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The World
The last U.S. forces left Afghanistan, ending a 20-year occupation that began shortly after the Al Qaeda attacks on 9/11, cost over $2 trillion, took more than 170,000 lives and ultimately failed to defeat the Taliban, the Islamist militants who allowed Al Qaeda to operate there. President Biden issued a written statement saying he would address the American people Tuesday afternoon. (New York Times, Washington Post)
Russia calls on West to unfreeze Afghanistan’s reserves and pour in aid to rebuild country. (Washington Post)
Taliban takeover causes Afghanistan’s economic meltdown: Prices of everyday essentials such as flour, cooking oil and fuel have surged. Salaries have stopped being paid. Residents in pursuit of cash queue outside banks and at automated teller machines. Since the Taliban took power earlier this month, Afghans have struggled through an economic meltdown, which analysts and aid groups say could spiral into financial collapse and widespread hunger. (Financial Times)
EU member states should reinstate restrictions on U.S. travelers because of rising coronavirus infections and hospitalizations, ministers from all 27 member states have said. The Council of the EU said that “following a review” it had removed the U.S. from its list of countries for which temporary restrictions on non-essential travel should be lifted. (Financial Times)
Ford CEO Jim Farley claims that a mask mandate in factories—an agreement made in August between GM, Ford, Stellantis and the UAW—is contributing to absenteeism rates that can exceed 20%. (CNN)
Europe may see 236,000 deaths by December, WHO fears: Stagnating vaccination rates and accelerated transmission of the virus could contribute to over a quarter of a million Europeans dying from coronavirus-related problems before Christmas. (Deutsche Welle)
Huge decrease in organ transplants as Covid took hold across world: An international study showed the overall number of kidney, liver, lung, and heart transplants from human donors fell by 31% during the first wave of Covid-19 across 22 countries. The overall drop was almost 16% by the end of 2020, with more than 11,200 fewer transplants carried out. (The Guardian)
German inflation has risen to its highest level since 2008, driven by rebounding economic activity, higher energy prices and disruption to global supply chains. Germany’s harmonized index of consumer prices rose to 3.4% in August from a year earlier, up from 3.1% in July. The increase is likely to intensify concerns that the eurozone’s ultra-loose monetary policy could cause its largest economy to overheat. (Financial Times)
China’s Generation N: the young nationalists who have Beijing’s back. Nationalism has been on the rise, encouraged by the Communist Party and put to effective use by President Xi Jinping. Younger generations’ perceptions and expectations of their country differ from those of the past, offering the government support but also challenges. (South China Morning Post)
Hate crimes in the U.S. rose about 6% last year, fueled by an increase in anti-Asian, anti-Black and antiwhite incidents, according to FBI statistics released Monday, reaching levels not seen in more than a decade. State and local police reported 7,759 criminal incidents in 2020 motivated by bias, amid a global pandemic and a racial reckoning prompted by the murder of George Floyd in May 2020. The number of such episodes last year matched levels last seen in 2008, and a rash of high-profile incidents have continued this year. (Wall Street Journal)
The entire city of South Lake Tahoe and surrounding areas along the west and south shores have been ordered to evacuate due to the raging Caldor Fire, which has been creeping toward the lake for more than two weeks. (Sacramento Bee)
Economy
With the latest wave of return-to-office delays from Covid-19, some companies are considering a new possibility: Offices may be closed for nearly two years. That is raising concerns among executives that the longer people stay at home, the harder or more disruptive it could be to eventually bring them back. Many employees developed new routines during the pandemic, swapping commuting for exercise or blocking hours for uninterrupted work. Even staffers who once bristled at doing their jobs outside of an office have come to embrace the flexibility and productivity of at-home life over the past 18 months, many say. Surveys have shown that enthusiasm for remote work has only increased as the pandemic has stretched on. (Wall Street Journal)
Boston Consulting Group will no longer fly prospective graduate hires across Europe to be wined and dined on international trips, highlighting the trend of companies attempting to reduce their carbon footprint. Future events will now be held either domestically or in international locations accessible by train as the group seeks to reduce its carbon emissions. (Financial Times)
Direct listings have paid off for investors so far: Tech companies that have made their debuts on U.S. exchanges through direct listings have, on average, outperformed the S&P 500. (Wall Street Journal)
China’s services activity contracted in August, further adding to evidence of a slowing economy after they key indicator missed expectations. The official non-manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) – which measures morale in the services and construction sectors – fell to 47.5 in August, from 53.3 in July. The figure was below the median forecast of a Bloomberg survey of analysts, which had predicted a fall to 51.9. It is the lowest figure since the index slumped to an all-time low of 29.6 in February 2020 after China began lockdowns to control the pandemic. (South China Morning Post)
China's increased scrutiny of capital markets isn't restricted to tech IPOs. It's also taking a harder look at private funds. China's top securities regulator, Yi Huiman, said in a speech that VC and buyout fund managers must better align their interests with those of limited partners, adding that the government is dedicated to rooting out embezzlement and public equities masquerading as private equities. Huiman also decried public solicitation for private funds, which he said are at "in a critical period of transformation and development." (Axios)
Hong Kong’s central bank and top financial regulator are developing a system to track dangerously concentrated exposures to stocks as part of efforts to prevent an Archegos Capital-style blow-up. The project, which was launched in the wake of the debacle at the family office run by Bill Hwang, will use centralized trade databases to identify excessive risk-taking by banks and investment funds trading derivatives on Hong Kong markets. (Financial Times)
Cleveland Clinic reported an operating profit of $339.5 million in 2Q21, compared to an operating loss of $201.8 million in the same period a year ago, when the hospital system was significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the suspension of non-essential procedures between mid-March and early May. (Healthcare Dive)
Technology
China is banning children from playing online games for more than three hours a week, the harshest restriction so far on the game industry as Chinese regulators continue cracking down on the technology sector. Minors in China can only play games between 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Fridays, weekends and on public holidays starting Sept. 1. The new regulation affects some of China’s largest technology companies, including gaming giant Tencent, whose Honor of Kings online multiplayer game is hugely popular globally, as well as gaming company NetEase. (Associated Press)
Private tutors are upset about China's new education rules, particularly the one banning companies from hiring foreign teachers outside the country to teach domestic students. (Protocol)
Apple plans to let you connect your iPhone to satellites so you can contact emergency services in areas that don’t have cellular coverage. One feature, called Emergency Message via Satellite, will let you text emergency services and emergency contacts when you don’t have a cell signal by harnessing a satellite network. These messages will have a length limit and be represented as a grey bubble instead of the green used for SMS messages and the blue used for iMessages. And when you’re sending one of these messages to an emergency contact, it will reportedly push through even if they have Do Not Disturb mode turned on, which could help ensure that your message is seen. (The Verge)
Avatars are emerging as the killer app for NFTs. NFT buyers are increasingly spending big on digital characters they can use in Twitter profile pictures, as in-game avatars, and to stake their spot and character in online spaces. If the metaverse is coming, everybody's going to need an avatar. And while some companies race to turn us all into ever-more-realistic digital versions of ourselves, the NFT world is cashing in on the idea that actually, what everyone wants is to be a lion. Or an ape. But mostly they want to be part of a club, to have something that confers status and exclusivity, that is both totally recognizable and still one of one. (Source Code)
Video communications giant Zoom reported its fiscal Q2 2022 earnings after the bell, beating analysts' expectations on the top and bottom line. But the company's growth has slowed as businesses and schools reopen. The company's stock was down over 10% in after-hours trading. (Yahoo! Finance)
Smart Links
Goldman Sachs estimates 750K households face eviction after moratorium ends. (Axios)
The rise of Elad Gil, Silicon Valley’s biggest solo venture capitalist. (The Information)
Study: Even moderate drinking can increase A-fib risk. (New York Times)
Pool demand exploded in the U.S. during Covid — even in Chicago. (Wall Street Journal)
30 kph max: Paris shrinks speed limit to protect climate. (Associated Press)