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The World
U.S. companies are buying less from China as relations remain tense: U.S. companies are accelerating efforts to reduce their dependence upon Chinese suppliers, even as officials in Washington and Beijing labor to put a floor under their sour relationship. Through the first five months of this year, U.S. imports from China were down 24 percent from the same period one year ago, according to the Census Bureau. Companies such as HP, Stanley Black & Decker and Lego are among those that have been repositioning their supply lines for American consumers, either to avoid the risk of being pinched between rival superpowers or as part of a longer term strategy to produce goods closer to customers. (Washington Post)
Niger closes airspace as it refuses to reinstate president: Niger closed its airspace on Sunday until further notice, citing the threat of military intervention from the West African regional bloc after coup leaders rejected a deadline to reinstate the country's ousted president. Earlier, thousands of junta supporters flocked to a stadium in Niamey, the capital, cheering the decision not to cave in to external pressure to stand down by Sunday following the July 26 power grab. (Reuters)
In Niger, China’s path to stability may diverge from Western priorities: After July’s military coup in the West African country, observers are watching to see who Beijing works with to help restore stability in the region. China has vast economic interests in the Sahel region, which is increasingly ruled by military regimes. (South China Morning Post)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated that his government will move ahead with changing the makeup of the Judicial Selection Committee, the most far-reaching and controversial measure in the judicial shakeup package. He intimated that he was still seeking consensus on this. After that, he said, he would shelve the rest of the judicial overhaul plan. “We’ve already done quite a bit,” Netanyahu told the Bloomberg financial news outlet. “I stopped the judicial legislation for three months, seeking consensus from the other side – unfortunately not getting it. Then [I] brought in a relatively minor part of the reform, passed it,” he said, referencing the passage two weeks ago of the “reasonableness law,” which bars judicial review of government and ministerial decisions on the grounds of their reasonableness. (Times of Israel)
The White House wants federal agencies to "aggressively" execute a shift to more in-person work starting next month, saying it is crucial to delivering government services. White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients, in an email on Friday, said "we are returning to in-person work because it is critical to the well-being of our teams and will enable us to deliver better results for the American people." (Reuters)
Thousands of L.A. city workers to strike Tuesday: Tuesday’s planned strike is said to involve 11,000 Los Angeles city employees, including sanitation workers, heavy duty mechanics, traffic officers and engineers. (Los Angeles Times)
Record flooding along Alaska river near Juneau prompts evacuations: Record flooding struck Alaska's capital city after a glacial dam outburst, destroying at least one structure and prompting city officials to issue evacuation orders for residents on one street. The National Weather Service (NWS) received reports of large trees collapsing into the Mendenhall River near Juneau on Saturday night as water levels rose, eroding the banks. (Reuters)
Wild, weird and iconic, California’s Joshua tree faces a new threat: fire. (Washington Post)
Economy
Back-to-school shopping hit by inflation, higher prices: Higher prices and demand for electronics are taking a bigger bite out of consumer budgets — and driving record spending — according to the National Retail Federation's annual survey. The first weekend in August is the biggest for tax-free shopping throughout the nation with nine states holding sales tax holidays this weekend, down from a dozen in 2022. Back-to-school spending is expected to reach $41.5 billion, up from $36.9 billion last year and surpassing the previous high of $37.1 billion in 2021, NRF said. Families with children in elementary through high school plan to spend an average of $890.07 on back-to-school items about $25 more than last year's record, per NRF's survey of 7,843 consumers. (Axios)
Rising US fuel prices are triggering alarm in Washington. The surge in petrol costs to a nine-month high follows a 20 per cent jump in global crude prices this summer, after Saudi Arabia and Russia slashed supply. The move has revived predictions of $100 a barrel oil this year — and new worries about the political fallout. Saudi Arabia last week risked angering the White House by announcing that it would extend and potentially deepen existing oil production cuts, despite the International Energy Agency warning that crude markets are set to tighten significantly in the coming months. The kingdom followed up on Saturday by increasing the price of its oil it in Asia. (Financial Times)
Need to Hire Workers in a Hot Job Market? Let Them Do Some Remote Work: With employers fighting for a limited pool of office workers, those offering remote-friendly jobs appear to have the upper hand. Companies that allow at least one day of remote work each week increased staffing at nearly twice the rate in the year ended in May than those with full-time office requirements, according to an analysis of more than 3,600 companies by Scoop Technologies, a software firm that tracks workplace policies, and People Data Labs, a data technology company. The trend highlights Americans’ ability to command flexibility, along with better pay and benefits. It also points to the staying power of remote work after daily life otherwise largely returned to normal as the pandemic faded. (Wall Street Journal)
Hybrid work takes root in post-COVID Japan: Nearly two in five office workers in Japan continue to work remotely at least once a week, even after the country in May downgraded COVID-19 to the same category as seasonal influenza. The reclassification of the disease removed official curbs on social movement, leaving it up to individuals and businesses to protect against infection. Still, nighttime businesses have been slow to recover in city centers, as many workers shun overtime and after-work drinking with colleagues and friends. (Nikkei Asia Review)
Investors Bet That High Rates Will Linger: The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note has surged close to its highest level in more than a decade, lifted by new bets that a strong economy could support years of higher interest rates. The 10-year yield settled Friday at 4.060%, according to Tradeweb, slipping after a mixed monthly jobs report. But that was still up from 3.968% a week earlier and within touching distance of its 14-year high of 4.231% from October. The recent climb in longer-term Treasury yields—which play a role in determining the cost of everything from mortgages to stocks—comes even as yields on shorter-term bonds have stalled. That is a sign investors think cooling inflation and resilient economic growth will allow the Federal Reserve to stop raising rates, then leave them unchanged at least until the end of the year. The yield on the 2-year Treasury note closed Friday at 4.791%, down from 4.895% a week earlier. (Wall Street Journal)
Technology
US scientists repeat fusion power breakthrough: US government scientists have achieved net energy gain in a fusion reaction for the second time, a result that is set to fuel optimism that progress is being made towards the dream of limitless, zero-carbon power. Physicists have since the 1950s sought to harness the fusion reaction that powers the sun, but until December no group had been able to produce more energy from the reaction than it consumes — a condition also known as ignition. Researchers at the federal Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, who achieved ignition for the first time last year, repeated the breakthrough in an experiment on July 30 that produced a higher energy output than in December, according to three people with knowledge of the preliminary results. (Financial Times)
Less than six weeks before it unveils the iPhone 15, Apple has finally acknowledged a hard reality: The US smartphone market is mired in a slump. After reporting sluggish iPhone sales on Thursday, sending Apple stock sliding, the company disclosed that “the smartphone market has been in a decline for the last couple of quarters in the United States.” That presents a challenge for the next iPhone, which promises to be the biggest update to the device in three years. When Apple rolls out major phone overhauls — like it did with the iPhone 6 in 2014, iPhone X in 2017 and iPhone 12 in 2020 — the new features usually sell themselves. In those earlier examples, the company kicked off major upgrade cycles by offering bigger screens, revamped designs (with no home button in the case of the X model) and 5G connections. (Bloomberg)
Global smartphone revenue fell 8% YoY and 15% QoQ to under $90B in Q2 2023; Apple had a record 45% share of global smartphone revenue and an 85% share of profit. (Counterpoint Research)
Indiana is converting 10,000 acres of fields into an innovation park, with the goal of transforming the state into a microchip manufacturing and research hub. (New York Times)
San Francisco’s inhabitants embraced computers, the Internet and cellphones before the rest of the world caught on. They are not so sure about self-driving cars. Suddenly, orange and white driverless Cruise and Waymo cars seem to be everywhere. Some first responders say they get in the way, and pedestrians fill social media with reports of the cars’ antics. They have collided with at least two pets. An anti-car activist group placed orange traffic cones on the hoods of the vehicles, freezing them in place while creating viral videos of the stunt. The California Public Utilities Commission, which regulates passenger transportation, is scheduled to vote this month on whether to allow GM’s Cruise to expand its presence in San Francisco and to allow it and Alphabet’s Waymo to charge for rides at all times. The vote has been delayed twice, and the agency will hold a hearing next week to hear responses from the companies to a list of safety concerns. (Wall Street Journal)
Smart Links
Is There a Limit to Americans’ Self-Storage Addiction? Billions of Dollars Say Nope. (Wall Street Journal)
CVS to lay off 5K employees amid cost pressures. (Healthcare Dive)
Japan to deploy faster EV chargers on highways. (Nikkei Asia Review)
Mallorca’s Prime Housing Market Gets Boost From American Buyers. (Bloomberg)
Warner Bros movie 'Barbie' ticket sales top $1 billion. (Reuters)