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Here’s what you need to know
Vanguard quit the world’s biggest net-zero alliance. The investment advisor’s decision follows growing US Republican opposition to ESG investing.
China eased covid rules nationwide. In a departure from its zero-covid strategy, Beijing dropped many of its quarantine and testing requirements.
Theranos’s Sunny Balwani got more jail time than CEO Elizabeth Holmes. Balwani was sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison after being found guilty on 12 counts.
Indiana became the first US state to sue TikTok. Two lawsuits targeting the app owned by Chinese company ByteDance allege data security and child safety violations.
Amazon faced renewed legal scrutiny over driver-tipping practices. The DC attorney general isn’t satisfied with the settlement the company agreed to in 2021.
Peru’s president was removed from power. Peruvian vice president Dina Boluarte was sworn in to replace Pedro Castillo after he tried to dissolve Congress to avoid impeachment.
Canada’s benchmark interest rate reached its highest point in 15 years. The country’s central bank signaled the latest half-point hike might be the last sharp increase for a while.
Equal pay in the movie industry is still a hardfought achievement. Priyanka Chopra Jonas, the Hollywood and Bollywood veteran, said her role in Amazon’s Citadel was the first to pay her the same as her male co-star.
What to watch for
Disney+ is offering its millions of subscribers in the US a not-so-great deal: Keep your current $7.99 monthly service plan, but know there will be ads.
Starting today (Dec. 8), the streaming platform will make an ad-free experience available for extra, ringing in at $10.99 a month. Disney’s decision to introduce a new ad-supported payment tier for its popular streaming service follows the lead of rival Netflix, which launched its own ad-supported plan in November.
But Netflix is planning to pull ahead on the ad-supported subscription front, with more planned for 2023. Ads are set to become a new front of the streaming wars, and Netflix’s choice to release its much-anticipated collaboration with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, the docu-series Harry and Meghan, on Dec. 8, could be seen as a direct challenge to the new Disney+ subscription plan launch.
A treaty to end single-use plastic
The world is choking in plastic trash, and the UN wants to do something to fix it. A meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on plastic pollution in Uruguay that ended last Friday (Dec. 2) represented a first, formal step towards a legally binding international treaty to deal with the global plastics problem.
Such a pact would be the most consequential environmental treaty in years, but it has to contend with competing interests. On the one hand, hardline countries and campaigners are pushing for outright bans, and on the other, plastics industry coalitions are calling for a focus on recycling.
Here are a few numbers that summarize the issue:
45: Member countries of the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution
50%: Portion of plastic waste represented by single-use plastics
~2,400: Harmful chemicals used in producing plastics
5%: Portion of plastics recycled in the US in 2021, down from 9.5% in 2014
Buy now, pay later is upending cash in Egypt
Egypt’s economic crisis has had a devastating effect on people’s ability to pay for their basic needs. Enter buy now, pay later, a business model that has stood to benefit amid the country’s soaring inflation.
Egyptians have traditionally relied on cash to make payments. Now they’re leaning on a growing number of companies providing BNPL services to pay their monthly bills and expenses. Recent regulations and reforms have helped the consumer finance sector grow, too.
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Surprising discoveries
Neither Ukraine nor the queen were Google’s top search term this year. We’ll give you six guesses—it was Wordle.
A 200-year-long feud over who owns the Parthenon Marbles may soon end. The British Museum is reportedly in advanced talks to return the marbles (we’ve yet to lose ours) to Greece.
Mastodons used to live as far north as Greenland. A new analysis of 2 million-year-old DNA, the most ancient found to date, shows they once roamed the island.
Noise pollution is ticking off the local birds. Countryside robins become more belligerent in areas with loud traffic.
The world’s best passport is from the land of “Make It Happen.” United Arab Emirates citizens can travel 91% of the globe, visa-free.
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