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The World
Turkey headed for a runoff presidential vote after President Tayyip Erdogan outperformed projections in Sunday's election as he sought to extend his two-decade rule, holding a sizable lead over his rival but falling short of an outright majority. Neither Erdogan nor rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu cleared the 50% threshold needed to avoid a second round, to be held on May 28, in an election seen as a verdict on Erdogan's increasingly authoritarian path. (Reuters)
France “will train and equip” several Ukrainian battalions and provide them with “tens of armored vehicles and light tanks,” Emmanuel Macron and Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced late Sunday. The news came after Ukraine’s president traveled to Paris and had a three-hour dinner with his French counterpart (including one hour alone, without advisers) as part of a tour of European capitals designed to shore up support among Kyiv’s allies. (Politico EU)
Leaders of the G7 nations plan to tighten sanctions on Russia at their summit in Japan this week, with steps aimed at energy and exports aiding Moscow's war effort, said officials with direct knowledge of the discussions. New measures announced by the leaders during the May 19-21 meetings will target sanctions evasion involving third countries, and seek to undermine Russia's future energy production and curb trade that supports Russia's military, the people said. (Reuters)
Thailand's opposition secured a stunning election win after trouncing parties allied with the military, setting the stage for a flurry of deal-making over forming a government in a bid to end nearly a decade of conservative, army-backed rule. The liberal Move Forward party and the populist Pheu Thai Party were far out in front with 99% of votes counted, but it was far from certain either will form the next government, with parliamentary rules written by the military after its 2014 coup skewed in its favour. (Reuters)
Netanyahu’s poll numbers bounce back after Gaza campaign, surveys show: Israel’s five-day offensive in the Gaza Strip has reversed weeks of slipping popularity ratings for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party, a series of lightning polls indicated. Surveys released by Channel 12 news, Channel 13 news and the Kan public broadcaster showed Likud faring better than in a string of recent polls, although the party and its current coalition partners would still fall short of the support needed to form a government were an election held today, according to the surveys. According to the Channel 12 poll, 38% of the public preferred Netanyahu as prime minister, while 37% percent preferred former defense minister Benny Gantz in a head-to-head matchup. (Times of Israel)
Spike in illegal border entries does not materialize in immediate aftermath of Title 42's end: An expected spike in illegal crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border after the termination of the Title 42 pandemic-era migration control policy earlier this week did not materialize in the immediate aftermath of the policy change, according to government data obtained by CBS News. On Friday, the first day since March 2020 in which the U.S. could no longer cite Title 42 to expel migrants, Border Patrol agents apprehended roughly 6,300 migrants, a sharp drop from record levels of illegal entries reported days earlier, a senior U.S. official told CBS News, requesting anonymity to provide unpublished figures. (CBS News)
Economy
Companies Keep Raising Prices—Some Even Brag About It: Consumers are digging deep into their wallets to pay for diapers, handbags and streaming services. Companies continue to jack up prices on a range of goods from diapers to handbags—and some are even bragging about it to investors as a sign of brand strength. In some cases, the increases more than cover the hit from higher raw material, labor and other costs, fattening profit margins. The price increases come as inflation is moderating and a weakening economy foreshadows a potential pullback in consumer spending. U.S. household spending rose in March from the prior month, but growth is tapering, suggesting that the pain of higher prices is starting to take a toll. (Wall Street Journal)
Greece’s ‘greatest turnround’: from junk to investment grade. More than a decade after bailouts and austerity measures pulled Greece from the brink of bankruptcy and a eurozone exit, the country has rebounded and is on the cusp of regaining its investment-grade rating. S&P recently changed its outlook for the country from stable to positive. A full upgrade would put Greece at triple B minus, the rating agency’s lowest investment grade rating. Many, including the country’s central bank governor, expect the upgrade to come after the May 21 elections should the new government continue with the reforms and maintain political stability. (Financial Times)
Shares jump in Chinese state enterprises as investors seek high yield: Investors are ploughing money into shares of China’s state-run enterprises as they seek a haven from weakness in the Chinese economy and better returns than those offered by the country’s government bond market. Since the start of April, shares in government-run banks have rocketed with state lenders Bank of China and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China up more than 20 and 10 per cent, respectively, in a rare rally for the country’s bank shares. (Financial Times)
China trade: slowing exports to bottom out in late 2023 amid ‘increasingly clear’ weak demand. China’s exports rose by 8.5 per cent in April compared with a year earlier, while imports fell by 7.9 per cent last month, year on year. Beijing has pledged to shore up trade to support the overall economic recovery, but China’s exports have struggled due to weak global demand. (South China Morning Post)
Why Some Companies Are Saying ‘Diversity and Belonging’ Instead of ‘Diversity and Inclusion’: The changing terminology reflects new thinking among some consultants, who say traditional D.E.I. strategies haven’t worked out as planned. Interest in creating more inclusive workplaces exploded after George Floyd’s murder in 2020. Many corporations turned their attention to addressing systemic racism and power imbalances — the things that had kept boardrooms white and employees of color feeling excluded from office life. Now, nearly three years since that moment, some companies are amending their approach to D.E.I., even renaming their departments to include “belonging.” It’s the age of D.E.I.-B. Some critics worry it’s about making white people comfortable rather than addressing systemic inequality, or that it simply allows companies to prioritize getting along over necessary change. “Belonging is a way to help people who aren’t marginalized feel like they’re part of the conversation,” said Stephanie Creary, assistant professor of management at the Wharton School of Business who studies corporate strategies for diversity and inclusion. (New York Times)
Technology
Apple Begins Testing Speedy M3 Chips as It Pursues Mac Comeback: Apple is still a few weeks away from debuting its next set of Macs with M2 chips, but that’s not stopping it from readying a follow-up processor: the M3. The company has begun putting next-generation Macs with the M3 chips through their paces, testing them with third-party apps to ensure compatibility with its software ecosystem. It’s not the first time that we’ve gotten an early glimpse at new chips through this process. The company has previously revealed specifications of the upcoming 15-inch MacBook Air and Apple Silicon Mac Pro, as well as many of the prior M2-based machines. The company needs fresh ways to entice customers back to the lineup, and the M3 could help with that. Apple’s Mac business suffered a 31% sales decline last quarter, missing analysts’ already-downbeat estimates. (Bloomberg)
Chinese tech entrepreneurs go on global offensive: Tech entrepreneur Rosie Zhang is betting that the reopening of China’s borders to the world will jump-start growth for her start-up. “Now we can go out and sell,” she said, after three years spent during the pandemic pitching customers and teaching them how to use her company’s retail automation technology over video calls from Shanghai. Zhang is one of a growing number of Chinese tech founders, who, even at a time of rising geopolitical tensions, are turning their sights outward. Tepid economic growth and fierce competition are one reason they are looking outside of China. Beijing’s tech crackdown and “common prosperity” drive targeting the country’s business magnates have also sapped their confidence in their home market. (Financial Times)
Why Employees Hate Hot-Desking: With nearly half of the prepandemic office population in some major U.S. cities working remotely each day, hot-desking—where employees don’t have assigned desks and grab empty ones—seems like a cost-saving no-brainer. There’s just one problem: Many employees hate it, saying the process is an alienating nuisance. (Wall Street Journal)
Sensor Tower: 156 of the 475 top five apps in 95 countries and regions for Q1 2023 were Chinese, up 8% from 2020; the top three apps in the US were Chinese. (Nikkei Asia Review)
Smart Links
Mainland Chinese academics outnumber locals at Hong Kong universities for first time. (South China Morning Post)
Bean Shortage Drives Up Cost of Even the Cheapest Cup of Coffee. (Bloomberg)
Back-to-Office Battles Underscore a Change in Workplace Authority. (New York Times)
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Says the Remote Work ‘Experiment’ Was a Mistake—and ‘It’s Over’. (Fortune)
To fight teacher shortages, states send people to college for free. (Washington Post)