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The World
Wealth Gap
Global inequality is likely to widen this year as a small number of major economies power the fastest recovery in 80 years while many poorer countries struggle to return to pre-pandemic income levels, the World Bank said. The global economy is set to grow by 5.6% this year, up from a January forecast of 4.1%, marking the fastest recovery from five post-World War II recessions. While about 90% of advanced economies are expected to regain their pre-pandemic per capita income levels by 2022, only about one-third of emerging-market and developing nations are likely to do so. (Wall Street Journal)
ProPublica obtained a vast trove of IRS data on the tax returns of thousands of the nation’s wealthiest people, covering more than 15 years. The data provides an unprecedented look inside the financial lives of America’s titans, including Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch and Mark Zuckerberg. It shows not just their income and taxes, but also their investments, stock trades, gambling winnings and even the results of audits. The 25 richest Americans paid a “true tax rate” of just 3.4% between 2014 and 2018. The commissioner of the IRS told lawmakers that it is looking into how the tax and income details were released. (ProPublica, Wall Street Journal)
UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak is pushing to win a carve-out for the City of London in the G7’s push for a new global tax system, reflecting Sunak’s fears that global banks with head offices in London could be affected. (Financial Times)
The Kremlin has been fine-tuning its strategy to pressure social media platforms such as Twitter, YouTube and TikTok to remove antigovernment content, classifying a growing number of posts as illegal and issuing a flurry of takedown requests. So far it appears to be working. The Western-dominated tech giants have in many instances complied. YouTube temporarily removed links to content laying out the opposition’s voting strategy. Russian officials say Twitter is working to comply with requests to remove content that Moscow deems illegal. TikTok also removed or altered a handful of videos that criticized the government and promoted opposition street protests. (Wall Street Journal)
In Israel, the new unity government led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid will be brought to a vote of confidence and sworn in during a special session of the Knesset on Sunday. (Jerusalem Post)
In the UK, millions of people in Greater Manchester and Lancashire have been urged not to travel to the rest of the country as testing is increased to control the spread of the Indian variant. The military will conduct door-to-door testing for councils that want it. The method, which has brought cases under control in Bolton, is being extended to a tenth of the population of England. (The Times)
In a very short time, Americans have returned to doing the things many haven't done in a long time — and now see less risk than ever in returning to their pre-pandemic lives. (Axios/Ipsos poll)
President Biden cut off his infrastructure negotiations with leading Senate Republicans. Meanwhile, the Senate voted to adopt a roughly $250 billion bill to counter China’s growing economic and military prowess. (New York Times, Washington Post)
Colonial Pipeline CEO Joseph Blount told a Senate hearing that the company was a victim of forces beyond its control — but acknowledged that its network was breached through an account without multi-factor authentication. (Washington Post)
Emergency room visits decreased drastically at the beginning of the pandemic, even among patients suffering from the most severe health conditions. A Health Affairs study suggests that patients avoided a wide range of care — including for some life-threatening conditions — and not just care that is easily delayed. ER visits decreased by 35% overall across a health system in the St. Louis metro area after the announcement of a stay-at-home order. The most serious visits — those for emergency, nonpreventable care — decreased by 40%, and nonemergency visits decreased by 52%. (Axios, Health Affairs study)
More than 60% of frontline healthcare workers surveyed earlier this year said the pandemic negatively impacted their mental health. Now a new study concludes that burnout was highly correlated to how the practices were managed — strongly suggesting they functioned far better with a collaborative management style using proactive communications. (Healthcare Dive)
Colleges scramble to adapt to a world where their athletes can cash in: Starting in July, colleges in seven states will be barred from prohibiting students from earning money based on their affiliation with sports. (Chronicle of Higher Ed)
U.S. support for legal same-sex marriage continues to trend upward, now at 70% -- a new high in Gallup's trend since 1996. This latest figure marks an increase of 10 percentage points since 2015, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that all states must recognize same-sex marriages. Republicans show majority support in 2021 for the first time (55%). (Gallup)
Economy
Corporate boards are getting less white and male, but companies are "recycling" to achieve the feat — i.e., tapping a limited circle of executives of color to fill open slots. In some cases, more diversity came "by recycling ... existing Fortune 500 board members rather than bringing in new individuals with different skills, backgrounds, and perspectives," according to a report by Deloitte and the Alliance for Board Diversity. Roughly 36% of board seats held by people of color were occupied by executives on several boards last year. (Axios, Deloitte)
Available jobs in the U.S. climbed further above pre-pandemic levels last month, with leisure and hospitality sectors showing the most growth in openings. Openings continued to grow in May, according to job search site Indeed. That followed an increase of nearly 1 million unfilled positions in April, to 9.3 million, the highest level on records back to 2000. (Wall Street Journal)
China is doubling down on its embrace of distributed databases with the establishment of an “advanced blockchain industrial system,” as the country looks to incorporate the technology into its economic and development plans. The country plans to establish industrial standards, tax incentives and intellectual property protections to support the blockchain industry, for which it wants to become a world leader by 2025, according to the two agencies in charge of the world’s largest internet industry. The document also mentioned plans to enhance global cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative. (South China Morning Post)
For the first time ever, the number of professionals registered with the century-old Communist Party of China has exceeded the number of factory and farm laborers in its ranks, showing the changing nature of the self-described vanguard of the working class. (Nikkei Asian Review)
American bitcoin traders made $4.1B in profits last year, 3x more than Chinese traders, followed by Japan, UK, Russia, and Germany. (Bloomberg)
Startups in the construction space have raised nearly $1.5 billion so far this year, more than the nearly $1.2 billion the sector raised in all of 2020. The rise in investment comes as U.S. demand for homes still exceeds affordable supply, exacerbated by price spikes and material shortages. (Crunchbase)
Technology
Developer war brewing over app store commissions: Rivals circling Apple and Google are courting developers and creators who are growing increasingly frustrated with the fees those tech giants charge in their app stores. In-app purchases have emerged as a key way for developers looking to make money from their apps, and Apple and Google tightly control the payment mechanism for such transactions. (Axios)
Your Echo is about to share your internet with your neighbors. Here’s how to opt out: Sidewalk is Amazon’s effort to create a “mesh” network of interconnected devices — its own, as well as those made by any participating third parties. Sidewalk-enabled devices — of which there are about to be a lot more — connect to each other through Bluetooth and radio frequencies. Your devices are connected to all other Sidewalk-enabled devices within range (and those devices’ internet connections), which are connected to all other Sidewalk-enabled devices in their range, and so on. This allows all of those devices to stay connected to the internet even if the devices themselves are out of range or disconnected from their home wifi networks. That also means your neighbors’ data passes through your device, and your data passes through theirs. (Recode)
Google is privately testing an array of new features for its collection of productivity tools, Workspace, that it’s likely to release this year. One feature lets people say in meeting RSVPs whether they will attend in person, dial in or join by video, and whether they plan to have their cameras on. Another will let Workspace users easily share meeting availability with people outside their organizations, which would compete with Calendly. (The Information)
The EU is facing a backlash over new AI rules that allow for limited use of facial recognition by authorities — with opponents warning the carveouts could usher in a new age of biometric surveillance. In an open letter, 170 signatories in 55 countries argue that the use of technologies like facial recognition in public places goes against human rights and civil liberties. (Politico EU)
Smart Links
Boeing seeks increase in $3.9bn Air Force One fixed-price contract. (Financial Times)
Pandemic propels Auckland to top of EIU's most liveable cities ranking. (Reuters)
Western Michigan University gets largest donation ever for public university — more than doubling school’s endowment. (Wall Street Journal)
Big gaps remain in students’ home internet access, survey reveals. (EdWeek Market Brief)
Instagram seeks to explain how Instagram works. (Instagram)
Italy’s failed digital democracy dream is a warning. (Wired UK)
Controlling insulin production with a smartwatch. (ETH Zurich)
How podcasters replaced our real friends. (The Guardian)