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The World
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a warning to Russia's invading forces Sunday after the Kremlin accused Kyiv of overnight drone attacks on Moscow. "Today is the 522nd day of the so-called 'special military operation,' which the Russian leadership expected to last for a week or two," Zelensky said in a televised address, according to a transcript. "Ukraine is getting stronger," he added. "Gradually, the war is returning to the territory of Russia — to its symbolic centers and military bases, and this is an inevitable, natural and absolutely fair process." Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Ukraine's Air Force said the drones were intended to impact Russians who felt Putin's invasion was distant, per the Kyiv Times. (Axios)
At least 42 people were killed and over 130 injured when a suicide bomber set off explosives at a political rally in Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Sunday, police and rescue officials said. The blast took place at a gathering of the conservative Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) party, known for its links to hardline political Islam, in the former tribal area of Bajaur, which borders Afghanistan. (Reuters)
America’s Military Trails Russia and China in Race for the Melting Arctic: On patrol in the Bering Sea last fall, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Kimball spotted seven Chinese and Russian vessels steaming through the frigid waters in a double line near Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. The Kimball’s crew identified the main Chinese ship as the Nanchang, one of a new class of cruiser-destroyers that can launch more than 100 guided missiles. The Russian and Chinese ships, which were on a joint exercise, sailed north and east into U.S. waters, sending an unmistakable message about the region’s strategic value to Moscow and Beijing, according to U.S. military officials and national security experts. Russian warships and Chinese research vessels aren’t uncommon in a region that includes the Aleutians, a strategic chain of volcanic islands that divides the Pacific Ocean from the Bering Sea and Arctic Ocean. They were the location of bitter fighting during World War II. One small island city, Unalaska, which brings in more fish than any other U.S. port, hosts the Coast Guard base at Dutch Harbor. (Wall Street Journal)
Study drugs make healthy people worse at problem solving, not better. For more than six months Americans have been struggling to get their hands on medications like dextroamphetamine (better known as Adderall) and methylphenidate (Ritalin). Officially, these stimulant drugs—alongside another, Modafinil (Provigil)—are used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (adhd). Unofficially, the drugs are also popular with devotees of “nootropics”—chemicals that supposedly boost brainpower. Students and workers in industries from tech to finance take the medications in the hope they will improve concentration and ability to get things done. But a new paper suggests that this may be ill-advised. The drugs seem to make people slightly worse at solving problems, not better. (The Economist)
Forecasters expect that by Monday, people in metro Phoenix will begin to see high temperatures fall under 110 degrees for the first time in a month. Already this week, the overnight low at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport fell under 90 F (32.2 C) for the first time in 16 days, finally giving residents some respite from the stifling heat once the sun goes down. Temperatures also were expected to ease in Las Vegas, Albuquerque and even in Death Valley, California, where the weather service said the expected high of 122 F (50 C) on Saturday is forecast to lower to 113 F (45 C) by Tuesday — along with a slight chance of rain. (Politico)
70,000-acre California wildfire crosses into Nevada, is 0% contained: The York fire started in federal lands in the Mojave National Preserve and was first observed on Friday burning near Caruthers Canyon. (Los Angeles Times)
Antarctica is missing an Argentina-sized amount of sea ice – and scientists are scrambling to figure out why. (CNN)
Can AI Replace Humans? We Went to the Fast-Food Drive-Through to Find Out: Chatbots are already working in restaurants across the U.S. Our columnist put the tech through about 30 tests at a Hardee’s—including blasting dog barking sounds and asking some crazy questions. (Wall Street Journal)
Economy
Global investors are poised for days of uncertainty as bond, currency and equity markets absorb a landmark shift from the Bank of Japan to allow bond yields to rise more freely, a decision that analysts said marked a significant step towards unwinding decades of ultra-accommodative monetary policy. Kazuo Ueda, the BoJ’s new governor, announced on Friday that the central bank would loosen its grip over the benchmark 10-year Japanese government bonds, in effect doubling the trading range for the yields of long-dated debt. The shock decision, which the BoJ denied represented a policy change, was tantamount to calling time on a controversial, seven-year monetary experiment known as yield curve control that set Japan’s central bank far apart from global peers, analysts said. (Financial Times)
Lots of US Homeowners Want to Move. They Just Have Nowhere to Go. Locked into cheaper borrowing costs and unable to find a new place that fits their budgets, countless people are opting to remain in their current homes, adding to an acute shortage of available properties. (Bloomberg)
The work-from-home revolution caused a significant quantity of workspace to move into residential neighborhoods. And that alone is enough to significantly raise demand for housing. Take NYC as an example. If you look at square feet per resident and per employee in the Big Apple, the average household fits about 2.5 people into about 1,000 square feet. If one of those people has access to an external office, that provides another 150 square feet of space for working in. When that person works from home, the household is going to feel more cramped than usual unless it expands by about 150 square feet — that's a substantial increase, at 15%. It's no coincidence that new apartments built after the pandemic hit were 10% larger than new apartments built in the previous ten years, per real estate services firm CBRE. (Axios Markets)
How parking makes the housing crunch worse: There's more square footage in the U.S. devoted to parking cars than housing humans, according to Henry Grabar of Slate in his eye-opening new book "Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World." For developers of affordable housing, strict requirements around parking — mandating a certain number of spaces per unit — make it more expensive, often prohibitively so Efforts to convert office buildings into residential apartments — a move becoming more urgent now as offices in many cities stand half-empty — are also stymied by burdensome parking requirements. In Seattle, required parking makes 10%-20% of the cost of constructing a multi-family building, Grabar writes, driving up rent by 15%. In California, it's tens of thousands of dollars extra per unit — a cost paid for by tenants whether or not they drive, he told Vox. (Axios Markets)
Home insurers are charging more and insuring less. The shift comes as the industry tries to claw its way back to profitability, analysts and insurance agents say. Natural disasters, inflation and supply-chain snafus have sent claims spiraling, leaving many insurers in the red this year, despite sharp premium increases. Since last year began, double-digit rate increases have been approved in 31 states. (Wall Street Journal)
Technology
The iPhone 15 Pro Will Have Thinner Bezels in Step Toward Apple’s Dream: Apple designers have long dreamed of an iPhone that is truly all-screen — with no borders around the display and no cutouts for cameras or sensors. With the iPhone 15 this fall, Apple will take another step toward that goal. This year, two of the biggest changes to the 15 line will get Apple closer to that dream iPhone. The standard iPhone 15 models will trade in the notch for the Dynamic Island, while the Pro and Pro Max displays will be made with a new technology: low-injection pressure over-molding, or “LIPO” as it’s dubbed inside Apple. That new process will shrink the border size around the display to 1.5 millimeters (from about 2.2 millimeters on current iPhones). LIPO was first used in the Apple Watch Series 7 to make that device’s borders thinner and increase the size of the display. And Apple plans to eventually bring the feature to the iPad as well. (Bloomberg)
Starlink's near total control of satellite internet is raising global alarms; 4,500+ Starlink satellites are in orbit, accounting for 50%+ of active satellites. On March 17, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the leader of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, dialed into a call to discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Over the secure line, the two military leaders conferred on air defense systems, real-time battlefield assessments and shared intelligence on Russia’s military losses. They also talked about Elon Musk. General Zaluzhnyi raised the topic of Starlink, the satellite internet technology made by Mr. Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, three people with knowledge of the conversation said. Ukraine’s battlefield decisions depended on the continued use of Starlink for communications, General Zaluzhnyi said, and his country wanted to ensure access and discuss how to cover the cost of the service. (New York Times)
Inside Walmart's warehouse in Brooksville, Florida, which is becoming the company's first US warehouse to use automated robotic systems to handle most products. (Wall Street Journal)
The vinyl boom is not going bust anytime soon. In the first half of 2023, vinyl LP sales were up 21.7% from the same period the year before, a robust vote of confidence for the format that has dominated album sales in recent years. That’s one of the findings in Luminate’s Midyear Music Report, being released by the leading data company today. (Variety)
Smart Links
Banks vote to limit accounting of emissions in bond and stock sales. (Reuters)
McKinsey chief plans second term after years of crises. (Financial Times)
Bud Light parent announces layoffs in wake of brand’s woes. (Washington Post)
Germany Warns Its Officials That China Is Stepping Up Spying. (Bloomberg)