Picture: Getty Images
Good morning.
1. US inflation was a beat, and there was another round of selling on bond markets. But no stock selloff followed, markets around the world rose, and the ASX looks set to follow their lead. BI caught up with JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon in the South Bronx and he isn’t losing any sleep at all over the stock market’s moves lately. The US dollar fell again, which sent the Aussie back up to US79 cents, and gave commodities a boost. But the big mover is the rand – South Africa’a president Jacob Zuma just resigned .
2.
Syrian media says the country’s army is preparing an offensive on a western Syrian town to fight ISIS. But ISIS isn’t there – Deir Ezzor has been liberated since November. The US, however, is. And its 2000 troops could soon be fighting a combined Syrian, Iranian and Russian army . Sounds like a good time to roll out the F-35s .
3. Back home , US citizens are, sadly, still shooting each other. Today it’s high school students in the crosshairs, with “numerous fatalities” so far reported in Florida, and an alleged shooter now in custody.
We’re updating all morning .
4. In PyeongChang , not quite Kim Jong Un turned up to help his cheerleaders at the ice hockey rink. But: This Kim Jong Un impersonator walked in front of the North Korean cheering squad at the Olympics, and boy were they unimpressed https://t.co/ytFEvBGES5 h/t @yoonjung_seo pic.twitter.com/uVsusPRY2r
Other media reported the cheerleaders “giggled” and were “briefly wowed” , so choose your own POV, readers, while we try to process how a Barstool Radio host thought calling a 17-year-old snowboarder a “hot piece of arse” was acceptable .
In any era. In actual sport – almost – Shaun White claimed his third halfpipe gold medal, but was then pressed about a sexual harassment case he settled two years ago .
5. It was a sea of green on crypto markets last night, after South Korea flipped back to not banning mining or exchanges after all. Bitcoin now has $US10,000 back in its sights, after nobody cared that the CBA will no longer allow customers to buy it with a CBA credit card. And Litecoin is the big winner , up 27% as no one is sure what will happen when its first “hard fork” hits on Sunday.
6. London City Airport was closed last week because someone left a 500kg bomb near it in World War II and it was only just discovered.
That meant the Royal Navy got to tow it out to sea and detonate it : Watch @RoyalNavy bomb disposal experts blow up the World War II bomb that shut down London City Airport earlier this week (story: https://t.co/GGY2f7qqxp ) pic.twitter.com/cs8TJIc2um
— Alexandra Ma (@AlexandraMa15) February 14, 2018
A good day was had by all.
7. Barnaby Joyce hasn’t been ousted as Nationals leader yet, let alone Australian deputy PM. “ We don’t know how to do this stuff ,” one Nationals MP told the AFR.
8. $500 for a single speaker sounds like you’ll be getting a premium single speaker.
But here’s what happens if you leave an Apple HomePod on some wooden surfaces: HomePods are staining wooden tables with a white ring https://t.co/9ePfj6YwLo pic.twitter.com/MQ5lbW1QwJ
— The Verge (@verge) February 14, 2018
Apple said not to worry and that reoiling or sanding the surface would remove the marks. And anyway, other speakers do it too, so yeah .
9.
In overseas Valentine’s Day news, a divorcing couple in the UK is fighting over a £600,000 cryptocurrency haul .
“It is important that if you believe your husband or wife has invested in or purchased cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, and you are separating, you tell your legal adviser,” a partner in Royds Withy King’s Family team said. Here are 9 other things BI’s Christine Kopaczewski wishes she knew before she got married . And this is when you’ll be getting married , according to data.
10. About 4200 satellites currently orbit Earth. Roughly 2600 of them are dead, and that figure alone is enough to worry experts and scientists about the possibility of space debris from a collision snowballing and ruining the space party for everyone .
But on Saturday, Elon Musk’s SpaceX will launch the first of a planned network of 12,000 satellites. Here’s all you need to know about Starlink .
BONUS ITEM: An even worse flight than the one where the engine fell off :
Have a great day.
You can get 10 things direct to your inbox each morning by punching your details into the form below. Business Insider Emails & Alerts
Site highlights each day to your inbox. Email Address.
