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The World
Mind the economic gap: From the beginning, the pandemic inflicted deeper economic scars on Europe than the US. Now their responses to the crisis mean the transatlantic economies are about to drift further apart. The EU’s “output gap” — the shortfall in what the bloc was producing compared with its full potential at the start of this year — was double the equivalent differential in the US, meaning the European economy was creating fewer jobs, yielding weaker demand and generating lower inflation. America will pull further ahead this year, while Europe is held back by less ambitious public spending, tighter restrictions on businesses and a slower rate of vaccinations. (Financial Times)
U.S. retailers and manufacturers slumped in February due to winter storms and supply-chain disruptions, but a broader economic rebound appears poised to accelerate this spring because of the easing pandemic and another round of government stimulus. (Wall Street Journal)
Anxious Americans to pay debt, taxes with COVID-19 stimulus checks: In interviews with a dozen Americans, nearly all say they are so worried about the future that they will use their stimulus checks to pay debt and taxes accumulated in the past year. (Reuters)
Russian President Putin and other senior officials sought to influence the 2020 U.S. election by spreading misleading information about Joe Biden through prominent individuals, some of whom were close to former president Trump, the U.S. intelligence community said in a report. The report does not identify those individuals by name, but appears to reference Rudolph W. Giuliani. The report indicates both Russia and Iran sought to influence the election, but China did not. (Washington Post)
The fight over the filibuster escalated in the Senate as Senator McConnell threatened harsh reprisals if Democrats moved to weaken it, a prospect that appeared increasingly likely as President Biden’s allies began building a public case. After Senator Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, called for changes to reduce the power of the procedural tactic, McConnell bluntly promised a “scorched-earth” response and pledged to grind the Senate to a standstill and derail Biden’s agenda if Democrats took that step. (New York Times)
Biden said he supports changing the Senate’s filibuster rule back to requiring senators talk on the floor to hold up a bill, the first time he has endorsed reforming the procedure. (ABC News)
Brussels will propose the creation of a Covid-19 certificate to allow EU citizens to travel inside the bloc after a push by tourism-reliant countries devastated by the pandemic. Today the European Commission will call for a “digital green certificate” to be created that would allow vaccinated and non-vaccinated citizens to travel to other member states and not be forced to quarantine on arrival. (Financial Times)
The European Medicines Agency head said health regulators remained “firmly convinced” that the benefits of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine outweighed the risks amid concerns that the shots caused blood clots in some people. (Washington Post)
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stressed the importance of democracy and the U.S.-Japan alliance as China increasingly flexes its political and diplomatic muscle across the Indo-Pacific region. Meanwhile, Blinken’s high-level meeting between US and Chinese diplomats in Alaska tomorrow will primarily serve to increase understanding of the two parties’ positions, with low expectations for substantive commitments from Beijing. (Nikkei Asian Review, South China Morning Post)
The U.S. is on pace to see the largest number of migrants crossing its southern border illegally in two decades, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said, addressing growing concern about the government’s response: “The situation at the southwest border is difficult.” Meanwhile, Biden told Central American migrants: "Don't come over."(Wall Street Journal, Axios)
In a stunningly rare discovery, dozens of 2,000-year-old biblical scroll fragments have been excavated from Judean Desert caves during a daring rescue operation. Most of the newly discovered scroll fragments — the first such finds in 60 years — are Greek translations of the books of Zechariah and Nahum from the Book of the Twelve Minor Prophets, and are written in two scribal hands. Only the name of God is written in Hebrew in the texts. (Times of Israel)
The college admission season is crazier than ever — and that could change who gets in. By waiving SATs and ACTs, highly selective schools invited an unprecedented wave of applications, upending the traditional decision process. Interviews with college-admissions officials and public and private high-school counselors point to an epic effort behind the scenes to make tough judgment calls at the highest speed. Colleges send out the bulk of their decision notices in March and early April, but it won’t be widely known how the incoming freshman classes will look until late summer or early fall. Added to the uncertainty will be whether students who deferred enrollment during the last admissions cycle will decide to enter school this year. (Wall Street Journal)
Economy
JPMorgan Chase is planning for summer interns in New York and London to come to the office this year, as big financial firms anticipate a return to something approaching normality. The plan to bring back in-person internships in June is another sign that corporate giants believe a version of pre-pandemic working life is near. JPMorgan usually hires hundreds of summer interns each year. (New York Times)
Five things to watch from the Federal Reserve meeting that begins today. The officials are gathering against an improving backdrop as vaccine rollout accelerates and stimulus is enacted — and as Wells Fargo predicts the 10-year yield could reach 2.25% this year: 1) Better growth, but how much better? 2) What will those ‘dots’ say? 3) Have Treasury yields risen too far, too fast? 4) Are Covid-era capital concessions here to stay? 5) Will the Fed make technical adjustments? (Financial Times, CNBC)
Boris Johnson warned that a cold war with China would be a “mistake” as he faced a backlash from his backbench MPs over plans to build deeper trade links with Beijing. The prime minister said that Britain had to strike a balance in its ties with China and that the government’s integrated review offered a “clear-sighted” approach. (The Times)
The Xinjiang Silence: The American business community is determined not to comment on the Chinese government’s systematic repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang — atrocities the U.S. government has deemed a genocide. But how long can their silence last? The Wire surveyed the 48 largest U.S. businesses with operations in China and asked if they had a position on the well-documented evidence of the Chinese government’s systematic repression in Xinjiang and if they have done anything in response. The vast majority — 88% — did not reply or would not respond to questions that referenced Xinjiang. Indeed, a Costco spokeswoman seems to have perfectly summarized the attitude of the U.S. businesses community in response to The Wire’s questions about the largest persecution of an ethnic group in the 21st century: “Management has no comment at this time.” She asked not to be named. (The Wire China)
Honda Motor Co said supply chain issues will force a halt to production at a majority of U.S. and Canadian auto plants for a week. (Reuters)
Technology
Google will cut Google Play app store fees to 15% on the first million dollars a developer makes on Google’s store per year. After developers cross the $1 million mark in sales for a year, Google will charge developers its standard 30% fee for in-app purchases and downloads. The move follows a similar decision from Apple in December, although Apple’s program only applies to developers which make under $1 million per year from Apple’s App Store. (CNBC)
Uber will reclassify its UK drivers as workers, falling partly in line with a recent court ruling, but probably setting up a fresh round of disputes over what should be considered “working time” in the gig economy. The decision means Uber’s roughly 70,000 UK drivers will for the first time be entitled to holiday pay equivalent to 12.07 per cent of their earnings, and to automatic enrollment in a workplace pension plan. (Financial Times)
The Wikimedia Foundation, which operates the Wikipedia project in more than 300 languages as well as other wiki-projects, is announcing the launch of a commercial product, Wikimedia Enterprise. The new service is designed for the sale and efficient delivery of Wikipedia's content directly to online giants like Google (and eventually, to smaller companies, too). (Wired)
Stripe’s funding round was breathtaking for its size and price of $95 billion, amounting to 2.6 times its valuation less than a year ago. But it wasn’t unique. The valuations of the six U.S. startups with the biggest increases over the last year averaged 3.6 times higher than their prior round. Meanwhile, a Chinese dating and social chat app called Soul is preparing for an IPO likely to value the company at $1 billion or more, riding a wave of interest after U.S. dating app Bumble and a rush of Chinese startups tapping red-hot capital markets. (The Information, The Information-2)
Smart Links
Squarespace raises $300M at a staggering $10B valuation. (TechCrunch)
Vice, BuzzFeed facing valuation cuts in SPAC deals. (The Information)
Tiger Woods is recovering at home after car wreck. (CNN)
Texas' last Public Utility Commission member resigns at Gov. Greg Abbott's request. (Texas Tribune)
Israeli study: Babies born to vaccinated moms have COVID-fighting antibodies. (Times of Israel)
Fortune staff stage day-long strike to protest performance targets and push for diversity measures. (Talking Biz News)
Sometimes the answer is to do nothing': unflashy French duo take architecture's top prize, the Pritzker prize. (The Guardian)
Live Events
Today 12 pm ET: The Problem with Russia: A Conversation with Dr. Fiona Hill. (Register: Harvard Kennedy School)