TheChek News Flow

Weekend Papers Summary

-Gunman Kills 22-Year-Old NYPD. Officer and Wounds Another in Harlem

Officer Jason Rivera, who joined the department in November 2020, was killed when he responded to a domestic disturbance between a woman and her adult son.

The second officer and the suspect were in critical condition. Mayor Eric Adams called the shooting “an attack on the city of New York.”

The police said the gun that was used was reported stolen in Baltimore in 2017 and had a high-capacity magazine.

-How Xi Jinping Is Staging the Olympics on His Terms

From Beijing’s unexpected bid to the coronavirus pandemic, China has managed to fulfill its promises and cow its critics.

-China Holds the Line on ‘Zero Covid,’ but Some Wonder for How Long

More people are being caught up in the country’s virus-control dragnet. Some think the no-tolerance policy is unsustainable.

-Ireland has eased restrictions ahead of the March holiday. The United States expanded the use of remdesivir, an antiviral medication that had previously only been used in hospitals.

-On Abortion Law, the U.S. Is Unusual. Without Roe, It Would Be, Too.

Many rich democracies have earlier cutoffs for abortion, but allow it later for a variety of reasons. And around the world, most countries are expanding access.

-Ukraine has initiated a defensive strategy for the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, one of the most radioactive places on Earth, which lies on the shortest path between Russia and Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv.

-US and Russia Take More Measured Stance in Ukraine Talks

The conciliatory tone and absence of ultimatums suggested that both sides were trying to keep tensions in check and give diplomacy time.

-Was Dorothy Day Too Left-Wing to Be a Catholic Saint? The Archdiocese of New York has asked the Vatican to consider the activist and journalist for sainthood. Church leaders are not entirely comfortable with her politics.

-A preponderance of boulder tracks on the red planet may be evidence of recent seismic activity.

-Germany and Ukraine have become embroiled in a diplomatic row after a video emerged of the head of the German navy saying Russia only “wants?respect” and that Ukraine would never regain Crimea.

Vice-Admiral Kay-Achim Schönbach’s comments, made at a think-tank in India, drew a furious response from the Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba, who said they were part of a pattern of unhelpful behaviour by German officials.

-The US is holding talks with Qatar and other large gas exporters to plan contingency measures in case a Russian invasion of Ukraine disrupts supplies to Europe.

-Microsoft’s audacious $75B move on games publisher Activision Blizzard has detonated a bomb under the games industry. Along with the proposed deal’s sheer size, the prospect of a tech giant worth more than $2T making a grab for games industry leadership has prompted breathless speculation about whether it will precipitate a wider industry realignment.

-Like other pillars of the banking establishment these days, Jamie Dimon is making fateful decisions about how to respond to a new generation of fintech competitors — and explaining his technology spending to outsiders is proving tricky.

-Former CIA Director Robert Gates comments on the Ukraine situation. He claims that “Putin’s problem is that, as dictators are wont to do, he has overplayed his hand. His aggressive threats against Ukraine have galvanized NATO and reaffirmed its clarity of purpose. His menacing policies have made Ukrainians even more anti-Russian and driven the country further into the arms of the west.”

-Cathie Wood’s flagship Ark fund is on the cusp of being overtaken by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway in the post-pandemic performance table, reflecting a dramatic shift in fortunes between the two prominent investors.

-Qatar Airways has escalated a dispute with Airbus by releasing a video showing apparent damage to its aircraft, the latest salvo in a growing quarrel after the jet maker scrapped a separate $6B order.

-China’s state broadcaster has implicated Jack Ma’s Ant Group in a corruption scandal, ratcheting up pressure on the billionaire following a crackdown that has wiped billions of dollars from his internet empire.

-Washington has suggested Lithuania consider changing the name of Taiwan’s representative office in the capital Vilnius in an effort to help ease tensions between the Baltic state and China since the mission was established.

-Bitcoin dropped to a six-month low on Saturday, extending a steep fall recorded in the previous session as the cryptocurrency market was swept up in a powerful shift by investors out of speculative assets.

-Although Peloton shares have lurched violently in the past six months, spending on virtual or online fitness has been turbo-charged by the pandemic and is expected to grow tenfold from $6B in 2019 to $60B by 2027.

-Speaking on Friday at the virtual World Economic Forum held instead of the normal in-person gathering at Davos, Kristalina Georgieva warned that the outlook for the global economy this year would be far from smooth. “2022 is like navigating an obstacle course,” the fund’s managing director said. “We anticipate the [global] recovery to continue but it is losing some momentum and it is faced with the renewal of [Covid-19] infections?.?.?.?much more persistent than anticipated inflation and?.?.?.?record high debt levels.”

-A year after the end of the Brexit transition period, EU citizens in the UK, British citizens in the EU and those with families spanning both sides of the Channel are all adjusting to their new status and loss of freedoms. Cross-border movement has become more complicated with a points-based immigration system; and access to finance and healthcare has also become tougher for those buying homes abroad.

-More blank-cheque companies are abandoning their hunt for deals before it has even begun, in another sign that momentum is slowing in the once-brisk SPAC market.

-After targeted campaigns helped narrow a racial divide in US vaccination rates last autumn, that gap has reopened for booster shots.

Advocates say that distrust in public health systems, problems with access, and staff shortages have hindered black and Hispanic residents from receiving boosters in the same proportions as their white peers.

-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will spend this weekend seeking to shore up his support among Conservative MPs, as allies of the UK prime minister expressed concern he will soon face a no-confidence vote as a result of the “partygate” scandal.

-Peaceful protests over fuel price rises brought thousands to the streets across Kazakhstan. But in Almaty, the former capital, protests quickly turned violent — the demonstrations co-opted, many participants and witnesses believe, by armed criminals, coup plotters or both.

-For a brief period, investors were being paid to buy debt issued by Germany, the famously prudent government borrower. What witchcraft is this?

This is some of the safest debt on the planet — so attractive to global investors that demand had pushed benchmark 10-year yields into negative territory since 2019. That meant investors effectively had to pay to hold German government bonds.

-Google has built a quantum computer that is about 158 million times faster than the world’s fastest supercomputer. Imagine the possibilities if we could broadly create a new set of quantum computers 158 million times faster than even today’s fastest computers…

-“After making political hay by attacking the NYPD and pushing to defund the department – some of the city’s most vocal progressive Democrats are praising cops in the wake of Friday night’s tragic police shooting.”

-Retail crime has been rising throughout the US for the past five years, with organized criminal rings targeting stores everywhere from Woonsocket (Rhode Island) to Greensboro (North Carolina) to Grafton (Wisconsin). The National Retail Federation reported that store losses mounted from $453,940 per $1 billion in sales in 2015 to $719,458 in 2020.

-New Yorkers placed a record-shattering $603 million in bets during the launch of mobile sports gambling, according to initial figures released by the state Gaming Commission on Friday.

-General Motors said it will spend $154 million to refurbish a plant near Buffalo where the automaker manufacturers a key part of the motor used in electric vehicles.