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The World
President Biden condemned Hamas’s attack on Israel as an “an act of sheer evil” that left more than 1,000 civilians dead, including at least 14 U.S. citizens, as his administration weighs how to support America’s closest ally in the Middle East without being pulled into another regional conflict. The Israeli military massed forces on Tuesday for a ground invasion of Gaza, and Israeli officials warned of a lengthy and destructive war. Biden said that the U.S. was providing further military assistance to the country, and the Pentagon is deploying a second aircraft carrier strike group near the region to deter Hezbollah and other militant groups from joining the fight. At the White House, Biden said the U.S. was “surging additional military assistance” to Israel, including ammunition and interceptors for its Iron Dome anti-rocket system. “We stand with Israel, and we will make sure it has what it needs to take care of its citizens, defend itself and respond to this attack,” Biden said. (Wall Street Journal)
American Airlines Suspends Flights to Israel Until Early December: American Airlines won't fly to Tel Aviv again until at least Dec. 5, the latest carrier to extend flight cuts as Israeli officials warned of a lengthy war. Air service to and from the nation has been curtailed as several airlines have suspended or significantly cut back their schedules. Delta Air Lines said Monday that it has halted flights to Tel Aviv through the end of this month. United Airlines has said its Tel Aviv flights would remain suspended “until conditions allow them to resume.” Israeli airline El Al is still flying between the U.S. and Israel. (Wall Street Journal)
African leaders “are trying to walk the line between strongly-held principles, diplomatic expediency, and empathy” in the wake of the war in Israel and Gaza. The presidents of Ghana and Kenya issued “strongly worded statements in support of Israel,” while the leaders of Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda “were more guarded in their statements, calling for an end to hostilities and voicing support for dialogue.” South Africa’s foreign affairs department and African Union Chairperson Moussa Faki both faulted Israel’s treatment of Palestinians for the Hamas attack. (Semafor)
Finnish President Sauli Niinistö said damage to the Balticconnector gas pipeline and a communications cable in the Baltic Sea was likely due to “external activity.” The pipeline Finland and Estonia was shut down early Sunday due to a pressure drop. Niinistö said, “The cause of the damage is not yet clear, the investigation continues in cooperation between Finland and Estonia.” (Washington Post)
Finnish authorities fear that the pipeline was attacked by a Russian vessel, according to a defense official. (Times of London)
China has condemned what it called a “violent attack” on its consulate in San Francisco, where a car smashed through the building’s edifice and came to a stop in the lobby of the visa office. The incident “came amid growing expectations for a meeting between Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping” when the city hosts the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November. (South China Morning Post)
San Francisco police fatally shot the driver after the attack. A witness told a local outlet “that the driver shouted ‘Where’s the CCP (Chinese Communist Party)?’ as he got out of a blue Honda car.” (The Independent)
Some U.S. lawmakers want more restrictions on Chinese seafood imports following an exposé on “grave human rights abuses throughout the country’s fishing industry.” The investigation found that major U.S. grocery and restaurant chains likely received significant volumes of seafood caught by a fishing vessel “on which workers were subjected to extremely harsh, sometimes deadly conditions.” The investigation additionally found that some processing plants rely on forced Uyghur and North Korean labor. (Semafor)
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said during her National Day speech on Tuesday that Taiwan “intends to have ‘peaceful coexistence’ with China,” calling it the “only option.” Tsai is term-limited; her successor will be elected in January. (DW)
Myanmar's military government has been accused of launching an attack on a refugee camp in the northern state of Kachin. The strike reportedly resulted in at least 29 fatalities, making it “one of the deadliest attacks on civilians since the military coup of 2021.” (DW)
The Biden Administration has officially designated July’s military takeover in Niger a coup, “a move that will slash aid and cooperation with a country that had been a rare success story in a region battling Islamist militant insurgencies.” The State Department had been delaying the move as it hoped to find a way to restore deposed President Mohamed Bazoum to power. (Washington Post)
Economy
A sustained rise in long-term Treasury yields could be bringing the Federal Reserve’s historic rate hiking cycle to an anticlimactic end. Top central bank officials have signaled in recent days that they could be done raising short-term interest rates if long-term rates remain near their recent highs and inflation continues to cool. (Wall Street Journal)
The International Monetary Fund expects global GDP to grow by three percent this year, down from 3.5% in 2022. The IMF predicts 2.9% global GDP growth in 2024. “All things considered, the IMF finds that risks to its latest outlook are slightly more balanced compared to six months ago, when the U.S. and Swiss banking crises as well as the specter of a potentially disastrous U.S. debt default cast large shadows over the global economy.” (Statista)
IMF Chief Economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas is urging the Federal Reserve to hold fast on its tight monetary policy. He said in an interview, “What is really important is that monetary policy remains in tightening territory. The cost of easing too early is probably higher than the cost of tightening a little more, especially when you have an economy that keeps surprising to the upside.” (Financial Times)
Emerging market stocks are now at their lowest level in 36 years relative to U.S. equities, “with the latest selloff in shares since July wiping out $1.8 trillion of shareholder wealth.” (Bloomberg)
Restaurant industry employment is now back above its pre-COVID level. However, ZipRecruiter chief economist Julia Pollak says that if the pandemic had not happened, employment in the sector would be at least one million workers more. (Axios)
Russian carmaker Lada will build a plant in northern Ethiopia that will produce 5,000 vehicles per year. With the move, Lada joins the “growing list of international automakers preparing to enter Ethiopia’s fledgling automotive market which has one of the world’s lowest car ownership rates.” (Semafor)
Technology
Meta’s policies on manipulated content are being questioned after Facebook moderators refused to remove an altered video of President Biden. Meta’s independent Oversight Board said it was opening a case even though the video in question was edited without the use of AI. “It touches on the much broader issue of how manipulated media might impact elections in every corner of the world,” said Oversight Board Director Thomas Hughes. (Financial Times)
Thousands of websites that use the WordPress content management system “have been hacked by a prolific threat actor that exploited a recently patched vulnerability” in the widely used tagDiv Composer plugin, which is needed to run two WordPress themes that between them have more than 155,000 downloads. (Ars Technica)
IBM CEO Arvind Krishna says companies that develop AI should be held liable for any harm caused by the technology. Krishna said in an interview, “Two thousand years of economic history have shown us that if you are legally liable for what you create, it tends to create a lot more accountability.” (Politico)
Chipmaker AMD will acquire AI software startup Nod Labs, which “builds open-source technologies ‘for future AI systems.’” (CNBC)
AT&T CEO John Stankey warned that the U.S. is lagging behind China “in terms of deploying a ‘deep spectrum footprint’ that would allow for more seamless online connectivity across the country.” Stankey suggested that by integrating AI into 5G networks, things like road congestion would improve, but warned, “The United States is not in an enviable position right now for the next 10 years.” (Semafor)
Google President, Asia-Pacific Scott Beaumont says the company will explore new markets in the region, focusing on generative AI. “There’s this kind of pivoting understanding that Asia is where the opportunity is,” said Beaumont. (Nikkei Asia)
Huawei aims to double its smartphone sales in 2024, shipping as many as 70 million phones, despite expectations of a further U.S. crackdown. Huawei has been “building up its inventory of lenses, cameras, print circuit boards and other parts since earlier this year to meet that goal.” (Nikkei Asia)
Smart Links
Deliveries of Boeing’s 737 MAX last month fell to the lowest level in more than two years, and production is running at about half the company’s target. (Wall Street Journal)
Ireland is launching a sovereign wealth fund using profits from U.S. tech and pharma firms seeking lower taxes. (Wall Street Journal)
Google is now prompting account users to create a passkey rather than a password for their accounts by default. (The Verge)
SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket is about to become a workhorse for NASA (Ars Technica)
Giant vacuum cleaners will be installed to purify the air for athletes before next summer’s Paris Olympics. (Times of London)
Samsung reports shrinking profits as chip demand falters. (Financial Times)
EV Buyers Can Get Instant $7,500 Tax Credit Starting in 2024. (Wall Street Journal)