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The World
Faced with the second mass shooting in a week, President Biden and Democrats on Capitol Hill called on Tuesday for fast action to enact stricter gun laws, a plea that was immediately met with a blockade of opposition by Republicans. (New York Times)
Boulder shooting survivors describe “listening to him kill everyone you know,” as police identified the 10 victims of the mass shooting at the Table Mesa King Soopers. Victims ranged in age from 20 to 65 and included grocery store workers, a police officer rushing to the scene, and beloved individuals who just happened to be shopping on a Monday afternoon. (New York Times, Denver Post)
Consumer confidence is on the rise. In the latest update to our data tracking consumers' views regarding personal financial conditions and business conditions in the U.S., the index of consumer sentiment reached 99.6 this week. (Morning Consult)
The UK unemployment rate fell unexpectedly in the three months to January, even though the country entered a third national lockdown. After climbing to 5.1% in the previous quarter, the jobless rate fell back to 5%. (The Times)
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy unveiled the largest rollback of consumer mail services in a generation, part of a 10-year plan that will include longer first-class delivery windows, reduced post office hours and higher postage prices. Mailing industry officials have said that substantial service cuts could drive away business and worsen its already battered finances. (Washington Post)
Recognizing that he may fall short of the votes he needs to build a viable coalition after a fourth indecisive election, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refrained from declaring victory in a speech in the early hours of Wednesday morning, and instead pleaded with members of rival parties to put aside personal differences and partner with him to avoid yet a fifth rapid-fire election. (Times of Israel)
A majority of Russian respondents hold favorable views toward China. Russia is deepening its economic and diplomatic ties with China as the two nations draw closer together, bound in part by their shared animus toward Washington. (Axios China, Chicago Council)
Beijing will have the ability to invade Taiwan sooner than current predictions would suggest, Biden’s nominee to lead America’s Indo-Pacific Command said. Speaking in a hearing with the Senate Armed Services Committee, Admiral John Aquilino said that the point at which China’s People’s Liberation Army would be equipped for such a mission was “much closer than most think”, dismissing varying predicted timelines that extend out to 2045. (South China Morning Post)
The E.U. is set to curb Covid vaccine exports for six weeks, a sharp escalation in its response to supply shortages at home that have created a political maelstrom amid a rising third wave on the continent. The new rules will make it harder for pharmaceutical companies producing Covid-19 vaccines in the EU to export them and are likely to disrupt supply to Britain. (New York Times)
AstraZeneca said it would publish more data on its U.S. clinical trial “within 48 hours” after the independent monitoring board that oversaw the study warned that results released by the company were misleading. (Financial Times)
South African and Brazilian variants of the coronavirus that are more resistant to vaccines now account for up to 40% of all new cases in some regions in France. (The Times)
Texas, Georgia make all adults eligible for vaccines, while the UK variant is now widespread in Minnesota. (Texas Tribune, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Minneapolis Star Tribune)
One year into the pandemic, 21% of U.S. adults are experiencing high levels of psychological distress, including 28% among those who say the outbreak has changed their lives in “a major way.” Meanwhile, another survey shows that most students have experienced mental health challenges during the pandemic. (Pew Research Center, The 74 Million)
NASA’s Perseverance rover will first undertake what may be the most technologically exciting part of its mission: flying a helicopter. Packed under the belly of Perseverance, a car-size robotic vehicle that landed on Mars last month, is Ingenuity, a four-pound mini-helicopter intended to demonstrate that flying on another planet is possible. NASA officials announced that they had selected the site for this demonstration of extraterrestrial hovering — just north of where it landed. NASA officials have described this as a “Wright brothers moment” for space exploration, and on Tuesday, the agency revealed that Ingenuity includes an artifact from the first Wright airplane that took off from Kitty Hawk, N.C., in 1903. (New York Times)
Economy
A group of 250 CEOs and business leaders sent a letter to New York’s governor and legislators expressing “alarm” at what they say could become the largest spending and tax increase in the state’s history. Signers of the letters include JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, BlackRock Chairman and CEO Larry Fink, Pfizer Chairman and CEO Albert Bourla, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser and JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes. (CNBC)
The new boss of Citigroup has banned internal video calls on Fridays, granted all staff an extra day off and warned that the convergence between work and home life during the pandemic has become unsustainable. Jane Fraser, who became chief executive this month, announced “Zoom-Free Fridays” and told staff that internal meetings would be audio-only. “I know from your feedback and my own experience, the blurring of lines between home and work and the relentlessness of the pandemic workday have taken a toll on our well-being,” she wrote. “It’s simply not sustainable.” She also announced a company-wide “Reset Day” on May 28, granting Citi’s 210,000 employees an extra day off. (The Times)
Silicon Valley firms in no hurry to open up offices despite easing of virus ban: Several large technology companies including Twitter and Google plan to keep their offices largely closed for months more despite the government allowing them to be opened in a limited capacity. (Reuters)
Robinhood filed paperwork with regulators for a public offering, setting up what is expected to be one of this year’s largest and most contentious listings on U.S. markets. (Financial Times)
Growing demand for electric car batteries will cause prices of the main materials to surge, Goldman Sachs analysts said in a March 18 note. That in turn will drive prices of batteries higher by about 18%, affecting the total profit of electric car makers since the battery accounts for about 20% to 40% of the vehicle cost. (CNBC)
Moody’s upgrades its outlook for higher ed. (Chronicle of Higher Ed)
A giant container ship has run aground in the Suez canal, causing a traffic jam of vessels at either end of the vital international trade artery. The 220,000-tonne, 400m-long Ever Given became stuck in the canal on Tuesday and several attempts to refloat it failed. (The Guardian)
Technology
Intel is challenging Taiwan's TSMC in chip foundry business, fast-tracking efforts to revive the semiconductor giant by mixing increased outsourcing with a commitment to spend $20 billion on new factories that could help address a chip shortage. New CEO Pat Gelsinger said Intel would rely more heavily on third-party chip-making partners, including for some of its most cutting-edge processors, starting in 2023. TSMC shares fell on the news. (Wall Street Journal, Nikkei Asian Review, Reuters)
Facebook’s bullying and harassment policy explicitly allows for “public figures” to be targeted in ways otherwise banned on the site, including “calls for [their] death”, according to a tranche of internal moderator guidelines leaked to the Guardian. They are considered to be permissible targets for certain types of abuse “because we want to allow discussion, which often includes critical commentary of people who are featured in the news,” Facebook explains to its moderators. (The Guardian)
Brands including Ford and Nike are funding long-form branded content for streaming services like Hulu and HBO to reach audiences who no longer see short ads. As streaming video has gained in importance during the pandemic, advertisers have put more focus on Hollywood-level branded content as a way to reach viewers. (New York Times)
Verizon Media Group to rebrand most of its media franchises as Yahoo products and sell subscriptions to those products via Yahoo+, a new subscription platform. Meanwhile, Medium offered buyouts to everyone on its editorial staff, as it shifts focus from its own publications to supporting independent writers on its platform. (Axios, Vice)
Smart Links
Cancer screenings bounced back after steep pandemic declines, Rand report shows. (Healthcare Dive)
U.K. home sales skyrocketed in February. (Mansion Global)
BofA says Covid crisis will delay India overtaking Japan as third-largest economy by 3 years. (CNBC)
Y Combinator widens its bet in edtech in latest batch — 14 companies. (TechCrunch)
As enrollment crashes, universities are reinventing themselves. (Ed Scoop)
Baylor University report recommends changing buildings and statues honoring slave owners; gives pass to school’s founder. (Texas Tribune)
Gen Z is paying double what boomers paid for college — and the gap will only widen in the future. (Insider)