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The World
President Joe Biden, at Tulsa massacre event, promises to ramp up fight for voting rights: The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre occurred 100 years ago yesterday, but the passions that brought it to a boil are still with us, President Joe Biden said near the end of his 40-minute speech to commemorate the event. "Hate is never defeated," Biden said, almost in a whisper, to about 120 at the Greenwood Cultural Center. "It only hides.” (Tulsa World, Washington Post)
Oklahoma governor signs bill into law to name highway after former President Trump. (KMBC)
Oil prices hit multiyear highs above $70 a barrel after OPEC and its allies forecast higher demand and boosted output—punctuating a global economic reawakening that has raised the prices of a broad range of commodities. The move by a group of oil producers led by Saudi Arabia and Russia amounted to a continued unwinding of steep cuts they made at the start of the pandemic. Recent oil-price milestones come alongside similar ones hit by commodities from tin and copper to lumber. (Wall Street Journal)
The Biden administration suspended oil drilling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, unspooling a signature achievement of the Trump presidency and delivering on a promise by President Biden to protect the fragile Alaskan tundra from fossil fuel extraction. (New York Times)
China’s economic tsar Liu He held a virtual meeting with US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen this morning, days after Liu’s first conversation on trade issues with US Trade Representative Katherine Tai. Both sides agreed China-US economic relations were “very important,” and discussions included the macro economic situation, as well as bilateral and multilateral cooperation “in an attitude of equality and mutual respect,” according to a statement by state media Xinhua. (South China Morning Post)
The EU is set to unveil detailed plans for a bloc-wide digital wallet today following requests from member states to find a safe way for citizens to access public and private services online. The digital wallet would securely store payment details and passwords and allow citizens from all 27 countries to log into local government websites or pay utility bills using a single recognised identity. The EU-wide app, which can be accessed via fingerprint or retina scanning among other methods, will also serve as a vault where users can store official documents such as a driver’s licence. (Financial Times)
Eurozone inflation rose above its target sooner than the ECB expected. The sharp acceleration in inflation has been driven by surging energy prices, and central bankers expect it to be temporary. (Wall Street Journal)
The UK is scrapping its vaccine passport plans. (The Telegraph)
The Ever Given freighter that disrupted global supply chains two months ago got stuck because it was speeding, claims Suez Canal boss. (The Telegraph)
JBS, the world’s largest meat supplier, said its systems are coming back online after a massive cyberattack that shut down some of its U.S. and Australian operations earlier this week. The White House said a Russian criminal gang likely hacked the meat supplier. (Washington Post, Financial Times)
Anthony Fauci’s pandemic emails: Fauci’s correspondence from March and April 2020, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, offers a peek into his world during the frantic early days of the coronavirus crisis. During daily televised briefings at the White House, Dr. Anthony Fauci emerged as an at times reluctant — and polarizing — media star: To Trump supporters, he was a contrarian who seemed to undermine the president at every turn, while others viewed him as a reassuring voice of reason. The emails show that he was inundated with correspondence from colleagues, hospital administrators, foreign governments and random strangers — about 1,000 messages a day, he says at one point — writing to seek his advice, solicit his help or simply offer encouragement. (Washington Post)
The UK reported no new coronavirus deaths yesterday for the first time since the pandemic began, raising hope that the remaining restrictions in England may still be lifted this month. Meanwhile, Japan will kick off workplace vaccinations with 50m doses, as Toyota, Sony consider launching their own drives for employees. (The Times, Nikkei Asian Review)
Privately insured individuals are more likely to report worse access to care, higher medical costs and lower satisfaction than those on public insurance programs like Medicare, suggesting public options may provide more cost-effective care than private ones, according to a new JAMA study. (Healthcare Dive)
Howard Bauchner, MD, will step down as editor-in-chief of JAMA — one of the most widely circulated medical journals in the world — after fallout from a February podcast and tweet about structural racism in medicine. The announcement comes just days after a group of doctors wrote AMA leadership criticizing a racial equity and justice plan the AMA released last month. (Medscape)
Economy
LinkedIn data shows Austin is the top beneficiary of tech-related migration in the past 12 months, followed by Nashville; Miami was #11 by net migration rate. The Texas capital captured a net inflow of 217 software and information technology company workers per 10,000 existing ones. (Bloomberg)
Business travel is coming back: Alison Taylor, chief customer officer at American Airlines Group Inc., said 47 of the airline’s 50 largest corporate accounts have said they plan to resume traveling this year. Investment bankers said they have raced to be first to visit clients in person again. Some companies have sent salespeople back on the road, seeking an edge against competitors. A handful of high-profile events, like the TED conference, are returning in-person this summer, luring business travelers on flights. Industry trade shows are coming back to the Las Vegas Convention Center in June. In a survey by the U.S. Census Bureau conducted in May, 35% of small-business owners said they expect to have travel expenses in the next six months, up from 31.5% in April and 26.5% in mid-February. (Wall Street Journal)
Sun Valley’s “Summer Camp for Moguls” to return amid megadeal frenzy: Top executives are poised to jet to Sun Valley for Allen & Co.’s exclusive conference in July where power players lay the groundwork for blockbuster tie-ups. (Hollywood Reporter)
A strong push by Wall Street to open up access to Bitcoin investment is meeting resistance from a bipartisan group of lawmakers and regulators in Washington, setting up a lobbying fight over the future of digital currency. But lobbyists face an uphill battle that has gotten even tougher after dramatic price swings in recent days, with Bitcoin plunging nearly 40% since early May. The investor risks are building on broader concerns about whether cryptocurrency fuels money laundering, aids tax evaders and could threaten the safety of the financial markets themselves if broadly adopted. (Politico)
Banks plot July pull back from Libor: The lending world's slow move away from the Libor benchmark interest rate has been going on for more than a decade. But things are finally speeding up — with some investment banks planning to arrange new loans based on alternative benchmarks as soon as July. (Axios)
New York City and 21 of New York’s counties announced a lawsuit against consulting firm McKinsey & Company, accusing the company of contributing to the opioid crisis by helping create strategies to increase prescription drug sales. (Associated Press)
From Tesla to GE, see how much CEOs made in 2020: Paycom Software founder Chad Richison, whose pay package was valued at more than $200 million, was the highest-paid CEO in the Journal’s analysis. Seven CEOs were awarded compensation valued at more than $50 million last year, compared with two in 2019 and three in 2018. (Wall Street Journal)
In its ninth annual ESG report, LGT Capital Partners analyzed the activities of 344 managers globally, including 267 private equity managers, and assessed the improvements they made in their respective ESG practices. The report found that 68% of managers now have strong ESG practices in place, an 18% increase compared to 2016. 34% of private equity managers address climate change within their ESG policies, 32% private equity managers actively assess climate change risk within portfolios and 28% of managers are actively measuring CO2 emissions of their portfolio companies. 50% of all private equity managers have a formal diversity & inclusion policy in place and 48% consider these issues in investment decision-making. (Citywire Selector)
Technology
The EU lawmaker who will steer the EU’s flagship tech regulation through the European parliament has said it should focus on the largest five US tech companies. Andreas Schwab, a German MEP and longtime critic of Google, spoke after France and Germany both called for the EU to be tougher on Big Tech. He said Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft, were the “biggest problems” for EU competition policy. (Financial Times)
Venmo, the mobile payments app owned by PayPal, is changing its privacy settings after a BuzzFeed News story uncovered President Joe Biden’s account earlier this month. The move allows people to make their friend list private or restrict who can see it, adding a privacy feature to an app that digital rights groups and critics have called a security nightmare. (BuzzFeed News)
Mozilla updates Firefox desktop and mobile apps with a revamped design, details the data-driven process used to guide the creation of the new streamlined look. (Mozilla)
This year, the must-have Hamptons accouterment is neither a reservation at Nick & Toni’s nor a rental within walking distance of Cooper’s Beach, but a cellphone booster, bought through cellphone providers or places like Best Buy, and which costs $200 to $1,100, plus fees. The area’s infrastructure fails to meet the needs of its swelling summer population, a problem that seems to have grown worse with an influx of urban expatriates during lockdown. (New York Times)
Twitter is partnering with veteran climate journalist and meteorologist Eric Holthaus to launch a local weather news service on the platform called "Tomorrow" that will be built using all of Twitter's new creator products — from paid newsletters to ticketed live audio rooms and more. "It's the largest collective of writers and experts we've launched with," Twitter's VP of product Mike Park said. (Axios)
Mapping the Universe’s dark matter: A survey of the southern sky has reconstructed how mass is spread across space and time in the biggest study of its kind. The resulting 3D cosmic map provides a record of the Universe’s history. By tracking how galaxies spread out over time, researchers can measure the forces at play. These include the gravitational pull of dark matter — the invisible stuff that constitutes some 80% of the Universe’s mass — and dark energy, the mysterious force that appears to be pushing the Universe to accelerate its expansion. (Nature)
Tesla & Texas: Because of current Texas laws, Tesla will have to ship its Texas-built cars out of state to sell back to residents. Under Texas franchise laws, which are similar to those in most other states, automakers like Toyota and General Motors cannot sell you a car. They must sell their cars to independently owned third-party businesses that in turn sell them to Texans—you know, new-car dealerships. (The Drive)
Tesla has filed a new trademark for its brand under restaurant services as the automaker is expected to expand amenities around its charging infrastructure, including actual restaurants. (Electrek.co)
Smart Links
MBA graduates take on a green hue as fewer choose fossil fuel careers. (Financial Times)
Nurse shortages spur systems to dangle steep sign-on bonuses. (Healthcare Dive)
‘Womenomics’ author and former Goldman Sachs vice chair Kathy Matsui seeks to bring ESG to Japan startups. (Bloomberg)
Discovery-WarnerMedia combination gets a name: The merged company will go by Warner Bros. Discovery. (Hollywood Reporter)
$1 million over asking: D.C. bidding wars escalate as U.S. housing crunch intensifies. (Washington Post)
Amazon faced 75,000 arbitration demands. Now it says: Fine, sue us. (Wall Street Journal)
New algorithms show accuracy and reliability in gauging unconsciousness under general anesthesia. (MIT News)
The human genome has finally been completely sequenced after 20 years. (New Scientist)
Business of K-pop: Inside the pandemic-proof empire of BTS. (Nikkei Asian Review)
NBA All-Stars invest in $1 billion Harvard real-estate development. (Wall Street Journal)