Know someone who would like this newsletter? Forward it to them.
The World
President Biden stood by his comment that Vladimir V. Putin should be removed as president of Russia, but said it was a personal expression of his outrage and not a change in American policy aimed at seeking to topple Mr. Putin from office. “I was expressing the moral outrage I felt toward this man,” Mr. Biden told reporters, rejecting criticism that he misspoke. He said no one should have thought his comments were meant to be calling for Mr. Putin’s ouster. “The last thing I want to do is engage in a land war or a nuclear war with Russia,” Mr. Biden said. (New York Times)
Roman Abramovich, the Russian owner of Chelsea Football Club, and two Ukrainian officials suffered poisoning symptoms in Kyiv in early March after peace talks with Russia, according to three people familiar with the matter. Abramovich’s eyesight “completely disappeared” for several hours while a member of the Ukrainian delegation, the parliamentarian Rustem Umerov, partially lost his eyesight, two of the people said. (Financial Times)
Nokia said this month that it would stop its sales in Russia and denounced the invasion of Ukraine. But the Finnish company didn’t mention what it was leaving behind: equipment and software connecting the government’s most powerful tool for digital surveillance to the nation’s largest telecommunications network. The tool was used to track supporters of the Russian opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny. Investigators said it had intercepted the phone calls of a Kremlin foe who was later assassinated. Called the System for Operative Investigative Activities, or SORM, it is also most likely being employed at this moment as President Vladimir V. Putin culls and silences antiwar voices inside Russia. (New York Times)
Bloomberg halted access to terminals in Russia and Belarus, leaving banks in the region without access to its financial data terminals that have become ubiquitous on trading floors around the world. (Financial Times)
A Google billionaire's fingerprints are all over Biden's science office: Eric Schmidt has long sought influence over U.S. science policy. Under Biden’s former science chief, Eric Lander, Schmidt’s foundation helped cover officials’ salaries, even as the office’s general counsel raised ethical flags. More than a dozen officials in the 140-person White House office have been associates of Schmidt’s, including some current and former Schmidt employees, according to interviews with current and former staff members and internal emails obtained by POLITICO. (Politico)
Google ordered Russian translators not to call the war in Ukraine a “war.” Internal email shows that despite its anti-war stance, the company bowed to Kremlin decrees. (The Intercept)
North Korea is signaling that it’s preparing for a nuclear test, exploiting the U.S.-Russia rift. More work is being observed at the site where previous bombs were detonated. However, punishment of North Korea is less likely as Russia and China oppose sanctions. (Bloomberg)
Biden's new budget ditches FDR-style spending ambitions: The White House is boasting that the president’s budget contains major deficit reduction, a move that Democrats see as calculated to appeal to a handful of centrist lawmakers who hold the pre-midterms fate of the president’s economic agenda in their hands. The budget proposal comes as Biden seeks to revive talks with Senate Democratic moderates such as West Virginia’s Manchin on central elements of his now-defunct social spending bill. That includes universal pre-K, lowering prescription drug prices and combating climate change. (Axios, Politico)
Majority of Americans say they’ve had covid — even more in GOP: 52% of Americans say they’ve personally contracted the virus. That’s up from 40% in late January. The Monmouth poll also reinforces something previous surveys have also surfaced: Those who say they’ve contracted the virus are significantly more likely to be Republicans. Some 57% of Republicans say they’ve contracted the virus, compared with 38% of Democrats. Back in January, those numbers were 50% and 28%, respectively. (Washington Post)
Austin sees spike in COVID transmission rate, a troubling signal after SXSW. (Austin American-Statesman)
A Hong Kong charity has estimated that up to 2,000 children under the age of 10 may have been separated from their parents over the past six weeks after being admitted to hospital with Covid-19. (South China Morning Post)
What's happening at Austin's airport? Abandoned rental cars snaked down the road outside Austin-Bergstrom International Airport on Monday morning and passengers waited in a security line that reached outside the terminal and onto the sidewalk. Some travelers waited in security lines for hours, missed flights or even had to make alternate travel arrangements over the weekend as the airport was unable to handle unusually high passenger traffic generated in part by several high-profile sporting events. Airport officials even took the step of issuing a fuel shortage alert due to a lack of available fuel supply — a measure an airport spokesperson said is becoming more common as the airport gets busier with more flights scheduled. A fuel shortage alert calls for flights to arrive with more fuel than normal in case there is no fuel available for them at ABIA. (Austin American-Statesman)
“We are reinstating our SAT/ACT requirement for future admissions cycles:” At MIT Admissions, our mission is to recruit, select, and enroll a diverse and talented group of students who are a good match for MIT’s unique education and culture. Everything we do in our process is grounded by our goal to find and admit students who will succeed at MIT and serve the world afterward. After careful consideration, we have decided to reinstate our SAT/ACT requirement for future admissions cycles. Our research shows standardized tests help us better assess the academic preparedness of all applicants, and also help us identify socioeconomically disadvantaged students who lack access to advanced coursework or other enrichment opportunities that would otherwise demonstrate their readiness for MIT. We believe a requirement is more equitable and transparent than a test-optional policy. In the post below — and in a separate conversation with MIT News today — I explain more about how we think this decision helps us advance our mission. (MIT Admissions)
As Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill into law, The Walt Disney Company issued a statement vowing to help repeal the controversial legislation. Disney’s public opposition to the law follows an employee walkout in protest of CEO Bob Chapek’s mishandling of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. (Variety)
Economy
Economist Mohamed El-Erian warned that the Fed’s efforts to combat inflation could tip the economy into recession. Investors are watching the relationship between bond yields for clues on how close the U.S. is to contraction. So far, recession risks appear low. However, El-Erian said consumers are facing “a cost of living crisis.” (CNBC)
Soaring prices are changing the way people eat: Cooking oil, chicken and other kitchen staples are increasingly out of reach as fears of demand destruction begin to materialize. (Bloomberg)
China’s Huawei’s annual revenue dropped 29% last year as the U.S. government’s sanctions dealt a severe blow to once-thriving smartphone business. (The Information)
Faux meat, dairy startups big consumers of record foodtech investment: Venture investors continue to show a hearty appetite for startups creating new types of food and ways to produce it, particularly those companies developing alternatives to animal-based meat and dairy products. Investment into foodtech reached a record $12.8 billion in venture investment globally in 2021—double the amount a year earlier. (Crunchbase)
Young women are out-earning young men in several U.S. cities: In 22 of 250 U.S. metropolitan areas, women under the age of 30 earn the same amount as or more than their male counterparts. The New York, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles metropolitan areas are among the cities where young women are earning the most relative to young men. In both the New York and Washington metro areas, young women earn 102% of what young men earn when examining median annual earnings among full-time, year-round workers. In the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim metro area, the median earnings for women and men in this age group were identical in 2019. Overall, about 16% of all young women who are working full time, year-round live in the 22 metros where women are at or above wage parity with men. There are 107 metros where young women earn between 90% and 99% of what young men earn. Nearly half (47%) of young women working full time, year-round lived in these areas in 2019. (Pew Research Center)
Technology
DOJ Backs Antitrust Bill Targeting Amazon, Google, Apple: The Justice Department told lawmakers in a letter that the rise of dominant platforms presents a threat to open markets and competition. (Wall Street Journal)
Researchers identified over a thousand fake LinkedIn accounts with computer-generated profile pictures being used for lead generation and product promotion. (NPR)
Apple plans to make about 20% fewer iPhone SEs next quarter than originally planned, in one of the first signs that the Ukraine war and looming inflation have started to dent consumer electronics demand. Apple also is reducing AirPods orders by 10M+ for 2022. (Nikkei Asia Review)
Apple CarKey expands beyond BMW to Kia and Genesis. I reported in a Janurary edition of Power On that Apple’s CarKey feature, which lets you store your car’s key in the Wallet app and unlock your vehicle, was set for its first expansion. Sure enough, here we are. The feature is coming soon to Kia and Genesis, according to an update to Apple’s website. Now, here’s the bad news. The feature is only coming to three models: the Genesis 2022 GV60 and G90, plus the 2022 Kia Niro. It feels like the team behind CarKey is the one developing the actual Apple Car. (Bloomberg)
Ride-hailing without the traffic snarls? In theory, competition among ride-hailing companies should be a good thing, providing more options for consumers. In practice, having too many ride-hailing vehicles adds to urban congestion. How can cities balance these factors? A new study co-authored by MIT researchers, in collaboration with the Institute for Informatics and Telematics of the National Research Council of Italy, provides a model that shows the extent to which ride-sharing competition clogs the streets — allowing analysts and policymakers to estimate how many vehicles and firms might form an optimally-sized market in a given metro area. Ultimately, the scholars found that adding a standard-sized ride-hailing firm to the market had varying effects on the number of vehicles that would be deployed in an attempt to meet demand. In Manhattan, a new competitor entering the market would only increase the quantity of ride-providing vehicles by about 3 percent. In Singapore, that figure is 8 percent, and in Curitiba, it is 67 percent. This is what the researchers call the “cost of noncoordination” in the industry. “We think it’s positive to have multiple providers,” says Santi. “But if they are not coordinated, there is a price to pay, so to speak.” (MIT News)
Companies buying HP computers and printers can expect to get inundated with sales pitches for telephone headsets in the coming months. HP is buying Poly (formerly Plantronics), which is known for its headsets. In unveiling the $3.3 billion purchase, HP pitched it as part of its plan “to create a more growth-oriented portfolio,” including improving its position “in hybrid work solutions.” Translated into English, HP has high hopes of boosting its top line by hawking more peripherals like headsets to people working at home. (The Information)
Smart Links
FedEx founder Fred Smith steps aside as chief after 50 years. (Financial Times)
Walmart stops selling cigarettes in some stores. (Wall Street Journal)
Museums are cashing in on NFTs: There’s money to be made, though most institutions are wary of getting involved. (New York Times)
Spotify rolls out Covid disclosures two months after Joe Rogan boycott. (CNBC)
Great Barrier Reef suffering 6th mass-bleaching. (Axios)