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The World
US says Russia is not complying with New Start nuclear arms treaty: The US has determined Russia is not complying with its obligations under the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between the powers. In a report to Congress, the US State Department said Russia violated the New Start treaty by failing to allow required inspections and refusing to participate in compliance meetings. “Russia’s refusal to facilitate inspection activities prevents the US from exercising important rights under the treaty and threatens the viability of US-Russian nuclear arms control,” a US state department official said. (Financial Times)
The U.S. is readying more than $2 billion worth of military aid for Ukraine that is expected to include longer-range rockets for the first time as well as other munitions and weapons, two U.S. officials told Reuters. It is also expected to include support equipment for Patriot air defense systems, precision guided munitions and Javelin anti-tank weapons. (Reuters)
France has signaled openness to sending fighter jets to Ukraine as western countries weigh the next steps in military assistance to help Kyiv resist Russian attacks. (Financial Times)
Ships Are Flying False Flags to Dodge Sanctions: Illegal Russian tankers are a maritime nightmare. (Foreign Policy)
Britain and the EU have struck a customs deal that could pave the way to ending years of post-Brexit wrangling over Northern Ireland. The Times understands that Brussels has accepted a proposal that would avoid the need for routine checks on products destined for the province. (The Times)
We’re only 8 years away from stronger El Niño and La Niña events. The planet is currently in a rare triple-dip La Niña year, but climate change will likely affect the opposite weather system El Niño as well. These fluctuations in the sea surface temperature near the equator in the Pacific Ocean can weather around the world. But just how much these systems will be impacted has been up in the air. However, a new study, published this week in the journal Nature Communications, finds that climate change is expected to strengthen El Niño and La Niña events by 2030. (Popular Science)
Staffing shortages across nonprofit hospitals appear to be improving incrementally, according to a report out from Fitch Ratings. The report points to recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, showing hospitals and ambulatory service providers added 11,000 and 23,300 jobs, respectively from October to November. Job openings in the sector also declined to 8.7% in October from 9.1% in September. (Healthcare Dive)
Children lost out on more than one-third of a school years’ worth of learning because of school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic. An analysis of almost 300 learning-deficit estimates from 15 high- and middle-income countries found that children with disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds have experienced the largest learning losses. Kids’ mathematics skills were more affected than their reading abilities — and, as of May 2022, the learning gaps had not been filled. (Nature)
Senators push for airline passenger protections after holiday travel meltdown: Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Ed Markey are reintroducing passenger protections after massive flight cancellations over the holidays. The proposed bills call for minimum passenger compensation for getting bumped off of oversold flights. (CNBC)
Economy
Fed officials look set to moderate interest-rate increases again, with Chair Jerome Powell keeping further hikes on the table while leaning against bets they will cut later this year. The policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee is widely expected to raise rates by 25 basis points at the conclusion of its two-day meeting today, bringing its benchmark to a target range of 4.5% to 4.75%. (Bloomberg)
The Nasdaq rose 11% in January — it’s best January since 2001. (Wall Street Journal)
Whole Foods asks suppliers to lower prices, saying it wants price tags to reflect easing inflation. (Wall Street Journal)
Economic bellwether UPS said a “mild recession” was now its base case scenario, putting it among a growing group of companies whose executives forecast a slowdown in 2023. “We expect 2023 to be a bumpy year due to rising interest rates, decades high inflation, recession forecasts, a war in eastern Europe, [Covid-19] disruptions in China and our US labour negotiations,” UPS chief financial officer Brian Newman told analysts on Tuesday. “We expect a mild recession in the first half of the year, with a moderate recovery in the second half of the year,” Newman continued. (Financial Times)
Inflation appears to have peaked across much of the rich world. But for some supermarket necessities—such as sugar, flour and butter—prices are still soaring to record highs. Nowhere have prices risen more in recent months than in the sugar aisle. French shoppers are paying 23% more for the sweet stuff than they were a year ago. Italians and Spaniards are shelling out an extra 51%. In Germany the price has gone up by 63%. European confectioners are considering production cuts. (Economist)
Private Equity Exits Increasingly Hinge on ESG: 80% of fund managers now see ESG questions integrated into the due diligence questionnaires for portfolio company exits, according to a new survey. (Institutional Investor)
Technology
ChatGPT creator OpenAI released a free web-based tool designed to help educators and others figure out if a particular chunk of text was written by a human or a machine. OpenAI cautions the tool is imperfect and performance varies based on how similar the text being analyzed is to the types of writing OpenAI’s tool was trained on. "It has both false positives and false negatives," OpenAI head of alignment Jan Leike told Axios, cautioning the new tool should not be relied on alone to determine authorship of a document. (Axios)
Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger form a venture to explore next-gen social apps; the first is Artifact, a TikTok-like app for news articles. Artifact — the name represents the merging of articles, facts, and artificial intelligence — is opening up its waiting list to the public today. The company plans to let users in quickly, Systrom says. You can sign up yourself here; the app is available for both Android and iOS. The simplest way to understand Artifact is as a kind of TikTok for text, though you might also call it Google Reader reborn as a mobile app, or maybe even a surprise attack on Twitter. The app opens to a feed of popular articles chosen from a curated list of publishers ranging from leading news organizations like the New York Times to small-scale blogs about niche topics. Tap on articles that interest you and Artifact will serve you similar posts and stories in the future, just as watching videos on TikTok’s For You page tunes its algorithm over time. (Platformer)
PayPal plans to lay off ~2,000 employees, or ~7% of its workforce, “over the coming weeks”, as the company addresses the “challenging macroeconomic environment”. (CNBC)
Snap warned that its revenues could drop by as much as 10% in 1Q23, as the social media platform continues to be dogged by changes to Apple’s privacy policies that have disrupted its ability to tailor advertising to users. (Financial Times)
Gaming & Chips:
Sony Slashes PlayStation VR2 Headset Output After Pre-Orders Disappoint (Bloomberg)
Samsung reports ~$1.38B in Q4 mobile profit, down from ~$2.15B in Q4 2021, and does not plan to slash chip investment from 2022 to 2023, in contrast to rivals. (Reuters)
AMD beats on sales and profit but warns of a 10% revenue decline in Q1. (CNBC)
Electronic Arts (EA) lowers full year revenue guidance below expectations: The game publishing giant reduced its full year revenue expectations by about half a billion dollars in its latest quarter guidance. (ShackNews)
Smart Links
The last Boeing 747, the original jumbo jet, is delivered. (Reuters)
Gold snatched up by central banks at fastest pace in 55 years. (Nikkei Asia Review)
Fans place their first bets as legal sports betting goes live in Mass. (WBUR)
Exxon smashes Western oil majors' profits with $56 billion in 2022. (Reuters)
Indonesia’s seafood farming industry faces a ‘technology gap’ — and startups are raising big bucks to fill it. (CNBC)