'Deposit Coverage'
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The World
Standing side by side in a show of partnership unshaken by Russia’s yearlong war in Ukraine, President Vladimir V. Putin and China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, began talks in Moscow on Monday with boasts of their close ties and only understated mention of the conflict itself. Though the war and the schisms it has exposed hung over the meeting, the public comments about it from Mr. Xi and Mr. Putin were muted, notwithstanding the cascading consequences of the past year, including Western sanctions on Russia, energy crises in Europe and devastation in Ukraine. Instead, the leaders went to great lengths to flatter each other and project unity in a series of meticulously choreographed events. Mr. Xi is the highest-profile world leader to visit Russia since the invasion, and he arrived for the three-day visit as bloody battles continued in eastern Ukraine and only three days after the Russian leader was cited for war crimes by the International Criminal Court. (New York Times)
Xi’s visit, which will last for three days, has drawn scrutiny and suspicion from the West. The US and its allies have argued that China is hardly a neutral party given its diplomatic and material support for Russia since it invaded Ukraine a year ago. The Chinese leader said that “rational voices” were gaining sway regarding Ukraine, with a growing number of countries in favour of de-escalation and dialogue and against “adding fuel to the fire”, according to Xinhua. (South China Morning Post)
Xi told the Russian president that their countries have “many similar goals” and that “with our cooperation and interaction, we will definitely achieve these goals.” The pair then shared an elaborate lunch including venison and quail, according to Russian state media. Mr. Putin will host a state dinner for Mr. Xi on Tuesday evening. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said China is supporting Russia as it commits “crimes” in Ukraine. (Wall Street Journal)
Putin sees his anti-U.S. world order taking shape: Xi’s visit shows sides being taken, with China, Russia and Iran lining up against the United States, Britain and other NATO allies — in a competition for global influence and for alliances with nations such as South Africa and Saudi Arabia, which seem ambivalent but up for grabs. (Washington Post)
While Xi may consider Putin his “best friend,” he has more practical reasons for aligning with Moscow. Russia remains a key source of oil, arms and military technology for China. It’s also an ideological ally for China in its rivalry with the U.S., with a seat on the UN Security Council, says Alexander Gabuev, an expert on the Russia-China relationship at the Carnegie Endowment. In an article of his own published Monday in the Russian press, Xi called for cooperation to confront “damaging acts of hegemony, domination and bullying.” (Axios)
The U.S., China and Russia argued during a United Nations Security Council meeting over who was to blame for spurring North Korea's dozens of ballistic missile launches and development of a nuclear weapons program. China and Russia blamed joint military drills by the United States and South Korea for provoking Pyongyang while Washington accuses Beijing and Moscow of emboldening North Korea by shielding it from more sanctions. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres "remains deeply concerned over the divisions that have prevented the international community from acting on this matter," a senior U.N. official said at the meeting. (Reuters)
The annual U.S. report on human rights practices released on Monday listed "significant human rights issues" and abuses in India, including reported targeting of religious minorities, dissidents and journalists, the U.S. State Department said. The findings come nearly a year after Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. was monitoring what he described as a rise in human rights abuses in India by some government, police and prison officials, in a rare direct rebuke by Washington of the Asian nation's rights record. (Reuters)
Rising temperatures, natural disasters and irreversible ecosystem degradation are becoming increasingly life-threatening for humans and nature all over the world, top scientists warned in a major new report released Monday by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Efforts made so far to avoid passing a dangerous global threshold have been "insufficient to tackle climate change," but multiple options are still available. "Mainstreaming effective and equitable climate action will not only reduce losses and damages for nature and people, it will also provide wider benefits," said IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee. "This Synthesis Report underscores the urgency of taking more ambitious action and shows that, if we act now, we can still secure a livable sustainable future for all." "Today's IPCC report is a how-to guide to defuse the climate time-bomb," said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. "It is a survival guide for humanity. As it shows, the 1.5-degree limit is achievable. But it will take a quantum leap in climate action." (Deutsche Welle)
French government survived a no-confidence votes over pension reform: Parliament adopted a divisive pension bill Monday raising the retirement age in France from 62 to 64, after lawmakers in the lower chamber rejected two no-confidence votes against the government. But the bill pushed through by President Emmanuel Macron without lawmakers' approval still faces a review by the Constitutional Council before it can be signed into law. The council has the power to reject articles within bills but usually approves them. Macron, who has remained silent since his decision to push the bill through last week, will meet this morning with Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne and the leaders of his centrist alliance. (France 24)
Economy
US officials are studying ways they might temporarily expand FDIC coverage to all deposits, a move sought by a coalition of banks arguing that it’s needed to head off a potential financial crisis. Treasury Department staff are reviewing whether federal regulators have enough emergency authority to temporarily insure deposits greater than the current $250,000 cap on most accounts without formal consent from a deeply divided Congress, according to people with knowledge of the talks. (Bloomberg)
Wall Street bank chief executives are trying to come up with a new plan for First Republic after a $30bn lifeline failed to arrest a sharp sell-off in the lender’s shares. The executives will discuss if anything more can be done for the California-based lender on the sidelines of a pre-planned gathering in Washington on Tuesday, which is being organized by the Financial Services Forum, one of the main industry lobby groups, said people familiar with the matter. Shares of First Republic, which have fallen almost 90 per cent this month, closed down 47 per cent on Monday despite an attempt by 11 banks to stabilize the lender by depositing $30bn last week. (Financial Times)
The Swiss government has come under fire from bondholders and international regulators for its handling of the $3.2bn rescue-takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS. The two banks were forced together over the weekend by Swiss officials in a shotgun marriage that stabilised the teetering Credit Suisse but wiped out $17bn of its bonds, upending the normal priority of investors. The decision to favour shareholders at the expense of bondholders sent a shockwave through already brittle markets on Monday morning, with investors in so-called additional tier 1 bonds fearing that they too could be sacrificed in a similar scenario at another bank. (Financial Times)
President Biden issued the first veto of his presidency, rejecting a Republican-led measure that would overturn a regulation allowing retirement-plan managers to consider climate change in their investment decisions. The bill would have overturned a Biden administration regulation on environmental, social and corporate governance guidelines, or ESG. The bill passed the GOP-led House Feb. 28 on a vote of 216-204, with one Democrat joining with Republicans in support. The Senate on March 1 approved a companion measure on a vote of 50-46, helped by the support of two moderate Democrats from Republican-leaning states, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin and Montana Sen. Jon Tester. Guidelines regarding ESG have been targeted by conservatives, who have been arguing they are part of an effort by progressives to promote “woke capitalism.” Defenders of the regulation say ESG simply adds another factor for managers to consider when making investments. (Wall Street Journal)
Governor Gavin Newsom struck a deal with legislative leaders on a proposal to limit how much profit oil companies can make in California and establish a watchdog to monitor gasoline prices. Under the proposal, authored by state Senator Nancy Skinner, the California Energy Commission would be allowed to impose a penalty on refiners that charge more than an allowable margin for the price of gasoline, Newsom’s press office said in a statement. The proposal represents a shift from a Newsom’s earlier goal to impose a windfall tax on oil companies. It would have required a super majority to be approved. The bill, which needs a simple majority of the Democrat-controlled legislature to pass, would give the watchdog subpoena powers to obtain data and records “that could reveal patterns of misconduct or price manipulation.” (Bloomberg)
Washington prepares for war with Amazon. The Biden administration is planning to take action soon on at least three of its half-dozen investigations of Amazon — moves that could lead to a blitz of litigation to rein in the iconic tech-industry giant. The FTC has been investigating the internet titan on multiple fronts dating at least back to 2019, looking into its abuse of power within its online marketplace, as well as potential consumer-privacy violations connected to its Ring cameras and Alexa digital assistant. (Politico)
Technology
Generative AI’s Next Frontier Is Video: Artificial intelligence has made remarkable progress with still images. For months, services like Dall-E and Stable Diffusion have been creating beautiful, arresting and sometimes unsettling pictures. Now, a startup called Runway AI Inc. is taking the next step: AI-generated video. New York-based Runway announced the availability of its Gen 2 system, which generates short snippets of video from a few words of user prompts. Users can type in a description of what they want to see, for example: “a cat walking in the rain,” and it will generate a roughly 3-second video clip showing just that, or something close. Alternately, users can upload an image as a reference point for the system as well as a prompt. (Bloomberg)
Study: GPT models and related technologies could seriously affect ~19% of workers in the US, with higher-income jobs potentially facing greater exposure. (PC Mag)
Amazon will lay off 9,000 more employees in the coming weeks, CEO Andy Jassy said in a memo to staff. The cuts follow an earlier round of layoffs that began in November and extended into January, which affected more than 18,000 staffers. The latest round is expected to impact Amazon’s cloud computing, advertising, human resources and Twitch units. (CNBC)
Twitch plans to lay off 400 employees to “run our business sustainably” after user and revenue growth didn't match expectations. (TechCrunch)
Microsoft is preparing to launch a new app store for games on iPhones and Android smartphones as soon as next year if its $75bn acquisition of Activision Blizzard is cleared by regulators, according to the head of its Xbox business. New rules requiring Apple and Google to open up their mobile platforms to app stores owned and operated by other companies are expected to come into force from March 2024 under the EU’s Digital Markets Act. (Financial Times)
Scratched EV battery? Your insurer may have to junk the whole car. For many electric vehicles, there is no way to repair or assess even slightly damaged battery packs after accidents, forcing insurance companies to write off cars with few miles - leading to higher premiums and undercutting gains from going electric. While some automakers like Ford and General Motors said they have made battery packs easier to repair, Tesla has taken the opposite tack with its Texas-built Model Y, whose new structural battery pack has been described by experts as having "zero repairability." (Reuters)
Smart Links
Google was beloved as an employer for years. Then it laid off thousands by email. (CNN)
AI makes plagiarism harder to detect, argue academics – in paper written by chatbot. (The Guardian)
Last-minute talks fail, massive LAUSD strike and school shutdowns set for today. (Los Angeles Times)
Deadly Fungus Detected in Most U.S. States: Candida auris infections have grown from dozens to more than 2,000 annual cases in a few years, CDC says. (Wall Street Journal)