Euro Hits Parity Against U.S. Dollar for First Time in 20 Years

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House Ag panel leaders want online feedback about 2018 Farm Bill and new farm bill 

 

                                                In Today’s Digital Newspaper

 

Ukrainian forces struck an ammunition depot deep inside Russian-occupied territory in the south of the country, as Russia shelled Ukrainian cities in the east in its push to capture all of the Donbas area, Ukrainian officials said. The long-range strikes presage the next phase of the war, with Ukraine aiming to liberate the south and Moscow looking to seize more of the east.

Ukraine claimed a success in the south late Monday, saying that eight foreign ships were able to access ports. A major wheat producer, Ukraine has struggled to export grain since Russia seized its main ports, causing food shortages across the world.

Iran is preparing to provide Russia with drones, as well as training for its forces to use them.

July crop reports out at noon ET. USDA’s updated balance sheets in this morning’s Supply & Demand Report will reflect changes to old-crop demand forecasts based on June 1 stocks and its new-crop planted acreage estimates. More info from Pro Farmer below.

The global energy crisis may well get worse, according to the head of the International Energy Agency. "The world has never witnessed such a major energy crisis in terms of its depth and its complexity," Fatih Birol said. "This is affecting the entire world."

The euro hit $1 on Tuesday, down about 12% since the start of the year as energy concerns and the risk of recession weighed on the outlook for the euro area, while risk aversion fueled a broad rally in the greenback. “You could argue that the ECB has been rather late to the party both in terms of ending their bond purchases but also considering monetary policy tightening,” Jeremy Stretch, an analyst at CIBC Capital Market, told CNBC’s “Street Signs Europe.”

Flipside to strong dollar: a strong dollar threatens to eat into profits for U.S.-based firms, and weigh down stocks. U.S. firms generate about 30% of their sales abroad.

Europe is dealing with a growing energy crisis that could make it much harder for the European Central Bank to fight inflation. Some officials are worried that the crucial Nord Stream 1 pipeline from Russia to Germany, which is closed for routine maintenance, may not restart as normal later this month. That could force governments to make emergency interventions.

Russia’s current-account surplus hit a record of $70.1 billion in the second quarter of the year, as surging revenues from energy and commodity exports helped offset the impact of U.S. and European sanctions imposed over President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. For the first six months of 2022, the surplus reached $138.5 billion, the central bank said.

The goal of the proposed price cap on Russian oil is twofold: bring energy prices down by keeping Russian oil flowing to the global market and limit the revenue Russia derives from the sales. President Biden and other leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy nations recently endorsed its consideration. Janet Yellen will focus her first trip to Asia as Treasury secretary on filling in the critical details for making the plan functional. More perspective below.

Gas-station owners, blamed when prices rose, now face risks as prices fall.

Texas officials asked residents to conserve electricity Monday as extreme heat blanketed much of the state.

On the farm policy front, House Ag Committee leaders want online ag sector feedback about the 2018 Farm Bill and suggestions for improvements or additions to the new farm bill.

More than 2,300 locally transmitted Covid-19 cases have been reported nationwide in China the past seven days, with infections again on the rise in the commercial and manufacturing powerhouse of Shanghai, from a low base.

Covid-19 levels are high in a fifth of U.S. counties. The BA.5 Omicron subvariant is estimated to represent more than half of recent U.S. cases. The White House Covid-19 Response Team and federal public-health officials hold a briefing at 9:30 a.m. ET.

The Biden administration, aiming to reconcile state and federal law, said doctors and hospitals must provide abortions in emergency situations. Separately, a French pharmaceutical company is asking the FDA to approve what it says would be the first over-the-counter birth-control pill in the U.S.

President Joe Biden's popularity is tanking among Hispanic voters, according to a new poll from the New York Times/Siena College.

While Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa just announced that he will step down, a political vacuum and the lack of any real reforms means a rescue from the IMF could be thrown into disarray. While anti-government protesters angry over shortages of food, gas, medicine and basic goods demanded Rajapaksa step down, he instead invoked emergency powers in an attempt to maintain control. Daily rolling blackouts are also shutting down businesses and many are fearful of a return to chaos not seen since the three-decade civil war from 1983 to 2009.

President Joe Biden revealed one of the first full-color images from the James Webb Space Telescope, marking the first time human beings have seen a distant galaxy cluster as it appeared more than 4 billion years ago in such vivid detail. More images are coming today.

Election Day 2022 is 119 days away. Election Day 2024 is 847 days away.

 

MARKET FOCUS

Equities today: Global stock markets were mostly weaker overnight. U.S. stock indexes are pointed toward lower openings. In Asia, Japan -1.8%. Hong Kong -1.3%. China -1%. India -1%. In Europe, at midday, London -0.3%. Paris -0.2%. Frankfurt -0.7%.

     U.S. equities yesterday: The Dow fell 164.31 points, 0.52%, at 31,173.84. The Nasdaq declined 262.71 points, 2.26%, at 11,372.60. The S&P 500 lost 44.95 points, 1.15%, at 3,854.43.

Agriculture markets yesterday:

  • Corn: December corn firmed 5 1/2 cents, closing at 6.29, only 2 3/4 cents off the low of the day.
  • Soy complex: November soybeans closed up 8 1/2 cents at $14.05 and nearer the session low. September soybean meal closed down $1.30 at $411.00 and near the session low. September bean oil closed up 93 points at 62.36 cents and near mid-range.
  • Wheat: September SRW wheat closed down 35 cents at $8.56 1/2. September HRW wheat closed down 30 1/2 cents at $9.15 1/4. Prices closed near the session lows. Spring wheat futures finished 25-plus cents lower, with the September contract down 28 cents to $9.63 3/4.
  • Cotton: Futures finished below opening levels but in the upper half of today’s range. December cotton dropped 79 points to 94.84 cents.
  • Cattle: Live and feeder cattle futures rallied into the close to post strong gains and finished near session highs. August live cattle firmed $2.20 to $136.15. August feeders strengthened $3.15 to $174.875.
  • Hogs: July lean hog futures closed up 30 cents at $113.15. August hogs closed down 80 cents at $108.375 and closed near mid-range.
     

Ag markets today: Corn, soybean and wheat futures faced heavy pressure overnight after initially trying to work to the upside. As of 7:30 a.m. ET, corn futures were trading 11 to 12 cents lower, soybeans were 25 to 28 cents lower and wheat futures were 14 to 19 cents lower. Front-month U.S. crude oil futures were around $4.50 lower and the U.S. dollar index was near unchanged after earlier hitting a fresh 20-year high.

Technical viewpoints from Jim Wyckoff:

     July 12 Corn

     July 12 Soybeans

     July 12 Crude

     July 12 Bonds

     July 12 Euro

     July 12 Gold

On tap today:

     • USDA WASDE/Crop Production reports, noon ET.
     • Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin speaks on the prospects of a recession at 12:30 p.m. ET.
     • Bank of England Gov. Andrew Bailey speaks on the economic landscape at 1 p.m. ET.
     • Bank of South Korea is expected to announce it is raising its benchmark interest rate at 9 p.m. ET.
     • President Biden and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador hold a bilateral meeting at 11:15 a.m. ET as both administrations face a surge in migration. They are expected to announce multiyear, joint projects to modernize border infrastructure, senior administration officials said. They will also direct their teams to create a task force to combat criminal organizations and curb the flow of fentanyl, the U.S. officials said, as well as a working group focused on labor, migration pathways and worker protections.

How about this to fight inflation: Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador will use his White House visit this week to urge President Biden to allow more legal immigration, which he says would help curb inflation. Last month, Mexican Interior Minister Adán Augusto López, said that 300,000 new temporary work visas would be announced at today’s summit, although the U.S. side has made no mention of it. Meanwhile, arrests at the U.S./Mexico border are continuing to increase and reached record highs in May when the U.S. Border Patrol reported 220,000 apprehensions. That figure included 77,000 Mexicans and was driven upward by a high number of repeat attempts (nearly 25% of the total) making it the highest monthly total since March 2000. Also, 26 of the 53 migrants who recently died after being abandoned by smugglers in a semitrailer in Texas were Mexican.

     U.S. officials want López Obrador to retreat on his reliance on fossil fuels and his campaign to favor Mexico’s state-owned electricity utility at the expense of foreign-built plants powered by gas and renewable energy. Washington has filed several complaints under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) free trade agreement pushing Mexico to enforce environmental laws and rules guaranteeing trade union rights.

     López Obrador said he planned to speak to Biden about controlling inflation, immigration and security. He said a group of business leaders, including Carlos Slim, Mexico’s wealthiest citizen, would accompany him.

White House trying to get ahead of ‘highly elevated’ inflation report tomorrow. The White House expects June’s consumer price index figures to be “highly elevated” as Americans grappled with substantial increases in the cost of gasoline and food, but said the reading was “already out of date” because of falling energy prices. Economists expect the report to show consumer prices rose 8.8% in June from a year earlier, which would be a fresh 40-year high following an 8.6% reading in May.

Housing costs could keep inflation elevated. Housing inflation represents around two-fifths of core CPI and one-sixth of the Fed’s favorite inflation gauge, and because of the way the Labor Department captures the data, rent inflation could continue to rise over the next several months before peaking at around 6.5%, said David Wilcox, a former senior Fed economist. While he expects overall inflation to diminish this year, he said, the slowdown will have to come from other sectors.

     Housing costs

Inflation expectations ease. A Federal Reserve Bank of New York survey shows long-term inflation expectations are falling. The bank's June Survey of Consumer Expectations said that three years from now, respondents see inflation at a 3.6% rise, down from 3.9% in May. The bank also said five years from now, the expected rate of inflation is seen at a 2.8% gain, from the prior month’s projected 2.9% rise. The easing in longer-term inflation expectations is good news for a central bank that is currently engaged in an aggressive campaign to raise rates to quash the highest readings in inflation in 40 years.

     Inflation outlook

The world’s population is set to break the 8 billion mark later this year, the United Nations announced on Monday as part of its latest projections. Global population levels are set to increase to 9.7 billion in 2050 and peak at 10.4 billion in the 2080s, according to the new figures.

India is expected to surpass China to become the world’s most-populous nation in 2023, four years ahead of an earlier estimate by the United Nations. Speaking of India: Police arrested a group of Indian con men who staged a fake Indian Premier League cricket match on a farm and duped Russian gamblers into betting on it.

Don’t fly the unfriendly skies… London’s Heathrow Airport asks airlines to stop selling tickets for the summer. In an open letter to passengers, Heathrow’s CEO, John Holland-Kaye, said the airport was introducing a capacity cap from today through Sept. 11. Staff shortages have cut into the airport’s ability to handle vacationers.

Market perspectives:

     • Outside markets: The U.S. dollar index is up and hit another 20-year high early today. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note is fetching 2.921%. U.S. crude is around $99 per barrel and Brent around $102.30 per barrel. Gold is around $1,733 per troy ounce and silver around $18.81 per troy ounce.

     • Euro reaches parity with U.S. dollar for first time in 20 years. The euro is worth about the same as the U.S. dollar for the first time in nearly two decades. This is a result of the euro dropping around 20% over the past 14 months due to economic issues. The last time it happened the euro dropped below 90 cents in 2000, one year after the formation of the European Union and its currency.

        A less-discussed reason for the dollar’s strength is the deterioration of global trade, Barron’s notes. Of all the major economies the U.S is the least levered to global trade, so it stands to reason that as trade falters, the greenback will thrive. And that feeds upon itself – since the dollar is the currency of global trade, a strong U.S. dollar will further depress worldwide commerce, points out Jon Turek of the macro research firm JST Advisors.

     • Copper is set to get further hammered, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said. The bull-turned-bear slashed its forecast for the metal, saying it's now 40% lower than expected and recession risks in developed economies will fuel demand pessimism for the rest of 2022.

        Copper collapse

     • Worst of global energy crisis may still be ahead: IEA. “The world has never witnessed such a major energy crisis in terms of its depth and its complexity,” International Energy Agency (IEA) Executive Director Fatih Birol said Tuesday at a global energy forum in Sydney. “We might not have seen the worst of it yet — this is affecting the entire world.” Like the oil crises of the 1970s, which prompted huge gains in fuel efficiency and a boom in nuclear power, the world may see faster adoption of government policies that speed the transition to cleaner energy, Birol said. In the meantime, security of oil and gas supplies will continue to pose a challenge for Europe, and for other regions, he said. “This winter in Europe will be very, very difficult,” Birol said. “This is a major concern, and this may have serious implications for the global economy.”

        IEA's Birol also called on G7 countries to include refined products in their effort to cap Russian oil prices. "And if it is pursued, it is not only focused on crude oil, as refined products are also an important challenge for the economies and will be more of a challenge in the next months to come," he said. However, he said he did not know what the price cap level would be.

     • Gasoline prices are falling almost as quickly as they rose, creating new headaches for the independent operators who run roughly half of U.S. gas stations. Fuel-station owners set the prices consumers see at the pump, based on what they initially paid to fill their underground tanks of gasoline and diesel. When wholesale prices drop, they still have to sell the fuel already purchased at a higher amount.

        Gas price declines

     • The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries forecasts a rise in world oil demand next year by about 2.7 million barrels per day, although the increase is at a smaller rate than in 2022, according to a monthly report. The forecast assumes better containment of the Covid-19 pandemic in China will support consumption along with some global economic growth, although OPEC also assumes the war in Ukraine will not escalate further and that global economic growth is not stifled by rising inflation.

     • July crop reports out at noon ET. USDA’s updated balance sheets in this morning’s Supply & Demand Report will reflect changes to old-crop demand forecasts based on June 1 stocks and its new-crop planted acreage estimates. USDA will also release its first all-wheat production estimate, including the first survey-based forecasts for other spring wheat and durum. The average pre-report estimates for old-crop ending stocks are 1.488 billion bu. for corn and 208 million bu. for soybeans. Old-crop wheat ending stocks were set at 660 million bu. by June 1 stocks. For new-crop ending stocks, the average pre-report estimates are 1.442 billion bu. for corn, 211 million bu. for soybeans and 638 million bu. for wheat. All-wheat production is expected to come in at 1.745 billion bu., with winter wheat at 1.186 billion bu., other spring wheat at 458 million bu. and durum at 63 million bushels.

     • Ag trade: South Korea purchased 68,000 MT of optional origin corn. Japan is seeking 130,900 MT of milling wheat in its regular weekly tender.

     • Sunday was Texas’s second-hottest day since at least 1950 and the state’s primary grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), urged residents to conserve energy between 2 pm and 8 pm Monday to keep demand from outstripping available power supply and avoid blackouts. Meanwhile, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner instructed the city’s emergency departments to step in should the power grid fail.

     • NWS weather: There is a Slight Risk of excessive rainfall over parts of the Central/Southern Rockies on Tuesday and parts of the Central Gulf Coast on Wednesday... ...There is a Slight Risk of severe thunderstorms over parts of the Northeast/Central Appalachians/Southeastern Ohio Valley through Wednesday morning... ...Dangerous heat and humidity across parts of the South Plains to the Lower Mississippi Valley will continue.

        NWS 071222
        Wx 071222

Items in Pro Farmer's First Thing Today include:

     • Price pressure overnight
     • Corn, soybean and spring wheat CCI ratings improve
     • Russia, Ukraine to hold another round of talks on grain exports (details in next section)
     • France expects 7% drop in wheat production
     • Short-covering supported cattle
     • Cash hog index rises again

 

RUSSIA/UKRAINE

— Summary: The Russian attacks in the east have continued, with Luhansk regional Gov. Serhiy Haidai saying Monday that Russian forces carried out five missile strikes and four rounds of shelling, hitting settlements on the border with the Donetsk region. The Luhansk and Donetsk regions together make up Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland known as the Donbas, where separatist rebels have fought Ukrainian forces since 2014. Earlier this month, Russia captured the last major stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in Luhansk, the city of Lysychansk.

  • Russia offers easy citizenship to Ukrainians. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree Monday expanding to all Ukrainians a fast-track procedure for receiving Russian citizenship as the war’s death toll grows. Until recently, only residents of Ukraine’s separatist eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as residents of the southern Zaporizhzhia and the Kherson regions, large parts of which are now under Russian control, were eligible to apply for the simplified passport procedure.
  • Brazil is negotiating to buy cheaper diesel from Russia as part of a strategy to reduce domestic fuel prices, according to President Jair Bolsonaro.
  • Russia launched new chartered ships to trade commodities with China and India. Moscow's new cargo paths are intended to smooth things out for the countries to move commodities.
     

— Market impacts:

  • Treasury says Russian oil price cap key to avoid new cost shock. A senior U.S. Treasury official said a proposal being explored by several of the world’s leading economies to cap the price of Russian oil exports will be crucial for preventing another global price spike to around $140 a barrel. G7 leaders agreed last week to explore the price limit plan. Separately, the EU and U.K. are planning to ban the insurance of tankers carrying Russian petroleum products. Because the EU, U.K. and U.S. insure an estimated 90% of Russia’s seaborne oil shipments globally, the move could deprive the global market of as much as 5 million barrels a day of oil and refined petroleum products. Pulling that much Russian product off the market would increase the price of oil significantly, possibly to about $140 a barrel, according to analysis done by the Treasury Department, the official said. The official emphasized that was based on modeling estimates that may not prove highly accurate. Prices, which rose above $120 a barrel in June, currently sit at around $103 a barrel.

    Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen met with her Japanese counterpart Shunichi Suzuki in Tokyo today as the U.S. official makes her case for creating a price cap on Russian oil exports.
  • An increase in the rate of export duty charged on crude shipped out of Russia in July has helped the Kremlin to ride out a slump in flows in the first full week of the month. That helped Russia shrug off a 15% drop in crude shipments in the week to July 8, with revenues edging down by just $3 million, or 2%.
  • Russia, Ukraine to hold another round of talks on grain exports. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan held a phone call Monday in which they discussed coordinating efforts to ship grain from the Black Sea, the Kremlin said. A fresh round of talks between Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations over grain exports from Ukraine will take place on Wednesday in Istanbul, Interfax news agency reported, citing the Russian foreign ministry. There have been regular talks on restarting Ukrainian grain exports but no real movement on that front.

 

POLICY UPDATE

— House Ag Committee leaders want online ag sector feedback about 2018 Farm Bill.  House Agriculture Committee leaders announced an online feedback effort for the upcoming farm bill. Members of the public will be able to submit their feedback on how the 2018 Farm Bill has operated and offer their ideas on what the next farm bill should focus on via an online form (link).

— Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) continue to negotiate on a reconciliation package, with Democrats working on a package that includes $300 billion in spending for climate and energy portions of the bill. Some potential items could include a 10-year extension of wind and solar tax credits, extensions for carbon capture and clean energy manufacturing incentives, and new nuclear and energy storage credits. This would likely include an incentive payment for Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF).

 

CHINA UPDATE

— Tension is spreading through Shanghai as residents watch the Covid-19 caseload tick higher, fueling fears they’re headed back into lockdown just weeks after exiting a bruising two-month ordeal.

 

TRADE POLICY

— U.S. officials want WTO member countries to meet informally every few weeks to build a consensus on how to revamp the body’s dispute-settlement system, a suggestion some trade policy analysts called for years ago.

     Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports (link) the U.S. is working to resolve an impasse that has left the World Trade Organization (WTO) without senior judges to resolve trade disputes, U.S. officials say. Lower panels still hear cases brought by members, but any appeals by those dissatisfied with initial decisions have no place to go.

 

ENERGY & CLIMATE CHANGE

— Survey: More Americans say they would buy an electric vehicle, and some consumers would use low-carbon fuels. A growing number of consumers are eager to buy a battery electric vehicle, especially if certain concerns related to EV ownership are addressed, such as creating greater access to charging, extending vehicle range, and lowering purchase prices, according to findings from the largest-ever nationally representative survey from Consumer Reports (link). Almost half of respondents also reported being unaware of existing federal and state incentives that would defray the purchase price of many EVs, sometimes up to $7,500 for the federal credit, key knowledge that might sway someone to make an EV purchase.

 

LIVESTOCK, FOOD & BEVERAGE INDUSTRY

— Tyson Foods is trying to repair the supply chain in its signature chicken business. The largest U.S. chicken supplier has committed millions of dollars to expand production, the Wall Street Journal reports (link), after struggling for years to meet demand and turn a consistent profit in its poultry operations. The problems preceded the pandemic but have grown as upheaval in demand and distribution patterns have strained operations. Tyson’s challenges have played out across its sprawling operations, from problems at hatcheries to short-handed processing lines, undercutting the supplier’s ability to consistently fill growing customer orders. The recovery plan includes $1.3 billion in investment in automation across production lines, along with plans to cut $1 billion in costs by 2024. Market conditions are working in Tyson’s favor. Demand from grocery stores and restaurants remains strong and meat prices are rising, providing a financial cushion amid the internal changes.

— Costco CEO Craig Jelinek told CNBC the company will not be raising prices on its hot dogs. Costco has recently raised prices on some other food court items, such as its chicken bake ($2.99 → $3.99) and 20-ounce soda ($0.59 → $0.69). Costco’s hot dog and soda combo has cost $1.50 since its introduction in the mid-1980s.

— Closures present hurdle to dairy competition plan. A Justice Department attempt to preserve competition in dairy processing in the upper Midwest was undermined by the closure of two major processing plants. Link for details.

 

CORONAVIRUS UPDATE

Summary:

  • Global Covid-19 cases at 556,541,640 with 6,352,975 deaths.
  • U.S. case count is at 88,754,821 with 1,021,306 deaths.

— A Covid-19 infection wave driven by two hyper-infectious Omicron subvariants is moving rapidly across Europe, leading to an uptick in cases and hospitalizations in countries that have dropped the majority of preventive measures against the virus ahead of the summer months.

     Covid cases

 

POLITICS & ELECTIONS

Biden's popularity tanks among Hispanics as Republican wave builds. President Joe Biden's popularity is tanking among Hispanic voters, according to a new poll from the New York Times/Siena College. Only 32% strongly or somewhat approved of Biden's presidency, while over 60% strongly or somewhat disapproved in the Monday poll, which surveyed 849 registered voters between July 5-7 and had a margin of error of 4.1%. In a rematch between Biden and former President Donald Trump, 42% said they would support Biden for re-election, compared to the 39% who said they would vote for Trump.

— Former President Donald Trump is too old for another term in the White House and should “hang up his hat & sail into the sunset,” Elon Musk tweeted on Monday after Trump targeted the tech billionaire at a recent campaign rally.

— House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)  brought in $50 million during the first six months of this year, bringing his fundraising so far in the 2022 election cycle to $124 million.

 

CONGRESS

A House panel will meet with IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig Thursday, following a New York Times report that two former FBI leaders — James Comey and Andrew McCabe — were audited since Rettig took office, Bloomberg reports. Members of both parties plan to be at the closed-door House Ways and Means Committee meeting. The NYT reported Comey and McCabe were selected for rare, invasive audits after angering Trump.

 

OTHER ITEMS OF NOTE

Drugmaker seeks approval for first birth control pill without prescription in U.S. A French drugmaker on Monday asked for permission to sell daily birth control pills over the counter for the first time in the United States, handing federal regulators a major reproductive health issue just as the Biden administration struggles to respond to the Supreme Court decision striking down the constitutional right to abortion.

— Efforts to organize unions in the first half of 2022 ran at the highest level in half a dozen years, reflecting warming public attitudes toward unions amid a strong labor market.

— Colorado groundwater conservation easement. A farmer in the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado could become the first in the nation to sign a groundwater conservation easement to stop irrigating his 1,800-acre farm and help preserve an aquifer. Link for details.

— Sri Lanka in a power vacuum. Opposition has yet to agree on replacements for prime minister and president in line with protesters’ demands. Protesters remained in President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s residence, his seaside office and the prime minister’s official home, which they stormed Saturday, demanding that the two leaders step down. It marked the most dramatic day of protests during three months of a crisis that has pushed many to the brink to despair amid acute shortages of fuel, food, medicine and other necessities. Rajapaksa has said he will step down Wednesday, according to the speaker of the Sri Lankan Parliament.

     Sri Lanka could be the first domino to fall in a global economic crisis set to envelop many poorly managed developing countries some say. Pakistan is having major problems with its debt, as well as several African and Latin nations, spelling trouble across the emerging markets. "With the low-income countries, debt risks and debt crises are not hypothetical," World Bank Chief Economist Carmen Reinhart declared. "We're pretty much already there."

— President Biden unveiled one of the first full-color pictures from the James Webb Space Telescope, the $10 billion observatory designed to view deep into the cosmos and time to provide the sharpest views of the early universe ever captured. It depicts the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago and shows tiny faint structures in distant galaxies never seen before. NASA will release more images today. Link for details.

     Galaxy


 

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