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The World
Spain was heading for a hung parliament, with neither left nor right likely to secure a majority in the Sunday election, paving the way for drawn-out and potentially fruitless negotiations to form a government. With 99% of votes counted by 11:45 p.m. (2145 GMT), the opposition People's Party (PP) had 136 seats while Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's ruling Socialists (PSOE) had 122 seats. Parties with the greatest potential to be kingmakers were nearly even with far-right Vox on 33 and far-left Sumar on 31 seats. Negotiations by the two blocs to form governments will start after a new parliament convenes on Aug. 17. King Felipe VI will invite leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo of the PP, the top vote winner, to try to secure the prime ministership. (Reuters)
Ukraine has recaptured 50% of the territory that Russia seized, Blinken says. (Reuters)
Blinken says sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine may take "months". (Axios)
‘Time of emergency’: Dueling overhaul rallies as Herzog makes final bid for compromise. As the Knesset moved forward with its debate on the coalition’s contentious overhaul legislation Sunday, with an eye toward approving limitations on court oversight within a day or two, two major rallies in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv underlined the split in Israeli society over the plan. Near midnight, a leading business forum representing 150 leading companies announced a strike for Monday, which would see some shopping centers and gas stations closed, and some businesses working in a reduced framework. (Times of Israel)
Israel’s Identity Hangs in Balance Ahead of Key Vote on New Law: Lawmakers are set to vote Monday on whether to limit the Supreme Court’s power as one element of a government plan to overhaul judicial authority. It is part of a profound rift over Israel’s nature and future. (New York Times)
President Biden in a statement to Axios called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to move forward with the planned Israeli Knesset vote on a bill that is part of the government's judicial overhaul, saying he is highly concerned about the legislation and its potential implications.From the perspective of Israel’s friends in the United States, “it looks like the current judicial reform proposal is becoming more divisive, not less," Biden said in the statement. “Given the range of threats and challenges confronting Israel right now, it doesn’t make sense for Israeli leaders to rush this — the focus should be on pulling people together and finding consensus," he added. (Axios)
Rhodes wildfire forces thousands of evacuations, tourists flee: Thousands of tourists and residents fleeing wildfires on the Greek island of Rhodes took refuge in schools and shelters on Sunday, with many evacuated on private boats as flames threatened resorts and coastal villages. Thousands spent the night on beaches and streets during what Greece said was its biggest safe transport of residents and tourists in emergency conditions. Some 19,000 people were moved from homes and hotels overnight as fires burning since Wednesday gathered pace, tearing through forests until the flames reached coastal resorts on the island's south-eastern coast. (Reuters)
Misdiagnoses cost the U.S. 800,000 deaths and serious disabilities every year, study finds: Diagnostic error of stroke, sepsis, pneumonia, venous thromboembolism, and lung cancer alone caused 300,000 serious harms, including deaths. (STAT News)
Health officials have “virtually” eliminated HIV transmission in parts of Sydney that were once the epicenter of the Australian AIDS epidemic, raising hopes of conquering a disease that has killed more than 40mn. HIV diagnoses in inner Sydney plunged 88 per cent from the 2008-2012 average to just 11 cases last year, a decline on a scale never before recorded in a former AIDS hotspot. The results are adding to evidence that existing prevention strategies, including testing and pre-exposure drugs, are highly effective when implemented correctly. (Financial Times)
Economy
Chevron waives retirement age for CEO and reports strong oil earnings: Mike Wirth will remain Chevron’s chief executive for the foreseeable future after the company waived a mandatory retirement age of 65 as it seeks to ensure continuity during a volatile period for the oil and gas industry. Wirth, who turns 63 later this year, has been at the helm of the supermajor since 2018. The company announced the decision to scrap the retirement age as it posted profits of $6bn for the second quarter, down slightly from the previous quarter but ahead of Wall Street estimates. (Financial Times)
American businesses far beyond restaurants have gotten hooked on tipping: Some employers who are new to tipping said they have turned to the practice to try to retain workers in a competitive job market without raising prices. Consumers seeing tip prompts at every turn say they are overwhelmed—and that worker wages should be business owners’ responsibility, not theirs. (Wall Street Journal)
High-income households rein in discretionary spending as inflation and a soft housing market take their toll: Gene Gau sat with his laptop at the end of a long table in Herman Miller’s store in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District one afternoon this week. For half an hour, the design associate for the luxury furniture brand saw no customers, except for one man who briefly occupied one of its best-selling $8,000 lounge chairs and then left. On the other side of the street, much the same story was playing out at RH’s 90,000-square-foot furnishings flagship. Only a dozen shoppers could be found browsing the high-priced items set out over five floors of premium retail real estate. Across the US, companies catering to the households that can afford a $12,000 couch or $4,000 coffee table are reporting a similar phenomenon: wealthier Americans are reining in their discretionary spending. (Financial Times)
Hedge funds are brawling over battered commercial real estate: Big fund managers that specialize in distressed investing are snapping up shares of real-estate investment trusts, historically the province of mom-and-pop investors. The influx of these funds is lifting prices, benefiting individual investors who held on. It is also sparking conflict as hedge funds bid against one another for shares and butt heads with management teams. (Wall Street Journal)
Half of US states were experiencing record-low unemployment — or very close to it — in June, underscoring the strength of the nation’s labor market. The unemployment rates in 25 states are currently at or within 0.1 percentage point of a record low, Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed Friday. New Hampshire and South Dakota had the lowest jobless rates last month, at 1.8%. (Bloomberg)
South, Mountain West see manufacturing boom: A manufacturing boom has swept across the country, with the South and Mountain West having especially strong growth, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Texas is the top state for new manufacturing jobs, with 86,000 new positions, from January 2021 to May 2023, according to BLS data. Next comes California with 79,000 jobs; Florida with 37,000; Ohio with 31,000; and Georgia with 29,000. Nevada had the greatest percentage increase at 15%, followed by Montana at 11% and Wyoming at 10%. (Axios)
Technology
Twitter is being rebranded as X: X[dot]com now redirects to Twitter[dot]com, following a tweet from Twitter owner Elon Musk today, and an “interim X logo” will replace the Twitter bird logo later today. Leading up to the change, Musk spent a lot of time tweeting about it. Around 12AM ET last night, he started tweeting — and did so for hours — about the Twitter rebrand to X, the one-letter name he’s used repeatedly in company and product names forever. It started with a tweet saying “soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,” followed by a second tweet adding that “if a good enough X logo is posted tonight, we’ll make go live worldwide tomorrow.” (The Verge)
Tweeted CEO Linda Yaccarino: “X is the future state of unlimited interactivity – centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking – creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities. Powered by AI, X will connect us all in ways we’re just beginning to imagine.” (Linda Yaccarino)
Plaintiffs’ lawyers are pitching school boards throughout the country to file lawsuits against social-media companies on allegations that their apps cause classroom disciplinary problems and mental-health issues, diverting resources from education. Nearly 200 school districts so far have joined the litigation against the parent companies of Facebook META -2.73%decrease; red down pointing triangle, TikTok, Snapchat SNAP -1.47%decrease; red down pointing triangle and YouTube. The suits have been consolidated in the U.S. District Court in Oakland, Calif., along with hundreds of suits by families alleging harms to their children from social media. The lawsuits face a test later this year when a judge is expected to consider a motion by the tech companies to dismiss the cases on grounds that the conduct allegedly causing the harm is protected under the internet liability shield known as Section 230. (Wall Street Journal)
Studio executives embraced Silicon Valley's magical thinking of hypergrowth and disruption for the past 10 years, only to slash worker pay as the boom times end. (Los Angeles Times)
Apple is now all-in on large language models (LLMs) and is working on creating a generative AI product for as early as next year. Moreover, the company has already built an internal ChatGPT-like service for employees. It helps them prototype future features, summarize text and answer questions based on data it has been trained with. Apple hasn’t yet determined what its eventual generative AI product will be for consumers, but there a few areas where you can bet the company is looking. For one, it’s easy to imagine a major Siri upgrade to make the assistant more conversational and add the ability to handle more tasks on behalf of the user. Imagine asking Siri to write an email about an upcoming meeting rather than having to actually dictate the message. (Bloomberg)
Smart Links
The Great M&A Slump Is Shaking Up Giants of Investment Banking. (Bloomberg)
Chinese Money Flees the Western World. (Wall Street Journal)
Work dries up for US consultancies in China after national security raids. (Financial Times)
‘Barbenheimer’ tops $235 million in domestic debut, eyes second-highest box office weekend ever. (CNBC)
Major pharma companies call on their suppliers to reduce carbon footprints. (STAT News)
US shale slowdown spreads to oil services industry. (Financial Times)