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The World
The clock is ticking on House Democrats as they barrel toward an uncertain, scheduled vote Thursday on a $1 trillion bill to improve the nation’s infrastructure — a top priority of President Biden that some in his party are still threatening to oppose. (Washington Post)
The EU and U.S. unveiled an alliance to sharpen their modern arsenals for tackling China on trade and technology. The agreement in Pittsburgh, however, was reached only after some last-minute haggling and a diplomatic stand-off involving France and the US. The United States-European Union Trade and Technology Council (TTC), first announced in June, aims to reduce their shared reliance on China’s manufacturing juggernaut while strengthening their respective domestic supply chains involving strategic technologies. While China is not mentioned in the 17-page joint statement – EU officials insist the council is not aimed at any single country – it is a clear focus of the new grouping. (South China Morning Post)
Eric Zemmour, an anti-immigration television commentator, surged in the latest opinion poll ahead of next year’s French presidential election, and threatens to displace far-right leader Marine Le Pen as the main candidate to challenge the incumbent Emmanuel Macron. Zemmour garnered 13% of voting intentions for the first round of the April election, up from 7% when he was first included as a possible candidate three weeks ago. Le Pen has slumped to 16% from as high as 28% in the summer. (Financial Times)
The CDC reports that the side effects from booster doses could be similar to those from the second shot of the vaccine — with commonly reported symptoms including arm pain, fatigue and headaches. (NBC News)
AT&T is extending its vaccination requirement to tens of thousands of employees who are members of the Communications Workers of America union. (New York Times)
Doctors and pharmacies are rapidly signing up patients for Covid-19 booster shots, many without requiring proof of eligibility under standards that federal officials set last week. (Wall Street Journal)
Los Angeles is considering a sweeping law requiring adult customers to show proof of full Covid-19 vaccination to enter a wide array of public places, including indoor restaurants, coffee shops, gyms, shopping centers, museums, movie theaters and hair and nail salons.” (Los Angeles Times)
A new study that infected willing participants with common cold and flu viruses provides the most rigorous evidence yet that wearable health monitors could predict infections, even before a person starts experiencing symptoms. (STAT News, JAMA)
YouTube will block all anti-vaccine content, moving beyond its ban on false information about the COVID vaccines to include content that contains misinformation about other approved vaccines. Examples of content that won't be allowed on YouTube include claims that the flu vaccine causes infertility and that the MMR shot, which protects against measles, mumps, and rubella, can cause autism, according to YouTube's policies. The online video company is also banning channels associated with several prominent anti-vaccine activists including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Joseph Mercola. (Reuters)
Russia has threatened to ban YouTube and block German news media websites after the American site removed two online channels run by RT, the Kremlin-funded television station. YouTube said that it had deleted RT’s German-language channels, RT DE and Der Fehlende Part, for repeated breaches of its policies on spreading misinformation about the coronavirus. The decision provoked a furious reaction in Moscow. (The Times)
China has drawn up a plan to bring algorithms under state control in sign of tightened censorship. A three-year plan jointly published by nine central government bodies asks local authorities to regulate the use of algorithms and uphold communist ideology. China wants tighter control over how content recommendation algorithms shape online discussions among its 1 billion internet users. (South China Morning Post)
Japan’s next leader offers few bold solutions to big problems: The country’s governing party, with a stranglehold on power, bucked the wishes of the public to select a moderate mainstay when it chose Fumio Kishida. Kishida has sought to distinguish himself from the unpopular departing prime minister of Japan, but has struggled to connect with the public. (New York Times)
Kishidanomics promises 'virtuous growth cycle' with redistribution: Japan's presumed next prime minister, Fumio Kishida, has positioned a "virtuous cycle of growth and distribution" of wealth as the centerpiece of his economic policy, but he also signaled the status quo in many areas, such as sticking with Abenomics to defeat deflation. (Nikkei Asian Review)
GB stickers reach the end of the road: Motorists taking their cars to Europe will now need to display a UK number plate or sticker as the GB sticker is no longer valid. The change aims to include Northern Ireland in the wake of Brexit as the term Great Britain refers to the union of England, Wales and Scotland alone. The United Nations said in July that it had received “a notification stating that the United Kingdom is changing the sign that it had previously selected for display in international traffic on vehicles registered in the United Kingdom, from GB to UK.” (The Times)
Economy
Four of the world’s leading central bankers warned supply bottlenecks are likely to last longer than expected and said they are watching for as-yet unrealized signs of them spawning a self-fulfilling cycle of higher expected inflation and wage increases. U.S. Fed Chair Jay Powell said it was “frustrating” that supply-chain bottlenecks were holding back the recovery of the world’s largest economy and have helped to fuel more elevated price pressures as they have intensified. His warnings echoed similar comments from European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde, Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey and Bank of Japan governor Haruhiko Kuroda. (Financial Times)
Shoppers have been warned to expect a “nightmare” Christmas with limited stock on the shelves and higher prices amid labour shortages and shipping problems. Many families will be forced to eat meat other than turkey on Christmas Day and presents under the tree may not meet expectations with delays to the import of toys, bikes and electrical items. (The Times)
Large college endowments have notched their biggest investment gains in decades, thanks to portfolios boosted by huge venture-capital returns and soaring stock markets. The University of Minnesota’s endowment gained 49.2% for the year ending June 30, while Brown University’s endowment notched a return of more than 50%, said people familiar with their returns, which aren’t yet public. Meanwhile, Duke University over the weekend said its endowment had gained 55.9%. Washington University in St. Louis last week reported a 65% return, the school’s biggest gain ever, swelling the size of its managed endowment pool to $15.3 billion. The University of Virginia’s endowment reported a 49% gain. Universities’ returns may include portions of endowments, plus other long-term investments. (Wall Street Journal)
The global bond market is set for worst its month since early 2021, as investors focus on the prospect of US and UK interest rate rises as inflation worries grow. (Financial Times)
The top lawyer at the agency that enforces U.S. labor laws said that many college athletes are their schools' employees, effectively inviting players to take steps to unionize. NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo in a memo said her office would bring complaints against colleges that interfere with players' organizing efforts or assert that athletes are not employees protected by federal labor law. (Reuters)
The suburban office park rises from the dead: Across the U.S., suburban office parks are being reconsidered and redeveloped to shift away from the office-only model and bring in a greater diversity of uses, including residential, retail, and the kinds of services and public spaces that can appeal equally to someone driving in to work, walking over to grab lunch, or driving in for a dinner date. These redevelopment projects, even amid the pandemic’s thorough transformation of workspaces, are charting a new path for the corporate parks and office complexes of suburban America. If done right, vast swaths of the country that were built with only work in mind could be finding themselves teeming with a more diverse and economically sustainable type of life. (Fast Company)
Technology
At its Search On event, Google introduced several new features that, taken together, are its strongest attempts yet to get people to do more than type a few words into a search box. By leveraging its new Multitask Unified Model (MUM) machine learning technology in small ways, the company hopes to kick off a virtuous cycle: it will provide more detail and context-rich answers, and in return it hopes users will ask more detailed and context-rich questions. The end result, the company hopes, will be a richer and deeper search experience. Google is going to begin flexing its ability to recognize constellations of related topics using machine learning and present them to you in an organized way. A coming redesign to Google search will begin showing “Things to know” boxes that send you off to different subtopics. When there’s a section of a video that’s relevant to the general topic — even when the video as a whole is not — it will send you there. Shopping results will begin to show inventory available in nearby stores, and even clothing in different styles associated with your search. (The Verge)
Google Maps is adding a wildfire info layer, rolling out to Android this week and iOS and desktop in October, expands its Tree Canopy tool to 100 cities worldwide. (Ars Technica)
iPhone 13 delivery times lengthen as COVID hits suppliers in Vietnam. The new camera module constraints add more pressure as China power cuts hit supply chain. (Nikkei Asian Review)
Amazon says it’s adding a $9.95 delivery fee for Whole Foods Market orders to keep from raising merchandise prices. The fee, which had reportedly been tested in six cities and will take effect nationwide on Oct. 25, comes in response to growth in use of delivery service. (MarketWatch)
Two U.S. senators said a Facebook whistleblower will testify at a Senate hearing next week about what one of them called the social media company's "toxic effects" on young users. "This whistleblower’s testimony will be critical to understanding what Facebook knew about its platforms' toxic effects on young users, when they knew it, and what they did about it," Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, head of a subcommittee of the Senate commerce panel, said. (Reuters)
Smart Links
Mothers are postponing the return to work. Amazon and other companies are trying to bring them back. (Wall Street Journal)
MIT study finds older men are more likely to panic sell stocks. (Bloomberg)
China plans ‘closed-loop’ bubble for Winter Olympics. (New York Times)
U.S. to declare 23 species, including ivory-billed woodpecker, officially extinct. (Reuters)
This year's MacArthur 'Genius Grants' are announced — Here’s the full winner list. (NPR)
The race to grow carbon-sucking kelp may be rushing ahead of the science. (MIT Technology Review)
UK deploys reserve tanker fleet to help ease fuel crisis. (Financial Times)