THE WORLD IN A NUTSHELL

DECEMBER 14, 2015  /  

PNUT GALLERY

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IN A NUTSHELL: MUST READ

Saudi Arabia And Iran Promise To Keep Middle East In Turmoil Tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran continued rising yesterday as some Saudi allies cut diplomatic ties with Iran. Last weekend’s execution of a prominent Shiite cleric by Saudi Arabia (who accused him of terrorism) angered Iran, the dominant Shiite power in the region and resulted in protestors storming the Saudi Embassy in Tehran. 
Why are these two guys fighting? The Saudi-Iran rivalry is often explained in the context of a religious split. Iran is a Shiite power and Saudi Arabia is a Sunni power. Superficially, you can think of it like the Catholic-Protestant split. The reality is more complex. Both powers are vying for regional dominance and are trying to deal with the fallout of the Iraq invasion (which helped Iran) and the Arab Spring (which both sides feel helped the other more).

GOOD READ: Differences Between Sunni And Shiite Islam Via BBC  
Obama Tries (Again…Sigh) On Gun ControlPresident Obama, frustrated by Congress, announced new measures to regulate gun control in America including background checks and tighter enforcement of existing laws. We’ve come up with a few other ideas for the president:

• Rebrand guns as “birth control” and let Republicans sell them.
• Make it mandatory to sell guns through healthcare.gov.
• Permit gun sales only when Ben Carson’s eyes are fully open.

NUTS AND BOLTS: SHOULD READ

General Motors Tries A Lyft Instead Of A BailoutUber wannabe Lyft (those cars with the weird pink moustaches) raised a Dr. Evil amount of money (“One Billion Dollars”) in their latest funding round (Lyft is valued at $5.5 billion). General Motors invested $500 Million and hopes to see its driverless cars being used within Lyft’s service. This is the first major move by the company that didn’t involve a government bailout/subsidy.

US DoJ Throws Ze Hammer Down On Volkswagen The US Justice Department (like Judge Dredd but scarier) unleashed a casual $90 billion lawsuit against German automaker Volkswagen yesterday. This follows an annus really really horribilis for VW after they were found to have used devices which cheated emissions tests in their diesel cars. VW’s US head summarized it nicely by saying “we’ve totally screwed up.” Scheisse.

Your Stock Portfolio Is Still Hungover From NYE CelebrationsMarkets had one of their worst starts to a New Year yesterday after a seven-minute selling frenzy in China brought their market down 7% (amazing what can happen in seven minutes). The rest of the world followed suit with markets down across Europe and America. China promised to pump billions into the market until this problem goes away. Things were back to normal this morning.

Europe: New Year, Old Crises Things got a lot chillier in Scandinavia yesterday as Sweden and Denmark both imposed border controls for the first time since the 50’s to slow down the flow of refugees walking north. 15,000 people commute across their border every day. Sweden blames Denmark for not doing it’s part in the refugee crisis and Denmark blames Sweden for twisting its arm.

GOOD READ: Has Europe Reached The Breaking Point?

Keeping Our Eye On…

• Chilly Times: A sudden “cold snap” in Poland left at least 21 people dead over the weekend. Snow even reached as far south as Athens and Istanbul. 
• Airbags: Newly released emails from airbag maker Takata show brazen attempts at manipulation by the company which millions of people trusted to keep their children safe. The revelations prompted one of the biggest recalls in automotive history. 
• Booksellers: A Hong Kong bookseller, who published works critical of China, disappeared last week (four of his colleagues have been missing since October) He reportedly sent his wife a letter saying he went to China “voluntarily.” Sure… 

LOOSE NUTS: FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT

Facebook Feeling Crabby About The Little Mermaid 

So it’s all well and good that Zuckerberg is building Jarvis (from Iron Man) in his house but his company managed to offend Denmark and all children under eight by banning a picture of the Little Mermaid statue in Denmark due to its nudity rules. Pictures of “bare skin” or with “sexual undertones” are against Facebook’s policy (they eventually made an exception in this case). That discounts about 98% of all your college photos which you wish hadn’t gone on the internet. 

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