhere near so much demand,” said Eirik Lie, a 30-year Kongsberg veteran who is president of the company’s defense unit, on a November tour of the factory.
New customers, though, will have to wait: It takes two years to make one Nasams, and there is already a multiyear backlog.
The Ukraine war has highlighted the West’s deficiencies in quickly producing more weapons at a time of need. The Gaza conflict may tighten supplies for certain armaments.
The constraint is particularly acute for missiles and the systems that defend against them, and also guard against the swarms of drones that have become a central element of modern warfare. To ramp up, Kongsberg, which also makes products including ship-based missiles and parts of F-35 fighter jets, has moved to 24-hour, seven-day shifts and has workers in for some holidays when the factory would typically have been idled for maintenance. That still may not be enough. (WSJ)
Xi Jinping has expelled many top officials in sweeping purge
The expelled officials included some of the brightest rising stars in President Xi Jinping’s military: two generals who oversaw satellite launches and manned space missions; an admiral who helped entrench Beijing’s presence in the disputed South China Sea; and a missile commander who had honed China’s ability to respond to a possible nuclear war. They were among nine high-ranking Chinese military figures who were recently removed as delegates to the country’s Communist Party-run legislature, abruptly and without official explanation. Experts say the move indicates that Mr. Xi’s latest offensive to root out alleged corruption and other misconduct in the People’s Liberation Army, or P.L.A., has been gaining momentum and is focused on the politically sensitive agencies responsible for developing weapons and military installations. In October, China suddenly dismissed the defense minister, who had worked for years in the military’s arms acquisition system. Months earlier, two commanders of the Rocket Force, which controls China’s nuclear missiles, were replaced. Since coming to power in 2012, Mr. Xi has launched scorching, high-decibel crackdowns on Communist Party officials and generals. This latest campaign in the military, however, has been conducted mostly in the quiet, with no official acknowledgment that it is even underway. (NYT)
