 A U.S. Air Force spy drone went down after colliding with a Russian jet over international waters in the Black Sea. According to U.S. officials, two Russian jets intercepted the MQ-9 Reaper drone and dumped fuel on it before one of the aircraft "struck the propeller" of the drone, bringing it down. More: - Russian jets have intercepted other U.S. aircraft over the Black Sea in recent weeks, said National Security Council communications coordinator John Kirby.
- However, the way they tried to bring the drone down on Tuesday was "unsafe, unprofessional, and reckless," Kirby said.
- The U.S. is analyzing if it is worth trying to recover the remains of the drone, giving how deep the Black Sea is.
- Following the downing of the drone, the Russian ambassador to the U.S., Anatoly Antonov, met with State Department officials in Washington, D.C.
- After the meeting, he said the Kremlin wants to avoid "unintended clashes or unintended incidents" with Washington.
Zoom Out: - The U.S. started flying Reaper drones over the Black Sea before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
- Reaper drones can fly as high as 50,000 feet and are used for surveillance and intelligence gathering.
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 The Federal Reserve is considering stricter rules for midsize banks following the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank. The Fed could increase capital and liquidity requirements and rollout tougher annual stress tests for banks holding between $100B and $250B in assets, sources familiar with the discussion told the Wall Street Journal. More: - Under the proposed rules, some banks will have to report unrealized gains and losses on some securities so that regulators can better assess their financial strength.
- The proposed changes come after SVB held much of its capital in long-term Treasury bonds, hence incurring big losses once the Fed started rising interest rates, and making it vulnerable to a bank run.
Zoom Out: - In 2010, the Dodd-Frank Act imposed stricter rules on banks but lawmakers rolled back some of those changes in 2018.
- As a result, the most strict regulations only apply to banks with more than $250B in assets, excluding dozens of small and medium-sized banks such as SVB.
- More than 50 Democratic representatives put forward a bill this week to increase regulatory oversight over banks holding at least $50B in assets.
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 ByteDance may spin off TikTok to ensure that the popular video app is not banned in the U.S. The potential spinoff would be done via a sale or an initial public offering to increase transparency around TikTok's ownership structure. Such a move is considered a last resort and would need to be approved by the Chinese government, sources familiar with the discussions told Bloomberg. More: - ByteDance is unlikely to discuss this plan publically until the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment concludes its national security review process on TikTok.
- To appease concerns that the Chinese government could access TikTok user data, the company is implementing changes under the so-called Project Texas.
- These changes include hiring tech giant Oracle to host U.S. user data and appointing a three-person government-approved oversight board.
- According to a Bloomberg estimate, TikTok's U.S. unit could be worth between $40B and $50B.
Zoom Out: - The European Commission recently banned TikTok for all its employees and the Belgian government has made a similar decision.
- In the U.S., the House of Representatives ordered all employees to delete the app from their devices in December.
- Texas, Oklahoma, Utah, Tennessee, Iowa, and North Dakota are some of the states that have banned TikTok on government devices.
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 GOOD NEWS: The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has ordered 9,250 Ford electric vehicles to reduce its carbon emissions. The agency also plans to build 14,000 charging stations that will be located in 75 counties and municipalities More: - Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said the decision will help reduce costs and "improve the working environment for our employees."
- Some of the funds for the EV purchase come from the Inflation Reduction Act, which allocated $3B to help USPS modernize its fleet.
- However, USPS said it plans to order a similar number of gas-powered vehicles from Stellantis, which makes Jeeps and Ram trucks.
- USPS said it expects to buy only electric vehicles by 2026.
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 OpenAI has launched ChatGPT-4, the latest version of its popular artificial intelligence chatbot. The software has image recognition capabilities and can now take prompts of more than 20,000 words at once, the artificial intelligence company said. More: - The launch of ChatGPT-4 comes only four months after ChatGPT-3 amassed 100 million users in just two months — TikTok reached 100 million users in nine months, while Facebook needed four years.
- ChatGPT-4 passed a simulated law school bar exam with a score that matched the top 10% of test takers, OpenAI said. For comparison, the ChatGPT-3.5 score matched that of those in the bottom 10%.
- ChatGPT-4 can read, analyze or generate up to 25,000 words of text, and write code in all major programming languages, according to the company.
- The language learning app Duolingo and the payment processing firm Stripe are already using ChatGPT-4 for some of their services.
- Sam Altman, CEO of Open AI, said that the new version "is more creative than previous models, it hallucinates significantly less, and it is less biased."
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 Samsung plans to build a $230B chip production facility in South Korea that would be the world's largest. The investment is part of Seoul's efforts to boost the production of chips, displays, and batteries. More: - Seoul on Wednesday unveiled a 550 trillion won ($420B) investment plan to ensure that South Korea's semiconductor industry does not fall behind other countries.
- President Yoon Suk Yeol said the government will provide "location, R&D, manpower, and tax support" to ensure that the country prevails in the ongoing "economic battlefield."
- The plan comes as the U.S. and the EU seek to boost investments in chip manufacturing with subsidies and tax benefits.
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- Morocco said it wants to host the FIFA 2030 Men’s World Cup together with Spain and Portugal, which announced a joint candidacy back in 2021.
- CPP Investments, Canada's largest pension fund, and the U.S. investment group Silver Lake have agreed to acquire software company Qualtrics for $12.5B.
- France's annual inflation rate reached 7.3% in February due mainly to higher costs for food and manufactured goods. The higher-than-expected figure increases the chances of more interest rate hikes by the European Central Bank.
- Credit Suisse shares lost 25% as the company's financial difficulties continue. The Saudi National Bank said that it will not provide further financial assistance to the bank.
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 |  | Arbër is an Inside writer who also has experience in entrepreneurship. He has experience covering Consumer Tech, Venture Capital, NFTs, Crypto, etc. Arbër holds a Bachelor's degree in Business from XAMK University in Finland. When he is not reading(and writing) business news, he chooses to watch sports or anime...and then read news about sports or anime. |   | | Editor | Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is the author of "Things You Can Do," an illustrated book about climate action. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade. | |
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