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The World
Federal Reserve officials voted to lift interest rates and penciled in six more increases by year’s end, the most aggressive pace in more than 15 years, in an escalating effort to slow inflation that is running at its highest levels in four decades. The Fed will raise its benchmark federal-funds rate by a quarter percentage point to a range between 0.25% and 0.5%, the first rate increase since 2018. (Wall Street Journal)
Powell scoffs at recession talk and stock market noise is quieted. (Bloomberg)
President Biden approved a new $1B military aid package for Ukraine including anti-aircraft weapons and armed drones in order to bolster the country’s defenses against Russia’s invasion. Biden called Putin a “war criminal” for the first time, while the UN’s top court ordered Russia to suspend military operations in Ukraine, but the court has no means to enforce that measure. (Financial Times)
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine invoked the memory of America’s darkest days as he pleaded for more military aid to combat Russia’s “inhumane destruction” of his country, directly challenging President Biden and members of Congress to help by showing a wrenching video of the carnage in Ukraine’s cities. Appearing before Congress by video link from Kyiv, Mr. Zelensky likened Russia’s three-week onslaught in Ukraine to Japan’s World War II air assault on Pearl Harbor, when “your sky was black from the planes attacking you,” and to Sept. 11, when “innocent people were attacked, attacked from the air.” Dressed in an olive green T-shirt and seated next to a Ukrainian flag, he urged the United States and its allies to fulfill a moral duty by imposing a no-fly zone over his country to prevent Russian attacks from the air. “I call on you to do more,” Mr. Zelensky said, describing the conflict raging in Ukraine as an assault on the world’s civilized nations. Speaking directly to Mr. Biden, he added: “I wish you to be the leader of the world. Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace.” (New York Times)
Australian PM Scott Morrison warned China of potential sanctions if Beijing helps arm Russia. Morrison said Australia would move in lockstep with its allies to sanction China if it has provided military support to Russia in its war with Ukraine. (South China Morning Post)
Russia’s brain drain becomes a stampede for the exits. (Bloomberg)
Top auction houses cancel Russian art sales in London. (Reuters)
Citigroup will provide travel benefits to facilitate access to abortion clinics for employees in Texas — where it has more than 8,500 employees — and other states with restrictive laws. "In response to changes in reproductive healthcare laws in certain states in the U.S., beginning in 2022 we provide travel benefits to facilitate access to adequate resources," Citi said in a letter to shareholders as part of its annual proxy statement. Citi's new policy covers employees' expenses when traveling to seek an abortion, including plane tickets and hotels. (CNN, Dallas Morning News)
Starbucks wants to ditch those disposable cups for good and is experimenting with reusable cup program in several markets, with goal of fewer single-use and plastic cups by 2025. (Wall Street Journal)
Wastewater monitoring suggests covid cases are rising again in many parts of the US. (Bloomberg)
Thousands of Japanese households remained without power as companies worked to assess damage the morning after a powerful quake hit the northeast coast of Japan, leaving at least four dead and nearly 100 injured, some seriously. The magnitude 7.4 quake, which struck shortly before midnight on Wednesday and revived memories of the March 11, 2011 disaster. (Reuters, Nikkei Asia Review)
Walmart wants to hire tens of thousands of workers by the end of April as the country’s largest private employer pushes to expand its retail and other businesses in the midst of a tight labor market. The retail chain is seeking around 50,000 workers in the U.S. in the current quarter, the company said, at a time of year when many retailers pull back on hiring following the holiday shopping season. Many of those workers will fill store roles, but Walmart also aims to add staff in new business areas such as health and wellness and advertising. (Wall Street Journal)
Teachers are quitting in droves, and burnout isn’t the only culprit. Heavy regulation, worsened by pandemic, is also driving an exodus of more than half a million from the field since 2020. There has been a net loss of 600,000 educators in the U.S. since January of 2020, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. And in a recent survey by the N.E.A., 55% of teachers said they are planning to leave the field. (Harvard Gazette)
More than 200 founders, CEOs and investors have formed a coalition called Organizations for Pay Equity Now, which has the goal of eliminating the gender pay gap among pre-IPO start-ups by 2027. The group’s members pledge to reduce gender pay gaps by 60% in the group’s first year of operation. One of their primary barriers is access to compensation data. (NBC News)
Economy
Where CEOs stand on Russia, the Fed, and the Pandemic: A new survey of more than 80 CEOs and Board Directors, many at companies with more than $1 billion in revenue, found that Russia is the top policy priority they want the President and Congress to address this year. Russia concerns superseded inflation and strengthening the economy, which follow closely behind. More than two-thirds of the surveyed business leaders view Russia as the biggest policy priority for 2022; simultaneously, roughly 67% of respondents agree with the President’s handling of the situation in Ukraine. Closely related to the primacy of Russia on the list of concerns and the disruptions it is causing in the global and domestic economy, more than 80% of surveyed business leaders agree the Federal Reserve needs to move faster on inflation. On the pandemic front, the vast majority of respondents — over 90% —believe the nation is ready to treat COVID-19 as an endemic virus. What’s more, the results reveal mixed feelings from corporate America about the success of vaccination and testing mandates for companies with more than 100 employees: 38% said the mandates did not help nor hurt vaccination rates in the workplace, and only 7% said the vaccination mandates helped a great deal. (Conference Board)
The IMF’s executive board has suspended the ceremonial role of “dean”, which was held by Russia’s representative Aleksei Mozhin, following pressure from top shareholders at the multilateral lender including the US, UK and Canada. (Financial Times)
European Union states have given initial approval to pushing firms to appoint women to at least 40% of non-executive director roles or 33% of all board jobs by 2027, the latest attempt to advance a draft law that has been stalled for a decade. The proposed legislation would apply to companies that are listed or have at least 250 employees, with estimates suggesting it could affect some 2,300 firms in the bloc of 450 million people. (Reuters)
Six months in, El Salvador’s bitcoin gamble is crumbling: As El Salvador prepares to launch its 'Bitcoin bond', interviews with citizens, economists and technologists reveal cracks in the country's crypto revolution. (Rest of World)
U.S. egg prices rise as a deadly bird flue strikes ahead of Easter. The highly pathogenic avian influenza is back in the U.S., forcing farmers to cull flocks and pushing up egg prices at a time of rampant food price increases. (Bloomberg)
Lyft to charge 55 cents as fuel surcharge due to rising gas prices. (Reuters)
In light of rising gas prices, 22% of U.S. adult commuters say they will work from home more often to limit the amount of driving they have to do. Here’s how it breaks down by income: (Civic Science)
Technology
Executives from Facebook parent Meta Platforms, TikTok and other big tech companies would face the prospect of jail time under sweeping new legislation proposed by the U.K. government that aims to regulate internet content in the country for the first time. Under the Online Safety Bill, to be introduced today, tech executives may face criminal prosecution if they fail to comply with decisions made by the regulator in charge of enforcing the law. That penalty would kick in two months after the legislation, if passed, comes into effect. That’s a more aggressive timeline than the two years mapped out in draft proposals last year. (The Information)
Mark Zuckerburg confirmed that NFT’s are coming to Instagram. The Meta CEO shared that users will be able to display their own and potentially mint new ones on the platform. (Engadget)
Google Search data reveals that interest in the metaverse and NFT’s are dropping off substantially in recent weeks. In particular, searches for “metaverse” peaked when Facebook changed its name to Meta and began to evangelize an increasingly-digital future. (Forbes)
An internal survey has revealed that Google employees do not feel their pay is fair or competitive. While Googlers were largely happy with the company’s pursuit of its mission and values, compensation, promotions and achieving career goals were among top concerns. (Protocol)
Apple iPad Air (2022) Review: It’s the nice one. The new iPad Air is a blend of familiar features with predictable results. (The Verge)
European regulators approved Amazon’s bid to purchase MGM because its catalog isn’t “must-have content”. If the FTC approves the sale, Amazon will add the media company’s catalog to Prime Video for $8.45 billion. (Protocol)
The Russian government has in the last couple of years increased their attempts to censor Google. Since 2016, requests to remove content from Google Search, Google News, the Google app store and YouTube, among others, have soared, reaching highs in 2018 in the wake of stricter cyber laws being implemented and in 2020/2021 in the aftermath of the poisoning of opposition politician Alexey Navalny by Russian government operatives. In the first half of 2021, the latest available from Google Transparency Reports, Russia filed close to 19,000 requests for more than 200,000 items to be removed. Depending on national law, governments can approach Google in regard to items that they want removed from the web. Reasons can include copyright infringements, defamation, fraud, hate speech or content deemed obscene. Yet, which specific offenses fall under these categories again vary depending on legislation in the respective country. A court order is another way in which governments can approach Google to ask for content to be taken off the web. (Statista)
Smart Links
Brazil forecast to raise interest rates further in effort to tame inflation. (Financial Times)
House-flipping tech powers a boom in single-family rentals. (Bloomberg)
Women represent a third of onscreen population in film. (The Hollywood Reporter)
One-third of nurses plan to quit their jobs by end of 2022. (Healthcare Dive)
FC Barcelona agree to $310M sponsorship deal with Spotify, will rebrand stadium as 'Spotify Camp Nou'. (CBS Sports)
Chris Cuomo hits back at CNN “smear campaign” with $125M arbitration demand. (Deadline)
Stanford doctors answer Daylight Savings Time and other sleep questions. (Stanford Medicine)