Top stories today:

1. RFK Jr. appointed to lead HHS, with 77% chance to be confirmed
2. SEC, Chair Gary Gensler sued by 18 states over crypto crackdown
3. ChatGPT gains ability to read code from developer-focused apps
4. Meta slapped with €798M fine over antitrust Marketplace practices
5. Google releases Gemini AI app for iPhone users
6. Obesity prevalent in 74% of U.S. adults

0. Data and calendar

Listen to our AI-generated podcast summarizing today’s newsletter (beware the few hallucinations):

1. RFK Jr. appointed to lead Health and Human Services, 77% chance to be confirmed

According to Manifold Markets, which is a play money prediction market, but still has great accuracy:

• RFK Jr. has questioned vaccine efficacy and safety and has sued several pharmaceutical companies, and will likely bring a lot of change to HHS.

  • The FDA and the CDC are the two main agencies under HHS.

• Jay Clayton, ex-SEC chair, was picked for U.S. Attorney for SDNY.

• Doug Burgum was picked to lead the Interior Department.

• 2 Trump attorneys were named as No. 2, 3 at DOJ.

• Elon had a meeting with Iran's ambassador to the UN.

• Jamie Dimon is not joining the administration, Trump said.

• Lara Trump is being pushed by the GOP for the vacant FL senate seat.

3. SEC, Chair Gary Gensler sued by 18 states over Biden’s crypto crackdown

• Republican-led states and DeFi Education Fund alleged constitutional violations in regulating digital assets.

• The Kentucky-led lawsuit sought to freeze the SEC’s ability to sue crypto companies.

• “SEC’s sweeping assertion of regulatory jurisdiction is untenable,” the lawsuit stated.

4. ChatGPT gains ability to read code from developer-focused apps

• ChatGPT for macOS can now access code in VS Code, Xcode, TextEdit, Terminal, and iTerm2.

• Now: ChatGPT Plus and Teams users can try the update in beta.

• Coming weeks: enterprise and Edu accounts will get the feature.

• Support for other app types, including writing tools, will be added later.

Relatedly, OpenAI has made ChatGPT’s desktop app available to all Windows 10 and 11 users

• Earlier, the app was limited to ChatGPT Plus subscribers.

5. Meta slapped with €798M fine by EU over antitrust Marketplace practices

• “Imposed unfair trading conditions” on other online classified ads service providers, EU’s competition chief said.

• Meta said it would appeal against the fine.

• The new Trump admin could fight back against the EU’s repeated fines against American companies.

6. Google releases Gemini AI app for iPhone users

• Supports text, voice, and camera inputs for AI responses.

• Includes Gemini Live conversational chat mode.

• Sep.: Android users received Gemini Live support.

• Gemini AI cannot access non-Google apps on the iPhone.

7. Obesity prevalent in 74% of U.S. adults

Poorer states and males have the highest prevalence:

8. Quantum computing startup funding nearly 2x to $1.5B in 2024 YTD

• 50 deals have been closed so far, compared to 67 in 2023.

• $785M was invested in total last year.

• Rising AI demand has driven quantum computing investments.

9. Elon Musk's X rival Bluesky says 1M+ users signed up in the past 24 hours

• Bluesky is now the top free app on the U.S. App Store, followed by ChatGPT and Threads.

• X’s earlier Brazil ban and the U.S. election outcome fueled Bluesky’s user growth.

Similarly, Meta’s Threads, another X rival, has also seen 15M+ sign-ups in Nov.

• Threads has maintained 1M sign-ups per day for the past 3 months, according to Instagram head Adam Mosseri.

• X still leads overwhelmingly in MAUs: 570M for X, 275M for Threads, and 9M for Bluesky.

10. PE food-beverage deals mark Q3 as the biggest quarter since 2017

• 149 food-beverage consumer packaged goods deals are estimated in Q3, vs. 138 in Q2.

• 102 deals have already been closed in Q3.

11. Interesting videos, posts, and memes

12. Other headlines

AI

• Anthropic, feds test whether AI will share sensitive nuclear info.

• Lobbying group urging Trump admin to soften AI regulations.

• Pony AI, Chinese self-driving startup, seeks up to $4.5B valuation in U.S. IPO.

Tech

• Lenovo Q2 revenue +24% YoY to $17.9B, net income +44% to $359M.

• Samsung plans $7.2B buyback to boost shareholder value.

• Amazon One Medical adds low-cost plans for hair loss, skin care.

Tech & law

• Elon’s amended suit against OpenAI names Microsoft as defendant.

• X sues to block CA’s Deepfake Deception Act.

• $6.6B CHIPS Act grant to TSMC finalized by Biden admin before Trump returns.

• Google to halt political ads in EU by 2025 over transparency rules.

• Amazon questioned by Congress over growing TikTok relationship: sources.

Biotech

• OneSkin raises $20M Series A for skin aging.

• Evolutionary theories of aging: review.

• FDA clears Omron blood pressure cuff with afib detection.

Business

• China’s retail sales +4.8% YoY, industrial production +5.3% in Oct.

• Trump’s transition team aims to kill $7.5K EV tax credit: sources.

• Powell says no need for Fed to rush rate cuts given strong economy.

Crypto

• 5-year sentence given to Bitfinex money launderer.

• Tether launches platform to simplify asset tokenization for businesses, nations.

U.S. politics

• Onion parody website buys Alex Jones’ Infowars out of bankruptcy.

World

• Israel, Greece negotiating on €2B deal for Iron Dome-like system.

• Israel expands operation in Lebanon.

• China urges U.S. not to allow “transit” of Taiwan regional leader Lai.

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