Know someone who would like this newsletter? Forward it to them.
The World
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced he will end the statewide mask mandate on March 10 and allow all businesses to operate at full capacity: “It is now time to open Texas 100%.” Masks will no longer be required in public for the first time since last summer. Mississippi quickly followed Texas, though the Jackson mayor says the mask mandate is still in effect. (Texas Tribune, Clarion-Ledger)
Houston Chronicle editorial: Abbott plays politics with Texans’ lives. Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins say masks should stay: “Listen to me and the doctors.” Employees at General Motors, Toyota Motor, Target Corp, and Macy’s in Texas will keep face masks on at work. (Houston Chronicle, Dallas Morning News, Reuters)
FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress that domestic terrorism is ‘metastasizing’ throughout U.S. as cases soar. Meanwhile, domestic extremists pose a serious threat to the military by attempting to recruit service members into their movement, according to a Pentagon report. (Washington Post, Axios, Pentagon)
The Supreme Court seemed ready to uphold two election restrictions in Arizona and to make it harder to challenge all sorts of limits on voting around the nation. In its most important voting rights case in almost a decade, the court for the first time considered how a crucial part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 applies to voting restrictions that have a disproportionate impact on members of minority groups. (New York Times)
President Biden ordered U.S. states to prioritize vaccinations for teachers and called for every educator to receive at least one shot by the end of March. He also said Merck would help make rival Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot vaccine, a partnership similar to those seen during WWII — adding he is confident there will be enough vaccines for each adult in the U.S. by the end of May. (Reuters)
The UK variant now accounts for 10% of all cases in the US., while the UK finds vaccines 80% effective at preventing hospitalisations in over-80s. (Ars Technica, Reuters)
Japan, the UK, the EU as well as airlines and music venues are all considering vaccine passports as a way to let people enjoy the benefits of a post-pandemic life while others wait for their shots. They should first look to Israel. What is happening there gives us a glimpse of the promise—and of the difficulties—such schemes face. Israel’s vaccine passport was released on February 21, to help the country emerge from a month-long lockdown. Vaccinated people, or people who have recovered from covid-19, can download an app that displays their “green pass” when they are asked to show it, giving them access to amenities like pools and concert venues (restaurants are not open in Israel yet.) (MIT Technology Review)
Chinese delegates to propose vaccine passports at annual meetings. (Reuters)
China’s and Russia’s images in U.S. hit historic lows of 20% and 22%, respectively. Canada, Great Britain have highest favorability; Iran, North Korea have the lowest. (Gallup)
A conflict over who represents Myanmar at the UN intensified, with the possibility that the country’s ambassador would be clashing with a deputy assigned by the military junta to replace him. UN officials were unable to rule out the prospect that the ambassador, U Kyaw Moe Tun — who is now an anti-junta celebrity — would be struggling to occupy the same seat as U Tin Maung Naing, the deputy, who, according to the junta, is now Myanmar’s voice at the global body. (New York Times)
Americans agree about more issues than they realize (except one): Addressing climate change and preserving clean air and water landed in respondents' top 5 personal priorities for the future of the U.S. — but they believe those issues rank closer to the bottom for "most others." Most people said they care very little about the U.S. being the most powerful country in the world. Priorities differed very little along gender, ethnicity, income and educational lines. Nine issues showed up in the top 15 priorities for both parties' voters. Biden and Trump voters both expressed a sense of urgency to address five: access to high quality health care; safety in communities and neighborhoods; criminal justice reforms; help for the middle class; and modernized infrastructure. The biggest area of difference: Immigration is America's most-polarizing issue. (Axios, Axios-2)
Economy
One in three U.S. house hunters looked to move to a new city in January. Smaller, less dense metros, from Austin, Texas, to Bend, Oregon, are seeing boom in interest from out-of-towners. (Mansion Global)
Available Manhattan office space hits record high once again. (Crain’s New York)
Volvo Cars plans to become a “fully electric car company” by the year 2030, with all sales of the firm’s pure electric models set to move online. To meet its target, the company will look to remove cars with internal combustion engines — including hybrids — from its global offering by the end of the decade. (CNBC)
China is changing ahead with a national digital currency. The electronic Chinese yuan is now being tested in cities such as Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing. No other major power is as far along with a homegrown digital currency. (New York Times)
The new credit card now has its sights on banking: Klarna has raised $1 billion more in funding at a $31 billion valuation this week, the latest sign of growth in the "buy now, pay later" sector. The deal makes Klarna Europe's most highly-valued private fintech company, and second globally behind Stripe. The company is also aggressively moving into the U.S. and other markets. Driving the explosive growth in the "buy now, pay later" sector, besides the pandemic? Many consumers, especially younger ones, prefer not to use credit cards, Klarna's U.S. head David Sykes said. When consumers sign up for Klarna, they have to link an underlying card, and 85% of consumers link a debit card, not a credit card. But Klarna and its big rivals have a grander vision, and are looking to expand beyond providing point-of-sale credit and into other financial services. (Protocol)
Today, the most innovative leaders aren’t the conformers. They’re the bold individualists who carve their own paths. So learning to embrace one’s inner “badass” is the new key to success, say Harvard Business School faculty Francesca Gino, Tandon Family Professor of Business Administration, and Frances X. Frei, UPS Foundation Professor of Service Management. Too often, people are advised or feel pressured to bury the special or quirky aspects of their personalities, recalibrate their speaking or personal styles, or think twice about sharing honest opinions at work in order to demonstrate that they are “a good fit.” But that approach does a disservice to both the employee and the business, Frei and Gino say. (Harvard Gazette)
Mississippi’s plan to phase out the individual income tax: Only one state (Alaska) has ever repealed a broad-based individual income tax. Mississippi and West Virginia are now vying with each other to be the second. Mississippi House Bill 1439, the “Mississippi Tax Freedom Act,” would phase out the individual income tax over a period of 10 years or more, contingent upon revenue availability. In the short term, the bill would dramatically increase the personal exemption so that an estimated 60% of Mississippians would not pay the individual income tax starting in 2022, offset by higher sales taxes — Mississippi’s general sales tax rate would increase to 9.5%, bumping it up to the highest statewide sales tax rate in the country, followed by California at 7.25%. Mississippi’s combined state and average local sales tax rate would increase to approximately 9.57%, making it the highest combined rate in the country, followed by Tennessee at 9.55 %. (Tax Foundation)
Technology
‘This is bigger than just Timnit’: How Google tried to silence a critic and ignited a movement. Big Tech has used its power to control the field of AI ethics and avoid accountability. Now, the ouster of Timnit Gebru is putting the movement for equitable tech in the spotlight. (Fast Company)
Price expectations for Instacart’s public debut just went up, by a lot. The grocery delivery firm raised a fresh round of funding—its third since last June—at a valuation of $39 billion. That’s $9 billion above the IPO valuation some reports last November said Instacart’s bankers were planning. (The Information, Instacart)
Rocket Lab could be SpaceX’s biggest rival. With the announcement of a brand-new rocket called Neutron, the private space company is challenging Blue Origin as the main competition to SpaceX. (MIT Technology Review)
Microsoft unveils Microsoft Mesh, a mixed-reality platform on Azure, and demos a meeting service to let users join virtual rooms using devices like HoloLens 2. Mesh is Microsoft's vision for the future of mixed reality. Microsoft will also add new shared channels, encryption for calls, and webinar features to Teams. (The Verge, ZD Net)
Smart Links
Spotify on track to reach US monthly podcast listenership of 28.2M by end of year and surpass Apple's Podcasts for the first time. (TechCrunch)
40% of college students are ‘addicted’ to their smartphones, and it could be affecting their sleep. (CNBC)
Even occasional smokers are 27% more likely than nonsmokers to suffer a certain type of stroke. (Washington Post)
Astronomers detect extended dark matter halo around ancient dwarf galaxy, suggesting universe’s first galaxies were more massive than previously thought. (MIT)
National Park Service predicts cherry blossom peak bloom period of April 2-5. (Washington Post)
Live Event
Today, 11:30 am ET: Nuclear Safety and Nuclear Governance For the Next Generation. A conversation featuring International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi, hosted by the Belfer Center’s Project on Managing the Atom. HKS Lecturer David Sanger, White House national security correspondent and senior writer for The New York Times, will moderate the discussion. (Register: Harvard Kennedy School)