NO NUCLEAR WAR: The five nuclear-armed permanent members of the U.N. Security Council said in a surprise statement Monday "we declare there could be no winners in a nuclear war, it should never be started," the Russian-language version of the statement read. China's Foreign Ministry said the goal is to "increase mutual trust." Here is the English-language version released by the White House. POLLUTION — CLEANER AIR LINKED TO LOWER RISK OF DEMENTIA: Air pollution is a chronically under-reported problem responsible for millions of deaths per year. A growing body of research is starting to show just how widespread its effects are, now including its role in dementia. ECONOMY — MOST LEADING CENTRAL BANKS LIKELY TO RAISE INTEREST RATES IN 2022: A Bloombeg survey concludes 20 out of 23 leading central banks have hinted rate rises. Only China and Russia are predicted to cut rates, while Australia may keep its rate stable. EXTREMISM — HOW THE AMERICAN FAR-RIGHT WENT LOCAL AFTER JAN. 6: From the Capitol to school board meetings. TECH — THE MEANING OF THERANOS: The New York Times has published a couple of great pieces this week about what the trial and conviction of Elizabeth Holmes says about Silicon Valley's investment culture. Valley insiders have long pretended Holmes doesn't reflect their methods, an argument that no longer holds up. David Streitfeld, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his explanatory tech reporting, compares Holmes to the fictional Jay Gatsby, while Erin Griffith writes "just as Bernard Madoff was a creature of Wall Street and Enron represented the get-rich-quick excesses of the 1990s, Theranos and its leader were very much products of Silicon Valley … Ms. Holmes, 37, used the mentorship and credibility of tech industry big shots like Larry Ellison, a co-founder of Oracle, and Don Lucas , a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, to raise money from others … she also used the start-up playbook of hype, exclusivity and a 'fear of missing out' to win over later investors. She embodied start-up hustle culture by optimizing her life for the maximum amount of work. She dismissed the 'haters; and anything that interfered with her vision of a better world. She parroted mission-driven technobabble. She even dressed like Steve Jobs … if anyone in Silicon Valley was suspicious of her proclamations, none spoke publicly about it until after things went south." BY THE NUMBERS $1.13 — IRELAND'S NEW MINIMUM ALCOHOL PRICE: The price is $1.13 per standard drink. That means 13 percent strength wine must cost a minimum $8.50 per bottle, and it's now impossible to sell a can of beer for less than $2 (doubling the price in some instances), or a bottle of popular spirits like vodka, whiskey or gin for less than $22. Neighboring Scotland and Wales (but not England) also have minimum alcohol prices. AROUND THE WORLD KAZAKHSTAN — GOVERNMENTS RESIGNS AFTER VIOLENT FUEL PRICE PROTESTS: The price of liquefied natural gas doubled after price caps were lifted, sparking widespread protests in the authoritarian central Asian republic, and the Cabinet's resignation, which has been accepted by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. Global impact: The situation is another political warning signal for those pushing to reduce and abolish fossil fuel subsidies as part of climate action efforts. CHINA — A GROWING SMALL FIRMS DISASTER: Back in 2019, 13.8 million new small businesses registered their existence with the Chinese government. In 2021 that fell to just 1.32 million, a 90 percent drop during China's "zero Covid" pandemic policy. Compounding that: 4.4 million businesses shut for good during 2021, meaning that just as other national economies were recovering, China's small business sector was floundering. And that's assuming national statistics paint a broadly accurate picture, something even former Finance Minister Lou Jiwei has publicly expressed doubts about. Conundrum: If China's small business sector is collapsing as badly as these numbers indicate — could the overall economy have grown by 8 percent in 2021, as international bodies such as the World Bank claim? The Bank concedes there was a rapid cooling of the economy in the second half of 2021. What the World Bank says: Ibrahim Saeed Chowdhury, the Bank's acting lead economist for China, told Global Insider "we are aware of these developments" and "will continue to monitor the situation." INDO-PACIFIC — JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA SIGN NEW DEFENSE PACT: Canberra becomes Tokyo's first formal defense partner other than the U.S., in another move designed to counter Chinese coercion and bolster democratic defenses in the region. The two countries will hold a summit Thursday. U.K. — THE BATTLE TO SUCCEED BORIS JOHNSON: Another stumble is all it might take to see a changeover in Downing Street, with the country's treasurer, Rishi Sunak, and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss gunning for the job. Lessons from the first year of Brexit Britain Brexit goes digital: Around 48,000 .eu domains previously registered to U.K. individuals and organizations — including the infamous leave.eu — have been revoked and reserved only for residents or citizens of the European Union. LATIN AMERICA — SUSPECT ARRESTED OVER HAITIAN PRESIDENTIAL ASSASSINATION: A former Colombian soldier was flown to Miami on a charge of conspiracy to commit murder or kidnapping. LATIN AMERICA — VENEZUELA'S OPPOSITION FRAYS: Juan Guaidó's alliance is suffering amid disputes over mismanagement of state-owned firms.
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