Inside Daily Brief

For April 30, 2024

Here’s your news briefing for today:

Columbia University and Cornell University have started suspending pro-Palestinian student protestors.
Asia's first-ever crypto exchange traded funds (ETFs) started trading in Hong Kong on Tuesday.
Inflation in the Euro zone remained steady in April as its economy emerges from a recession.

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Columbia University and Cornell University have started suspending pro-Palestinian student protestors. College demonstrators across the U.S. have been calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and divestment in Israel, triggering arrests and prompting at least one faculty walkout in solidarity.

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Columbia University is suspending students who refuse to leave an encampment set up on its campus.
Cornell said it has started suspending students who refuse to move their encampment to another location.
An anonymous Jewish student filed a lawsuit on Monday alleging that Columbia has not provided a safe learning environment amid the protests.
Authorities arrested dozens of protestors at the University of Texas in Austin on Monday.

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Hundreds of protestors have been arrested on over 20 college and university campuses across at least 16 U.S. states.
Student protestors have reportedly taken over a building near the South Lawn on Columbia's campus.

What the numbers say: The price of Bitcoin reached $63,297 on April 29, up from $29,952 at the same time last year. The digital asset is trading about 15% below its all-time high in mid-March 2024.

Bitcoin's price has recovered from its 2022 lows when it traded for under $16,000. The cryptocurrency's upward momentum was partly driven by the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) decision in January to approve the first spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF) in the U.S. Hong Kong's first Bitcoin ETFs started trading on Tuesday. The Asian financial center seeks to compete with the U.S. to dominate the growing cryptocurrency market. Hong Kong's new crypto-focused financial products also include Ether ETFs. The SEC has yet to approve Ether ETFs for the U.S. market. Issuers expect Hong Kong's new spot-crypto ETFs to attract inflows of about $300M in their first day of trading.

Inflation in the Euro zone remained steady at 2.4% in April, increasing the likelihood that the European Central Bank (ECB) will cut interest rates in June. Lower interest rates are expected to boost the bloc's economy, which is starting to emerge from a recession.

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Core inflation, which does not include volatile food and energy prices, stood at 2.7%, down from 2.9% in March.
Services inflation fell slightly from 4% in March to 3.7% in April.
European inflation has fallen faster than policymakers expected, but higher-than-expected U.S. inflation may prompt the ECB to delay rate cuts.
Europe's largest two economies, Germany and France, grew by 0.2% in the first quarter of this year.

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The ECB hiked interest rates at its fastest pace ever in 2022 and 2023 to combat skyrocketing inflation which peaked at 10.6% in October 2022.
If the ECB widens the interest rate spread between the U.S. and the Euro zone, it may lower the value of the Euro and increase imported inflation.

GOOD NEWS: Cheng "Charlie" Saephan, a Laotian immigrant living in Oregon, won a $1.3B Powerball jackpot this month. Saephan has been fighting cancer for eight years and said his winnings will help him find a good doctor.

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Saephan and his wife, Duanpen, will share the winnings with Laiza Chao, a friend who helped them buy a batch of lottery tickets.
The winners opted to take the winnings as a lump sum payment of $422M after taxes.
Saephan said he prayed to God for help before the life-changing event and plans to use his winnings to "provide for my family and my health."

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The prize was the eighth-biggest lottery jackpot in U.S. history.

HSBC CEO Noel Quinn will retire, the company announced on Tuesday. Quinn oversaw sweeping sales of HSBC assets in Western markets as he worked to bolster the U.K.-based bank's Asian operations.

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Quinn said he is leaving to find a "better balance" between his personal and business life.
He will continue to serve as CEO until a successor is found and agreed to remain available until April 2025 to support the transition.
HSBC Chief Financial Officer Georges Elhedery is one of the leading candidates to replace Quinn.
The bank announced a pre-tax profit of $12.7B for the first quarter of 2024, down 2% year over year but above analysts' expectations.

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HSBC has the largest market capitalization of all banks in the U.K. and Europe.

Humza Yousaf announced on Monday that he plans to step down as Scotland's first minister. The decision came after a power-sharing deal between Yousaf's Scottish National Party (SNP) and the Greens party collapsed.

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Yousaf succeeded Nicola Sturgeon as Scotland's first minister 13 months ago.
He was set to face two no-confidence votes this week.
Yousaf said that a new leader is needed to "repair our relationship across the political divide."
Nominations to replace Yousaf began before midnight on Monday and will end on May 6.

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Yousaf is Scotland's first ethnic minority first minister and the first Muslim leader of a major political party in the U.K.

QUICK HITS:

At least five people were killed and 32 injured in a Russian missile strike on an educational institution in the Ukrainian city of Odesa.
Living a healthy lifestyle can mitigate a heightened genetic risk of an early death by 62%, according to a study based on data collected from over 350,000 people.
Paramount Global said on Monday that a trio of executives will replace CEO Bob Bakish, who is stepping down.
French actor Gérard Depardieu will stand trial in October on criminal charges for sexually assaulting two women on a film set in 2021.

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The New Generation, by Jan Toorop. 1892.

Gregory Bridgman

Writer / Editor

Gregory Bridgman is a politics and technology researcher with a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. He also holds a Master of Science from University College London and a Bachelor's degree from the University of Cape Town. Feel free to follow him on Twitter or drop him an email at gregory@inside.com.