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The World
A growing body of evidence suggests that a massive change is underway in the sensitive circulation system of the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC), a system of currents that includes the Florida Current and the Gulf Stream, is now “in its weakest state in over a millennium,” these experts say. This has implications for everything from the climate of Europe to the rates of sea-level rise along the U.S. East Coast. (Washington Post, The Guardian)
The U.S. carried out airstrikes in Syria targeting facilities near the Iraqi border used by Iranian-backed militia groups. The Pentagon said the strikes were retaliation for a rocket attack in Iraq earlier this month that killed one civilian contractor and wounded a US service member and other coalition troops. (The Guardian)
China set a 15-year transport expansion plan as it seeks to double size of economy by 2035. China’s entire railway system could span 200,000km by then, equating to about five trips around the world at its equator. Additionally, 162 new civilian airports are expected to be added across China by 2035. (South China Morning Post)
Katherine Tai, a former trade enforcer and litigator against Beijing now poised to be confirmed as U.S. trade representative, vows to counter China in a world that she says is "very different in important ways" from when the Trans-Pacific Partnership was signed. (Nikkei Asian Review)
The Dutch parliament passed a non-binding motion saying the treatment of the Uighur Muslim minority in China amounts to genocide, the first such move by a European country. (Reuters)
President Biden held his first call with King Salman of Saudi Arabia, but the official White House description of it made no mention of the imminent release of an American intelligence report that implicates the king’s son, and heir apparent, in the killing of the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi. In the days leading up to the conversation between Biden and the 85-year-old king, who has been in poor health, White House officials had described the conversation as part of a “recalibration” of the relationship, and as part of an effort to send a message that the United States regarded the son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as the wrong choice to lead the country. (New York Times)
60% of U.S. adults have confidence in Biden on foreign policy – fewer than said the same of Barack Obama as his presidency began (74%) but more than for Donald Trump in his first year (46%). (Pew Research Center)
The EU said Covid vaccination passports ‘will be here by summer.’ Israeli research indicates the British variant increases risk of serious COVID by 70%. (The Times, Jerusalem Post)
South Korea warned of a worsening humanitarian crisis and food shortages unfolding in North Korea as leader Kim Jong Un grapples with the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. (Financial Times)
Biden lifted a freeze on green cards issued by his predecessor during the pandemic that lawyers said was blocking most legal immigration. Meanwhile, a federal judge has indefinitely banned the Biden administration from enforcing a 100-day moratorium on most deportations. Texas had sought the preliminary injunction, arguing that the moratorium violated federal law and risked imposing additional costs on the state.(Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times-2)
33% of U.S. adults said sending human astronauts to the moon or Mars should be a “top” or “important but lower” priority for the U.S. government’s space efforts — about 30 percentage points lower than monitoring key parts of the Earth’s climate system (63%) or monitoring asteroids and other objects that could strike the Earth’s surface (62%). Those priorities shed light on a larger trend among adults’ sentiments on space research and exploration: While a plurality (47%) say it’s essential that the United States continues to be a world leader in space exploration, few think it should be a high priority for the Biden administration — and even fewer say they’d want to embark in space travel themselves, even if price weren’t a concern. (Morning Consult)
Economy
Democrats suffered a major setback in their bid to push through a $15-an-hour minimum wage after the Senate’s top rule-enforcer said that the increase could not be included in the $1.9 trillion stimulus package. The decision effectively knocked out a crucial plank of Biden’s plan championed by liberals, and demonstrated the perils of Democrats’ strategy to fast-track passage of the sweeping pandemic aid legislation, part of an effort to steer around Republican obstruction. (New York Times)
Regardless of the ruling, the idea of raising the minimum wage to $15 by 2025 from its current $7.25 is broadly popular. Some 59% of respondents said they supported the idea, with 34% opposing it. (Reuters)
Costco will raise its minimum hourly wage to $16, topping Amazon at $15 and splitting with Walmart, which is keeping starting pay at $11 an hour. (Wall Street Journal)
Insider increases the minimum salary for full-time employees to $60K, increases minimum severance to two months and converts bonus compensation to salary. (Talking Biz News)
Asian stocks skidded to one-month lows as a rout in global bond markets sent yields flying and spooked investors amid fears the heavy losses suffered could trigger distressed selling in other assets. (Reuters)
TIAA is the first company in Fortune 500 history to have two Black CEOs in a row. Thasunda Brown Duckett, the incoming CEO, becomes the second Black woman to earn a major corner-office job this year after Walgreens Boots Alliance named Rosalind “Roz” Brewer as its next CEO. (Washington Post)
Salesforce posted record sales and lifted its outlook for the current year as the business software provider benefits from a broader embrace during the pandemic of software services among enterprise customers. The company reported revenue of $5.82 billion, up 20% from the year-ago period. The company had a net income of $267 million. Airbnb reported $3.89 billion loss in first quarterly report since IPO but beats revenue expectations. (Wall Street Journal, CNBC)
It was a challenging day for many other companies (results don’t include after-hours trading): Snap -9%; Airbnb -9%; Pinterest -6%; DoorDash -5.4%; Google -3.3%; Lyft -5.5%; Zoom -5.3%; Microsoft -2.4%; Uber -4.5%; Amazon -3.2%; Facebook -3.6%; Apple -3.5%. (The Information)
AT&T Inc. agreed to sell a stake in its pay-TV unit and carve out the struggling business, pulling the telecom giant back from a costly wager on entertainment. The transaction would move the DirecTV and AT&T TV services in the U.S. into a new entity that will be jointly run by the new partners. The deal values the new company at $16.25 billion with about $6.4 billion of debt. That is well below the $49 billion—about $66 billion including debt—that the Dallas company paid in 2015. (Wall Street Journal)
Technology
Twitter shares soared after company announces plan to double revenue by end of 2023. Twitter also announced a pair of big upcoming features today: the ability for users to charge their followers for access to additional content, and the ability to create and join groups based around specific interests. They’re two of the more substantial changes to Twitter in a while, but they also fit snugly into models that have been popular and successful on other social platforms. (CNBC, The Verge)
Facebook is discussing building facial recognition into its upcoming smart glasses product and has been weighing the legal implications of the controversial technology. During a scheduled companywide meeting, Andrew Bosworth, Facebook’s vice president of augmented and virtual reality, told employees that the company is currently assessing whether or not it has the legal capacity to offer facial recognition on devices that are reportedly set to launch later this year. Nothing had been decided, he said, and he noted that current state laws may make it impossible for Facebook to offer people the ability to search for others based on pictures of their face. (Buzzfeed News, CNBC)
10 Breakthrough Technologies of 2021: (MIT Technology Review)
Messenger RNA vaccines. The two most effective vaccines against the coronavirus are based on messenger RNA and could transform medicine, leading to vaccines against various infectious diseases, including malaria.
GPT-3. Large natural-language computer models that learn to write and speak are a big step toward AI that can better understand and interact with the world.
TikTok recommendation algorithms. The ability of new creators to get a lot of views very quickly—and the ease with which users can discover so many kinds of content—have contributed to the app’s stunning growth.
Lithium-metal batteries. Lithium-metal batteries, as opposed to the existing lithium-ion, could boost the range of an EV by 80%.
Data trusts. A data trust is a legal entity that collects and manages people’s personal data, offering a potential solution to privacy and security problems.
Green hydrogen. Hydrogen has always been an intriguing possible replacement for fossil fuels, but up to now it’s been made from natural gas; the process is dirty and energy intensive. The rapidly dropping cost of solar and wind power means green hydrogen is now cheap enough to be practical.
Digital contact tracing. Digital contact tracing could not only help us prepare for the next pandemic but also carry over to other areas of healthcare.
Hyper-accurate positioning. While GPS is accurate to within 5 to 10 meters, new hyper-accurate positioning technologies have accuracies within a few millimeters — transformative for delivery robots and self-driving cars.
Remote everything. The pandemic forced the world to go remote. The knock-on effects for work, play, healthcare and much else besides are huge.
Multi-skilled AI. AI currently lacks the ability, found even in young children, to learn how the world works and apply that general knowledge to new situations. That’s changing.
Smart Links
Beyond Meat signs supply deals with McDonald’s, Yum. (Wall Street Journal)
UT-Austin won't require SAT or ACT scores for 2022 applications due to COVID-19. (Texas Tribune)
From Yeezys to Jordans: Inside the secondary market for sneakers. (Bloomberg Businessweek)
Mexico's monarch butterflies drop by 26% in year. (The Guardian)
Spain removes last statue of dictator Franco. (Agence France-Presse)
IOC Australian city of Brisbane on fast track to host 2032 Olympics. (ESPN)
Chick-fil-A's out-of-control drive-thru lines have it facing off against local businesses and battling lawsuits. (Business Insider)