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The World
Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has agreed to support Sweden’s membership of NATO, paving the way for the Nordic country to join the US-led bloc after more than a year of opposition from Ankara. Erdoğan’s decision to lift his veto, after a last-ditch meeting with the leaders of Sweden and NATO on Monday evening, came after Turkey’s president linked his support for Stockholm’s accession to Turkey’s long-stalled EU bid. The lifting of Erdoğan’s block, announced by NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg and which came after Stockholm made fresh anti-terrorism pledges, opens the way for Turkey’s parliament to approve Swedish entry into the US-led military alliance, a step seen as critical to strengthening the defence of eastern Europe in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. (Financial Times)
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia held a lengthy meeting with Yevgeny V. Prigozhin and commanders of his Wagner private military company just days after they had launched a mutiny that put the nation on the brink of a civil conflict, the Kremlin disclosed on Monday. News of the meeting added to the mystery of what will become of Mr. Prigozhin and his force after the insurrection. It remains unclear why a warlord with his own private army, who attempted to depose the Russian military leadership by force, has been allowed to remain in the country, apparently unhindered, allegedly even returning to his hometown, St. Petersburg, to pick up his confiscated guns. (New York Times)
Wagner fighters neared Russian nuclear base during revolt: As rebellious Wagner forces drove north toward Moscow on June 24, a contingent of military vehicles diverted east on a highway in the direction of a fortified Russian army base that holds nuclear weapons, according to videos posted online and interviews with local residents. Once the Wagner fighters reach more rural regions, the surveillance trail goes cold – about 100 km from the nuclear base, Voronezh-45. Reuters could not confirm what happened next, and Western officials have repeatedly said that Russia's nuclear stockpile was never in danger during the uprising, which ended quickly and mysteriously later that day. (Reuters)
North Korea's Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong Un, on Tuesday accused a U.S. military spy plane of entering the country's Exclusive Economic Zone eight times, state media KCNA reported. Kim warned that the U.S. forces will face a "very critical flight" if they continue what it called "illegal intrusion," repeating an accusation it made on Monday that the U.S. had violated its airspace by conducting surveillance flights. It also warned such flights may be shot down. The Pentagon earlier brushed aside Pyongyang's accusations of airspace violations and said the U.S. military had adhered to international law. (Nikkei Asia Review)
The commandant of the US Marine Corps, Gen David Berger, stepped down, leaving the military branch without a confirmed leader for the first time in more than 150 years. The vacancy comes as one Republican senator, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, has staged a months-long blockade of Pentagon nominations to protest against the department’s abortion policies. Berger’s assistant commandant and potential successor, Gen Eric Smith, has stepped in as the acting leader of the marines while his nomination remains stalled in the Senate. Smith became the marines’ first acting commandant since 1859, when Archibald Henderson died in office. (The Guardian)
Disney World Hasn’t Felt This Empty in Years: Visitors to Disney theme parks this summer are encountering something they haven’t seen in a while: elbow room. Travel analysts and advisers say traffic to Disney’s U.S. parks, and some rival parks, has slowed this summer. Data from a travel company that tracks line-waiting time at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., shows that the Independence Day weekend was one of the slowest in nearly a decade. Travel advisers and industry analysts say the slowdown is the latest sign that Disney’s recent price hikes and changes to park operations have soured some families on visiting the Most Magical Place on Earth. (Wall Street Journal)
Climate Disasters Daily? Welcome to the ‘New Normal.’ Catastrophic floods in the Hudson Valley. An unrelenting heat dome over Phoenix. Ocean temperatures hitting 90 degrees Fahrenheit off the coast of Miami. A surprising deluge in Vermont, a rare tornado in Delaware. A decade ago, any one of these events would have been seen as an aberration. This week, they are happening simultaneously as climate change fuels extreme weather, prompting Governor Kathy Hochul of New York, a Democrat, to call it “our new normal.” Over the past month, smoke from Canadian wildfires blanketed major cities around the country, a deadly heat wave hit Texas and Oklahoma and torrential rains flooded parts of Chicago. “It’s not just a figment of your imagination, and it’s not because everybody now has a smartphone,” said Jeff Berardelli, the chief meteorologist and climate specialist for WFLA News in Tampa. “We’ve seen an increase in extreme weather. This without a doubt is happening.” (New York Times)
Historic, deadly New England floods trap residents and destroy roads: Storms dropped more than a month’s worth of precipitation in parts of New York’s Hudson Valley and southern Vermont, causing historic flooding that killed at least one person and washed away major roads. (Washington Post)
‘Intense’ weeklong heat wave coming to Southern California. (Los Angeles Times)
Canada sees its farthest-north 100-degree temperature as wildfires rage. (Washington Post)
Extreme heat during Europe's hottest summer killed over 61,000, study says. (Axios)
Even moderate heat strains the heart: A person can experience cardiovascular strain — a progressive increase in heart rate — in air temperatures as low as 34 ℃, before their internal temperature starts to rise. Researchers spotted the warning sign in 51 healthy volunteers who engaged in light physical activity in humid conditions inside an environmental chamber. For older people or those with a heart condition, the effect can be lethal. (Nature)
Economy
Goldman Sachs says India will overtake the U.S. to become the world’s second-largest economy by 2075: Currently, India is the world’s fifth-largest economy, behind Germany, Japan, China and the U.S. On top of a burgeoning population, driving the forecast is the country’s progress in innovation and technology, higher capital investment and rising worker productivity, the investment bank wrote in a recent report. “Over the next two decades, the dependency ratio of India will be one of the lowest among regional economies,” said Goldman Sachs Research’s India economist, Santanu Sengupta. (CNBC)
In a blow to Modi’s chip dream, Foxconn exits US$20 billion Indian joint venture. (South China Morning Post)
Home prices are hitting new highs again, as high rates put the squeeze on supply: Home prices hit a record high in May, according to Black Knight. Even with rates still high, home prices are setting new records in some markets. New listings are down about 25% from a year ago, as homeowners with sub-4% mortgage rates are reluctant to sell their homes. (CNBC)
China’s economy teetered on the brink of deflation in June, adding to calls for Beijing to launch a stronger stimulus package to sustain the country’s sputtering post-Covid recovery. The consumer price index was flat year on year and declined 0.2 per cent compared with the previous month, while factory gate prices fell at the fastest pace since 2016 as demand for consumer and manufactured products softened. Analysts expected the figures to lead China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China, to reduce interest rates again, adding to a round of cuts last month that many believe Beijing will have to supplement with fiscal stimulus policies. (Financial Times)
Major banks are facing one of the biggest regulatory overhauls since the financial crisis, setting up a clash over the amount of capital that they have to set aside to weather tumult. The Federal Reserve’s top banking regulator, Michael Barr, said he wants Wall Street banks to start using a standardized approach for estimating credit, operational and trading risks, rather than relying on their own estimates. He added that the Fed’s annual stress tests should be rejiggered to better capture dangers that firms can face. The changes stem from a months-long review to align US rules with a set of international standards known as Basel III. (Bloomberg)
Chocolate Prices Keep Rising, but That's Not Stopping Americans From Buying: Americans are still willing to spend on chocolate, even as higher prices mean that they’re getting less for the money. Purchases of chocolate confectioneries are expected to climb 5.8% this year to reach almost $26 billion, according to data from researcher Euromonitor International Ltd. Volumes are forecast to rise 1.9%. That’s after a 2.7% drop last year that was the biggest since 2009. (Bloomberg)
Cava Is the New Chipotle: Cava’s stock has surged since it started life as a listed company last month, and analysts generally agree further gains are on the way, with some comparing the fast-casual restaurant chain with another investor favorite: Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. Shares rose 11% in New York on Monday as the expiration of the customary quiet period brought a flurry of initiations from Wall Street, with most recommending investors buy Cava stock. All analysts tracked by Bloomberg set a price target exceeding Friday’s close of $39.62, with Baird the highest at $50. (Bloomberg)
Technology
Microsoft confirms more job cuts on top of 10,000 layoffs announced in January — a week after the start of its 2024 fiscal year. “Organizational and workforce adjustments are a necessary and regular part of managing our business. We will continue to prioritize and invest in strategic growth areas for our future and in support of our customers and partners,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement. (CNBC)
China is to issue rules for generative AI as Beijing seeks to balance encouraging local companies to develop the revolutionary technology against its desire to control content. The Cyberspace Administration of China, the powerful internet watchdog, aims to create a system that will force companies to gain a license before they can release generative AI systems, said two people close to the regulators. That requirement tightens draft regulations issued in April, which had provided groups more room for maneuver, as groups had 10 working days to register their product with Chinese authorities after launch. (Financial Times)
HCA discloses massive data breach affecting 11 million patients. (STAT News)
The ultrafast growth of Threads looks like it is already taking a toll on Twitter. Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Threads parent Meta Platforms said the new microblogging platform hit 100 million sign-ups less than a week after launching. At least two third-party estimates suggest Twitter traffic has been falling in tandem, an indication that its users may be leaving it for Threads rather than attempting to juggle both. In the first two days that Threads was fully available, traffic to Twitter’s website was down 5% compared with the same two days of the previous week, according to SimilarWeb, which tracks online activity. Year over year, such traffic was down 11%, the firm said. (Wall Street Journal)
Smart Links
Retailers Set Higher Bars for Free Shipping as Delivery Costs Surge. (Wall Street Journal)
One in six asset management groups to disappear by 2027, says PwC. (Financial Times)
Icelandic volcano erupts near capital. (Reuters)
Philippines to hire unlicensed nurses as shortages bite. (Nikkei Asia Review)
Uber CFO to Step Down in Most Senior Executive Exit Since IPO. (Bloomberg)