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The World
American tourists who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 will be able to visit the EU over the summer, the head of the bloc’s executive body said in an interview with The New York Times. The fast pace of vaccination in the U.S., and advanced talks between authorities there and the EU over how to make vaccine certificates acceptable as proof of immunity for visitors, will enable the European Commission to recommend a switch in policy that could see trans-Atlantic leisure travel restored. (New York Times)
India is airlifting in emergency medical supplies as countries offer to help it battle a catastrophic second wave that Prime Minister Narendra Modi said “had shaken the nation.” Meanwhile, India’s government ordered Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to take down dozens of social media posts critical of its handling of the pandemic. (Financial Times, New York Times)
Holidaymakers arriving back in Britain will face queues of more than six hours after rules on international travel are relaxed from May 17, officials warned. (The Times)
Scientists are working toward an elusive dream: a simple pill to treat Covid-19. (STAT News)
President Biden has offered to meet President Putin face-to-face in June to defuse escalating tensions between their two nations. (The Times)
President Xi presided over a rare public display of China’s growing naval strength by unveiling three new warships — one an amphibious helicopter carrier, hailed as the most advanced vessel in the nation’s fleet — amid growing concern that he is building a force capable of retaking Taiwan. The carrier, named Hainan, is designed as an offensive platform from which to launch an amphibious or airborne assault and can transport up to 1,200 troops as well as dozens of helicopters and jump jets. The second vessel, the Dalian, is a guided-missile cruiser with stealth technology; the third is an upgraded Type 094A nuclear-powered submarine, the Changzheng-18, believed to be capable of carrying 12 JL-2 intercontinental ballistic missiles. (The Times, South China Morning Post)
74% in Japan support engagement in Taiwan Strait. (Nikkei Asian Review)
European officials want to limit police use of facial recognition and ban the use of certain kinds of AI systems, in one of the broadest efforts yet to regulate high-stakes applications of artificial intelligence. The EU’s executive arm proposed a bill that would also create a list of so-called high-risk uses of AI that would be subject to new supervision and standards for their development and use, such as critical infrastructure, college admissions and loan applications. (Wall Street Journal)
Nigeria’s graduates live ‘hand to mouth’ as jobs crisis worsens: The unemployment rate has more than quadrupled since President Muhammadu Buhari took office in 2015, to 33.3%. The more than 60% of the workforce that is under 34 years old has it even worse: more than half (53.4%) of people aged 15-24 and 37.2% of people aged 25-34 were unemployed in 4Q20, according to government figures. (Financial Times)
Insurance costs are threatening Florida’s real-estate boom. In the most expensive state for home insurance, carriers are seeking to curb litigation and limit payouts on roof claims. Longtime homeowners are getting socked with double-digit rate increases or notices that their policies won’t be renewed. Out-of-state home buyers who have flocked to Florida during the pandemic are experiencing sticker shock. Insurers that are swimming in red ink are cutting back coverage in certain geographic areas to shore up their finances. (Wall Street Journal)
Presidential polls as President Biden nears the end of his first 100 days in office:
NBC News: 53% of respondents approve of Biden’s job in office, including 90% of Democrats, 61% of independents and 9% of Republicans, while 39% of respondents disapprove of Biden’s performance. Meanwhile, 46% percent of Americans believed the president’s $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill was a good idea, while 25% said it was a bad idea and 26% did not have an opinion.
Gallup: Biden’s job approval rating is back to its post-inauguration high of 57%. It has varied between 54% and 57% since he took office.
Washington Post-ABC News: 52% of adults say they approve of the job Biden is doing, compared with 42% who disapprove. Overall, 34% of Americans say they strongly approve of Biden’s performance, compared with 35% who strongly disapprove. Biden’s approval rating is lower than any recent past presidents except Donald Trump, with potential warning signs ahead about his governing strategy.
Economy
Europe’s largest banks are planning to slash business travel permanently by as much as half from pre-pandemic levels after the coronavirus crisis recedes, as many of the new ways of remote working developed during lockdown become the norm. Senior bankers are keen to learn from the lessons of the past year to cut costs and bolster their green credentials, but the plans will be worrying for airlines and hospitality groups that rely heavily on business travel for profits and are hoping for a swift recovery once restrictions are lifted. (Financial Times)
Restaurants serve up signing bonuses, higher pay to win back workers. With job openings above pre-pandemic levels, eateries from McDonald’s to Wolfgang Puck’s Spago are battling for new hires. (Wall Street Journal)
Funds raised by Chinese groups on U.S. equity markets surged 440% in the opening months of 2021, as the allure of sky-high Wall Street valuations outweighed the threat of forced delistings. Chinese companies have raised a record $11bn this year on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq via initial public offerings, follow-on share sales and issuance of convertible bonds. (Financial Times)
Hospital M&A will proceed at a 'robust pace,' Moody's says. Larger health systems will seek out mergers that bulk up their market share by adding new geographic locations and service lines that help diversify offerings. By contrast, smaller hospitals — weighed down by the pandemic — are likely to form partnerships to gain access to more resources, which could help drive down expenses, including labor and supply. Meanwhile, for-profit hospital operators are likely to hunt for mergers and acquisitions that are focused on offerings outside that traditional hospital setting. (Healthcare Dive)
Hospital giant HCA Healthcare reported a profit of $1.4 billion in 1Q21 thanks to highly acute inpatient volumes, better payer mix and a rebound in surgical and outpatient volumes in March. That's more than double the Nashville-based system's profit the same time last year, and comes despite sluggish admissions due to the ongoing effects of Covid-19. (Healthcare Dive)
Specialist firms favor growth equity for clean energy bets: Some private-equity firms looking to capitalize on the expanding clean energy sector are seeing better prospects in backing growth-stage businesses rather than startups, project developers or more mature operations. (Wall Street Journal)
Technology
Millions of the Pentagon’s dormant IP addresses sprang to life: While the world was distracted with President Trump leaving office on Jan. 20, an obscure Florida company discreetly announced to the world’s computer networks a startling development: It now was managing a huge unused swath of the Internet that, for several decades, had been owned by the U.S. military. What happened next was stranger still. The company, Global Resource Systems LLC, kept adding to its zone of control. Soon it had claimed 56 million IP addresses owned by the Pentagon. Three months later, the total was nearly 175 million. That’s almost 6 percent of a coveted traditional section of Internet real estate — called IPv4 — where such large chunks are worth billions of dollars on the open market. (Washington Post)
Audio-chat app Clubhouse and the NFL are teaming up to produce an exclusive lineup of programming throughout the week of the 2021 NFL Draft. The NFL will host a series of rooms throughout the week around the Draft starting from Monday, which includes a pre-Draft assessment of the prospective players. (Reuters)
Facebook says it has a policy letting any person initiate a takedown of a post containing an image of their residence, regardless of the post's newsworthiness. (New York Times)
Reuters Institute study: Trust in media is based more on feelings about news brands and how articles are presented rather than on specific editorial standards. (Neiman Lab)
ByteDance, the developer of TikTok and its Chinese sibling app Douyin, has put its IPO plan on the back burner for now, as it has difficulties coming up with a business structure that can please both Beijing and Washington. The Chinese start-up has yet to find a satisfactory way to restructure its business to meet regulatory requirements in China and the US. One major challenge lies in separating Douyin’s China-based operations from TikTok’s global operations because both apps share the same algorithm. (South China Morning Post)
Smart Links
Chloé Zhao becomes first woman of color to win an Oscar for Best Director. (Los Angeles Times)
Global chip shortage spreads to toasters and washing machines. (Financial Times)
Parents’ education level predicts income better than college degree will. (Fast Company)
AI algorithms can influence people's voting and dating decisions in experiments. (Science Daily)
Allergy-free pigs could provide transplants. (Nature Biotechnology)
Why AI music scares lawyers. (Protocol)
Will other universities join Purdue in adding a civics requirement? (Forbes)
Live Event
Today, 7:30 am ET: Public Opinion in Global Affairs: Challenges and opportunities for Europe, the U.S. and China. Amid signs of growing U.S.-China rivalry, China-Europe relations have now also become tense, raising concern among analysts about the geopolitical environment. Against this backdrop, European and American public perceptions of China offer important perspectives for policy circles to consider. To explore these perspectives, the Center for China and Globalization will host a public webinar in collaboration with Körber-Stiftung and Pew Research Center. (Register)