Weekend Papers Summary
NEW YORK TIMES
-What China’s economic woes may mean for the US. China’s growth has stalled and its real estate companies are imploding. But the fallout is probably limited, and there may be some upside for the US.
-Gina Raimondo is heading to China to both promote, and restrict, trade. The commerce secretary’s trip may be the clearest demonstration yet of the Biden administration’s careful navigation of its relations with China.
-FIFA suspends Spanish Soccer Federation chief Involved in post-World Cup final kiss episode. Luis Rubiales’s kiss cast a pall over Spain’s celebrations at the Women’s World Cup, stirring debate over the treatment of women in Spanish soccer.
-Vivek Ramaswamy, the Millennial, has a lot to say about his generation. The 38-year-old candidate says he has a plan to fix what ails Americans his age and younger, but many of his positions are out of step with those voters.
-Oliver Anthony, the singer of “Rich Men North of Richmond,” said his No. 1 hit is not a Republican anthem.
-Ukraine is still grappling with the battlefield Yevgeny Prigozhin left behind. He shored up Russian forces and drew Ukraine into a costly fight for Bakhmut, giving Moscow time to slow Kyiv’s counteroffensive.
-The Kremlin is considering options on bringing the private military group Wagner under its control.
-A top Ukrainian commander called for “all measures” to defend the northeast against Russia.
- Women say sexual harassment and discrimination are rife in group for realtors. The powerful National Association of Realtors has ignored complaints, including those against the group’s president, current and former employees say.
-The 1963 March on Washington changed America. Its roots were in Harlem. Before Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech, a group of civil rights activists spent a summer planning an event many didn’t want to happen.
THE FINANCIAL TIMES
-None of the contenders for the Republican presidential nomination cared much about Vivek Ramaswamy six months ago, when the 38-year-old biotech entrepreneur launched his campaign with a promise to vanquish “the woke left”. But through a blend of contrarian instincts, relentless campaigning and fealty to frontrunner Donald Trump, Ramaswamy has capitalised on his self-styled image as a supremely successful businessman to the point where he now comes second in some Republican primary opinion polls.
-Saudi Arabia is considering bids to build a nuclear power station from countries including China, France and Russia as the kingdom seeks to sway the US over a sensitive security pact.The kingdom, which is the world’s largest oil exporter, has long sought its own civil nuclear capability and has made US assistance with the program a key demand in a potential deal to normalize relations with Israel.
-Liberal-leaning US pension fund leaders and politicians have warned BlackRock and other big asset managers against backtracking on their commitment to environmental, social and governance causes, after a sharp drop in support for shareholder proposals at annual meetings.
-The real evidence of Xi Jinping’s importance within the BRICS was the expansion that looks set to add Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to the five-member bloc. This fits into Xi’s plan that China should lead the developing world in confronting US “hegemony”, even as he also grapples with an economic slowdown and deflation at home.
-“The technology for space has come down a lot in cost and it’s been commoditized in some aspects,” says Brian Weeden, director of program planning at the Secure World Foundation, a US think-tank focused on the sustainable use of space.
“That’s also why you’re seeing more countries exploring launch vehicles?.?.?.?[and] getting interested in space. And when they get interested in space, the Moon comes out as both a lofty but achievable goal.”
-Speaking at the US Federal Reserve’s annual conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Friday, ECB governor Christine Lagarde said central bankers had to be “extremely attentive that greater volatility in relative prices does not creep into medium-term inflation through wages repeatedly ‘chasing’ prices”. “If global supply does become less elastic, including in the labour market, and global competition is reduced, we should expect prices to take on a greater role in adjustment,” Lagarde said. “If we also face shocks that are larger and more common — like energy and geopolitical shocks — we could see firms passing on cost increases more consistently.”
NY POST
-President Vladimir Putin has ordered Wagner fighters to sign an oath of allegiance to the Russian state after a deadly plane crash believed to have killed Yevgeny Prigozhin, the volatile chief of the mercenary group. Putin signed the decree bringing in the change with immediate effect on Friday after the Kremlin said that Western suggestions that Prigozhin had been killed on its orders were an “absolute lie.”
-Bags of frozen vegetables sold at Food Lion and Kroger are being recalled over fears that they may be contaminated with potentially harmful bacteria. Washington-based Twin City Foods Inc. issued the voluntary recall for a limited quantity of frozen sweet corn and mixed vegetables “due to a potential for these products to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes,” according to a notice posted by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).