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The World
President Biden vowed to defend Taiwan in the face of a potential Chinese aggression, in the latest sign of mounting military tensions between Washington and Beijing. Biden’s comments were made during a wide-ranging televised town hall hosted by CNN, which covered pivotal tax-and-spending negotiations on Capitol Hill, as well as rising prices including for energy. “I don’t want a cold war with China. I just want to make China understand that we are not going to step back, we are not going to change any of our views,” Biden said. When asked if the US would come to Taiwan’s defence in the event of a Chinese attack, he responded: “Yes, we have a commitment to do that.” (Financial Times)
Taiwan's position remains the same, which is it will neither give in to pressure nor "rashly advance" when it gets support, the presidential office said after Biden’s comments. Taiwan will show a firm determination to defend itself, presidential office spokesman Xavier Chang said. (Reuters)
The Boston Celtics are facing blowback in China after center Enes Kanter posted a video voicing his support for Tibetan independence. The reaction was swift. The Chinese video-streaming giant Tencent cut the live broadcast of Wednesday’s NBA game between the Celtics and the New York Knicks. On Thursday, Chinese social media was filled with angry fans calling for a boycott. (Washington Post)
President Biden said he would consider deploying the National Guard to assist with supply-chain bottlenecks that have led to shortages and higher consumer costs, if his administration is unable to ease the problem. “The answer is yes, if we can’t move—increase the number of truckers, which we’re in the process of doing,” Biden said. Biden also said he was open to ending the Senate filibuster so Democrats could pass voting rights legislation, raise the federal debt limit and possibly enact other parts of his agenda that had been blocked by Republicans. (Wall Street Journal, New York Times)
As the U.S. and nations around the world struggle to blunt the effects of rising temperatures and extreme weather, sweeping assessments by the White House, the U.S. intelligence community and the Pentagon conclude that climate change will exacerbate long-standing threats to global security. Together, the reports show a deepening concern within the U.S. security establishment that the shifts unleashed by climate change can reshape U.S. strategic interests, offer new opportunities to rivals such as China, and increase instability in nuclear states such as North Korea and Pakistan. (Washington Post)
People in Britain are their most downbeat since they were under lockdown in February, and are increasingly worried about the year to come as prices and COVID cases rise, according to a long-running survey. The GfK Consumer Confidence Index fell for a third month in a row to -17 in October, its lowest since February, from -13 in September. (Reuters)
Southwest Airlines and American Airlines CEOs said they don’t expect to fire unvaccinated workers, softening their tone as the deadline for a federal mandate approaches. Starting Dec. 8, the Biden administration will require federal contractors, including those two carriers, Delta, United and others, to ensure that their staff are vaccinated against Covid-19 unless employees are granted an exemption for medical or religious reasons. (CNBC)
A booster shot of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine is 95.6% effective against Covid-19 compared with two shots and a placebo, the companies said, citing preliminary results from the first randomized, controlled trial on boosters. (Financial Times)
More than 100 city workers are suing Chicago over its vaccine mandate as the police union and City Hall show no signs of backing down in stalemate. (Chicago Tribune)
Walkouts and strikes hit hospitals in pandemic hot spots: There have been at least 30 strikes of health care workers so far this year, according to a tracker from Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. More than a half million health care workers quit in August, the last month for which data is available. That’s the most in a single month in more than 20 years. (Politico)
An Amazon employee group formed by warehouse workers in Staten Island announced its goal to vote on unionization, becoming the latest labor-organizing effort from workers at one of the nation’s largest employers. The organizing involves more than 2,000 workers across four Amazon facilities in Staten Island who have signed on to the effort. (Wall Street Journal)
Why so many teachers are thinking of quitting: One in four American teachers reported considering leaving their job by the end of the last academic year, in a survey taken in January and February by the Rand Corp., a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization. That’s “more than in a typical prepandemic year and at a higher rate than employed adults nationally,” the report explained. Teachers, in general, “were more likely to report experiencing frequent job-related stress and symptoms of depression than the general population.” The study also noted that Black teachers were particularly affected. (Washington Post)
Economy
Russia can start supplies of natural gas to Europe via the Nord Stream 2 pipeline as soon as it gets the green light from Germany, President Vladimir Putin said, blaming the gas crisis and record high prices on the EU's energy policy. Meanwhile, China coal prices dive 13% as Beijing plans to intervene to ease power crunch. (Reuters)
Tenet sees widespread volume recovery, again raises forecast: The for-profit hospital operator reported that visits to its emergency rooms were up a whopping 25% compared with the prior-year period, reaching 97% of pre-pandemic levels. (Healthcare Dive)
NY Fed's Williams says rising home prices don't pose financial stability risks. (Reuters)
The waitlist for Robinhood’s recently announced crypto wallet now has more than 1 million customers, CEO Vlad Tenev said, demonstrating cryptocurrencies’ increasing importance to the trading app. (CNBC)
The stock price of SPAC company Digital World Acquisition Corp. skyrocketed on extremely heavy trading volume after news of a merger that would launch former President Trump’s planned social media platform, "Truth Social." DWAC’s stock surged 356.8% to close at $35.54 per share. Trading in the SPAC was halted multiple times due to volatility. At one point, the stock was up more than 400% to hit a high of $52. (CNBC)
Cryptocurrency exchange FTX raised $420 million in a new round of funding valuing the company at $25 billion from a total of 69 investors including the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, Singapore’s Temasek, BlackRock and Sequoia. The numbers “420” and “69″ are a nod to meme culture. Meanwhile, Brex, which offers credit cards tailored to startups, raises $300M at a $12.3B valuation, following a $425M Series D at a $7.4B valuation in April. (CNBC, TechCrunch, The Information)
Technology
Advertisers are hitting the brakes—hard. That’s the message today from Snap, the first of the digital ad companies to report third-quarter earnings. A combination of Apple’s ad-targeting clampdown and knock-on effects from supply shortages are expected to sharply slow fourth-quarter ad growth, Snap executives warned. It was a sobering portent for Facebook, Alphabet and all other media firms reporting their earnings in the coming weeks. And it’s a stunning reversal of fortunes for the digital ad market, which had been growing like gangbusters as recently as the second quarter. Investors certainly were caught flat-footed, judging from the 22% plunge in Snap’s stock price—and smaller declines in both Facebook and Alphabet shares. (The Information)
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said it launched an inquiry on consumer data practices at Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook, and other firms. The move opens a new front in Washington’s scrutiny of the companies. The bureau issued orders seeking information from the companies that would help it “better understand how these firms use personal payments data and manage data access to users.” All of the companies are engaged in consumer-facing financial services or have ambitions to expand in that sector. (Wall Street Journal)
Facebook’s Oversight Board said the company had “not been fully forthcoming” about its system for reviewing content related to high-profile users. The board said that the company's failure to be transparent about the two-track system it uses to vet posts by high-profile users — known internally as "cross-check" — was "not acceptable." (Protocol)
Apple device shortages threaten record-setting holiday blitz: Shoppers looking for Apple Inc. devices this holiday season are facing a chilly reality: Most everything they might want to buy will take weeks to arrive. Orders for the company’s newest products -- the iPhone 13, iPad mini, ninth-generation iPad, Apple Watch Series 7 and MacBook Pro -- won’t be fulfilled until November or December. Even some older devices, including the iMac announced in April, the Mac Pro and some pricier configurations of the MacBook Air, are seeing delays. (Yahoo! Finance)
Apple could be the next target of new Chinese government rules forcing U.S. companies to store more user data in the country, analysts and legal experts say. Those rules have so far forced Tesla to store local driver data in China and contributed to LinkedIn pulling back from its operations there. Legal experts say Chinese authorities are likely to pressure Apple to store more data about its Chinese users in China, where local law enforcement officials can potentially access it. (The Information)
Smart Links
Lyft says 1,807 sexual assaults occurred in rides in 2019. (New York Times)
What the restaurants of the future will look like (Eater)
How free on-site childcare slashed turnover at my small business. (Fast Company)
Graduate school applications rose 7.3% in fall 2020. (Higher Ed Dive)
Hawaii welcomes travelers back beginning Nov. 1. (Wall Street Journal)
China boots Caixin financial news from approved media list. (Associated Press)
Will U.S. kids get their toys on time? (GZERO Media)