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The World
President Biden called on governors and mayors to maintain or reinstate mask-wearing orders, saying that because of “reckless behavior,” the coronavirus was again spreading fast, threatening the progress the nation has made so far against the pandemic. Biden spoke a few hours after CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky issued perhaps her most impassioned warning to date about a possible fourth surge of the coronavirus, saying she felt a recurring sense of “impending doom.” Troubling signals abounded: Daily case counts continued their trend in the wrong direction. The seven-day rolling average of infections, which is considered the most reliable measure of daily case counts, rose for the seventh consecutive day, finishing just below 64,000, (New York Times, Washington Post)
Vaccine trial scandal rocks Peru: A clinical trial of COVID-19 vaccines in Peru has sparked outrage and triggered a series of high-profile resignations at universities and in government. Politicians, researchers and some of their family members who were not enrolled as trial participants nevertheless received vaccines — breaching standard protocols. Investigations are ongoing as the country struggles to inoculate its general population with limited doses. (Nature)
UK PM Boris Johnson has urged people to go out and “have fun” as lockdown restrictions are eased and said England was on course for the reopening of shops, pubs and restaurants in a fortnight. (The Times)
Britons could have their faces scanned to allow them to access pubs, gigs and sports events under one government-funded plan being drawn up for vaccine passports. Technology firms with government funding are developing software to allow customers to be scanned when they enter venues and have their coronavirus data checked. (The Times)
Pfizer, Moderna vaccines are 90% effective after two doses in study of real-life conditions. Meanwhile, Canada is suspending the use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine for people under age 55 following concerns it may be linked to rare blood clots. (Washington Post, ABC News)
Sweeping changes to Hong Kong’s electoral system were approved unanimously in Beijing, as the National People’s Congress Standing Committee voted 167-0 to endorse a proposal slashing the number of directly elected seats to Legislative Council. Instead, they will create a vetting body to determine who can stand for election. The Beijing-controlled Election Committee will send 40 representatives to Legco, after expanding from 70 to 90 seats, the city’s sole delegate to standing committee says, as seats apportioned to district councillors is scrapped. (South China Morning Post)
The U.S. is preparing to issue guidelines that will make it easier for diplomats to meet Taiwanese officials by adopting some of the changes introduced by Donald Trump, in a move China is likely to see as a provocation. The limits on contacts between American diplomats and Taiwanese officials had been in effect for decades until Trump loosened them. (Financial Times)
The Myanmar bloodbath signals open warfare on protesters by the junta, as protesters held overnight candle-lit vigils after an advocacy group said security forces had now killed over 500 people since a Feb. 1 coup — and as activists on Tuesday launched a new civil disobedience campaign to hurl garbage onto streets. Meanwhile in North Korea, Kim Yo Jong, the sister of leader Kim Jong Un, slammed South Korea’s president for calling the North’s recent missile test “concerning” and suggesting Seoul, Pyongyang and Washington should not create hurdles for talks. (Nikkei Asian Review, Reuters, Reuters-2)
With the Ever Given freed and on the move, the spotlight is now likely to turn to the investigation of how the vessel got wedged into the Suez Canal, leading to billions of dollars in losses globally. Meanwhile, the world is breathing a sigh of relief over an averted global supply crisis: According to data published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, globalization has caused a steep increase in maritime trade over the past few decades, with the total volume growing from 4,000 million tons loaded in 1990 to more than 11,000 million tons loaded in 2019. Container shipping in particular has boomed over the past three decades, with total shipping volume growing nearly eightfold since 1990. (Washington Post, Statista)
The historic union election at an Amazon fulfillment center in Alabama concluded, setting in motion a vote count that organizers expect will be contentious and take a few days. As many as 5,800 workers at the facility in Bessemer were eligible to vote to join the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union. The hard-fought mail-in election that began seven weeks ago attracted national attention -- President Joe Biden even weighed in -- and saw the union and Amazon engage in a sometimes testy information war. (Bloomberg)
The Biden administration is moving to sharply increase offshore wind energy along the US east coast, saying it is taking steps toward approving a huge windfarm off New Jersey as part of an effort to generate electricity for more than 10m homes by 2030. Meeting the target could mean jobs for more than 44,000 workers and for 33,000 others in related employment, the White House said. The effort also would help avoid 78m metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year, a key step in the fight to slow the climate crisis. (The Guardian)
Delta, Coke face boycott campaigns over new Georgia voting law. (Atlanta Journal Constitution)
Americans' membership in houses of worship continued to decline last year, dropping below 50% for the first time in Gallup's eight-decade trend. In 2020, 47% of Americans said they belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque, down from 50% in 2018 and 70% in 1999. (Gallup)
Economy
A mixed picture of the future of work — Empty office space that tech quickly fills:
A year after the coronavirus sparked an extraordinary exodus of workers from office buildings, what had seemed like a short-term inconvenience is now clearly becoming a permanent and tectonic shift in how and where people work. Employers and employees have both embraced the advantages of remote work, including lower office costs and greater flexibility for employees, especially those with families. Beyond New York, some of the country’s largest cities have yet to see a substantial return of employees, even where there have been less stringent government-imposed lockdowns. Major corporations, including Ford in Michigan and Target in Minnesota, have said they are giving up significant office space because of their changing workplace practices, while Salesforce, whose headquarters occupies the tallest building in San Francisco, said only a small fraction of its employees will be in the office full time. (New York Times)
The tech industry is heading back to the office: U.S. tech companies are starting to set dates for when employees can begin returning to their corporate offices. Some Uber and Microsoft workers will trickle back to West Coast campuses Monday; at Facebook, employees will start returning to the company’s headquarters in early May. Most companies are bringing back workers on a voluntary basis, at least for the initial few months, and many have yet to disclose their plans. For those that have, tech companies often are putting in place policies recognizing that employees enjoyed aspects of working from home and aren’t keen to return to five-day-a-week commutes. (The Information)
Tech employees will find a very different workplace. Daily health checks and sign-ins, no free group lunches, less time in conference rooms and more "prototype hybrid meeting spaces" and "mixed reality scenarios." And definitely more masks. Also fewer perks and more reimbursements. For example, Facebook isn't running its buses for now. (Source Code)
Citigroup poached a senior executive from Goldman Sachs in a bid to hit increasingly ambitious diversity targets. Citigroup named Erika Irish Brown as its new chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer and global head of talent. Brown joins from Goldman Sachs, where she was chief diversity officer. (Financial News)
JC Penney’s interim CEO Stanley Shashoua sees green shoots emerging as department store chain plots post-bankruptcy turnaround. Shashoua cited growth in home goods and athletic apparel — two categories that have outperformed during the Covid pandemic as Americans look to refresh their houses and restock their wardrobes with more comfortable clothing. More recently, Shashoua said, customers have been coming to Penney for Easter dresses and other formal wear — another sign that people are ready to dress up again. (CNBC)
Airlines tap into public markets as travel rebounds: After a brutal year for the travel and hospitality industries, things are looking up with the vaccine rollout. And as the travel industry prepares for a rebound in 2H21, some companies are tapping into the public markets to raise capital and prepare for a surge in demand. (Crunchbase)
Technology
You know how we’ve all been glued to Zoom for a year in an effort to mimic the face-to-face cues of meetings? Zoom might not be the best way to do that. Carnegie Mellon University researchers studied the effectiveness of collaboration and group efforts on video and audio calls, and they were surprised by their own findings: Videoconferencing hampered group collaboration and problem solving, adding “our findings call into question the necessity of video.” (Fast Company, PLOS One)
Stripe invested in Brex rival ramp at $1.6 billion valuation: Ramp, a two-year-old startup that offers corporate cards and software tools for managing employee expenses, is close to finalizing two rounds of funding that will value the company at $1.6 billion. The deals reflect the frenzied investor interest in fintech startups, companies providing technology to make it easier for people to transact, save or spend money. It’s also another instance of hedge funds and other nontraditional private tech investors taking stakes in early-stage companies in hopes of earning outsize returns. (The Information)
The start-up enemies of Wall Street are booming: Times are flush for young tech companies like Stripe and Coinbase, which are having a moment as they upend the financial establishment. (New York Times)
Visa will allow the use of the cryptocurrency USD Coin to settle transactions on its payment network, the latest sign of growing acceptance of digital currencies by the mainstream financial industry. (Reuters)
Substack is raising $65 million in new venture capital funding that would value the company at around $650 million, Axios has learned. Existing investor Andreessen Horowitz is leading the round. Substack, which provides a platform on which writers can publish paid email newsletters and keep most of the revenue, has seen its popularity soar. (Axios)
Nerf (yes, that Nerf) is hiring a Chief TikTok Officer to dream up the company’s marketing for three months, giving one lucky influencer $30,000 and “a massive amount of Nerf products” in exchange for helping Hasbro figure out how to entice Gen Z: “We are looking for a creator who is a Nerf enthusiast, a TikTok extraordinaire, has good comedic timing, and knows how to use a ring light. Is your heart racing? Does it feel like we are speaking right to… you? If you are fluent in this language, this might be a perfect match. We think this job is so cool we were thinking of quitting ours to apply, but we’re still learning the Renegade dance.” (The Verge, Nerf Job Listing)
Smart Links
The Texas Rangers opened 40,300 seats for Monday’s exhibition; only 12,911 fans showed up. (New York Times)
Japan’s Kyoto cherry blossoms peak on earliest date in 1,200 years. (Washington Post)
Here are America’s highest-paid private-college presidents. (Chronicle of Higher Ed)
Media are slashing jobs again as the Trump news cycle fades and economy struggles. (CNN)
A voice game boom is giving kids a break from screen time. (MIT Technology Review)
Facebook and Google partner on undersea cables to link North America with Southeast Asia. (VentureBeat)