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Nvidia beats Wall Street expectations

Nvidia set out another expectation-beating sales forecast in its earnings report Wednesday, saying it hoped to generate $32.5 billion in revenue next quarter, an 80% increase on last year. The estimate beat Wall Street’s expectations by 2.3%, but suggests the huge year-on-year revenue increases investors have seen in recent quarters are slowing. Nvidia’s earnings have become “one of the most important events on the macro calendar,” rivaling US jobs reports for their impact on global markets, Deutsche Bank analysts told the Financial Times. Nvidia shares’ recent volatility will also be “top of mind for Wall Street,” NBC News wrote. “It’s the most important stock in the world right now,” one tech investor said.

Plan for Xi, Biden call

The US and China agreed to hold a call between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping in the coming weeks and to engage in more military talks following two days of high-level discussions in Beijing. Establishing a direct line of communication with Beijing has been a top priority for the Biden administration amid recent flare ups over China’s aggressive maritime actions in the South China Sea. US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan’s meeting with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi has improved chances that tentative cooperation between the two superpowers could carry over to a potential Kamala Harris presidency, The Washington Post reported. China used Sullivan’s trip “to set rules for the next administration,” one expert said.

Telegram CEO charged in France

French prosecutors on Wednesday charged Telegram CEO Pavel Durov with a wide range of crimes related to illegal activity on the app. He was released on a $5.5 million bond but is banned from leaving France during the probe. The messaging app has been linked to multiple criminal cases in France over allegations of child sexual abuse and hate crimes, but prosecutors said the company has refused to cooperate with them. The charges against Durov illustrate a shift in how Western countries deal with online platforms, The New York Times wrote. For years, individual executives were rarely held accountable for their platforms’ transgressions, but now lawmakers and regulators are weighing holding them directly responsible.

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India’s new streaming giant

Disney and Reliance were given the green light to create India’s biggest entertainment company after Indian regulators approved their $8.5 billion merger on Wednesday. Regulators were worried about the companies controlling most cricket broadcasting rights, but they relented after both entities made concessions to avoid hurting advertisers. The massive deal will boost Reliance owner — and Asia’s richest man — Mukesh Ambani’s grip over India’s $28 billion media and entertainment sector, Reuters reported. The country’s market size has attracted big global players like Netflix and Prime Video, but the Disney-Reliance merger will “crush” them, Rest of World wrote, especially in the area of content variety.

Silicon Valley’s wish list for Harris

Kamala Harris’ supporters in Silicon Valley want her to prioritize abortion rights and pro-tech policies, a Reuters survey showed Wednesday. Despite a rash of high-profile billionaires recently pivoting to Donald Trump, the Democratic presidential nominee still commands widespread support, with more than 800 venture capitalists from across the political spectrum signing an open letter backing her in July. They viewed the California native as “a tech-savvy candidate open to engaging with industry,” the survey of the VCs for Kamala signatories found. On the signatories’ wish-list were startup-friendly policies such as providing visas to qualified entrepreneurs, and most of them believed the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade was a mistake. “These are not social issues. These are actually business issues,” one CEO said.

Canadian wildfires’ massive emissions

Canada’s extreme wildfires in 2023 released more carbon emissions than all but the three biggest global polluters, according to a study published Wednesday. If the blazes that devastated Canada’s boreal forests last year were a country, they would rank above the fossil fuel burning of every country except China, the US, and India, researchers wrote in Nature. Canada’s boreal forests help combat climate change by storing carbon, but the increasing likelihood of wildfires there could complicate emission calculations. “I think it’s very likely that we’re going to see more fires in Canada,” the study’s lead author told the MIT Technology Review. “But we don’t really understand how that’s going to impact carbon budgets.”

China textbooks push ‘Xi Jinping thought’

China is amplifying efforts to exert its ideological influence in classrooms. Students this fall will be given new textbooks that emphasize Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s political thoughts and stress the importance of national security, the South China Morning Post reported. Beijing recently ordered teachers to pledge loyalty to the Communist Party and reportedly placed travel restrictions on them this summer. The enforced patriotism in public schools is pushing some parents to choose private schools, Nikkei reported, but even those are under government scrutiny, with many Western educators quitting over mandated curriculum changes, according to The Guardian.

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Scientists hail ‘exciting’ mRNA era

Scientists hailed an “exciting new era” of mRNA therapies. Messenger RNA tells the body’s cells which proteins to make, and in COVID-19 vaccines, it instructs the body to make bits of the virus which the immune system then learns to recognize. But it has many other potential uses: Researchers are testing the technology for use in directing the body to repair damaged organs and reduce the need for transplants, WIRED reported. Early trials of the world’s first lung-cancer mRNA vaccine — which, unlike ordinary vaccines, is given to patients who already have the disease to help the immune system identify and attack cancer cells — are also underway in the UK.

Home prices force Londoners further out

Londoners who leave the British capital are moving further away as the cost of homes increases. Those who left the city in the first half of this year traveled 39 miles to their new suburban residence on average, six miles further than in 2019 and 50% further than in 2014. The change is driven partly by the rise of hybrid working, an analyst told Bloomberg, as well as increased transaction costs that make a series of smaller, more frequent moves too costly. The new Labour government has pledged to build more houses, but even the average home in commuter-belt towns now costs upward of £500,000 ($660,000), around 14 times the UK’s median wage.

Russia to make Biden sitcom

After losing his passport in Russia, US President Joe Biden begins living there as an English teacher while trying to determine why US sanctions against Moscow aren’t working. That’s the plot of a Russian sitcom, Goodbye, that is set to begin filming, state media reported. The fictional Biden, played by 46-year-old Russian actor Dmitry Dyuzhev, will live an ordinary life and “understand the Russian soul,” the makers said. The Kremlin has apparently spearheaded efforts to create popular pro-Putin television shows and movies, according to leaked documents, even though many creators were unaware they were making propaganda content, Meduza reported. But at least one person is excited about the new project: Dyuzhev said he relished the opportunity to “branch out” by playing Biden.

August 29:

• A Hong Kong court issues a verdict in the case of two journalists charged with sedition.
• French President Emmanuel Macron holds talks with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.
• The UK Met Office announces storm names for 2024-25.

A new exhibition explores Leonardo da Vinci’s impact on perfumery. The Florentine polymath is best known for his art and inventions, but he also spent years investigating fragrances, buying commercial perfumes and noting their ingredients and techniques, having become interested in how smell works compared with sight and hearing. Renaissance scents were often burned like incense, and da Vinci designed new perfume burners as well as fragrances. The exhibition in Amboise, France, where da Vinci lived at the invitation of the French king for 30 years, examines the arrival of perfumes in post-medieval Europe from Asia and how da Vinci and others developed them, Artnet reported.

• The US needs a new plan to sell clean power to the world, a top Harris adviser says.
• Nigerian students avoid UK after migrant policy shift.
• Donald Trump buries the hatchet(s).