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The World
The U.S. and Mexico have agreed to new immigration policies ahead of an expected rise in migration once COVID-19-related restrictions expire next week, with Mexico agreeing to accept certain migrants rejected from the United States. The United States will also deploy 1,500 troops along the border to assist with the expected surge of crossings. (Associated Press)
Iranian forces seized a Panama-flagged oil tanker on Wednesday in the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. Navy said, marking the second time in less than a week that Iran has captured a commercial ship in the region. A dozen small Iranian naval boats swarmed the 360-yard-long Niovi after it left Dubai en route to the United Arab Emirates port of Fujairah early Wednesday morning, the navy said. The Iranian boats forced the Niovi to reverse course and head toward Iran’s coast. The seizure came six days after Iranian forces in the Gulf of Oman used a helicopter and boats to seize the Advantage Sweet, a Greek-owned, Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker bound for Texas. (Wall Street Journal)
The presidents of Iran and Syria signed a series of long-term cooperation agreements on oil and other sectors to bolster economic ties between the two allies. Iran’s Ebrahim Raisi, leading a large economic and political delegation, met with his Syrian counterpart, Bashar Assad, after landing in the war-torn country for a two-day visit — an Iranian president’s first visit to Damascus since 2010. Tehran has been a main backer of Assad’s government since a 2011 uprising turned into full-blown civil war and has played an instrumental role in turning the tide of the conflict in his favor. (Associated Press)
US President Joe Biden’s top trade official said that an update on a Washington-Taipei trade facilitation initiative should be expected “soon” and touted the administration’s efforts to reduce reliance on “certain countries” for critical minerals – an apparent reference to mainland China. Speaking at the US Commerce Department’s annual SelectUSA investment conference, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said: “Kenya and Taiwan are two vibrant partners in important regions that share our values, and we hope to announce updates on our negotiations soon.” (South China Morning Post)
The U.S. and the Philippines are moving toward real-time sharing of military information and greater coordination to guard against any coercive behavior by China in the South China Sea and around Taiwan. The Pentagon released a fact sheet covering the U.S.-Philippine defense cooperation guidelines Wednesday after U.S. President Joe Biden and Philippine counterpart Ferdinand Marcos Jr. adopted them at their meeting in the White House this week. (Nikkei Asia)
Kyiv is holding close the details of its spring counteroffensive in an attempt to prevent the leak of sensitive information that could compromise its positions on the battlefield, according to two European officials who are in touch with military leaders in Ukraine.The officials said their Ukrainian counterparts have cited the alleged leak of the classified documents from Massachusetts Air Guardsman Jack Teixeira as one of the reasons Kyiv is holding back from sharing counteroffensive information, including its timing, where and how many troops they plan to move into position for the operation. (Politico)
Members of a Pacific Rim-focused trading bloc that China is trying to join will likely not allow Beijing in based on the country’s track record on market access, said a Republican US senator involved in trade issues. Asked whether Beijing’s push to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) should prompt the US to restart entry negotiations, Senator Bill Hagerty of Tennessee said that multilateral agreements were “hard to do” and that Beijing’s bid amounted only to “rhetoric”. (South China Morning Post)
India gears up for Kashmir G-20 talks opposed by Pakistan, China: Security forces on high alert after terrorist attack that killed five Indian soldiers. (Nikkei Asia Review)
Charting Ukraine’s soaring exports to the EU: Since the Russian invasion in February 2022, Ukraine has depended on the generosity of its neighbours. More than a year later, the country is realising that such generosity has its limits. On April 15th, following months of protests, the Polish government banned imports of Ukrainian agricultural goods, saying that an influx of produce from its south-eastern neighbour was pushing down local prices and threatening the livelihoods of local farmers. Hungary quickly announced its own embargo, followed by Slovakia and Bulgaria. Romania, which also has struggling farmers, contemplated its own ban. The European Union is trying to sort out the mess, but that is unlikely to happen. (Economist)
The FDA approved GlaxoSmithKline's vaccine against the respiratory syncytial virus, making it the first authorized RSV shot in the U.S. GSK's vaccine is approved for adults aged 60 and older, a population that is particularly vulnerable to RSV. The disease causes up to 10,000 deaths and as many as 160,000 hospitalizations for people 65 and up per year, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The FDA is also expected to make a decision regarding Pfizer's RSV vaccine, a candidate for the same age group. Both the Pfizer and GSK shots were endorsed by an agency expert panel that found them to be safe and effective. (Axios)
Nordstrom Is Closing San Francisco Stores as Cities’ Retail Pain Grows: Lower levels of foot traffic, perceptions about crime cloud picture for merchants in large cities. (Wall Street Journal)
Economy
PacWest shares plummeted 50 per cent in after-market trading as the teetering California lender became the latest US midsized bank to seek a financial life line amid the worst industry turmoil since 2008. The bank has instructed boutique investment bank Piper Sandler to help it explore strategic options including a sale, two people briefed on the matter said. No formal sale process has been initiated yet and the bank was also considering raising fresh capital, the people said. (Financial Times)
The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter percentage point, marking the 10th consecutive move in an aggressive hiking campaign that began a year ago to cool inflation. As the banking system shows renewed signs of stress, the central bank gave its strongest signal yet that it could pause its series of rate increases. The Fed said it would monitor economic and financial data to assess "the extent to which additional policy firming may be appropriate." In other words, it is leaving the door open to another increase at its next policy meeting in June should, for example, the economy pick up momentum or inflation prove more persistent than expected. If that's not the case, officials could choose to pause its rate hiking cycle. Stock prices began to decline and interest rates rose Wednesday afternoon, shortly after Fed chair Jerome Powell during a news conference reiterated the central bank's focus on returning inflation to its 2% target. (Axios)
What Wall Street Is Saying About the Fed Rate Decision: Fed’s Powell Opens Door to June Rate Pause, Stresses Inflation Job Not Done; Recession Odds Are ‘Pretty Darn High’ Right Now, Gundlach Says. (Bloomberg)
Oil prices fell 4%, extending steep losses from the previous session after the U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates and as investors fretted about the economy. (Reuters)
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the failure to raise the US government debt limit would be unprecedented and have highly uncertain and negative effects on the economy. “We’d be in unchartered territory and the consequences on the US economy could be highly uncertain and adverse,” Powell told reporters. “No one should assume that the Fed can protect the economy from the potential short and long-term effects of a failure to pay our bills on time.” (Bloomberg)
Climate change could curdle the balance sheets of global meat and dairy companies. By 2030, the top 40 global livestock companies could see profits fall collectively by nearly $24 billion, according to a recent report by a shareholder advocacy group. Causes include heat stress on animals and rising feed crop prices, as well as the financial toll of carbon pricing and anti-deforestation measures. Half of those companies — including well-known giants such as JBS and Tyson, along with others headquartered in Brazil, China, and elsewhere — are on track to be operating at a loss by 2030, the report said. (Semafor)
The World Bank's board of governors elected former Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga to a five-year term as president, ushering in an Indian-born finance and development expert to revamp the lender to tackle climate change and other global crises. Banga, 63, was nominated for the post by U.S. President Joe Biden in late February and was the sole contender to replace departing World Bank chief David Malpass, an economist and former U.S. Treasury official who served in the Trump administration. He starts the new job on June 2. (Reuters)
Exclusive: India, China propose 'multiple pathways' on cutting use of fossil fuels. India, backed by China, is trying to build a consensus within the G20 group to let countries choose a roadmap to cut carbon emissions instead of setting a deadline to end the use of fossil fuels, three Indian government officials said. (Reuters)
Surprising sector leads in bummer month for venture funding: Move over, AI — other sectors are raising money too. Global funding reached $21 billion in April, down 56% from $47.8 billion year over year. The slowdown has impacted all funding stages, but there was a bright spot, with close to $5.7 billion invested in a single sector last month. (Crunchbase News)
Technology
Washington has signaled to South Korea’s leading chip companies that it will extend permission for them to send US chipmaking tools to China, a concession to an ally that is key to curbing Beijing’s access to cutting-edge semiconductors. The Biden administration in October gave Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, two of the world’s leading producers of memory chips, a one-year reprieve from export controls designed to reduce China’s ability to develop high-end chips. Four people familiar with the situation said the US had now sent a clear message that the Korean producers would be given another waiver for their plants in China for at least another year. (Financial Times)
Meta Platforms Inc. was accused by the Federal Trade Commission of repeatedly violating privacy promises it made to US regulators and now faces a possible government ban on launching new social-media products without an independent review. Meta, the parent company of the Facebook platform, has been under an FTC order for more than a decade. It paid a record $5 billion fine in 2019 for privacy violations, entering into a new settlement that increased the responsibility of the company’s board to protect user data. (Bloomberg)
The days of having to think up new passwords that aren’t “password123” may be coming to an end – at least on your Google accounts. Google on Wednesday began rolling out support for passkeys, an alternative sign-in method for apps and websites that the company says is meant to serve as an “easier to use and more secure” alternative to the password. With passkeys, Google said users can access their various accounts the same way they might unlock their phone: with a fingerprint, face scan or screen lock PIN. (CNN)
The White House will host leaders of AI's top companies Thursday for a meeting with administration officials, Axios has confirmed. Details: Vice President Kamala Harris and other senior administration officials will meet with the CEOs of Alphabet/Google, Anthropic, Microsoft and OpenAI, per an invitation obtained by Axios. The meeting is meant to underscore the responsibility of developing safe and trustworthy AI that mitigates potential harms, part of a broader effort to engage with different industries about AI, according to a White House official. The official said the CEO meeting builds on previous White House efforts such as the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights and the AI Risk Management Framework. Why it matters: The rise of generative AI has reached the attention of world leaders, and the meeting comes as both industry and government grapples with the technology's impact on employment, industry, media and geopolitics. (Axios)
Consumer electronics giant Dyson Ltd. will open a new plant in Singapore to manufacture next-generation batteries for new products as it ramps up software, artificial intelligence and product development globally. The new facility, spanning the size of 53 basketball courts, is expected to be fully operational by 2025. It is part of Dyson’s ongoing £2.75 billion ($3.4 billion) five-year investment plan, the Singapore-headquartered company said in a statement Wednesday. (Bloomberg)
Smart Links
Milken Attendees Obsess Over Recession and What’s Next. (Bloomberg)
2 Massachusetts hospitals report no COVID-19 inpatients for 1st time since pandemic. (WCVB)
UN: 258 million people faced acute food insecurity in 2022. (Associated Press)
Solar Winds: The Untold Story of the Boldest Supply-Chain Hack Ever. (Wired)