Flagship

French government collapses

France was plunged into a fresh political crisis Wednesday after far-right and leftist parties voted to oust the country’s prime minister over a budget dispute. The collapse of Michel Barnier’s government, through the country’s first successful no-confidence vote since 1962, came less than six months after President Emmanuel Macron called snap elections. Opposition parties are now targeting Macron, with one far-left lawmaker saying the vote sounded the “death knell” for his mandate. Analysts said the goal of far-right leader Marine Le Pen and her party is to induce chaos that puts pressure on the president. Barnier could have “handed them Notre-Dame and it wouldn’t change a thing. All they want is for the government to fall,” a Macron ally said.

Political turmoil tests SKorea economy

South Korea’s opposition on Thursday moved to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol over his abrupt declaration, then swift revocation, of martial law. Lawmakers could vote this week on his removal, which would need the support of eight members of Yoon’s party to succeed. The uncertainty is testing Seoul’s economy, with investors concerned that such a highly advanced nation is so susceptible to political upheaval. “South Korea cannot afford to crash,” a Financial Times columnist wrote, adding that its best hopes “rest on the US becoming maximally hostile to Chinese imports.” The episode also revealed “the fragility and resilience of South Korea’s democratic institutions,” a former army commander wrote in The Korea Times.

European firms say China biz difficult

European businesses are further souring on their prospects in China. Surveys of German and UK firms found that the majority of them believe doing business in China has become harder over the past year. Among the companies in Germany, many of which rely on China’s automotive market, pessimism is at its highest point since the German survey’s inception in 2007. Economic factors are largely to blame: Foreign automakers are suffering in China as car sales drop. In a further dent to Beijing’s outlook, two prominent Chinese economists recently said the country has likely overstated its GDP and undercounted its unemployed, poking holes in authorities’ efforts to censor criticism, Nikkei Asia reported.

Trump taps crypto-friendly SEC chair

US President-elect Donald Trump named a cryptocurrency enthusiast to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission. Conservative lawyer and former SEC commissioner Paul Atkins is a regulatory skeptic who is likely to be friendlier to the crypto market, The Wall Street Journal wrote, a contrast from the agency’s current approach: Under the Biden administration, the Wall Street watchdog ​​sued several large crypto exchanges. By choosing Atkins, Trump is “delivering on a promise he made to the crypto community,” crypto outlet Unchained wrote. Trump’s embrace of the sector has fueled the memecoin market, spawning several new tokens designed around viral moments, like the Thai pygmy hippo Moo Deng.

Ousted Hasina gives first public speech

Former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina gave her first public address since being ousted in a student-led uprising earlier this year. Hasina, who is living in self-imposed exile in India, accused Bangladesh’s interim leader, Nobel-prize winning economist Muhammad Yunus, of persecuting Hindu minorities, a charge the pro-Hasina Indian government has also lobbed at its neighbor. Hasina said she fled because “people were dying indiscriminately… I never even got the time to resign.” Her virtual address during an event in New York followed revelations that perpetrators inside and outside Bangladesh’s government siphoned an estimated $17 billion from the country’s financial system before Hasina’s ouster. It was “effectively the largest bank heist in the history of money,” The New York Times wrote.

India reduces Russian weapons reliance

India’s defense procurement strategy has pivoted away from Russia and toward the West. New Delhi and Moscow’s joint plans to develop helicopters and fighter jets have been shelved, and a proposal to lease a nuclear submarine from Russia is unlikely to go ahead. The shift reflects India’s efforts to reduce reliance on Russian weapons and “move closer into the US defense orbit” in order to strengthen relations with Washington as Donald Trump’s tariff threats loom, Bloomberg wrote. In 2009, 76% of India’s arms imports came from Russia, compared with 36% in 2023, while New Delhi has signed contracts worth nearly $20 billion with US manufacturers. However, India continues to buy cheap energy from Russia.

UnitedHealthcare CEO murdered in NY

A masked gunman in New York City killed the CEO of UnitedHealthcare — one of the US’ largest medical insurers — in a “brazen targeted attack,” police said. Brian Thompson, 50, was shot Wednesday morning outside a hotel in Midtown Manhattan, where he was set to attend the company’s investor conference; the suspect fled on an electric bike and remained at large nearly 10 hours later. Thompson, who became CEO in 2021, kept a low profile, The Associated Press wrote, but had reportedly received several threats prior to his murder. UnitedHealthcare’s parent company — the country’s fourth-largest public firm — was targeted earlier this year in the US’ biggest ever healthcare data breach, affecting 100 million people.

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Japan aims to become chip superpower

Japan wants to reclaim its crown as the world’s leading chipmaker. About 90% of advanced chips are made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. But over the past few years, Tokyo has backed a startup called Rapidus, and plans to take a $1.29 billion stake in the company next year, Nikkei reported. Rapidus is set to begin mass production in 2027, part of a wider move to bring high-tech manufacturing back to Japan. But it is among the country’s “riskiest technological bets ever,” the Financial Times wrote. Unlike TSMC, Rapidus will make small batches of bespoke chips — a “ridiculous idea,” one academic said, because of the likely cost. If successful, though, it could move chip manufacturing away from the threat of Chinese dominance.

Predicting next major Pacific quake

Three centuries ago, a huge tsunami engulfed America’s Pacific Northwest, and scientists are studying it to predict the next one. Off the coast, from California to Vancouver Island, there is a subduction zone, where one tectonic plate disappears below another. When it releases its built-up stresses it could cause a massive earthquake that would in turn create an enormous wave, devastating the region: A federal emergency plan estimated 13,800 deaths and 600,000 damaged buildings. The tsunami that occurred around AD 1700 leveled forests, The Washington Post reported. Researchers are taking samples from the shoreline to learn how the water came in, and where a tsunami could reach, even if they probably can’t predict when it will happen.

Ancient humans, dogs bonded over salmon

Ancient humans living in what is now Alaska formed close relationships with wolves and dogs during the last Ice Age, new analysis suggests. Using bones unearthed across Alaska, researchers found that dogs and wolves lived alongside people more than 12,000 years ago, far earlier than previously thought. Some of the animals shared genetic similarities with European wolves, indicating they may be related to canines that came with human settlers across the Bering Strait, around 20,000 years ago. Others ate diets rich in salmon — which humans almost undoubtedly caught for them. While the exact relationship between the humans and canines is unclear, the fact that the animals ate salmon all year round, instead of seasonally, suggests a level of care modern pet owners might identify with.

Dec. 5:

• Germany releases industrial orders data for October.
• Malaysia holds Beyond Mobility, an international motor show with a focus on EVs.
• Lyon’s famous lights festival, Fête des Lumières, kicks off.

A traditional Korean method of making fermented pastes and sauces has been added to a UNESCO list of living heritage in need of protection. Made from dried, fermented soy beans, jang sauces include gochujang, (chili paste), doenjang (soybean paste), and ganjang (soy sauce). First practiced on the Korean Peninsula as early as 57 BC, the secrets of jang-making are typically handed down through families, UNESCO said, along with rituals such as using amulets for successful fermentation or aging. The move to inscribe jang as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity will help safeguard traditional techniques against mass production: “The communal act of jang-making generates a sense of peace and belonging for the communities concerned.”

Incoming Senate Republican leader John Thune outlined an ambitious 2025 agenda for the party, spearheaded by two filibuster-proof bills designed to spend on border security and cut taxes, Semafor’s Burgess Everett reported. These plans, Everett wrote, “will run up against the limits of both senators’ stamina and the party’s slim majorities in both chambers of Congress.”