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The World
President Biden signaled a vast increase in America’s commitment to defeating Russia in Ukraine as he asked Congress to authorize $33 billion for more artillery, antitank weapons and other hardware as well as economic and humanitarian aid. The request represented an extraordinary escalation in American investment in the war, more than tripling the total emergency expenditures and putting the United States on track to spend as much this year helping the Ukrainians as it did on average each year fighting its own war in Afghanistan, or more. (New York Times)
Russia is being hacked at an unprecedented scale: From “IT Army” DDoS attacks to custom malware, the country has become a target like never before. (Wired UK)
Germany, Japan tap hydrogen to reduce Russia dependence: From cooperating on hydrogen as an alternative power source to gas and coal, to launching intergovernmental consultations, "Germany and Japan will strengthen their partnership at every level," German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said during a visit to Tokyo. (Nikkei Asia Review)
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called on the country's military to "bolster up their strength in every way to annihilate the enemy", state media reported on Friday, as new satellite imagery showed increased preparations for a possible nuclear test. (Reuters)
Shanghai's heavy-handed COVID-19 lockdown is driving scores of foreign residents to flee the commercial centre, denting the appeal of mainland China's most cosmopolitan city and prompting others to rethink their futures in the metropolis. Meanwhile, China’s passenger traffic is expected to slump by 62% during the May Day holiday period, as the country battles the latest wave of Covid-19 cases with draconian lockdowns and quarantine measures. (Reuters, South China Morning Post)
‘Politics has been turned on its head’: India reels from wave of religious violence. Jahangirpuri is one of several areas hit by a wave of alarming Hindu-Muslim violence that has spread across India in recent weeks. But critics say that, rather than defuse the tension, Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party has tacitly enabled hardline Hindu groups while cracking down on Muslim communities. About a dozen incidents took place in around eight states in April, according to newspaper reports, from BJP-ruled Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh to opposition-controlled states such as Rajasthan. Dozens have been injured and arrested, while two people were killed. (Financial Times)
L.A. coronavirus cases up 40% in one week; hospitalizations rising, too. (Los Angeles Times)
A new UN report warns that natural disasters will become the norm in the future, with an estimated 560 taking place in 2030. The deputy secretary-general of the UN urged an incorporation of disaster risk into how we “live, build and invest”. From 1970 to 2000, this number averaged 90 to 100 global disasters per year. In 2015, there were 400. (The Verge)
Climate change is making India’s brutal heat waves worse: Heat waves are scorching India and Pakistan this week, breaking records as the region enters the hottest time of the year. Some states in India have already seen temperatures top 43 °C (110 °F). (MIT Technology Review)
The European wind-energy sector has been hit in a wave of cyberattacks. Three German companies are believed to have been targeted by hackers sympathetic to Russia as Europe moves to lessen a reliance on Russian oil and gas. (The Wall Street Journal)
Economy
Biden administration officials are debating how — and even whether — to lower some of former President Trump’s tariffs against China to help ease inflation, people familiar with the matter tell Axios. The administration has limited options to lower prices for American consumers but knows it will be punished in this fall's midterms if higher prices persist throughout the year. Providing so-called “exclusions” for some goods — not subjecting them to the Section 301 tariffs imposed by Trump — is one tool the current president has at his disposal. (Axios)
Airbnb is going all in on the “live anywhere, work anywhere” philosophy that much of the business world has been forced to adopt, committing to full-time remote work for most employees and a handful of perks like 90 days of international work/travel. Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky outlined the new policy, summing it up in five points: You can work from home or the office; you can move anywhere in the country you work in and your compensation won’t change; you have the flexibility to travel and work around the world; we’ll meet up regularly for gatherings; we’ll continue to work in a highly coordinated way. (TechCrunch)
Investment in EV charging is electric: Venture investors and startups are scaling up efforts to improve electric vehicle infrastructure. Over the past few quarters, scores of companies in the EV space have raised funding, much of it seed and early stage. (Crunchbase)
China is heading for a 'perfect storm' of economic headwinds: Against a challenging macroeconomic backdrop, COVID-19 lockdowns and ongoing supply chain bottlenecks, investors are reevaluating their exposure to China. “We are in a ‘perfect storm’ situation where we have a number of economic and regulation headwinds all going against the market at the same time,” Goldman Sachs Research’s Kinger Lau, chief China equity strategist, says: Coronavirus cases are still elevated; Chinese equites have been under pressure, trading below their historical averages; expect slower economic growth. (Goldman Sachs)
Technology
Apple’s revenue grew nearly 9% year over year in 1Q22, showing strong growth and bucking investor worries about a deteriorating macroeconomic environment affecting demand for high-end smartphones and computers. But Apple shares fell nearly 4% in extended trading after Apple CFO Luca Maestri warned of several challenges in the current quarter, including supply constraints related to Covid-19 that could hurt sales by between $4 billion and $8 billion. The tech giant also warned that demand in China was being sapped by Covid-related lockdowns. Apple CEO Tim Cook added the company was “not immune” to supply chain challenges. (CNBC)
Global PC shipments are down 4.3% YoY in 1Q22. (Counterpoint)
In the face of a pandemic that appears to be receding and the highest levels of inflation in four decades, Amazon posted its slowest quarterly growth in years and its first quarterly loss since 2015. The company reported $116.4 billion in revenue in the first three months of the year, up 7% from a year earlier. That was down from 44 percent growth in 1Q21. The number of products that Amazon sold in the quarter was flat from a year ago, and its costs to sell those items also increased. (New York Times)
Elon Musk sold around $4 billion worth of Tesla shares. (CNBC)
As he negotiated a $44 billion deal to acquire Twitter, Elon Musk told bankers that he would be focused on the social-media company’s bottom line, and floated the idea of cutting both costs and jobs, according to people familiar with the matter. (Bloomberg)
Comcast’s Peacock streaming service lifted its paid subscribers to 13 million, up from 9 million at the end of 2021, thanks in part to its airing of the Super Bowl, Comcast said. While that’s a tiny fraction of the 222 million subscribers Netflix has, Comcast executives reminded investors again that they aren’t trying to be Netflix, but rather see Peacock as a complement to Comcast’s cable TV offering. “The noise in the rest of the streaming space just validates where we are going,” said Jeff Shell, head of Comcast’s NBCUniversal unit on an analyst call. (The Information)
Goldman Sachs has made an investment of $325 million in ad-measurement company iSpot.tv. The firm helps marketers track whether their ads led to a purchase or visit to their website. (The Wall Street Journal)
Autocorrect explained: Why your iPhone adds annoying typos while fixing others. Tpying truble? During the iPhone’s first 15 years, its keyboard software has evolved, but it still sometimes flubs your lines. Here’s how it works and what you can do about it. (Wall Street Journal)
Smart Links
Intel CEO sees chip shortage lasting into 2024. (Wall Street Journal)
Hertz CEO says rebounding business travel could tighten an already-constrained used car market. (CNBC)
Southwest Airlines faces staffing challenge as travel rebounds. (Reuters)
FDA proposes ban on menthol cigarettes. (Medpage Today)
After long decline, oil and gas investing is poised to boom. (Goldman Sachs)