Today's Must-Reads - 27 December 2023

A selection of the latest news, studies, reports and articles

I spend a lot of time each day gathering together new information and interesting articles. I then pick one or two of the most interesting topics and write about them. However, that leaves a lot of missed out information that I’m not sharing.

Below is a summary of all the latest articles and information that I’ve found. This is a slimmed down version for all readers but is usually for paid subscribers only.

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Covid

• CIA accused of hiding records that analysts took ‘monetary incentives’ to bury COVID lab leak finding. An offshoot of the conservative Heritage Foundation is suing the Central Intelligence Agency, accusing it of withholding records detailing payoffs to analysts to bury findings that a lab leak was the most likely explanation for the COVID-19 pandemic. The think tank’s Oversight Project filed a federal lawsuit against the CIA Dec. 22, alleging the agency did not comply with its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request about analysts who allegedly “received monetary incentives to change their position on the origins of the virus,” according to a copy of the complaint first reported Tuesday by the Daily Caller.

Covid Mandates & Lockdowns

• UK's Christmas Covid chaos sees NHS nurses demand Brits 'mask up' again to stop disease. The emerging JN.1 Covid variant has helped a rise in cases over the Christmas period as NHS staff in hospitals struggle to meet demand of soaring number of patients. Royal College of Nursing officials have written to to nursing officers in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland demanding marks to be worn to mitigate the spread, which is still not legal practice but has been advised by the WHO.

Economy/Energy/Finance

• Los Angeles office building sells at 52% less than 2018 price. Harbor Associates and F&F Capital Group bought the five-storey property at 1640 Sepulveda Blvd for about US$44.7 million, according to a statement on Tuesday (Dec 26). The building last sold in 2018 for US$92.5 million. It is the latest sale of an LA office building in a market that’s been pressured by the rise of remote work and financing challenges brought about by soaring interest rates. Recently, the Aon Center in downtown LA sold for US$147.8 million, about 45 per cent less than its previous purchase price in 2014.

• [Nature Magazine trying to manage your expectations] Degrowth can work — here’s how science can help. Wealthy countries can create prosperity while using less materials and energy if they abandon economic growth as an objective. Researchers in ecological economics call for a different approach — degrowth. Wealthy economies should abandon growth of gross domestic product (GDP) as a goal, scale down destructive and unnecessary forms of production to reduce energy and material use, and focus economic activity around securing human needs and well-being. This approach, which has gained traction in recent years, can enable rapid decarbonization and stop ecological breakdown while improving social outcomes. It frees up energy and materials for low- and middle-income countries in which growth might still be needed for development. Degrowth is a purposeful strategy to stabilize economies and achieve social and ecological goals, unlike recession, which is chaotic and socially destabilizing and occurs when growth-dependent economies fail to grow.

• The Baby Boom. Causes, consequences and implications. The Baby Boom was the sudden rise in fertility, beginning in the late 1930s, of the wealthiest and most advanced countries in the world. It is often associated with the end of World War II, but actually began before then. In effect, the Baby Boom completely undid the First Demographic Transition. This is approximately what “natural” Western fertility looks like when not under severe economic stress (historical default) or subjected to anti-natal culture and laws. The proximate cause of the Baby Boom is not a mystery. Almost all births during the Baby Boom were within wedlock, meaning that fertility was a function of (1) nuptiality and (2) marital fertility. So what caused this marriage boom? The answer appears to be a rise in young men’s status compared to young women’s.

Health

• Deadly virus could lead to 'heart failure pandemic' on global scale, experts fear. The world could be heading towards a pandemic of heart failure caused by the impact of coronavirus, health experts warn. The warning comes from scientists at Japan's top research institute, Riken. A new report published on Saturday claims that the ACE2 receptors that coronavirus clings to within human cells is “very common” in the heart, and that many of those who had or have Covid suffer from “reduced cardiac function”.

• WHO urges pandemic accord in 2024 after years of Covid pain. As he closed out the WHO’s 75th year, Tedros said that in terms of emergency preparedness and response, gaps remain in the world’s readiness to prevent the next pandemic. “But 2024 offers a unique opportunity to address these gaps,” he said, with countries negotiating the first-ever global agreement on pandemic threats. “The pandemic accord is being designed to bridge the gaps in global collaboration, cooperation and equity,” said Tedros.

Middle East

• Iran Resumes Pace of 60% Uranium Enrichment, IAEA Says. Iran has increased its production of 60% enriched uranium to a rate of about 9 kilograms (20 pounds) a month since the end of November. That's up from about 3 kilograms a month since June, and a return to the 9 kilograms a month it was producing during the first half of 2023, the IAEA said. Nuclear weapons require uranium enriched to 90%, while 3.67% is enough for nuclear power stations.

Politics

• Time to think the unthinkable about King Charles III? His notoriously close relationship with Klaus Schwab and his World Economic Forum had already given rise to suspicions and concerns that things would quickly come unstuck during his reign. Charles seems unable to curb his tongue or avoid wading into hotly contested political territory. In recent weeks his alarmist views on ‘climate change‘ have come to the fore yet again with his keynote speech at COP28 in Dubai. His tongue has been rather loose on the subject of slavery reparations in recent months.

• CBS News Reporter Makes “Dark” Prediction of ‘Black Swan Event’ in 2024. Catherine Herridge made the call during a round table discussion when she was asked by host Margaret Brennan about what we could expect to see unfold over the coming year. “I just feel a lot of concern that 2024 may be the year of a black swan event. This is a national security event with high impact that’s very hard to predict.”

• The authoritarian legacy of the Remain campaign. The Remoaners’ distrust of democracy has had a baleful influence on the younger generation. One of the most repeated truisms of today is that much of the youth have given up on democracy. This was reinforced by a recent article in The Times headlined, ‘Third of the young “think dictatorship is good idea”’. It related findings by the Open Society Foundations that only 52 per cent of Britons aged 18 to 34 think that democracy is a force for good, compared with 79 per cent of people aged 55 and over. The research also found that 29 per cent of young people feel that a ‘strong leader’ who does not hold elections would be ‘a good way to run a country’.

Science

• NASA launches mission to intercept ‘God of Chaos’ asteroid as it nears Earth’s orbit. The agency’s spacecraft OSIRIS-REx — now named the OSIRIS-APEX — has been sent off to study the asteroid Apophis’ extremely close flyby of Earth in 2029, the likes of which “hasn’t happened since the dawn of recorded history,” NASA announced. The rock, which measures around 370 yards across, only comes this close to Earth every 7,500 years.

Technology

• Tesla robot ATTACKS an engineer at company's Texas factory during violent malfunction - leaving 'trail of blood' and forcing workers to hit emergency shutdown button. Two witnesses watched in horror as their fellow employee was attacked by the machine designed to grab and move freshly cast aluminum car parts. The robot had pinned the man, who was then programming software for two disabled Tesla robots nearby, before sinking its metal claws into the worker's back and arm, leaving a 'trail of blood' along the factory surface.

Ukraine

• Ukraine damages a Russian landing ship in the Black Sea after battlefield disappointments. Ukrainian warplanes damaged a Russian ship moored in the Black Sea off Crimea, both countries said Tuesday, bolstering Ukrainian morale after battlefield disappointments and doubts about the future of Western aid. Ukrainian authorities claimed the ship was destroyed. They said it was likely carrying ammunition and possibly drones.

• Belarus leader says Russian nuclear weapons shipments are completed, raising concern in the region. The president of Belarus says Russia has completed its shipments of short-range, tactical nuclear weapons to his country, an initiative that has raised strong concerns in neighboring Poland and elsewhere in the region. Tactical nuclear weapons, which are intended for use on the battlefield, have a short range and a low yield compared with much more powerful nuclear warheads fitted to long-range missiles. Russia said it would maintain control over those it sends to Belarus.

Vaccines

• Stock Analyst Website: Moderna Substantially Over-Valued. Investor stock-picking website GuruFocus offers a combination of historical, financial, and valuation data, along with screeners, charts, and comparison tools. The website recently analyzed Moderna, and in support of TrialSite’s recent articles on the company’s challenges found the company’s stock price considerably overvalued.