25 talking points for better conversation at cocktails based on what I found interesting this week.
Global Street Smarts
1. NATO will increase its rapid response force to over 300,000.
2. 70% of Australians support nuclear submarines under AUKUS.
3. Scottish independence referendum: Nicola Sturgeon picks 2023 date: The first minister asks Supreme Court to approve a new vote and promises Scots their say. The second such referendum will take place on October 19, 2023.
4. Manufacturing inventory hits a record $1.8 trillion worldwide.
5. Last year, Christie's sold nearly $150 million worth of NFTs. This year? So far, it's only sold $4.6 million in NFT art.
6. Commodity this: SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said Monday that Bitcoin was the only cryptocurrency he was prepared to publicly label a commodity, rather than a security, in an interview with CNBC.
7. Canada needs 5.8 million new homes by 2030 to bring prices down to reasonable levels, per the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
8. Global revenue from car and bike-sharing may rise 40% by 2030: Bloomberg reports growing use of mobility services in Asia, Europe, and the US promises to transform cities and benefit the climate, a new study says.
9. Yelp is shutting down its offices in Chicago, New York, and Washington, DC, to double down on remote work. CEO Jeremy Stoppelman called hybrid offices "the worst of both worlds."
10. More than nine-in-ten journalists in the United States (94%) use social media for their jobs.
11. MSNBC taps Alex Wagner as Rachel Maddow's successor: WSJ reports the veteran political correspondent is set to host the channel's 9 pm hour starting in August.
12. Station F is celebrating its 5th birthday.
13. Airbnb: More than 1 million people have visited their job page since announcing its permanent 'work from anywhere policy'.
14. OK boomer: The 2021 Australian census shows that the Baby Boomer proportion of the population and the Millennial proportion are equal for the first time.
15. Latin music pulled in $886m in the US in 2021, up 35% YoY. The vast majority of that revenue came from streaming.
16. TOTW: @modestproposal1: Out of office emails are white-collar humblebrags. Just STFU and leave. No one cares you're unreachable in Zanzibar.
17. Stanford's first new school in 75 years aims to help address the green talent gap: With $1.69 billion in its coffers, Fortune reports Stanford's new Doerr School of Sustainability is now the unicorn of higher education programs focused on climate change.
18. $5.5 billion: Hyundai's commitment to building an electric vehicle plant in Georgia.
19. Remote work: A new survey from McKinsey found that 92 million American workers (58% of the workforce) now have the option to work remotely at least once a week. The study found that 35% have the opportunity to work remotely full-time.
20. Data localization: FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr has written to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, asking them to take TikTok out of their app stores because it sends data to Beijing
21. IBM wants its quantum supercomputers running at 4,000-plus qubits by 2025.
22. Aston Villa plans to redevelop Villa Park into a 'world-class' venue: Plans include a new North Stand and improvements to the existing Trinity Stand, along with a boost in capacity to more than 50,000.
23. Disney keeps Formula One TV rights for $75 million to $90 million annually.
24. NFL streaming: Disney, Apple, and Amazon submitted bids — expected to be upwards of $2 billion — for the rights to the NFL's Sunday Ticket package.
25. NHL rookie of the year made in Germany: The Detroit Red Wings' Moritz Seider has become the first German to become the NHL's top rookie.
-Marc
