1. Limited auto supplies cloud broader June retail sales gains. U.S. shoppers likely boosted spending at many retailers in June, but weak auto sales linked to supply disruptions could have restrained revenue gains as the economy more broadly reopened.

2. Intel eyes $30 billion purchase of chip company. A deal for GlobalFoundries would be Intel’s largest acquisition, and would come as the semiconductor giant is launching a major push to become a chip manufacturer for other companies.

3. Didi faces a cybersecurity probe from officials in China. The stationing of security and police officials at the ride-hailing company escalates a regulatory saga that has gripped China’s tech industry.

4. U.S. to warn businesses over rising risks in Hong Kong. The Biden administration is set to issue an advisory cautioning American businesses that operating in Hong Kong carries “financial, legal and reputational risks” as China’s tightening grip on the city causes business conditions to deteriorate.

5. Sovereign-wealth funds invest more at home. The behemoth investors, which manage trillions of dollars for nations, are unleashing more of their firepower at home as governments lean on them to reboot pandemic-stricken economies.

6. Canada weighs reopening border to U.S. tourists in mid-August. The lifting of restrictions would be conditional on Canada continuing a robust pace of Covid-19 vaccinations, according to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

7. Teenager to replace auction winner on Blue Origin flight. Jeff Bezos’ space company said that the person who paid roughly $30 million for a seat aboard its rocket next week won’t be on the trip, and that 18-year-old Oliver Daemen would join the launch instead.

Compiled by Todd Olmstead in London.

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360,000 — The number of new unemployment claims filed last week, a new pandemic low. New claims have largely trended downward for months, reflecting a strengthening economy, even as a labor shortage is slowing the recovery for some sectors, such as the restaurant and hospitality industries.

$205 billion — The sum that a bipartisan coalition, the U.S. High Speed Rail Coalition, is trying to get from Congress to fund new high-speed rail projects. The U.S. lags well behind Europe and Asia in high-speed rail. Supporters say a modernized network could make cities that are hundreds of miles apart more accessible, while also providing competition with airlines and highways.

$14.7 billion — The amount in venture capital money invested in digital-health startups in the first half of this year, topping all of last year. As the pandemic spurred the medical system to adopt digital tools, startups have been able to cash in.

Some hospitals are opting not to give a new Alzheimer's drug.

As the debate intensifies over whether the drug, Aduhelm, is effective and if the Food and Drug Administration lowered its standard when approving it, two leading hospitals say they won't administer the drug. The Cleveland Clinic, citing a review of available scientific evidence by a multidisciplinary panel of experts, said it wouldn’t carry the drug in its pharmacies or provide infusions of it to patients. Mount Sinai Health System in New York said it wouldn’t use the drug while its experts deliberate. Mount Sinai is also waiting for the results of a federal investigation into whether FDA officials improperly communicated with Aduhelm maker Biogen throughout the approval process. The approval of Aduhelm came even as some of the FDA's own statisticians and outside experts objected. The trial data was inconclusive, and the drug was approved using a regulatory mechanism that allows for drugs to be cleared before they are definitively proven effective.

Netflix's videogame play is coming into focus.

Company co-founder Reed Hastings has long called videogames the streaming company's biggest competitor for customers. He now wants Netflix to make its own games and has tapped an industry veteran to lead the effort. The move reflects the company's aims to keep users engaged on its platform for longer, especially as it faces challenges from other streaming platforms. The strategy, which for now is focused on mobile gaming, would see the games be playable in its app without an additional fee and without ads. Netflix previously made a game through a licensing deal with another company based on the "Stranger Things" franchise that has amassed about $315,000 in consumer spending in Apple’s and Google’s app stores since launching in August 2019. One challenge facing its strategy to make games available in its existing app, however, is Apple's App Store policies, which have rejected Facebook and Microsoft from going down the same path. The effort is far from an automatic success, analysts say. Entertainment giants like Viacom and Disney have previously shut down game studios.

Dozens are dead across Western Europe after intense flooding.

More than 100 people were confirmed dead and hundreds were missing after the worst flooding in decades caused homes to collapse in Germany, Belgium and other parts of Western Europe. German authorities used helicopters and drones to locate survivors who fled to roofs and high ground without being able to collect any of their belongings when the homes were engulfed by flash floods that turned streets into rivers, swept away cars and crushed houses. The rainfall in the region has been subsiding since Thursday but infrastructure remained severely affected. Meteorologists said that the spell of intense rainfall was highly unusual for this time of year. As the floods coincide with severe heat and drought in the U.S. and elsewhere in Europe, some scientists say there is evidence of extreme weather events becoming more frequent as climate change progresses. 

• Is a graduate degree worth the debt? Do the math here.
• Some allegedly involved in the Haiti assassination were trained in the U.S.
• Infrastructure talks are stalled because some Republicans don't want to give the IRS more tax collecting power.
• How Robinhood has transformed retail trading.
• A brain implant has let a man "speak" for the first time in more than a decade.

• Go watch: One of these picks from our What to Watch list, including “Schmigadoon!” The musical comedy stars Keegan-Michael Key and Cecily Strong as a couple that stumbles upon a town on a hike, except the town is in an actual musical and they're stuck there.

Today's newsletter was curated by Tyler Blint-Welsh in New York, in collaboration with colleagues in New York and London.

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