Weekend Papers Summary
FINANCIAL TIMES
-Wall Street saw gains on Friday that erased losses from a week of volatile trading, including some of the worst and best days for US stocks in almost two years. The benchmark S&P 500 and the tech-heavy NASDAQ closed 0.5% higher in New York, leaving both little changed on the week. Friday's gains lifted the S&P 500 more than 4% above the lows it touched on Monday when a global sell-off sparked by weak US jobs figures turned into a full-scale rout. However, indices remain below the levels from before the US jobs report last week, which first fuelled concerns about the health of the world's biggest economy and triggered the selling spree. The S&P 500 needs to gain another 2% to recover its levels from before the sell-off began, while the Nasdaq Composite remains about 2.7% short.
-The US market has experienced a significant shift in recent weeks, with signs of increased volatility following years of calm. The market was initially complacent, believing a soft landing would be possible, leading to a "repricing of that thinking." Most observers believe the scale of the recent moves was out of proportion to the initial triggers. The sell-off was triggered by economic updates in August, such as a survey of manufacturing companies and official figures on the labor market, which heightened concerns about the US economy heading for recession and the Federal Reserve's slow rate of interest rate cuts. The jobs data in July was well short of expectations, with the US economy adding only 114,000 new jobs compared to expectations of around 175,000. This is not the worst result of the year.
-Ukraine's military has captured a crucial gas transit point for Europe, marking its most ambitious incursion into Russian territory in a decade of war. The surprise offensive, which lasted for a fourth day, is the largest attack by Kyiv's forces on Russian soil since President Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the Kremlin's covert invasion of Crimea and the Donbas 10 years ago. The aim is to divert Russia's troops from the east, expose its weaknesses, and strengthen Kyiv's position in future negotiations with Moscow. The first Ukrainian public confirmation of the incursion was published late on Friday, with soldiers at the office of Russian state energy group Gazprom at the Sudzha gas measuring station.
-The White House has strongly criticized Israel's finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, for his criticism of a Gaza ceasefire deal. US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby denounced Smotrich's remarks, stating that it is not the time for a capitulating deal that ends the war before eliminating the Hamas Isis Nazis. Kirby argued that Smotrich's views would sacrifice the lives of Israeli hostages, his own countrymen, and American hostages, and contradict Israel's national security interests at this critical stage of the war. While disagreements between Israeli and American officials are common, they are usually not made public and it is rare for an American official to criticize an Israeli minister.
-Susan Wojcicki, one of Google's earliest employees and former YouTube CEO, has passed away at 56. Her husband Dennis Troper announced her death on Facebook, expressing his profound sadness and calling her a brilliant mind, loving mother, and a dear friend. Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Google parent Alphabet, expressed his unbelievably saddened sentiments. Wojcicki was a loving mother and a dear friend to many.
-Denmark is enhancing border controls with Sweden following a surge in shootings in Copenhagen involving Swedish teenagers. Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard announced that police will increase inspections on trains across the Øresund bridge linking Denmark to Malmö and monitor car traffic on the road crossing. The increase is part of a strategy to prevent hired Swedish child soldiers who carry out tasks related to gang conflicts. Since April, 25 incidents have been linked to Danish criminal gangs hiring "child soldiers" to commit crimes in Denmark. Sweden has experienced growing gang violence, from one of Europe's lowest fatal shooting rates to one of the highest in the past decade. Swedish police argue that powerful criminal gangs often use children to commit murders, as they receive light sentences.
-Bangladeshi school pupils, students, and volunteers are cleaning and repainting Dhaka's streets following the collapse of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's autocratic regime. With police in hiding, children and university students are cleaning and repainting streets with revolutionary slogans, pulling over cars for inspection, and guarding Hasina's ransacked official residence. Sania Mahabub Moon, 15, and her family spent a rest day sweeping roads in Dhaka, the heart of an urban area of over 20M people. They want to rebuild the country after the collapse of the autocratic regime.
-US medicines regulators have rejected a bid to get MDMA, or party drug ecstasy, approved as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. The US Food and Drug Administration issued Lykos Therapeutics, the biotech behind the treatment, with a "complete response letter" asking the company to carry out costly fresh phase-three trials due to concerns over the way the original studies had been conducted. The FDA advisory committee voted overwhelmingly against approving the treatment, which combined MDMA with therapy, citing concerns over the way Lykos's clinical trials had been designed.
-Algerian boxer Imane Khelif has been crowned Olympic champion after winning her gold-medal bout in Paris. Khelif, who also competed in the Tokyo Games in 2021, was disqualified from last year's world championships by the International Boxing Association (IBA) after failing to meet gender eligibility criteria following tests during the tournament. The International Olympic Committee has been involved in a growing controversy around gender eligibility rules. Khelif's progress through the women's 66kg competition has garnered worldwide attention and drawn the International Olympic Committee into a growing controversy. The IBA disqualified Khelif and Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting from last year's world championships after failing to meet "gender eligibility" criteria.
-Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro has blocked access to the social media platform X for 10 days due to a dispute with its owner Elon Musk and a clampdown on dissent over his disputed re-election. Maduro accused Musk of posting on X to promote protests triggered by the election, painting the billionaire and unrest as part of a US-backed "fascist, imperialist" coup attempt in Venezuela. Maduro accused Musk of violating all rules of the social network and inciting hatred, fascism, civil war, death, and confrontation between Venezuelans. Venezuela's National Commission of Telecommunications will remove the X social network from circulation in Venezuela for 10 days. By Friday morning, posts on X had stopped loading for users inside the country, and only those with VPN access could use the site. The move comes amid a nationwide furore following Maduro's victory in the July 28 presidential election.
-China has implemented a 20-step formula to support sectors such as electronic sports, nursing care, and cruise ship development. However, experts are calling for more stimulus to stimulate consumption, especially after economic growth slowed in the second quarter due to weak household spending. China's latest trade figures showed export growth slightly slowed to 7.7% year on year in July, while imports expanded 7.2% on industry demand for overseas machinery and technology components. Fred Neumann, chief Asia economist at HSBC, said that consumption is the weak link in China's economic wobbles. The soft demand is questioned whether it is cyclical or if the problems run deeper. The soft demand is a result of household balance sheets recovering from the property bubble and the pandemic.
-Perplexity AI, an artificial intelligence search start-up, has seen a seven-fold increase in monthly revenues and usage since the start of the year, following a $250M round of funding. The AI-powered search engine answered around 250M questions in the last month, compared to 500mn queries for the whole of 2023. This growth highlights Perplexity's position as one of the fastest-growing generative AI applications since OpenAI's ChatGPT launched in November 2022. Founded by former Google intern Aravind Srinivas, Perplexity uses AI software to answer questions, using real-time information from the web, including news websites. Starting the year with $5M in annualized revenues, it now makes more than $35M on the same basis.
THE NEW YORK TIMES
-Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, have gathered 15,000 at a rally near Phoenix, marking her largest rally yet. The campaign believes that to win in Arizona, they will need a diverse coalition that gave President Biden the state in 2020. Harris and Walz delivered a stump speech that is barely a week old, yet familiar enough to an impassioned new following. The rally was her fourth in four days with an arena-filling crowd, demonstrating the degree to which her candidacy replacing President Biden's had remade the 2024 race.
-Former President Donald Trump has resorted to using Kamala Harris's words against her at a rally in Montana. Trump played two video compilations of past remarks by Harris that his campaign hopes will portray her as overly liberal and inept. The first video drew on statements made during the 2020 presidential campaign, when she tacked to the left and backed progressive ideas on criminal justice reform. The second video was a montage of interviews and speeches that Trump's campaign used to mock her speaking style and insult her intelligence.
-Former California lawmaker Willie Brown has accused Donald Trump of mixing up one Black lawmaker for another during a recent news conference at his Mar-a-Lago Club. Trump claimed to have nearly crashed during a helicopter ride with Brown, a notable Black California politician. He threatened to sue The New York Times for reporting the story as untrue and posted on his social media site that there were "Logs,' Maintenance Records, and Witnesses" to back up his account. Trump claimed that it was Brown, who was mayor of San Francisco and speaker of the California Assembly, but Brown denied the trip. Brown, who was 90, gave several interviews on Thursday and Friday saying such a trip never occurred. The incident has raised questions about the accuracy of Trump's claims and the validity of his claims.
- A passenger plane carrying 61 people crashed in Brazil, killing all on board. The crash occurred outside São Paulo, and the cause of the crash is unknown. The plane, operated by VoePass, was carrying 61 people and was spinning in circles. Residents began filming the scene, which showed the plane falling from the sky and a black plume of smoke rising from the spot. A house on fire, a swimming pool full of debris, and a group of men peering over a scene of carnage in a yard were also seen. The airline, VoePass, has stated that the cause of the crash is unknown.
-Nationalist hatred has been linked to economic problems such as stagnant wages and declining services, even though research shows immigration benefits many economies. In Britain, such as Hartlepool, a seaside town, the rise of anti-immigrant attitudes has led to economic problems such as disposable income below the national average, more people out of the workforce, fewer active businesses, lower healthy life expectancy, and a higher crime rate. In Britain, Europe, and the United States, economic problems such as stagnant wages, roaring inequality, and declining public services have been linked to the rise of anti-immigrant attitudes. Far-right politicians have been able to exploit these frustrations to energize supporters and gain political power, despite research showing that immigration is an overall plus for most economies.
-Bangladesh, once a economic miracle, was once renowned for its focus on textiles and apparel exports. This strategy led to rapid growth, lifting millions out of poverty and earning the country's Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, fame and admiration. However, her abrupt exit from power has exposed the limitations of this strategy, as Bangladesh struggles to combat steep inflation and joblessness. Economists argue that poor policy decisions are largely the result of these issues. Her increasingly authoritarian rule and widespread corruption only added to the frustration that boiled over and forced her ouster. Now, Bangladesh must decide its future, as the country must decide its future.
-A report by independent investigators has revealed that Russian cruise missiles are used in combat, sometimes just weeks after rolling off the factory floor. The Kh-101 missile used in a Russian strike on a children's hospital in Kyiv last month was made this spring before the attack, according to a report by a nongovernmental organization. The report suggests Russian forces are using weapons like this as soon as they roll off the production line. This is also proof that Russia has continued to produce advanced weapons despite Western-led sanctions aimed at slowing their production. The attack on the hospital on July 8 killed two people and injured more than 30, including eight children. The Kh-101 is the Russian military's most advanced cruise missile.
-NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE), a spacecraft that studied cosmic objects before shifting its focus closer to Earth, has reached the end of its life. The spacecraft, which spent over a decade scrutinizing the skies for asteroids and comets that could pose a threat to our planet, closed its telescopic eyes for the final time at the end of last month. The mission, launched in 2009, was known as WISE and spent the next year peering at faraway objects in the universe radiating infrared light.
THE NEW YORK POST
-Former President Donald Trump accused Vice President Kamala Harris and her new running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, of running on a "fake record" during a campaign rally in Montana. Trump, who was diverted to Billings due to mechanical problems, wasted little time going after his 2024 opponent. He criticized Harris' refusal to give media interviews or hold press conferences since replacing President Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket. Trump also referred to Harris and Walz as having a fake record, a reference to Walz, who has been criticized by Republicans and veterans for embellishing his military service.
-A growing condo crisis in South Florida is attributed to a new state law requiring condominium boards to set aside reserves for repairs and maintenance, leading to a spike in active condo listings. The number of total active condo listings in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties has nearly tripled in a year, as condo owners grapple with the burden of association fees that have risen by nearly 60% over the past five years. In Miami-Dade, the median monthly condo association fee rose from $567 in 2019 to $900 this year. Condominium owners in South Florida are putting their properties up for sale due to mounting HOA fees and other costs. In Broward County, condominium owners saw their HOA fees surge by 56%, from $392 in 2019 to $613 this year. Ingrid Vassell, a condominium owner from Plantation, expressed concern about how she would stay in her property if things continued to rise.