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The World
U.S. inflation surged to a new four-decade high of 8.5% in March from the same month a year ago, driven by skyrocketing energy and food costs, supply constraints and strong consumer demand. The Labor Department said the CPI last month rose at its fastest annual pace since December 1981, up from the 7.9% annual rate in February. Rising prices have been unrelenting, with six straight months of inflation above 6% that is well above the Fed’s average 2% target. (Wall Street Journal)
Surging food and fuel prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are fueling discontent across Europe, testing Western democracies’ political resilience. The first round of France’s presidential election on Sunday saw right-wing populist Marine Le Pen get 22.9% of the vote on the back of a campaign focused on voters’ dwindling purchasing power. Her far-left rival, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, whose campaign focused on prices, wages and welfare benefits, wasn’t far behind, with 22% of votes. From France to Spain, Germany and Greece, a combination of near-stagnant wages and rising prices is sparking protests and piling pressure on governments fragilized by years of unpopular Covid-19 restrictions. (Wall Street Journal)
President Biden stood by his description of Russia’s actions as "genocide," telling reporters: “It’s become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of even being able to be a Ukrainian.” President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, who has consistently used the term, on Twitter praised Mr. Biden's remarks and reiterated a call for more weapons. (New York Times)
The number of newly created Twitter accounts almost tripled on the day Russia invaded Ukraine, according to a new report by the University of Indiana’s Observatory of Social Media (oSoMe) and the Polytechnic University of Milan. The whitepaper, titled “Suspicious Twitter Activity around the Russian Invasion of Ukraine”, reveals that more than 38,000 new accounts were created on February 24, the day Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, up from just 13,500 the day before. (Statista)
The rising price of food caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and increased energy costs could push a quarter of a billion more people into extreme poverty, Oxfam has warned. The charity said these new challenges had piled on to the economic crises created by Covid, and called for urgent international action, including cancelling debt repayments for poorer countries. (The Guardian)
Boris Johnson defied calls to quit as he became the first British prime minister found to have broken the law in office. Johnson admitted that “people had the right to expect better” after he and Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, were fined by the police for attending a lockdown-breaking birthday gathering in the cabinet room in No 10 on June 19, 2020. (The Times)
Chinese stockpile food as Covid-19 concerns ripple out from Shanghai. Residents across China are bracing for the prospect of Shanghai-like lockdowns raid supermarket shelves as Omicron cases spread. (Wall Street Journal)
Coronavirus cases are again climbing in the Northeast as the BA.2 omicron subvariant — which is even more contagious than its predecessor — becomes the predominant strain in the U.S. But experts say early signs suggest Americans do not need to fear a repeat of the explosion of winter cases that overwhelmed the health-care system. (Washington Post)
New Zealand welcomes Australian visitors as border restrictions ease. (Reuters)
Predicting food shortages, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller called on Gov. Greg Abbott to stop new vehicle inspections at the border. Abbott’s new policy has resulted in hourslong delays and protester blockades at border crossings. Miller criticized the measure as an “economy killing action.” (Texas Tribune)
Yelp announced that it will now pay travel expenses for employees who need abortion and reproductive care. The online review site's announcement comes nearly a month after Citigroup announced a similar policy. The company joins a handful of other employers, like Bumble and Match, who have publicly made clear where they stand on the issue of abortion access ahead of an upcoming Supreme Court ruling, which could roll back Roe v. Wade. (Axios)
Economy
Airfare is surging as higher fuel prices and strong travel demand drive up the cost of flights. Consumers spent $8.8 billion on domestic U.S. airline tickets last month, up 28% compared with March 2019, before the Covid pandemic, while fares surged 20%. Bookings only rose 12%. (CNBC)
Food prepared at home now costs 10% more than it did a year ago, making it more difficult for consumers to save money by eating out less. In comparison, the YoY average cost of takeout and restaurant meals has climbed 6.9%. (CNBC)
JPMorgan succession rekindles US debate over ‘imperial’ CEOs: Chief among all the succession questions on Wall Street is what will happen when Jamie Dimon relinquishes the top job at JPMorgan. Last week, the bank offered a rare glimpse of its preparations in a securities filing that said a “substantial majority” of investors wanted him to stay on as non-executive chair when he steps down as chief executive. If he does stick around, it would mark the first time JPMorgan has split the roles of chair and CEO since 2006, when Dimon added the role of chairing the board of directors to the responsibilities he assumed upon being made the bank’s top executive a year earlier. (Financial Times)
Baseball is back on a record year as women emerge as leaders in the industry: After a 99-day lockout, baseball is back with a record number of highly-placed women in the ranks. They are part of the latest wave of breakthroughs, led by the Miami Marlins’ promotion of Kim Ng as the league’s first woman general manager in November 2020. “It’s amazing what has happened since 2020,” said Leslie Heaphy, an associate history professor at Kent State University and the co-chair of the Women in Baseball Research Committee. “The level of women represented at the organized major and minor leagues is absolutely unprecedented.” More than a dozen women were signed to major league teams’ operations in the last two years, taking leading positions in the front office, on the coaching staff and in other parts of the organization. At the university level, a handful of young women made rosters, and several all-women’s college club teams were formed across the country — all significant increases considering there was virtually no women’s representation on college campuses before 2019, Heaphy said. The opportunities for women to participate continue to grow. (The 19th)
The number of female-founded unicorns quadrupled in 2021, according to a new report by Female Founders Fund shared exclusively with Fortune. Last year minted 83 new women-led and -founded unicorns worldwide—more than four times the 18 such companies in 2020, but still just 15% of the year’s 595 new unicorns overall. Some of the year’s female-founded companies newly valued at more than $1 billion included Kate Ryder’s Maven Clinic, the first unicorn dedicated to women’s and family health; workforce management system Papaya Global, led by Eynat Guez and valued at $3.7 billion after a $440 million funding round; crypto-backed loan provider BlockFi, led by Flori Marquez and valued at $3 billion; and Adena Hefets’s real estate platform Divvy Homes, valued at $2 billion. (The Broadsheet)
Technology
Just one or two days in the office is the ideal setup for hybrid work, according to a new study, as it provides workers with the flexibility they crave without the isolation of going fully remote. The findings, in a paper from Harvard Business School, were based on an experiment in the summer of 2020 where 130 administrative workers were randomly assigned to one of three groups over nine weeks. Some spent less than 25% of their work days in the office, some were in more than 40% of the time, while a third “intermediate” cohort landed in the middle, translating to a day or two per week. That subset turned out more original work than the other groups, and “this difference was significant,” the authors wrote. (Bloomberg)
Many tech companies, eager to please employees returning to offices, are providing perks like concerts with pop stars, food trucks, and “appreciation events.” Nick Bloom, an economics professor at Stanford University who surveys 5,000 workers every month, said most wanted to return to the office two or three times per week. One-third never want to return to the office and prefer to remain remote. Just by eliminating the office commute, Bloom said, the average worker will save one hour a day, so “you can see why employees are not going to start coming to work for free bagels or to play Ping-Pong.” The main draw for heading to the office, according to the surveys, is that employees want to see colleagues in person. (New York Times)
Apple’s plan to add a highly anticipated blood-pressure monitor to its smartwatch has hit some snags and the technology isn’t expected to be ready until 2024 at the earliest. The company has teams working on an updated sensor and software for the Apple Watch that would determine if a user has high blood pressure, but accuracy has been a challenge during testing. The feature has been planned for at least four years, but it’s probably two years away from hitting the market and may slip until 2025. (Bloomberg)
Amazon's warehouse injury rate spiked 20% in 2021. A new analysis of federal safety data shows that Amazon warehouse injuries accounted for nearly half of all warehouse injuries in the U.S. (Protocol)
Investment and projections for CNN+ are expected to be cut dramatically in response to a low adoption rate, two sources tell Axios. Fewer than 10,000 people are using CNN+ on a daily basis two weeks into its existence. The news giant was initially planning to invest around $1 billion in the service over the next four years. Hundreds of millions of dollars are expected to be cut from that original investment total. To date, around $300 million has been spent on the subscription service, which includes a sizable marketing investment. (Axios, CNBC)
Smart Links
Craig Newmark Philanthropies plans to spend more than $50 million on grants to educate Americans about, and protect them from, cybersecurity threats. (Axios)
Keeping Mark Zuckerberg safe cost Meta nearly $27 million last year. (Bloomberg)
Lululemon launches a trade-in and resell program as shoppers grapple with inflation. (CNBC)
Your next American Airlines flight could be on a bus: The airline launched a bus-service partnership connecting travelers to smaller airports. (Washington Post)
A shortage of baby formula is worsening and causing stores like Target, Kroger, CVS and Walgreens to limit sales. (WBUR)