Sent as a newsletter October 16, 2022. Not on my list? Enter your email here.
👋 Hi friends,
Welcome to the latest edition of Newley’s Notes, a weekly newsletter containing my recent Wall Street Journal stories, must-read links on tech and life, and funny dog videos.
✨ Image of the week, above:
☀️ The weather here in Hong Kong has been fantastic the last couple of weeks, with deep blue skies, a gentle breeze, and temperatures dipping ever so slightly to about 80 Fahrenheit (27 Celsius).
💐 Here’s a photo of our beloved Ginger on a recent walk. Sometimes you’ve gotta stop and smell the flowers.
🆕 My WSJ latest:
🚢 My latest, out Monday: In Hong Kong, Sanctioned Russian Tycoon’s Superyacht Sparks U.S.-China Spat.
It begins:
The anchoring in Hong Kong waters of a sanctioned Russian oligarch’s superyacht is ramping up tensions between Beijing and Washington, which warned against the financial center being used as a safe haven.
The 465-foot Nord, owned by steel magnate Alexey Mordashov, moored west of the Chinese territory’s Victoria Harbour last week after departing from the far-eastern Russian city of Vladivostok, according to website MarineTraffic.
Its presence has drawn onlookers in passing boats eager to snap photos of one the world’s biggest luxury vessels. Equipped with two helicopter pads, a cinema and swimming pool, it can be seen flying a Russian flag. It has also ignited a spat between U.S. and Chinese officials, already at loggerheads over Beijing’s crackdowns on freedoms in the former British colony.
Here are 10 items worth your time this week:
1) 🇨🇳 Chinese leader Xi Jinping in a speech Sunday opening the twice-a-decade Communist Party congress “cast himself as the decisive helmsman his country needs in surmounting great adversity,” my WSJ colleague Chun Han Wong reports. (Xi had been in power ten years and appears set for another five.)
2) 🇺🇸 President Biden said in his administration’s national security strategy that this “decisive decade” must see the U.S. “outcompeting China and restraining Russia.” You can read the document here .
3) ⚖️ A jury ordered conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay $965 million to Sandy Hook victims’ relatives for his lies about the school shooting.
4) 📺 Netflix is launching next month a less expensive service, supported by ads, that will cost $6.99 a month .
5) 🥽 Meta debuted its $1,499 virtual reality headset, meant for professional use…though it’s unclear what working in the metaverse means, exactly.
6) 🔍 Actress Angela Lansbury, best known for her role on “Murder She Wrote,” died at age 96.
7) 🎸 Also RIP Mike Schank, buddy of filmmaker Mark Borchadt in the wonderful 1999 documentary “American Movie.”
8) 🤑 Salary Transparent Street is a YouTube channel in which people are interviewed on the street about how much money they make.
9) 🔥 Artist Damien Hirst burned 1,000 of his paintings , which now exist only as NFTs.
10) 🇮🇹 The trailer for the second season of “White Lotus” is out, featuring Michael Imperioli (!) and set in Sicily.
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🦴 Dog-related video of the week:
“Who wants to see a BIRTHDAY-slam?!”
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💡 Quote of the week:
“Everything changes. Don’t be afraid.” — Al Swearengen, in “Deadwood”
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👊 Fist bump from Hong Kong,
Newley