Weekend Papers Summary
NEW YORK TIMES
-In a highly symbolic move, the International Criminal Court has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of war crimes.
-China’s Leader Xi Jinping will visit Putin under shadow of war-crimes warrant. China said Xi Jinping would go to Russia to help make peace, in a move widely seen as a sign of support for Putin.
-The World Health Organization (WHO) has accused China of hiding data that may link Covid’s origins to animals. Genetic research from China suggested to some experts that the coronavirus may have sprung from raccoon dogs in a Wuhan market. Now the data are missing.
-The banking crisis hangs over the economy, rekindling recession fears.
Borrowing could become tougher, a particular blow to small businesses — and a threat to the recovery’s staying power.
-First Republic and other banks seek to attract buyers. Private equity firms and other buyers have been circling failed and struggling banks that are desperately trying to sell off assets or even stakes.
-Wyoming becomes first state to outlaw abortion pills. Medication abortion providers could serve six months in prison under the law, one of the latest efforts by conservative states to target abortion pills.
-Prosecutors investigating Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents can compel his lawyer to answer more questions, a judge ruled.
-After the police killing of Walter Scott, a department tries to rebound. The North Charleston Police Department hired more Black officers, cut down on traffic stops and invited Mr. Scott’s brother to speak to recruits.
-Americans head to Europe for the good life on the cheap. Home sales to Americans on the continent have increased significantly, but the influx risks upsetting local residents.
-With a pocket of shamrocks, Biden celebrates St. Patrick’s Day. President Biden welcomed Ireland’s prime minister and confirmed he would visit the country to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
-The Met Opera has been ordered to pay soprano Anna Netrebko $200,000 for Canceled Performances
The company cut ties with the Russian soprano for her refusal to denounce Vladimir Putin after the invasion of Ukraine. An arbitrator said it must pay her.
THE FINANCIAL TIMES
-UBS is in discussions to take over all or part of Credit Suisse, with the boards of Switzerland’s two biggest lenders set to meet separately over the weekend to consider what would be Europe’s most consequential banking combination since the financial crisis, according to multiple people briefed on the talks.
-First Republic Bank stock tumbled yet again on Friday after a financial lifeline from large US banks that deposited $30B into its accounts failed to calm investor fears. Shares in the San Francisco-based lender closed down 32.8% in the first session after 11 of the largest US banks, spearheaded by JPMorgan Chase, said they would deposit $30B with the California-based lender in an effort to shore up its finances.
-The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin for the war crime of deporting children from Ukraine to Russia.
Pre-trial judges of The Hague-based International Criminal Court said the Russian president was “allegedly responsible” for the forced transfer of children from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia during the two countries’ conflict, which has been documented by human rights groups.
-French President Emmanuel Macron has a catchphrase he often uses with ministers and political allies as they plot a course of action: “You have to take your risk.” Macron did just that on Thursday as he staked the future of his second term on ramming through his unpopular plan to raise the retirement age without a vote in parliament. When his prime minister failed to secure a majority for the reform, Macron chose to invoke a special constitutional power, known as article 49.3, to effectively override lawmakers. Now Macron’s government faces the risk of a brewing political crisis spilling on to the streets, with a no-confidence vote likely on Monday and another nationwide protest planned by unions on Thursday.
-Slovakia has said it will join Poland in sending its Soviet era MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, widening the west’s military contributions aimed at bolstering the country’s air defences against a barrage of Russian missile attacks.
Prime Minister Eduard Heger said in a tweet on Friday that his country would send 13 MiG-29s to Ukraine, following Warsaw’s announcement that it would dispatch at least four of its own aircraft.
-Turkey has dropped its opposition to Finland joining NATO, paving the way for the military alliance to expand its direct border with Russia but leaving neighbor Sweden still struggling to gain approval for its bid. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan informed his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinistö that he would instruct parliament to ratify Finland’s accession to NATO.
-As shares in their companies were tanking this week, a small group of European bank bosses sat down in London for dinner and agreed that the market reaction to the collapse of a Californian lender Silicon Valley Bank was overblown. The chief executives were adamant that investors were “underestimating” the strength of European banks’ balance sheets “in terms of liquidity, capital, earnings and asset quality”, said Davide Serra, the founder of investment boutique Algebris Investments and host of the dinner.
-An explosion of volatility in US Treasuries following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank has provided the sternest test of a market that underpins much of the global financial system since a dramatic meltdown in the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic.
-Deutsche Bank chief executive Christian Sewing’s annual bonus took a hit after the supervisory board of Germany’s largest bank issued a rare rebuke over missed milestones and delays in improving internal controls.
-Russia’s Sberbank will send $3.6B to the state coffers this spring as part of a record dividend payout, even as its profits collapsed last year due to western sanctions imposed over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. This marked a record in terms of share of profit paid out. In previous years, the bank distributed just 40-56% of its profits to shareholders, whereas Friday’s recommendation equated to about 200% of the bank’s 2022 net profit of Rbs270.5B.
-The London Metal Exchange has found bags full of stones at one of its warehouses instead of the nickel they were supposed to contain in the latest drama to hit the scandal-stricken metals market. The exchange said in a notice to the market on Friday that it had “received information that a number of physical nickel shipments, out of one specific facility of an LME-licensed warehouse operator, have been subject to such irregularities”. The supposed nickel consignments were actually filled with stone, said a person familiar with the matter.
-The World Health Organization said data from China suggesting Covid-19 arose from animals in Wuhan’s wet market should have been shared with the world three years ago, adding that the findings “do not provide a definitive answer” as to the origin of the virus.
-The OECD has urged central banks to “stay the course” and continue raising interest rates despite turmoil in financial markets, warning that inflation was still the main threat to the world economy. In an update to its November economic forecasts, completed as tensions mounted this week in the banking sector, the Paris-based international organization upgraded its outlook for growth this year from 2.2% to 2.6%.
-Top Democrats in Congress have called for a federal investigation into the role Goldman Sachs played in the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, and urged regulators to examine whether the investment bank’s profits handling a $21B trade for SVB should be repossessed.
-Joe Biden is calling on Congress to make it easier for regulators to punish executives at failed banks, including by recouping gains from share sales and banning disgraced bosses from working in the industry. The US president said he was “firmly committed to accountability for those responsible for this mess”, in a statement released on Friday, just one week after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.
-Top Republicans are urging the White House to crack down on nuclear co-operation between Russia and China following reports that Moscow’s state-owned nuclear energy company is providing highly enriched uranium to Beijing. In a letter sent to US National Security adviser Jake Sullivan on Thursday, the chairs of the House armed services, foreign affairs and intelligence committees expressed concern that Russia’s Rosatom is supplying uranium for Chinese fast-breeder reactors.
NY POST
Fourteen people, including two New Jersey deli workers, were busted for drug trafficking and other charges in a sting operation law enforcement officials dubbed “Operation Cold Cuts.” Two men who operate the G & M Market in Sewell, Brett Carerro and Roy Lucas, were both charged with drug trafficking and conspiracy after they were arrested on March 8, WPVI reported. The Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office alleges that Carrero, 29, was the leader of the operation.
-The CEO of the company behind ChatGPT, likely the world’s most famous AI chatbot, admitted that he was “a little bit scared” of his company’s creation during an interview with ABC News.
“We’ve got to be careful here,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said during an interview Thursday.
That’s because the technology itself, he explained, was extremely powerful and could be dangerous. “I think people should be happy that we are a little bit scared of this,” the 37-year-old tech guru said. When pressed about why he was “scared” of his company’s creation, Altman argued that if he wasn’t “scared” then “you should either not trust me or be very unhappy that I’m in this job.”
He continued: “It is going to eliminate a lot of current jobs, that’s true. We can make much better ones. The reason to develop AI at all, in terms of impact on our lives and improving our lives and upside, this will be the greatest technology humanity has yet developed.”