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The World
President Biden announced $325 million in additional aid to Ukraine during President Volodymyr Zelensky's White House visit Thursday. Zelensky's visit “comes at a crucial moment for Ukraine, as it seeks to shore up support and secure additional funding for its counteroffensive against Russia.” Zelensky also had a closed-door meeting with senators, “many of whom publicly praised the wartime leader afterward.” (Axios)
“The Pentagon will exempt its Ukraine operations from a potential shutdown if lawmakers can’t agree on a deal to fund the government by the end of the month, allowing key training and other activities in support of Kyiv’s forces to move ahead uninterrupted.” (Politico)
Chinese jet fighters and warships have been engaging in training exercises in the air and waters around Taiwan. Taiwanese authorities and defense analysts say China “is trying to sharpen its ability to encircle Taiwan, neutralize the island’s natural advantages and block the U.S. from coming to the rescue in the event of an invasion.” During one day this week, Taiwan’s military “detected 103 Chinese military aircraft in areas around the island, a recent high, including 40 that entered the island’s air-defense identification zone. The next day 55 Chinese aircraft flew sorties near Taiwan.” (Wall Street Journal)
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol warned the UN General Assembly that Russian weapons assistance to North Korea in return for assistance for its war in Ukraine “would be ‘a direct provocation’ and Seoul and its allies would not stand idly by.” Yoon said, “It is paradoxical that a permanent member of the UN Security Council, entrusted as the ultimate guardian of world peace, would wage war by invading another sovereign nation and receive arms and ammunition from a regime that blatantly violates UN Security Council resolutions.” (Reuters)
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told the UN General Assembly that Mideast peace “would be impossible without a Palestinian state, as Israel-Saudi normalization is showing clear signs of moving ahead.” Abbas said, “Those who think peace can prevail in the Middle East without the Palestinian people enjoying their full legitimate and national rights would be mistaken.” (Times of Israel)
The possibility of formal diplomatic relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia “now seems in reach.” (Washington Post)
India has halted the issuing of new visas to Canadians as tensions continue to rise in the wake of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s accusation that Narendra Modi’s government played a role in the assassination of a Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia. Indian journalist Rahul Kanwal described the move as a “diplomatic ballistic missile,” saying Modi’s government is in an “all-out attack mode against Canada.” (Semafor)
“India issued an advisory warning Indians considering travel to Canada to ‘exercise utmost caution’ due to ‘growing anti-India activities and politically-condoned hate crimes and criminal violence in Canada.’” (Axios)
African leaders are calling for an overhaul of the global financial system. Kenyan President William Ruto said on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly that “there was ‘a need to rethink, to reimagine and to reconfigure’ the approach to financial markets,” while Nigerian President Bola Tinubu said in an address to the UNGA, “Continental efforts regarding climate change will register important victories if established economies were more forthcoming with public and private sector investment for Africa’s preferred initiative.” (Semafor)
A new White House directive “would, for the first time, have federal agencies consider the economic damage caused by climate change when deciding what kinds of vehicles, equipment and goods to buy.” The changes “could shift purchases for the federal government’s fleet of roughly 600,000 cars and trucks from gasoline-powered to all-electric vehicles, redirect the flow of billions of dollars of government grants and reshape or kill some major construction projects.” (New York Times)
The U.S. House went into recess Thursday without progress on crucial funding measures. Without action, the federal government will shut down at the end of the month. Democrats are blaming divisions within the GOP caucus for the turmoil. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters, “They need to end their civil war because it’s hurting the American people. I’m not saying they all have to like each other. But we should be able to figure out a way to get the business of the American people done.” (CNBC)
Economy
Ninety-two-year-old Rupert Murdoch will step down as chair of Fox and News Corp in November. He will become chairman emeritus of both companies, with his son Lachlan succeeding him in the leadership of both. In a memo to staff, Murdoch wrote, “For my entire professional life, I have been engaged daily with news and ideas, and that will not change. But the time is right for me to take on different roles.” (Wall Street Journal)
His exit comes “at a time of major transition. Fox Corp. sold its entertainment assets to Disney for $71 billion in 2019, leaving it mostly focused on live television news and sports, as the cable industry continues to face record cord-cutting,” and News Corp's business “has expanded in recent years to include more business data and services.” (Axios)
Previously occupied home sales fell by 21% over the past year, following on an 18% decline the year before. New National Association of Realtors data show that “prices continued to rise, with the median sales price climbing 3.9 percent from a year ago to reach $407,100.” (Washington Post)
Payback schedules have been extended on $114 billion worth of U.S. loans this year, the largest total extension since the end of the Great Recession. These “amend and extend” deals involve “pushing out maturity dates by a few years and tossing lenders extra fees in exchange for their flexibility.” (Semafor)
The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to its highest level since 2007 on Thursday “as investors digested the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision and forward guidance along with new unemployment data.” (CNBC)
The UAW strike offers both possibilities and risks for Tesla. “Unencumbered by an activist union, Tesla can take advantage of the work stoppages to add to its substantial lead in battery technology and software.” But the “nationwide resurgence in union activism harbors risks for Tesla” and Elon Musk, who has “attacked and ridiculed unions.” (New York Times)
After 14 consecutive interest rate increases, the Bank of England opted to leave rates unchanged. Rates remain at a 15-year high of 5.25%. Governor of the Bank of England Andrew Bailey said in a statement, “Inflation has fallen a lot in recent months, and we think it will continue to do so. But there is no room for complacency.” (New York Times)
Venture capital firm GGV Capital “is splitting into two independent businesses focused on Asia and the US, three months after rival Sequoia Capital made a similar move in response to mounting political pressure on American tech investors to disengage from China.” GGV has held stakes in major Chinese tech companies including Alibaba, ByteDance, and Xiaomi. (Financial Times)
Two-thirds of U.S. women who gave birth in the previous 12 months “were in the labor force as of 2022, per the latest American Community Survey. That's compared with 66.5% in 2021, and 61.6% in 2010.” (Axios)
Technology
The United Arab Emirates may introduce export licenses “for a list of items including chips and other components that are sanctioned by the US and European Union and used by Russia’s military in Ukraine.” The system “could see licenses withheld for dual-use goods destined for the battlefield, potentially hurting the Kremlin’s ability to feed its war machine.” (South China Morning Post)
DuckDuckGo founder Gabriel Weinberg testified in the Google antitrust trial that it was hard for his company to compete because Google has so many deals to make its search engine the default on devices. Weinberg “testified that getting users to switch from Google was complicated, requiring as many as 30 to 50 steps to change defaults on all their devices.” (Associated Press)
YouTube announced new AI-powered tools for creators, including a feature called Dream Screen that “will create AI-generated videos and photos that creators can place in the background of their YouTube Shorts.” Other features coming soon include AI video topic suggestions and music search and “an AI dubbing feature that will allow creators to dub their videos into other languages.” (The Verge)
In an effort to counter AI-generated books, Amazon is now limiting Kindle Direct Publishing from self-publishing more than three books per day. Earlier this month, Amazon announced a rule requiring authors to inform the company if their material is AI-generated. (Ars Technica)
Smart Links
The Federal Trade Commission has brought its first antitrust suit under Lina Khan’s leadership. (Financial Times)
Qualcomm plans to cut jobs at its Shanghai office. (South China Morning Post)
Yields on short-term Chinese government bonds are rising despite two cuts to a key interest rate. (Nikkei Asia)
Cisco Systems will buy cybersecurity firm Splunk for about $28 billion. (Reuters)
JPMorgan Chase “has racked up nearly $14 million in legal fees defending itself against two lawsuits alleging it abetted the sex trafficking by its longtime customer Jeffrey Epstein.” (CNBC)
Oracle expects to generate about $65 billion in annual revenue by FY 2026. (Bloomberg)