Know someone who would like this newsletter? Forward it to them.
The World
Powell says soft landing ‘very challenging’: Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said the central bank’s battle against inflation could lead it to raise interest rates high enough to cause a recession, offering his most explicit warning this year. “It’s not our intended outcome at all, but it’s certainly a possibility,” Powell said during the first of two days of congressional hearings. “We are not trying to provoke and do not think we will need to provoke a recession, but we do think it’s absolutely essential” to bring down inflation, which is running at a 40-year high. (Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal)
Estonia would be wiped off the map and the historic centre of its capital city razed to the ground under current Nato plans to defend the country from any Russian attack, according to its prime minister. Kaja Kallas told reporters on Wednesday that the alliance’s existing defence plans for the three Baltic states was to allow them to be overrun before liberating them after 180 days. Remarking that it was now more than 100 days since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Estonia’s prime minister said: “If you compare the sizes of Ukraine and the Baltic countries, it would mean the complete destruction of countries and our culture.” (Financial Times)
Olaf Scholz: NATO partners can 'rely on Germany'. In a speech ahead of key summits, the German chancellor has told parliament that "we will defend every square meter of NATO territory." He also described a partnership with Russia under Vladimir Putin as "unimaginable." (Deutsche Welle)
Russia has levied dozens of cyber espionage campaigns in 42 countries since it invaded Ukraine in February, according to a new Microsoft report. The report says those efforts have targeted entities across six continents and primarily focused on NATO allies and groups supporting Ukraine. “The Russian invasion relies in part on a cyber strategy that includes at least three distinct and sometimes coordinated efforts – destructive cyberattacks within Ukraine, network penetration and espionage outside Ukraine and cyber influence operations targeting people around the world,” Microsoft President Brad Smith said in the report. (The Hill)
Meta Platforms Inc. said it has canceled its sponsorship agreement with the organization planning the federal government’s commemoration of the American Revolution’s 250th anniversary, a project beset by internal strife and facing a discrimination lawsuit filed by female former executives. Meta said in March it would review its ties to the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission and its affiliated America250 Foundation following Wall Street Journal reports detailing feuds among the congressionally appointed commissioners and accusations of mismanagement and misuse of federal funds by former employees. (Wall Street Journal)
New data collected by the U.S. government found that nearly 1 out of 5 adults who previously had COVID-19 now report having symptoms of long COVID. The information was sourced through the “Household Pulse Survey” conducted by the Census Bureau and the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). The NCHS began asking about the presence of long COVID at the start of June. (The Hill)
Illinois governor’s race shapes up to be a battle of the billionaires: Citadel’s Ken Griffin faces off against a Republican megadonor and an heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune. When Griffin decided to throw $50mn of his own money behind a candidate to unseat a fellow billionaire from the Illinois governor’s mansion, the vast size of his spending should have made it a foolproof plan. The only problem: a rival Republican billionaire had the same idea. Now, the race pits three of the richest men in US politics against one another and has come to symbolize the newest trend in state-level political races — candidates financed by just one wealthy, highly motivated donor. The incumbent, Democrat JB Pritzker, is an heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune who has self-funded his campaign to the amount of $125mn. Republican Richard Irvin, a mainstream mayor of the state’s second-largest city, is backed by Griffin, chief executive of Citadel. (Financial Times)
Records to topple in Southeast amid ‘dangerous’ heat near 105 degrees: In some places, it could feel like 110 to 115 degrees. (Washington Post)
Economy
Businesses in several different industries are rescinding job offers they made just a few months ago, in a sign the tightest labor market in decades may be showing cracks. Companies including Twitter Inc. , real-estate brokerage Redfin Corp. , and cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global Inc. have rescinded offers in recent weeks. Employers in other pockets of the economy are pulling away offers too, including some in insurance, retail marketing, consulting and recruiting services. At the same time, many companies have signaled a more cautious hiring approach. Netflix Inc. , Peloton Interactive Inc. , Carvana Co. and others announced layoffs. Technology giants such as Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. and Uber Technologies warned they will dial back hiring plans. (Wall Street Journal)
Southeast Asia’s start-ups have fired hundreds of workers, and this may be just the beginning. (CNBC)
Pound sinks as UK inflation climbs to 40-year high of 9.1%. (The Times)
Tesla new car factories in Texas and Berlin are "losing billions of dollars" as they struggle to increase production because of a shortage of batteries and China port issues, Chief Executive Elon Musk said. (Reuters)
As American corporations announce a record number of diversity and inclusion initiatives, Silicon Valley has seen the wage gap narrow for all minority groups but one: Black women. The wage gap for African American women widened to $0.92 for every $1 a White man earns in 2021 from $0.94 a year earlier, according to a new report by Hired, an online marketplace for tech jobs. (Bloomberg)
Technology
Amazon is facing a looming crisis: It could run out of people to hire in its US warehouses by 2024, according to leaked Amazon internal research from mid-2021 that Recode reviewed. If that happens, the online retailer’s service quality and growth plans could be at risk, and its e-commerce dominance along with it. Raising wages and increasing warehouse automation are two of the six “levers” Amazon could pull to delay this labor crisis by a few years, but only a series of sweeping changes to how the company does business and manages its employees will significantly alter the timeline, Amazon staff predicted. (Recode)
NBCUniversal and Google have emerged as top contenders to work with Netflix and help the streaming company create an advertising-supported tier of its service. Netflix, which is hoping to boost revenue by selling ads around its programming, is still in the early stages of developing the strategy and has explored a range of tie-ups in recent weeks. A partnership with NBCUniversal would likely be exclusive. Comcast’s video ad unit, FreeWheel, would supply technology to help serve up ads, while NBCUniversal’s ad-sales team would help sell ads in the U.S. and Europe. A partnership with NBCUniversal would likely involve revenue-sharing, and one issue might be whether Netflix would be guaranteed a certain amount of revenue. Google brings to the table its own ad-serving technology and experience in video through YouTube and its online channel bundle, YouTube TV. (Wall Street Journal)
Shopify is setting its sights on a “huge untapped market” for business-to-business commerce, as it introduces new tools in an attempt to fend off competition from Amazon and revive its fortunes after a bruising stock sell-off. Shopify said its push into business-to-business sales, announced on Wednesday, would unlock opportunities “multiple times” bigger than its existing model. The tools are meant to make it easier for merchants to sell in bulk, and integrate with enterprise resource planning software used by companies to handle procurement. (Financial Times)
As part of its ongoing efforts to expand into e-commerce, Twitter announced a new partnership with Shopify. The deal will see Twitter launching a sales channel app that will be made available to all of Shopify’s U.S. merchants through its app store. The app allows merchants to onboard themselves to Twitter’s Shopping Manager, the dashboard offered by the social media company where sellers can access product catalog tools and enable other shopping features for their profiles. (TechCrunch)
MasterClass, an education platform that sells subscriptions to celebrity-taught classes, has cut 20% of its team to “adapt to the worsening macro environment and get to self-sustainability faster,” CEO David Rogier tweeted. The layoff impacts roughly 120 people across all teams, but no C-suite executives were cut. (TechCrunch)
MacBook Pro 13-inch (M2) review: dominant single-core performance with good battery life, but just two USB-C ports, design from 2016, and webcam is still bad. (The Verge)
Smart Links
American Airlines to stop flying to four small cities, citing pilot shortage. (CNBC)
FDA to order Juul e-cigarettes off U.S. market. (Wall Street Journal)
High gas prices hit demand as drivers cut back at the pump. (Wall Street Journal)
“The” Ohio State University wins right to trademark “the” when associated with the college. (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
Mars reveals bigger revenues than Coca-Cola as it appoints new chief executive. (Financial Times)
U.S. to offer 300,000 work visas for Mexicans, Central Americans. (Reuters)