FT : US military chief warns of ‘significant’ increase in Chinese aircraft inter

US military chief warns of ‘significant’ increase in Chinese aircraft intercepts
Mark Milley says Chinese forces are conducting unsafe air and sea manoeuvres

The US military’s top officer said China was becoming more aggressive in intercepting military aircraft and undertaking unsafe aerial manoeuvres over the past five years.

General Mark Milley, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, said China was conducting “dangerous intercepts” against American military aircraft and ships, and was also targeting Canada, Australia, Japan and other US partners.

“The number of Chinese intercepts at sea and in the air has increased significantly over five years,” Milley told the Financial Times and The Associated Press aboard his aircraft as he flew to Asia for visits to Indonesia and Australia.

The Chinese military has become “noticeably more aggressive in this particular region”, he said.

Milley declined to provide specific figures about the total number of incidents, but said the volume of unsafe intercepts — such as when a Chinese fighter jet comes close to a US aircraft — had risen in “equal proportion”. It was unclear to what extent the rise was due to China responding to expanding US activity in the region.

In May, a Chinese J-16 fighter flew very close to an Australian spy plane, releasing chaff, including pieces of aluminium, that was sucked into the engine of the P-8 surveillance aircraft.

Milley said he discussed unsafe intercepts when he spoke to his Chinese counterpart, General Li Guocheng, in the first call between the generals since President Joe Biden took office.

Li responded by warning the US not to engage in “provocations”. The Pentagon stresses that it is operating in international waters and airspace, but China wants the US to reduce its activity in the region.

Intercepts are just one of many contentious issues in the US-China relationship which is in its worst state since the countries established diplomatic relations in 1979.

Biden and Chinese president Xi Jinping are expected to hold a call in the coming days in which they are expected to discuss a range of issues including Taiwan, which has become a flashpoint.

Beijing warned the US after the FT reported that Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, would next month visit Taiwan, a country over which China claims sovereignty.

China has signalled that it might respond with more than rhetoric if Pelosi visits Taipei, sparking concerns that Beijing could take military action, such as intercepting her plane with fighter jets. The White House is worried that the visit has the potential to spark a crisis across the Taiwan Strait.

Milley visited Jakarta on Sunday as part of the effort by the Biden administration to strengthen alliances and partnerships in the Indo-Pacific. The push is partly designed to reassure countries that the US intends to remain a strong presence in the region to counter China.

Ahead of his meeting with his Indonesian counterpart General Andika Perkasa, Milley said Indonesia was “strategically critical” to the Indo-Pacific given its size and geography. The four-star general is the first chair of the joint chiefs to visit Indonesia since Admiral Michael Mullen travelled to the south-east Asian nation in 2008.

Speaking after his meeting with Milley, Andika said that Chinese ships had also harassed Indonesian vessels.

Milley arrived in Sydney on Monday to attend a regional meeting of military chiefs. He will be accompanied by Admiral John Aquilino, head of US Indo-Pacific. Milley said the chiefs would discuss the situation surrounding Taiwan, including what lessons from the Ukraine conflict might apply to the island.

Speaking about the conference, which will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday, Milley said the “vast majority” of countries in the region wanted the US military to be engaged.

“We want to work with them to develop interoperability and modernise our militaries collectively, in order to make sure that, geostrategically, we’re able to meet whatever challenge that China poses,” Milley said.

Crunch Base : The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Whatnot Goes Big; TAE Powers

The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Whatnot Goes Big; TAE Powers Up With $250M

This is a weekly feature that runs down the week’s top 10 funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last week’s biggest funding rounds here.
Rounds raised by U.S.-based startups were big this week, with three topping $200 million. No one category stood out, as investors wrote checks for anything ranging from livestream shopping to biotech to ways to develop clean drinking water. After a slow start to the month, large rounds have come back into play for some startups.

1. Whatnot, $260M, e-commerce: Investors clearly seem to think livestream shopping is the next evolutionary step for commerce. DST Global and Alphabet’s growth fund, CapitalG, co-led a $260 million Series D for Los Angeles-based Whatnot. The round now values the live shopping platform at $3.7 billion—a 2.5x increase from September when its valuation was $1.5 billion. That’s an impressive jump considering the venture market was very different in September. However, the company seems to be coming off an impressive year. Whatnot said it grew sales more than 20x year over year last year, and more than tripled its monthly sales thus far in 2022. Founded in 2019, the company has raised nearly $485 million, according to Crunchbase data.
2. TAE Technologies, $250M, energy: The promise of real nuclear fusion energy continues to fire up investors. TAE Technologies is the latest to ride that wave of interest, as the Foothill Ranch, California-based company raised a $250 million round that induced cash from the likes of Google and Chevron. The last year has been big for fusion startups, as companies such as Commonwealth Fusion Systems, Helion Energy, General Fusion and others have raised substantial rounds. Fusion energy—created when two atoms are merged—is the holy grail of clean energy. With many experts thinking it is getting closer to being commercialized, investors are lining up their bets. TAE has collected a lot of those bets, as the company—founded in 1998—said it has now raised $1.2 billion.
3. Delfi Diagnostics, $225M, biotech: Unfortunately, cancer remains a public health concern, and early ways to detect and monitor the dreaded disease are always going to be highly sought after. Baltimore-based Delfi Diagnostics has developed a way to look for DNA fragments in a patient’s bloodstream that are linked to specific forms of cancer. The new technology was interesting enough to help the company close a $225 million Series B led by DFJ Growth. The company—founded in 2019—will use the new proceeds for continued development and commercialization of its blood tests. Delfi has now raised more than $330 million, according to Crunchbase.
4. Meati Foods, $150M, food tech: You can buy a lot of filet mignon with $150 million—probably even more if it’s “faux” filet mignon. Boulder, Colorado-based Meati Foods became the latest food tech startup making plant-based meat to score a large funding round, locking up a $150 million Series C funding led by Revolution Growth. Meati specializes in creating whole-cut steak cutlets and chunks that use mycelium—a mushroom root—to stand in for meat. Cuts of meat have proven a problem for the fake meat industry as the texture is hard to replicate. However, Meati’s cuts are already being sold in grocery stores and restaurants in Arizona and Colorado. The company has raised $278.6 million to date, according to Crunchbase.
5. Source, $130M, environmental engineering: Other than oxygen, nothing is more important than water—yet viable sources of drinking water are getting scarcer. Scotttsdale, Arizona-based Source, a developer of sustainable drinking water technology, closed a $130 million Series D led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures and The Drawdown Fund. The company’s tech uses the sun to draw water vapor out of the air and transform it into mineralized drinking water, even in low-humidity locations. According to the company, at least 2.4 billion people globally do not have clean water to drink, and by 2050 that number will increase to 6 billion as a result of climate change. Founded in 2014, Source says it has raised a total of $270 million to date.
6. ClassDojo, $125M, edtech: San Francisco-based edtech startup ClassDojo announced it closed a $125 million Series D led by Tencent that valued the company at $1.25 billion. The round was raised in September, but was not announced at the time. Founded in 2011, the company has now raised more than $190 million, per Crunchbase.
7. (tied) Camp4 Therapeutics, $100M, biotech: Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotechnology firm Camp4 Therapeutics raised a $100 million Series B led by Enavate Sciences. Founded in 2016, the company—which is developing RNA treatments—has raised $190 million, according to Crunchbase.
7. (tied) FlexGen, $100M, energy storage: Durham, North Carolina-based FlexGen closed a $100 million Series C led by Vitol. Founded in 2009, the energy storage solutions provider has now raised more than $275 million, per Crunchbase data.
9. Halborn, $90M, cybersecurity: Miami-based Halborn, a cybersecurity firm for traditional finance and blockchain-based customers, completed a $90 million round led by Summit Partners. Founded in 2019, this was the company’s first external round.
10. BigHat Biosciences, $75M, biotech: San Mateo, California-based BigHat Biosciences raised a $75 million Series B funding round led by Section 32. Founded in 2019, BigHat, which is developing antibody therapies for patients using machine learning and synthetic biology, has raised $105 million to date, according to the company.

Crunch Base : Meet The 32 New Unicorns That Joined The Board In June 2022

Meet The 32 New Unicorns That Joined The Board In June 2022

Despite ongoing concerns about overvalued private companies, and a stymied public market for new debuts, new billion-dollar valued companies are still joining The Crunchbase Unicorn Board. Thirty-two companies joined the board in June, around three companies every two working days.
Of the companies that joined the Unicorn Board last month, London-based payments company SumUp leads the pack with the largest funding raise, $623 million, and the highest valuation, $8.5 billion. Collectively, this batch of 32 companies raised $4.5 billion last month.
The company with the earliest funding stage to unicorn is India-based edtech Physics Wallah, which raised $100 million in a Series A round. The profitable company provides low-cost test-prep classes.
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The most active lead investors in these billion-dollar valued rounds include Goldman Sachs Asset Management with three investments, and Craft Ventures and Westbridge Capital, each with two investments.
Across these companies, Y Combinator has the highest count with four portfolio companies, all via its accelerator program at seed-stage fundings.
Marketing and professional services leads with the largest count of companies followed by financial services and cybersecurity companies.
Here are the companies, organized by sector.
Marketing and professional services
Financial services
  • London-based point-of-sale payments company SumUp raised $623 million in a round led by Bain Capital Tech Opportunities, which valued it at $8.5 billion.
  • Banking software enterprise solution Backbase raised a private equity funding of $128 million. Motive Partners led the round, valuing the Netherlands-based company at $2.6 billion.
  • Real-time compensation platform Pave, based in San Francisco, raised a $100 million Series C. Pave was valued at $1.6 billion after the round led by Index Ventures.
  • Ecuador-based Kushki, an e-commerce payment solution, raised a $100 million Series B led by Kaszek, which valued the company at $1.5 billion.
  • Insurance provider Branch, based in Columbus, Ohio, raised a $147 million Series C valued at $1.1 billion and led by Weatherford Capital.
Privacy and security
  • Security compliance company Vanta, based out of San Francisco, raised a $110 million Series B led by Craft Ventures which valued the company at $1.6 billion.
  • Boston-based Immuta, a company that secures cloud data, raised a $100 million Series E valued at $1 billion and led by cybersecurity VC firm NightDragon Security.
  • Tel Aviv-based Perimeter 81, a secure network company for a distributed workforce, raised a $100 million Series C valued at $1 billion and led by B Capital Group.
  • Security and compliance company JupiterOne, based in North Carolina, raised a $70 million Series C valued at $1 billion and led by Tribe Capital.
Sustainability
Health care
  • Nashville, Tennessee-based health care service CareBridge raised a $140 million funding valued at $1 billion and led by Oak HC/FT.
  • Developer of diagnostic devices Visby Medical, based in San Jose, raised a $135 million Series E which valued the company at $1.06 billion. Although the Series E was first announced in March, the valuation was not disclosed until the company announced its Series E extension in late June.
Web3
Real estate
Semiconductor
  • Israel-based 4D-imaging radar company Vayyar raised a $108 million Series E that valued the company at $1.5 billion. The funding was led by Koch Disruptive Technologies.
Cloud computing
  • Cloud computing company Jaguar Microsystems from Shenzhen raised a $15 million Series B led by Tencent, valuing the company at $1.3 billion.
Wireless infrastructure
Edtech
  • India-based Physics Wallah, an edtech platform that provides live and online classes and has helped more than 6 million students according to its announcement, raised a $100 million Series A valued at $1.1 billion. The funding was led by GSV Ventures and Westbridge Capital.
Manufacturing
  • Sustainable textile company Recover from Spain, raised a $100 million funding led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management which valued it at $1.1 billion.
Food and Beverage
  • Tampa, Florida-based beverage company Cirkul raised a $70 million Series C valued at $1.1 billion led by New York-based PE firm SC.Holdings.
E-commerce
  • Mumbai-based Purplle, an online store for cosmetics, raised a $33 million Series E valued at $1.1 billion led by South Korea-based Paramark Ventures.
Robotics
Logistics
  • Chicago-based FourKites, a supply chain visibility platform, raised a corporate round led by FedEx valuing the company at $1 billion. The funding amount was not disclosed.
Methodology
The Crunchbase Unicorn Board is a curated list that includes private unicorn companies with post-money valuations of $1 billion or more and is based on Crunchbase data. New companies are added to the Unicorn Board as they reach the $1 billion valuation mark as part of a funding round.
Funding to unicorn companies includes all private financings to companies that are tagged as unicorns, as well as those that have since graduated to The Exited Unicorn Board.

NY Post : Pope Francis authorized wire-tapping of financier accused of defraudi

Pope Francis authorized wire-tapping of financier accused of defrauding Vatican of millions: report

The Vatican authorized secret wiretaps on an Italian financial broker based in London who has been charged with defrauding the Holy See of hundreds of millions of dollars, according to leaked documents.

Pope Francis granted investigators the power to bug phones, intercept emails and arrest anyone without approval from British judges, The Times of London reported.

The Vatican’s Office of the Promoter of Justice used those powers to target millionaire Raffaele Mincione, a fund manager accused of cheating the Vatican amidst a roughly $350 million real estate venture.

The scandal centers on a massive Vatican investment in a former Harrod’s warehouse in London, which was set to be converted into luxury apartments.

Mincione is one of 10 people, including a cardinal, embroiled in the controversy, which first came to light in 2014. He has denied wrongdoing.

Last month, prosecutors questioned Mincione about his management of a fund that owned the London property.


In April 2021, the pope amended Vatican law, permitting religious leaders like cardinals and bishops to stand trial before the Vatican’s civilian-led courts, the Telegraph reported.

Days later Pope Francis allegedly ordered “the adoption of technological tools suitable for intercepting fixed and mobile devices, as well as any other communication, including electronic ones,” according to the leaked documents. “These powers may be exercised against subjects whose communication activities are considered useful for carrying out the investigations.”

Weeks later, Mincione’s phones and computer were seized by Vatican authorities and Italian police at a hotel in Rome, while the financier was vacationing, according to the report. His Italian lawyer claims he was put under surveillance.

Mincione’s attorney’s have written to British officials urging them not to cooperate with the Vatican’s investigation.

Business Of Fashion : It’s Time for Fashion Brands to Exit Russia

It’s Time for Fashion Brands to Exit Russia
H&M’s decision to permanently close its Russian stores is a signal that fashion brands can no longer take a wait-and-see

In the immediate aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, almost all Western fashion brands suspended operations in Russia. At first, the thinking was that the industry could pause sales to show solidarity with Western customers who overwhelmingly supported Ukraine in the conflict, while leaving the door open for a return once the war was over.

Nearly five months later, experts are giving up hope for a short-term peaceful resolution. This week, H&M said it would wind down its business in Russia, once the Swedish retailer’s sixth-biggest market. The decision means 170 stores will close, and some 6,000 employees will lose their jobs.

“After careful consideration, we see it as impossible given the current situation to continue our business in Russia,” chief executive Helena Helmersson said in a statement. “We are deeply saddened about the impact this will have on our colleagues.”

So far, H&M and Nike, which permanently closed its Russian operations in June, are the exceptions. They will soon be the rule.

When retailers like Zara parent Inditex, luxury giants LVMH and Kering, and online retailers Yoox Net-a-Porter and Farfetch suspended sales in Russia, they did so partly to avoid running afoul of Western sanctions, and partly to head off public outcry. It worked — photos of dark Zara and Dior stores inside Moscow shopping malls satisfied most consumers, even if some knew their owners could theoretically turn the lights back on anytime they wanted.

That middle ground is increasingly unviable, as the war drags on and atrocities such as the massacre in the Ukrainian town of Bucha come to light.

Brands now face a choice: they can shut their Russian operations entirely, as H&M and Nike have done. They can sell their Russian businesses, as off-price retailer T.J. Maxx did when it sold a 25 percent stake in the Russian retailer Familia. Or they can continue with a wait-and-see approach.

Leaving Russia entirely comes at a cost: H&M said closing its Russian business will cost 2 billion Swedish crowns ($191.3 million at current exchange rates). It also means permanently walking away from a market that provided 4 percent of the group’s sales in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Those figures are likely higher than at most other retailers, even large ones. Adidas operates 500 stores in Russia and other former Soviet states, but said pausing business there would cut 2022 revenue by just 1 percent. The goodwill generated with many consumers by taking a forceful step to cut ties with Russia is probably worth that, if not more, especially for brands that are early to take the leap.

For brands that operate in Russia via franchisees, selling their business to those partners may be the most practical way out. A former McDonald’s partner now operates the fast food chain’s former Russian locations under a new brand, Vkusno & tochka. However, this isn’t a fool-proof solution: Some of the McDonald’s Russian stores are still using its branding illegally, potentially hurting the company’s image if service and the quality of its food drops. In fashion, where grey market goods are a problem even in normal times, it’s not hard to imagine a future where “Versace” and “Adidas” stores sell fakes and illicitly sourced goods.

Meanwhile, as malls in Moscow sit half-empty, domestic brands are benefiting from the lack of foreign competitors. Reuters reported that sales levels for Russian apparel, shoe and accessory brands were 2.6 times higher in March and April 2022 versus 2021, according to Ozon, Russia’s second-largest e-commerce platform.

WWD : The Most Remote Luxury Hotels in Europe

The Most Remote Luxury Hotels in Europe
These far-flung locations may be difficult to reach, but for those seeking exclusive and unusual holidays, they provide tranquil escapes.

MILAN — From isolated islands off the coast of Montenegro to remote parts of Italy, the most insidious meanders of the French Alps to the Portuguese countryside — the most remote hotels in Europe are often also the most luxurious.
These far-flung locations may be difficult to reach, but for those seeking exclusive and unusual holidays, they provide tranquil — and beautiful — escapes.
Here, WWD explores some of the most secluded five-star hotels in Europe that promise exceptional and unforgettable experiences.
The Eremito Hotel, Italy
What is more isolated than a 14th-century monastery redeveloped as a hotel and located in the Umbrian valleys of Italy?
This is the case of Eremito, which translates to hermit, a hotel situated in Parrano, a 40-minute drive from the closest town, Orvieto, and surrounded by 3,000 hectares of protected natural reserve.


The Eremito Hotel in Umbria.
COURTESY IMAGE / MARCO RAVASINI
Founded and owned by Marcello Murzilli, the structure is known to be the first digital-detox hotel in Italy. It doesn’t have internet, business centers, minibars or televisions, and is intended for solo travelers only, exclusively offering single-bed occupancy. At The Eremito Hotel, the main source of light comes from candles, and what little electricity the hotel does use is generated by a state-of-the-art array of photovoltaic cells.
A hallway inside the Eremito Hotel in Umbria, Italy.
COURTESY IMAGE / MARCO RAVASINI
Bedrooms — formerly used by the monastery’s priests — are insulated to stay cool without air conditioning in the summer. In winter months, the rooms are heated with an underfloor heating system.
The restaurant inside the Eremito Hotel, in Umbria.
COURTESY IMAGE / MARCO RAVASINI
The restaurant, known as the “refectory,” offers a simple cuisine based on vegetarian and vegan traditional recipes made of fresh vegetables and seasonal fruits, while the bread and pasta are all homemade, as are the jams and desserts. The dinner is consumed in silence, together with the other guests at a big common table. During the summer, guests enjoy their meals on the outside patio.
The Refuge de la Traye, France
Similar to Eremito, the Refuge de la Traye is nestled in a haven of nature, at the heart of the three valleys in a ski area, and situated at an altitude of 1,650 meters in the French Alps. Built in 1982, the structure was originally a mountain lodge and was renovated into a luxury hospitality destination in 2019. It offers only six rooms and suites, which creates a private, intimate, homey vibe.
Refuge de la Traye
COURTESY IMAGE
The hotel places an emphasis on its natural surroundings, offering courses such as zip-lining and tree-climbing, electric mountain biking, pottery workshops, pony rides and spa retreats.
There is a wellness center, a sauna, a hammam, an outdoor jacuzzi, a fitness room, a tearoom, a lounge and a cigar salon, a children’s indoor playroom, a screening room, a chapel and two small lodges that are available to book.
The outdoor jacuzzi at the Refuge de la Traye.
COURTESY IMAGE
The hotel’s restaurant, La Table, offers Savoyard specialties such as raclettes and fondues during the colder seasons, and fresh vegetables and wood-fired pizzas during the summer.
“La Table,” the restaurant at the Refuge de La Traye.
COURTESY IMAGE
Located on the terrace overlooking the Alps, the restaurant is one of the most jaw-dropping features of the luxury inn.
Casa na Terra hotel, Portugal
Surrounded by the green countryside and wide ocean beaches in the Alentajo region in Portugal, the Casa na Terra hotel is situated near the artificial lake Monsaraz. It is unique, resembling an alien station or a luxury bunker hidden by the vegetation: only the dome and patio are visible from the outside, minimizing the impact the building has on the landscape or the view.


Casa na Terra, Portugal
COURTESY IMAGE
Casa na Terra, designed by architect Manuel Aires Mateus, is the latest addition to the Portuguese hotel group Silent Living, which already owns the Santa Clara 1728 in Lisbon, and the Cabanas no Rio in Comporta.
With only three suites, each with a bright, private patio and a fully equipped kitchen, this structure is a place where visitors rest up, thanks to the minimal style of the hotel in neutral colors such as white, gray and beige.
Casa na Terra in Portugal.
COURTESY IMAGE
Casa na Terra has only one common area, which acts as the heart of the hotel, as meals are consumed inside the guests’ rooms.
The Aman Sveti Stefan, Montenegro
Aman, one of the biggest luxury hotel chains, is bringing a high-end lodging experience to a small island off the coast of Montenegro.
The Aman Sveti Stefan is located on the island of Sveti Stefan and is connected to the mainland by a narrow isthmus. The restored village lies across the bay from Villa Miločer, a former royal retreat. The hotel grounds are spread across 80 acres, with two kilometers of beaches and a stand-alone Aman Spa.
The Aman Sveti Stefan in Montenegro.
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The hotel houses 51 rooms, cottages and suites connected by stone steps and cobbled paths. The restored dwellings feature hand-rendered stucco, stone and local oak, in keeping with the village’s rustic legacy, with sea or garden views.
Aman Sveti Stefan also offers two restaurants, in addition to the grill bar and the pool bar. The Arva, the structure’s main restaurant, is available for dinner-service only.
The Spa at Aman Sveti Stefan, Montenegro.
COURTESY IMAGE
Facilities include a fitness center, hydrotherapy and swimming pools, three hotel-owned beaches, wine tasting and boat trips.

>>> Weekend Papers Summary

Weekend Papers Summary


NEW YORK TIMES
-The Jan. 6 panel after 8 hearings: where will the evidence lead?
The House committee has set out a comprehensive narrative of the effort to overturn the 2020 election. But it’s unclear if that will be enough to achieve its legal and political goals.
-Steve Bannon found guilty of contempt in case related to capitol riot inquiry. He is the first close aide to former President Donald J. Trump to be convicted as a result of one of the investigations into the Jan. 6 attack.
-Russia agrees to let Ukraine export grain, easing world food shortage.
Ukraine and Russia signed a deal to lift Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian ports, which has worsened a global food crisis — their most important agreement since the war began.
-The NBA has kept a low profile in public campaign to free Brittney Griner, the WNBA star who has been detained in Russia since February. The NBA which founded the women’s league in 1996, has said it is working behind the scenes to help Griner.
-President Biden’s new economic scorecard is the price at the pump.
President Biden has grown fond of boasting about a streak of falling gas prices, a move wrapped in risk and irony, our correspondent writes in an analysis.
-The pandemic isn’t over, but most U.S. states have formally said that it’s no longer a health emergency. Get Covid news.
- GOP assails NY bail laws after the suspect in Zeldin attack is released
the suspect was released without bail hours after the attack against Representative Lee Zeldin, the Republican candidate for governor.
-Health officials in Rockland County offered polio vaccinations and urged the public to get shots as they investigated whether the disease had spread.
-Some Republican-led counties are refusing to certify election results — a move that could throw American democracy into chaos if it becomes widespread.

THE FINANCIAL TIMES
-Volkswagen’s chief executive Herbert Diess, the architect of the German carmaker’s multibillion-euro push into electric vehicles, will leave the company within weeks after being forced out by union leaders and shareholders. The 63-year-old, who took over in the years following the VW emissions scandal, will be replaced by Porsche chief executive and former VW manager Oliver Blume from the start of September. His departure follows a vote by VW’s supervisory board, which is controlled by a loose alliance of workers’ representatives and the state of Lower Saxony, the company’s second-largest shareholder.
-The Spanish government has said that the EU’s proposal for blanket targets to cut gas use ahead of a winter supply crunch is “not efficient, fair or equitable” as bickering between member states over the plan increases. Teresa Ribera Rodríguez, minister for ecological transition, complained that Brussels’s plan to ask countries to cut gas demand by 15% starting next month and over the winter was not discussed with member states before its announcement on Wednesday.
-Since January 6 2021, Liz Cheney has been focused on a single goal: making sure Donald Trump never again occupies the Oval Office. On Thursday she came a step closer to achieving that ambition as she wrapped up the last in a series of live hearings investigating last year’s attack on the US Congress and whether the former president played a role in stoking it.
-US Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell has expressed deep admiration for Paul Volcker, his legendary predecessor who defeated the high inflation that plagued the US economy from 1965 to 1982. Then, as now, Volcker was fighting more than a decade of loose monetary policy, combined with supply shocks stemming from geopolitical turmoil. But though he extols the man, Powell is deviating from Volcker’s methods. This is perhaps why inflation continues to accelerate, now topping 9% in the US and spreading rapidly throughout the world.
-Kyiv and Moscow have struck a deal aimed at averting a global food crisis, agreeing a “de facto ceasefire” on cargo ships that will collect millions of tonnes of stranded grain from Ukrainian ports. At a signing ceremony on Friday in Istanbul, UN secretary-general António Guterres hailed it as a “beacon of hope on the Black Sea”.
-This April, after a five-year absence in which he flirted with a run for the US presidency, Schultz returned to the company he built into the world’s largest coffee chain, taking his third turn as its chief executive.
“Love and responsibility brought me back to Starbucks,” he told analysts in May. At the same time he warned that major changes in customer behaviour during the coronavirus pandemic had put the business under “significant pressure”.

NY POST
-Google has fired a senior software engineer who claimed that the company had developed a “sentient” artificial intelligence bot, the company announced Friday. Blake Lemoine, who works in Google’s Responsible AI organization, was placed on administrative leave last month after he said the AI chatbot known as LaMDA claims to have a soul and expressed human thoughts and emotions, which Google refuted as “wholly unfounded.”
-The accusations against Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin’s alleged attacker are grave enough for a more serious charge that could have gotten him held on bail, said legal experts. Troubled Army veteran David Jakubonis was charged with attempted second-degree assault, which led him to be automatically sprung from custody under New York’s controversial bail-reform law. But former Manhattan prosecutor Mark Bederow said the details in the felony complaint against Jakubonis — who’s accused of swinging “a set of self-defense knuckles which had two sharp pointed ends” at Zeldin’s throat after threatening, “You’re done” — make a case for attempted first-degree assault, which is eligible for bail.
-Jay Carney, the Amazon executive who vastly expanded its lobbying and public affairs operation after a stint as White House press secretary, is joining Airbnb as policy and communications head, the home rental startup said on Friday. Carney, who worked at Amazon for seven years as Senior Vice President of Global Corporate Affairs, will start at Airbnb in September and report to co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky.

>>> Barron’s Weekend Summary

Barron’s Weekend Summary: When Amazon reports second-quarter earnings on July 28, Wall Street analysts expect revenue growth of just 5%


Cover Story:
-When Amazon reports second-quarter earnings on July 28, Wall Street analysts expect revenue growth of just 5%. That’s a tepid number by Amazon standards, and if things are just slightly worse than expected, revenue could actually decline. It would be a telling moment, with Amazon facing its greatest set of challenges since founder Jeff Bezos began selling books out of his house almost 30 years ago.

Interview:
-This week, Barron’s has interviewed Sammy Simnegar, the Fidelity Magellan manager. He describes himself as a realist. It’s that realism that has made the Fidelity Magellan manager rethink his views about much-loved megacap technology stocks, hold off on bargain-hunting in some hard-hit parts of the market, and be skeptical of all the comparisons to the 1970s. In the past three years, Simnegar has built on a career as an international investor to scout out quality U.S. growth companies for the $23.6 billion Fidelity Magellan fund—once managed by famed stockpicker Peter Lynch—and the $4B Fidelity International Capital Appreciation fund, which he has helmed for 14 years.

Tech Trader:
-Not all tech CEOs are created equal. CEOs with nontechnical business backgrounds—I call them the “suits”—are likely to have a more difficult time making accurate product assessments and picking the right engineering teams. And so it isn’t all that surprising that some of the industry’s lackluster performances have come under such suits. Unity Software CEO John Riccitiello began his career in marketing and brand manager roles at Clorox and PepsiCo after graduating with a business degree. Following a stint at a private-equity firm, he served as CEO of videogame publisher Electronic Arts from 2007 to 2013. During his tenure, EA’s stock fell by more than 60% after he went on an acquisition spree of gaming studios—several of which failed and were shut down in the ensuing years.

The Trader:
-The word is “recession,” and defining one isn’t easy. It’s usually up to the National Bureau of Economic Research to determine when one has started, but it often takes so long that the slowdown is over by the time one is declared. Others point to the technical definition of two consecutive quarters of declining economic growth—something that could be declared as soon as this coming Thursday, when second-quarter gross domestic product is released.
-It’s been a tough three years for restaurants. First Covid-19 kept people from visiting their favorite eateries, while the stop-start return to normal life has kept traffic from returning to normal. And just when everything was looking up, out-of-control food inflation—combined with a shortage of delivery drivers and other staff members—has hit profit margins. Now restaurants have to contend with slowing growth and perhaps a recession, something that has caused the S&P 500 Restaurants sub-index to drop 17% so far this year, in line with the S&P 500.

Features:
-Investors have several ways to protect themselves from continued high inflation, chiefly through the purchase of Treasury inflation-protected securities, or TIPS. Most individual investors are unfamiliar with the $1.7T TIPS market, but these Treasury bonds deserve a place in portfolios.
-Stephen Byrd, Morgan Stanley’s head of North American equity research for power/utilities and clean tech, is overweight on solar stocks Sunrun and AES, as well as hydrogen fuel-cell developer Plug Power. In the longer term, Byrd and his research team at Morgan Stanley believe distributed energy resources, such as rooftop solar, might disrupt traditional utilities as extreme weather events and electric-grid instability increase, energy bills rise, and the cost of solar panels and similar products decline.

European Trader:
Wise is a London listed fintech company. It’s based in the trendy east London district of Shoreditch. Senior executives hot desk next to junior employees. The office is a former tea factory and features a sauna. But its services aren’t nearly as edgy as those of its fintech cousins dealing in cryptocurrencies. Wise simply helps people transfer money between more than 50 state-backed fiat currencies at cheaper rates than what Main Street banks charge. It handled $76B worth of transfers last year and boasts more than 13M customers.

Emerging Markets:
The implosion of China Evergrande last autumn, and a cascade of defaults that followed, smashed those cozy assumptions, and jacked up those yields to double digits for most privately owned builders. The “mortgage boycott” currently sweeping China has driven a fresh bond selloff. Investors are wary of dip buying, however. “Before the boycott, there was a view that we should be closer to the bottom,” says Tracy Chen, a portfolio manager for global credit at Brandywine Global. “Now we see developer stress hasn’t ended yet.”

Commodities:
Gasoline prices have fallen for 37 days in a row, and are now averaging $4.40 per gallon, down from over $5 last month. And the latest government data showed that drivers are using less gas than they were a year ago, probably because they’re still discouraged by high prices. Average prices remain $1.25 more than they were at this time last year. But there are some signs that the drop in prices is starting to convince some drivers to get back on the road.

Streetwise:
This week, Jack Hough looks at railways and railway stocks in the USA. US rails, in particular, have spent years slashing head count and leaning more heavily on the remaining workers to boost returns, but their shares now appear vulnerable in the near term. Service and volumes have slipped, and crew shortages are to blame. A strike has been delayed, but not yet averted. Hiring more workers in a hurry could cost dearly. Not hiring them could be worse