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The World
Tax Day
Americans’ fears of rising inflation are weighing on consumer sentiment, adding to concerns about how quickly the U.S. economy will be able to recover from the pandemic. The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment survey fell to 82.8 in May, down from 88.3 in April, as consumers’ attitudes about current and future conditions weakened. That compared to expectations for the closely watched gauge to rise to 90.4, according a Reuters poll of economists. (Financial Times)
Biden aides defend controversial Covid mask guidance change: CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky appeared on several Sunday talk shows to stress it was up to individuals whether to follow the guidance issued on Thursday. “This was not permission to shed masks for everybody, everywhere. This was really [a] science-driven individual assessment of your risk,” Walensky told NBC’s Meet the Press. (The Guardian)
‘The right decision wrongly handled’: Inside the Biden administration’s abrupt reversal on masks. (Washington Post)
Companies ponder speeding up plans to bring workers back to offices: The new CDC guidance has thrown a wrinkle into plans for repopulating city centers: “It was a surprising decision,” BCG CEO Rich Lesser said, adding that BCG executives would be holding more meetings to think through the company’s plans. (Wall Street Journal)
Zeynep Tufekci: “It’s difficult for officials to issue rules as conditions evolve and uncertainty continues. So I hesitate to question the agency’s approach. But it’s not clear whether it was responding to scientific evidence or public clamor to lift state and local mandates, which the C.D.C. said could remain in place.” (New York Times)
While Hamas is launching rockets at Israeli cities and Israel is pulverizing Gaza with airstrikes, they are also at war on a very different battlefield. Among the targets Israel has hit in the Gaza Strip are Hamas’s financial offices and five bank branches. Ostensibly these are non-military targets but western intelligence sources maintain they are intrinsically linked to Hamas’s military operations and are also part of the reason Hamas decided to launch its surprise attack on Israel last week. (The Times)
The U.N. Security Council held its first open meeting on the crisis but took no action. (New York Times)
The Associated Press' top editor wants an independent investigation into Israel's bombing of a building in Gaza that was home to her news organization as well as broadcaster Al Jazeera. AP Executive Editor Sally Buzbee said that her organization had not yet seen any evidence from Israeli officials to justify the bombing. (Reuters)
Western governments called for the Myanmar army to stop killing civilians, after reports that its soldiers used human shields as they took back a rebel town in the northwest of the country which was seized in the growing armed resistance to February’s coup. Britain called for evidence of war crimes to be given to United Nations investigators. (The Times)
China spent a record 213.6 billion yuan ($33 billion) in industry subsidies in 2020, eager to shore up key sectors including semiconductors and defense in its heated technology race with the U.S. (Nikkei Asian Review)
Young Chinese fed up with private sector ‘uncertainty’ are flocking to civil service. Millions of talented young Chinese are rejecting the private sector and settling for stable jobs with the nation’s vast civil service. Economic uncertainty following the pandemic, a grueling private sector work culture and good salaries are all luring new graduates. (South China Morning Post)
It’s Tax Day:
Half of Americans say the amount of federal income taxes they pay is too high, but this is lower than in the past. Gallup has been asking about taxes since 1956, and the "too high" percentage reached an all-time high of 69% in 1969. As recently as 1999, 68% of Americans said their taxes were too high. But that percentage has dropped over the past two decades after the tax cuts passed into law in the first years of the George W. Bush administration. After the Trump tax cut of 2017, the percentage saying their taxes were too high reached the lowest point in Gallup's history. (Gallup)
The U.S. loses more tax revenue than any nation. (Axios)
Economy
Two cities, same housing prices story: In Atlanta, the pandemic spurs home prices — and it’s not just the suburbs. In Minneapolis, the scramble for Twin Cities houses faces additional challenge: out-of-state buyers. (Atlanta Journal Constitution, Minneapolis Star Tribune)
AT&T is in talks to combine a big portfolio of media assets, including CNN, with Discovery, a deal that would mark a major strategy shift for the telecom giant as the traditional TV business faces prolonged pressure. The talks, which cover CNN and other parts of AT&T’s WarnerMedia division, including the TNT and TBS cable channels, are advanced and an agreement could be reached by Monday, the people said. (Wall Street Journal)
SPAC shares are sliding following takeover announcements, a marked reversal of the enthusiasm for these vehicles earlier this year which could threaten their ability to do deals. Of the 13 SPACs that have announced acquisitions in May, only one is trading above $10, the level at which shares in blank-cheque companies are originally priced. Market experts have attributed the about turn to a withdrawal from the market by institutional investors and a lack of interest from retail traders, who have turned their attention to other speculative assets such as cryptocurrencies. (Financial Times)
Almost all major US payers hiked forecasts following Q1, hinting at 2021 optimism despite COVID-19. (Healthcare Dive)
The price of Bitcoin traded below $45,000 after a single-word tweet — “Indeed” — by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, an outspoken supporter of cryptocurrency, suggested Tesla may be considering or may have sold off its bitcoin holdings. (Reuters)
Technology
The Real Story Behind Netflix’s Top 10 Lists: It’s no secret that Netflix home pages are tailored according to past viewing patterns. What you see depends on what you’ve watched, which is why your interface might look a lot different than the one your spouse or neighbor sees when they log on. Perhaps not as widely known: Some of the categories and content rows that might seem objective are actually just as personalized. “Popular on Netflix” and “Trending,” for example, sure sound like Nielsen-like rankings of what’s hot in the U.S. or the rest of the world. Turns out they’re not. (Vulture)
When the Washington Post named Sally Buzbee of the Associated Press as its next executive editor—the first woman to have the role—many current and former female Post staffers cheered the move, one they said was long overdue. But the frustration among that group also runs deep. They say there’s a reason the Post had to look outside the newsroom to find a woman to take the top job: The Post’s executive leadership pipeline has long been so male dominated that, according to interviews with staffers and other press accounts, there were no women internally who were considered leading candidates to be the next executive editor. (Politico)
Twitter will have a subscription service that researcher Jane Manchun Wong said will be called Twitter Blue and, as for now, is priced at $2.99/month. Twitter Blue will feature a new function called ‘Collections’ which will let users save and organize their favorite tweets into collections to easily find them later. Alongside this feature, Twitter will also bundle the ‘Undo Tweet’ function to its premium service. (9to5Mac)
America's most popular news app has its roots in China. News Break is more downloaded than the New York Times, the BBC or even the Google News apps. Small publishers have raved about the page views it brings: about 700 million in 2020. More remarkably, it focuses on local news, traditionally a harder space in which to rack up pageviews. It's rethinking how local news gets delivered with an AI-driven interface and a stream of hyperlocal COVID-19 updates its users crave. With 45 million monthly active users and 24 million installs via the App Store and Google Play in 2020, News Break bills itself "the nation's No. 1 intelligent local news platform." (Protocol)
Smart Links
Ransomware is a national security threat and a big business — and it’s wreaking havoc. (Washington Post)
Spain logged hottest year on record in 2020. (Reuters)
How Discord wants to conquer music: Ticketed events, label partnerships and beat battles. (Protocol)
Before the next pandemic, it’s time to regulate indoor air quality. (Fast Company)
A ‘Moneyball’ experiment English soccer’s second tier: Barnsley FC. (Wall Street Journal)
New genetic copycatchers detect efficient and precise CRISPR editing in a living organism. (University of California - San Diego)
U of California agrees not to use SAT, ACT in admissions through 2025 to settle lawsuit. (Higher Ed Dive)