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The World
New York City was under a flash flood emergency for the first time: The remnants of Hurricane Ida barreled into the New York City region with furious, wind-driven rain that all but halted subway service, splintered homes in New Jersey, raised a tornado warning for the Bronx, and delayed the U.S. Open in Queens when the rain came into the roofed stadium sideways. The National Weather Service said it had recorded rainfall rates of at least three to five inches in an hour across northeast New Jersey and parts of New York City. At Newark Liberty International Airport, 3.24 inches of rain were recorded between 8 and 9 p.m., the Weather Service said. Between 8:51 and 9:51 p.m., Central Park recorded 3.15 inches of rain. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio declared a state of emergency — as did Gov. Kathy Hochul — due to what he called a "historic weather event."(New York Times, Reuters)
Hurricane Ida could cause billions of dollars in insured losses across Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi, firms estimate. Wells Fargo and Fitch Ratings analysts both have estimated the damages could total $15 billion to $20 billion. In comparison, Hurricane Katrina caused a record $65 billion in insured losses. (Wall Street Journal)
The Biden administration is preparing to screen and resettle tens of thousands of Afghan evacuees in the U.S. over the coming weeks and months, but the majority will arrive without visas as “humanitarian parolees,” lacking a path to legal U.S. residency and the benefits and services offered to traditional refugees, according to U.S. officials and worried aid groups working closely with the government. Afghan parolees who have arrived at U.S. military bases will be eligible for an ad hoc State Department program that provides limited assistance for up to 90 days, including a one-time $1,250 stipend. (Washington Post)
Qatar played an outsized role in U.S. efforts to evacuate tens of thousands of people from Afghanistan. Now the tiny Arab gulf state is being asked to help shape what’s next for Afghanistan because of its ties with both Washington and the Taliban. (Los Angeles Times)
The Supreme Court refused to block a Texas law prohibiting most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. The move, a response to an emergency application from abortion providers in the state, came less than a day after the law became effective, severely restricting access to the procedure. The vote was 5 to 4, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. joining the court’s three liberal members in dissent. The majority opinion was brief and unsigned, and it said the providers had not made out their case in the face of “complex and novel” procedural questions. (New York Times)
Trailing in the polls and fighting for his political life, Justin Trudeau has released a manifesto filled with big-spending pledges 18 days after calling a snap election when he appeared to be heading for a clear victory. The Liberal Party’s programme lays out an estimated C$78 billion (£44.8 billion) in new spending over the next five years, and includes a high-quality, affordable childcare system, job creation, 1.4 million new homes and huge investments to meet climate targets. (The Times)
Canadians are demanding decisive action from leaders to tackle climate change after a summer of extreme weather intensified environmental concerns, making it the No. 1 issue in September's snap election, polling data shows. For many Canadians, 2021 is the year the climate crisis hit home. (Reuters)
North Korean troops have been spotted in commercial satellite imagery preparing for a likely military parade, according to two organizations that track the country. Possible dates for such an event are unconfirmed, but North Korea has used recent parades to unveil new military hardware, including large ballistic missiles. (Reuters)
Poland is weighing whether to declare a state of emergency as thousands of migrants continue to flood its border with Belarus. The order, which would be invoked for the first time since Communist rule, would allow the government to restrict people's movements in certain regions for 30 days. (GZERO Media)
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is directing the city's municipal office workers to return to in-person work by Sept. 13. Despite growing concerns about the Delta variant, de Blasio is intent on showing the city reopening, a promise made during an aggressive vaccination campaign. (Axios)
Apple says it has asked all of its U.S. employees to report their vaccination status voluntarily by mid-September, but stops short of mandating COVID-19 vaccines. (Bloomberg)
A federal judge in Michigan temporarily barred Western Michigan University from requiring the Covid-19 vaccine among athletes, but denied a Michigan State University employee’s request for a temporary restraint. (Chronicle of Higher Ed)
Caldor fire blows past 200,000 acres as it moves toward Nevada: The ‘unprecedented’ Caldor and Dixie fires are the first to burn from one side of the Sierra to the other. Meanwhile, evacuation centers are at capacity. Large portions of Highway 50 are shut down. And thousands of residents have fled their homes. All national forests in the state will be closed until September 17. (Los Angeles Times)
Economy
‘Forever Changed’: CEOs are dooming business travel — maybe for good. A Bloomberg survey of 45 large businesses in the U.S., Europe and Asia shows that 84% plan to spend less on travel post-pandemic. A majority of the respondents cutting travel budgets see reductions of between 20% and 40%, with about two in three slashing both internal and external in-person meetings. The ease and efficiency of virtual software, cost savings and lower carbon emissions were the primary reasons cited for the cutbacks. According to the Global Business Travel Association, spending on corporate trips could slide to as low as $1.24 trillion by 2024 from a pre-pandemic peak in 2019 of $1.43 trillion. (Bloomberg)
States that cut unemployment benefits saw limited impact on job growth. Half of U.S. states ended enhanced unemployment insurance payments early ahead of nationwide termination of benefits for millions of people. (Wall Street Journal)
Big energy trading houses, long focused on deep, volatile markets such as oil and natural gas, are now bulking up their carbon-trading operations as governments around the world push to expand the market for trading carbon emissions. (Wall Street Journal)
The U.S. installed a record amount of wind energy generating capacity last year, amounting to 42% of new power. (Los Angeles Times)
Executive Pay: European companies have been hit with a rise in shareholder protests over pay at annual meetings this year as big investors sought to punish businesses they think funneled too much cash to executives during the pandemic. According to a report by Georgeson, a corporate governance consultancy, there was an 18% rise in shareholder dissent over remuneration-related resolutions across seven major European markets. (Financial Times)
Opec and its allies agreed to stick with its plan to boost oil production slightly in October at one of the shortest meetings in the group’s history, ignoring calls from the US for a larger increase in production to help cool crude prices. The Opec+ group, which includes non-members such as Russia, effectively rubber-stamped the continuation of the plan it laid out in July to boost production by 400,000 barrels a day each month between now and late 2022. (Financial Times)
Technology
Amazon is planning to hire 55,000 people for corporate and technology roles globally in the coming months, Chief Executive Andy Jassy told Reuters. That’s equal to more than a third of Google’s headcount as of June 30, and close to all of Facebook’s. Jassy, in his first press interview since he ascended to Amazon’s top post in July, said the company needed more firepower to keep up with demand in retail, the cloud and advertising, among other businesses. He said the company's new bet to launch satellites into orbit to widen broadband access, called Project Kuiper, would require a lot of new hires, too. (Reuters)
Apple said it would allow media apps to create in-app links to sign-up pages on those companies’ websites, allowing the likes of Spotify and Netflix to bypass the iPhone maker’s cut of subscriptions. Spotify and other technology companies for years have said Apple’s restrictions were unfair and anticompetitive. Apple previously prohibited Spotify and others from directing their users to sign-up options outside the App Store. Apple revealed the change Wednesday, saying it was among adjustments made to close an investigation by the Japan Fair Trade Commission and will apply globally to so-called reader apps available through Apple’s App Store. (Wall Street Journal)
The App Store model is crumbling: The App Store and Google Play as we know them may not be long for this world. The mobile marketplaces of Apple and Google are currently facing a wave of assaults from regulators, governments and the courts both at home and overseas. The latest challenge: a landmark law passed in South Korea on Tuesday allowing the use of alternative payment systems for in-app purchases, in effect threatening the ever-lucrative 30% cut. The South Korean law is a fierce repudiation of the mobile app store business model, and also offers a roadmap for regulators in the EU and the U.S. to adopt similar approaches to reining in Big Tech. Thanks to the Epic trial, we know Apple executive Phil Schiller once asked Steve Jobs via email back in July 2011, "Do you think our 70/30 split will last forever?" However you look at it, it's increasingly starting to look like the answer is no. (Source Code)
Analysis: Let’s consider some of the implications of third-party payment processing for in-app purchase on iOS and Android. (Daring Fireball)
YouTube’s paid music streaming services have amassed 50m subscribers. After a slow start since launching in 2018, YouTube’s music streaming services have attracted millions of new paying users in recent months to reach 50m subscribers in August. That is up markedly compared with the 30m subscribers that YouTube reported in October last year, and reflects growing demand for YouTube Music, which costs $10 a month, and YouTube Premium, an expanded product with extra video features that costs $12 a month. (Financial Times)
The future of reskilling in tech is changing: The tech labor shortage persists and the number of unfilled jobs in the U.S. has remained high. As of June 2021, job openings had increased to a high of 10.1 million, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. With an increasing need for highly-skilled tech workers, organizations are utilizing ed-tech programs to reduce attrition and fill job openings faster. The old model of waiting for students to matriculate from specialized master's and Ph.D. programs has changed. In Eightfold AI's March 2021 survey of over 200 manager-level employees, almost 50% said their top management goal for the year is to cross-train and upskill their employees, while almost 30% said their goal is to reduce turnover rates. (Protocol)
Zoom faces headwinds as businesses reopen, CFO says. (CNBC)
Smart Links
QR codes replace service staff as pandemic spurs automation in US. (Financial Times)
Windows 11 becomes available on October 5. (Microsoft)
Toyota takes commanding lead in EV patents but no match for Tesla in sales. (Nikkei Asian Review)
UK house prices recorded their second largest rise in more than 15 years last month. (The Times)
Britain to grow cancer-cutting wheat for making healthier bread. (The Times)
New York Times’ Wirecutter product-review site moves behind paywall. (Wall Street Journal)