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The World
President Biden and a group of 10 Senators agreed to a roughly $1 trillion infrastructure plan, securing a long-sought bipartisan deal that lawmakers and the White House will now attempt to shepherd through Congress alongside a broader package sought by Democrats. Biden and Democratic leaders said that advancing the deal on transportation, water and broadband infrastructure will hinge on the passage of more elements of Mr. Biden’s $4 trillion economic agenda. The two-track process sets up weeks of delicate negotiations to gather support for both the bipartisan plan and a separate Democratic proposal, a challenging task in the 50-50 Senate and the narrowly Democratic-controlled House. (Wall Street Journal)
Russia warned Britain that it would bomb British naval vessels in the Black Sea if there were any further provocative actions by the British navy off the coast of Russia-annexed Crimea. UK PM Boris Johnson said it was “entirely right” for a British warship to travel through the waters. (Reuters)
Nearly all US Covid deaths are now among unvaccinated: Only about 150 of the more than 18,000 COVID-19 deaths in May were in fully vaccinated people. That translates to about 0.8%. (Associated Press)
Israel will reinstate an indoor mask mandate next week as COVID-19 cases keep rising. Meanwhile, Canada resists opening its U.S. border as Covid-19 vaccinations ramp up. (Times of Israel, Wall Street Journal)
Two million people may have suffered ‘long covid’ in England. In Australia, downtown Sydney and beach suburbs will enter lockdown after spike in Delta variant cases as the city faces “perhaps the scariest period” of the entire pandemic. (Washington Post, Reuters)
Details of the genetic makeup of some of the earliest samples of coronavirus in China were removed from an American database where they were initially stored at the request of Chinese researchers, U.S. officials confirmed, adding to concerns over secrecy surrounding the outbreak and its origins. The data, first submitted to the U.S.-based Sequence Read Archive in March 2020, were “requested to be withdrawn” by the same researcher three months later in June, the U.S. National Institutes of Health said. The genetic sequences came from the Chinese city of Wuhan where the Covid-19 outbreak was initially concentrated. (Bloomberg)
Japanese Emperor Naruhito is believed to be "concerned" that the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics could cause a further increase in coronavirus cases, the head of the Imperial Household Agency said: "His majesty is very worried about the current infection situation of the COVID-19 disease." (Kyoto News)
The White House is assembling a plan to rescue Afghan interpreters and others who have helped the U.S. over the past 20 years by helping them to get out of Afghanistan and, ultimately, to the U.S. The effort would involve quickly moving Afghan interpreters and drivers who worked with the U.S. military out of Afghanistan—where they have become targets of possible retaliation for the Taliban—to another country or U.S. territory where they would be safe. (Wall Street Journal)
Scorching heat breaks records in Europe, Russia: Moscow and St. Petersburg soared to their highest June temperature on record Wednesday, reaching the mid-90s, while Estonia and Belarus established new all-time highs for the month this week. On Thursday, Hungary and Malta also set new June temperature records, hitting 104 degrees and 104.3 degrees. (Washington Post)
99 feared missing in rubble of collapsed condo in Surfside as search, vigil continue. (Miami Herald)
Thousands of police officers nationwide have headed for the exits in the past year. A survey of almost 200 police departments indicated that retirements were up 45 percent and resignations rose by 18 percent in the year from April 2020 to April 2021 when compared with the previous 12 months, according to the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington policy institute. NYC saw 2,600 officers retire in 2020 compared with 1,509 the year before. Resignations in Seattle increased to 123 from 34 and retirements to 96 from 43. Minneapolis, which had 912 uniformed officers in May 2019, is now down to 699. At the same time, many cities are contending with a rise in shootings and homicides. (New York Times)
National Guard and reserve soldiers are having trouble feeding their families due to a year of record deployments. Hunger among Guard members and reservists is more than double the national rate, according to U.S. Census Bureau data from mid-April through early June. They report more food insecurity than nearly any other group, regardless of household income, education, age or race. Nearly one in five Guard members report sometimes or often not having enough to eat. And a third of those with a spouse serving in the National Guard or reserves report not having enough to eat. (Washington Post)
More than half of all buildings in the U.S. are situated in hazardous hotspots, prone to wildfires, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes, according to new research. Areas vulnerable to such natural disasters make up only one-third of the US mainland, and yet most modern development to date has occurred in these very spots. (Science Alert)
Average life expectancy in the U.S. plummeted in 2020, widening the life expectancy gap between the U.S. and other high-income countries. The decline was particularly sharp among Hispanic and Black Americans. Between 2018 and 2020, the decrease in average life expectancy at birth in the U.S. was roughly 1.9 years — 8.5 times the average decrease in 16 comparable countries, which was about 2.5 months. The decrease widened the gap between the U.S. and its peers to nearly 5 years, but the difference is much larger among Black and Hispanic Americans. (NBC News)
U.S. Census to show first decline of white population: Newly released Census Bureau estimates compiled independently of the 2020 census suggest something unprecedented: The 2010s could be the first decade when the nation’s white population registered an absolute loss. These new estimates show annual population changes by race and ethnicity between July 2010 and July 2020. They indicate that, for each year since 2016, the nation’s white population dropped in size. Thus, all of U.S. population growth from 2016 to 2020 comes from gains in people of color. (Brookings)
Japan drops out of 10 most populous countries: Japan now ranks 11th worldwide by population, based on preliminary 2020 census data compared with United Nations estimates for other countries, the lowest since 1950. (Nikkei Asian Review)
Economy
The U.S. Federal Reserve further loosened restrictions on dividends and buybacks by America’s biggest banks as it released an analysis showing the lenders could suffer almost $500bn in losses and still comfortably meet capital requirements. The results will pave the way for billions of dollars in stock buybacks and dividends, which bank investors have been eagerly anticipating. (Financial Times)
Why the Fed is considering a digital dollar: The Federal Reserve is trying to figure out how to keep cash relevant in a cashless world. It’s considering digitizing the U.S. dollar, giving people money they can access on their phone and bypassing electronic payments that can be slow and costly for businesses. (Wall Street Journal)
Andreessen Horowitz raised $2.2bn for its third fund focused on digital assets, more than doubling its initial target in a sign of strong demand from institutional investors. The Silicon Valley group will set up a third fund focused on finding “the next generation of visionary crypto founders”, it said. Its latest fund will dwarf its previous two funds, of $350m and $515m. Andreessen originally sought to raise $800m to $1bn for the new fund. (Financial Times)
Bitcoin will become legal tender in El Salvador on Sept 7. (Reuters)
Over the last 20 years, Peter Thiel has quietly turned his Roth IRA — a humdrum retirement vehicle intended to spur Americans to save for their golden years — into a gargantuan tax-exempt piggy bank, confidential Internal Revenue Service data shows. Using stock deals unavailable to most people, Thiel has taken a retirement account worth less than $2,000 in 1999 and spun it into a $5 billion windfall. (ProPublica)
Worker well-being is a priority for U.S. businesses, but program usage is faltering: Mental and physical well-being are the top priorities for both organizations and individual workers. Financial well-being (e.g., financial literacy, tuition support) ranked third on the list of organizational priorities but not as high among workers’ concerns; social well-being ranked third for workers. While most practitioners surveyed believe workers are aware of and seem comfortable using well-being programs, there is still room for improvement. Only about 40 percent of practitioners believe workers are “strongly aware” of programs and “very” or “completely” comfortable using them. Low program participation and limited funding are the top barriers to a successful wellness strategy. (The Conference Board)
With the U.S. slowly beginning to open up, private equity investments in the restaurant industry and other related sectors have slowly ramped up, with a wider dealmaking surge expected in 2H21. (Pitch Book)
Morning Consult released its Trust in Travel and Hospitality survey, with Holiday Inn taking the top spot. Other takeaways: (Morning Consult)
Eight of the top 10 most trusted travel and hospitality brands are hotels or resorts, with only one airline on the list: Southwest Airlines. Thirteen of the 20 top most trusted travel and hospitality brands are hotels.
The pandemic was a net positive for the travel industry: Brands overall are exiting the pandemic with higher consumer net trust than when they entered it.
Business travel is coming back with 58% of business travelers saying they are traveling this summer for work.
Technology
Microsoft Corp., which is unveiling a new version of Windows for the first time in six years, said it will integrate its Teams chat and videoconferencing software directly into the operating system. Teams has seen a huge surge in users during the pandemic, boosting Microsoft in a product category where it’s been trying to catch up with Slack and Zoom. The latest personal computer operating system, Windows 11, also features a new design and will offer changes to the app store. (Bloomberg)
Microsoft says it is bringing Android apps to Windows 11 through Amazon's app store. (The Verge)
Microsoft reveals an updated Windows Store and says developers will keep 100% of their revenue if they use their own payment system, except for games. (The Verge)
New FTC Chair Lina Khan named three top staff members amid one of the most radical shifts in the agency’s history. Holly Vedova, who was an adviser to FTC commissioner Rohit Chopra, a Democrat, on antitrust issues, is now the acting director of the agency’s Bureau of Competition, which oversees all antitrust enforcement at the agency. Sam Levine, another Chopra adviser, is now the acting director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection. And Erie Meyer, who is a technical and policy adviser to Chopra, will be the FTC’s chief technologist. The fact that all three individuals worked for Chopra is significant. Chopra is one of Khan’s key allies and lobbied for her to lead the agency because of her expansive view of antitrust enforcement. (The Information)
Google delayed a plan to end support for third-party cookies in its Chrome browser by nearly two years, after mounting pressure over an idea that strikes at one of the foundations of today’s online advertising industry. (Financial Times)
Big Oil companies are hiring influencers to promote their brand. An influencer, Cherrie Lynn Almonte, with 192,000 followers recently posted a photo of her posing at a Shell gas station (who sponsored the post) with the caption: “Check your destination before you go. Especially with the fires that are happening in California, we had to make sure it was safe for us to go to Joshua Tree.” The post was flooded with comments pointing out how the company is partially responsible for the climate crisis in the place they sponsored a trip to. (Gizmodo)
Digital Addiction: Research by Stanford economist Matthew Gentzkow sheds new light on people’s digital tendencies. They estimate that self-control problems are responsible for 31% of the time that people in their study spend on social media. Researchers gleaned behavioral evidence that reflected two key components of addiction: habit formation and self-control problems. Insights included: (Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research)
People consistently underestimate their future social media use, even when they are reminded of their past usage amounts.
If people are given small financial incentives to cut back on social media for a few weeks, the habit of reduced usage persists even after the incentives go away.
Social media use goes down substantially — by about 22 minutes a day — after people are offered the use of an app that allows them to set screen time limits on their smartphones.
Both the financial incentives and the screen time limits helped temper smartphone addiction, narrowing the gap between people’s stated ideal and actual screen time.
The incentives and screen time limits seemed to benefit experiment participants. For instance, they reported being less likely to lose sleep and to use their phones to distract from anxiety or to procrastinate.
Smart Links
UK to ban junk food advertising online and before 9 p.m. on TV from 2023. (The Guardian)
Therapy, postage, home internet bills: Companies find remote work isn’t cheap. (The Information)
Times CEO Summit: Staff return to office is high priority for bosses. (The Times)
Amazon acquires podcast hosting and monetization platform Art19. (The Verge)
Teamsters votes to support and fund Amazon workers. (Reuters)
Alphabet CFO says she supports higher taxes on high earners. (CNBC)
Fossils found in Israel are ‘last survivors’ of ‘missing’ type of extinct humans. (Times of Israel)
4,368 episodes later, Conan O’Brien’s late-night run ends. (Wall Street Journal)
U.S. airlines have experienced a spike in unruly passengers. (Statista)