Axios

Wall Street is now laser-focused on how companies like Google and Microsoft will make money from AI.

Why it matters: After nearly a year of hyping up AI, tech giants are facing greater scrutiny of their plans to launch expensive generative AI products and services.

Menopause support may become a more common workplace benefit as impacted women become a larger part of the labor force.

State of play: According to an August survey of HR policies by benefits consultant NFP, only 4% of respondents that offer sick leave currently provide some kind of aid for menopause, such as access to hormone therapy and counseling.

Global business leaders are warning that the Hamas-Israel war could spiral into wider uncertainty, threatening economic growth.

Driving the news: "If these things are not resolved, it probably means more global terrorism, which means more insecurity, which means more [of] society is going to be fearful, less hope," BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said on Tuesday, speaking at an investment forum in Saudi Arabia often dubbed "Davos in the Desert."

Coinbase's rebuttal to the SEC's June lawsuit is: Not everything is a security.

State of play: The U.S.'s largest crypto exchange is battling the securities regulator over its application of the so-called Howey Test, used to determine whether or not something is a security. On Tuesday Coinbase filed its latest argument to dismiss the enforcement action against it.

Several things that have nothing to do with one another on their surface — a dysfunctional U.S. House of Representatives, tumbling bond prices, war in the Middle East and tensions with China — are creating an intertwined set of risks for the global economy.

Why it matters: The U.S. economy has held up surprisingly well this year, and the baseline outlook for 2024 appears solid. But internal and external woes may collide in unpredictable ways, which would make the outlook less benign.

Scholastic apologized and reversed course on a recent decision to separate about 30 books on diverse topics in elementary school book fairs.

Why it matters: Scholastic's announcement came after its separate collection, which allowed schools to opt in, opt out or limit the books' inclusion at fairs, was criticized for being exclusionary.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the indicted FTX founder and former CEO, will testify in his own defense this week, according to his attorney.

Why it matters: There had been doubt as to whether Bankman-Fried would take the stand and face questioning on his collapsed crypto exchange, particularly given his penchant for running off at the mouth.

Los Angeles is the home to some of the most iconic horror films including "Annabelle," "Us," "The Purge" and "Halloween." But there are several films that took place far from Hollywood.

• Here are a few classics filmed in unexpected places.

The Palestinian economy — encompassing both the occupied West Bank and Gaza — was expected to grow by 3% this year. Then the Oct. 7 terrorist attack by Hamas happened.

• Now, Palestinian GDP is likely to shrink by 3% in 2023, with per-capita income falling by 5%, per estimates from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.

Israel's economy, already under strain before the Hamas terror attacks this month, is rapidly shifting to a war footing.

The big picture: Israel is no stranger to conflict. But the expected scale of a war in Gaza — the chance a new front could open, including along the Israeli-Lebanese border — presents a risk to Israel's tech-centric economy, which had become a magnet for foreign investment in recent years.

Carnival Cruise Line was deemed "negligent" over a 2020 COVID outbreak aboard the Ruby Princess that resulted in 28 deaths, Australia's Federal Court ruled in a class action lawsuit on Wednesday.

Details: Justice Angus Stewart said in a summary that the cruise company "knew or ought to have known about the heightened risk of coronavirus infection on the vessel, and its potentially lethal consequences" before it left Sydney for New Zealand in March 2020, "yet they proceeded regardless."