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The World
‘No Victory Dance’: Veterans of the Afghan War feel torn over the pullout. President Biden’s decision to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11 was met with relief and anguish, frustration and regret among those who served there. Few wanted the war to continue. But finally ending it posed questions that some have pondered for years without easy answers: How is it possible for the United States to win almost every battle and still lose the war? How could the countless sacrifices and small victories leave Afghanistan with no better promise of peace than it had a generation ago? What does leaving say about the value of the nearly 2,400 Americans who were killed? And what does it say about the nation as a whole? “It’s confusing, it’s complicated,” said Elliot Ackerman, a former Marine and intelligence officer who deployed five times to Iraq and Afghanistan. Said Biden: “I’m now the fourth United States president to preside over American troop presence in Afghanistan. Two Republicans, two Democrats. I will not pass this responsibility on to a fifth.” (New York Times, Washington Post)
Anxiety runs deep in Afghanistan's cities as US plans its exit, while NATO announced its forces also will leave Afghanistan after Biden’s withdrawal decision. (Stars & Stripes)
The U.S. government’s recommended pause on use of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine is unlikely to be lifted for at least another week or 10 days. Many members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices said they felt they had too little information to be able to estimate the benefits and risks of the vaccine, or to recommend its use be restricted to people in certain age groups. (STAT News)
A group of 175 former world leaders and Nobel laureates is urging the U.S. to take “urgent action” to suspend intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines to help boost global inoculation rates. (Financial Times)
Red states on U.S. electoral map are lagging on vaccinations. Sweden reported Europe’s highest number of new coronavirus infections per head over the past week and has more patients in intensive care than at any time since the pandemic’s first wave. Meanwhile, India is reeling amid a virus surge, affecting the world’s vaccine supply. (Minneapolis Star Tribune, The Guardian, Associated Press)
Several big tech companies, including Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Netflix, Apple and Facebook, were among a big group corporate heavyweights signing a public statement opposing laws that limit voting rights. It raises the question of whether restrictive laws being considered in red states like Texas will affect the desire of the tech workers to move to those states. (The Information)
The U.S. will announce sanctions on Russia as soon as today for alleged election interference and malicious cyber activity, targeting several individuals and entities. (Reuters)
What is happening in Northern Ireland? Much ado about Brexit. As in Scotland, a majority of people in Northern Ireland (56%) voted for the UK to remain in the European Union in the 2016 referendum. Those who did not were mostly unionists closely aligned with the UK government. The problem is that the 1998 Good Friday Agreement — which ended large-scale sectarian violence — prohibits reinstalling a physical border between Northern Ireland, which remains part of the UK, and the Republic of Ireland, an independent country and EU member state. For UK-EU trade purposes, the de-facto border is now in the Irish Sea between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. As a result, unionists feel trade restrictions have isolated them from the rest of the United Kingdom. (GZERO Media)
A former U.S. senator and two former U.S. deputy secretaries of state arrived in Taiwan, leading the first unofficial delegation dispatched by President Biden, amid heightened tensions with Beijing over the future of the self-ruling island. Meanwhile, the U.S. is urging Japan’s prime minister Yoshihide Suga to issue a joint statement of support for Taiwan amid rising Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific region when he becomes the first foreign leader to meet President Joe Biden on Friday. (Wall Street Journal, Financial Times)
China’s message to America: We’re an equal now. It quickly became obvious in Anchorage, Alaska, last month that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s diplomatic envoys hadn’t come carrying olive branches. Instead they brought a new world view. That is a big shift for Chinese leaders, who for decades took care not to challenge the U.S. as the world’s leader and followed the dictum Deng Xiaoping set decades ago: “Keep a low profile and bide your time.” Now Xi is reshaping the relationship. As far as he is concerned, China’s time has arrived. (Wall Street Journal)
The leader of Angela Merkel’s party has moved into pole position in the race for the chancellorship following an overwhelming vote of confidence from conservative grandees. Armin Laschet is now emerging as the frontrunner to become Germany’s next leader despite his feeble approval ratings and a challenge from his arch-rival on the centre right, Markus Söder. (The Times)
The officer who shot Daunte Wright was changed with second-degree manslaughter, posted $100,000 bond and was released from the Hennepin County jail. Chicago is bracing for protests as the video of the fatal police shooting of 13-year-old Adam Toledo will be made public today. (Minneapolis Star Tribune, Chicago Tribune)
Following the failed Amazon warehouse union vote, polling indicates that labor advocates face a messaging problem. Voters are more inclined to support workers’ right to collectively bargain if the term “labor union” isn’t in a polling question. 54% said they support labor unions, compared to 73% who support workers’ right to collectively bargain. Support also drops among Democrats when “labor unions” are mentioned in the question: 69% support unions, while 89% support the right to collective bargaining. (Morning Consult)
Blue Origin, the rocket venture founded by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, executed what it called an “astronaut rehearsal” of its suborbital New Shepard rocket, launching the craft to the edge of space after having employees board as if they were going to travel with it, then disembarking before liftoff. It was the second time this year that the rocket had launched successfully as Blue Origin prepares for what it hopes one day will be missions carrying paying passengers. (Washington Post)
Economy
A stock-market boom fueled by Reddit-reading individual investors and a burst of companies entering the public markets produced record quarterly profits at Wall Street’s biggest banks. Goldman Sachs posted records in quarterly revenue and profit. JPMorgan Chase notched its highest quarterly profit on record, driven by record revenue from trading stocks. Even Wells Fargo, a minnow on Wall Street, enjoyed its best-ever quarterly profit in corporate and investment banking. The party showed no signs of ending soon. Even after reporting a 73% increase in investment-banking fees, Goldman said the volume of coming transactions in that business at the end of the first quarter stood at a record level. (Wall Street Journal)
Stock market investors valued Coinbase at $75.9bn in its debut on Nasdaq, the first listing of a major cryptocurrency exchange and a moment of validation for the digital asset class some 12 years after the creation of bitcoin. Shares drifted lower through the trading day — from an opening price of $381 to $328 — but even at the close Coinbase had a market capitalisation of $65.4bn. (Financial Times)
Private equity fundraising reaches record high: To date, GPs have amassed roughly $50bn for 58 European-focused funds, a sum more than three times the $18.5bn amassed in the same period in 2020. At the same time, buyout funds kept getting bigger. Still, the average size of funds raised in the first quarter was $771m, above the $649m mark reported in the whole of 2020. (Private Equity News)
The Covid-19 cost of school closures in earnings and income globally: Our findings indicate the economic loss of school closures to be highly significant. We find that school closures are likely to lead to a reduction in global economic growth equivalent to an annual rate of 0.8%. Estimated losses in national income are greater in low- and middle-income relative to high-income countries. (University of Chicago)
Turkey’s new central bank governor has to balance economy with politics: The first test for new governor Sahap Kavcioglu will come at the central bank’s policy meeting today, when money managers expect Kavcioglu to hold interest rates steady this month. Former central bank governor Naci Agbal lost his job a day after raising the rate for the third time. Investors say avoiding a rate cut won’t be enough: The country’s double-digit inflation growth calls for increasing rates further. Turkey also needs to lay out a plan for how it will rebuild foreign-currency reserves and ward off a balance-of-payments crisis that could leave the country unable to pay for essential imports or make payments on its external debt. (Wall Street Journal)
Technology
The upcoming 2022 iPhone lineup will feature two 6.1-inch devices and two 6.7-inch devices, with no mini-sized 5.4-inch iPhone. Two of the iPhones will be high-end models and two of the iPhones will be lower-end models, similar to the current iPhone 12 lineup. Further, Apple plans to include an under-display Face ID system starting with its 2023 iPhones, removing the need to house the facial recognition system in a notch. (MacRumors)
Cybersecurity starts off hot in 2021: 1Q21 saw more than $3.7 billion invested globally into cybersecurity, putting the industry on track to shatter 2020’s record-setting funding levels. (Crunchbase)
Millions of “internet of things” devices using software from groups including Siemens and Microsoft contain security flaws that could be used to compromise government servers or hospitals, new research found. (Financial Times)
The Department of Justice announced the FBI was given approval to access hundreds of computers across the U.S. running vulnerable versions of Microsoft Exchange Server software to remove web shells left by hackers who had earlier penetrated the systems. (Vice)
One of Germany’s toughest data regulators is seeking an administrative order that would stop Facebook from collecting user data from its WhatsApp unit. The regulator in the city of Hamburg is seeking an “immediately enforceable order” before May 15 over concerns that policy changes could lead to the use of such data for wider marketing and advertising purposes. (Bloomberg)
The advertising industry is poised to return stronger than ever in 2021 and beyond, according to several new forecasts. The quick turnaround means that the ad market is recovering faster than it did following the 2008 recession. Beyond the general economic recovery, analysts are also optimistic that in-person activities, like sporting events, live entertainment and travel, will return faster-than-expected, driving marketing opportunities. (Axios)
Smart Links
Zoom fatigue worse for women. (Stanford University)
Universal child care could boost women’s lifetime earnings by $130 billion. (CNBC)
Disney to allow employees to let their hair down – and even show tattoos. (The Guardian)
White House correspondents dinner canceled for second year. (The Hill)
American-JetBlue alliance draws increased scrutiny from Justice Department. (Wall Street Journal)
‘Fat finger’ trade briefly knocks more than £3bn off Barclays’ value. (The Times)
Scientific American has agreed with major news outlets worldwide to start using the term “climate emergency” in its coverage of climate change. (Scientific American)
Live Event
Today, 4 pm ET: Remote Work Revolution, Succeeding from Anywhere. Join Harvard Business School Professor Tsedal Neeley and Dean of Harvard College Rakesh Khurana for a fireside chat about Remote Work. Neeley has been studying virtual and global work for nearly two decades. She will share insights from her new book, Remote Work Revolution: Succeeding from Anywhere. (Harvard Business School — Register)