📌 Turmoil In France, FBI’s Phone Settings Advice, More

French Prime Minister Michel Barnier is expected to resign today after far-right and leftist lawmakers voted against his government.

Barnier, a veteran politician who was formerly the European Union's Brexit negotiator, will be the shortest-serving prime minister in modern French history after he submits his resignation. No French government has lost a confidence vote since Georges Pompidou's in 1962.

The hard left and far right punished Barnier in a no-confidence vote on Wednesday evening for trying to push an unpopular budget through an unruly hung parliament without a vote. The draft budget sought 60 billion euros ($63 billion) in savings to shrink a gaping deficit.

France now risks ending the year without a stable government or a 2025 budget, although the constitution allows special measures that would avert a US-style government shutdown.

Sources say Macron will aim to install a new prime minister swiftly. One said he wanted to name a premier before a ceremony to reopen the Notre Dame Cathedral on Saturday. But any new prime minister will face the same challenges as Barnier in getting bills, including the 2025 budget, adopted by a divided parliament.

There can be no new parliamentary election before July. "Until potential new elections, ongoing political uncertainty is likely to keep the risk premium on French assets elevated," SocGen analysts said in a note. "Political uncertainty is likely to dampen both investment and consumer spending."

The FBI has suddenly warned iPhone and Android users to use encrypted messaging and calls where available.

The warning follows an extensive US telco network hacking campaign attributed to China’s Salt Typhoon. Officials warned of “a broad and significant cyber espionage campaign.”

Although hackers have stolen many records about where, when and whom individuals were communicating with, most of the stolen records do not include voice or text content, but an FBI official said the hackers did steal “call and text contents from a limited number of individuals.”

This seemed a surprising move from law enforcement, given past frustrations that end-to-end encryption left agencies in the dark, unable to access user content even if court-ordered. Even Apple, Google, and Meta cannot access end-to-end user content encrypted on their platforms.

But the FBI referred to “responsibly managed encryption,” which implies some form of lawful access. The key advice is simple. Don’t use basic network text messaging — including RCS, where those texts are not fully encrypted.

Messaging within iMessage (to other Apple users) or within Google Messages (to other Android users) is secure. Most cellular calls are not fully encrypted and are at risk of interception, whether lawful or otherwise. Using a platform like WhatsApp Signal or FaceTime on iPhones resolves this.

Brian Thompson led one of the biggest US health insurers but was unknown to the millions whose decisions he affected.

Then Wednesday’s targeted fatal shooting of the UnitedHealthcare CEO on a midtown Manhattan sidewalk thrust the executive and his business into the national spotlight.

Thompson, 50, had worked at UnitedHealth Group Inc. for 20 years and ran the insurance arm since 2021 after heading its Medicare and retirement business. When Thompson occasionally drew attention, it was because of his role in shaping the way Americans get health care.

At an investor meeting last year, he outlined his company’s shift to “value-based care,” paying doctors and other caregivers to keep patients healthy rather than focusing on treating them once sick.

Thompson was on his own and about to enter the building when he was shot in the back by a masked assailant who fled on foot before pedaling an e-bike into Central Park a few blocks away, the New York Police Department said.

Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said investigators looked at Thompson’s social media accounts and interviewed employees and family members. “Didn’t seem like he had any issues at all,” Kenny said. “He did not have a security detail.”

That DNA swab from a door handle or drinking glass isn’t always a foolproof way to determine who committed a crime.

Modern DNA analysis techniques are highly sensitive, often analyzing mixtures of DNA from multiple people. But forensic DNA analysis is less accurate for groups with low genetic diversity, potentially leading to false positives. Certain Indigenous, Latine, or Pacific Islander groups are less genetically diverse.

University of Oregon researchers combed genetic databases to get data on the frequency of specific genetic variants for groups of people with different genetic ancestry. Using forensic analysis software, they simulated DNA profiles to represent groups of people from different genetic backgrounds.

The team found that DNA analysis was more likely to yield a false positive in mixtures with lower genetic diversity — to link someone uninvolved to the mixture. The problem worsened when the mixture contained DNA from more people.

Ethical challenges in genetic research include ensuring informed consent, which limited the study's data pool. The research highlights the need for caution and understanding of limitations in forensic DNA analysis techniques.

Coca-Cola is scaling back its packaging sustainability goals, igniting outrage from environmental activists.

The beverage company, which has long been criticized for being one of the world’s top producers of plastic pollutants, changed its “voluntary environmental goals” this week. It now aims to use 35%–40% recycled material in its packaging by 2035, a drastic reduction from its previous goal of 50% by 2030.

Coca-Cola said its “evolution is informed by learnings gathered through decades of work in sustainability, periodic assessment of progress and identified challenges.”

Coke is also changing its recycling goal. In 2018, Coca-Cola said that by 2030, it wanted to recycle the plastic equivalent of every bottle it put into the world. That’s been reduced to “ensure the collection” of 70%–75% of bottles and cans entering the market every year without naming a specific timeline.

A recent report from the Minderoo Foundation found that companies are producing record amounts of plastic despite stated efforts to be more sustainable. Plastic is problematic because it’s primarily made from polymers created from dangerous fossil fuels.

The environmental organization Break Free from Plastic named Coca-Cola the top plastic polluter for the sixth consecutive year in 2023. It said Coca-Cola’s “latest move is a masterclass in greenwashing,” ditching reuse targets “to flood the planet with more plastic they can’t even collect and recycle effectively.”

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says he is “not that worried” about tech competitor Elon Musk's influence in the Trump administration.

Despite their ongoing legal dispute, Altman revealed his thoughts on his old friend's political pivot at The New York Times DealBook Summit on Wednesday. “I may turn out to be wrong, but I strongly believe that Musk will do the right thing,” he said.

“It would be profoundly un-American to use political power to the degree that Elon has it, to hurt your competitors and advantage your own businesses. I don't think people would tolerate that. I don't think Elon would do it.”

Musk and Altman co-founded OpenAI in 2015, but Musk left the board in 2018 due to potential conflicts of interest with Tesla. Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Altman, alleging that the companies prioritized profits over their nonprofit missions and formed a monopoly with Microsoft.

The New York Times is suing OpenAI and Microsoft for allegedly using news articles to train AI systems. Legal proceedings are set to begin in January. Altman defended OpenAI's practices, citing the ‘fair use’ doctrine and comparing AI learning to human learning from textbooks.

James Howells, 39, is desperately trying to retrieve a hard drive containing Bitcoin worth over £600 million.

The computer expert appeared in a court in Cardiff, Wales, as he took on Newport City Council. Howells accidentally put the hard drive containing his Bitcoin wallet in a black bag, left it in the hall of his house and was thrown away over 10 years ago.

Howells has lodged a £495,314,800 writ to search for the hard drive at a council rubbish dump, but Newport City Council has consistently denied his requests. The council argues that the hard drive legally belongs to them once deposited in the landfill.

Howells' legal team, funded by an American hedge fund, claims to have identified the hard drive's precise location within the landfill. Howells offered to share the Bitcoin profits with the council.

The council seeks to strike out Howells' case, arguing that too much time has elapsed and that the law is clear on ownership of deposited items. It said the excavation work would have a huge negative environmental impact on the surrounding area.

Howells remains determined to recover the hard drive, stating that he will pursue the case through all legal avenues, including the Supreme Court, if necessary. “It's not just a case of me winning in this situation. Everybody can win.”