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The UK is establishing an AI safety institute. But prime minister Rishi Sunak isn’t supporting a moratorium on the tech’s development.
Janet Yellen doesn’t think a widening deficit is driving the rise in US Treasury yields. It’s actually the sign of a strong economy, the treasury chief said yesterday. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq didn’t like what it saw from this week’s tech earnings.
India’s Epsilon Advanced Materials is opening a $650 million battery plant in the US. The North Carolina-based hub, set to be up and running by 2026, could eventually supply more than a million electric vehicles.
Many of the hostages taken back to Gaza by the Islamic militant group Hamas aren’t Israeli. More than half of the estimated 220 hostages hold foreign passports, with the largest group being migrant workers from Thailand.
“Funflation” is fueling the US economy
The US economy is looking Red hot—and yes, that’s a Taylor Swift reference.
Gross domestic product of the world’s largest economy grew at a 4.9% annual rate in the third quarter, fueled by strong consumer and government spending. That’s the highest since the end of 2021 and a big uptick from 2.1% in the previous quarter.
In fact, half of the GDP growth was driven by consumers, and it’s likely that Swift’s Eras tour, Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour, and Barbenheimer all ushered in an era of “funflation” that probably had something to do with the $8.5 billion addition to the US economy.
So what are financial advisers telling their clients on the heels of these results? Quartz’s Grete Suarez asked around.
One big number: 20,000
Number of visas for Indians that the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will be able to process by December
That’s way down from an expected 38,000, thanks to a tit-for-tat feud between the two countries that led both to severely curtail visa services for Indians and Canadians. The diplomatic storm was kicked up after Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau leveled allegations that India carried out the extrajudicial assassination of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh on Canadian soil.
While tensions are soothing, one country is caught in the crosshairs. Quartz’s Ananya Bhattacharya looks at how the US is walking the tightrope between its neighbor to the north and its business partner across the Pacific.
Stellantis can’t seem to figure out China
While its workers strike in the US, Netherlands-based Jeep and Chrysler maker Stellantis has another problem an ocean away: declining sales and fierce competition in China.
So it got to dealmaking, shelling out €1.5 billion ($1.6 billion) yesterday for a 21% stake in the Chinese electric vehicle maker Leapmotor. Sure, the tie-up could be a lifeline for Stellantis’s struggling China business, but maybe the real winner is Leapmotor.
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Surprising discoveries
Roosters might be self-aware. That, or they think their reflection is just a weird, annoying fellow rooster mimicking them.
Researchers found a way to poison AI image generators. The tool, called Nightshade, changes digital art pixels in such a way that if an image is scrubbed by a training model, it might implode.
Wild chimps may go through menopause. Living long after the end of reproductive years is a rarity among Earth’s species.
Postcards had a golden era from 1905-1915 in the US. Black cats, witches’ brooms, and jack-o’-lanterns were some of the favorite designs back then, and we simply insist you check those designs out.
300 gallons (1,135 liters) of fake blood were used in The Shining (1980) elevator scene. And that’s only a third of what was used to make that one scene in the 2013 remake of Carrie. Find out how much the two Kill Bill films required in our latest Weekly Obsession on fake blood—and sign up for the email to see what else we’re obsessed with.
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