Know someone who would like this newsletter? Forward it to them.
The World
Hamas received weapons and training from Iran, officials say: The Palestinian militants behind the surprise weekend attack on Israel began planning the assault at least a year ago, with key support from Iranian allies who provided military training and logistical help as well as tens of millions of dollars for weapons, current and former Western and Middle Eastern intelligence officials said. While Iran’s precise role in Saturday’s violence remained unclear, the officials said, the assault reflected Tehran’s years-long ambition to surround Israel with legions of paramilitary fighters armed with increasingly sophisticated weapons systems capable of striking deep inside the Jewish state. (Washington Post)
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other senators on a trip to Beijing “have asked Xi Jinping to pressure Iran not to inflame tensions in the Middle East.” Schumer “said that the Chinese side ‘said they would deliver the message to the Iranians.’ Iran denies any role in the surprise attack.” (Financial Times)
The Biden administration is surging weapons to Israel, rapidly sending air defenses and munitions in response to Israeli officials’ urgent requests for aid, a senior Pentagon official said. “Planes have already taken off,” the senior official, who was granted anonymity in order to speak about sensitive plans, told reporters. (Politico)
The European Union has put funding for the Palestinian Authority on hold following the attack. The European Commission “is putting its full development portfolio — totaling €691 million — under review, with all payments immediately suspended.” (Politico)
Russia is considering revoking its ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which “could pave the way for Russia to resume nuclear testing for the first time since the fall of the Soviet Union.” The U.S. says such a move “would endanger ‘the global norm’ against nuclear tests.” (DW)
Alice Weidel, co-leader of Alternative for Germany, said the far-right party is now a national force following weekend elections in two states: “AfD is no longer an eastern phenomenon, but has become a major all-German party. So we have arrived.” (Associated Press)
AfD “focused primarily on the issues of asylum and migration” during the campaign, and its stance “seems to be resonating with a number of German voters. … Among young voters, it has even become the second-strongest force.” (DW)
A new California law “will force large companies doing business in the state — including major global corporations — to disclose their planet-heating carbon emissions.” The first-of-its-kind state law “comes as federal regulators have dragged their feet on crafting similar rules, which could be finalized this month.” (The Guardian)
Texas Cities Are Booming, but Their Offices Are the Most Vacant: America’s highest office vacancies aren’t in the East and West Coast cities that have been shedding population and workers. They are in Texas, a thriving Sunbelt state that has been luring companies away from the big coastal cities. Houston, Dallas and Austin top the list of major U.S. cities with the highest office-vacancy rates, according to Moody’s Analytics. About 25% of their office space wasn’t leased as of the third quarter. That was more than double New York’s vacancy rate of 12% and well above San Francisco’s vacancy rate of 17%. Texas office floors are struggling to find tenants even though the state’s workers have been more eager to get back to the office than in most other places. (Wall Street Journal)
Economy
“The richest Americans are emerging from the coronavirus pandemic with their share of wealth and income on the rise again.” Federal Reserve data show that “the top 1% of households by income held roughly 26.5% of household net worth at the end of June, up about 1.5 percentage points since 2019.” Meanwhile, the share of the country’s wealth held by the bottom one-fifth shrank from seven percent to 6.7% during that time. (Reuters)
Capitol Hill chaos and ongoing inflation concerns “are threatening to create more financial pain for a rising number of Americans.” The two crises are “making it costlier for the government to borrow. That will trickle down to cash-strapped consumers in ways both obvious and invisible.” (Axios)
Bank stocks remain “in the doldrums” seven months after regulators took control of Silicon Valley Bank. The KBW Nasdaq Bank Index has fallen 6.6% since mid-March and “has underperformed the broad market by 37 percentage points in 2023, on pace for the widest annual gap on record going back to 1993, according to Dow Jones Market Data.” (Wall Street Journal)
Slowing growth in lending risks curbing a key driver of profits for the big US banks when they begin reporting third-quarter earnings this week. While weekly data from the Fed has shown credit card borrowing by consumers is still growing, albeit at a slower pace, corporate borrowing has fallen in the past six months. (Financial Times)
Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, and other major retailers “are making the seasonal switch to holiday deals earlier and earlier. The traditional holiday shopping season ended with COVID, which pushed more deals online and caused retailers to spread out demand.” Most sales are now “expected to start before Black Friday, which falls on Nov. 24 this year.” (Axios)
United Automobile Workers members went on strike against Mack Trucks at factories in Florida, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. UAW leaders had worked out a tentative contract with the company, but members opposed the contract by a 73% vote. UAW President Shawn Fain said in a letter to Mack parent Volvo Trucks, “The members have spoken, and as the highest authority in our union, they have the final word.” (New York Times)
UAW workers at General Motors “gained a key concession”, with workers at GM battery manufacturing winning the right to unionize. Fain said, “We were about to shut down GM’s largest money-maker, in Arlington, Texas. The company knew those members were about to walk immediately. And just that threat has provided a transformative win.” (Ars Technica)
China should meet Beijing’s economic target for 2023 with 5.1% GDP growth in the fourth quarter, according to the Institute of Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The think tank said China’s economic growth “is largely set to be driven by the booming service sector, while new domestic and external challenges are emerging.” (South China Morning Post)
HSBC is acquiring Citigroup's retail wealth management business in China, “taking a $3.6 billion portfolio from Citi, which includes deposits and other assets in mainland China but excludes credit cards, mortgages and other loans.” The value of the transaction has not been disclosed. (Nikkei Asia)
Technology
Vietnamese government agents attempted to place spyware on the phones of key members of Congress and American journalists this year “in a brazen campaign that underscores the rapid proliferation of state-of-the-art hacking tools.” Those targeted included House Foreign Affairs Chair Michael McCaul and CNN chief national security analyst Jim Sciutto. (Washington Post)
Samsung and SK Hynix will be allowed to supply U.S. chip equipment to their factories in China without separate U.S. approvals. The “world's largest and second-largest memory chipmakers had invested billions of dollars in their chip production facilities in China and welcomed the move.” (Reuters)
Joby Aviation CEO JoeBen Bevirt says electric-powered air taxis could be a reality within the next few years. Bevirt’s company delivered its first electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle to the Air Force last month and says it “can meet an ambitious target of entering commercial air taxi service in 2025.” (Associated Press)
Saudi oil giant Aramco will partner with Siemens Energy “to develop a small-scale direct air-capture ‘test unit’ in an attempt to manage emissions.” The test unit will be built in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, and completed next year. (CNBC)
Smart Links
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says a surge in borrowing costs has not created dysfunction in U.S. financial markets. (Financial Times)
Nelson Peltz of activist hedge fund Trian Fund Management has increased his firm’s stake in Disney as he seeks control of more board seats. (Axios)
OpenAI is exploring the possibility of manufacturing its own AI accelerator chips. (Ars Technica)
The Biden Administration is backing a new bill to restrict TikTok in the U.S. after previous legislative and national security efforts faltered. (Politico)
Japanese firms rev up output of EV range-boosting materials. (Nikkei Asia)