Big Tech and the Taliban

August 19, 2021
Business

Biometric databases and digital histories could put Afghans with links to security forces and the government at risk.
Afghanistan’s larger, more urban and better-informed population will challenge the Taliban’s traditional methods of brute force and crude propaganda.
Follow the latest updates in The Times’s live briefing.

HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENING

The Biden administration steps up vaccination efforts. The White House is recommending booster shots for most vaccinated adults and is pressuring nursing homes to vaccinate their staff or lose Medicare and Medicaid funding. Meanwhile, in New York City, a group of restaurants has sued to stop the city’s vaccine mandates for certain indoor activities.

The I.M.F. blocks Afghanistan’s access to $460 million to bolster its currency. The move could freeze banks around the world from doing business with the country, giving the I.M.F. and the U.S., its largest shareholder, leverage in negotiating with the Taliban.

Fed officials think the economy is strong enough to reduce its support (eventually). The minutes of the central bank’s most recent meeting show a growing consensus to taper its bond purchases, a key step toward restoring a more normal monetary policy after the pandemic. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs cut its U.S. economic growth forecast, saying the effect of the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus is “somewhat larger” than expected.

The pandemic sets off a start-up boom. A decades-long decline in entrepreneurship reversed itself last year, as Americans filed paperwork to start over four million new businesses, a 24 percent rise from the year before. The increase in “Covid era” companies is on pace to continue this year.

Illumina completes its deal to buy its former spinoff Grail over regulators’ objections. The $7.1 billion health care deal is notable because it closed despite a continuing antitrust review in the U.S. and E.U. A number of other deals have recently been called off as regulators adopt a tougher stance against corporate consolidation.

Robinhood’s most burning questions

In its first earnings report as a public company, Robinhood said its latest quarterly revenue more than doubled, to $565 million, but the company still lost money (a big accounting adjustment was a factor).

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/19/business/dealbook/taliban-social-media.html