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The World
President Biden plans to visit Israel on Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said in Israel in the early hours of Tuesday, setting up an extraordinary trip to a grieving nation on the brink of invading Gaza, the Palestinian territory already driven into a desperate humanitarian crisis by Israeli strikes that followed Hamas terrorist attacks. The trip will be a remarkable gamble, demonstrating American solidarity with Israel and signaling that reinforcement to Iran, Syria and Hezbollah at a time of increasing anxiety about a regional war. But it also ties Mr. Biden, and the United States, to the bloodshed in Gaza, where two million people are trapped and critical supplies are dwindling. (New York Times)
Iran says an expansion of the war “was increasingly becoming unavoidable, a signal the main backer of the Palestinian militant group was preparing for a wider conflict. ‘The time for political solutions is running out and the possible expansion of the war on other fronts is approaching the inevitable stage,’ Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian wrote on X.” (Bloomberg)
Some business leaders are pushing back “against institutions over where they stand on Israel. Wealthy donors are seeking to punish universities for allowing what they view as a weak response to antisemitism,” and some tech executives are threatening to withdraw from next month’s Web Summit conference “over comments by the confab’s C.E.O. suggesting that Israel has committed war crimes.” (New York Times)
“As the war unfolds, deep divisions have resurfaced between the Washington-led West and the Global South,” where many government leaders have criticized Israel “for occupying Palestinian territory and subjecting Palestinians to apartheid-like discrimination and oppression.” (South China Morning Post)
Putin Arrives in China to Meet Xi on Rare International Trip: President Vladimir Putin has arrived in Beijing, according to Chinese state media, a rare trip abroad for the Russian leader who has an arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Ukraine. Putin is expected to attend the Belt and Road forum, CGTN reported. He is also set to meet President Xi Jinping on Wednesday, Russia’s Interfax said earlier. (Bloomberg)
China is hosting representatives of 130 countries for a summit marking the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative, the “global international infrastructure scheme which is seen as a key pillar of President Xi Jinping's efforts to extend China's international reach.” (DW)
The Belt and Road Initiative “came at the ‘right time’ for boosting Africa's development” according to African Union Commission trade and industry chief Albert Muchanga, who “played down concerns that it was a debt trap for poor countries.” (Nikkei Asia)
Satellite imagery showing Russian ships collecting cargo from North Korea and delivering it “to an apparent Russian military port on multiple occasions over the past two months” is providing “the clearest evidence yet that Pyongyang may be helping Moscow’s war effort” in Ukraine. (Washington Post)
Polish opposition looks set to oust ruling nationalists in major political shift: Poland's liberal, pro-EU opposition on Monday looked on track to form the next government after official partial results and exit polls showed the ruling nationalists losing their parliamentary majority in the nation's most pivotal election in decades. The incumbent Law and Justice (PiS) party has repeatedly clashed with the European Union over the rule of law, media freedom, migration and LGBT rights since it swept to power in 2015. Opposition parties have vowed to mend ties with Brussels and scrap reforms they say have eroded Polish democracy. (Reuters)
The U.S. and Venezuela have reportedly “agreed to a deal in which the U.S. would ease sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry and the authoritarian state would allow a competitive, internationally monitored presidential election next year.” (Washington Post)
“The deal coincides with the restart of long-stalled talks” between President Nicolás Maduro and the opposition that are “expected to involve the signing of an agreement that will include specific pledges to organise fair elections in 2024, including allowing international electoral observations and opening up media access.” (Times of London)
European Union leaders offered a growth plan to six Balkan nations at a summit in Tirana, “opening parts of the EU single market and asking for deep-rooted reforms ahead of membership in the bloc” for Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia. (Associated Press)
Shifts in global bond markets are putting the federal government “on track to spend much more on interest payments in the coming years than was anticipated just a few months ago. If current rates stay high and fiscal policy matches current forecasts,” the cost of servicing the national debt “will surpass defense spending in 2025 and top Medicare spending in 2026.” (Axios)
Economy
“Sales of previously owned homes in 2023 are expected to dwindle to a rate not seen since at least 2011, when the U.S. population was smaller and the country was still recovering from one of the worst housing crises ever.” (Wall Street Journal)
“Unlike their counterparts in other rich nations, Americans have been burning through their pandemic-era cushion of extra cash.” While “having a smaller stash for a rainy day may be risky” for any one individual, “in the aggregate, the U.S. consumer's propensity to spend has made America's pandemic recovery the strongest among major economies.” (Axios)
Rite Aid has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection “and plans to sell part of its business as it attempts to restructure while dealing with losses and opioid-related lawsuits.” The company “continue to fill prescriptions, and customers will still be able to visit its locations or shop online.” (Associated Press)
“Rite Aid plans to use the bankruptcy to resolve its legal disputes and also sell some of its businesses, including prescription benefit manager Elixir Solutions that it bought in 2015 for $2 billion.” (USA Today)
Ford Motor Executive Chair Bill Ford is warning that the United Auto Workers strike “threatens the future livelihood of the company as well as the American automotive industry. Ford, who has been a part of UAW negotiations since 1982, pleaded with union members and leaders to work with the company, instead of against it, to reach a tentative deal to ‘end to this acrimonious round of talks.’” (CNBC)
Ford is laying off about 700 workers “who build the F-150 Lightning, the electric version of its best-selling pickup truck,” but “unlike other recent layoffs this one has nothing to do with the ongoing strike.” Ford said the layoff is related to “multiple constraints” including supply chain and delivery issues. (CNN)
Global wheat prices are close to a three-year low “as Russia pushes exports of a bumper crop, easing food inflation while driving up concerns about an overreliance on Russian grain. Benchmark wheat futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange are hovering in the high $5 range per bushel.” (Nikkei Asia)
Goldman Sachs Wants Out of Consumer Lending. Employees Say It Can’t Happen Fast Enough. Some senior executives at Goldman want out of what remains of consumer lending—namely, the Apple credit card and other Apple products, and the General Motors credit card, according to people familiar with the matter. No decision has been made. Goldman has held conversations with American Express, The Wall Street Journal previously reported. (Wall Street Journal)
American Work-From-Home Rates Drop to Lowest Since the Pandemic: The push by employers to get American workers back into the office appears to be working. Fewer than 26% of US households still have someone working remotely at least one day a week, a sharp decline from the early-2021 peak of 37%, according to the two latest Census Bureau Household Pulse Surveys. Only seven states plus Washington, DC, have a remote-work rate above 33%, the data shows, down from 31 states and DC mid-pandemic. (Bloomberg)
Technology
Apple’s new iPhone 15 is selling far worse in China than its predecessor, according to separate analyses, reflecting stubbornly weak consumption as well as the rise of rivals like Huawei Technologies Co. Sales of Apple’s flagship device are down 4.5% compared with the iPhone 14 over their first 17 days after release, market tracker Counterpoint Research estimated in previously unreported figures provided to Bloomberg News. Jefferies analysts led by Edison Lee reckoned sales of the iPhone 15 were down by an even sharper double-digit percentage from its predecessor after Huawei outsold Apple overall, powered by the surprising debut of the Mate 60 Pro. (Bloomberg)
Netflix is expanding its games streaming beta test to the U.S. The feature, “which lets you play games streamed from the cloud on devices like your TV or a computer, launched first in August in Canada and the UK.” But U.S. beta test is a “limited” one, “so it seems like this won’t be available to too many people to start.” (The Verge)
The streaming company “is deepening its push into the videogame industry, taking advantage of the studios it has acquired in the past two years to create more titles based on popular Netflix movies and TV shows. Though Netflix has up to now focused on mobile games — which appeal to casual gamers and can be downloaded on a smartphone or tablet — it is taking steps to expand into higher-end games that can be streamed from TVs or PCs,” which would put it in competition with “giants such as Sony and Microsoft.” (Wall Street Journal)
LinkedIn plans to lay off 668 staff, mostly from its engineering team, after cutting 716 jobs in May 2023; a source says LinkedIn is ramping up hiring in India. (CNBC)
Stack Overflow lays off 100+ people, or 28% of its workforce, to “significantly” reduce its “go-to-market organization”, after doubling its size to 500+ in 2022. (The Verge)
Sweetgreen has introduced a salad-making robot “that shoots kale, cheese and other ingredients down tubes into bowls traveling on a conveyor belt.” The salad chain intends to eventually have such robots “staff all of its new restaurants, working alongside human employees.” (Wall Street Journal)
Smart Links
Remington Arms signed a product-placement deal with Activision to put one of its rifles in the “Call of Duty” series. (Wall Street Journal)
The Nissan Leaf is eligible for a $3,750 federal tax credit for the remainder of 2023. (Ars Technica)
Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health is building a team of TikTok influencers. (New York Times)
Lego: the brick behemoth that wants to be as big as Disney. (Financial Times)