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The World
The U.S. budget deficit widened last month as the latest stimulus package took effect. The gap totaled a record $736 billion during the first four months of fiscal 2021. Meanwhile, Fed Chair Jay Powell stressed the importance of “patiently accommodative” monetary policy to support the struggling labor market, as he moved to stamp out concerns that additional fiscal stimulus could trigger a sudden jump in inflation. Powell also noted that the U.S. unemployment rate was closer to 10%, not 6.3%, in January — and, citing the country’s push after WWII to find jobs for returning soldiers, called for a broad national effort to get Americans back to work after the pandemic, particularly minorities and workers ousted from lower-paying jobs. (Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Washington Post, Reuters)
The number of help-wanted ads returned to pre-pandemic levels in January, particularly among industries that weathered the pandemic relatively well: warehousing, construction and delivery services. (Wall Street Journal)
Over 2 in 5 voters believe $75,000 is the right income cutoff for stimulus payments. Just over a quarter said the threshold should be lowered. (Morning Consult)
House impeachment managers showed previously unseen security footage of the Jan. 6 attack, emphasizing the danger to Pence and other top officials in a harrowing retelling of the riot. The powerful presentation commanded the full attention of the Senate Chamber, as Sen. Romney said he did not realize how close to danger he was until watching security footage. (Washington Post)
Iran has produced a material that is banned under the 2015 nuclear accords and could be used to form the core of a nuclear weapon, as it seeks to step up pressure on the Biden administration to lift economic sanctions on Tehran. A confidential report by the U.N. atomic agency said Iran had started producing uranium metal on Feb. 6 at a nuclear facility in Isfahan under the agency’s inspection. (Wall Street Journal)
Biden created a Pentagon task force to help craft a comprehensive China policy that will examine everything from the global deployment of U.S. forces to relations with the Chinese military. The task force, which will include uniformed officers and civilians, will produce recommendations within four months. It will be led by Ely Ratner, a China expert and Pentagon official. Meanwhile, a new Anglo-Japanese alliance threatens China's TPP plans. As London eyes entry into Quad, Beijing looks to New Zealand for opening. (Financial Times, Nikkei Asian Review)
The U.S. imposed sanctions on Myanmar’s military leaders and froze US$1 billion in funds held in the U.S. by the country’s government. Biden also announced that he would restrict exports to the Southeast Asian nation to impose “consequences on the leaders of the coup,” adding that “support for health care, civil society groups and other areas that benefit the people of Burma directly” would not be cut. (South China Morning Post)
The prominent Saudi dissident and women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul has been released from prison after 1,001 days in custody. Following a concerted campaign by her relatives and global rights groups, Hathloul was granted probation by a judge in Riyadh and released to her family on Wednesday afternoon. Her sister Lina published a photo of a smiling Loujain on Twitter early evening Riyadh time – the first image of the most celebrated political prisoner in the Kingdom since she was detained almost three years ago. (The Guardian)
School closures, the loss of public spaces, and having to work remotely due to the coronavirus pandemic have caused major disruptions in people's lives. Now, researchers suggest a reduction in fatal coronavirus cases can be achieved without the need for so much social disruption. A CDC study finds two masks are better than one, blocking around 95% of the particles. In Italy, ski resorts are reopening. (American Institute of Physics, The Guardian, Chicago Tribune)
J&J CEO says people may need annual Covid vaccine shots for the next several years. Meanwhile, Ford Motor Co. is rolling out clear face masks with N95-level filtration, in what could be the largest-scale effort to produce masks specifically designed to improve communication while offering medical-grade protection against the coronavirus.(CNBC, Washington Post)
Canada’s Justin Trudeau is facing growing pressure to speed up the country’s sluggish vaccine distribution, as Canada fends off accusations that it is taking supplies of the drug meant for developing countries. (The Guardian)
The University of Massachusetts and the University of California at Berkeley are forbidding on-campus students from exercising outdoors as the institutions try to bring Covid-19 transmission under control. (Chronicle of Higher Ed)
People traveling on subway systems in major U.S. cities are being exposed to unsafe amounts of air pollution, with commuters in NY and NJ subjected to the highest levels of pollution. Tiny airborne particles, probably thrown up by train brakes or the friction between train wheels and rails, are rife in the 71 underground stations sampled in Boston, NYC, Philadelphia and Washington DC. (The Guardian)
China achieved another milestone in space: Its first spacecraft designed to explore Mars arrived at the planet successfully just before 8 p.m. Beijing time. Tianwen-1 is now orbiting the red planet. In three months’ time, it will drop a lander and rover to the Martian surface. Between them, the orbiter and rover will explore the geology and soil characteristics of Mars, including searching for water and ice. (Nature, Planetary Society)
Economy
Co-working firms are recasting their business models: Experts expect revenue-sharing agreements to become more common. They are similar to the relationship between hotel owners and operators, where operators get fees and a share of profits but don’t have to pay rent. Revenue-sharing deals are considered less risky because they leave operators with lower fixed costs. (Wall Street Journal)
Welcome to the Post-pandemic Dream Home: Work “nooks,” sanitizer-stocked mudrooms, and other new features might soon appear in American houses—for those who can afford them. (The Atlantic)
Redefining suburbia: Sacramento is on the verge of approving a plan that would make the city the first in California, and one of the first in the U.S., to end zoning that permits only one single-family home on a property. Under the proposal, up to four homes could be built on lots in neighborhoods long defined by their low-density, traffic-free tranquility. (Los Angeles Times)
Amsterdam surpassed London as Europe’s largest share trading centre last month as the Netherlands scooped up business lost by the UK since Brexit. (Financial Times)
KPMG UK chairman Bill Michael is stepping aside while the Big Four accountancy firm investigates “alleged comments” he made during an online meeting with staff. The move comes after the FT reported comments made by Michael at a meeting with the firm’s financial services consultancy team on Monday where he told staff to “stop moaning” and to stop “playing the victim card.” (Financial Times)
Last year was a banner one for debt, but it didn’t look that way for America’s big banks. Large U.S. lenders saw their loan books shrink in 2020 for the first time in more than a decade. The 0.5% drop was just the second decline in 28 years. Among the biggest four banks, only JPMorgan Chase had more loans at the end of the year than the start. Lenders are flush with cash that they want to put to use, and executives say they are hopeful loan growth will pick up in 2021. (Wall Street Journal)
Technology
Facebook is building an audio chat product that is similar to the popular young app Clubhouse, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, as the social network aims to expand into new forms of communication. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been interested in audio communication forms, and he appeared in the Clubhouse app on Sunday to chat about augmented and virtual reality. Facebook executives have ordered employees to create a similar product. The product is in its earliest stages of development. (New York Times)
Twitter's ultimate goal is to decentralize, splitting into Twitter the Protocol (kind of like email) and Twitter the App (kind of like Gmail). Jack Dorsey made that vision clear on the company's earnings call, when asked about Project Bluesky: Decentralizing social, he said, "creates a much larger corpus of conversation."The upside, Dorsey said, is discovery. He even floated the idea of "an app-store-like view of ranking algorithms that give people ultimate flexibility" to choose the kind of timeline experience they want. Dorsey also said the company is exploring allowing its users to receive tips, or digital payments, from their followers. (Source Code, Reuters)
A researcher managed to breach over 35 major companies' internal systems, including Microsoft, Apple, PayPal, Shopify, Netflix, Yelp, Tesla, and Uber, in a novel software supply chain attack. The attack comprised uploading malware to open source repositories including PyPI, npm, and RubyGems, which then got distributed downstream automatically into the company's internal applications. (Bleeping Computer)
Hackers targeted financial sector in a mass extortion campaign: Late last year more than 100 firms were threatened with DDoS attacks unless they paid off a group that variously posed as Fancy Bear and Lazarus. (Wall Street Journal)
NBCUniversal’s streaming strategy raises prospect of WarnerMedia merger: As Netflix and Disney cement their leads over an array of rivals in the video-streaming market, top executives at Comcast and its NBCUniversal arm are in a quandary. (The Information)
Smart Links
More U.S. buyers than ever are seeking $1 million-plus homes. (Mansion Global)
UK housing market boom loses steam. (Reuters)
Coca-Cola in 2020 posted sharpest volume drop since 1940s. (Atlanta Journal Constitution)
AI, using echocardiogram videos of the heart, outperforms other predictors of mortality. (Geisinger Health System)
The top 50 most listened to U.S. podcasts of 2020 (Joe Rogan is No. 1). (Edison Research)
How colleges are handling their surprise donations from MacKenzie Scott. (HigherEd Dive)
This laptop has 7 screens, but a 1-hour battery life.(Gizmodo)