Facing it alone

[Bloomberg]( Follow Us [Get the newsletter]( In India’s thousands of villages, citizens have been left to fight the pandemic’s deadly second wave alone. After crippling New Delhi and Mumbai, the Covid-19 surge has hit the vast [hinterland]( that’s home to about 70% of the country’s 1.4 billion people, where there’s mostly no health-care facilities, no doctors and [no supply]( of oxygen. And unlike India’s social-media literate urban population, residents can’t appeal on Twitter to an army of strangers to help. Now anger is growing at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration for failing to boost health infrastructure during a lull last year in cases. There is also residual anger [over]( his proposed agriculture laws, which farmers say give private corporations too much power. After losing the battle for the fiercely contested state of West Bengal in elections earlier this month, his Bharatiya Janata Party was defeated in several seats in local polls in Uttar Pradesh, one of the worst-hit states for the virus, although it held ground in two other votes. It suggests trouble ahead for Modi as his party heads into more state elections next year, with unemployment on the rise and the economic recovery following India’s first recession in decades [curtailed]( by the latest virus outbreak and state lockdowns. The fallout from India’s outbreak also goes beyond the country itself. The highly transmissible India variant has now been identified in 2,323 cases in [86 districts]( across the U.K., prompting authorities to accelerate vaccinations in affected areas. Analysts say Modi looks out of his depth for the first time since he came to power in a landslide in 2014. With a legislative vote in Uttar Pradesh early next year, the question is how much more he could suffer at the ballot box. — [Ruth Pollard]( Village head Sanjeev Kumar shows portraits of Covid-19 victims in Basi, Uttar Pradesh, on May 10. Photographer: Anindito Mukherjee/Bloomberg Check out all our biggest stories on the Bloomberg Politics web page [here]( and tell us how we’re doing or what we’re missing at balancepower@bloomberg.net. Global Headlines Truce pressure | President Joe Biden told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call that he’d support a [cease-fire]( between Israel and Hamas after days of calling for calm but not publicly seeking an end to the conflict. [Jordan Fabian]( and [Nick Wadhams]( report it’s a shift in the U.S. approach to the crisis amid rising criticism over the fighting that has killed at least 222 people, mostly Palestinians. Securing networks | Biden is proposing to pour billions of dollars into improving the U.S.’s cybersecurity [defenses](, an area of heightened concern after the ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline. The cash is included in the roughly $2 trillion infrastructure package and will help state and local governments modernize their energy systems and boost grid resilience in high-risk areas. - The Supreme Court’s agreement to take up a Mississippi abortion case has injected an unexpected culture-war [issue]( into a 2022 midterm Congressional election season. Fresh efforts | China is holding behind-the-scenes talks to join a major trade deal that originally aimed to [exclude]( it and cement U.S. economic power and trade ties in the Asia-Pacific region. Officials from Australia, Malaysia and New Zealand have held technical talks with Chinese counterparts on details of the pact, sources say. - Beijing threw the spotlight on trade [tensions]( with top commodities supplier Australia, saying it’s looking to diversify its supply of iron ore. Buying a home is the single most important way of achieving prosperity in the U.K. but, as [Olivia Konotey-Ahulu]( writes, Black people are falling behind. Data compiled for Bloomberg show that over the past decade, the median accumulation of wealth through home ownership by a Black family in Great Britain is [zero](, while a White British family has amassed about a net $163,000. New avenue | Two bloggers in Singapore have recently turned to [crowdfunding]( to pay damages and costs from defamation suits brought by the city state’s leader. “People realize that speaking up for something is something you need to protect,” says Roy Ngerng, who raised roughly $108,000 he still owed in just nine days via 2,132 people, [Philip Heijmans]( reports. Change of heart | Group of Seven nations are closing in on an agreement to phase out fossil-fuel subsidies after hosts the U.K. secured the backing of Italy. [Alberto Nardelli]( and [John Follain]( report that Italy had been dragging its feet on financial aspects of the proposed measures (which would put a date on stopping funding for energy sources that produce greenhouse gases), but a minister now says Rome will [support]( the plans. Paid Post Capture and store the CO2 of an entire industrial area? That's big. ExxonMobil is working on a plan that could capture and store roughly 100 million metric tons of CO2 annually by 2040 along the Houston Ship Channel. [Learn more at EnergyFactor.com]( ExxonMobil What to Watch - Argentina is limiting exports of beef, a staple in the country, the latest [unorthodox]( bid to try to contain inflation that’s approaching 50% annually and appease local consumers before midterm elections. - Hong Kong has closed its trade office in Taipei, the latest tit-for-tat [exchange]( between the cities as Beijing works to isolate democratically ruled Taiwan. - The U.S. Navy will request [funding]( for eight new vessels in the next fiscal year budget, down from the 12 originally sought in a Trump administration blueprint. - Europe’s top antitrust enforcer Margrethe Vestager warned a [probe]( of Apple’s in-app purchasing system is moving ahead on top of an investigation into how the iPhone maker requires software developers to use Apple Pay. And finally ... The world has a stark [choice]( — stop developing new oil, gas and coal fields today or face a dangerous rise in global temperatures. As [Grant Smith]( reports, that’s the assessment of the International Energy Agency, the organization that has spent four decades working to secure oil supplies for industrialized nations, in its new road map for achieving global net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The goal is “perhaps the greatest challenge humankind has ever faced,” said Executive Director Fatih Birol. Oil pumping jacks at sunset in Russia. Photographer: Bloomberg Creative Photos/Bloomberg Creative Collection   Like Balance of Power? [Get unlimited access to Bloomberg.com](, where you'll find trusted, data-based journalism in 120 countries around the world and expert analysis from exclusive daily newsletters.  You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Balance of Power newsletter. [Unsubscribe]( | [Bloomberg.com]( | [Contact Us]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022