The World
The Twin Cities convulsed with chaos for a third straight night of violent unrest in the wake of the Memorial Day death of George Floyd as he was being restrained on the neck by a Minneapolis police officer. Rioters invaded and set fire to Minneapolis police’s Third Precinct headquarters and torched and looted other buildings in the Lake Street corridor. Target closed its 24 Twin Cities metro stores until further notice. (Star Tribune)
Hong Kong is the battleground in a US-China cold war, as the American consul says U.S. actions against Hong Kong “will be as targeted as possible.” Meanwhile, European leaders are in no mood to follow the U.S. in threatening trade sanctions against China, as foreign ministers meet. Separately, a China senior general said China will attack Taiwan if there is no other way of stopping it from becoming independent, and Prime Minister Abe is urged to rethink Xi's Japan visit by own party. (Financial Times, South China Morning Post, Reuters, Nikkei Asian Review)
After precipitously falling in March and early April, consumer confidence across advanced Western economies gradually rebounded over the past month, with consumers in the U.S., UK, Germany and France all holding moderately more optimistic views of the economy than at the beginning of May. (Morning Consult)
Congress and the White House are debating a “return-to-work bonus” aimed at the more than 40 million workers who filed for unemployment, as a new incentive for those who go back to work. (Washington Post)
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the central bank’s long-awaited program to lend to small- and medium-sized businesses is “days away.” (CNBC)
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said the state may have to cut half its 400,000 public employees if the federal government doesn’t help make up a $10.1 billion revenue shortage through June 2021. (Bloomberg)
Personal data about people with coronavirus, collected by the UK’s NHS as part of the test-and-trace programme, will be kept for 20 years. Information including full name and date of birth, as well as phone numbers and home and email addresses, will be stored. (The Guardian)
About half of college presidents say it's "very likely" they will resume in-person classes this fall. About two-thirds with on-campus housing say they plan to set up a space to quarantine students, and more than half said they will require masks on campus. On Thursday, Purdue, Brown and Lane College presidents will give Senate testimony on “how students can safely go” to school. (EducationDive, Inside Higher Ed)
Finance
U.S. consumer spending plunged in April by the most on record. Household outlays fell 13.6% from the prior month, the sharpest drop in more than six decades worth of data. (Bloomberg)
U.S. savings rate hits record 33% as Americans stockpile cash, curb spending. (CNBC)
Stocks in the U.S. are expensive on a range of valuation multiples and could come under pressure as geopolitical tensions escalate, Oxford Economics states. American shares are as much as 16% overvalued at present levels. (Bloomberg)
The Chinese central bank moved again on Friday to support the yuan after it fell this week to its lowest level against the US dollar in eight months. (South China Morning Post)
Global glut keeps a lid on natural-gas prices, as mild May weather limited domestic demand and brimming storage facilities abroad reduced exports, while oil well flow hasn’t declined by as much as expected. (Wall Street Journal)
Technology
Uber introduces a new hourly rate for longer, multistop trips. Using the new “Hourly” function, riders can set the amount of time the trip should take, thereby locking in a flat, hourly rate for the duration of the ride. (The Verge)
The race to automate vehicles on China’s roads is heating up. Didi announced an outsized investment of over $500 million in its autonomous driving subsidiary, the single largest fundraising round in China’s autonomous driving sector. The round was led by existing investor Softbank, which has also backed Uber. (TechCrunch)
An analysis of 100 billion tweets that explore the use of 'stretchable' words such as 'duuuuude,' 'heyyyyy,' or 'noooooooo’ in social media provides new insights into linguistic patterns. (PLOS One)
The NSA warned that Russia’s Sandworm hackers, an arm of the Russian military, hijacked mail servers. (Wired)
As a West Point cadet, James Gagliano scraped by with a C average. But over a quarter-century working in federal law enforcement, he learned that another C—communication—was the leadership trait that most critically impacted operations. (Chief Executive)
Smart Links
What is Section 230? Understand the law that created the modern internet. (MIT Technology Review)
California listens to podcasts more than any other US state. (PodNews)
Wastewater testing gains traction as a Covid-19 early warning system. (STATNews)
Broken sense of time is bad for mental health. (Scientific American)
Astronomers find the Universe’s missing ordinary matter. (Australia ABC News)
The Louvre plans to reopen July 6. (France 24)
20 books to read this summer. (Washington Post)