Thursday, November 14, 2024

The odds against Gaetz

Bloomberg Morning Briefing Americas

Good morning. The former House speaker predicts the Senate will reject Matt Gaetz's nomination as attorney general. Why Donald Trump's appointments show that subservience is the main qualification for a job. And get ready for the return of Squid GameListen to the day's top stories.

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy predicted that Donald Trump's nomination of Matt Gaetz as attorney general will be rejected by the Republican Senate next year. The appointment rammed home a key factor in the president-elect's choices: Subservience to Trump is the main qualification for a job. Speaking of controversial picks: here's our guide on the new Department of Government Efficiency (aka DOGE).

Sticking with the crypto (kind of), the Department of Justice is said to be investigating betting platform Polymarket for allegedly accepting trades from US-based users. Opponents of political prediction markets said massive bets ahead of the election potentially skewed public perception. Bloomberg reported in August that US users continued to find ways to trade on the unregistered exchange.

The premiere of Disney and Pixar's Inside Out 2 at El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, on June 10.Photographer: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

Corporate roundup: Disney reported results this morning, with blockbusters Inside Out 2 and Deadpool & Wolverine underscoring the comeback of its studio business. Cisco shares fell premarket after the networking company gave a tepid annual forecast. And Exxon plans to lay off almost 400 employees from Pioneer after purchasing the Permian Basin driller for $63 billion earlier this year.

Manhattan apartment rents climbed in October to the highest in three months, hitting levels normally seen during the market's busier months—probably because the surge in borrowing costs is putting a floor under prices. Still, there's some relief thanks to the measure passed by the New York City council yesterday, requiring landlords who hire real estate agents to pay the fees themselves instead of passing them on to tenants. 

A spate of violent killings in China, culminating in a mass murder by a motorist, is challenging Xi Jinping's state surveillance apparatus. As part of an effort to erase all traces of the carnage, workers have removed flowers from a makeshift memorial to the victims. The veil of silence is descending again.

Deep Dive: Trump's Climate Policy

President Biden signs the Inflation Reduction Act on Aug. 16, 2022. Photographer: Sarah Silbiger/Bloomberg

Trump has been crystal clear: His second term will be an assault on climate policy. He attacked the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest climate investment in history, as the "green new scam." And he pledged to withdraw the US once again from the Paris climate agreement.

  • The president-elect's policies have cast a shadow over the COP29 talks, currently underway in Azerbaijan. Without US engagement, efforts to cut emissions could stall at a crucial time for keeping Earth's rising temperatures in check.
  • If the US relinquishes its leadership role in combating climate change, the baton may be taken up by China, the world's biggest emitter and a renewable energy powerhouse.
  • Still, it's doubtful that Trump can scrap the IRA altogether. The drafters of the law "did everything they possibly could" to make it resilient to attacks from the right, according to clean energy advocacy group E2. Plus nuclear energy—promoted by the IRA—has bipartisan support and is unlikely to be targeted.

The Big Take

Opinion

Illustration: Daybreak/Getty Images

Iran is weaker than the last time it faced Trump, Hal Brands writes. A "maximum pressure" campaign, combined with Israel's military successes, could bring Gulf states into a stronger anti-Tehran alliance.

Before You Go

Hwang Dong-hyuk on the set. Photographer: Dong-won Han

Let the games begin, again… For the creator of Squid Game, the most popular show in Netflix's history, writing and directing the first nine episodes was so intense that he lost seven or eight teeth. But Hwang Dong-Hyuk put his dental worries aside to write more episodes, and on Dec. 26—one day after Netflix shows its first pro football games—an equally violent second season is set to hit our screens.

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