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The World
The U.S. sent Ukraine 1.1 million rounds of seized small-arms ammunition intercepted earlier this year as Iran tried to ship it to Houthi rebels in Yemen. The 7.62mm rounds are fired by the AK-47 assault rifle, which is widely used in Eastern Europe. (Wall Street Journal)
Russia has withdrawn the bulk of its Black Sea Fleet from its main base in Crimea, “a potent acknowledgment of how Ukrainian missile and drone strikes are challenging Moscow’s hold on the peninsula.” (Wall Street Journal)
President Biden says he will soon give a major speech on Ukraine “and suggested there may be ‘another means’ to provide support for Kyiv if Congress continues to balk.” The date of the speech has not been announced. (Associated Press)
Senior White House advisers “quietly visited Saudi Arabia last week to continue talks on a potential mega-deal that could include a peace agreement between the kingdom and Israel, two sources with direct knowledge of the issue told Axios.” Talks “gained momentum last month following President Biden's meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But it also became clear there are still many issues to work out, including a Palestinian component to any such agreement, and that the process will take time.” (Axios)
The Biden Administration “is hoping that a significant Palestinian component that advances a two-state solution will be enough to placate progressives to back the deal.” But that component “has become a point of tension between the US and Israel, whose hardline government is overwhelmingly made up of lawmakers ideologically opposed to Palestinian statehood.” (Times of Israel)
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other top officials traveled to Mexico City “hoping to bolster a strategy to confront staggering fentanyl overdoses in the United States and soaring migration in the Western Hemisphere.” The trip comes “as rhetoric from both nations has grown increasingly contentious over how to confront drug trafficking, illegal immigration and other top foreign policy challenges.” (New York Times)
Turkish forces carried out airstrikes on Iraqi positions “held by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) — the group that claimed responsibility for a bomb attack” in Ankara on Sunday that targeted Turkey's Interior Ministry. (DW)
Bolivian President Luis Arce has been expelled from his own party “amid a bitter struggle with the former president, Evo Morales, to lead the party into the 2025 election.” Vice President David Choquehuanca “and dozens more legislators, officials and activists loyal to Arce were also expelled” from the Movimiento al Socialismo on Wednesday. (The Guardian)
Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island “will procure future wind energy projects together rather than separately as part of a joint agreement the states’ governors announced — the first such multi-state agreement in the nation.” Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont said the partnership could let the states acquire clean energy at more competitive and affordable rates. (Associated Press)
Economy
“A sudden surge in long-term interest rates to 16-year highs is threatening hopes for an economic soft landing, all the more because the exact triggers for the move are unclear.” Yields on the 10-year Treasury note are at their highest level since the start of the subprime mortgage crisis in 2007. If the “recent climb in borrowing costs — along with the accompanying slump in stock prices and the stronger dollar — is sustained, that could meaningfully slow the U.S. and global economies over the next year.” (Wall Street Journal)
The Bank of Japan made unscheduled purchases of more than $4.5 billion of government debt on Wednesday “as yields on benchmark bonds hit their highest mark in a decade.” (Financial Times)
Negotiators for the United Auto Workers and Ford have reportedly “narrowed their differences on pay increases after a new offer from the automaker amid ‘really active’ talks.” UAW President Shawn Fain plans to update union members on Friday. (Reuters)
“Those big wage hikes that unions are demanding — and some getting — are unlikely to set inflation soaring again, write Goldman Sachs analysts in a new paper.” The paper concludes that union pay increases “are essentially an echo of the big wage increases we saw in the private sector over the past two years,” and that there are “just aren't enough unionized workers in the U.S. for their raises to make a huge difference to the economy.” (Axios)
“General Motors secured a new $6 billion line of credit as the automaker braces for additional strikes.” (CNBC)
China’s 2023 economic growth might be just half of what the International Monetary Fund is predicting, according to Daniel Rosen of the Rhodium Group, a U.S. think tank focused on China. The IMF has forecast 5.2% growth, but Rosen said growth above three percent “was unlikely for China ‘into the medium term and beyond’” due to weak foreign direct investment and other factors. (South China Morning Post)
South African mining profits “slipped by more than $5 billion in the last financial year, while the country that was once the world’s largest gold producer might have less than 30 years of a viable gold industry left without renewed investment,” according to a PwC report. The report also warned that South Africa’s iron ore mining industry may only last 13 more years. (Associated Press)
Just 41% believe businesses should take a public stance on current events, down from 48% last year. But there is a partisan divide, with 62% of Democrats saying businesses should take such stands, compared with just 17% of Republicans. (Gallup)
Millennium Management is in talks to work with Schonfeld Strategic Advisors “in a partnership deal that would mark the largest of its kind” in the global hedge fund industry. Under the emerging agreement, Schonfeld would handle money for Millennium, which has almost $60 billion in assets. (Financial Times)
Technology
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo called reports of a chip breakthrough by Huawei Technologies “incredibly disturbing,” saying the U.S. must find more ways to enforce export controls. Raimondo told a Senate Commerce Committee hearing, “We need different tools. We need additional resources around enforcement.” Raimondo “pointed to the Restrict Act, which would expand her department’s authority to review and prevent information and technology transactions that pose national security risks.” (Bloomberg)
Taiwan will investigate four local companies “over reports that they are assisting Huawei Technologies in establishing chipmaking infrastructure in China.” One of the companies, Topco Scientific, acknowledged that “it has done business with a semiconductor manufacturer identified to be working with Huawei.” (Nikkei Asia)
Clorox faulted an August cyberattack for causing its sales to drop as much as 28% in the most recent quarter. The attack led the company to take some systems offline, leading to product outages and processing delays. Clorox said it will end up with a loss in the quarter, instead of the nearly $150 million in profit that had been expected. (Wall Street Journal)
Apple held talks with DuckDuckGo to replace Google as the default search engine for Apple’s Safari browser. Details of the talks “are expected to be released later this week after the judge overseeing a federal antitrust suit against Google ruled Wednesday that he would unseal the testimony” of DuckDuckGo’s CEO and Apple executive John Giannandrea. (Bloomberg)
Uber drivers will now be available to mail packages for customers. Uber said that drivers “will collect up to five prepaid and sealed packages and drop them off at a local post office or at UPS or FedEx stores. Uber will charge a flat fee of $5 for the service or $3 for its Uber One members.” (Associated Press)
Smart Links
Why 8% Mortgage Rates Aren’t Crazy. (Wall Street Journal)
Ozempic Is Making People Buy Less Food, Walmart Says. (Bloomberg)
Biden cancels $9 billion in student debt for 125,000 borrowers. (CNBC)
Oil falls more than 5% on weak U.S. gasoline demand. (Nikkei Asia)
Airbnb boss lays foundation for longer-term rentals. (Financial Times)
America’s High EV Costs Are Driving Buyers to Hybrids. (Bloomberg)
The Pixel 8 Pro has better cameras, a brighter screen, and a lot of new AI tricks. (The Verge)