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The World
A group of 20 senators struck a bipartisan gun safety framework, marking a significant breakthrough in Congress’ attempts to address recent back-to-back mass shootings. In a Sunday morning statement, 10 senators in each party announced support for the deal. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer blessed it, vowing to “put this bill on the floor as soon as possible,” and President Joe Biden said it “would be the most significant gun safety legislation to pass Congress in decades.” The president urged both chambers of Congress to finish the package quickly. (Politico)
The leaders of France, Germany and Italy plan to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv this week, as reports showed Russia making gains in the country’s east and Ukrainian officials urgently sought arms from Western nations to hold Russian forces at bay. French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi were planning to visit the Ukrainian capital on Thursday, said two European officials, who cautioned that plans could yet change. The trip would be the first to Ukraine since the beginning of the war for the three Western leaders. (Wall Street Journal)
Elon Musk's Starlink has become an unexpected lifeline in Ukraine, on the battlefield and in the war for public opinion, impressing many Western militaries. (Politico EU)
Russian consumers received their first taste of the former McDonald’s under new local ownership, as the rebranded fast-food chain opened 15 restaurants in Moscow weeks after buying the operations. McDonald’s agreed last month to sell its Russian business to Alexander Govor, a local franchisee of the chain in Siberia who has taken over the portfolio of roughly 850 restaurants. Rebranded as Vkusno & Tochka, or ‘Tasty — Full Stop’, the new owners are expected to open another 50 restaurants on Monday. By the end of June they are aiming to have 200 reopened, Oleg Paroyev, the chief executive of Vkusno & Tochka, said. (Financial Times)
Chinese military officials in recent months have repeatedly asserted that the Taiwan Strait isn’t international waters during meetings with US counterparts, generating concern within the Biden administration. The statement disputing the US view of international law has been delivered to the American government by Chinese officials on multiple occasions and at multiple levels, the person said. The US and key allies say much of the strait constitutes international waters, and they routinely send naval vessels through the waterway as part of freedom of navigation exercises. (Bloomberg)
China’s defense minister has strongly pushed back against US accusations of aggression, and sought to present Beijing as a responsible power and western countries as outsiders undermining stability in Asia. The stance came as Beijing tried to avoid a further escalation in tensions over Taiwan, after a meeting between General Wei Fenghe and US defense secretary Lloyd Austin that was dominated by discussions about the island that were described as “frank, positive and constructive”. Austin had also warned Beijing against “a steady increase in provocative and destabilizing military activity near Taiwan”, telling the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue security conference in Singapore that the US would maintain “our own capacity to resist any use of force” against the country. (Financial Times)
Beijing's most populous district Chaoyang announced three rounds of mass testing to quell a "ferocious" COVID-19 outbreak that emerged at a bar in a nightlife and shopping area last week, shortly after the city relaxed curbs imposed during an outbreak in April. (Reuters)
Coronavirus infections top 800 for second straight day in Hong Kong, while imported cases surpass 100 for first time. (South China Morning Post)
How SCOTUS’ upcoming climate ruling could defang Washington: A legal fight over the EPA’s power to restrict greenhouse gases offers conservative justices an opportunity to tie the executive branch's hands on a host of issues — from Covid to net neutrality. (Politico)
Over 100 million now facing record-breaking U.S. heat wave: The heat wave is expected to move over the Midwest and then eastward over the coming days. All of Arkansas and Oklahoma, most of Louisiana, Tennessee, Nebraska, Missouri, Illinois and Texas, as well as large parts of Arizona and New Mexico, are under heat advisories and excessive heat warnings through early this week as the heat dome shifts east over time. (Axios)
Economy
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is facing an increasingly grim calculus after yet another hot inflation reading last week: He probably has to push the economy into recession in order to regain control of prices. (Bloomberg)
Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers urged the Federal Reserve to realize the seriousness of inflation that has accelerated to a 40-year high when policy makers meet this week, as risk of recession sits on the horizon. “When inflation is as high as it is right now and unemployment is as low as it is right now, it’s almost always followed within two years by recession,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. When it comes to inflation, “the Fed’s forecasts have tended to be much too optimistic there, and I hope they’ll realize fully the gravity of the problem.” (Bloomberg)
Mohamed El-Erian, Allianz’s chief economic adviser, said inflation could continue to rise even after hitting a 40-year high last month. “I fear that it’s still going to get worse,” he told CBS “Face the Nation” guest moderator John Dickerson. “We may well get to 9 percent at this rate.” (The Hill)
Former Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke said Fed leaders could pull off a so-called soft landing as long as supply-side inflation pressure improves. (Bloomberg)
Celsius—the crypto lending firm—said it would pause withdrawals on its platform, citing market conditions as the price of Ether and other cryptocurrencies tumbled. The firm, which sources told The Block earlier in the week only had a few more weeks of bandwidth to support customer withdrawals, took to Twitter to announce the suspension of withdrawals, transfers, and swaps. (The Block)
The rise in the dollar to a 20-year high costs US companies billions in earnings: North American businesses’ foreign exchange losses are estimated at $40bn in first half of year. Goldman Sachs’ index of US companies with primarily international exposure has fallen twice as much as its index of companies whose operations are mainly domestic, down roughly 15% and 7% this year respectively. By comparison, the internationally exposed index rose roughly 27% last year against 30% for the domestically focused one. In 2020 and 2019, the international index outperformed the domestic index. (Financial Times)
Fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine are creating new challenges for the World Trade Organization, which has struggled in recent years to play its role as the regulator and arbiter of global trade. Trade ministers gathering in Geneva this week for the first meeting of top officials from WTO member countries since 2017 will face a mountain of pressing issues, including increasing food security amid war-induced shortages and responding to the continuing pandemic, as well as resolving long-running issues such as depletion of global fishing stocks. Many countries are eager to start serious discussion on overhauling the WTO itself. (Wall Street Journal)
McKinsey’s Bob Sternfels: ‘We’re OK if you don’t agree with us’. The consultancy’s senior partner preaches ‘humility’ after scandals but says the firm also needs ‘grit’ to counter its critics. Last week was the first in-person meeting of most of McKinsey’s 2,700-plus partners since 2019 and Sternfels came with a message about striking a balance between continuity and change. He talks about building a culture of “humility” about its mistakes, but also speaks of “sisu”, a word he learnt from his Finnish grandmother that he translates as “grit”. McKinsey needed to create more rigorous client selection processes to avoid a repeat of the opioid scandal, Sternfels admits, but adds that he is “enormously grateful” for Sneader’s “courage” in doing so even though he wishes it had happened 15 years earlier. (Financial Times)
Technology
Want the best software engineers? Stop looking at Stanford and Berkeley. Swarthmore and UVA grads are among those scoring higher than students from elite institutions on the widely used SAT-style test for software engineers. (Protocol)
Many commercials continue to play on ad-supported streaming services after viewers turn off their television, new research shows, a problem that is causing an estimated waste of more than $1 billion a year for brands. The findings come as an ever-growing share of ad dollars is shifting from traditional TV to streaming platforms, a trend that is likely to accelerate now that industry giants Netflix and Walt Disney’s Disney+ have embraced the idea of offering an ad-supported version of their services. Some 17% of ads shown on televisions connected through a streaming device—including streaming boxes, dongles, sticks and gaming consoles—are playing while the TV is off, according to a study by WPP PLC’s ad-buying giant GroupM and ad-measurement firm iSpot.tv Inc. (Wall Street Journal)
Congress is getting closer to some kind of agreement on how it wants to regulate data usage, but FTC Chair Lina Khan told Protocol that companies will still have to contend with her agency’s powers as well. Khan welcomed an agreement struck last week by three of the four congressional negotiators on a privacy bill, calling it “incredibly exciting to see Congress take this important step.” The FTC chair made clear, however, that she feels the agency shouldn’t pause its agenda just because of the congressional push. “While this effort is pending, we're also of course fiercely committed to using all of our existing tools, enforcement and policy — doing anything we can to make sure Americans are fully protected,” Khan said. (Protocol)
When Apple unveiled a new version of CarPlay at the Worldwide Developers Conference last week, it was more than a software update—it previewed one of the most exciting products in the company’s pipeline: an electric car. The move fit a pattern for Apple. Before the company enters a major new product category, it usually releases something that serves as the foundation. Next up on the list is the latest generation of CarPlay—what I consider to be the most tantalizing announcement from this year’s developer conference. (Bloomberg)
The bidding war for media rights to the Indian Premier League (IPL) will continue today with Disney, Sony, and India's Reliance in contention for what could fetch the Indian cricket board up to $6 billion. The bidding began at 0530 GMT on Sunday for the broadcast rights, digital rights, a bespoke package that includes rights for high-value matches as well as rights to broadcast the world's richest T20 league in foreign territories. (Reuters)
Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group is struggling to find its feet after its growth strategy collapsed due to tougher competition and tighter government controls on internet companies. Nearly four years after founder Jack Ma announced his retirement, Trudy Dai, one of the original members of the company, who took the helm of the main subsidiary, will be the key to the group's future. (Nikkei Asia Review)
Smart Links
Brookings president John Allen resigns amid FBI probe. (Axios)
How long email chains can make us frustrated — and less competent. (Wall Street Journal)
Mexico takes aim at private companies, threatening decades of economic growth. (Wall Street Journal)
Why you might not be getting the salmon you paid for. (National Geographic)
Tony Fernandes plans New York listing for AirAsia; says ‘time is right’ for IPO of low-cost airline. (Financial Times)
Inside the Pentagon’s long debate: Do gamers make good soldiers? (Washington Post)