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Good afternoon. Here’s what you should know today, Aug. 8: |
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“Show me the money, er, digital dollar!” lawmakers tell the Fed The gender pay gap shows up even among recent college grads, a Wall Street Journal analysis found Covid-19 vaccination rates for toddlers are slower than for older kids |
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| China’s military demonstrated its ability to effectively blockade Taiwan during four days of exercises. Two Taiwanese jet fighters fly near Hsinchu, Taiwan. PHOTO: RITCHIE B TONGO/SHUTTERSTOCK |
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1. Taiwan’s military accused China of carrying on sustained cyberattacks, as Beijing said it would continue military exercises around the island. |
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🎥 What China’s Military Exercises Reveal About Its Taiwan Strategy (Watch) |
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2. U.S. lawmakers are pushing the Fed to issue a digital dollar ASAP to better compete with China and others. |
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The bipartisan group is worried that new forms of money—which, unlike private cryptocurrencies, would be backed by a central bank—could one day threaten the greenback. The Fed is confronting inflation and a slowing economy, and Chairman Jerome Powell has indicated it would rather get the digital dollar right than be first. The House Financial Services Committee might vote on related legislation as soon as next month. |
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Antitrust Bill Targeting Big Tech in Limbo as Congress Prepares to Recess (Read) U.S. Sanctions Crypto Platform Tornado Cash, Says It Laundered Billions (Read) Wall Street Shuffles Bets on Consumer Loans as Economy Slows (Read) |
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3. The pay gap between men and women emerges soon after they finish college—often earlier than is widely perceived, new data show. |
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In nearly 75% of roughly 11,300 undergraduate and graduate degree programs, median pay for men exceeded that for women three years after graduation, according to Education Department data on 1.7 million college grads who received federal student aid. Determining why those gaps appear earlier isn’t simple, but career paths, salary negotation tactics and discrimination could be factors. |
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Same Degree, Different Pay. Look Up Your School Here. (Read) Group Petitions to Ease Fines for Healthcare Workers in Student-Debt Programs (Read) |
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4. Most parents aren’t vaccinating their toddlers against Covid-19. |
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More than a month after the CDC recommended the shots for children ages 6 months through 4 years, about 4% to 5% of them have gotten jabbed, according to the most recent data from the American Academy of Pediatrics. Some parents are waiting until their children get fall checkups or because their kids were recently infected; many don’t perceive the virus as a threat, or have safety concerns because the vaccines are still new. |
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How the Covid Pandemic Will Follow Today’s Kids Into Adulthood (Read) |
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5. The U.N. secretary-general warned that the weekend’s shelling of a Ukrainian nuclear plant is suicidal. |
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António Guterres called for inspectors to be given access to the Zaporizhzhia facility, Europe’s largest, while Russia and Ukraine traded blame for the attacks. Ukraine’s nuclear regulator said there hasn’t been any damage to the reactors or radiological release, but a missile landed near a dry spent-fuel storage area where 174 containers were being held in the open. Russia has controlled the plant since the early days of the war, but Ukrainian staff are still operating it. |
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How YouTube Keeps Broadcasting Inside Russia’s Digital Iron Curtain (Read) U.S. Won’t Ask African Nations to Pick Sides in Standoff With Russia, Blinken Says (Read) |
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