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The World
The Pentagon said it is sending Ukraine an additional $1 billion in military assistance, including tens of thousands more munitions and explosives — the largest such package since Russia launched its invasion in February. (Washington Post)
Russian airlines, including state-controlled Aeroflot, are stripping jetliners to secure spare parts they can no longer buy abroad because of Western sanctions. The steps are in line with advice Russia's government provided in June for airlines to use some aircraft for parts to ensure the remainder of foreign-built planes can continue flying at least through 2025. (Reuters)
China has extended its military drills around Taiwan, stoking fears of a drawn-out period of heightened tension that is piling pressure on the US to respond. Beijing’s largest ever military exercises around Taiwan had been expected to wind down after navigation warnings for seven areas around the country expired early on Monday. But the People’s Liberation Army Eastern Theatre Command said it “continued joint training under real war conditions”. Monday’s drills were focused on anti-submarine warfare and naval strikes, and featured multiple destroyers and combat aircraft, it added. (Financial Times)
Taiwan tensions a boon for defense industry but supply clogs loom: Lockheed, Boeing, Raytheon race against time to meet demand from U.S. allies. (Nikkei Asia Review)
Biden 'concerned' as China extends military drills around Taiwan. (Reuters)
China’s Ambassador to France Lu Shaye explains — on French television — how Taiwanese would be “re-educated " after they're occupied by Beijing. (Politico)
Tech sector tax windfall shores up Ireland’s economy against recession: Pandemic-enhanced revenues from multinationals give Dublin more scope to mitigate the cost of living crisis. (Financial Times)
Intense downpours fell over central South Korea, including the capital of Seoul, inundating city streets and leaving people wading through floods late Monday. Photos and video from across the region Monday night showed half-submerged cars, people walking through waist-deep water and subway stations overflowing. (Washington Post)
Why Japan could soon see more ‘cruel heat days’ and ‘super tropical nights’: With global temperatures soaring this summer and more heat on the way, Japanese weather experts are proposing new terms to more accurately classify and describe the intensity of conditions. (South China Morning Post)
Consumers have become the most pessimistic about housing since 2011, when home prices bottomed in the wake of the global financial crisis, data from Federal National Mortgage Association shows. Fannie Mae’s Home Purchase Sentiment Index dropped to the lowest level in over a decade, as consumers expressed pessimism about home buying prospects. The index, which reflects consumers’ views on the housing market, has fallen from roughly 76 to 63 year-over-year. (Bloomberg)
San Francisco ‘Froth is Gone’ as Wealth Fades, Housing Slumps: Tech angst, rising interest rates and crime concerns are colliding to hit home prices in the nation’s most expensive region. (Bloomberg)
A measure of Australian business confidence rebounded in July as sales and profits held up surprisingly well in the face of rising interest rates and high inflation, though firms also reported record costs amid supply constraints. Tuesday's survey from National Australia Bank Ltd (NAB) (NAB.AX) showed its index of business conditions climbed 6 points to +20 in July, well above its long-run average. (Reuters)
Data Show Gender Pay Gap Opens Early: Broad new data on wages earned by college graduates who received federal student aid showed a pay gap emerging between men and women soon after they joined the workforce, even among those receiving the same degree from the same school. The data, which cover about 1.7 million graduates, showed that median pay for men exceeded that for women three years after graduation in nearly 75% of roughly 11,300 undergraduate and graduate degree programs at some 2,000 universities. In almost half of the programs, male graduates’ median earnings topped women’s by 10% or more, a Wall Street Journal analysis of data from 2015 and 2016 graduates showed. At Georgetown University, men who received undergraduate accounting degrees earned a median $155,000 three years after graduation, a 55% premium over their female classmates, the analysis showed. (Wall Street Journal)
Economy
CEO Optimism Surges In August: Chief Executive’s latest polling finds America’s business chiefs increasingly optimistic about where the economy is headed, with a growing proportion expecting conditions to rally by the end of the year. Chief Executive’s August CEO Confidence Index, a survey of 157 CEOs fielded August 2-4, soared 14 percent over last month’s reading, to 5.8 out of 10, where 10 is Excellent. After four months of continuous decline, optimism clawed back two months of losses, as CEOs report seeing early indicators that by this time next year, the country will be in a recovery. Polled CEOs say demand remains strong and pipelines active, supply chain strains have continued to ease, and overall costs are moderating. (Chief Executive)
Inflation expectations are tumbling: The Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Survey of Consumer Expectations showed steep drops in how high respondents expected inflation to be across a variety of time horizons. The higher people expect inflation to be, the more likely it is to materialize as businesses feel more comfortable raising prices and workers demand steeper wages. In that sense, falling inflation expectations are a welcome sign that the high inflation of the last year is not causing a long-lasting shift in Americans' psychology around money. (Axios)
Philippine Economy Expands 7.4% Last Quarter, Below Estimate. (Bloomberg)
Businesses are reducing office space, scaling back on consulting and opting for cheaper packaging of goods as they look to stay ahead of the downturn. Although companies already were leaning more on cost savings to combat higher inflation, the threat of a recession has prompted a harder look at the finances for some firms. Also, operating expenses at investment-grade nonfinancial companies rose 19.9% to $2.72 trillion during the first quarter from a year earlier, according to data provider S&P Global Market Intelligence. Those U.S. companies spent 83.1% of their total revenue on operating expenses during the quarter, up from 82.6% a year earlier, S&P data show. (Wall Street Journal)
Venture Capital’s Limited Partners Warn of Fundraising Slowdown: The era of easy money could be over for venture capital firms. Although VC fundraising has so far matched last year’s brisk pace, limited partners—the people and institutions that invest in VC funds—say a slowdown is afoot. That’s because this year’s stock sell-off has left big institutions’ portfolios overexposed to venture. Less appetite from pensions, endowments and wealthy individuals for risky bets in private companies could make it harder for startups to get capital once VC firms exhaust the record amount of money they raised in the last two years. (The Information)
ECB injects billions of euros into weaker eurozone debt markets: Central bank utilises reinvestments from maturing bonds to soothe jitters in countries such as Italy. (Financial Times)
Technology
Amazon’s shopping spree: Amazon owns your grocery store, your medical records and your smart home devices. Now it could own your vacuum, too. Amazon announced Friday it plans to buy Roomba-maker iRobot for $1.7 billion. The move makes sense, at least given Amazon’s relationship with iRobot, which has for years been a major customer of AWS Lambda. Amazon is expanding out, not up: Its past acquisitions have been in its non-dominant business segments. By avoiding snatching up other ecommerce or cloud storage companies, it aims to skirt the U.S. government’s antitrust red flags. (Protocol)
Axios, the digital media company that quickly gained traction since its founding five years ago with its distinctive bulletin-style scoops on the realms of politics, business and technology, said on Monday that it had agreed to sell itself to Cox Enterprises. The deal, which is set to close this month, values Axios at $525 million, according to two people with knowledge of the deal. (New York Times)
The California Department of Motor Vehicles has accused Tesla of false advertising in its promotion of the company’s signature Autopilot and Full Self-Driving technologies. The agency alleges the electric-car maker misled customers with advertising language on its website describing Autopilot and Full Self-Driving technologies as more capable than they actually are. (Los Angeles Times)
Corruption is sending shock waves through China’s chipmaking industry: China’s chipmaking industry has descended into chaos, with at least four top executives associated with a state-owned semiconductor fund recently arrested on corruption charges. It’s an explosive turn of events that could force the country to fundamentally rethink how it invests in chip development. Why it matters: The four executives are past or present employees of the China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, nicknamed the “Big Fund,” which was established in 2014 to build a supply chain of chips made in China, thus reducing reliance on the US and its allies. The fact that the fund was driven by a political mission and not financial interests made it ripe for corruption. What’s next: Analysts say the latest investigations may push China to manage semiconductor funding with more precision and professional knowledge. The country was forced to learn by trial and error, meaning more targeted investments into specific companies would be a logical next step—coupled with a new boss for the Big Fund. (MIT Technology Review)
Do Spiders Dream? A New Study Suggests They Just Might: Jumping spiders were observed experiencing rapid-eye-movement sleep, a finding that advances scientists’ understanding of sleep in animals. (Wall Street Journal)
Smart Links
San Francisco ‘Froth is Gone’ as Wealth Fades, Housing Slumps. (Bloomberg)
How a four-day workweek could be better for the climate. (Washington Post)
Why does the New York Times prosper while Gannett struggles? Here are four reasons. (Poynter)
Food Price Inflation Imposing Heavy Burden on Poorer Countries. (Wall Street Journal)
India’s e-waste industry is a ticking time bomb. (Slate)