France Takes on Google & the FTC Takes on Amazon

Science and tech headlines:The CEO of BioNTech, Ugur Sahin, says vaccine booster shots are critical to beating the pandemic. Apple anticipates a jump in demand for its next line of iPhones, as evidenced by its order to manufacture 90 million of them. News items:  REvil, the Russian hacking group responsible for recent cyber attacks on JBS Foods and other companies, went offline on Tuesday. Rebecca asks John who he thinks is behind the shutdown — Biden, Putin, or the hackers themselves? Peter Shepard and Morgan Stanley are working on an “ultimate index” which would track all markets, including commodities and private assets like real estate and private equity. Rebecca thinks it's a disaster in the making. France’s antitrust watchdog recently fined Google 500 million euros for failing to talk with news publishers about using their copyrighted work. Here in the US, the FTC announced a probe into Amazon’s $8.5 billion deal with MGM. John and Rebecca disagree on what big tech owes legacy media.  Holdings in both Chinese stocks and bonds have surged globally. Rebecca explains why.  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Om Podcasten

Ninety percent of the news out there tells you nothing about where the world is going — ten percent of it tells you everything. Every afternoon on the News Items Podcast with John Ellis, John and Rebecca Darst focus on that ten percent — news that’s interesting, important or both. The podcast is based on John Ellis’ News Items, an email newsletter that goes out to organizations including the Council on Foreign Relations, Samsung Next, and the Wall Street Journal. Tune in every Monday through Thursday afternoon to hear decades of journalistic experience packed into 20 or so minutes of insight, plus guest interviews on finance, U.S. politics, foreign affairs, science and technology. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.