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The World
In a day of dueling efforts to shore up allegiances, President Biden wrapped up a three-day trip to Europe with a promise of America’s commitment to its allies as President Vladimir V. Putin warmly welcomed China’s top diplomat to Moscow and rallied pro-war Russians. With the anniversary of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine approaching, Mr. Biden met in Warsaw with leaders from NATO’s eastern flank, acknowledging that “you know better than anyone what’s at stake in this conflict, not just for Ukraine, but for the freedom of democracies throughout Europe and around the world.” At around the same time, Mr. Putin told a boisterous crowd of tens of thousands at a stadium rally that “there is a battle underway on our historical borders, for our people,” just after he tried to shore up his most important partnership in a meeting with the top Chinese diplomat, Wang Yi. Taken together, the scenes created the impression that the world is retreating into two blocs that bear similarities to those of the Cold War. (New York Times)
U.S. Considers Release of Intelligence on China’s Potential Arms Transfer to Russia: The discussions on public disclosure come ahead of Friday’s United Nations Security Council meeting marking one year since Russia invaded Ukraine. It follows a number of closed-door appeals to China—coordinated among North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies—that culminated in a formal warning delivered over the weekend in Munich to Wang Yi, China’s senior foreign-policy official, by a number of western officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly. (Wall Street Journal)
The Biden administration isn’t just calling China out in public. It has embarked on an extensive private pressure campaign to rally allies to its side and make it clear to Chinese officials that the U.S. has proof of their nefarious actions. Over the past few weeks, the U.S. has sent detailed talking points to allies, held more than a dozen meetings with Chinese officials and — most recently — shared new intelligence with both to up pressure on Beijing, according to interviews with three officials and a diplomatic cable obtained by POLITICO. (Politico)
The vast majority of Federal Reserve officials supported slowing the pace of US interest rate rises to 0.25 percentage points last month, according to an account of their most recent meeting that showed the central bank is still determined to bring inflation back to target. Heading into the meeting, some investors were concerned the minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee would show deepening divisions among policymakers over whether the central bank was right to shift down to a more typical 0.25 percentage point rate increase in February after a string of larger rises. However, the minutes from the February meeting showed “almost all” participants agreed it was appropriate to raise rates by 25 basis points, even though “a few” said they would have preferred a 50bp increase or could have been persuaded to support one. (Financial Times)
Joe Biden's "protectionist" Inflation Reduction Act won't help the U.S. counter the rise of China and could create a "single point of failure" in key supply chains, Britain's trade chief Kemi Badenoch warned. Speaking at a POLITICO event, Badenoch — recently promoted to head up the U.K.'s new Department for Business and Trade — predicted the flagship law would not achieve its key aims, and insisted the U.K. is not sitting on the sidelines in the transatlantic tussle over the plan. (Politico)
A major winter storm battered the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest with high winds and heavy snow, forcing hundreds of schools to close, grounding air travel and making road travel difficult - if not impossible - in some U.S. areas. More than 50 million Americans were under winter weather advisories. (Reuters)
It has the potential to be a snowmaker of epic proportions: A brutal winter storm moving through California is slated to drop rain, sleet and snow from the Oregon border down to the deserts near Mexico. Forecasters say “all eyes” are on Thursday through Saturday, when even Southern California could see several feet of fresh powder in the mountains around Los Angeles. The National Weather Service has issued a blizzard warning in the L.A. and Ventura County mountains — only the second time such a warning has been issued, following a similar storm in 1989. (Los Angeles Times)
China provinces and Florida rank among the world’s most climate-vulnerable areas. (CNBC)
Death toll from Brazil downpours hits 48, dozens still missing. (Reuters)
Economy
Some employers are snatching back job offers, blaming the economy. As tech companies and other firms lay off workers by the thousands, some are also revoking job offers — sometimes just days before the start date and long after would-be employees relocated or restructured their lives. Rescinding of offers is not as widespread as layoffs, but the practice could grow if the economy heads into a recession. “If the economy is where people think it’s going to be and we’re in the middle of a meaningful recession, I would expect you’ll see an impact to graduating college students and business school graduates,” said Dan Kaplan, senior client partner at Korn Ferry, a management consulting firm. (Los Angeles Times)
McKinsey plans to eliminate about 2,000 jobs, one of the consulting giant’s biggest rounds of cuts ever. The firm known for devising staff-reduction plans for its clients is taking the ax to some of its own, with the move expected to focus on support staff in roles that don’t have direct contact with clients. (Bloomberg)
Wells Fargo Cuts More Than 500 Mortgage Staff on Strategy Shift. (Bloomberg)
NPR plans to lay off ~10% of its workforce and eliminate most vacant positions, citing lower ad revenue, particularly for its podcasts. (NPR)
Top Biden administration officials tasked with implementing hundreds of billions of dollars in new tax breaks and spending on energy, infrastructure, and manufacturing say they plan to emphasize hiring more non-college workers. “Most of these jobs won’t require a four-year college degree, so that everybody who does a hard day’s work can make a good living,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm wrote in a joint memo shared with Semafor ahead of its public release on the White House blog. (Semafor)
The Biden administration will trim costs under a mortgage program for first-time and lower-income buyers, a bid to boost affordability while median home prices remain near record highs, the White House said. The Federal Housing Administration will reduce the fee borrowers pay to have their mortgages insured by the agency by about $800 a year on a typical loan, or 0.3 percentage point, the White House said. Officials expect the fee reduction to benefit roughly 850,000 home buyers and homeowners in 2023. (Wall Street Journal)
Technology
Images in a graphic novel that were created using the artificial-intelligence system Midjourney should not have been granted copyright protection, the U.S. Copyright Office said in a letter seen by Reuters. "Zarya of the Dawn" author Kris Kashtanova is entitled to a copyright for the parts of the book Kashtanova wrote and arranged, but not for the images produced by Midjourney, the office said in its letter, dated Tuesday. The decision is one of the first by a U.S. court or agency on the scope of copyright protection for works created with AI, and comes amid the meteoric rise of generative AI software like Midjourney, Dall-E and ChatGPT. (Reuters)
Business institutions including JP Morgan and KPMG are blocking the use of ChatGPT while others are instructing their teams to be cautious with how they use the technology because of privacy concerns. Accenture has told staff to make sure they use it “responsibly” and another leading accountancy firm has instructed employees to check with their managers if and how they plan to use it. (The Times)
Tesla said it will establish its “global engineering headquarters” in Palo Alto, California, a sign of cooperation between the electric-vehicle maker and the EV-friendly state it once called home. The company is occupying the former headquarters of Hewlett Packard, Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said in a roughly five-minute live-streamed event with California Governor Gavin Newsom. They offered few other details about the move, and didn’t specify if it would create any new jobs. Shortly after the event ended, Tesla said on Twitter that it was hiring engineering roles in Palo Alto. (Bloomberg)
Mercedes said it has teamed up with Google on navigation and will offer "super computer-like performance" in every car with automated driving sensors as it seeks to compete with Tesla and Chinese newcomers. Automakers new and old are racing to match software-powered features pioneered by Tesla. The German carmaker agreed to share revenue with semiconductor maker Nvidia to bring down the upfront cost of buying expensive high-powered semiconductors. (Reuters)
Meta could cut thousands of jobs, after CEO predicted no more layoffs: Facebook parent company Meta is preparing for a fresh round of job cuts, deputizing human resources, lawyers, financial experts and top executives to draw up plans to deflate the company’s hierarchy, in a reorganization and downsizing effort that could affect thousands of workers. Meta plans to push some leaders into lower-level roles without direct reports, flattening the layers of management between Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the company’s interns. (Washington Post)
Google asks some employees to share desks amid office downsizing. (CNBC)
Less than a month after reporting a miserable fourth quarter, in which revenue fell 32% and the chip giant lost $661 million, Intel said it was slashing its dividend 66%. It’s a logical move given that Intel needs to spend tens of billions on new chip investments in the next few years, yet burned through $9 billion in cash last year and faces another rough year in 2023. But you have to wonder why Intel’s board members didn’t realize earlier they’d have to take this step. In fact, a year ago, Intel was raising its dividend, by 5%, to an annual payout of $6 billion. At that point, Intel had come off what CEO Pat Gelsinger gushed was “a transformational year where we beat expectations on both the top and bottom line.” The personal computer market, a big driver of demand for Intel chips, was booming (Gelsinger said that year showed the “PC is more essential than ever”). Famous last words. (The Information)
Nvidia Forecasts AI Boom, Recovery in Videogame Business After Slump: The graphic-chips company might get a boost from the growing use of AI-powered chatbots. (Wall Street Journal)
Smart Links
Apple Makes Major Progress on No-Prick Blood Glucose Tracking for Its Watch. (Bloomberg)
Japan egg prices surge on bird flu, costs of feed and labor. (Nikkei Asia Review)
Google claims breakthrough in quantum computer error correction. (Financial Times)
Chinese lithium prices fall 30% as demand for electric vehicles weakens. (Financial Times)
Dick’s Sporting Goods to buy e-commerce outdoor retailer Moosejaw from Walmart. (CNBC)