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The World
The leaders of three EU countries traveled by train to Ukraine to pledge their support. The prime ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia arrived in Kyiv to express EU solidarity as Russia continues its assault on Ukraine's capital city. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki shared a photo from Kyiv on social media after arriving, saying "It is here, in war-torn Kyiv, that history is being made. It is here, that freedom fights against the world of tyranny. It is here that the future of us all hangs in the balance." In a video posted by Ukrainian officials online, Zelensky was shown giving the visiting leaders a briefing on the military and humanitarian situation in the country. “Your visit to Kyiv at this difficult time for Ukraine is a powerful testimony of support,” Zelensky wrote in a note accompanying the video. “We really appreciate this.” (Deutsche Welle, Financial Times)
China warns of retaliation if hit by Russia sanctions fallout: Beijing slams what it calls US efforts to spread disinformation and ‘distort and smear’ its position on Ukraine. (Financial Times)
Relatively cheap drones the U.S. supplied to the Ukrainian military are delivering devastating blows to Russian surface to air batteries. A drone expert remarked that these are akin to World War I aircraft and are neither stealthy nor quiet. (NBC News)
North Korea fired an "unknown projectile" on Wednesday which appeared to fail immediately after launch, South Korea's military said after Japanese media reported a suspected missile launch by the nuclear-armed North. (Nikkei Asia Review)
Rollback of Xi Jinping’s Economic Campaign Exposes Cracks in His Power: In addition to pressure from the West on Beijing over Xi’s Russian entente, he is struggling with a severe slowdown in the economy. The new disquiet raises questions about his unassailed dominance. Last year, President Xi Jinping seemed all but invincible. Now, his push to steer China away from capitalism and the West has thrown the Chinese economy into uncertainty and exposed faint cracks in his hold on power. Chinese policy makers became alarmed at the end of last year by how sharply growth had slowed after Mr. Xi tightened controls on private businesses, from tech giants to property developers. Meanwhile, China’s stringent Covid lockdowns, part of Mr. Xi’s approach to handling the crisis, have ramped up again as Covid cases surge, hurting both consumer spending and factory output. Add to that a pact with Russia in early February, just weeks ahead of its invasion of Ukraine, that has widened a gulf between China and the West and underlined how high the costs could be for China of implementing Mr. Xi’s agenda at home and in foreign policy. (Wall Street Journal)
Pfizer and BioNTech said they had sought emergency authorization for a second booster shot of their coronavirus vaccine for adults 65 and older. (New York Times)
The White House is begging Congress for more funds to help with Covid-19 surveillance, testing, and treatments — a call that could be bolstered by the emerging signs of an increase in Covid-19 cases in Europe. (STAT News)
Hong Kong leader Lam says no plans to further tighten COVID rules. (Reuters)
The governor of the northeastern Chinese province of Jilin has pledged that the outbreak in Jilin City, the epicentre of the country’s latest Covid-19 outbreak, would be contained within a week even as the number of infections topped 3,500 in a single day. That accounted for half of the total infections reported in China in the largest surge the country has seen since the initial stage of the pandemic in Wuhan. (South China Morning Post)
Half of Americans doubt Biden will run in 2024: A new Wall Street Journal poll found that 52% of Americans don’t think Mr. Biden will run for re-election in two years, while 29% do expect him to pursue a second term. Nineteen percent are undecided about his future. Among Democrats, 41% said they think Mr. Biden will run again, while 32% said they didn’t think he would. The poll found 26% of those Democrats unsure. Mr. Biden and the White House have said he intends to run for re-election. People close to the president have suggested he will make a final decision after November’s midterm elections. (Wall Street Journal)
A record ‘bomb cyclone’ is bringing exceptional warmth to North Pole, as Arctic temperatures could approach the melting point as they surge nearly 50 degrees above normal. (Washington Post)
Economy
The head of Delta Air Lines has said that higher ticket prices await flyers as a result of the rising cost of oil, in another sign of inflationary pressures seeping into the economy. Ed Bastian, Delta chief executive, said in an interview that the third-largest US carrier would add a fuel surcharge to international flights “as the market conditions permit”. Higher fuel costs “will no question” raise ticket prices, both domestically and internationally, he said. (Financial Times)
International investors are seeking to hedge against the possibility of military conflict between China and Taiwan, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drives a reassessment of risk in one of the world’s most dangerous geopolitical flashpoints. While a Chinese assault on Taiwan is still considered a “tail risk” among investors, the rising concerns about an attack are underscored by a Goldman Sachs index tracking tensions across the Taiwan Strait, which recently hit a record high. Tim Moe, chief Asia equities strategist at Goldman, said that following the invasion of Ukraine “informed consensus is putting a higher level of concern on cross-strait tensions — it’s not a foolish thing to think about”. (Financial Times)
Exposure to Russian debt is highest in Italy and France, where upwards of $25 billion was owed each at the end of 3Q21. In Austria and the U.S., exposure stood at $17.5 billion and $14.7 billion, respectively. One reason Austria ranks high is because one of the country’s largest banks, Raiffeisen, has a very active Russian subsidiary, which is one of the most lucrative parts of the company. The country also has deep business ties with Russia on energy. Austria, along with Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Hungary, was reportedly among those who opposed banning Russia from international payment service Swift, which has also made it harder for Russian entities to settle their international debt. (Statista)
VC-backed companies and contractors in the defense sector: At over $770 billion for this fiscal year, the U.S. defense budget is nothing if not enormous. And considering a majority goes to private contractors, there’s no shortage of companies vying for a piece. (Crunchbase)
Bitcoin “fugitives” that made Kazakhstan into a crypto powerhouse are now forced to leave, threatened by civil unrest and power blackouts. They experienced something similar when China banned cryptocurrency activities in September 2021 and forced them to flee. (Rest of World)
March 15 was Equal Pay Day, denoting how far into the year women in the U.S. must work to match what men earned in the previous year. This year’s Equal Pay Day is the earliest Americans have ever marked the occasion in its roughly 26-year history, and the gender wage gap appears to be narrowing, too. In 2020, the average woman working full-time, year-round earned 83 cents for every male dollar, up one cent from the year prior. But the shrinking of the gender wage gap is a reflection of our pandemic reality, rather than progress. This year’s statistics are based on 2020 data, the first year to show the pandemic’s impact. A smaller wage gap reflects the women who left the workforce in droves that year—not any progress made for those who remained in it. (The Broadsheet)
In just a few words, Gov. Gavin Newsom asked Walt Disney Co. to reconsider its plans to relocate 2,000 jobs from Southern California to a new campus in Florida. Newsom said in a tweet, “Disney, the door is open to bring those jobs back to California — the state that actually represents the values of your workers.” Newsom took the controversy as an opportunity to ask Disney to reconsider its move. Chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products Josh D’Amaro announced the move last summer and noted that Florida’s lack of income tax and low cost of living influenced the decision. (Los Angeles Times)
Technology
Apple’s latest chip could help TSMC gain an edge on Intel in new battleground: Apple’s new M1 Ultra chip isn’t new at all. It consists of two existing Apple chips—the M1 Max, which powers Apple’s high-end MacBook Pro laptops—stitched together to get better performance. The biggest technical advance inside the M1 Ultra is the technology used to do the stitching—an innovation that could be bad news for the comeback of one of the world’s most iconic chipmakers, Intel Corp. While Apple gave its chip-to-chip connection a snappy in-house marketing name, UltraFusion, analysts believe it relies heavily on an underlying process developed by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Apple’s longtime manufacturing partner for the Apple-designed chips at the heart of iPhones, iPads and Macs. (The Information)
Computer chip giant Intel will invest at least $36 billion in new semiconductor manufacturing and research facilities in Europe, continuing the company’s drive to fortify Western production of a component considered vital for national and economic security. The announcement comes weeks after Intel unveiled plans to invest at least $20 billion in a large new manufacturing site near Columbus, Ohio. (Washington Post)
Indian app developers win big over India-China border tensions. Since 2020, New Delhi has banned over 220 Chinese apps, encouraging home-grown growth in the sector in India (The South China Morning Post)
Are conferences worth the time and money? Scientists who interact with others during assigned sessions at conferences are more likely to form productive collaborations than scientists who do not, researchers found. And the kicker? It doesn't matter whether the conference is in person or virtual. (Northwestern University)
Streaming boom propels film industry's pandemic recovery: A sharp uptick in paid online video subscriptions and original content production for streaming platforms has helped the movie industry recover from the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new report. The global streaming and theatrical movie market raked in nearly a combined total of $99.7 billion in 2021, eclipsing pre-pandemic sales. In 2021, the digital movie market accounted for 72% of the combined theatrical and home/mobile entertainment market, compared to 46% in 2019. (Axios, Motion Picture Association)
Smart Links
Year-round Daylight-Saving-Time bill passes the Senate. (Wall Street Journal)
Canada became the first country to approve a plant-derived vaccine against COVID-19. (CBC)
Japan to open borders to 10,000 arrivals a day from April. (Nikkei Asia Review)
For one Japanese salaryman, nearly a decade of $4 annual pay rises. (Reuters)
A new downtown L.A. hotel’s is going all in on amenities. Guess where they put the pool. (Los Angeles Times)