Jan 23, 2017 - Politics & Policy

Apocalypse insurance for the super rich

Bernard Spragg / Flickr CC

The New Yorker has a fascinating deep dive on tech and finance billionaires stocking up for the end of the world, something the cofounder of LinkedIn believes that "fifty-plus per cent" of his peers have opted into.

The trendy destination? New Zealand — friendly, isolated and stable. Buying a house there is a "Masonic handshake" amongst ultra-wealthy survivalists.

Well, when you put it that way... From the unnamed CEO of a large tech company: "Go risk factor by risk factor by risk factor, acknowledging that there are many you don't even know about, and you ask, 'What's the chance of this breaking in the next decade?' Or invert it: 'What's the chance that nothing breaks in fifty years?'"

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Jacob Knutson
1 min ago - Politics & Policy

Marjorie Taylor Greene wins Georgia's 14th district runoff

Photo: Elijah Nouvelage / Getty Images

Gun-rights activist Marjorie Taylor Greene defeated physician John Cowan in a runoff election for the Republican nomination in Georgia's deep-red 14th Congressional District on Tuesday, AP reports.

Why it matters: Greene, a vocal QAnon conspiracy theorist who has been condemned by GOP leaders for making multiple offensive remarks about Black people, Jews and Muslims in Facebook videos, is likely to win a seat in the House come November.

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Axios
Updated 5 mins ago - Politics & Policy

Coronavirus dashboard

Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios

  1. Global: Total confirmed cases as of 9:30 p.m. ET: 20,207,011 — Total deaths: 738,910— Total recoveries: 12,452,222 — Map.
  2. U.S.: Total confirmed cases as of 9:30 p.m. ET: 5,140,512 — Total deaths: 164,502 — Total recoveries: 1,714,960 — Total tests: 63,252,257 — Map.
  3. States: Georgia reports 137 coronavirus deaths, setting new daily record — Florida reports another daily record for deaths.
  4. Health care: Trump administration buys 100 million doses of Moderna's coronavirus vaccine.
  5. Business: Moderna reveals it may not hold patent rights for vaccine.
  6. Sports: Big Ten scraps fall football season.
  7. World: Anthony Fauci "seriously" doubts Russia's coronavirus vaccine is safe
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Axios
Updated 47 mins ago - Health

World coronavirus updates

Data: The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins; Map: Axios Visuals

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said it's too early to say whether next month's elections will be postponed after she announced Tuesday four people had tested positive for COVID-19 after no local cases for 102 days.

Zoom in: NZ's most populous city, Auckland, has gone on lockdown for 72 hours and the rest of the country is under lesser restrictions.

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