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The World
As early as today, the Biden administration will announce additional sanctions against Russia for the killings of Ukrainian citizens. The administration will expand existing sanctions against Sberbank, the largest financial institution in Russia, and Alfa Bank, one of the country’s largest private lenders. The administration will also announce sanctions against Putin’s adult children. (New York Times)
The U.S. stopped the Russian government from paying holders of its sovereign debt more than $600 million from reserves held at U.S. banks, in a move meant to ratchet up pressure on Moscow and eat into its holdings of dollars. (Reuters)
The EU’s foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell dismissed last week’s high-profile summit with China as a “dialogue of the deaf,” saying that Chinese leaders “did not want to talk about Ukraine”. In a stronger than usual rebuke of Beijing by Brussels’ top diplomat, Borrell told the European Parliament that Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and President Xi Jinping wanted to “instead focus on the positive things.” “China wanted to set aside our differences on Ukraine, they didn’t want to talk about Ukraine. They didn’t want to talk about human rights and other stuff and instead focus on positive things,” Borrell said during a fiery debate on China in Strasbourg, France. (South China Morning Post)
‘We see the storm coming’: U.S. struggles to contain a deepening global food crisis. Russia’s military is pushing further into Ukraine’s wheat fields, which could jeopardize millions of tons of grain set to be harvested in July — threatening sustained shortages in countries across Africa and the Middle East that rely on Ukraine as a major source of their grain and sunflower oil to feed millions of people. The crisis has also contributed to sky-rocketing grain prices, which has made it harder for humanitarian organizations like the United Nations’ World Food Program, to respond; the agency says it needs an additional $16 billion to feed a record 137 million people for the rest of the year. (Politico)
The US, UK and Australia will co-operate on the development of hypersonic weapons, expanding a trilateral security pact designed to help Washington and its allies counter China’s rapid military expansion. President Biden said in a statement with Australian prime minister Scott Morrison and UK prime minister Boris Johnson that the allies would enhance co-operation in several areas, including hypersonic weapons as part of their commitment to “a free and open Indo-Pacific”. “We also committed today to commence new trilateral co-operation on hypersonics and counter-hypersonics, and electronic warfare capabilities, as well as to expand information sharing and to deepen co-operation on defense innovation,” the three leaders said. (Financial Times)
French bank shares fell sharply and bond spreads widened as investors priced in stronger presidential election poll numbers for Marine Le Pen, the far-right challenger. The risk of a Le Pen victory has suddenly come into sharper focus ahead of the first round of voting on Sunday as opinion polls showed her gaining ground on President Emmanuel Macron, although he is still favored to win a run-off on April 24. Shares in BNP Paribas, Société Générale and Crédit Agricole fell by 4-6% in afternoon trading, while bonds were buffeted by the heightened political risks. (Financial Times)
Shanghai added 17,007 new Covid-19 cases, setting a daily record for the fifth straight day as city undergoes more tests. Mass testing found more than 94,000 infections in Shanghai since March 1. The vast majority of Wednesday’s infected cases showed no symptoms of illness, with 16,766 of them being asymptomatic, while 311 showed symptoms. (South China Morning Post)
Coronavirus cases have begun to rise in Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco counties, likely a result of the highly contagious Omicron subvariant BA.2, decreased use of masks and waning immunity. The increases are modest, and it’s unclear whether this a brief hiccup, the beginning of a larger wave of cases or something in between. (Los Angeles Times)
Sinema throws cold water on Build Back Better revival: In closed-door conversations, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) has told donors a path to revival is unlikely. That's dampened expectations Congress will act on a slimmed-down bill before Memorial Day. It also means any revived BBB legislation faces an arduous route back to the center of the Senate agenda. (Axios)
The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report makes it clear that the window to avert the most destructive and irreversible effects of climate change is rapidly closing. It is the third of three IPCC reports that assess the scientific basis of climate change, how bad it is and how to fix it. (Nature)
The report finds that: Governments are acting too slowly, held back by the lobbying efforts of fossil-fuel companies. Greenhouse-gas emissions continue to rise. Wealthy countries must lend a helping hand to the countries that contributed least to the problem but face the worst impacts.
The good news: We have the renewable-energy technologies we need to make the change — and they are getting cheaper. It is possible to pull carbon pollution out of the atmosphere by expanding forests and improving agricultural practices. The economic benefits of limiting warming — including improved health and reduced damages — exceed the cost of mitigation.
Economy
The Fed will begin a “rapid” reduction of its $9tn balance sheet as soon as its next policy meeting in May and is prepared to take “stronger” action when it comes to raising interest rates in order to bring down inflation, a senior US central bank official has said. Lael Brainard, who sits on the Fed’s board of governors and is awaiting Senate confirmation to become the next vice-chair, said that the central bank’s “most important task” was to moderate the recent rise in consumer prices, which had disproportionately burdened low- and middle-income families. (Financial Times)
Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen plans today to warn of major consequences for the global economy as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with both the conflict and global sanctions imposed in response to Russia’s aggression disrupting the flow of food and energy around the world. (New York Times)
Rising pressure on prices is likely to keep inflation at its highest level for more than three decades in many countries and cause long-term problems for central banks, warned the head of the Bank for International Settlements. (Financial Times)
Inflation is making people postpone job changes: People are worried about rising inflation and how that impacts their decisions with regards to major life events, according to a new survey of 2,000 Americans from Edelman Data and Intelligence. 13% of retirement-aged Americans are postponing or reconsidering their plans to retire. 64% think the Fed should be taking a “more aggressive approach” toward dealing with inflation. 19% have postponed or canceled plans to look for a better-paying job because of rising inflation, and that figure is higher for Gen Z (32%) and millennial (30%) workers. (Protocol)
Global venture funding topped $160 billion in 1Q22, marking the first time in a year of funding records that funding fell quarter over quarter. (Crunchbase)
While 1Q22 auto sales are down 15.3% when compared to 1Q21, EV sales are up 38% over the same period. This trend is dominated by Tesla and Polestar. (Tech Crunch)
The pandemic has forever altered many aspects of work, but there’s one thing it hasn’t changed -- how much time we spend just shuffling paper around. White-collar workers devote more than half their day to “work coordination,” which includes following up on things, searching for information and communicating about work, according to a survey by business software maker Asana Inc. While there are regional differences -- Germans devote a bit less of their day to such mundane tasks than Americans -- the results are broadly similar across the globe: Only about a third of the workday is spent doing what we were actually hired to do, and that hasn’t changed much since 2019. (Bloomberg)
Monday was a big day for Google: the start of its three-days-in-office policy. Here’s how Google explains its return-to-work push: (Protocol)
Javier Soltero, vice president of Google Workspace, focuses on the tech that helps people better collaborate at work. The Google Workspace division has a mix of fully remote and hybrid employees, Soltero said, adding that a “healthy” number of employees are eager to go back to the office, though he declined to share exact numbers. When you’re building for the hybrid work experience, you have to live it. “It is truly a walk-the-walk kind of approach,” Soltero said.
At a certain point, he says, bridging the remote to in-person gap is on us. “There’s always a chance that there are parts of the conversation that are missed as people are walking into a meeting room,” Soltero said. “There is, candidly, no technology solution to that problem.” Leaders should focus on the social contract, or norms, that exist in their company. Be deliberate about the way you run meetings, or the digital spaces where certain conversations take place. And make sure that all employees buy into it.
Technology
Elon Musk will join Twitter’s board of directors after taking a 9.2% stake in the social media company. The news sent Twitter’s shares up 2%. “Through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board,” CEO Parag Agrawal said in a tweet. Musk’s term is set to expire in 2024, according to a filing with the SEC. For his entire board term or 90 days after, Musk cannot be the beneficial owner of more than 14.9% of the company’s common stock outstanding. (CNBC)
Uber plans to add long-distance travel bookings to its UK app later this year, including intercity trains, coaches and flights, as chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi reboots the ‘super-app’ strategy he first outlined several years ago. The plan is to expand Uber’s ride-booking app into a one-stop shop for travel that could eventually include hotels. This is aimed at providing a “seamless door-to-door experience,” said Jamie Heywood, Uber’s regional general manager for UK, northern and eastern Europe. (Financial Times)
Uber signs with Yellow Cab SF and Flywheel Technologies to bring all of San Francisco's 1,075 taxis to its app in the coming months, after a similar deal in NYC. (San Francisco Chronicle)
An explosion in software patents within the last 50 years fueled the rise of America’s six major tech hubs, but also siphoned talent from some of the nation’s biggest cities, new research finds. The transition to six major hubs—San Francisco (Silicon Valley), Boston, Seattle, Austin, Denver, and San Diego—brings “significant and long-lasting” benefits, including greater economic growth, global talent, and even more invention to these regions, write William Kerr, the D’Arbeloff Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and Brad Chattergoon, a data analyst at Boston-based Pretium who previously worked as a research analyst at HBS. “Astoundingly, five of the six most valuable public companies in the world in 2020 were tech companies headquartered in San Francisco or Seattle. In response, local policy initiatives to boost innovation abound,” the researchers write in Winner Takes All? Tech Clusters, Population Centers, and the Spatial Transformation of US Invention. The rest of the country wants the jobs that come with such a boost. Some 238 US cities bid for Amazon’s second headquarters, HQ2, before the company settled on Arlington, VA, the researchers note. Fold in the recent rise of remote work amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the question arises: Has the trend peaked? (Harvard Business School)
Hollywood's new reality: Nearly 9 million people tuned into the Grammys on CBS Sunday evening, a very slight improvement from last year's pandemic low. Prior to the pandemic, the Grammys had never seen a show drop below 20 million live viewers. (Axios)
Smart Links
These people lead sustainability within Big Tech. Here's how much power they actually have. (Protocol)
Yen second only to ruble as worst-performing major currency. (Nikkei Asia Review)
Google Maps to add toll road prices, more map details, Apple Watch improvements and more. (TechCrunch)
Tiger Woods is back at the Masters—and says he’ll play to win. (Wall Street Journal)
America's internet is splitting along party lines. (Axios)
Here's what's really going on.
odysee.com/@AussieFighter:8/Evidence-of-%E2%80%98CONTROL-FOOD-to-CONTROL-PEOPLE%E2%80%99---Dutch-farmers---No-farmers,-no-food:e
odysee.com/@Instigator:2/Sri-Lanka-R-Us:f
youtube.com/watch?v=6o02uGWuMD0
And here's what's going on with the "virus" and the "vaccines"
https://youarebeingliedto.substack.com/p/shot
Sorry I'm short worded. I'm just disgusted that this is happening and people don't know about it. and that people are dying and are going to die.
Please tell.
Please.