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The World
The U.S. economy grew at a rapid 4.9% annual pace in the third quarter — “more than double than in the second quarter.” But there are “warning signs underlying the eye-popping numbers. Americans saved less and their incomes, adjusted for inflation, fell over the summer. That could mean the pace of spending will ease in the coming months.” International crises, rising interest rates, and the possibility of a government shutdown could also hurt. (Wall Street Journal)
Air strikes Thursday killed five senior Hamas commanders in Gaza, according to the Israel Defense Forces. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant “reiterated that a ground operation was looming and vowed to win the war, asserting that the country’s next 75 years largely depend on it.” (Times of Israel)
Hamas “expected stronger intervention from Hezbollah in its war with Israel,” according to senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad. In an interview, Hamad said, “Hezbollah now is working against the occupation. We appreciate this. But…we need more in order to stop the aggression on Gaza.” (Associated Press)
A Hamas delegation is in Moscow. Russia’s foreign ministry confirmed the visit “but did not say how long they had been there or who they were meeting.” (Financial Times)
Britain has sent UK Border Force agents to Egypt to help evacuate British citizens from Gaza. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak “said that so far about 200 Britons in Gaza had contacted the Foreign Office in advance of Israel’s planned invasion.” (Times of London)
Vladimir Zelensky says a nuclear power station was probably the intended target for Russian drones shot down nearby. Zelensky said, “It is highly likely that the target for these drones was the Khmelnytskyi nuclear power station.” Ukraine’s air force says it destroyed 11 Russian drones near the facility. (Times of London)
Russia “is executing soldiers who have failed to follow orders and threatening entire units with death if they retreat from Ukrainian artillery fire,” according to the White House National Security Council. (Associated Press)
A Chinese fighter jet “flew within 10 feet of an American B-52 bomber operating in international airspace over the Pacific this week, passing beneath the bomber’s wing and disappearing from the pilot’s view.” Video released by U.S. Indo-Pacific Command shows the Chinese fighter “closing in quickly on the B-52, passing in front of and below the American jet’s wing, over the South China Sea on Tuesday.” (Washington Post)
Wages are set to rise for many Disneyland employees after the California Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from Disney “as to whether an Anaheim wage law applies to its lowest-paid theme park workers.” The law, adopted in 2018, prescribes a $15 minimum wage for “companies in Anaheim’s resort area who enjoyed ‘tax rebate’ agreements with the city.” (Los Angeles Times)
“More than half of working-age Americans said they've struggled to afford care this year, according to a new Commonwealth Fund survey.” Nearly one in three respondents “reported having medical or dental debt, and nearly half of them said it's at least $2,000.” (Axios)
Economy
Goldman Sachs enters geopolitical advice business: Goldman Sachs is setting up an institute to analyse geopolitics and technology, the latest firm to bet on demand from companies for advice on how to navigate a disorderly world. The Goldman Sachs Global Institute will initially be focused on geopolitical tensions and disruption from the rise of artificial intelligence. It will be led by Goldman partners George Lee and Jared Cohen. The two men also co-lead the investment bank’s Office of Applied Innovation, which was established last year to spot commercial opportunities related to shifts in technology and the geopolitical landscape. (Financial Times)
“A bruising 41-day strike at Ford is near an end as the United Auto Workers and its largest employer have reached a tentative deal to return 16,600 strikers to the job within days and pay workers at least 25% more between now and 2028.” The agreement must still be approved by union members. (CNN)
Analysts say the agreement will not put Ford at a competitive disadvantage. While costs will rise, “analysts said those increases should be manageable. What will matter more for the company’s prospects, they said, is how innovative and efficient the company is in designing and producing cars and technology that can compete with offerings from Tesla.” (New York Times)
Ford workers have been reacting positively, which “could bode well for the worker ratification vote needed to finalize the tentative agreement announced Wednesday night. Ford workers have suspended their strike and will return to their jobs as they prepare for a vote that could take a week or more to organize.” (Washington Post)
GM and Stellantis representatives are meeting with UAW bargainers to consider a contract agreement that mirrors the Ford deal. (Associated Press)
The European Central Bank “left interest rates untouched for the first time in more than a year at a meeting in Athens on Thursday. The ECB said it would leave key rates unchanged at between 4 and 4.75%.” The bank has raised the lending rate 10 times since July 2022. (DW)
“The ECB said keeping rates at their current level ‘for a sufficiently long duration’ would make ‘a substantial contribution’ to achieving its inflation target. It added that ‘rates will be set at sufficiently restrictive levels for as long as necessary.’” (Financial Times)
A law that allows packages valued under $800 “to enter the U.S. duty-free and with little customs scrutiny has enabled the breakneck growth of two e-commerce companies with roots in China, Shein and Temu.” More than one billion packages entered the U.S. under the simplified rules during the last fiscal year. (Wall Street Journal)
Fidelity is seeking a government waiver “that would allow some of its best-known mutual funds to also operate as exchange-traded funds, becoming the largest firm to challenge Vanguard Group’s former monopoly on the concept.” Vanguard “pioneered and began patenting this dual-share structure more than two decades ago, which helped its funds generate higher after-tax returns and capture almost a third of the US market for ETFs.” (Bloomberg)
Japan plans to invest more than $13 billion over five years “to support developing countries in the Global South, a move that aims to deepen ties with growing, resource-rich economies.” Japan's Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yasutoshi Nishimura said the funding would come from both the government and investments by Japanese companies. (Nikkei Asia)
Technology
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has created “an advisory body aimed at fostering global agreement on how to govern” AI. The panel “will consist of 39 academics, industry executives and government officials from 33 countries, including the U.S. and China, two countries that have taken drastically different approaches to AI governance.” (Nikkei Asia)
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak “said only governments could tackle the risks posed by AI, a technology he said could make it easier to build chemical or biological weapons, spread fear and, in a worse-case scenario, escape human control.” Sunak will convene a global summit on the risks of AI next week. (South China Morning Post)
“A Biden administration effort to screen private investments into a narrow set of technology sectors in China could eventually be expanded to other sectors with national security implications.” A source said the Treasury Department sees the notification requirement in the directive as “‘something that could potentially be expanded and grow.’ That could make businesses wary of planning investments around the new enforcement regime as they look for certainty on the rules of the road.” (Semafor)
X “has hemorrhaged users and advertisers in its first year under Elon Musk's ownership,” and one estimate says the company’s ad business will bring in $2.9 billion in 2023, down from $4.14 billion last year. (Axios)
“As AI photo editing apps become more accessible and pervasive, software and hardware makers are building tools to help consumers verify the authenticity of an image starting from the moment of capture.” Leica has announced a new camera that “will be the first with the ability to apply Content Credentials from the moment an image is captured.” Extending content verification “all the way to the camera is seen as a critical step in the battle against deepfakes.” (Axios)
Writers for Gannett think their employer may be using AI to pen content. (The Verge)
Smart Links
Li Keqiang, China’s former premier and Xi rival, dies suddenly at 68. (Financial Times)
A contract dispute is impacting U.S. efforts to track COVID surges. (Politico)
A controversial online safety law has taken effect in the UK. (The Verge)
Uber begins offering rides in self-driving Waymo cars. (CNBC)
Toyota is recalling about 751,000 SUVs to fix a problem with the tabs that hold front bumper covers on. (Associated Press)
Toyota supplier Denso to invest $3.3bn in chips business. (Nikkei Asia)
Backlash forces T-Mobile to cancel automatic migrations to pricier plans. (Ars Technica)