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The World
The Pentagon has about $5.2 billion left to provide weaponry and other security assistance to Ukraine after Congress declined to include more funding in the bill keeping the federal government open. That sum “is roughly equivalent to the value of the weaponry the Biden administration has sent to Ukraine over the last six months for its fight against Russia, but administration officials said it is unclear how long that money could last.” (Wall Street Journal)
Top European foreign ministers traveled to Kyiv “in a show of solidarity with an embattled government.” EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell “billed their arrival in the Ukrainian capital as part of a ‘historic meeting’ with a candidate for membership of the European Union.” (Washington Post)
Russia may be preparing to test an experimental nuclear-powered cruise missile. Satellite imagery and aviation data indicate such a test may be imminent or may have already taken place. “Movements of aircraft and vehicles at and near a base in Russia’s remote Arctic region are consistent with preparations that were made for tests of the missile,” which could have a range of thousands of miles. (New York Times)
Russia has long thwarted China’s ambitions in the Arctic. But “faced with economic isolation over its invasion of Ukraine, Russia is turning to China for help developing the Arctic as Western energy companies are trying to pull out of Russian projects. The newfound cooperation is most evident in surging shipments of crude through the Northern Sea Route, which traverses the Arctic from northwestern Russia to the Bering Strait.” (Wall Street Journal)
“China rejected calls to invest in fresh Belt and Road projects in Pakistan, according to the minutes of a high-level meeting between the neighboring nations, a stance experts chalk up mainly to the political uncertainty and deteriorating security plaguing Islamabad.” (Nikkei Asia)
The UN Security Council “authorized the deployment of a Kenya-led multinational security mission to Haiti to help police beat back the armed gangs that have taken control of large swaths of the crisis-wracked Caribbean nation.” The resolution, written by the U.S. and Ecuador, “came a year after Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry appealed for the immediate deployment of an international force to restore order — a divisive request given Haiti’s troubled history of destabilizing foreign interventions.” Details including “the size of the mission, when it will be deployed, rules of engagement and exit strategy, remain to be worked out.” (Washington Post)
Two pioneers of mRNA research — the technology that helped the world tame the virus behind the Covid-19 pandemic — won the 2023 Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology. Overcoming a lack of broader interest in their work and scientific challenges, Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman made key discoveries about messenger RNA that enabled scientific teams to start developing the tool into therapies, immunizations, and — as the pandemic spread in 2020 — vaccines targeting the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Moderna and the Pfizer-BioNTech partnership unveiled their mRNA-based Covid-19 shots in record time thanks to the foundational work of Karikó and Weissman, helping save millions of lives. (STAT News)
About 1.8 million people got a COVID shot in late September. (Axios)
Americans’ views of the Supreme Court remain very negative and highly polarized by party. Overall, about 48% of Americans approve of the Court’s performance, while 54% disapprove. (FiveThirtyEight)
Public school teachers “have long made less money than other professionals, but last year the gap hit its widest level since 1960, according to a new analysis of federal data.” The Economic Policy Institute report “helps explain why the nationwide teacher shortage has grown so acute.” (Axios)
Economy
General Motors is laying off about 160 Indiana and Ohio plant workers “because of the impact of the United Auto Workers strike on some facilities. The UAW on Friday said it would strike at GM's Lansing Delta Township assembly plant that makes the Buick Enclave and Chevrolet Traverse SUVs after previously striking at GM's Missouri assembly plant and 18 parts distribution centers.” (Reuters)
The UAW strike is dealing a blow to the U.S. steel market, with the spot-market price for benchmark coiled sheet steel down 40% since April. Steel buyers “have cut back purchases amid growing concerns about weakness in major steel-consuming sectors, particularly manufacturing, commercial construction and, lately, automotive.” (Wall Street Journal)
U.S. Treasury yields hit a 16-year high on Monday. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield “rose 0.13 percentage points to 4.70 per cent, the highest level since 2007, after better than expected manufacturing data bolstered investors’ belief that the US economy is in good shape.” (Financial Times)
JPMorgan’s Dimon Predicts 3.5-Day Work Week for Next Generation Thanks to AI: Jamie Dimon said artificial intelligence is already being used by thousands of employees at his bank, and is likely to make dramatic improvements in workers’ quality of life, even if it eliminates some jobs. “Your children are going to live to 100 and not have cancer because of technology,” JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said in a Monday interview, adding, “And literally they’ll probably be working three-and-a-half days a week.” (Bloomberg)
U.S. shale producers “have vowed to keep a lid on drilling even if oil hits $100 a barrel, citing a need to maintain capital discipline and what they claim is a ‘war’ on fossil fuels waged by the Biden administration.” Devon Energy CEO Rick Muncrief said, “I just don’t see producers getting all excited about near-term price and I think we are going to see continued volatility.” (Financial Times)
According to the Bank of Japan’s latest quarterly survey, the weak yen has improved business sentiment. The “closely watched diffusion index among large manufacturers rose 4 points from the June survey to reach 9.” The diffusion index “for large nonmanufacturers rose 4 points to plus 27 — a level not seen since November 1991.” (Nikkei Asia)
“The Americans most at risk of eviction are babies and toddlers, according to new data that provides the fullest demographic picture yet of who lives in rental households facing eviction nationwide.” (New York Times)
Technology
The Biden Administration has informed China that it intends to update rules that curb shipments of AI chips and chipmaking tools as soon as this month. The coming update of Commerce Department restrictions “seeks to limit access to more chipmaking tools in line with new Dutch and Japanese rules, other sources said, and to close some loopholes in export restrictions” on AI chips. (Reuters)
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID), the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, hope to meet with President Xi Jinping during a trip to China next week. They will also raise the issue of Micron Technology’s ability to do business in China, “where the company faces an ongoing investigation by the government’s cybersecurity administration,” and plan to meet with members of the U.S. business community in Shanghai. (South China Morning Post)
According to the Bank of Japan’s latest quarterly survey, the weak yen has improved business sentiment. The “closely watched diffusion index among large manufacturers rose 4 points from the June survey to reach 9.” The diffusion index “for large nonmanufacturers rose 4 points to plus 27 — a level not seen since November 1991.” (Nikkei Asia)
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella testified that Google’s “power in online search was so ubiquitous that even his company found it difficult to compete on the internet.” Nadella, “the government’s highest-profile witness in its landmark antitrust trial against the search giant” so far, was “direct and sometimes combative as he laid out how Microsoft could not overcome Google’s use of multibillion-dollar deals to be the default search engine on smartphones and web browsers.” (New York Times)
Nadella testified, “I see search as the largest software category out there by far. I used to think of Windows and Office as attractive businesses until I saw search.” (The Verge)
Nadella “denied that Bing’s adoption of artificial intelligence had led to dramatic shifts in its market share. Google has argued that artificial intelligence programs like chatbot ChatGPT have increased competition in the search engine market.” (Associated Press)
Meta admitted to using public Facebook posts to train its AI models. After Meta “unveiled its new AI assistants last week, its president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, told Reuters that the ‘vast majority’ of the training data used to develop them came from publicly available posts, including on Facebook and Instagram.” (Axios)
The FCC issued its first-ever penalty related to space debris. In a settlement, Dish Network “admitted it was liable for failing to properly dispose of the EchoStar-7 broadcast communications satellite, and agreed to pay a fee of $150,000.” The FCC “called the agreement ‘a breakthrough settlement’ in the increasingly concerning realm of space debris.” (CNBC)
Smart Links
Tesla misses estimates for quarterly deliveries; shares fall. (Reuters)
X Corp, formerly Twitter, is being sued by a legal-marketing company over alleged trademark infringement. (Reuters)
US expands probe into Ford engine failures to include two motors and nearly 709,000 vehicles. (Associated Press)
IMF head backs reforms that could give China more voting power. (Financial Times)
Visa Initiative to Invest $100 Million in Generative AI Ventures. (Bloomberg)