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The World
When Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III declared at the end of a stealth visit to Ukraine that America’s goal is to see Russia so “weakened” that it would no longer have the power to invade a neighboring state, he was acknowledging a transformation of the conflict, from a battle over control of Ukraine to one that pits Washington more directly against Moscow. (New York Times)
Russia told the world not to underestimate the considerable risks of nuclear war that it said it wanted to reduce and warned that conventional Western weapons were legitimate targets in Ukraine, where battles raged in the east. "The risks now are considerable," foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said. (Reuters)
Finland and Sweden are gearing up to announce at the same time in May that they want to join NATO. Both Nordic nations are militarily non-aligned, but Russia's invasion of Ukraine has prompted increasing public support for joining the Western defensive alliance. Finnish newspaper Iltalehti says it believes the leaders of Finland and Sweden plan to meet in the week of 16 May and announce that they will apply to join NATO. (BBC News)
The world’s biggest hotel groups have come under renewed pressure to cut operating contracts in Russia after Best Western and Hyatt became the first to terminate deals with Russian hotel owners. (Financial Times)
Ukraine’s use of drone technology against the Russian onslaught is being keenly watched by Japan’s military, which has been assessing adding attack drones to its arsenal amid a debate on whether such a move would contravene the country’s position of only operating defensive weapons. (South China Morning Post)
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un may harbor ambitions to use his nuclear weapons program to assert control over the entire Korean peninsula, experts have warned. Andrei Lankov, one of the world’s most eminent scholars on North Korea, said the Kim regime’s nuclear arsenal, which is growing in scale and sophistication despite strict international sanctions, had superseded its defensive needs. (Financial Times)
Emmanuel Macron’s victory masks France’s ‘fragility.’ An electoral victory that might seem a landslide in another country — Macron beat Le Pen by 58.5% of the vote — disguises the reality that the nationalist, Eurosceptic, anti-immigration far right is stronger than at any time since the second world war. French society remains deeply divided. Macron himself admitted as much in a muted victory speech in front of the Eiffel Tower. “Our country is beset by doubts and divisions,” he said after walking to the stage to the tune of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, the EU anthem.
Residents of Beijing’s biggest district have resorted to panic buying as orders to undergo three rounds of mass Covid-19 tests spark fears of a wider lockdown. China’s capital city is on high Covid-19 alert following a spike last week, with several residential compounds locked down, even as financial hub Shanghai struggles to contain a month-old outbreak that has battered the economy and has left people scrambling for food and medical care. Of 70 local cases recorded in Beijing since Friday, more than half were from Chaoyang, an affluent district home to some 3.5 million people, including several embassies and multinational companies. (South China Morning Post)
Only 38% of young Americans support total cancellation of student loan debt. Meanwhile, 27% favor the government assisting with repayment options without any debt cancellation, 21% favor debt cancellation for those with the most need and 13% believe the government should not change current policy. While support for full cancellation has increased 5 percentage points since 2020, preference for the government helping with repayment decreased 8 points. (U.S. News & World Report)
Global military spending tops $2 trillion for first time, led by U.S. (Axios)
Economy
Voter unrest over high energy prices and concern over dependence on Russian energy have given Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.) leverage to press for measures promoting more domestic fossil-fuel production in the Democrats’ new climate legislation and potential executive actions. Mr. Manchin’s interests include getting financial and permitting help for natural-gas exports and oil and gas pipelines, as well as policies to make it easier for companies to drill more on federal territory, according to lobbyists and congressional aides familiar with the situation. (Wall Street Journal)
The Biden administration reversed a Trump administration plan that would have allowed the government to lease more than two-thirds of the country’s largest swath of public land to oil and gas drilling. The BLM’s decision will shrink the amount of land available for lease in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, a roughly 23 million acre region that’s home to wildlife like caribou and polar bears. (CNBC)
US dollar hits highest level in more than 2 years: Expectations of tighter Federal Reserve policy and demand for haven assets have boosted the US currency. (Financial Times)
Cryptocurrency hacks are getting bigger. The 2022 pace of roughly a hack a week is in line with last year, but the amount stolen is rising. Since August, there have been 37 hacks in 38 weeks that have drained about $2.9 billion worth of cryptocurrencies. That is on par with the $3.2 billion stolen in all of 2021. Hackers are finding larger exploits amid the increase of decentralized finance, or DeFi, projects. Hackers tend to target new protocols that haven’t been fully tested and vetted. (Wall Street Journal)
ECB executive calls for a clampdown on ‘lawless frenzy’ of crypto trading; Fabio Panetta labels the $1.8tn sector a ‘Ponzi scheme.’ (Financial Times)
Bored Ape Instagram account hacked: NFTs worth $2.8 million stolen. (The Block)
Technology
Twitter accepted Elon Musk’s bid to take over the company and go private, a deal that would give the world’s richest person control over the social-media network where he is also among its most influential users. The $44 billion deal marks the close of a dramatic courtship and a change of heart at Twitter. The deal has polarized Twitter employees, users and regulators over the power tech giants wield in determining the parameters of discourse on the internet and how those companies enforce their rules. (Wall Street Journal)
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and Chairman Bret Taylor told employees that the social network will keep operating as usual -- including with Agrawal at the helm -- until the deal to sell the company to Elon Musk for $44 billion closes later this year. Agrawal told workers that Musk’s transaction to take the company private could take as long as six months to complete. The CEO told staffers there would be no job cuts “at this time,” and when asked about a potential hiring freeze, Agrawal said the company was still working through hiring plans before the deal officially closes. (Bloomberg)
What Elon Musk’s battles with Washington might mean for Twitter. (Politico)
A record decline in Netflix’s share price, precipitated by its poor financial results, has shaken employees’ confidence in the company’s long-term trajectory. It has also erased the value of many employees’ options. People who were sitting on tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars are left with nothing. More people are looking to leave Netflix right now than at any point in recent memory, current and former employees said this past week. Netflix employees also asked leadership to issue new stock grants to make them whole for the losses this past week. (Bloomberg)
Smart Links
People are taking out blockchain loans to pay off their student debt. (MIT Technology Review)
Supergiant seed rounds still rocking and rolling. (Crunchbase)
'The sound of money': Wind energy is booming in deep-red Republican states. (CNN)
Gen Z does not dream of labor: On TikTok and online, the youngest workers are rejecting work as we know it. (Vox)
Lunch with Warren Buffett goes on auction block one last time; most recent auction got record-setting $4.6 million bid. (Wall Street Journal)