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The World
Military Tensions Rise as Pelosi Leaves Taiwan: Speaker Nancy Pelosi left Taiwan after a trip that raised tensions over the island to their highest level in more than two decades, an escalation that is set to persist long after she returns home. (Wall Street Journal)
Drone from mainland China spotted flying over Taiwan hours after Pelosi’s departure: Taiwan’s armed forces said an unidentified aircraft was found flying over Quemoy and troops fired flares to warn the drone away. Beijing has stepped up extensive military drills against Taiwan following the visit to the island by Pelosi. (South China Morning Post)
Nancy Pelosi pledged an “ironclad” US commitment to Taiwan during a historic visit to the country on Wednesday that infuriated China and raised warnings that military manoeuvres Beijing announced in retaliation would amount to a blockade of the island. The comments from the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, made during a meeting with Taiwan’s president Tsai Ing-wen, heartened Taiwanese people hoping for firmer support from Washington but are set to further raise tensions with China. (Financial Times)
International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi warned that the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant — Europe's largest atomic energy complex — is "completely out of control" under occupation by Russian soldiers, who interfere with the delivery of crucial spare parts and cut off communication between the plant's operators and the IAEA. Grossi said the IAEA urgently needs to visit the site to conduct inspections that could prevent a nuclear accident, but the warring sides cannot agree on the details of how the mission will proceed, causing dangerous delays. (The Associated Press)
The Senate overwhelmingly approved a treaty that would expand NATO to include Finland and Sweden, with Republicans and Democrats linking arms to pave the way for one of the most significant expansions of the alliance in decades amid Russia’s continued assault on Ukraine. (New York Times)
Manchin-Schumer Bill Gets Budget-Office Nod for $102 Billion Deficit Cut: The analysis doesn’t include revenue from increased tax audits; the CBO score is in line with estimates put out by Manchin, Schumer. (Bloomberg)
The shortage of vaccines to combat a fast-growing monkeypox outbreak was caused in part because the Department of Health and Human Services failed early on to ask that bulk stocks of the vaccine it already owned be bottled for distribution, according to multiple administration officials familiar with the matter. (New York Times)
Colleges this fall are no longer treating Covid-19 as an emergency upending their operations, shifting to eliminate mask requirements and mandatory coronavirus testing and letting students who contract the virus isolate in their dorms with their roommates. With easy access to vaccinations and low hospitalization rates among college-aged adults—even during the latest surge in BA.5 subvariant cases—administrators said it is time to lift or at least rethink restrictions and redefine the virus as endemic, not a pandemic. That means scaling back mass testing, removing bans on large indoor gatherings and preparing for a fall term that more closely resembles life before Covid. Another issue driving the decisions is exhaustion, according to public-health experts and academics on several campuses. Students and staff have been subjected to two years of daily health checks, weekly trots to a testing center and a roller coaster of mask protocols. (Wall Street Journal)
Widening his attack on Republican states for their positions on guns, civil rights and abortion, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California on Wednesday called on Hollywood to “walk the walk” on liberal values by bringing back their film and television productions from states such as Georgia and Oklahoma. Mr. Newsom issued the challenge through an ad in Variety that asked the state’s left-leaning creative community to “take stock of your values — and those of your employees — when doing business in those states.” (New York Times, Advertisement)
Economy
Walmart is cutting hundreds of corporate roles in a restructuring effort, a week after the retail giant warned of falling profits. The retailer began notifying employees in its Bentonville, Ark., headquarters and other corporate offices of the restructuring, which affects various departments including merchandising, global technology and real-estate teams. Around 200 jobs in total are being cut, said one of these people. (Wall Street Journal)
The Bank of England is expected to raise interest rates by the most since 1995 on Thursday, even as the risks of a recession mount, in an attempt to stop a surge in inflation from becoming embedded in Britain's economy. Most investors and economists predict the BoE will increase its benchmark rate by half a percentage point to 1.75%, its highest level since late 2008 at the start of the global financial crisis, when it announces its decision at 1100 GMT. (Reuters)
Pressure to increase gender diversity in C-suites is so intense that companies are trying to draw women candidates with higher salary offers, a phenomenon that is closing the gender pay gap among senior executives, research shows. Female executives still don’t earn as much as their male counterparts, but a woman in a senior leadership role who switches to a new firm can now expect a salary bump of 25 percent on average, whereas a man making a similar move will see 9 percent more pay, says Paul Healy, the James R. Williston Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. (Harvard Business School)
LNG price spike causes energy crises in strapped Asian nations: Pakistan deals with power shortages and production cuts amid tenfold jump. (Nikkei Asia Review)
After CHIPS Act, Japanese supplier to triple U.S. semiconductor chemical output: Mitsubishi Gas Chemical invests $372m to ramp up production. (Nikkei Asia Review)
Technology
Apple expects to delay its next major iPad software update by about a month, taking the unusual step of not releasing it at the same time as the new iPhone software, according to people with knowledge of the matter. For the last several years, the tech giant has released major iPad and iPhone software updates, known as iPadOS and iOS, at the same time in September. This time around, Apple plans to put out iOS 16 during the usual period but not launch iPadOS 16 until October, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private. (Bloomberg)
Elon Musk has subpoenaed Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase for details on how the two Wall Street banks advised Twitter on his proposed $44bn buyout of the social media company, which the Tesla chief executive is now seeking to abandon. It is the latest legal manoeuvre in the litigation between Musk and Twitter, which is trying to force him to complete the deal after he claimed the company had breached their merger agreement. (Financial Times)
Podcast Guests Are Paying Up to $50,000 to Appear on Popular Shows: Critics call it “payola,” and say listeners deserve better disclosure of promotional ties. (Bloomberg)
Netflix Is Scrambling to Learn the Ad Business It Long Disdained: Reed Hastings insisted on focusing on subscriptions until competitors started nibbling away at his business model. (Wall Street Journal)
The metaverse is in the midst of a real estate meltdown. Sales volumes and average prices for virtual land have plunged this year, part of a broader slide in crypto and non-fungible token prices. Soaring interest in virtual property spawned an industry that mirrors traditional commercial real estate—buyers develop land by adding virtual storefronts, and then sell or rent it to companies looking to set up shop as a marketing strategy or to sell things like clothing for online avatars. Investors who bought at the peak are now sitting on land that has tumbled in value. Meanwhile the real-world economic downturn could weigh on brands’ appetite for spending on building out their metaverse presence. (The Information)
Smart Links
UK companies face 500% rise in energy bills. (The Times)
Phil Mickelson and 10 Other LIV Golfers File Antitrust Lawsuit Against PGA Tour. (Wall Street Journal)
Uber reports positive cash flow for the first time. (Financial Times)
Solana-based wallet hack saw millions drained. (Coin Telegraph)
Exercising more than recommended could lengthen life, study suggests. (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health)