Top Stories this AM: Abbott bans vax mandates in TX; Evergrande set to miss 3rd debt repayment deadline; Gen Z Chinese women don't want to get married

Good morning and welcome to your weekday morning roundup of the top stories you need to know.

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What's going on today:

• A possible GOP splinter gathers steam. Some GOP officials are urging Republican voters to back Democrats in 2022 to save the party from "pro-Trump extremists." Two GOP officials penned an op-ed in The New York Times, urging voters to make sure "rational Republicans" don't lose the "GOP civil war."
• Get shipped done. Britain's largest port, which handles nearly 40% of all containers, is facing a massive backlog of ships as it approaches its busiest time of year: the holiday season. The logjam is due, in part, to a shortage of drivers certified to operate heavy goods vehicles, known as HGV drivers. It may need to turn ships away.
• All the single ladies. A new survey has found that almost half of China's urban young women don't plan to get married. A survey of close to 3,000 unmarried urban youth aged 18 to 26 found that 44% of Chinese women and 25% of Chinese men did not plan to get married.
• Abbott attempts to sidestep vaccine mandates again. Texas Gov. Abbott issued an executive order banning private companies from mandating COVID-19 vaccines. "No entity in Texas can compel receipt of a COVID-19 vaccine by any individual, including an employee or a consumer," the order said.
• Another Evergrande debt repayment deadline looms. Evergrande looks set to miss its third round of bond payments in 3 weeks, and it's intensifying contagion fears in China. As Evergrande looks set to miss its third round of bond payments in three weeks, markets are shifting their focus to other indebted property developers.
• That's all for now. See you tomorrow.