Here are the news items:

• SpaceX has launched more objects into space (measured by mass) in the first quarter of 2021 than all its competitors combined. The goal: beam internet to remote parts of the globe.
• Controversial new research suggests that the COVID-19 virus’s genes can integrate with human DNA.
• House Minority Speaker Keven McCarthy (R-CA) endorsed Rep Elise Stefanik (R-NY) to replace Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) as the Republican Conference chair – John breaks down McCarthy’s misguided motivations. 
• Exchange traded funds, also known as ETFs, have (probably) surpassed index-tracking mutual funds in terms of global assets under management. Rebecca explains why, and makes a few bold predictions about the future of the ETF industry.
• The Scottish National Party has won 64 seats in the country’s parliament. That leaves the party one seat short of a majority and makes it more difficult for the SNP to forge ahead with a referendum on Scottish independence.

PLUS: John interviews Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, about COVID-19 in India and the history and reasoning behind America’s "strategic ambiguity" policy in Taiwan.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Here are the news items:

• Author and science journalist Nicholas Wade publishes a detailed Medium post making his case for the “lab escape” theory of SARS-CoV-2 origin.
• IBM has reached a new level of smallness in computer chip manufacture: 2 nanometers.
• Embattled Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) goes after Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy in an op-ed for The Washington Post – is her combativeness a prelude to a presidential run?
• The Economist says “private equity is losing its mystique,” but John and Rebecca disagree. 
• Corporate sponsors face pressure to pull out the 2022 Winter Olympics in response to Beijing’s human rights abuses. None of them have budged, and John makes the case for why they may regret it.

PLUS: John and Rebecca discuss SEC chair Gary Gensler’s warning that his agency may take a stronger role regulating the markets and Rebecca makes her case for managing the exchanges as public utilities.

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Here are the news items:

• China is on track to build eight million electric cars a year by 2028, more than the rest of the world combined.
• Researchers at the University of Michigan think they’ve found a “gate for conscious awareness” — the part of the brain that filters information and controls which stimuli reaches our consciousness.
• Facebook’s Oversight Board has upheld the platform’s ban on former President Trump, while also calling the indefinite suspension “inappropriate.”
• Regional election results in Madrid and the success of CNews (France's equivalent to Fox News) provide more evidence that the right is ascendant in Europe.
• The White House’s top Asia official warns against ditching the policy of "strategic ambiguity" regarding Taiwan. 

PLUS: John and Rebecca discuss inflation fears, and the Biden administration’s rare communications missteps regarding the stimulus, interest rates and Fed Chair Jay Powell.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Here are the news items:

• Researchers at the Salk Institute and UC San Diego have confirmed that COVID-19 is primarily a vascular disease, instead of a respiratory one.
• Scientists have used machine learning to identify four different types of Alzheimer’s. The findings could help explain why patients suffer different symptoms, and lead to new treatment ideas.
• The “jungle primary” in Texas’ 6th Congressional District gives us another chance to assess the value of a Donald Trump endorsement.
• Do progressive millennial attitudes explain the schism between corporate America and the Republican Party?
• Verizon is selling its media assets — including Yahoo, AOL, TechCrunch and Engadget — to the private equity firm Apollo Global Management for $5 billion.

PLUS: John interviews Walter Russell Mead, a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, about whether American decline (or lack thereof), whether China can escape the Thucydides Trap, and Putin’s plans for Ukraine.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

John interviews academic and business leader Juan Enriquez on the themes of his prescient 2005 book, The Untied States of America: Polarization, Fracturing, and Our Future. This is a longer, unedited version of the interview that ran on Wednesday, April 28.

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Here are the news items:

• A global chip shortage has forced carmakers like Honda, BMW, and Volvo to idle their factories, while Samsung and Apple expect the shortage to cost them billions.
• Scientists announce a breakthrough in quantum technology: cooling thousands of molecules to the point where they start behaving like a single atom.
• The co-founder of BioNTech, who helped develop the first COVID-19 vaccine in collaboration with Pfizer, says he’s confident it will protect against B.1.617, the coronavirus variant that originated in India.
• Is the Golden Gate City’s reign as the tech capital of the world coming to an end?
• The Cato Institute's 2021 Immigration and Identity National Survey finds that, among Americans, “68% prefer a ‘low level’ of immigration and 23% want a ‘high level’ of immigration.”

PLUS: John interviews journalist Mickey Kaus about the American Rescue Plan and “Hillbilly Elegy” author J.D. Vance’s chances at higher office.

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Here are the news items:

• Research from the University of Washington suggests new daily cases in India run in the millions. 
• Researchers have found a new way to collect the tiny fragments of plastic that pollute the world’s waters: using bacteria. 
• US agencies are asserting themselves on the WHO’s next investigation into the origins of the coronavirus.
• The Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s recently established cheddar futures market is heating up.
• News Corp has dropped plans to launch a Fox News-style channel in the UK. 

PLUS: John interviews Juan Enriquez, author of “The Untied States of America: Polarization, Fracturing, and Our Future,” about the forces pulling the country apart.

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