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The World
EU leaders accused Moscow of “blackmail” over gas exports after Russia’s state-owned Gazprom suspended supplies to Poland and Bulgaria, sending prices as much as 20% higher. The two nations are the first EU states to have supplies from Russia cut since Moscow last month threatened to withhold gas exports unless it was paid in roubles. Russia made the demand after the west placed sanctions on the Kremlin for its invasion of Ukraine, but the EU said it would breach the terms of contracts. (Financial Times)
UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss fears Russia’s war on Ukraine will last a decade and warns other countries could be invaded. Truss also warned China that failure to play by global rules would cut short its rise as a superpower, and said the West should ensure that Taiwan can defend itself. (The Times, Reuters)
Japan’s ruling party is proposing to double the defense budget to about £86 billion, breaking restrictions imposed after the Second World War as fears grow of threats from China and Russia. The historic move would mean military spending rising to 2 per cent of GDP, the benchmark set by Nato members, and will be welcomed by Washington after two decades of US pressure. (The Times)
Japan has unveiled a 6.2 trillion yen ($48 billion dollar) emergency economic package to soften the impact of the war in Ukraine. The package includes cash handouts of 50,000 yen per child for low-income households, subsidies for oil wholesalers and support for small and medium-sized companies. (Kyodo News)
The European Commission said that between 60% and 80% of the EU population was estimated to have been infected with COVID-19, as the bloc enters a post-emergency phase in which mass reporting of cases was no longer necessary. (Reuters)
A federal judge in Louisiana issued a temporary restraining order against the Biden administration forbidding it from moving ahead with its plan to end Title 42, the pandemic-era border policy. (Wall Street Journal)
McKinsey’s managing partner pushed back against allegations that the consultancy breached conflict of interest rules by advising opioids producers on how to “turbocharge” sales while also working for US health regulators seeking to tackle a deadly painkiller overdose epidemic. Bob Sternfels told a US congressional committee that he regretted McKinsey did not act sooner to cut ties with opioid producers and help solve a crisis that has led to more than 500,000 American deaths in a decade. But he rejected the interim findings of a congressional report that suggested the consultancy’s work “appears potentially” to have violated rules for federal contractors that require disclosures of potential conflicts of interest. (Financial Times)
Hybrid work is just not working well for most women: Women fear retaliation for their hybrid work structures, an arrangement that’s often sold as a boon for work-life flexibility. Of the 44% of women surveyed by Deloitte who work in some form of a hybrid work structure, almost two-thirds report that their employers haven’t set clear expectations around hybrid work, and 94% fear that asking for a more flexible work schedule will hurt their chance for a promotion. (Fortune)
Economy
As it has in every year since 2001, Texas came in first in Chief Executive’s 2022 Best & Worst States for Business survey. The state’s combination of a fast-growth population and a low-tax, low-regulation business climate is proven catnip for companies. That’s unlikely to change, even as Gov. Greg Abbott has stressed some corporate sensibilities in recent weeks by snarling supply chains with an order for state inspection of commercial trucks coming from Mexico. Worth remembering: The state’s faltering electrical grid resulted in a similar tsunami of criticism last year, but that did little to chill the state’s reputation or ranking among CEOs this year. Number two—once again—is Florida. The poll was conducted before the Disney battle began, so no, the publication can’t answer whether Disney War II has or hasn’t raised alarms with other CEOs. Rounding out the top 5: Tennessee, Arizona (which moved up sharply this year) and North Carolina. (Chief Executive)
The big story right now, though, is in the Midwest. As our Dale Buss reports, No. 6 Indiana and No. 7 Ohio have led a relentless years-long rise in the rankings by Midwestern states including Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin and Missouri. We expect the trend will continue, thanks to chips and EVs, pragmatic politics, seismic shifts in manufacturing and a deep rethink of the global supply chain.
JPMorgan employees describe the 'fear of God' and 'panic' as the company tracks their office attendance: JPMorgan has started tracking staffers' office attendance, and employees say it's creating an atmosphere of mistrust and panic. Insider reported Wednesday that the banking giant has taken to monitoring employee ID swipes in order to enforce its return-to-office policies, citing four people with direct knowledge of the program. This data helps generate reports that are then used to enforce in-office quotas. (Insider)
The CEO of Standard Chartered believes it’s ‘ridiculous and naive’ to think fossil fuel production can be halted without any consequences. He remarked that what could be good for the climate could have disastrous implications for “wars, revolutions and human life”. (NBC News)
American institutional investors are pouring billions of dollars of fresh capital into some of China’s top venture capital firms despite rising geopolitical tensions between the two nations and regulatory attacks that hurt China’s biggest public tech stocks and some private companies over the past year. The investors are betting that new investments in sectors such as healthcare and robotics will face less scrutiny from the Chinese government compared to social media and e-commerce. (The Information)
Housing Outlook 2022: Hiking into a hot market. Rising mortgage rates have historically put the brakes on home-price appreciation, but this housing market is like no other. Record-low supplies, years of conservative lending and other factors suggest that home prices should continue appreciating, though at a slower pace. (Morgan Stanley)
Soaring dollar pushes euro to five-year low. Dollar approaches highest point in two decades on bet Fed will outpace other central banks. (Financial Times)
Technology
Taiwan, long known as a global leader in semiconductor fabrication, is starting to make inroads upstream into design as well, going up against American companies that had seen the island mainly as a manufacturing hub. (Nikkei Asia Review)
Meta Platforms added more users than expected but posted its slowest revenue growth since going public a decade ago, as the company navigates growing competition and privacy headwinds for its advertising business. The user numbers were a surprise for the tech giant. In the wake of poor earnings results from other digital-ad rivals earlier this week, investors had feared the worst; and they pushed Meta shares up more than 18% after the results were announced. (Wall Street Journal)
Facebook has admitted that it doesn’t know where all of its user data goes, a leaked internal document reveals. This insight comes as the company faces privacy scrutiny from policymakers around the world. (VICE)
Apple is finally letting people fix their own iPhones. The tech giant announced that its Self Service Repair program is now available to customers in the U.S., making it the biggest company to offer DIY repair services. (Protocol)
Transplant company ships allergy-free pork: A biotechnology company that genetically modifies pigs to create organs that can be transplanted into people has been sending free refrigerated packages of ground pork, steaks and chops to people allergic to meat. The US company, Revivicor, breeds pigs that are free of a sugar molecule known as alpha-gal that causes the human immune system to reject pig organs. (One of the firm’s pig hearts was used in the first pig-to-human heart transplant.) Alpha-gal is also what causes people to develop a red-meat allergy after a tick bite. Revivicor has told the FDA that it is exploring a mail-order business for people with alpha-gal syndrome. (Nature, The Atlantic)
eMarketer forecast that US podcast ad spending will surpass $2 billion next year and $3 billion by 2026. Podcasts will account for over a quarter of digital audio services ad spending in 2022 and will be more than a third of spending by the end of 2026. (eMarketer)
Smart Links
More NYC apartment renters are moving out instead of paying higher rates. (Bloomberg)
Fort Worth is the first city in the U.S. to mine bitcoin, and will run mining rigs out of city hall. (CNBC)
China focuses on ethics to deter another ‘CRISPR babies’ scandal. (Nature)
Truly terrible SPAC performers hit lower lows in 2022. (Crunchbase)
Disney targeted by QAnon believers using meme-stock tactics. (Bloomberg)
The state of Netflix mooching. (Statista)