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The World
NATO will expand its focus to counter a rising China: Countering the security threat from the rise of China will be an important part of Nato’s future rationale, the alliance’s head has said, marking a significant rethink of the western group’s objectives that reflects the US’s geostrategic pivot to Asia. NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said that while China was not an “adversary”, it was having an impact on European security through its cyber capabilities, new technologies and long-range missiles. How to defend Nato allies from those threats will be “thoroughly” addressed in the alliance’s new doctrine for the coming decade, he said. The military alliance has spent decades focused on countering Russia and, since 2001, terrorism. The new focus on China comes amid a determined shift in the US’s geopolitical orientation away from Europe to a hegemonic conflict with Beijing. (Financial Times)
Russia suspended its mission at NATO and ordered the closure of the alliance’s office in Moscow in retaliation for NATO’s expulsion of Russian diplomats. Earlier this month, NATO withdrew the accreditation of eight Russian officials to its Brussels headquarters, saying it believes they have been secretly working as Russian intelligence officers. NATO also halved the size of Moscow’s team at its headquarters from 20 to 10. Moscow has dismissed the accusations as baseless. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov delivered Moscow’s response Monday, announcing the suspension of Russia’s mission at NATO and the closure of the alliance’s military liaison and information offices in the Russian capital. (Associated Press)
Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Google and parent company Alphabet, said the U.S. government should take a more active role in policing cyberattacks and encouraging innovation with policies and investments. Pichai also appealed to the U.S. government to take an active role in fostering innovation amid rising competition from China. Under Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Communist Party has outlined an ambitious plan to advance the country’s artificial-intelligence capabilities and develop its own semiconductor sector. The ambitions have coincided with a Balkanization of the global internet as China, Russia and others censor content and require tech companies to store data inside their geographic borders. (Wall Street Journal)
Chinese and Indian military commanders are deadlocked over the best way to pull back troops from a strategic area in the Himalayas, raising the prospect for another tense winter along the border. China insisted last week that India pull back thousands of reserve troops and weaponry it brought to the border last year, including in the high-altitude Depsang Plains, amid the worst violence between the nations in decades. India rejected the request during the 13th round of talks to resolve the border standoff. (Bloomberg)
Russia’s Gazprom has damped hopes for additional gas exports to Europe next month as the continent struggles with record prices. UK and European gas prices surged as much as 18 per cent on Monday after a keenly awaited pipeline capacity auction showed no increase from Russia either through the Ukrainian pipeline system or lines passing via Poland to north-west Europe. (Financial Times)
The number of people in Puerto Rico who identified as “white” in the most recent census plummeted almost 80%, sparking a conversation about identity on an island breaking away from a past where race was not tracked and seldom debated in public. (Los Angeles Times)
A “very small number” of Chicago police officers have been placed on no-pay status for refusing to comply with the city’s requirement that they report whether they’ve received a COVID-19 vaccination, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said. (Chicago Tribune)
WSU football coach Nick Rolovich has been fired after refusing to take COVID-19 vaccine. Rolovich came to WSU as a fun-loving coach, known for off-the-wall antics and an ability to win. Less than two years and 11 games later, he is out, now known as the football coach who lost his job for refusing to get a Covid-19 vaccine. (Seattle Times)
Lake Tahoe’s water level has dropped so low that water is no longer flowing into the Truckee River and salmon aren’t expected to spawn in a major tributary this year. (Los Angeles Times)
California has its driest year since 1924. (Wall Street Journal)
Economy
The wealthiest 10% of Americans now own 89% of all U.S. stocks, a record high that highlights the stock market’s role in increasing wealth inequality. The top 1% gained more than $6.5 trillion in corporate equities and mutual fund wealth during the Covid-19 pandemic, while the bottom 90% added $1.2 trillion, according to the latest data from the Federal Reserve. The share of corporate equities and mutual funds owned by the top 10% reached the record high in the second quarter, while the bottom 90% of Americans held about 11% of stocks, down from 12% before the pandemic. (CNBC)
Once again, some of Wall Street’s wealthiest financiers and other luminaries are descending on the Beverly Hilton hotel this week for a Milken Institute Global Conference — a year after COVID-19 forced them to participate virtually from behind their desks. But like much else in the pandemic era, it’s not quite what it was before. (Los Angeles Times)
As US early-stage funding soared, these states outperformed: U.S. early-stage funding has more than doubled year over year in the past two quarters. But not all tech hubs are sharing equally in the gains. At least 11 states have seen early-stage funding more than triple, according to a Crunchbase News analysis of U.S. states with $100 million or more in Series A and B investment. (Crunchbase)
Research: Women leaders took on even more invisible work during the pandemic. They bore the brunt of mission-critical tasks like supporting employees and advancing DEI. But they aren't getting recognized or rewarded for it. (Harvard Business Review)
Green investing looks to clean up the maritime industry: Wall Street is embracing a new kind of environmentally friendly debt aimed at lowering ocean pollution. (Wall Street Journal)
ProShares’ Bitcoin futures-based ETF will begin trading today. The product will be the first bitcoin-linked ETF in the US, as physically backed products still wait for green light. (Blockworks)
Technology
Apple cemented its move away from Intel, unveiling two new high-end laptop computers powered by its own “Apple Silicon” chips. The new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro notebooks, which start at $1,999 and $2,499 each, respectively, both feature the “M1 Pro” chip, an iteration on the first Apple-designed M1 processors introduced a year ago. A top-end 16-inch model with the “M1 Max” chip — a more powerful semiconductor made by Apple and also introduced on Monday — will start at $3,499 and cost up to $6,099. The move gives Apple an even deeper integration of its hardware and software with the intention of allowing developers to create apps that will function across smartphones, laptops and desktops. (Financial Times)
Apple unveiled a new Voice plan for Apple Music that will be $4.99 per month. You can use only your voice and its Siri voice assistant to access all Apple Music content across Apple devices. It will be available later this fall in 17 countries. (The Verge)
Apple’s clampdown on ad tracking has prompted some small online merchants to cut back their ad spending on social media sites like Facebook, which they see as a less effective outlet than in the past. Among the beneficiaries are e-commerce software firms that specialize in collecting data on how consumers behave on merchants’ websites—and then helping merchants use the data to more effectively market to those shoppers. (The Information)
Facial recognition computers have found an unlikely new niche: scanning the faces of thousands of British pupils in school canteens. On Monday, nine schools in North Ayrshire started taking payments for school lunches by scanning the faces of pupils, claiming that the new system speeds up queues and is more Covid-secure than the card payments and fingerprint scanners they used previously. (Financial Times)
Moscow's sprawling metro network launched a fare payment system using facial recognition technology at its more than 240 stations, an initiative the authorities said was the first of its kind in the world. Moscow, a city of 12.7 million, has one of the world's largest video-surveillance systems. (Reuters)
As the news cycle has eased, US media groups have suffered dramatic audience declines, with primetime ratings for cable television news networks CNN and MSNBC falling more than 50% in 3Q21 compared with a year ago. Last year’s cocktail of Donald Trump, a deadly pandemic, the US presidential election and historic racial protests drove a record interest in following the news — propelling cable TV channels, newspapers and other journalistic enterprises to soaring heights of viewership and revenue. Now, these groups face an equally breathtaking fall back down to earth. (Financial Times)
Live Event
Today, 3 pm ET: Meeting with Chris Waller, Federal Reserve Governor. (Register: Stanford University)
Smart Links
States can reserve COVID-19 shots for younger kids this week. (Associated Press)
Psychosis cases soar in England as pandemic hits mental health. (The Guardian)
Would robot umpires have prevented the Wilmer Flores Giants-Dodgers controversy? (Washington Post)
DocuSign wants to fund the future of e-signatures. (Protocol)
Travelers are confessing to using fake vaccine cards to their travel advisers. (Washington Post)