Financial Markets and Economy
Pound’s Best Week Since 2009 Declared a Blip by Top Forecasters (Bloomberg)
That’s the advice of the currency’s most-accurate forecasters after sterling posted its best week since 2009. The pound surged after a court ruled the U.K. can’t start the process of leaving the European Union without lawmakers’ approval, stoking speculation Brexit will be delayed or watered down.
European Gauge of Bond-Market Stress Approaches Highest in 2016 (Bloomberg)
A measure of euro-area bond-market stress is flashing red.
The yield difference between German and Italian 10-year bonds approached the widest in 2016 this week as investors sought the region’s safest assets.
Trade between UK and India to suffer double hit, says business chief (The Guardian)
Trade between India and the UK will suffer a “double hit” as a result of the Brexit vote and the decline in sterling, the head of India’s largest business lobby has warned, ahead of a three-day visit by Theresa May.
A lot of people are going to get rich(er) at this tiny Wall Street firm (Business Insider)
Centerview Partners, the New York-based boutique advisory firm led by Blair Effron, just keeps winning business from marquee names in corporate America.
Brexit ‘spinning out of control’, top bosses warn (Independent)
Business leaders have urged the Government to take immediate action amid fears that Brexit was in danger of “spinning out of control”, paralysing British industry and dealing a devastating blow to the economy.
The tea leaves of the US economy points to a Clinton win (Business Insider)
In the run up to the presidential election, Hillary Clinton positioned herself to be a continuation of the economic policies of President Barack Obama. On the other hand, Republican nominee Donald Trump has said that the economy is broken and he's the only who can fix it.
Crushing The $50 Trillion Sideline Cash Conundrum (MishTalk, Zero Hedge)
There’s been a lot of discussion about how much cash investors are holding these days.
BlackRock puts the figure at more than $50 trillion, a figure that includes a host of different metrics, from central-bank assets to financial-firm reserves and consumer savings accounts.
Financial markets are just as stressed out about the US election as everyone else (Quartz)
With only a few days left before Americans go to the polls, anxiety seems to be spiking. The S&P 500 experienced its ninth consecutive day of losses—something that hasn’t happened since 1980, much less immediately before an election.
Technology
Alphabet's unit discloses Snapchat investment (Reuters)
Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) venture capital arm CapitalG, earlier known as Google Capital, disclosed an investment in Snapchat by adding the social networking firm's logo to a page on its investment portfolio website.
Apple fans have click-signed more than 100,000 words of legal contracts (Quartz)
Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that you’re an Apple fan. You’ve got a Mac, an iPhone, an Apple TV, and at least one Airport router. You even bought that overhyped watch. If you own those five devices, and use the software that Apple provides for each, then you’ve agreed at least 30 contracts, totaling more than 100,000 words of legal documentation.
Oracle Wins Shares Needed to Clinch $9 Billion NetSuite Buy (Bloomberg)
NetSuite Inc. shareholders endorsed Oracle Corp.’s bid for the software provider, clearing the path for the $9 billion acquisition after weeks of conflict between a large investor and executives over the price tag.
Oracle Says NetSuite Acquisition Will Close Monday (Fortune)
The Oracle $9.3 billion acquisition of NetSuite will officially close on Monday, Oracle said early Saturday morning.
This is despite a challenge by T. Rowe Price, a large NetSuite shareholder, in September. The institutional investor balked at the proposed $109 per share price, saying NetSuite should seek additional offers.
Forget the iPhone 7 — here are 10 reasons the 2017 iPhone will blow everyone away (Business Insider)
This month, there was a pretty considerable spill of information by a top industry executive regarding two new features. We also saw rumors about a a third model with a new screen size, as well as some current rumors reinforced by fresh leaks.
Electric Superhighways Can’t Come Soon Enough (MIT Technology Review)
The Obama administration has announced that it plans to turn four dozen interstates, totaling almost 25,000 miles of highway, into what it calls “national electric vehicle charging corridors.” That’ll mean that they’re regular roads, but with enough charging points along their length to stop drivers from panicking about getting stranded.
You can now shop for Alexa skills on Amazon.com (Venture Beat)
You can now shop for Amazon Alexa skills the same way you shop for anything else on Amazon.com, the company announced today.
Microsoft now lets you easily use Kinect as a webcam (Venture Beat)
For one thing, the company said that it has followed through with its promise to expose RGB, depth, and infrared data from the Kinect for third-party Universal Windows Platform (UWP) applications to use, with the launch of a new Kinect driver for Windows 10.
Tesla added an all-glass roof to the Model S (Engadget)
Elon Musk has apparently been thinking about roofs a lot lately. SolarCity might want to make the most out of the roof on your house, but Tesla wants to remove those barriers between you and the sun entirely. Behold: the glass-roofed Tesla Model S sedan, which improves on the already sunny panoramic sunroof by doing away with the middle crossbar for a nearly seamless view of the sky.
Politics
Republicans are attacking presidential candidate Evan McMullin as he threatens Trump in Utah (Business Insider)
Presidential elections in America are typically seen as a binary choice between two major-party candidates — currently, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
How Donald Trump's reality show paved the way for his presidential campaign (Business Insider)
There's a widely held conviction among people who support Donald Trump for president that goes something like this: Despite some of the more wacky things he says, or a lack of specific policy proposals, they say, "He's a successful businessman."
Specter of election day violence looms as Trump spurs vigilante poll watchers (The Guardian)
Donald Trump’s claims of “large-scale” voter fraud have prompted officials across the political spectrum to warn about the dangers of vigilante poll monitors amid fears of confrontations or even violence on US election day.
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton supporters are unfriending each other on Facebook (Market Watch)
Unfriending friends-turned-political foes on Facebook might (almost) feel as empowering as voting.
In the months leading up to America’s big day at the polls on Tuesday, political arguments have been raging on Facebook. And they often result in the unkindest cut of all — unfriending on Facebook.
Five Ways to Fight Fascism in the Age of Trump (TruthOut)
There has been a lot of well-intentioned hand wringing about the rise of Donald Trump, causing many liberals and progressives to double down on their support of Hillary Clinton because of the fascist threat that Trump represents. This is not surprising, given the growing signs of a proto-fascism, or what Umberto Eco calls "ur-fascism" in Trump's campaign.
Nevada’s Early Vote Ends With Massive Democratic Surge (The Huffington Post)
Friday marked the end of early voting in the battleground state of Nevada, and the final returns brought decidedly good news for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
Health and Biotech
Every 50 cigarettes smoked cause one DNA mutation per lung cell (New Scientist)
On average, there is one DNA mutation per lung cell for every 50 cigarettes smoked, according to a new analysis. People who smoke a pack of 20 a day for a year generate 150 mutations per lung cell, 97 per larynx cell, 39 per pharynx cell, 18 per bladder cell and six per liver cell.
Ebola rapidly evolves to be more transmissible and deadlier (New Scientist)
Ebola was already bad enough. Now virologists have found that it quickly learns to spread more readily among humans – and in the process, becomes a deadlier disease. The West African epidemic that started in 2014 was ended by simple isolation measures. Much more of such viral evolution, and those may not have been enough.
The 12 Most Important Health Innovations Of The Year (Popular Science)
Dengue—a virus most commonly transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito—infects some 400 million people yearly. It causes high fever, severe headaches, vomiting, and sometimes death. About 40 percent of the world’s population is at risk, and as the climate warms and travel increases, that risk will only climb.
Life on the Home Planet
Physicists find more evidence that a new subatomic structure exists (Science Alert)
In February this year, Japanese researchers rocked the physics world when they claimed they'd finally confirmed the existence of a mysterious, and long-thought impossible 'four-neutron, no-proton' particle, known as a tetraneutron.
Refugees take to hiding in northern France after Calais camp demolished (The Guardian)
For the past two months, Sattar, 22, has been living in a ditch 30 miles (48km) inland from Calais, attempting to return to Reading, where he spent nine years of his life, studied for his GCSEs and earned distinctions in a college course in business, travel and tourism.
Beautiful images of Earth reveal how much humans have changed it in ways nature never could (Business Insider)
Nature creates beautiful landscapes like no human can. On the other hand, humans can create grand scale artificial structures that can never be made through a natural process. These photos from book, Overview, written by Benjamin Grant, shows grand visual patterns humans create on the Earth's surface from a satellite's point-of-view.
Bombs hit convoy of displaced people in Iraq, kills 18: police (Reuters)
Two roadside bombs struck a convoy carrying Iraqi families fleeing an Islamic State-controlled town in the north of the country late on Friday, killing 18 people, a police officer said.
Stephen Hawking warns us to stop reaching out to aliens before it's too late (Science Alert)
When the potential of intelligent alien civilisations comes up in conversation, it’s usually about the search. How will we find them? Where are they? Are they there at all? What actions should we take if – or when – we find them, or they find us?
German military investigates 60 potential Islamists in Bundeswehr (Reuters)
The German government plans to carry out security investigations of all military recruits beginning in July 2017 after its military counter-espionage service (MAD) identified 20 Islamists in the Bundeswehr, according to German media group Funke.
U.S. death sentences wane, even in Texas county with most executions (Reuters)
In the Texas county known as the buckle on the "execution belt" for sending more people to the death chamber than any other nationwide, both candidates in the campaign for top prosecutor are calling for moderation in capital punishment.
