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The World
The US denied that it is seeking to overturn Vladimir Putin’s regime after Joe Biden appeared to call for the ousting of his Russian counterpart, as European leaders stressed the importance of avoiding an escalation of geopolitical tensions. Speaking in Jerusalem on Sunday, Blinken said “the president, the White House, made the point last night that, quite simply, President Putin cannot be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression against Ukraine or anyone else.” European countries emphasized the importance of avoiding an escalation of the geopolitical situation. (Financial Times)
Most citizens of Ireland want to boost military spending and nearly half want to join NATO in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to a new poll. The findings by pollsters Red C suggest sharply shifting public attitudes on Ireland’s official policy of neutrality. It found that 48% now want to join NATO versus 39% opposed, a record high for this question. As recently as January, a similar poll found only 34% support for joining the transatlantic military alliance. (Politico EU)
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's cabinet drew support from 67% of respondents for its handling of the Ukraine war in the latest Nikkei-TV Tokyo survey. (Nikkei Asia Review)
Russia and Azerbaijan traded barbs over the movement of Azeri forces in Nagorno-Karabakh where a simmering dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan flared into a six-week war in 2020. Russia said it was deeply concerned about a rise in tensions in Nagorno-Karabakh and called for calm after what it said were breaches of the 2020 ceasefire brokered by President Vladimir Putin. (Reuters)
Expectations grow that Fed will deploy jumbo-size rate rises: Economists project US central bank to pick up pace of tightening in the face of worst inflation in four decades. (Financial Times)
In a major U-turn late on Sunday night, authorities in the Chinese financial hub of Shanghai ordered a vast swathe of the city into a lockdown from Monday to try to contain the spread of a coronavirus outbreak. The city government said that from 5am the Pudong New Area – a 1,200 sq km (465 sq mile) zone on the eastern bank of the Huangpu River and home to about 5.7 million people – would lock down for four days of mass testing. The districts of Jinshan, Fengxian, Chongming and part of Minhang must also to go into lockdown from 5am Monday. (South China Morning Post)
A recent poll shows that leaders in Italy, India and Mexico have risen substantially in popularity within their nations. (Morning Consult)
In 1st full year of pandemic, biggest metros lost residents: The exodus from the biggest U.S. metropolitan areas was led by New York, which lost almost 328,000 residents. It was driven by people leaving for elsewhere, even though the metro area gained new residents from abroad and births outpaced deaths. Metropolitan Los Angeles lost almost 176,000 residents, the San Francisco area saw a loss of more than 116,000 residents and greater Chicago lost more than 91,000 people from 2020 to 2021. The San Jose, Boston, Miami and Washington areas also lost tens of thousands of residents primarily from people moving away. On the flip side, the Dallas area grew by more than 97,000 residents, Phoenix jumped by more 78,000 people and greater Houston added 69,000 residents, including Giusti. In the Phoenix metropolitan area, growth was driven by moves from elsewhere in the U.S., while it was propelled by a combination of migration and births outpacing deaths in Dallas and Houston. (Associated Press)
Although it’s still March, a heat wave has brought summerlike temperatures to the western United States, shattering long-standing records. The unseasonably high temperatures also helped to intensify a grass fire that erupted near Boulder, Colo., on Saturday, forcing thousands from their homes. The heat was intense enough to break records for the entire month in parts of the Southwest. Las Vegas soared to 93 degrees on Saturday, while Death Valley, Calif., hit 104 — both March records. (Washington Post)
California bets on an experimental water solution: For two decades, an ongoing drought has left California, the state that supplies some 40% of all the fresh produce grown in the U.S., desperately thirsting for water. To compensate for the shortfall from rain and snow, farmers relied on pumping groundwater from underground aquifers to the point of overuse. Alarmed that the amount of water sucked from the ground vastly exceeds what nature can replace, state lawmakers put limits on groundwater use in 2014. In the seven years since, growers and communities in need of water have been scrambling for solutions to replenish their aquifers. One idea: peeling off floodwaters to intentionally flood depleted farmlands and wetlands. Proponents say this is a cheaper, more sustainable solution than building more dams and reservoirs. (National Geographic)
Economy
Private markets bounced back from pandemic-driven turbulence to reach new heights in 2021, according to a new report by McKinsey. Private Markets Rally to New Heights, a comprehensive analysis of the dynamics and performance of the private investing industry, encompassing private equity, real estate, debt, and infrastructure and natural resources, shows that fundraising was up by nearly 20 per cent year over year to reach a record of almost USD1.2 trillion. In addition, dealmakers were busier than ever, deploying more than USD3.5 trillion across asset classes, while assets under management (AUM) grew to an all-time high of USD9.8 trillion as of July 2021, up from USD7.4 trillion the year before. (Private Equity Wire)
Corporate travel is on the rise: (Protocol)
In China and the U.K., intent to travel has risen by two and 9 points respectively between October and February, according to a new Morning Consult survey.
Half of US adults surveyed by Harris Poll in January reported attending an in-person public event in the three months prior. Only 38% reported attending a virtual event in that same period.
Younger adults were more likely to attend in-person events, with 71% of Gen Z and 60% millennials respondents telling Harris Poll they had, compared to 56% of Gen X and 34% of baby boomers.
U.S. big cap stocks turn into world’s top haven as risk rises. (Bloomberg)
Soaring oil prices have brought Alaska its biggest budget surplus in nearly 20 years, along with a debate in Juneau over how to spend the money. (Wall Street Journal)
BP has invested £3 million into unmanned aviation firm Flylogix after methane monitoring trials in the UK North Sea. The company has been working with BP since 2018 to help cut methane emissions from assets, combining UAVs with AI, satellite communications and methane sensors from partner SeekOps. (Energy Voice)
Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador rattled the country’s financial sector by declaring the central bank’s interest rate decision before the official announcement, again raising fears of undermining central bank’s independence. (Financial Times)
US companies are rushing to repurchase large volumes of shares to take advantage of recent stock market volatility and reassure investors as growth slows. A record $319bn of new share buybacks have been authorized so far this year, according to Goldman Sachs data, with rising numbers of companies using “accelerated” deals to buy large volumes as quickly as possible while their share prices are depressed. There were $267bn in share buybacks at the same point in 2021. (Financial Times)
Companies say they care about DEI. But they’re not spending on it. HR software company Greenhouse recently conducted a survey of HR professionals that shed light on how companies’ investments actually match up with their purported values: (Protocol)
More than 70% of employers say they are using structured hiring to reduce bias in their recruiting, and more than half of them say they have a consistent and inclusive onboarding process.
That being said, more than 50% of those surveyed didn’t adopt hiring processes that promote diverse talent pools; 54% aren’t eliminating biased language in job postings; 64% aren’t analyzing hiring data related to DEI. Less than a quarter offer DEI or bias-related training for managers. The majority of companies surveyed don’t evaluate leaders on DEI efforts, and more than two-thirds of senior leaders at these companies don’t participate in anti-bias training.
Technology
Apple pays out special engineering bonuses worth up to $200,000. For the second time in three months, Apple is paying out special one-time retention bonuses to keep key talent. Last time, the bonuses went out to select engineers in Apple’s virtual and augmented reality and chip engineering departments. This time they went to some hardware and software engineers. The idea is to keep employees happy at a time of soaring inflation, increased recruiting from rivals like Meta Platforms Inc. and a contentious push to get working-at-home staff back into offices. (Bloomberg)
YouTube is the latest company to offer free TV shows with ads. The video giant says you’ll now be able to stream nearly 4,000 episodes of TV for free, as long as you’re also willing to watch ads during the show. Shows available include Hell’s Kitchen, Andromeda, and Heartland, and you’ll be able to watch them in the US on the web, mobile devices, and “most connected TVs via the YouTube TV app,” YouTube said. With the new free TV shows, YouTube is taking on a number of major competitors. One is over-the-air television — by offering free TV on demand, YouTube is likely hoping that you’ll see what’s available on its platform instead of channel surfing to see what else might be on. (The Verge)
How long will the semiconductor shortages last? Several companies highlighted very large backlogs for this year relative to what they can produce. The general view expressed was that new capacity would be needed for supply and demand to come into balance and that this could take some time. As far as the demand picture for these European semis producers is concerned, there are obviously certain industries that their products go into which are rebounding or seeing strong growth — automotive, for example, particularly given the limitation on what was produced during the initial innings of Covid-19. But more broadly across semis there are interesting secular demand drivers, whether we are talking about electrification of the car, the proliferation of the cloud, right through to other areas where semis have become a digital enabler of things like automated driving. And then of course the transition to 5G, as Europe and other economies digitalize, requires a lot of wireless equipment that in turn drives volumes of advanced semis. (Goldman Sachs)
Toronto is experiencing a quiet tech boom. It’s startup apps like Shopify and Wattpad are excelling on the world stage and the fourth largest city in North America, and has been hailed as the second-most future-facing on the continent after New York. (The New York Times)
Live learning, AI and Web3 are coming for ed tech: These courses are disrupting the future of corporate learning and development. (Protocol)
Smart Links
Zurich Insurance removes Z symbol after letter used to show support for Ukraine war. (Reuters)
The Matrix, Speed and other Keanu Reeves movies disappeared from Chinese streaming platforms after the actor participated in a Tibet-related concert. (Reuters)
The plain-text internet is coming. (Protocol)
Tuberculosis cases rose over 9% in 2021 after dropping in 2020, CDC says. (Axios)
Detroit rated as most racially segregated hospital market in US. (Healthcare Dive)