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The World
“A Russian attack killed at least 51 people, including a six-year-old boy, as they gathered in a cafe for a memorial service” in the village of Hroza in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. Seven people were also hospitalized in the attack, “which appeared to be the most devastating Russian strike on a residential area in weeks.” (Reuters)
Following the attack, President Volodymyr Zelensky made a plea to European leaders for more aid, saying Ukraine “needs additional air-defense systems, artillery and shells, long-range missiles and drones. He said air defense was particularly important for Ukraine ahead of the winter.” (Wall Street Journal)
European leaders in turn called on the U.S., with top EU diplomat Josep Borrell saying Europe “wouldn’t be able to shoulder the entire burden of foreign support for Ukraine on its own.” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen “struck a similar tone, underscoring that the EU plans to approve €50 billion in support for Ukraine in the coming months but that Washington’s help remains crucial.” (Politico)
Vladimir Putin said that Russia “is aiming to create a ‘new world’ where Western-led ‘hegemony’ would be rejected…as he continued to paint the invasion of Ukraine as a larger conflict with the West.” (Semafor)
“A U.S. F-16 fighter jet shot down a Turkish drone that was flying over a base in northeast Syria where American forces are located.” The drone “was armed with air-to-ground missiles and deemed a threat to the American troops and Syrian Democratic Forces at the Tal Baydar base.” (Politico)
More than 100 people were killed in an attack on a military academy in Syria in “one of the bloodiest attacks ever against a Syrian army installation.” (The Guardian)
U.S. officials have withheld approval of Iraq’s request for a special shipment of $1 billion in cash from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, “saying the request runs counter to their efforts to rein in Baghdad’s use of dollars and halt illicit cash flows to Iran.” Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2002, the U.S. has sent Baghdad $10 billion or more a year. (Wall Street Journal)
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) will lead a bipartisan congressional delegation to Saudi Arabia and Israel, a trip that “comes amid a push by the White House to get a mega-deal” between the two countries. The delegation will also visit Bahrain and the UAE. (Axios)
The Biden Administration is extending the U.S.-Mexico border wall despite President Biden’s promise as a candidate not to do so. The Administration “is bypassing 26 federal laws, including environmental restrictions, to build a new section of the border wall in South Texas near the Rio Grande River.” (USA Today)
Biden said “he had no choice but to use the Trump-era funding for the barrier to stop illegal migration from Mexico. Asked if he thought such walls work, he said flatly, ‘No.’” (Associated Press)
North Korea has turned off the Yongbyon nuclear reactor “that is its main source of weapons material, opening the way for it to extract enough spent fuel to build at least four more nuclear bombs.” (Times of London)
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi “pushed Himalayan nations for stronger cooperation on environmental issues while urging them to respect ‘territorial integrity’ as he hosted diplomats near China’s disputed border with India.” While more than a dozen countries attended the forum, “India was notably absent.” (South China Morning Post)
The U.S. Army is cutting about 10% from its special operations forces, a reduction of about 3,000 troops from units such as the Green Berets. The move comes “amid recruiting struggles and a shift in focus from Middle East counterterrorism operations to a threat from China.” (Wall Street Journal)
Global carbon emissions from power production rose just 0.2% in the first half of the year, according to global energy think tank Ember. Electricity emissions “would have fallen so far this year absent the big, drought-spurred hydropower decline centered in China. That boosted fossil output to compensate, Ember said.” (Axios)
Economy
A surge in US borrowing costs has bolstered investors’ conviction that the Federal Reserve is finished raising interest rates, after months of aggressively increasing them in a historic battle against inflation. Yields on Treasury bonds reached the highest points in more than a decade this week, raising financing costs for businesses and consumers that could slow down the economy and tamp down prices without further action from US central bank. The latest top official to back this view was Mary Daly, president of the San Francisco Fed, who on Thursday said the central bank does not need to “rush to any decisions” about interest rates at a time when the labour market is showing signs of cooling, price pressures have abated and Treasury yields have sharply risen. (Financial Times)
Corporate America Is Ignoring Jay Powell and Bingeing on Debt: The recent spike in bond yields may have briefly cooled the market, but the pace of borrowing has been blistering. (Bloomberg)
Though jobless claims were up slightly last week, “layoffs remain low and the labor market continues to show resiliency amid elevated interest rates imposed by the Federal Reserve. Applications for unemployment benefits ticked up by 2,000 to 207,000 for the week ending Sept. 30, the Labor Department reported.” (Associated Press)
The trucking industry “has complained for years that there is a dire shortage of workers willing to drive big rigs,” but women who want those jobs are being turned away. Many trucking companies refuse to hire women if they do not have female drivers to train them, and less than five percent of U.S. truck drivers are female. (New York Times)
At least 453,000 workers have participated in 312 strikes in the U.S. this year. “From auto production lines to Hollywood, all eyes are on strikes taking the world of work by storm.” Workers who were “asked to make sacrifices during the pandemic even as corporate profits soared are asking for better pay and protections — and walking off the job if progress isn’t made.” (Associated Press)
“The U.S. lost 4.1 million days of work last month due to labor activity, which was the most in decades. … This week brought another sign of how far the trend has gone: an organizing effort at Waffle House.” (Wall Street Journal)
General Motors said it has made its sixth offer to the United Auto Workers since talks between the two sides began. (Reuters)
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is urging the Justice Department “to reverse a new policy aimed at encouraging companies to report misconduct at businesses they buy, calling it a ‘massive step backwards’ in the clampdown on anti-competitive deals.” Warren said the policy would incentivize corporations “to engage in illegal activity of all kinds — knowing that they could simply wipe the slate clean during a merger.” (Financial Times)
CVS Health CEO Karen Lynch tops the Fortune Most Powerful Women list for the third straight year. CVS “is the largest company in the world led by a female chief executive” and it is “only getting bigger.” The rest of the top five are Accenture CEO Julie Sweet, General Motors CEO Mary Barra, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser, and Ping An Insurance Co-CEO Jessica Tan. (Fortune)
Technology
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC), China’s largest semiconductor maker, “has been declared a Chinese military supplier by the Pentagon, blacklisted by the Commerce Department and added to a Treasury Department list banning Americans from trading its shares.” But its business with the U.S. is booming, with $1.5 billion in revenue from the U.S. last year. (Wall Street Journal)
Intel, Nvidia, and Qualcomm have been making the case that “cutting sales to China would gut their businesses and derail the administration’s plan to build new semiconductor factories in the United States.” They are urging U.S. political leaders to reconsider additional chip controls. (New York Times)
Taiwan will soon announce “a list of critical technologies it wants to protect from the reach of China.” (Nikkei Asia)
“Belgium’s intelligence service has been monitoring Alibaba’s main logistics hub in Europe for espionage following suspicions Beijing has been exploiting its growing economic presence in the west.” Alibaba, which denies wrongdoing, signed an agreement with Belgium to open the hub in Liège in 2018. (Financial Times)
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY) wrote to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and X CEO Linda Yaccarino “expressing ‘serious concerns’ about the emergence of AI-generated political ads on their platforms and asking each to explain any rules they’re crafting to curb the harms to free and fair elections.” (Associated Press)
Smart Links
Exxon Mobil Closing In on Megadeal With Shale Driller Pioneer. (WSJ)
Hyundai and Kia will adopt Tesla’s electric vehicle charging technology in the U.S. (Reuters)
General Motors has at least 20 million vehicles built with a potentially dangerous airbag part that the government says should be recalled. (Wall Street Journal)
Chicken prices at U.S. grocery stores have hit record highs and are likely to remain high as poultry production is dialed back to boost margins. (Reuters)
Gas prices could fall to $3.25 per gallon by the end of the month. (CNN)
Supreme Court tax case could have sweeping federal policy effects, experts say (CNBC)