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The World
The US is pushing back against efforts by some European allies to offer Ukraine a “road map” to Nato membership at the alliance’s July summit, exposing divides in the west over Kyiv’s postwar status. The US, Germany and Hungary are resisting efforts from countries such as Poland and the Baltic states to offer Kyiv deeper ties with Nato and clear statements of support for its future membership, four officials involved in the talks told the FT. (Financial Times)
Europe is “counting on China” to help end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. That was the message delivered personally to Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Thursday by both European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and French President Emmanuel Macron. Von der Leyen said China, as a permanent member of the United Nations’ Security Council, “has a big responsibility to use its influence in a friendship that is built on decades with Russia”. (South China Morning Post)
Bank of America has cut short an online client conference on geopolitics and apologized to attendees after some balked at what they saw as pro-Russian comments about the war in Ukraine, according to three people who attended the event. The conference was designed as a two-day event beginning on Tuesday, but BofA Securities cancelled three sessions addressing US sanctions on Russia and Russia-US relations. The move came after some clients complained about the tone of comments by speakers from inside and outside the bank during online forums on Tuesday. (Financial Times)
Thanks to the Belfast Agreement, Northern Ireland is a better place. President Joe Biden, Rishi Sunak and other global leaders will soon be in Belfast, marking the deal’s 25th anniversary on April 10th. There is much to celebrate. You can see the accord’s traces in the city’s very architecture: without the fear of bombs, there are glazed structures on nearly every street. You can taste them, too: where once a ring of steel kept out not only bombers but also diners, the Michelin guide recommends 18 restaurants. They have fostered friendship and even love. The Troubles forced people to stick largely to their own communities. Though most still live apart, many mix freely in the city centre. (The Economist)
Israeli fighter jets struck parts of south Lebanon and the Gaza Strip early Friday, in response to an unusually heavy rocket barrage from Lebanon on Thursday that the Israeli military blamed on Gaza-based Palestinian militias with branches on Lebanese territory. The violence was considered the most serious along the Israel-Lebanon border since 2006, when Israel fought a war against Hezbollah, a Lebanese militia, and raised the risk of a wider multi-front conflagration between Israel, Palestinian militias and their allies. The rocket attack on Thursday from Lebanon appeared to be in response to an Israeli police raid early on Wednesday on a mosque at a sensitive holy site in Jerusalem that had prompted widespread anger among Palestinians. (New York Times)
As the Israeli security cabinet met on Lebanon barrage, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was united and the ‘enemy will pay’. Government members call for severe military reaction to attack the army has blamed on Hamas; opposition offers full backing to retaliation while needling coalition for policies. (Times of Israel)
Economy
Americans eager to buy a home this spring, beware: It’s slim pickings out there. The number of U.S. homes on the market is at near-historic lows, which could dim would-be buyers’ prospects for finding a house or condo and fuel competition for the most affordable properties, economists say. As of the end of February, just as the spring homebuying season got under way, some 980,000 homes were on the market nationally, according to the National Association of Realtors. (Associated Press)
The reward for owning stocks over bonds hasn’t been this slim since before the 2008 financial crisis. The equity risk premium—the gap between the S&P 500’s earnings yield and that of 10-year Treasurys—sits around 1.59 percentage points, a low not seen since October 2007. That is well below the average gap of around 3.5 points since 2008. The reduction is a challenge for stocks going forward. Equities need to promise a higher reward than bonds over the long term. Otherwise, the safety of Treasurys would outweigh the risks of stocks losing some, if not all, of investors’ money. (Wall Street Journal)
The IMF’s managing director has warned that the global economy is facing years of slow growth, with medium-term prospects their weakest in more than 30 years. Speaking in Washington ahead of the World Bank and IMF spring meetings next week, Kristalina Georgieva said the world economy would expand at an average annual rate of about 3 per cent over the next five years. The figure is well below the average 3.8 per cent forecast of the past two decades and marks the weakest projection for medium-term growth since 1990. (Financial Times)
UK employers desperate to recruit and retain Gen Z workers are increasingly offering “early finish Fridays” in a bid to fill vacant roles amid an ongoing staff shortage crisis. Online jobs portal Adzuna has seen a sharp increase in postings offering shorter days on Friday, effectively meaning workers can start their weekends a few hours earlier. There were 1,426 job ads on the site citing “early finish Friday” this March, compared to only 583 in the same month five years earlier — before the Covid-19 pandemic upended working life. (Bloomberg)
New York regulators are poised to set the benchmark for crypto firms in the U.S. and worldwide with its licensing regime that the crypto industry covets and loathes for its attainability. Superintendent Adrienne Harris took the helm of the state's Department of Financial Services in January 2022, and has since expanded on the regulator's unique oversight over digital assets. It also oversees banks and insurance companies. NYDFS is effectively "the only prudential regulator [with] virtual asset specific-authority in the country," Harris said yesterday at the Chainalysis Links conference in New York. The regulator handed out its first crypto enforcement actions this year to Coinbase and Robinhood Crypto, but it was its recent action in the banking sector that crypto supporters have called into question. (Axios)
Bosses Want Hard Workers—So They’re Hiring Older People: Some companies are recruiting seniors on the premise that age equals a stronger work ethic. People 55 and older are the fastest-growing segment of the workforce, according to federal data. Demographic shifts help explain the trend—people are living longer and having fewer children—and some retirement-age folks have little choice but to work because of inflation and a weak stock market. But certain businesses are targeting seniors on the premise that age is an asset. The AARP since 2012 has asked companies to sign a pledge to give workers over 50 a fair shot in hiring. Commitments rose 122% last year, compared with 2021. (Wall Street Journal)
Walmart's plans for automating chunks of its supply chain are coming into focus. E-commerce is one of the fastest-growing parts of Walmart’s business, and having positive experiences with delivery is a key driver of customer loyalty. Driving the news: The company this week laid out a timeline for realizing the benefits of its $14 billion-plus automation investments during its investment community meeting. Walmart expects that by early 2025, 65% of its 4,700 U.S. stores will be able to receive products from four new automated fulfillment centers announced last June, a spokesperson confirmed to Axios. (Walmart currently has 31 traditional fulfillment centers in the U.S.). Additionally, 55% of the products that move through the company's fulfillment centers will be handled through the new automated sites — lowering unit cost averages by about 20%, John David Rainey, Walmart’s CFO, said during a presentation. (Axios)
Technology
Google and Amazon Struggle to Lay Off Workers in Europe: After announcing the largest rounds of layoffs in their history, US big tech companies are now learning how difficult it is to reduce headcount in Europe. In the US, companies can announce widespread job cuts and let go of hundreds if not thousands of workers within months — and many have. Meanwhile, in Europe, mass layoffs among tech companies have stalled because of labor protections that make it virtually impossible to dismiss people in some countries without prior consultations with employee interest groups. (Bloomberg)
Walmart said it will add electric-vehicle charging to thousands of its U.S. stores by 2030, on the belief that EV adoption is reaching a tipping point. The company plans to add the fast-charging stations to Walmart and Sam’s Club stores coast-to-coast, more than quadrupling its current network of roughly 280 locations. The pledge will help address a top problem preventing some consumers from switching to EVs — a lack of reliable charging infrastructure. (Washington Post)
Samsung cuts memory chip output on weak demand amid supply glut: South Korean tech giant expects 96% decrease in Q1 operating profit. (Nikkei Asia Review)
AI research startup Anthropic aims to raise as much as $5 billion over the next two years to take on rival OpenAI and enter over a dozen major industries, according to company documents obtained by TechCrunch. A pitch deck for Anthropic’s Series C fundraising round discloses these and other long-term goals for the company, which was founded in 2020 by former OpenAI researchers. In the deck, Anthropic says that it plans to build a “frontier model” — tentatively called “Claude-Next” — 10 times more capable than today’s most powerful AI, but that this will require a billion dollars in spending over the next 18 months. (TechCrunch)
Tiger Global Tried to Sell VC Fund Stakes in Latest Sign of Strategy Shift. Tiger Global Management, the most prolific investor in private tech companies during the recent boom, also invested in dozens of venture capital firms as it sought to forge closer ties to the young startups those funds backed. But in recent months, the New York–based investment firm has been looking to dump some of those VC fund stakes. The firm has been working with banks to sell some of its VC fund investments to firms that specialize in the secondary market for private tech stocks and venture funds, according to a person with direct knowledge and two others who were briefed about it. Tiger partners last year committed at least $80 million to the VC funds, one of these people said, including Better Tomorrow Ventures, Chapter One Ventures and Moxxie Ventures. (The Information)
Smart Links
Tesla workers shared sensitive images recorded by customer cars. (Reuters)
Tornado deaths in 2023 are already more than double last year′s total. (Washington Post)
Sweetgreen Renames Its Chipotle Chicken Burrito Bowl, Ending Legal Battle. (Wall Street Journal)
Dogecoin Falls as Much as 9% After Twitter Drops Doge Meme From Home Button. (Bloomberg)
New Zealand loses appeal to rich foreigners as investor visa numbers plunge. (The Guardian)
Habit-linked brain circuits light up in people with eating disorders. (Nature)
Longevity seekers embraced this drug. But does it actually fight aging? (Wall Street Journal)
Are robot waiters the future? Some restaurants think so. (Associated Press)