Tuesday is set to be a mixed bag of weather across the country. The day will start off partly cloudy, with some areas seeing overcast skies. Rain is expected in many places, with storms in some areas. Temperatures are expected to range between 22 and 25 degrees Celsius.
It is important to be prepared for the weather, so make sure to check the forecast before heading out. Wear appropriate clothing and bring an umbrella if rain is expected.
Stay safe and enjoy the day!
The term ‘de-risking’ has become popular among officials trying to loosen China’s grip on global supply chains. It reflects an evolution in the discussion over how to deal with a rising, assertive China, and is meant to sound more moderate and surgical than ‘decoupling’. The term caught on after a speech by the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, on March 30. German and French diplomats later pressed for the term in international settings, and it was adopted by the U.S. national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, and India’s foreign minister, S. Jaishankar.
However, de-risking has a vexing history in financial policy, and is associated with overreaching. Human rights groups have condemned how banks de-risk by denying service to aid agencies that work in places like Syria, fearing fines if an organization strays into a gray zone of providing aid to nations under sanction.
De-risking requires tough, in-the-weeds decisions and solutions. The United States and its allies will need to do more thinking and regulation writing for some businesses, while allowing others to stay in China. Ultimately, de-risking is an imperfect, evolving challenge, and the world’s democracies must find a way to disconnect from China enough to reduce the threat of coercion, without encouraging paranoia or rogue behavior that causes unneeded harm.
The war in Ukraine has been raging for over a year, and the city of Bakhmut has been at the center of it. Drone footage taken by The New York Times shows the devastating destruction of the city, with scorched buildings, destroyed schools, and cratered parks. The Russians are declaring victory in this battle, but the Ukrainians are still fighting to drive the Russians from the ruins.
The city of nearly 80,000 has been reduced to ashes, with only a few remaining civilians trying to find a safe path. President Biden has estimated that around 100,000 Russian soldiers were killed and wounded in the battle for Bakhmut, and Ukraine has suffered grievous losses as well.
The New York Times visited Bakhmut in December and found that the few remaining residents mostly lived in basement bunkers. As the Russians advanced slowly, block by block, razing many buildings to their foundations, the Ukrainians were largely confined to a patch of land smaller than Central Park.
Two murals painted on the walls of high-rise buildings in 2020 offered the residents a sense of solace, but one of them is now gone along with the multistory building that served as its canvas. The other mural still stands, but the building is now empty, battered, and lifeless, like the city itself.
After years of drought, population growth, and climate change, the Colorado River is in danger of drying up. To prevent this, Arizona, California, and Nevada have agreed to take less water from the river, with the federal government providing $1.2 billion in payments to irrigation districts, cities, and Native American tribes. This agreement will reduce water use by 13%, and is expected to require significant water restrictions for residential and agricultural uses.
The agreement is only in place until 2026, and the seven states that rely on the river will need to come up with a long-term solution. The Biden administration is hopeful that the states can work together with the federal government to address the challenge of the Colorado’s decline.
The agreement is a victory for the Biden administration, and a relief for the states involved. It is a reminder that, with the right incentives, states can come together to protect a vital resource.
The European Commission has formally asked Greece to investigate a New York Times report based on exclusive footage showing the country’s Coast Guard abandoning migrants in the Aegean Sea last month. The Times verified the footage, taken on the Greek island of Lesbos on April 11, using a range of tools including metadata analysis and geolocation. The European Commission has the power to open a so-called “infringement procedure” against Greece, the formal process under which the E.U. punishes members that violate its rules. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis recently defended his migration policies as “tough but fair” and Greek voters appear to be largely unmoved by the alleged violations. The European Commission is relying on the Greek authorities to investigate and verify the Times findings before they can take action.
German media group ProSiebenSat.1 and European pay-TV operator Sky have revived talks over a potential combination of their businesses in Germany. This comes as broadcasters across Europe are struggling to compete with online streaming players such as Netflix and DAZN. Under the potential transaction, Sky would pay hundreds of million of euros to sell its operations in Germany to Prosiebensat.1.
Comcast, which acquired Sky Deutschland as part of a $40 billion buyout of European pay-TV broadcaster Sky in 2018, is working with advisory firm PJT Partners. Sky operates also in Italy and Britain. Prosiebensat.1, Sky, and Comcast have declined to comment on the matter.
The potential combination of ProSiebenSat.1 and Sky would be a major step in the reshaping of the German media landscape. It remains to be seen how the deal will play out and what the implications will be for the industry.
Microsoft Corp (MSFT) has evaded a potential early legal obstacle in its $69 billion deal to acquire “Call of Duty” videogame maker Activision Blizzard Inc (ATVI). A U.S. judge on Friday refused to allow gamers in a private suit to preliminarily block the acquisition.
The private plaintiffs sued Microsoft in California federal court in December to enjoin the deal, which they called harmful to competition. Microsoft and its lawyers contend the acquisition would benefit consumers. U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley in San Francisco federal court said in a ruling issued late on Friday night that the video gamers had not shown they would be “irreparably harmed” if the merger were allowed to proceed before she rules on the merits of their case.
A lawyer for the gamers said on Monday they will press on with their challenge to the deal despite losing this preliminary round. Joseph Alioto said the court concluded that a preliminary injunction “was not necessary at the moment,” but said the “evidence is very strong” that the proposed acquisition violates U.S. antitrust law. The deal faces regulatory scrutiny by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, and also in China and South Korea.
U.S. antitrust law allows private plaintiffs to sue over mergers and acquisitions. Corley dismissed the gamers’ first lawsuit in March, ruling that plaintiffs had not offered adequate factual support for claims that the deal would violate U.S. antitrust law. She allowed the plaintiffs to bring an amended complaint. Microsoft’s bid to dismiss the case is pending.
Facebook has been hit with a record €1.2 billion fine by its lead European Union privacy regulator, the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (DPC), for its handling of user information. The fine, which tops the previous record EU privacy fine of €746 million handed to Amazon.com Inc in 2021, comes after Facebook continued to transfer data beyond a 2020 EU court ruling that invalidated an EU-U.S. data transfer pact.
The battle over where Facebook stores its data began a decade ago after Austrian privacy campaigner Max Schrems brought a legal challenge over the risk of U.S. snooping in light of disclosures by former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. Facebook has said it will appeal the ruling, including the “unjustified and unnecessary fine” and has been given five months to stop transferring users’ data to the United States.
The Irish watchdog has said the suspension order could create a precedent for other firms and has now fined Facebook a total of €2.5 billion for breaches under the bloc’s General Data Protection Regulation’s (GDPR). Schrems has said that the new data protection framework agreed by Brussels and Washington in March 2022 may be ready by July, but warned that unless U.S. surveillance laws are fixed, Facebook will likely have to keep EU data in the EU.
Clean energy has been caught in the crosshairs of the GOP’s proposal. Analysts from Barclays have warned that solar panel manufacturers and installers would be negatively impacted if the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) subsidies are repealed. This would result in a reduction in US utility-scale solar demand. The GOP’s proposed rollback of subsidies contained in IRA would have a direct material impact on the solar sector, including FSLR, ARRY, NXT, ENPH, SEDG, NOVA, RUN, and SPWR. Although the risk of a U.S. debt default appears low, the impact on clean energy could be significant.
PacWest Bancorp has announced the sale of a portfolio of 74 real estate construction loans with an aggregate principal outstanding balance of around $2.6 billion to a unit of Kennedy-Wilson Holdings Inc. The Los Angeles-based lender had indicated in May it was in talks with potential partners and investors about strategic options.
The sale of the loans is expected to take pressure off the bank from the funding side, as they will no longer need to use extensive deposits or borrowings to fund that part of the portfolio. The transaction is expected to close in multiple tranches during the second quarter and early part of the third quarter of 2023.
Kennedy-Wilson is a global real estate investment firm that focuses on acquiring undervalued commercial and residential assets in select high-growth markets. The sale of the loans is seen as a positive move for PacWest, as it will help the bank to improve its liquidity and profitability.