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The World
SpaceX’s Starlink terminals back online in Ukraine after outages: Some of the Starlink internet devices that had suffered outages have come back online in the past few days, restoring lines of communications in territory recently liberated from Russian occupation, say Ukrainian soldiers and officials. The improvement was recorded hours after the Financial Times reported widespread outages during Ukrainian counteroffensives, two Ukrainian government officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. (Financial Times)
Liz Truss has been told by her most senior advisers that she needs to rip up last month’s mini-budget and raise corporation tax as the price of restoring market confidence in her government. Officials have warned the prime minister that it is “no longer credible” to press ahead with big tax cuts without risking a financial crisis that would further drive up the cost of government borrowing and mortgages. (The Times)
One of China’s most prominent biotech companies said it was “mind-boggling” that Beijing has not allowed sales of Covid-19 vaccines using technology pioneered by Moderna and BioNTech/Pfizer. BeiGene’s research chief told the Financial Times it was “unfortunate” that Chinese authorities had not approved messenger RNA shots, which provide longer lasting and higher levels of protection than vaccines made by homegrown rivals. (Financial Times)
China’s Covid-Testing Strategy Comes Under Strain. Bills are piling up and infections are spreading, yet there are no signs that Beijing plans to rethink a cornerstone of its pandemic policy. (New York Times)
Taiwan lifted all its Covid-19 entry restrictions, allowing tourists unfettered access the self-ruled island after more than 2.5 years of border controls. (The Guardian)
North Korea says it practiced firing cruise missiles able to carry nuclear weapons. (Reuters)
The U.S. has a tough sell in Latin America: From Mexico and Central America, all the way through the Andes, U.S. officials have struggled to find partners to work with and policies that will stick as they attempt to reassert U.S. influence, once dominant in the region but now in stiff competition with other powers, most notably China. A major challenge is courting newly leftist governments. But that’s only part of the difficulty in finding interlocutors. More concerning, analysts say, are the numerous regional leaders drowning in corruption allegations, fighting for their own political survival against inflation and popular discontent, and unwilling to follow the traditional democratic rule of law. Plus, there remains a deep sense of distrust of the U.S. among many Latin American politicians and leaders. (Los Angeles Times)
California gasoline prices continued to fall after reaching record highs in many regions last week amid refinery outages across California. In Los Angeles, the average price of gas Tuesday fell by about 4 cents from Monday, to $6.36 a gallon, a significant day-over-day drop that the metro area hasn’t seen in about a decade. (Los Angeles Times)
Average ACT Score For the High School Class of 2022 Declines to Lowest Level in More Than 30 Years: More than 40% of seniors meet none of the college-readiness benchmarks as decline in college readiness continues among U.S. high school graduates. (ACT.org)
Economy
Study: When companies hire Black CEOs, their stock jumps. Researchers say it’s because they’re ‘not playing on a level playing field’ and are overqualified by the time they reach the top. Researchers reviewing CEO appointments from 2001 to 2020 found that a median-size firm appointing a Black chief executive saw an extra short-term bump of 3.1 percent to their market capitalization three days following the announcement. Firms that appointed White CEOs saw their market capitalization decline 0.91 percent in the same window by comparison. The boost is a reflection of investor ease with Black executives whose credentials often surpass their White peers (Washington Post, Strategic Management Journal)
Fed fearful of doing ‘too little’ to stamp out soaring inflation: Central bankers signal intention to press ahead with aggressive campaign to tighten monetary policy. (Financial Times)
More UK households will suffer with mortgage bills, Bank of England predicts. (The Times)
54 countries at debt breaking point: Fifty-four developing economies, accounting for more than half of the world’s poorest people, are careening towards default, for what UNDP says are reasons out of their control. But the finance ministers and central bankers aren’t devoting much attention to those issues. This week’s IMF and World Bank meetings “will inevitably be dominated by short term crisis management and geopolitical division. We are struggling to have a communique agreed, we may end up defaulting to chair summaries. This is how serious the divisions are,” Achim Steiner, UNDP head, said. (Politico Global Insider)
Emerging-market debt breaches 250% of GDP, making it G-20 focus. (Nikkei Asia Review)
Disneyland is raising its prices — again. A year after the theme park raised prices, single-day tickets to Disneyland and neighboring California Adventure Park will increase again by as much as 9%, with an 11% rise in price for preferred parking. (Los Angeles Times)
Asia funding plummets in Q3: Venture funding in Asia sank to its lowest level in 10 quarters as the region felt the full effects of the private market pullback. Investors slowed funding by 26% from second-quarter 2022 and by an astonishing 56% from the third quarter of last year. (Crunchbase)
Technology
U.S. Suppliers Halt Operations at Top Chinese Memory Chip Maker: Tool makers are pulling out staff and pausing work as they assess the impact of Commerce Department restrictions on semiconductor exports to China. (Wall Street Journal)
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has secured a one-year license to continue ordering American chipmaking equipment for its expansion in China after the U.S. rolled out tough export controls to block Beijing's tech ambitions. (Nikkei Asia Review)
Microsoft Forms New Team to Target ‘Industrial Metaverse’: Microsoft’s plan to use the metaverse to spice up decidedly unglamorous applications in factories and other industrial settings is beginning to take shape. Last week, Microsoft internally announced the formation of a new team, Industrial Metaverse Core, that plans to help customers create immersive new software interfaces for operating the industrial control systems behind electrical power plants, industrial robotics and transportation networks. The group’s offerings for industrial customers will include technology from Bonsai, a startup Microsoft acquired in 2018. Bonsai was developing a general-purpose application development service and simulation software that noncoders could use to add machine learning to industrial systems, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. (The Information)
Meta Meets Microsoft: It’s difficult to overstate what a massive win this feels like for Microsoft. The company will have a privileged position on what is for now the most advanced headset with the most resources behind it, not because it is paying for the privilege but because it is the most obvious go-to-market for this new technology. (Stratechery)
First big move to a virtual workplace: Meta this week rolled out the most advanced, widely available virtual reality glasses ever — and found a rival/partner to bring them into your home office: Microsoft. (Axios)
Mark Zuckerberg takes veiled shots at Apple after releasing $1,499 VR headset. (CNBC)
Apple’s Mixed-Reality Plans Have Mark Zuckerberg Sweating. (The Information)
Microsoft previews Places, a new app to help companies address hybrid workplace challenges, to be released in 2023 with Microsoft 365 business subscriptions. (GeekWire)
Microsoft announces Edge Workspaces, which lets teams share a set of browser tabs for collaboration, and adds new security and accessibility features to Edge. Microsoft also announces Teams Premium, with some AI-based smart features like meeting recaps and live translations, expected to launch in February 2023. (TechCrunch, The Verge)
Podcast
From Call In, a podcast highlighting inclusive leadership in action:
Putting People First and Hispanic Heritage Month: Leo Pacheco, Branch Manager at Beacon , discusses how Hispanic Heritage Month helps highlight the importance for leaders to put people first all year long — as well as ways companies and leaders can celebrate Hispanic culture at work. (Call In Podcast)
Smart Links
You’re Going to Have to Work Harder to Keep Your Airline Status: Delta is the latest carrier to raise the bar on frequent-flier status. (Wall Street Journal)
New Jersey is still nervous about NYC congestion pricing. (City Lab)
Walmart steps into clinical trials, joining rivals Walgreens, CVS. (Healthcare Dive)
Nigeria says China has held off its pledged financing for 2 railway projects. (South China Morning Post)
Human-to-rat brain tissue implant boosts psychiatric disease research. (Financial Times)
Almost 70% of animal populations wiped out since 1970. (The Guardian)
Mississippi River levels are dropping too low for barges to float. (Washington Post)