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Top stories today:
- RFK Jr. appointed to lead HHS, with 77% chance to be confirmed
- SEC, Chair Gary Gensler sued by 18 states over crypto crackdown
- ChatGPT gains ability to read code from developer-focused apps
- Meta slapped with ā¬798M fine over antitrust Marketplace practices
- Google releases Gemini AI app for iPhone users
- Obesity prevalent in 74% of U.S. adults
0. Data and calendar
All values as of 6 AM ET / 3 AM PT, other than S&P500 and NASDAQ close (4 PM ET / 1 PM PT).
All times are ET.
Listen to our AI-generated podcast summarizing todayās newsletter (beware the few hallucinations):
1. RFK Jr. appointed to lead Health and Human Services, 77% chance to be confirmed
According to Manifold Markets, which is a play money prediction market, but still has great accuracy:
RFK Jr. has questioned vaccine efficacy and safety and has sued several pharmaceutical companies, and will likely bring a lot of change to HHS.
The FDA and the CDC are the two main agencies under HHS.
Jay Clayton, ex-SEC chair, was picked for U.S. Attorney for SDNY.
Doug Burgum was picked to lead the Interior Department.
2 Trump attorneys were named as No. 2, 3 at DOJ.
Elon had a meeting with Iran's ambassador to the UN.
Jamie Dimon is not joining the administration, Trump said.
Lara Trump is being pushed by the GOP for the vacant FL senate seat.
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3. SEC, Chair Gary Gensler sued by 18 states over Bidenās crypto crackdown
Republican-led states and DeFi Education Fund alleged constitutional violations in regulating digital assets.
The Kentucky-led lawsuit sought to freeze the SECās ability to sue crypto companies.
āSECās sweeping assertion of regulatory jurisdiction is untenable,ā the lawsuit stated.
4. ChatGPT gains ability to read code from developer-focused apps
ChatGPT for macOS can now access code in VS Code, Xcode, TextEdit, Terminal, and iTerm2.
Now: ChatGPT Plus and Teams users can try the update in beta.
Coming weeks: enterprise and Edu accounts will get the feature.
Support for other app types, including writing tools, will be added later.
Earlier, the app was limited to ChatGPT Plus subscribers.
5. Meta slapped with ā¬798M fine by EU over antitrust Marketplace practices
āImposed unfair trading conditionsā on other online classified ads service providers, EUās competition chief said.
Meta said it would appeal against the fine.
The new Trump admin could fight back against the EUās repeated fines against American companies.
6. Google releases Gemini AI app for iPhone users
Supports text, voice, and camera inputs for AI responses.
Includes Gemini Live conversational chat mode.
Sep.: Android users received Gemini Live support.
Gemini AI cannot access non-Google apps on the iPhone.
7. Obesity prevalent in 74% of U.S. adults
Poorer states and males have the highest prevalence:
8. Quantum computing startup funding nearly 2x to $1.5B in 2024 YTD
50 deals have been closed so far, compared to 67 in 2023.
$785M was invested in total last year.
Rising AI demand has driven quantum computing investments.
9. Elon Musk's X rival Bluesky says 1M+ users signed up in the past 24 hours
Bluesky is now the top free app on the U.S. App Store, followed by ChatGPT and Threads.
Xās earlier Brazil ban and the U.S. election outcome fueled Blueskyās user growth.
Similarly, Metaās Threads, another X rival, has also seen 15M+ sign-ups in Nov.
Threads has maintained 1M sign-ups per day for the past 3 months, according to Instagram head Adam Mosseri.
X still leads overwhelmingly in MAUs: 570M for X, 275M for Threads, and 9M for Bluesky.
10. PE food-beverage deals mark Q3 as the biggest quarter since 2017
149 food-beverage consumer packaged goods deals are estimated in Q3, vs. 138 in Q2.
102 deals have already been closed in Q3.
11. Interesting videos, posts, and memes
12. Other headlines
AI
Top-Quality Talent, 70% Cost SavingsāMeet Athyna.*
Money Pickle: Ready to take control of your financial future?*
*Sponsored.
Tech
Lenovo Q2 revenue +24% YoY to $17.9B, net income +44% to $359M.
Samsung plans $7.2B buyback to boost shareholder value.
Amazon One Medical adds low-cost plans for hair loss, skin care.
hear.com's groundbreaking devices that make everything loud and clear*
*Sponsored.
Tech & law
X sues to block CAās Deepfake Deception Act.
$6.6B CHIPS Act grant to TSMC finalized by Biden admin before Trump returns.
Google to halt political ads in EU by 2025 over transparency rules.
Amazon questioned by Congress over growing TikTok relationship: sources.
Biotech
OneSkin raises $20M Series A for skin aging.
Evolutionary theories of aging: review.
FDA clears Omron blood pressure cuff with afib detection.
Business
Crypto
5-year sentence given to Bitfinex money launderer.
Tether launches platform to simplify asset tokenization for businesses, nations.
U.S. politics
Onion parody website buys Alex Jonesā Infowars out of bankruptcy.
World
Israel, Greece negotiating on ā¬2B deal for Iron Dome-like system.
Israel expands operation in Lebanon.
China urges U.S. not to allow ātransitā of Taiwan regional leader Lai.
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