Another month of solid US hiring suggests more big Fed hikes
America’s employers slowed their hiring in September but still added 263,000 jobs, a solid figure that will likely keep the Federal Reserve on pace to keep raising interest rates aggressively to fight persistently high inflation. Hiring fell from 315,000 in August to the weakest monthly gain since April 2021. The unemployment rate fell from 3.7% to 3.5%, matching a half-century low. The Fed is hoping that a slower pace of hiring would eventually mean less pressure on employers to raise pay and pass those costs on to their customers through price increases — a recipe for high inflation. But September’s job growth was likely too robust to satisfy the central bank’s inflation fighters.
Nations agree to curb emissions from flying
by 2050
After almost a decade of talks, the nations of the world committed Friday to drastically lower emissions of planet-warming gases from the world’s airplanes by 2050, a milestone in efforts to ease the climate effects of a fast-growing sector. The target to reach “net zero” emissions — a point at which air travel is no longer pumping additional carbon dioxide into the atmosphere — will require the aviation industry to significantly step up its climate efforts. To reach net zero, companies and governments will need to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in increasingly efficient planes and cleaner fuels to sharply reduce emissions from air travel.
China lashes out at latest U.S. export controls on chips
China has criticized the latest U.S. decision to tighten export controls that would make it harder for China to obtain and manufacture advanced computing chips, calling it a violation of international economic and trade rules that will “isolate and backfire” on the U.S. The Foreign Ministry spokesperson accused the U.S. of abusing its export control measures to maliciously block and suppress Chinese companies. She spoke after the U.S. on Friday updated export controls that included adding certain advanced, high-performance computing chips and semiconductor manufacturing equipment to its list. Washington says it’s part of efforts to protect its national security.
Telemedicine was made easy during COVID-19. Not any more
Restrictions are returning to telemedicine, an area of medicine that exploded in popularity early in the pandemic. Hospitals are warning doctors not to practice medicine in a state where they don’t have a license. That affects cancer patients and others who have grown to depend on video visits and other remote care. The Alliance for Connected Care says nearly 40 states and Washington, D.C., have ended emergency declarations that made it easier for doctors to use video visits to see patients in another state.
Drought takes toll on country’s largest cotton producer
Drought and extreme heat have severely damaged much of the cotton harvest in the U.S., which produces roughly 35% of the world’s crop. Nowhere is this more apparent than the Texas High Plains, the windswept region that grows most of the crop in the nation’s top cotton-producing state. Forecasters and agricultural economists say that Texas cotton farmers could abandon nearly 70% of what they planted in the spring, making it the worst harvest in more than a decade. Losses could cost the region $1.2 billion, despite the federal insurance payments that farmers rely on during bad harvest years.
Info expected to emerge slowly in hospital chain cyberattack
CHICAGO (AP) — Officials are continuing to decline to reveal new details surrounding an apparent cyberattack on one of the largest health systems in the U.S. It’s a situation that security experts say often takes time to learn the full scope of the attack. Earlier this week, CommonSpirit Health confirmed it experienced an “IT security issue” but it has yet to answer detailed questions about the incident – including how many of its 1,000 care sites may have been affected. Healthcare organizations are an appealing target for cyber attackers — particularly those who use malware to lock up a victim organization’s files and leverage the information for a payment.
Delta works with MIT to study impact of airplane contrails on climate
Delta Air Lines said Thursday it will work with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on a study examining the environmental impact of airplane contrails. The focus of the study is how to eliminate persistent contrails, which make up about 10% of all contrails and create clouds that trap heat and warm the earth, according to Delta. Contrails form about 65% of the time when planes are at cruise altitude and aircraft exhaust water vapor combines with atmospheric water vapor to form clouds of ice crystals, yet only 10% last longer than a few minutes. Those persistent contrails are believed to be “one of aviation’s largest environmental impacts,” according to Delta. MIT plans to release the findings and technology created under an open-source license so others can use them.
By wire sources
