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The World
U.S. stocks rallied off their worst week since March 2020, offering investors a reprieve from a recent stretch of whipsaw trading that had sent stocks and cryptocurrencies falling. Bitcoin rose alongside other cryptocurrencies, continuing to claw back some losses after a bruising weekend. Bitcoin rose to $20,836.15, up 1.9% from its 5 p.m. ET value Monday, and about 18% higher from a recent low of $17,601.58 reached Saturday. (Wall Street Journal)
Western move to choke Russia’s oil exports boomerangs: With China and India buying the Russian oil shunned by the West in an effort to force an end to the Ukraine invasion, Moscow is earning more now than it did before the war. (New York Times)
The Indian government has asked state oil companies to scoop up huge volumes of cheap crude from Russia, according to industry executives, strengthening commercial ties with the country even as the West tightens sanctions on Moscow. (Wall Street Journal)
As Israel braces for its fifth election since 2019, three separate TV polls show that the two rival political blocs remain deadlocked, as they were in the previous four elections, although all showed the bloc of parties loyal to opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu faring significantly better than it did in the 2021 elections. The polls predicted that neither the current coalition nor opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-religious bloc would receive a majority of 61 seats in the 120-member Knesset, assuming there are no changes in the constellation of parties and alliances in the coming months, an unlikely prospect. Outgoing Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, for instance, whose Yamina party is polling at 4-5 seats, at times indicated a willingness to sit in a Netanyahu-led government before his own coalition was finalized. (Times of Israel)
Fewer women than men in the Asia-Pacific region have received both initial doses of vaccination against Covid-19. That is only one of the many disproportionate effects of the pandemic on women across the region, according to a new report by UN Women and the Asian Development Bank, which is focused on promoting economic growth and cooperation in the region. The study, titled “Two years on: The lingering gendered effects of the Covid-19 in Asia and the Pacific”, sheds light on how women continue to pay a higher price in all seven countries where data was collected. (South China Morning Post)
A bipartisan group of lawmakers released the first significant gun control legislation in decades, paving the way for the U.S. Senate to move to a vote this week, following two mass shootings that killed dozens of people and sent shock waves through a nation plagued by gun violence. The 80-page bill includes provisions that would help states keep guns out of the hands of those deemed to be a danger to themselves or others and close the so-called boyfriend loophole by blocking gun sales to those convicted of abusing unmarried intimate partners. (Reuters)
The group also sent senators a five-page, section-by-section breakdown, obtained by Axios, of the measure's key elements: Enhanced background checks; state incentives for "red flag" laws; appropriates hundreds of millions for mental health and school safety programs; and illegal firearm trafficking. (Axios, Memo)
President Biden plans to call for suspending the federal gasoline tax in his latest bid to curb rising fuel prices, according to multiple Democrats familiar with discussions, who said it stands almost no chance of passage in Congress. Biden is expected to ask lawmakers to suspend a federal 18-cent-per-gallon levy while also urging individual states to suspend their own gas taxes. (Politico)
Delays, cancellations, long lines and lost baggage are plaguing air travel world-wide, as airlines and airports struggle with soaring summer demand and staff shortfalls. London’s Gatwick Airport has told airlines to cut back on inbound flights as it struggles with staff shortages and canceled flights. Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport is limiting the number of passengers allowed inside, asking travelers not to show up more than four hours before their flights. It is also warning them to wear comfortable shoes for the hourslong wait once inside. The two airports—both gateways for European vacations this summer—are struggling, like the rest of the industry, with chronic staff shortages. They and others have tried to hire staff back after letting them go during a two-year-long travel bust thanks to Covid-19 restrictions. Sydney Airport last week staged a job fair looking for 5,000 new hires to work at airport employers. (Wall Street Journal)
Extreme heat to test U.S. Midwest power grid this week: The power grid operator in the Central United States said it started to take some steps to make sure utilities are ready to keep the lights on as consumers crank up their air conditioners during an extreme heat wave this week. (Reuters)
Economy
Goldman Sachs has doubled the likelihood of the U.S. economy suffering a recession in the next 12 months as the Fed takes aggressive action to combat surging price growth. Goldman now puts the chances of an American recession over the next year at 30%, up from 15%, after its economists became “increasingly concerned” that the Fed will accept a sharp slowdown in growth to curb inflation. (The Times)
President Biden hit out at Chevron chief executive Mike Wirth, calling the oil major boss “sensitive” after he criticized the US administration’s energy policy, as high fuel prices deepen tensions between the White House and the domestic industry. The exchange came ahead of a meeting scheduled on Thursday between energy secretary Jennifer Granholm and senior industry executives including Wirth, whose company is the second-largest US oil and gas producer by market value. The US president’s rhetoric on oil companies has heated up in recent weeks. This month, he criticized ExxonMobil for “making more than God this year” and told the oil supermajor to “start investing more”. (Financial Times)
The relentless climb in U.S. home values continued in May, when median prices shot above $400,000 for the first time while sales activity slowed under pressure from higher mortgage costs. Home-buying demand continues to exceed unusually low levels of supply and propel prices higher. The median existing-home price rose 14.8% in May from a year earlier to $407,600, a record high in data going back to 1999. That rate was up slightly from the previous month. (Wall Street Journal)
The world’s bubbliest housing markets are flashing warning signs: Global monetary tightening is squeezing homebuyers, adding risks that a slowdown could ripple through the economy. (Bloomberg)
Empty Wall Street offices to be revived as apartments: 55 Broad St. in New York’s financial district will be turned into 571 apartments, one of the largest office conversions to be launched during the pandemic. (Wall Street Journal)
Rents will rise by at least 3.25% for 2 million rent stabilized New Yorkers. (New York Times)
US retailers face shake-up as consumers trade down to beat rising prices: Inflation is creating winners and losers among stores as customers seek out cheaper products. (Financial Times)
Technology
Microsoft plans to eliminate face analysis tools in a push for ‘responsible A.I.’ The technology giant will stop offering automated tools that predict a person’s gender, age and emotional state and will restrict the use of its facial recognition tool. (New York Times)
iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and macOS Ventura add an Automatic Verification option, letting iCloud users bypass CAPTCHAs on websites and in apps that support the feature. (MacRumors)
Amazon Music is a massive moneymaker: The company formerly known as App Annie said that Amazon Music recently surpassed $500 million in lifetime revenue on iOS alone. However, the total lifetime revenue of the service is likely a lot higher: Amazon Music doesn’t currently allow people to subscribe to its service from the Android app distributed via Google Play, according to data.ai. This means that Android users likely sign up directly on Amazon’s website. (Protocol)
Teleportation trick shows promise for a future quantum internet: Quantum information has been sent from one side of a simple quantum network to the other, passing through an intermediate network node without affecting it. (New Scientist)
Smart Links
Crypto companies pull back on marketing after their Super Bowl blitz. (Wall Street Journal)
Dartmouth is getting rid of student loans for undergraduates. (Bloomberg)
Now admitting: Japan aims to regain 300,000 foreign students. (Nikkei Asia Review)
Bayer suffers US Supreme Court setback in attempt to end Roundup litigation. (Financial Times)
Beijing bans Teslas from Communist Party elite’s favorite seaside resort. (The Times)