In a speech given on Monday, 11 November, AsPr. Amy King mentioned that she had been invited by “security services” to report on the political stance of Chinese students in her classroom. Upon further investigation, she specified that these interactions had occurred during 2013-19, as Australia-China bilateral relations deteriorated.

While a specific agency was not mentioned, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO)—Australia’s domestic intelligence agency—has historically been active at ANU, particularly in recruitment. Other academics anonymously validated AsPr. King’s statement that following 2018, ASIO paid “much closer attention” to connections between Australian and Chinese scholars.

AsPr. King is a Rhodes Scholar who achieved her PhD at the University of Oxford. She currently convenes STST2001 and previously convened STST8013, among others.

ANU brethren - thoughts?

Big news from Buffett’s playbook: Domino’s Pizza (DPZ) and Pool Corp. (POOL) are new Berkshire buys, jumping 6% post-announcement. But the focus is on Apple (AAPL) - Buffett trimmed it for the 4th straight quarter, dropping Berkshire’s stake to $70B (down from $170B in 2023)

Why? Likely to cash in on profits and brace for potential capital gains tax hikes under the Trump administration. Meanwhile, Berkshire sold $34.6B in stocks total and added to its massive $325B cash pile, signalling caution in today’s high valuations.

Berkshire’s Class B shares (BRK-B) remain strong, up 31% YTD, as Buffett stays patient for the next big opportunity.

Amazon just rolled out Amazon Haul (literally), a new shopping feature for budget-savvy customers. Here’s the scoop:

• What is it? A dedicated section on the Amazon app and website offering items priced at $20 or less—with many more under $10 and some as low as $1.

• Perks: Discounts of 5% on orders over $50 and 10% on orders over $75.

• Shipping: Free for orders $25+; otherwise, it’s $3.99 (-_-). Also, Amazon’s A-to-Z guarantee still applies

Accessible by searching “Haul” on Amazon, my Christmas shopping this year says thank you.

Spotify’s third-quarter results were hitting all the right notes with investors, as shown by the 6.5% jump in stock price upon announcement, adding to the 153% YTD growth. Investors are confident that Spotify can increase revenue further by showing more ads - definitely time to escape the hell that is free Spotify if you haven’t already.

• 15 million people joined up, leading to a total of 665 million listeners in Q3

• FCF was 35% higher than estimates at $750m and gross profit margins were at 31%, 6% higher than the previous two years

• Spotify is expected to turn a profit for the second time in its 18-year history, and investors are hyped

Despite this incredible growth, Spotify continues to be taxed nearly 70% of operating revenues in royalties paid to record labels. As potential profit increases, labels may demand more of the pie, forcing Spotify to increase prices.

A fat article this one but the markets have seen some noteworthy changes this week we thought you should know:

• Powell’s Remarks: October’s US Producer Price Index (PPI) rose 0.2%, pushing annual PPI growth to 2.4% (up from 1.9%) in September). Thus, it was expected that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell struck a hawkish tone recently emphasizing caution on rate cuts due to strong economy and strong labor markets. Markets (via rate-futures contracts) now peg a 60% chance of a December rate cut, down from 80%. Probs still going to happen but more slowly than expected.

• Bitcoin: Hovering around $90K after a surge above $93K earlier this week. Optimism mainly stems from Trump’s crypto-friendly stance.

• Chinese Tensions: U.S-China relations remain tense. Trump’s cabinet picks Marco Rubio as Secretary of State, signalling that policies against Beijing could go beyond tariffs as the Shanghai Composite and CSI300 (China’s blue-chip index) posted their sharpest losses in months. Other potential cabinet picks Mike Waltz( Representative) and John Ratcliffe (CIA Lead) don’t help either.

• T-Mobile Hacked, joining AT&T, Verizon and Lumen after data was harvested by Chinese cyber-espionage group dubbed the “Salt Typhoon”.

• Underwear Sales Decline is a leading variable in economic trouble as many men apparently opt to wear tattered boxers to save.

• Musk’s Favourite Cryptocurrency, and name of the unofficial government department he now leads. Doge/dogecoin is now worth more than Ford Motors.

• “Paw-ternity Leave” is becoming an increasingly popular perk in NYC as children become too damn expensive.