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The World
Beijing and Moscow have stepped up their rhetoric against Washington and its allies, vowing to strengthen their quasi-alliance and promote a “more just and democratic international order” to counterbalance the United States and its ideologically driven offensive. Despite speculation about an emerging anti-US axis, a joint statement issued after a virtual summit between President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Monday denied that their countries were seeking a Cold War-style political and military coalition. Instead, they hailed bilateral ties as “mature, stable, and solid” and each other as “priority partners.” (South China Morning Post)
India has redirected at least 50,000 additional troops to its border with China in a historic shift toward an offensive military posture against the world’s second-biggest economy. (Bloomberg)
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has warned of a “grave incident” linked to the coronavirus pandemic, stoking fears of an outbreak in the isolated country. The dictator accused senior officials of incompetence in handling North Korea’s efforts to prevent the spread of Covid-19, according to a statement by the state’s Korean Central News Agency. Officials’ neglect of important party decisions in the face of the health crisis had “caused a grave incident that poses a huge crisis to the safety of the nation and its people,” he was reported as saying. (Financial Times)
With the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus continuing to spread throughout California, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health is recommending that everyone wear masks in public indoor spaces — regardless of whether they’ve been vaccinated for COVID-19. (Los Angeles Times)
The commander of the U.S.-led mission in Afghanistan warned that the country could be on a path to chaotic civil war as American and other international troops prepare to leave in the coming weeks. (New York Times)
Large Israeli military and police forces were preparing to evict a group of about 2,000 Jewish settlers illegally squatting on a Palestinian hilltop in the West Bank last night in a test of the new coalition government’s unity and resolve. (The Times)
Five Asian countries are jeopardizing global climate ambitions by investing in 80% of the world’s planned new coal plants. Carbon Tracker, a financial thinktank, has found that China, India, Indonesia, Japan and Vietnam plan to build more than 600 coal power units. (The Guardian)
Nearly 70% of U.S. physicians are now employed by a hospital or a corporate entity. This is the first time the report included ownership by corporate entities outside of just hospitals. Hospitals and corporate entities, which include insurers or private equity groups, own nearly half of the physician practices in this country. (Healthcare Dive)
Medicare proposes 1.8% increase for home health agencies in 2022, while also seeking to expand the value-based care model. (Bloomberg Law)
How weird is the heat in Portland, Seattle and Vancouver? Off the charts. Heat waves and the “heat domes” that can cause them aren’t rare, but the recent weather that’s been smothering the Pacific Northwest has little precedent in at least four decades of record-keeping. (New York Times)
The Northwest’s blistering heat wave underscores the fragility of our grids. (MIT Technology Review)
Economy
US home price growth accelerated in April at the fastest pace in more than three decades as strong housing demand continued to come up against a shortage of residential properties. The S&P Case-Shiller national home price index, which covers all nine US census divisions, rose 14.6% YoY in April. That followed a 13.3% annual jump in March, and was “the highest reading in more than 30 years,” according to the report. “April’s performance was truly extraordinary,” said Craig Lazzara, managing director and global head of index investment strategy at S&P Dow Jones Indices. (Financial Times)
Apartment sizes are getting bigger across the U.S., just as more people are looking for additional space while spending more time working from home. In 36% of U.S. cities, apartments under construction are larger on average than those built over the previous five years, according to a report from RENTCafé, a nationwide apartment-search website. Units in 33 of the 92 cities studied rose nearly 50 square feet on average. (Wall Street Journal)
‘Great Resignation’ gains steam as return-to-work plans take effect. A whopping 95% of workers are now considering changing jobs, and 92% are even willing to switch industries to find the right position, according to a recent report by jobs site Monster(dot)com. Most say burnout and lack of growth opportunities are what is driving the shift, Monster found. (CNBC)
Southwest Airlines is increasing overtime pay, including offering double-time pay for flight attendants, in an effort to head off potential staffing crunches during the Fourth of July travel weekend. Southwest’s operation has been snarled by technical snafus and a run of bad weather in recent weeks. The airline canceled hundreds of flights over the weekend and Monday as severe thunderstorms hit some of its busiest airports. (Wall Street Journal)
Chinese ride-hailing goliath Didi Global Inc. priced its IPO at $14 on Tuesday afternoon, setting the stage for the company to begin trading Wednesday, after it made a lightning-fast pitch to potential investors. Given the upsizing, the pricing would give Didi a market capitalization of more than $67 billion, which would trail U.S. ride-hailing firm Uber Technologies Inc.’s roughly $95 billion but land well ahead of Lyft Inc., which sits at roughly $20 billion. (Wall Street Journal)
After a brief dip, gasoline prices in the U.S. are on the rise again. The U.S. average price for a gallon of gasoline rose 2 ½ cents from last week to $3.09 per gallon Monday, according to the travel and fuel price tracking app GasBuddy. (Los Angeles Times)
Private equity is roaring back into the world of enterprise tech. 2021 has already topped last year in terms of overall investment — which perhaps isn't too surprising, given the unknowns created by COVID-19. But with more activity expected, it also seems poised to surpass the last several years. Private equity firms have invested $16.1 billion into software companies over 105 deals so far this year. That far outpaces 2020's $13.2 billion total and is nearing 2019's $20.4 billion. (Protocol)
Technology
Senior members of Congress renewed calls to overhaul U.S. competition law following the failure of two landmark attempts to break up Facebook. Democrats and Republicans criticized the federal court decision to dismiss one complaint against the social media company by the FTC and another by individual states. Several said the judgment illustrated the need to rewrite antitrust rules, with six major bills designed to rein in the power of Big Tech being debated on Capitol Hill. (Financial Times)
Google must turn over to the Justice Department the performance reviews for its current and former employees who will be deposed in the antitrust cases against the search giant brought by state and federal regulators, a federal judge said Tuesday. The DOJ said the employee self-assessments in the reviews offer candid remarks about Google’s goals for market share and exclusive contracts. (The Information)
Microsoft plans to increase its legal and corporate affairs unit by 20% in the coming fiscal year as it prepares for what it sees as a years-long wave of tech regulation across the globe, Microsoft president Brad Smith said. (Axios)
Chip maker Intel is delaying production of one of its newest chips to improve performance, the first significant product setback under new Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger as he seeks to rebuild the company’s competitiveness. Intel now is planning to start producing the next generation of central processing units for servers—the brains of those machines—in early 2022 after previously saying it would be ready late this year. (Wall Street Journal)
Suppliers that want to land Amazon as a client for their goods and services can find that its business comes with a catch: the right for Amazon to buy big stakes in their companies at potentially steep discounts to market value. The technology-and-retail giant has struck at least a dozen deals with publicly traded companies in which it gets rights, called warrants, to buy the vendors’ stock in the future at what could be below-market prices. Amazon over the past decade also has done more than 75 such deals with privately held companies. (Wall Street Journal)
Facebook is getting into the subscription newsletter game. It’s launching a new service, called Bulletin, that allows writers to publish free and paid newsletters that can be posted to the web, sent to subscribers’ inboxes, and shared across Facebook. Perhaps the biggest perk for now: Facebook says it won’t take a fee from writers “at launch,” and writers retain full ownership of their work and subscriber list. (The Verge)
Apple’s spending on Google Cloud storage is on track to soar 50% this year. (The Information)
Smart Links
700 million LinkedIn records for sale on hacker forum, June 22nd 2021. (Privacy Sharks)
North America recaptures the top spot in total millionaire population. (Barron’s)
Business travelers from big multinationals get English quarantine waiver. (Financial Times)
United Airlines bets on post-pandemic growth with its biggest-ever jet order. (Wall Street Journal)
Bill and Melinda Gates are focusing on separate investing goals amid divorce drama. (Fortune)
An opioid case like no other: NY vs. the supply chain. (New York Times)
‘Today’ podcast will open NBC’s morning show to round-the-clock audio. (Variety)