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📝 Good afternoon and welcome to Notes on the News. Here’s what you should know today, Jan. 21: Intel plans to invest at least $20 billion in chip production, the U.S. and Russia continue to thrash out the Ukraine situation and states are enjoying extra cash in their local coffers. Let us know what you think by replying to this email. Thanks for reading. |
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| The Justice Department said it was filing an appeal to a ruling that blocked the Biden administration’s Covid-19 vaccine requirement for federal workers. PHOTO: CHARLES KRUPA/ASSOCIATED PRESS |
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1. A federal judge blocked the Biden administration’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate for federal workers. This is the latest disappointment in the White House’s plan to vaccinate people, and the Justice Department said it intends to appeal. Last week, the Supreme Court blocked a Covid vax requirement for large private employers but allowed such rules for healthcare workers who treat Medicare and Medicaid patients. |
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2. Intel is investing at least $20 billion to up its semiconductor game. The company said it’s working on two chip-making factories outside Columbus, Ohio; the site could grow to include eight. The news comes amid a protracted global chip shortage and growing demand for digital devices that need them to run. |
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3. The U.S. Secretary of State met with his Russian counterpart to help fend off the country's potential invasion of Ukraine. Antony Blinken sat down with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Geneva to discuss one of the worst faceoffs between Russia and the West since the Cold War ended. With an estimated 100,000 Russian troops on the border with Ukraine, Blinken warned that any Russian aggression there would lead to financial sanctions or other measures. ▶️ Satellite images show Russia’s military buildup near Ukraine. |
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4. SPACs aren’t so special anymore. Wall Street’s love affair with blank-check firms, formally known as special-purpose acquisition companies, is cooling a bit. A likely rise in interest rates and the threat of tighter regulation are among the factors. |
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22 — The number of new STEM disciplines that international students can now study to qualify for work in the U.S. on their student visas, part of changes the Department of Homeland Security announced today. People in these fields are allowed to work for three years after graduation instead of the one year all foreign students get. $113 billion — The estimated value of states’ reserved funds for fiscal year 2021, according to the National Association of State Budget Officers. More tax revenue and federal aid are to thank. States could spend the extra cash on tax rebates, worker bonuses, paying down debts, pension obligations and infrastructure projects. 41% — The share of homeowners who use their bathrooms for rest and relaxation, the home improvement website Houzz found. For an ooh-la-la loo, folks are embracing toilets equipped with hidden bidets, self-filling bathtubs and other high-tech bathroom fixtures and accessories. |
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| What Everyone Wants To Know |
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| Starbucks employees in Buffalo, N.Y., voted last month to form the chain’s first union at a corporate store. PHOTO: LINDSAY DEDARIO/REUTERS |
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There’s a (non-caffeinated!) buzz among Starbucks baristas to unionize. Starbucks workers across the U.S. are using social media and online meetings to seek guidance from their colleagues in Buffalo, N.Y., who formed the coffee chain’s first union at a corporate store in December. Approximately two dozen of Starbucks’s estimated 9,000 U.S. corporate stores have filed for individual union elections, including ones in Chicago, Boston, Cleveland and the chain’s hometown, Seattle. Roughly 3,500 licensed Starbucks stores in the U.S. already have unions; those locations are usually at hotels, grocery stores and travel plazas. Starbucks has launched efforts to discourage labor organizing within its workforce, saying the company tends to work better with its employees “as partners, without a union between us.” It has been sending managers to stores that are looking to unionize to talk to staffers and convey management’s stance. |
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Vaccines + boosters = great Covid-19 variant protection. That’s according to three studies the CDC released recently. One of them found that a third dose of the vaccine by either Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna was at least 90% effective at preventing Covid-19 sufferers from winding up in a hospital during both the Delta and Omicron waves. The CDC also said that vaccination was the safest way to develop immunity against Covid, since catching the virus still poses a threat of death or serious illness even if those risks are low. GlaxoSmithKline is racing to provide the only Covid-19 antibody treatment effective against Omicron. |
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| This hamster was saved by volunteers who stopped an owner from surrendering it to the Hong Kong government. LOUISE DELMOTTE/GETTY IMAGES |
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Go save a hamster: Fans of the furry rodent in Hong Kong have turned to social media to organize efforts to save the cute pets from death. The government is exterminating hamsters because a Covid-19 outbreak was traced back to a pet store. They’ve seized about 1,000 hamsters and have asked anyone who bought one since Dec. 22 to hand it over. All hamsters will be killed, whether or not they have the virus, officials said. |
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Today's newsletter was curated by Zlati Meyer in New York, in collaboration with publishing editor Rich Bellis in New York. We hope you’re enjoying Notes on the News. If you would prefer to receive a different newsletter, please check out all your options to keep up with the latest on markets, economics, politics and more. For members, we recommend The 10-Point. |
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