Q-MHI Daily Brief ;

Good Afternoon, Q-MHI readers!

WHAT TO WATCH FOR TODAY

Donald Trump visits Xi Jinping. As an ascendant China seeks superpower status, America’s allies in Asia are watching nervously whether Trump, unlike his predecessor Barack Obama, will accommodate Xi’s ambitions (paywall).

21st Century Fox reports earnings. The quarterly update gives investors an opportunity to hear more about the media conglomerate’s reported plans to sell most of the company to Disney.

Ex-Yahoo boss Marissa Mayer testifies about hacking. After refusing to testify voluntarily, Mayer was subpoenaed by the US Senate Commerce Committee to answer questions about corporate data breaches, in particular the massive hack at Yahoo that compromised billions of accounts. Current and former Equifax execs will get a grilling, too. The hearing starts at 10am ET.

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India is one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. The country is undergoing dramatic changes which are serving to both strengthen its economy and attract investment. Explore the factors underpinning India’s dynamic economic growth in this infographic.

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

Democrats swept elections in Virginia and New Jersey. In the first crucial test of the party’s prospects after last year’s presidential election loss, Democratic candidates for governor won in both states; the loss for Trump-backed Republican Ed Gillespie in Virginia is seen as a rebuke of the president. Also in Virginia, Danica Roem became the first openly transgender person elected to a state legislature.

Fog foiled Trump’s DMZ trip. The president backtracked on an earlier decision not to visit the Demilitarized Zone, and attempted a surprise trip there by helicopter that was prevented by bad weather. Trump later delivered a blistering attack on North Korea in a speech in South Korea’s legislature.

Deutsche Bank could replace workers with robots. The German lender has already cut 4,000 out of a planned 9,000 jobs as part of CEO’s John Cryan’s restructuring plan. He hinted that many more layoffs are coming, pointing out that rivals operate effectively with half as many employees as Deutsche. AI and other technologies(paywall) could replace error-prone humans, he said.

Asian shoppers ️ Hermès . The maker of exclusive Birkin and Kelly bags posted a 11% rise in revenue in the third quarter, as sales grew across all regions. Bag buyers in mainland China (paywall), in particular, created “favorable winds” for the French brand.

Tencent’s online publishing arm made its dazzling debut. China Literature, which is similar to Amazon’s Kindle e-book unit, soared as much as 100% on its first day of trading in Hong Kong. Private equity firm Carlyle holds a minority stake in the company, which raised over $1 billion in its IPO.

MATTERS OF DEBATE

Punishing Big Tech is good for innovation. European competition law is crucial to protect startup founders from monopoly abuses by companies like Google. “Competition-law enforcement can help to show that no company is above the law,” she said. “No company has the right to close down competition to disable the innovation of each and every one of you.”

If the iPhone X’s hardware features are the epitome of fluff over function, its new navigation gestures are the epitome of needless complexity over intuition.Need proof? Just take a look at this cheat sheet published alongside the Wall Street Journal’s iPhone X review:The iPhone X user experience is a mess. The intuitive home button has been replaced by a thumb-wiggling nightmare.

The Disney-Fox talks are all about defeating Netflix. Even a behemoth like Disney finds it hard to compete with Netflix’s breadth of content. On top of competing with Netflix for subscribers, Disney, with Fox in the wing, could drive up the cost of content at crucial time for Netflix. The fewer deep-pocketed players there are vying for top talent like J.J. Abrams, the more the cost for that talent goes up. Hollywood is also a relationship business; Fox would bring more relationships with talented showrunners like Ryan Murphy and Donald Glover to Disney

SURPRISING DISCOVERIES

Not everyone is getting upgraded to 240-character tweets. Users who tweet in some Asian languages are still restricted to the old 140-character limit. Twitter has a new 280-char limit. So why still 140 for some Asian langs? Look at Chinese. Has 1,000s of chars, so each can contain lots of meaning. Eng has only 26. Chinese is economical but inflexible. E.g. “B” is just “b”—no meaning. 文学=2 chars; means “literature”=10 chars.(Nikhil Sonnad)

A soprano hit a note never sung before at the Met. Audrey Luna of the Metropolitan Opera in New York sings the A above high C(paywall) for a split second in Thomas Adès’ new opera, The Exterminating Angel,is so high, it has never been sung in the 137-year history of the Metropolitan Opera.High C has been hit by the thousands. D’s and E’s, too, are rousing but not uncommon. F’s have been rarer, and G’s and A flats rarer still.

New Zealand’s First Cat had its political career cut short. Prime minister Jacinda Ardern’s cat Paddles—which had opposable thumbs—was hit by a car in Auckland.

Sheep can recognize human faces in photos. Researchers found they could pick out Barack Obama, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Emma Watson.

Saudi Arabia’s newest jail has a 4.5-star rating on TripAdvisor. Members of the Saudi elite arrested last weekend are being held at the Ritz in Riyadh.

Q-MHI 

The Week MHI dailybriefing ;

1. Trump urges North Korea to ‘come to the table’ President Trump started his visit to the Korean peninsula on Tuesday by calling for North Korea to “come to the table” and “make a deal” to curb its nuclear weapons program. The statement marked a shift from the tough stance reflected in other recent statements toward Pyongyang, including Trump’s threat to unleash “fire and fury” on the North if it threatens the U.S. or its allies. “Ultimately, it’ll all work out,” Trump said, noting he had seen “a lot of progress” regarding North Korea lately. During Trump’s first day in South Korea, his South Korean counterpart, Moon Jae-in, said the two leaders had “agreed to resolve the North Korea nuclear issue in peaceful manner” to “bring permanent peace” to the peninsula. Source: The Associated Press

2. Threatening texts suggest possible motive behind Texas church massacre The Texas church gunman, identified as Devin Patrick Kelley, had sent threatening text messages to his mother-in-law, who attended the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs where he killed 26 people, authorities said Monday. The threats indicated that the massacre stemmed from a domestic dispute, rather than racial or religious motives. Kelley’s grandmother-in-law was among the dead; his mother-in-law was not in the church. The 26 people killed ranged in age from 18 months to 77 years, and the church pastor’s 14-year-old daughter was among the dead. “Our church was not comprised of members or parishioners. We were a very close family,” said the pastor’s wife, Sherri Pomeroy, who was out of town with her husband during the attack. “Now most of our church family is gone.” Source: The Associated Press, CNN

3. Air Force neglected paperwork that would have barred killer from buying guns The Air Force said Monday that it had failed to enter the 2012 domestic violence conviction of Devin Patrick Kelley, who shot and killed 26 people at a Texas church on Sunday, into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System to prevent him from legally buying guns. Under federal law, his conviction disqualified him from possessing firearms, but he managed to purchase four guns starting in 2014, after his conviction and discharge. The weapons he bought included the assault-style rifle and two handguns he had when he attacked the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs. Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek said officials have ordered a review of how his conviction was handled by the Special Investigations Office at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. Source: NPR

4. Report: GOP tax bill would raise taxes for 12 percent of Americans The House Republicans’ tax bill would increase taxes for 12 percent of Americans in 2018 and at least 28 percent by 2027, according to a report by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center released Monday. Many people making less than $48,000 a year would be among those paying more. Most taxpayers would get a break, with those making $48,000 to $86,000 getting an average cut of $700 in 2018. The rich, however, would reap far greater benefits. For example, the top 1 percent (making more than $730,000) would save $37,000 next year. The top 0.1 percent (with incomes of more than $3.4 million) would get cuts averaging $179,000. “The largest cuts in terms of dollars and as a percentage of after-tax income would accrue to the higher-income households,” TPC wrote. Source: The Washington Post

5. NYPD detectives accused of raping teen in custody resign Two New York City police detectives accused of raping a teenager in custody have resigned, the New York Police Department said Monday. The former detectives — Eddie Martins, 37, and Richard Hall, 33 — face criminal charges and could be targeted with a $50 million lawsuit. The 18-year-old woman said the men raped her while she was in a police van, handcuffed, after the former officers pulled her over and arrested her for drug possession. Martins and Hall resigned three days before a departmental trial that would have resulted in recommendations on their fate. New York City Police Commissioner James P. O’Neill said he would have fired the men if they had been found guilty. Source: The Washington Post

6. Saudi Arabia accuses Iran and Lebanon of starting a war Saudi Arabia on Monday accused Iran of committing “a blatant act of military aggression” by supplying its allies in Yemen with a missile they fired at Riyadh, the Saudi capital, over the weekend. The Saudi statement said the missile strike amounted to an “act of war” that would justify retaliation. The rocket was fired from Yemen and intercepted before it reached Riyadh. Saudi Arabia also accused Lebanon on Monday of declaring war through aggression by the Iran-backed Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah. Lebanon has been drawn deeper into Saudi Arabia’s regional rivalry with Iran since its prime minister, Saudi ally Saad al-Hariri, abruptly announced his resignation on Saturday, accusing Iran and Hezbollah of destabilizing the region and plotting his assassination. Source: The New York Times, Reuters

7. Jury starts deliberating in Sen. Robert Menendez’s corruption trial The jury in Sen. Robert Menendez’s (D-N.J.) corruption trial began deliberating on Monday after prosecutors and defense attorneys gave their closing arguments. Menendez’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, said the senator and his co-defendant, eye doctor Salomon Melgen, had a deep and abiding friendship, and the lavish trips Menendez took courtesy of Salomon were a reflection of that relationship, not evidence of influence peddling. Prosecutor Peter Koski said Menendez’s lawyers used “sleight of hand” to make Menendez’s misuse of his office to help a friend and donor with his business interests look innocent. Source: The Washington Post

8. Governor races in Virginia and New Jersey top Tuesday elections Voters in Virginia and New Jersey are picking new governors on Tuesday, the headline races in an off-year election cited as a possible early referendum on the Trump presidency. The elections include a race to fill Rep. Jason Chaffetz’s (R) seat in Utah’s 3rd congressional district, New York’s mayor’s office, and a state race that will determine party control of Washington State’s Senate. In New Jersey, Democrat Phil Murphy holds a double-digit lead over Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno (R), but the race in Virginia between Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam (D) and former RNC chairman Ed Gillespie is close. In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) is expected to win re-election, and Provo Mayor John Curtis (R) is ahead in the Utah race against Democrat Kathie Allen. Source: CNN, The Associated Press

9. FSU president temporarily suspends fraternities and sororities after student’s death Florida State University President John Thrasher on Monday suspended all fraternities and sororities on campus in response to the Friday death of Andrew Coffey, a Pi Kappa Phi pledge. Coffey was found unresponsive after an off-campus party. In an unrelated case, Phi Delta Theta fraternity member Garrett John Marcy, 20, was arrested Monday on charges of selling and trafficking in cocaine. “I want to send a strong message that we have a serious problem and we have to deal with it,” Thrasher said. He also imposed an alcohol ban at all events held by registered student organizations during the interim suspension period. Source: Tallahassee Democrat

10. Report: Weinstein hired security firms to keep allegations quiet Disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein hired corporate spies to gather information on women accusing him of sexual harassment and journalists working to expose the allegations in an attempt to suppress the story, The New Yorker reported Monday, citing documents and seven people involved in the effort. An operative from Black Cube, a company run largely by former Israeli intelligence officers, pretended to be a women’s rights activist in meetings aiming to get information from actress Rose McGowan, who later publicly accused Weinstein of rape, and also met with a journalist while posing as a victim to find out which accusers were talking with reporters. A Black Cube contract signed in July stated that the operation’s goal was to prevent the publication of the allegations. Source: The New Yorker, The New York Times The Week MHI