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The World
BlackRock chief Larry Fink says Ukraine war marks end of globalization: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will reshape the world economy and further drive up inflation by prompting companies to pull back from their global supply chains, BlackRock chief executive Larry Fink has warned. “The Russian invasion of Ukraine has put an end to the globalization we have experienced over the last three decades,” Fink wrote in his annual letter to shareholders of BlackRock, which oversees $10tn as the world’s largest asset manager. (Financial Times, Fink Letter)
European Union officials suspect that China may be ready to supply semiconductors and other tech hardware to Russia as part of an effort to soften the impact of sanctions imposed over the invasion of Ukraine. The EU is concerned that China is ready to help President Vladimir Putin’s government weather the economic penalties it has put in place along with the U.S., the U.K. and Japan with particular focus on the availability of high-tech components, according to two people with knowledge of the bloc’s internal assessments. (Bloomberg)
Ukraine is using facial recognition software to identify the bodies of Russian soldiers killed in combat and to trace their families to inform them of their deaths, Ukraine's vice prime minister told Reuters. Reuters exclusively reported that Ukraine's Ministry of Defense this month began using technology from Clearview AI, a New York-based facial recognition provider that finds images on the web that match faces from uploaded photos. It was not clear at that time how the technology would be used. (Reuters)
Inside Ukraine’s online defense: the battle against Moscow’s cyber attacks. As Russian troops massed on the border on January 14, dozens of Ukrainian government websites were defaced with the words “be afraid and wait for the worst”. The co-ordinated hack was viewed by Ukrainian and western cyber security officials as an initial warning that Russia would wage a fearsome digital war alongside a ground invasion of the country. Soon after, a series of major cyber attacks were detected on energy and communications groups — but then just as quickly repelled. A month into the Kremlin’s war, Ukrainian officials have taken solace that critical networks have withstood weeks of cyber assaults, but as one official warned, Russia’s vaster resources meant it could steadily wear down the online resistance. “Our networks are our people,” he said. “And Russia is killing our people.” (Financial Times)
Ukrainian refugees have been welcomed in Europe, with 4 in 5 adults in Germany, Spain and Italy supporting their resettling in their own countries, along with three-quarters in the UK and two-thirds in France. There is less consensus about resettling refugees from Syria and Afghanistan, even as the Ukraine war causes food shortages across the Middle East and Africa and threatens to send a new wave of refugees to Europe. Without major investment in integration, Europe may struggle to manage the social and political ramifications of the largest refugee crisis since the Second World War. (Morning Consult)
North Korea conducted what is thought to be its largest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test ever, the South Korean and Japanese militaries said, marking a dramatic end to a self-imposed moratorium on long-range testing. It would be the first full-capability launch of the nuclear-armed state's largest missiles since 2017, and represents a major step in the North's development of weapons that might be able to deliver nuclear warheads anywhere in the U.S. (Reuters)
A controversial French plan to make the long-term unemployed do up to 20 hours of activities a week or lose their benefits has been dropped after President Macron was pilloried for it by presidential opponents on both his left and right — and faced hostility for the measure from within his own party as he began sliding down the polls. (The Times)
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) told a group of climate activists and energy executives he's open to supporting revised Build Back Better legislation narrowly addressing three issues: climate change, prescription drug prices and deficit reduction. Manchin’s private comments during a closed-door dinner are a clear indication he’s serious about returning to the negotiating table, but for a much smaller version of President Biden's initial $3.5 trillion proposal. (Axios)
Economy
Severstal is on course to become the first major Russian company to default on its debt since the invasion of Ukraine, after Citigroup blocked an interest payment from the company that is majority owned by oligarch Alexei Mordashov. The steelmaker has spent the past week attempting to pay a coupon on a $800mn bond, but has now exceeded a five-day grace period that means holders of the debt could force the company into default. Severstal said that Citigroup, its so-called correspondent bank, had “frozen” the $12.6mn interest payment “due to regulatory investigations”. (Financial Times)
In a time of skyrocketing oil prices and climate worries, small nuclear reactors seem poised to fill an important energy gap. This is underscored by the EU’s consideration of nuclear energy in its green agenda alongside the nuclear industry’s proposal to create reactors that are cheaper, quicker and less financially risky to build than their predecessors. (The Economist)
Just as many consumers are looking to EV’s, the price of nickel, found in many EV batteries, spiked this week. The price doubled to $100,000 per ton on March 8 and swung wildly downard to $31,380 on March 21. In addition to initial price hikes, EV manufacturers are also introducing other battery types and looking to vertical supply chain integration in the future. (Protocol)
Major restaurant chains commit to eliminating ‘forever chemicals’: Restaurant Brands International, which owns Burger King, Tim Hortons and Popeyes, announced plans to phase out these chemicals in its food packaging worldwide by 2025. Chick-fil-A announced a similar commitment on Twitter to phase out these chemicals in packaging by the end of this summer. The companies’ embrace of doing more to stamp out chemicals is in response to a just-published investigation by Consumer Reports that detailed how they found toxic chemicals in a majority of the food wrappers and packaging from chain restaurants and grocery stores that they tested. (Washington Post)
Debt financing could heat up as venture capital slows: Debt financing—which can lessen the amount of more expensive venture capital a startup needs and also lower dilution for founders and earlier investors—seems to be becoming a more popular option, especially as venture funding appears to be slowing down. (Crunchbase)
Montreal-based game developer Kitfox Games has switched to a permanent 32-hour work week after sharing that the four-day shift last June saved their studio. (Protocol)
The Return of Stagflation? While GS expects a soft landing, the risk of a monetary policy-induced recession in the U.S. has risen. “Our baseline remains a soft landing, with the view that the significant increase in the funds rate that we expect should help slow growth to a roughly trend pace,” Jan Hatzius, head of Goldman Sachs Research and the firm’s chief economist, says. “But the risk of a policy mistake has increased as the environment has become harder to predict. The magnitude of uncertainty around many of the shocks we're dealing with today is very large." Stagflation risks, especially in the euro area, have grown sharply. "Stagflation risk is a real concern today,” Philipp Hildebrand, vice chairman at BlackRock, says. “We are looking at a supply shock layered on top of a supply shock. And the nature of the new supply shock — centered on energy — suggests not only that inflation will move even higher and likely prove more persistent moving forward, but also that growth will take a hit." (Goldman Sachs)
Fertilizer prices have soared in recent weeks as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine further exacerbated global supply chain disruptions. Fertilizer is a key component in food production, meaning farmers are poised to face higher costs likely leading to further increases in food prices. Fertilizer is about three to four times more expensive than it was in 2020. (Axios)
Technology
Apple is planning to launch a monthly subscription service by 2023 for the iPhone and other hardware that could tie into Apple One bundles and AppleCare. The move would fit into Apple’s ongoing push towards subscription services as a whole. Apple has increasingly been emphasizing recurring subscriptions like Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, Apple News Plus, Apple Fitness Plus, and Apple Arcade as key new revenue streams for the company. The monthly charge wouldn’t simply be the price of the device divided by 12 or 24 months, but rather be a still-undecided monthly cost, potentially with the option to upgrade to new hardware as its released. And like Apple’s other subscriptions, it would be tied to a user’s existing Apple ID account, with the possibility of bundling in AppleCare or Apple One services as well. (Bloomberg, The Verge)
Intel’s CEO Pat Gelsinger believes that chips are like oil and will increasingly be subject to geopolitical conflict and bottlenecks. He remarked that as oil has defined recent decades in geopolitics, chips will dictate the increasingly-digital future. For that reason, he believes domestic manufacturing could avoid potential problems. (CNBC)
SoftBank is seeking a valuation of at least $60B for Arm when the company goes public, higher than the $40B that a sale to Nvidia would have fetched. (Bloomberg)
Google executives, facing a barrage of criticism from employees on issues related to compensation, defended the company’s competitiveness at a recent all-hands meeting while acknowledging that the performance review process could change. The companywide virtual gathering earlier this month followed the release of internal survey results, which showed a growing number of staffers don’t view their pay packages as fair or competitive with what they could make elsewhere. According to the survey results, only 46% of respondents said their total compensation is competitive compared to similar jobs at other companies. (CNBC)
The EU agreed to one of the world’s most far-reaching laws to address the power of the biggest tech companies, potentially reshaping app stores, online advertising, e-commerce, messaging services and other everyday digital tools. The Digital Markets Act is the most sweeping piece of digital policy since the bloc put the world’s toughest rules to protect people’s online data into effect in 2018. The legislation is aimed at stopping the largest tech platforms from using their interlocking services and considerable resources to box in users and squash emerging rivals, creating room for new entrants and fostering more competition. What that means practically is that companies like Google will no longer be able to collect data from different services to offer targeted ads without users’ consent and that Apple may have to allow alternatives to its App Store on iPhones and iPads. (New York Times)
Smart Links
Record 14.5M Americans signed up for ACA coverage this year. (Healthcare Dive)
Apple’s prepared for a big push into fintech. (Protocol)
Uber will list NYC taxis to combat driver shortage and high fares. (TechCrunch)
Car buyers shun leases as deals and vehicles dwindle. (Wall Street Journal)
Southwest Airlines launches a new, second-cheapest fare. (CNBC)
Match Group launches dating app for single parents. (Axios)