Friday, September 6
Bulletin: U.S. Hiring Slows in August as Payrolls Miss Wall Street Estimates (Bloomberg)
In today’s U.S. jobs report, payrolls rose by 130,000 boosted by 25,000 for census count. The jobless rate held at 3.7% while average hourly earnings topped forecasts with a 3.2% gain from a year earlier.
Health Alert: Second Person in US Dies from Lung Disease Linked to Vaping (ABC News)
More than 200 possible cases of respiratory illnesses have been reported in 25 states after use of e-cigarette products.
2020 News: Starbucks’ Howard Schultz Ends Campaign But Plans to Spend Big (Axios AM)
In a letter to supporters, first reported in Mike Allen’s Axios AM, the Starbucks Chairman Emeritus said “The money that I was prepared to commit to a presidential campaign will instead be used to invest in people, organizations and ideas that promote honesty, civility and results in our politics, and that move the country beyond two-party gridlock.”
Brexit Latest: U.K. Opposition Parties to Deny Boris Johnson His Early Election (Bloomberg)
Labour, the Scottish National Party, the Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and the Independent Group for Change forged a united front to deny the early election Boris Johnson wants. The unified position means an election is unlikely until at least November.
Climate Change Today: As Disasters Multiply, Billions in U.S. Government Recovery Funds Go Unspent (New York Times)
As of June 30, the U.S. government had spent less than one-third of the $107 billion provided by Congress following the hurricanes and wildfires of 2017 and 2018.
As climate change amplifies the disaster risk, the logjam threatens to worsen, with increasingly dire consequences.
Who’s paying for the wall?
Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands: Pentagon Takes Money from Hurricane Maria Recovery Projects in Puerto Rico to Fund Trump’s Wall (Washington Post)
The Pentagon is defunding Hurricane Maria recovery projects at military installations in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands to pay for President Trump’s border barrier and is also taking money from construction projects across Europe designed to help allies deter Russia.
NATO Allies: Trump Drains US Spending on European Projects to Deter Russia to Pay for Wall with Mexico (Defense News)
The Pentagon will defer spending $771 million meant to shore up Europe’s defensive posture against Russia to fund President Donald Trump’s U.S.-Mexico border barrier. The announcement is sure to jar European allies, where NATO members have nervously watched the president’s on-again, off-again commitment to the alliance.
Today in Finance.
Trade Today.
Future of transportation.
Tech preview.
Weekend section.
Serena Williams Roars Back Into the U.S. Open Final (New York Times)
Williams, who turns 38th later this month, needs just one more grand slam championship to tie Margaret Court’s record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles. On Saturday, she faces Bianca Andreescu, a 19-year-old Canadian who has made a meteoric rise into the elite of women’s tennis.
Vogue’s Anna Wintour Gives Fans Unprecedented Access in New MasterClass (ABC News)
London Arts: The Biggest William Blake Exhibition In 20 Years Is Coming To London’s Tate Britain (Londonist)
Mexico City’s Museo Tamayo: Artist Rashid Johnson on How ‘Naiveté’ and Chutzpah Helped Him Land His First Solo Show (Artnet News)
The Met: Wangechi Mutu: A New Face for the Met (New York Times)
Nourished by Kenyan culture, the transnational artist is filling the niches on the Fifth Avenue facade, for the first time in the Met’s history.
New York: Portal: Governors Island, The Wild Art Fair Running Through September (Gothamist)
The sprawling and often provocative art fair will run every weekend through September on Colonels Row on New York’s Governors Island.
Best of late night.
On the official start to the 2019 National Football League season this week:
“The NFL season kicked off earlier tonight with the Green Bay Packers taking on the Chicago Bears. Everybody was excited. Now we get to watch football, but more importantly, we get to drink in the middle of the week! Yes!”
— Jimmy Fallon
“That’s right, for the next 6 months, 31 teams will battle for the chance to lose to the Patriots.”
— Jimmy Fallon
“A woman in England recently returned home to find that her postman delivered her Amazon package by throwing it into her house through an upstairs window. Yes, he got it through a second story window! So congratulations to Lebron James on his new job at Amazon.”
— James Corden
“In Australia, a student pilot had to land the plane after his flying instructor passed out during his very first lesson. The student was congratulated by officials, while the instructor was hired by Spirit Airlines.”
— Jimmy Fallon