Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - Apple goes to war

Apple is going to war. The electronic gadget maker is doling out as much as $180,000 in stock bonuses to some engineers to keep them from defecting to Facebook-parent Meta. While Apple’s battle to retain talent is targeting much of Silicon Valley, Mark Zuckerberg’s empire has emerged as a particular threat. The two companies are likely to become fierce rivals in headsets for augmented-reality and virtual-reality as well as smartwatches, with both planning major hardware releases in the next two years. Meta recently hired about 100 engineers from Apple, but Apple has lured away key Meta employees, too. —David E. Rovella

Bloomberg is tracking the coronavirus pandemic and the progress of global vaccination efforts.

More than 1.44 million Covid-19 infections were confirmed over a 24-hour-period, the most in one day of the entire pandemic. The omicron variant may have a shorter incubation period and be more likely to cause reinfections than other strains, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday. The median time from infection to the appearance of symptoms is about three days. A new study claims that infection with omicron can strengthen immunity against the delta strain, which some preliminary studies suggest might be more severe than the newer mutation. Here’s the latest on the pandemic.

Hours after the CDC updated its quarantine guidelines for people who test positive for or are exposed to Covid-19, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA International pushed back. The CDC on Monday recommended that people who test positive for the coronavirus need only isolate for five days if they’re no longer symptomatic. Sara Nelson, the president of the AFA, said the changes may give businesses cover for putting staffing needs ahead of worker health.

The CDC has also been busy at sea. The agency identified 89 cruise ships with Covid-19 cases on Tuesday. U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut urged cruise companies and health agencies to stop ships from sailing, saying they are “repeating recent history as petri dishes.”

India’s central bank will likely go slow on normalizing its monetary policy settings, breaking step with hawkish global peers to ensure a durable recovery in Asia’s third-largest economy.

Chinese officials are promising to add stimulus to stabilize the nation’s growth next year, with various ministries vowing more proactive measures to reverse the slowdown caused by a worsening property slump, weak consumption and the coronavirus. 

With Russia and China ahead of the U.S. in the development of new weapons systems such as hypersonic missiles, the American military industrial complex—with the assent of Congress—wants to continue charging taxpayers for outdated and unwanted weapons that, while favored by lobbyists and constituents, could be defeated in conflict. The bill is $740 billion—the equivalent of defense expenditures by the next 11 nations combined. President Joe Biden signed the bill on Monday.

China is complaining to the United Nations that Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites may be creating a danger for its space station.

Starlink satellites stacked ahead of deployment in May 2019.  Source: SpaceX

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Mining ore in the sweltering heat of Africa’s Nubian desert is the first stage of an illicit network that has exploded in the past 18 months, chasing the pandemic-induced spike in gold prices. African governments desperate to recoup lost revenue are looking to Dubai to help stop the trade. The United Arab Emirates reject any involvement in illegal practices, but African exporters say tons of their gold goes missing in Dubai every year.

A bowl of gold purchased from local miners and millers by a trader in Atbara, Sudan on Oct. 14.  Photographer: Simon Marks/Bloomberg

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