 The U.S. hit its debt limit on Thursday after House Republicans refused to raise the debt ceiling unless the Biden administration cuts social spending. The Treasury Department will need to undertake "extraordinary measures" to ensure that the federal government can continue to pay workers while servicing its debt to avoid a default. More: - Republicans have said they will only raise the borrowing limit, which is currently at $31.4T, if President Biden agrees to cut federal social programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
- Biden said he would not cut spending commitments that have already been approved by the previous Congress.
- Treasury officials estimate that the emergency measures will only allow the federal government to pay its bills until June.
- Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) said that Congress could revive the 2010 Bowles-Simpson deficit reduction plan as part of negotiations to raise the debt ceiling but the moderate Democrat ruled out cutting social spending.
Zoom Out: - In the past, both parties have supported an increase in federal spending to help the economy overcome the 2008 financial crisis and the pandemic slowdown.
- They have also supported tax reforms that have led to a decrease in tax revenue.
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 French workers went on strike on Thursday to protest against President Emmanuel Macron's plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. Authorities estimated that between 550,000 and 750,000 people joined protests across France on Thursday. More: - The rallies were organized by labor unions, which are united in opposition to the proposed reforms.
- Workers in a variety of industries - including train drivers, teachers, bus drivers, fuel refinery workers, and employees of the EDF utility agency - all joined the strike on Thursday.
- Less than half of all high-speed TGV train lines were reportedly running, and many local train lines saw major disruptions.
Zoom Out:
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 Peter Thiel promoted Bitcoin at a Miami conference last April, one month after Founders Fund, a venture capital firm he co-founded, liquidated most of its cryptocurrency portfolio. A Financial Times report highlights a disturbing trend in the digital asset space: wealthy investors promoting cryptocurrencies in public that are contrary to their actual investment position. More: - Founders Fund, which was founded by Thiel in 2005 and manages more than $11B, first invested in Bitcoin in 2014.
- According to sources familiar with Founders Fund, the firm had as much as two-thirds of its overall investments in Bitcoin at one point.
- Founders Fund reportedly liquidated its crypto portfolio by March 2022, generating ~$1.8B in returns.
- The following month, Thiel told attendees at a crypto conference that "we're at the end of the fiat money regime."
- He also predicted that the price of a Bitcoin - then worth ~$44,000 - could increase one-hundredfold.
- According to sources, Founder's Fund no longer has any meaningful cryptocurrency investments.
Zoom Out:
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 Pictured, L to R: Sharifa and Homayoon Ghafoori, two Afghan refugees who resettled in Alabama last year. GOOD NEWS: The U.S. State Department announced a new refugee resettlement program called Welcome Corps. The program will allow individuals to sponsor refugees, helping them to find housing and work once they are in the U.S. More: - In the initial stage of the program, the State Department will pair private sponsors with refugees who have already been approved for resettlement in the U.S.
- Most of these refugees will come from a handful of countries, with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burma, Syria, and Afghanistan topping the list for the current fiscal year.
- The program was originally tried with Afghan refugees last year. U.S. volunteers were allowed to sponsor Afghan refugees after presenting resettlement proposals to the State Department.
- Canada has long used private sponsorship as part of its refugee resettlement program.
Zoom Out: - From 1980 to 2016, the U.S. regularly took in a number of refugees that came close to the annual goal of 65,000 refugees.
- Under the Trump Administration, the maximum number of refugees who could be resettled in the U.S. was reduced to 15,000.
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Indian journalists say that proposed regulations to tackle misinformation on social media could ultimately undermine press freedom. Under the proposed rules, social media platforms and other "online intermediaries" will have to remove content if it is deemed to be "fake or false" by the state-run Press Information Bureau. More: - The Editor's Guild of India (EGI), which represents media editors and journalists, said that the proposal should be scrapped and that media rules should be based on "meaningful consultations" with industry stakeholders.
- EGI said that the proposal would "stifle legitimate criticism of the government and will have an adverse impact on the ability of the press to hold governments to account, which is a vital role it plays in a democracy."
- The proposal was condemned as a "surreptitious assault on free speech" by the Indian National Congress, an opposition party.
- The government will hold a consultation on the proposed rules on Jan. 24 and has invited comments from stakeholders and the public on the matter.
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 According to a new study, heavier stones might be more effective at skipping across lakes and ponds than those that are small and flat. The authors hypothesize that heavier stones produce a "super elastic response" by sinking further when they come into contact with the water, which produces more force when they bounce out of the water, lifting them into the air. More: - Applied mathematician Ryan Palmer, who co-authored the article published in the Royal Society, developed a model for his research that could also help solve a real-world problem: aircraft icing.
- When airplanes fly through cold weather, water puddles can form on their wings. Ice crystals in the air can sink into the puddles or bounce off.
- When they sink in, the crystals can produce a buildup of ice that can become dangerous for the aircraft.
- Palmer said that developing a deeper understanding of the phenomenon by which ice crystals sink or skim off, which is similar to stones skipping on water, can help scientists develop more effective anti-icing technologies.
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- The state of Maryland inaugurated Democrat Wes Moore as its first Black governor this week. The former Rhode's Scholar, Army veteran, banker, author, and non-profit executive has said he wants to fast-track a minimum wage hike through Maryland's Democrat-controlled legislature.
- The German Bundestag passed a resolution recognizing the 2014 massacre of Yazidi people by Islamic State militants as a "genocide." The resolution also called for policies to assist the Yazidis.
- The NFL said that five teams will host international games during the 2023 regular season. The teams are the Buffalo Bills, Tennessee Titans, Jacksonville Jaguars, Kansas City Chiefs, and New England Patriots, and games will take place in Germany and the U.K.
- The Biden Administration announced $930M in funding to help reduce wildfire risks in 10 states in the Western U.S. The funds will go toward a U.S. Forest Service initiative to clear trees and underbrush from national forests.
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 Hammersmith Palais de Danse by Malcolm Drummond. 1920
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UPCOMING EVENTS - January 12 - AMA with Gun.io - Building and managing software development teams w/ Deividi Silva (Watch On Demand)
- January 13 - AMA with LinearB - Improving workflow for developers w/ Ori Keren (Watch On Demand)
- January 18 - Inside Interview with Lacework - 4 Common Attack Paths in Cloud Security (Register Here)
- January 23 - Inside Coffee Break (Register Here)
- January 24 - Inside Coffee Break (Register Here)
- January 25 - Amanda Natividad speaks on zero-click content, how to measure it, and other trends to keep tabs on in 2023. (Register Here) *
- January 26 - Growth Experimentation Workshop: From Strategy to Process by GrowthHackers.com (Register Here)
- April 18 - Human Resources Summit'23 (Register Here)
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 |  | Daniel Smith is an Inside Analyst who currently resides in Miami, Florida. A native of Brooklyn, New York, Daniel spent the last four years as a PhD candidate in Politics and International Studies at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. He is fascinated by tech, business, politics, venture capital, and everything in between. When he’s not writing for Inside he can be found kicking a ball on the nearest rugby pitch. Follow him on Twitter @DanSmithInside. |  | | Editor | Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is the author of "Things You Can Do," an illustrated book about climate action. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade. | |
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