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The World
After months of gloom, Americans are finally starting to feel better about the economy and more resigned to inflation. Consumer sentiment, which hit rock bottom in June, has begun inching up in recent weeks. Gas prices are down. Decades-high inflation appears to be easing. And at the same time, Americans are making small changes — buying meat in bulk, for example, or shifting more of their shopping to discount chains — suggesting that many families are learning to deal with higher prices. (Washington Post)
Inflation Showed Some Signs of Easing in August: Prices fell for gasoline, airfares and lodging, though food and other costs kept climbing. (Wall Street Journal)
Ukraine Blitz Sends Russian Forces Into Retreat: A day after routing Russian forces in a lightning advance that seized hundreds of square miles and a strategic town in the northeast, Ukraine claimed additional territory on Sunday in an offensive that has swiftly reshaped the battlefield in the nearly 200-day-old war and left Moscow reeling. Ukraine’s rapid gains in the Kharkiv region have significantly weakened Russia’s hold on eastern Ukraine, which it has used as a stronghold to wage its war since February. (New York Times)
France sent an emergency power alert to neighbors including the UK and Spain this week, asking them to be ready to send as much electricity as possible after a huge trading error jeopardized French supplies. The request was triggered by a trading error by one of France’s regional energy providers, which accidentally oversold huge amounts of electricity over a two-day period. (Financial Times)
Energy crisis to cast Eiffel Tower into early darkness: The Eiffel Tower, whose twinkling lights define the night-time Paris skyline, is to fall dark earlier because of the energy crisis. Paris city hall is expected to propose this week that the monument, which is among the most visited in the world, should go dark more than an hour earlier than usual, as Europe faces spiraling energy costs aggravated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. (The Guardian)
Sweden’s incumbent center-left government led by the Social Democrats appeared to have a slim advantage after a parliamentary election Sunday, a closely watched exit poll suggested, after a tightly fought election campaign dominated by the issue of rising gang violence. The exit poll suggested the center-left bloc of Social Democrats, Left Party, Centre Party and Greens had secured 176 seats in the 349-seat parliament. The four-party, right-wing group — including the Sweden Democrats — appeared to have won 173 seats, the exit poll showed. (Politico EU)
With little public notice and accelerating speed, America’s children have become much less poor. A comprehensive new analysis shows that child poverty has fallen 59 percent since 1993, with need receding on nearly every front. Child poverty has fallen in every state, and it has fallen by about the same degree among children who are white, Black, Hispanic and Asian, living with one parent or two, and in native or immigrant households. Deep poverty, a form of especially severe deprivation, has fallen nearly as much. In 1993, nearly 28 percent of children were poor, meaning their households lacked the income the government deemed necessary to meet basic needs. By 2019, before temporary pandemic aid drove it even lower, child poverty had fallen to about 11 percent. (New York Times)
Economy
A Strong Dollar Is Front and Center for Wall Street: Investors are increasingly concerned that the rising U.S. currency will strain other economies. (Wall Street Journal)
Oil Prices Slump as Recession Fears Grow: U.S. crude has shed about $35 a barrel in three months, and traders are hesitant to make bets, citing an overwhelming amount of uncertainty. (Wall Street Journal)
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Americans could experience a spike in gas prices in the winter when the European Union significantly cuts back on buying Russian oil, adding that a proposed Western price cap on Russia's oil exports is being designed to keep prices in check. (CNN)
White House officials are growing increasingly alarmed about Europe’s energy crisis and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threats to force a bleak winter on the continent. (Washington Post)
China makes more than $30bn in emergency loans: China has doled out tens of billions of dollars in secretive “emergency loans” to countries at risk of financial crises in recent years, turning Beijing into a formidable competitor of the western-led IMF. The bailouts represent a pivot from the huge infrastructure loans China has extended over nearly a decade as part of its $838bn Belt and Road Initiative, a program that made it the world’s biggest financer of public works, eclipsing the World Bank. Three of the largest recipients of China’s rescue lending have been Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Argentina. (Financial Times)
UK Nuclear power giant EDF is in talks with ministers over a voluntary price cap on its electricity to help shield households from soaring energy prices. The government has pledged to break the historic link between electricity and gas prices that has meant lower-cost forms of energy, such as nuclear and wind, are being charged at the same rate as gas, which has rocketed in price since Russia crimped exports. (The Times)
Technology
How Apple keeps you glued: Apple is hard to beat in making its technology seem like the safest bet. Other changes, like the company’s shift to virtual eSIM cards in the US, could make it even more difficult to leave the iPhone (though it may create complications for customers who travel internationally and use carriers that don’t support the standard). The theme of locking in users to the Apple ecosystem has been a major one for the company in recent years. These days, the ability of Apple products to play nicely together is more of a competitive advantage than ever and key to expanding the company’s user base, generating more recurring revenue and—most importantly—preventing defections to rival platforms. (Bloomberg)
Bob Chapek, Walt Disney chief executive, has rejected calls by activist investor Dan Loeb to sell or spin off the ESPN sports television network, vowing to restore the business to its onetime status as a growth engine of the company. Loeb, whose Third Point hedge fund revealed in August that it had bought a $1bn stake in the company, called for ESPN to be spun off to reduce Disney’s debtload — just one element of a sweeping plan to shake up the media company. In an interview with the FT, Chapek said Disney had been “deluged” with interest from companies seeking to buy ESPN earlier this year amid rumors that the company was weighing a sale of the cable network. (Financial Times)
Tesla among surge of companies rushing to take advantage of Texas’ expiring tax incentive program: The Chapter 313 program was designed to draw business to the state, but critics say it lacks accountability and unduly burdens taxpayers. Tesla and other companies hope to take advantage of the tax incentive ahead of the program’s expiration at the end of the year. (Texas Tribune)
An overview of the trends at YC's Demo Day for the 223 startups in the Summer 2022 batch: enterprise made up the bulk at 39%, followed by fintech and dev tools. (Protocol)
Apple’s iPhone Satellite Service Kicks Off Smartphone Space Race. (Wall Street Journal)
Smart Links
FT Global Masters in Management Ranking 2022: Europe dominates. (Financial Times)
Target axes mandatory retirement age as CEOs stay on the job longer. (Washington Post)
Visa, Mastercard, Amex to Track Gun Shops With New Code. (Wall Street Journal)
Derek Jeter to Start New Trading-Card Venture as Market Booms. (Bloomberg)
Museums in the U.S. and Europe Are in Blockbuster Mode. (New York Times)