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The World
Delta Drop: Global markets shaken by fears over Delta variant. Stocks, bond yields and oil prices declined in the most acute sign yet that investors are second-guessing the strength of the global economic recovery that sent markets soaring this year. Monday’s pullback put a dent in that narrative. The Dow Jones fell 2.1%, logging its steepest decline since October. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note sank to its lowest level since February. U.S. crude oil prices slid 7.5%—marking their worst session since September. (The Guardian, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal)
Behind the rout is a growing list of concerns about the recovery: The Delta coronavirus variant has spread rapidly, reigniting the debate in several countries about whether governments should resume lockdowns and curb activity. Meanwhile, inflation has accelerated faster than many anticipated, and strained U.S.-China relations have put pressure on trillions of dollars’ worth of U.S.-listed Chinese companies. (Wall Street Journal)
The Bank of England should not cut back on stimulus too early, a top economist who will soon join the BoE's rate-setting committee said, underscoring a divide among UK policymakers about how to respond to rising inflation. (Reuters)
How bad is the Bootleg Fire? It’s generating its own weather. Unpredictable winds, fire clouds that spawn lightning, and flames that leap over firebreaks are confounding efforts to fight the blaze, which is sweeping through southern Oregon. And at a time when climate change is causing wildfires to be larger and more intense, it’s also one of the most extreme, so big and hot that it’s affecting winds and otherwise disrupting the atmosphere. “The fire is so large and generating so much energy and extreme heat that it’s changing the weather,” said Marcus Kauffman, a spokesman for the state forestry department. “Normally the weather predicts what the fire will do. In this case, the fire is predicting what the weather will do.” (New York Times)
With just over two months to go until polling day, the devastating floods that swept through western Germany have catapulted climate change to the heart of the country’s election campaign. The dramatic scenes could benefit the Greens, who were set to make big gains in September’s poll. Their strongest suit — a focus on climate change and on mobilizing resources to prevent it — has acquired new urgency. (Financial Times)
The UK’s Met Office has issued its first ever extreme heat warning as concerns rise for public health due to sweltering heat in parts of the country. (The Times)
Norway’s prime minister insisted the Scandinavian country would continue to drill for oil and gas, ahead of a re-election campaign in which the future of the fossil fuel industry will be intensely debated. PM Erna Solberg refused to back calls from the I.E.A. to stop all new petroleum projects to keep climate change in check. (Financial Times)
A federal judge upheld Indiana University’s requirement that students and staff members on campus be vaccinated against the coronavirus this fall, but the ruling is unlikely to be the last chapter in the culture wars over vaccine mandates. Judge Damon R. Leichty of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana said he weighed individual freedom against public health concerns. Somebody could point to “a certain Emersonian self-reliance and self-determination as preference — an unfettered right of the individual to choose the vaccine or not,” Judge Leichty, who was appointed by President Donald J. Trump, wrote, adding that judicial restraint was required to avoid “superimposing any personal view in the guise of constitutional interpretation.” (New York Times)
The vast majority of patients driving up Covid-19 hospitalizations in parts of the U.S. are unvaccinated. AdventHealth, which manages 41 hospitals across seven largely Midwestern and Southern states, said about 97% of roughly 12,700 Covid-19 patients treated this year were unvaccinated or partially vaccinated. Meanwhile, unvaccinated and partially vaccinated Americans, the groups most vulnerable to Covid, are the least concerned about the more contagious Delta variant, according to a CBS News poll. (Wall Street Journal, Politico)
Toyota won’t be airing any Olympic-themed advertisements on Japanese television during the Tokyo Games despite being one of the IOC’s top corporate sponsors. The extraordinary decision by the country’s top automaker underlines how polarizing the Games have become in Japan as COVID-19 infections rise ahead of Friday’s opening ceremony. Chief Executive Akio Toyoda, the company founder’s grandson, will be skipping the opening ceremony. (Associated Press)
Indonesia has become the new epicenter of the pandemic, surpassing India and Brazil to become the country with the world’s highest count of new infections. Vietnam, Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand are also facing their largest outbreaks yet and have imposed new restrictions, including lockdowns and stay-at-home orders. (New York Times)
Texas’ coronavirus test positivity rate exceeds 10% for the first time since February. Meanwhile, Austin announces stricter coronavirus protocols for unvaccinated residents as cases increase. But it can’t legally enforce them. (Texas Tribune, Texas Tribune-2)
The U.S., NATO and other allies are collectively calling out China for malicious cyberattacks, including a March attack that exploited a flaw in Microsoft's Exchange Server. It's the first time that NATO has signed onto a formal condemnation of China's cyber activities. (Axios)
China has thrown its weight behind the newly “re-elected” President Assad of Syria, as rescuing the conflict-ridden country becomes a centerpiece project of an anti-western axis stretching from Moscow and Tehran to Beijing. The Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, became the first foreign dignitary to visit Assad, 55, since he claimed to have won 95% of the vote in May’s election. (The Times)
With foreign powers weighing in, Haitian officials announced a new prime minister. Claude Joseph, the prime minister who took control of Haiti’s government immediately after the killing, said he was stepping down in favor of Ariel Henry, a neurosurgeon who had been appointed to the position by the president shortly before he was killed. (New York Times)
House Republican leaders will get a poll this week from the American Action Network (which supports the GOP) that takes the temperature of registered voters in 51 battleground districts: (Punchbowl News, House Battleground Survey)
88% of voters say they are worried (“somewhat” or “extremely”) about the “rising cost of living,” 86% say inflation, 79% on rising gas prices and 73% say impending tax increases. This plays into themes Republicans have been pushing for months.
76% of voters overall say they agree with this statement (this rises to 82% of “middle-class voters”): “Prices on everything from gas to groceries to even lumber are skyrocketing. Inflation is hitting hard-working middle-class families the hardest.”
54% of college-educated women say they agree that expanded unemployment benefits are hurting the economic recovery. 59% of voters polled overall agreed as well.
Americans' average confidence in major U.S. institutions has edged down after increasing modestly several months into the pandemic last year. An average 33% of U.S. adults express "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in 14 institutions, marking a three-percentage-point dip since 2020 and a return to the level seen in 2018 and 2019. (Gallup)
Economy
Apple is pushing back its return to office deadline by at least a month to October at the earliest, responding to a resurgence of Covid variants across many countries. The iPhone maker becomes one of the first U.S. tech giants to delay plans for a return to normality as Delta variant cases increase. (Bloomberg)
Wall Street’s new rivalry: Who can meet the most people in person. Dealmakers get back on the road, and JPMorgan awards points for meetings. Fernando Rivas, JPMorgan’s head of North America investment banking, set up a contest to get bankers on the road again. The game, which ran during the month of June, awarded senior bankers 10 points for proper face time with CEOs outside their offices, seven for attending board meetings in-person, five for visiting CEOs in their offices, three for CFOs and one for other senior executives such as heads of corporate development, (Wall Street Journal)
Zillow was named No. 24 on the 2021 Fortune Best Workplaces for Millennials list—the biggest mover, it jumped 42 spots from its 2020 ranking. The list is based on anonymous survey data representing more than 300,000 millennial employees, assessing their experiences of trust, innovation, company values, and leadership. This year, two phrases in particular stood out among employee comments: “gender equity” and “male counterparts” were cited more frequently than among any other generation in Great Place to Work’s wider research, and more than in any year prior. (Fortune)
Top 5: Cisco, Salesforce, Hilton, Pinnacle Financial Partners, and Red Hat. (Fortune Best Workplaces for Millennials)
The U.S. officially climbed out of a recession in April 2020, concluding a pandemic-driven economic contraction that lasted two months, making it the shortest on record. (Wall Street Journal)
There are now more than 900 unicorn startups in the world, collectively valued at $3 trillion — up by a trillion dollars compared with just over a year ago. (Crunchbase)
How narcissistic leaders destroy from within: When the person at the top is malignant and self-serving, unethical behavior cascades through the organization and becomes legitimized. (Stanford Business School)
Technology
US telecom giants spent $234M on lobbying during the 116th Congress alone, to fight bills promoting net neutrality, local community broadband, and more. Comcast was the biggest spender at more than $43 million, with AT&T not far behind at $36 million. (Vice)
The video game industry is booming: The game industry is expected to exceed $200 billion in revenue by 2024. And more than half of that now comes from mobile gaming, the fastest-growing, most lucrative sector in the market. Venture capitalists are pouring money into gaming, with a record $49 billion across more than 500 deals. And now entertainment and technology companies — including Netflix — are trying to figure out the best ways to break into the industry. (Protocol)
Tech pay survey shows power shift to employees: The traditional practice of allowing employees’ shares to vest only after a worker reaches a full year of employment, known as a one-year “cliff,” appears to be eroding. More than 20% of managers and employees said their stock begins to vest right away or after the end of their third month of employment—a radical shift from several years ago. Another indicator of that shift: 42% of survey respondents said their companies didn’t restrict the geographic location where they work. (The Information)
HR tech funding is on a tear: Venture capital money is flooding the human resources space as employers seek new ways to recruit, hire and retain their workforces, with close to $3.6 billion invested this year already — more than the total invested in all of 2019, previously the high-water mark of the last five years. VCs say competition among investors is stiff, and this month alone has already seen 17 funding rounds in the HR tech space. (Crunchbase)
Blue Origin may launch its second crew as early as September or October. Company leaders said they've talked with a few future customers, and they want to send two more flights this year after Jeff Bezos and his crew take off tomorrow. (Protocol)
Smart Links
Opioid distributors near $21 billion settlement to resolve litigation. (Washington Post)
CNN to hire hundreds of journalists for new streaming service CNN+, launching in 2022. (Axios)
Andreessen Horowitz hires former Intel CEO Bob Swan as Growth Operating Partner. (Forbes)
Robinhood seeks market valuation as high as $35 billion in upcoming IPO. (CNBC)
Canada to reopen its border to fully vaccinated U.S. citizens and permanent residents on Aug. 9. (Globe and Mail)
American Academy of Pediatrics recommends universal masking in schools for everyone older than 2. (CNN)
Chip shortage reaches smartphone makers. (Wall Street Journal)