Newley Purnell

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.

•••

🦴 Dog-related video of the week:

“Who wants to see a BIRTHDAY-slam?!”

•••

💡 Quote of the week:

“Everything changes. Don’t be afraid.” — Al Swearengen, in “Deadwood”

•••

👊 Fist bump from Hong Kong,

Newley

Sent as a newsletter October 4, 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: another excellent Hong Kong vanity plate. YOLO VIBE.

🏆 Brag of the week: I’m so proud that our WSJ Facebook Files team, led by the great Jeff Horwitz, won this year’s Loeb Award for beat reporting.

Here’s the full list of winners. More details are in this Newley.com blog post.

That means in addition to the Loeb, our team has taken home a Polk Award, a SABEW, and an award from the Deadline Club.

I’m lucky to work with such phenomenal colleagues.

🚨 Programming note: There will be no NN next week. I’ll return after that.

My WSJ latest:

🆕 My most recent story, an exclusive out Wednesday: Meta Officials Cite Security Concerns for Failing to Release Full India Hate-Speech Study.

It begins:

Executives at Meta Platforms Inc. privately told rights groups that security concerns prevented them from releasing details of its investigation into hate speech on its services in India, according to audio recordings heard by The Wall Street Journal.

Here are 10 items worth your time this week:

1) 🇷🇺 Lots of news about Russia’s war in Ukraine. First, many thousands of Russians are crossing borders into Kazakhstan, Armenia, Georgia and other countries following Putin’s announcement of a broad mobilization for new troops…

2) 🔫 …Meanwhile: Putin said in a speech that Russia is annexing four regions of Ukraine, a move that is illegal…

3) ⚠️ …and not long afterward, Russia lost control of the city of Lyman – in one of those very regions it has claimed…

4) 🇺🇦 …Now Ukraine is forging ahead in a bold counteroffensive, and there is increased risk that Putin could deploy nuclear weapons. Got all that?

5) 🚀 In happier news: NASA sent a spacecraft hurtling into an asteroid 7 million miles away to test the ability to change its orbit, addressing a potential future doomsday scenario ripped from the “Armageddon” screenplay.

6) 🪨 Please meet Kurt Steiner, the world’s best stone skipper.

7) 🚶‍♀️Here are the world’s 33 coolest streets, according to TimeOut.

8) 🛍️ Looria shows the most popular products discussed on Reddit.

9) 🗺 How athletes are creating art using GPS trackers.

10) 😂 Video the week: “French TV show invited people with unusual laughs to sit together…the outcome is” effing “brilliant.” (Don’t miss the replies.)

•••

🦴 Dog-related video of the week:

“Fastest Girl”

•••

💡 Quote of the week:

“If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you are doing.” – W. Edwards Deming

•••

🤗 What’s new with you? Hit reply to send me tips, queries, random comments, and videos of laser-focused canines.

•••

👊 Fist bump from Hong Kong,

Newley

Sent as a newsletter September 25. 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 mood here in Hong Kong following news that hotel quarantine, part of the city’s Covid control measures, is being phased out. Read on…

My WSJ latest:

🇮🇳 My latest, an exclusive out Thursday, Sept. 22: Proton CEO Is Shutting Down India VPN Servers to Protest Cybersecurity Rules.

The lede:

The Swiss company behind well-known virtual-private-network service Proton VPN is pulling its servers from India, the latest provider to do so in response to new government rules that companies and rights groups say threaten users’ privacy.

“It’s going to have a chilling effect,” Proton Chief Executive Andy Yen told me. “I find it really sad that the world’s largest democracy is taking this path.”

File under: New Delhi continues to get tough with foreign tech firms.

Here are 10 items worth your time this week:

1) 🇭🇰 The Hong Kong government said Friday it’s ending hotel quarantining for travelers, starting Monday. Pre-flight Covid PCR tests will no longer be required. For three days after arrival, however, those arriving in HK will have to avoid bars and restaurants. The mood here among those eager to hit the road: See photo above.

2) 🇮🇷 Iran is seeing its biggest anti-government protests in years. They kicked off when a 22-year-old woman died in the custody of morality police.

3) 💰 Headline of the week, in the FT, based on income distribution data: “Britain and the US are poor societies with some very rich people.”

4) 🪐 The new images of Neptune and its rings from the James Webb Space Telescope are breathtaking.

5) 🎨 Psychiatrists in Brussels can now prescribe museum visits for people suffering from anxiety, stress or depression.

6) 🙅‍♂️ Oh, dear: “NyQuil chicken” may be the next Tide Pod challenge.

7) 🌃 Is New York still the city that never sleeps?

8) 📱 Wait, gifs are uncool now?

9) 🧁 A real thing, apparently: Dairy Queen is giving away pillows that smell like cinnamon and pumpkin.

10) 📺 A Good Movie to Watch is a directory of “Highly rated yet little-known movies and shows.”

•••

🦴 Dog-related video of the week:

“Gracie the golden retriever enjoys her first snowfall”

•••

💡 Quote of the week:

“Speak little, do much." – Benjamin Franklin

•••

👊 Fist bump from Hong Kong,

Newley

Sent as a newsletter September 5. Not on my list? Sign up 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: In skyscraper-laden like Hong Kong, it’s always tempting to look up. But looking down can be equally interesting.

My WSJ latest:

📲 My colleague Yang Jie and I had a story out Thursday, following the iPhone 14 announcement (more on that below), providing some perspectives from Asia.

The headline: Apple’s New iPhones Create Buzz in China, but Local Rivals Loom. It begins:

Apple Inc.’s latest iPhones drew favorable interest in China after it decided not to raise some prices, but the company faces challenges in one of its most important markets from local rivals.

Here are 10 items worth your time this week:

1) 🇬🇧 Queen Elizabeth II died at age 96. She “defined the monarchy for generations of Britons,” our WSJ obit read, with her death “plunging the U.K. into mourning and giving the country its first new head of state in 70 years, her son, King Charles III."

🎧 For more perspective on her life – and the state of the monarchy – I recommend this episode of The Journal podcast, with our UK correspondent, Max Colchester.

2) 🇺🇦 Shot: Ukraine is making rapid advances by retaking territory in the east of the country, inflicting on Russia its worst setback since it gave up its attack on Kyiv.

3) 👉 Chaser: “We must expect that a Ukrainian victory,” in the war, “and certainly a victory in Ukraine’s understanding of the term, also brings about the end of Putin’s regime,” Anne Applebaum writes in The Atlantic.

4) 💻 Andrew Rice and Olivia Nuzzi, in New York magazine: “The Sordid Saga of Hunter Biden’s Laptop.”

5) 🍎 Apple introduced its new iPhone 14 lineup, which includes new Pro models and a larger Plus model. It also announced a new high-end version of the Apple Watch, the Apple Watch Ultra, and updated its AirPods Pro headphones.

6) 🎾 Big tennis news: Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz won the U.S. Open at age 19, becoming the youngest man to win a grand slam since Rafael Nadal in 2005. Alcaraz will become the world’s youngest ATP number one.

7) 🌡 Thousands of people in Colorado who signed up for an energy saving program were unable to adjust their smart thermostats when temperatures soared, due to what a utlitiy company called a “system emergency.”

8) ♟️ Accusations of cheating are roiling the chess world.

9) ⌨️ In The New Yorker, David Owen examines mechanical keyboard enthusiasts.

10) 🌽 Seven-year-old Tariq, of the viral “Corn Kid” video and song, has been named South Dakota’s official Corn-bassador.

•••

🦴 Dog-related video of the week:

“It’s 400 degrees in LA. Please enjoy this video of my dog trying to drink out of a garden hose”

•••

💡 Quote of the week:

“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.” – Douglas Adams in “The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul.”

👊 Fist bump from Hong Kong,