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The World
The US sought to tighten sanctions on Russia by blacklisting a swath of financial executives and restricting the provision of professional services even as the EU struggled to finalize its latest package of penalties. The US targeted executives at Gazprombank for the first time while also barring companies from providing Russia with corporate services such as accounting and consulting. (Financial Times)
Ukraine’s wheat harvest may fall by 35%, raising fears of global shortage Satellite imagery ‘illustrates specter of rising food prices and hunger’ due to invasion of world’s sixth-largest wheat exporter. (The Guardian)
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned that there can be "no peace under Russian dictatorship" in Ukraine during a speech to mark the 77th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. "Ukraine will not accept that, and neither will we," Scholz said. "Ukraine will prevail. Freedom and security will win the day – just as freedom and security triumphed over oppression, violence and dictatorship 77 years ago.” (Deutsche Welle)
CIA Director Bill Burns said that Chinese president Xi Jinping has been “unsettled” by the war in Ukraine, which demonstrated that the friendship between Beijing and Moscow had “limits” at a time when western allies were moving closer together. Burns said the “bitter experience” of the first 10 to 11 weeks of the conflict had come as a surprise to the Chinese leadership and could be affecting its calculations with respect to Taiwan. (Financial Times)
John Lee was picked as the new Hong Kong leader in rubber-stamp vote. Security hawk gets 99% support from Election Committee as sole candidate. (Nikkei Asia Review)
Polls opened in the Philippines today in the country's most divisive presidential election in decades, with the prospect of a once-unthinkable return to rule of the Marcos family, 36 years after they were toppled in a "people power" uprising. The election pits Vice President Leni Robredo against former senator and congressman Ferdinand Marcos Jr, the son and namesake of a dictator whose two decade rule ended in a public revolt and his family's humiliating retreat into exile. Opinion polls put Marcos, popularly known as "Bongbong", leading his rival by over 30 percentage points, having topped every poll this year. That means Robredo will need a late surge or low turnout if she is to win the presidency. (Reuters)
Economic, safety issues await Philippines' next president. (Gallup)
Venture capitalists and private-equity firms are pouring billions of dollars into mental-health businesses, including psychology offices, psychiatric facilities, telehealth platforms for online therapy, new drugs, meditation apps and other digital tools. Nine mental-health startups have reached private valuations exceeding $1 billion last year, including Cerebral Inc. and BetterUp Inc. Demand for these services is rising as more people deal with grief, anxiety and loneliness amid lockdowns and the rising death toll of the Covid-19 pandemic, making the sector ripe for investment. (Wall Street Journal)
Telemedicine abortion providers see a surge in interest: Online providers and groups are seeing a dramatic increase in the number of people requesting abortion pills or seeking information on consultations for the drugs since the draft opinion ending Roe v. Wade was first reported. Data from online abortion site Plan C shows a surge in traffic coming from both Republican-controlled states like Texas and Florida, which are set to limit abortion access, and also from Democrat-held states like California and New York, which are unlikely to limit access. (Politico)
Economy
Women comprised 45% of all new Fortune 500 board appointments in 2021, a new high, while Black directors were 26% of new appointees, a tad lower than 2020 after a surge that year, according to a report released by Heidrick & Struggles. A record 43% of all new appointees to these boards were first-time directors — a key driver of diversity. Overall, the percentage of women on boards has slowly risen to 29%, from 19% when Heidrick first published this report in 2015. (Axios)
Special report: Biden’s trade team — RIP globalization. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine accelerates the administration’s efforts to find a path between global free trade and Trump-like protectionism. (Politico)
Colleges are launching TikTok classes for influencers making $5,000 a post: As students rake in cash from online personas, universities are offering courses that teach brand building and negotiation tactics. 30 students at Duke University gather for one of their last classes of the school year on a Tuesday afternoon in April. But rather than preparing for final exams, they’re shooting TikTok videos. Welcome to Gen Z college. (Bloomberg)
Technology
The technology industry, which powered the U.S. economy during the pandemic and grew at tremendous scale during a decade of ultralow interest rates, is confronting one of the most punishing stretches in years. Global powerhouses and fledgling startups are feeling pain from a variety of economic, industry and market factors, spawning postpandemic turbulence in e-commerce, digital advertising, electric vehicles, ride-hailing and other segments. Companies that emerged as job-creating juggernauts in the past two years—collectively adding hundreds of thousands of workers to their payrolls in engineering, warehouse and delivery jobs—have begun to freeze hiring or even lay off employees. (Wall Street Journal)
From California to Texas to Indiana, electric-grid operators are warning that power-generating capacity is struggling to keep up with demand, a gap that could lead to rolling blackouts during heat waves or other peak periods as soon as this year. (Wall Street Journal)
Electric aircraft set for take off as commercially viable transport. (Nikkei Asia Review)
The Graphic Truth: Twitter doesn't rule the social world. (GZERO Media)
Smart Links
Hospitals look to raise treatment costs as nurses’ salaries increase; insurers, employers push against requests to increase prices by as much as 15%. (Wall Street Journal)
U.S. baby formula shortage worsens. (New York Times)
Lockheed Martin looks to nearly double Javelin missile production. (Reuters)
New York's top-shelf sushi surges past $1,000 a meal. (Nikkei Asia Review)
Austin becomes the first Texas city to experiment with “guaranteed income.” (Texas Tribune)
Online exam cheating is up: Study by online proctoring service finds 6.6 percent rate of cheating—up 14 times from before the pandemic. (Inside Higher Ed)