Latest Updates: Biden Signs Temporary Funding Agreement with the United States

Australia will allow fully vaccinated citizens and permanent residents to quarantine themselves in their homes for seven days starting next month, the first easing of restrictions that have effectively closed its borders since March 2020.

Scott Morrison, Prime Minister, announced the changes on Friday and added that the country would lift limits on the number of overseas arrivals.

Australia has imposed strict rules on anyone entering the country, requiring that they be quarantined for 14 days in a hotel at their own expense. The measures have left thousands of Australians living abroad stranded and have come under heavy criticism from the country’s business community.

Morrison said rollout of the new policy would depend on the success of the pilot projects in the states of New South Wales and South Australia.

The implementation would also require individual states to fully immunize 80% of their population, Morrison added. New South Wales hopes to meet the target by the end of October and other states hope to follow soon after.

North Korea has launched a new anti-aircraft missile, the latest in a series of weapons tests by the Kim Jong Un regime.

The country tested the missile, its launcher and the vehicle that carries it on Thursday, state-run Korea Central News reported.

Pyongyang resumed testing in September, firing two ballistic missiles and a new long-range cruise missile, according to the South Korean military and North Korean state media.

The launches followed six months of relative calm, without significant testing, and come after the country indicated it was open to resuming talks with Seoul. Analysts said the measures were designed to extract concessions from the United States.

Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State, said he supported the continuation of talks between the two Koreas, but added that the missile launches should be taken “very seriously”.

Zoom Video Communications’ offer to buy cloud software provider Five9 collapsed just weeks after the US Department of Justice raised national security concerns over the $ 14.7 billion deal. dollars and that shareholders were asked to vote against the takeover by a powerful proxy group.

The companies announced on Thursday that they had decided to end their agreement after a shareholders’ meeting organized by Five9 during which a majority of investors declared themselves against the agreement.

“We have had the opportunity to engage in depth with our shareholders since announcing our transaction. We greatly appreciate their feedback and confidence in Five9’s future prospects and share their views regarding the significant potential for value creation as a stand-alone business, ”said Rowan Trollope, Managing Director of Five9.

The decision to end the buyout is a blow to Zoom, which hopes to expand its offering following the huge success of its video conferencing services during the pandemic. The deal with Five9 would have been his biggest acquisition to date, but has been marred by a troubled stock price and regulatory issues.

Read more here.

President Joe Biden on Thursday evening signed a temporary agreement to avoid a U.S. government shutdown, giving the government nine weeks leeway to avoid default.

The bill extends government funding until December 3 and suspends its debt limit until December 17, avoiding a government shutdown that would otherwise have started on Friday.

The bill was passed by both houses of Congress earlier on Thursday. However, it does not foresee a long-term increase in the debt ceiling.

The move comes following weeks of wrangling between Democrats and Republicans to raise the limit on the amount of debt the federal government can take on, which is crucial to ensuring it can continue to fund itself. On Monday and Tuesday, efforts to raise and then suspend the debt ceiling were thwarted by Senate Republicans.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the United States could run out of money if it didn’t increase the limit by October 18.

Eurozone inflation figures September inflation data is expected to reach a 13-year-old, stimulated by soaring energy costs and strong demand with the reopening of economies.

Unemployment rate in Japan August unemployment figures will be released. Thanks to economic policy support for businesses, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has been able to keep unemployment relatively low during the pandemic. His successor, Fumio Kishida, will be tested on this front.

Manufacturing PMIs Manufacturing activity gauges for Spain, Italy and the UK in September will all be released. The UK manufacturing sector is expected to continue to grow, but at a slower pace than in August.

More UK data The Office for National Statistics will publish quarterly business investment figures, the second quarter balance of payments, quarterly economic accounts and quarterly data on consumption trends.

The weekend will see the start of the UK Black history month and the beginning of the Conservative Party Conference.