25 talking points for better conversation at cocktails based on what I found interesting this week.
Global Street Smarts
1. Japan depends on imports for 99.7% of its oil, 97.8% of its gas, and 99.6% of its coal. These percentages have hardly changed for decades.
2. Germany plans to offer visas and job opportunities to Russians seeking to get away from Putin's government.
3. US trade deficit widens to record $109.8 billion as imports surge: The demand for consumer goods, oil, and industrial materials led 10% increase in imports.
4. Since 2008, nearly 150 wineries in Bordeaux have been bought by Chinese investors. But the trend has petered out, and now that the elation of the early days is over, some of the wine estates are falling into financial ruin.
5. BP takes a $25.5 billion hit from its decision to exit its Russia holdings.
6. American homeowners have gained more than $6 trillion in housing wealth over the past two years.
7. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel thinks the metaverse is 'ambiguous and hypothetical': The Verge reports Speigel's 'big bet' is that people would rather spend time in the (augmented) real world rather than a totally virtual one.
8. GM announces the EV Corvette.
9. Binance picks Paris to be a regional hub in Europe: The world's largest crypto exchange, which lacks a headquarters, worked for 18 months to get France's financial regulator approval.
10. NFT sales are flatlining: The sale of nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, fell to a daily average of about 19,000 this week, a 92% decline from a peak of about 225,000 in September, according to the data website NonFungible.
11. Record 4.5 million US workers quit jobs in March as the labor market tightens: The number of job openings reaches a high of 11.5 million as employers struggle to fill positions.
12. Sonos is launching its own voice assistant in June.
13. The Sex Pistols classic 'God Save The Queen' to get jubilee revival: Thousands of physical copies of the song will be re-pressed for release on May 27.
13. Vice Media is reportedly exploring a sale after its plans to go public via a SPAC last year stalled.
14. Workers in Austin, Texas, are putting in more time at the office than in any other major US metropolitan area.
15. Last week, Elon Musk jokingly — or not, who even knows anymore? — tweeted that his next move is buying Coca-Cola "to put the cocaine back in." It's now the second most-liked tweet of all time, with 4.7 million+ likes.
16. Nearly six in 10 college students say they don't want Elon Musk to own and control Twitter.
17. LL Bean is pausing all social media for the month of May as it urges customers to spend time outdoors to improve their mental health.
18. On May 2, 1997: Tony Blair, the Labour Party leader, became the UK's youngest prime minister, aged 43.
19. Qantas eyes world's longest nonstop flight with Airbus order: The airline wants to operate the world's longest commercial flights from Australian cities to London and New York, shaving off nearly four hours of travel time. The first flights are expected to take off by late 2025.
20. Facebook is pulling out of podcasting.
21. UEFA officials said that Russian teams would be banned from competing in the 2022-2023 season of the Champions League.
22. Amazon Prime Video is making a strong, last-minute effort to add former New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton to its "Thursday Night Football" coverage.
23. The Big Ten's media rights negotiations are reportedly nearing an agreement. The conference could be close to securing a record $1.1 billion annually.
24. When Liberty Media purchased F1 in 2017 for $4.4 billion, they set about Americanizing race weekends into Super Bowl-like events and tapped Netflix for a docuseries that turned F1 drivers into celebrities.
25. Diego Maradona's 'Hand of God' jersey from the 1986 World Cup sold for $9.3 million this week, becoming the highest-priced piece of sports memorabilia sold.
-Marc
