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India is going to start blending biogas with natural gas to curb its reliance on imports. The mixing will start in April 2025 for use in cars and in homes.
Supply chain concerns are driving Jordan to look for natural gas alternatives from Israel. Disruptions haven’t occurred yet, but Jordan has spoken with two other countries in the Arabian Gulf that could be ready if needed.
A third group of hostages were released yesterday by Hamas. Seventeen people were freed by the militant group, and in return, Israel released 39 Palestinian prisoners.
The 28th United Nations’ climate conference begins this Thursday in Dubai. Last week, UN leaders said under current mitigation measures, the world is on track to hit 3°C of heating this century.
Binance’s new CEO has a tough gig
Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange, responded quickly to losing its leader and being slapped with a $4.3 billion fine, and promptly promoted Richard Teng as CEO.
Teng is a former head of the Abu Dhabi Global Market, the UAE capital’s financial services regulator, and a past director of corporate finance at the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Most recently, he was the global head of regional markets at Binance.
But Teng has a rough Item One on his new checklist—reclaiming Binance’s reputation. Despite his experience in regulating financial markets, customers and regulators alike are going to be understandably skeptical. Quartz’s Faustine Ngila looked at what it’s going to take for Teng to win back users’ trust.
Carmakers around the globe got a wage wakeup call
Less than a month after the United Auto Workers union reached tentative agreements with the legacy carmakers and called off massive strikes, Nissan announced last week that its 9,000 US factory workers, including production, maintenance, and tool-and-die technicians, will get a 10% raise as of next January.
Such hikes are becoming par for the course. Take a look at the brief timeline below:
Oct. 31: A Toyota spokesperson confirms the Japanese company has boosted wages for employees at all of its US plants.
Nov. 12: Honda, another Japanese carmaker, promises factory staff base wage increases of 11%, effective Jan. 8.
Nov. 13: South Korea’s Hyundai announces a 25% hike in hourly wages by 2028 for production workers in Alabama and Georgia.
Nov. 16: Yet another Japanese automaker, Subaru, is weighing wage increases at its only US manufacturing site in Indiana, CEO Atsushi Osaki said at the Los Angeles Auto Show.
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Surprising discoveries
Backcountry skiing is the second-fastest growing sport in the US. The top spot, unsurprisingly, goes to pickleball.
The world’s biggest iceberg is drifting after 30 years of staying still. A23a is twice the size of London and is heading out of Antarctic waters.
Meanwhile, an artificial glacier is growing in the extreme desert region of Ladakh, India. It’s helping farmers deal with a drier climate from less snow melt.
An eastern black rhino was born at a zoo in the UK. The critically endangered baby is “very inquisitive and full of energy.”
Most people think of wolves in an abstract way, and those thoughts tend to be positive and tied to a symbolic meaning. Unless those people are hunters and farmers—they’re usually a little less prone to romanticize the very real thing that has all the big teeth. That can be explained by construal level theory, which we’re obsessed with. Get our weekly Obsession email for free by signing up today.
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Our best wishes for a productive day. Send any news, comments, a pair of skis, and a means to use them on the world’s largest iceberg to talk@qz.com. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Morgan Haefner.