Aurelia Butler

How well did you keep up with the news this week? Take our quiz.The US Senate approved $40bn in fresh military, economic and humanitarian assistance for Ukraine yesterday, as Russia presses an offensive in the Donbas region.The vote passed 86-11 after a week-long delay, despite opposition from a handful of self-described America First Republicans. US president Joe Biden is now expected to quickly sign the measure, freeing up vital assistance as the war enters its fourth month.The $40bn package is more than the $33bn Biden requested three weeks ago, and includes increased spending on defence and humanitarian aid.Biden welcomed the bill’s passage and said Congress’s actions ensured there wouldn’t be a lapse in funds for Ukraine. The president will sign the measure once it is formally delivered by the Senate.More than half of the funds in the new package will be earmarked for weapons, equipment and military financing for Ukraine, as well as for restoring US weapons stocks and support for European Command operations.Thanks for reading FirstFT Asia. Here’s the rest of today’s news — SarahFive more stories in the news1. Sri Lanka defaults on foreign debt for the first time Sri Lanka’s central bank has confirmed the country has missed a deadline for foreign debt repayments, deepening the economic and political crisis. The island — which has never defaulted before — owes about $51bn in overseas debt to bilateral creditors and international bondholders.2. Google’s Russian unit to file for bankruptcy The US tech group plans to file for bankruptcy after authorities in the country seized its bank account, saying it had become “untenable for our Russia office to function”. Google said it would continue to provide free services, including search, YouTube, Gmail, Maps, Android and Play, to users in Russia.More on western companies and Russia: McDonald’s has agreed to sell its Russian business to a Siberian entrepreneur while Hungary’s biggest energy company prepares to move away from Russian oil.3. Joe Biden bids to boost alliances in Asia The US president visits South Korea and Japan as worries rise over a potential Chinese military action against Taiwan. Biden is expected to address those concerns and reassure countries that his administration has not diverted attention from China, which he has called his top foreign policy challenge.4. Luxury goods leaders bet booming US will offset China hit Some investors worry that Covid-19 lockdowns in China, sanctions on Russia and the global cost of living crisis could hurt demand for luxury goods. But two top executives in the industry have insisted their businesses will continue to grow and that faltering Chinese demand will rebound.5. UAE’s new president takes power as dynasty speculation swirls Sheikh Mohammed, known as MBZ, could break with tradition and pick his son, rather than one of his brothers, as crown prince. “MBZ is already doing centralisation — this would be hyper-centralisation,” said Cinzia Bianco, a research fellow on Europe and the Gulf. The days aheadJapan April CPI data Last month’s consumer price index is set to be released today.Ukraine Foreign ministers from the 46 Council of Europe member states meet today in Turin to discuss their response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.Biden in Asia The US president begins his first trip to Asia in the role. He will meet the new president of South Korea, Yoon Seok-youl, today. On Sunday, Biden will head to Japan for discussions following the spate of weapons tests by North Korea. Australian election Australians will vote on Saturday in a federal election. The incumbent Liberal-National coalition government — led by Prime minister Scott Morrison — is challenged by the Labor party. (The Guardian)What else we’re readingChina’s crackdown reflects splits among policymakers In Beijing, rival factions are battling for influence amid a new regulatory storm. The fight is between senior party and government officials focused on economic growth and those more concerned with security and control, echoing infighting and policy guesswork that plagued China under Mao Zedong.

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Twitter deal leaves Elon Musk with no easy way out Could the Tesla boss walk away from his $44bn Twitter bid? As the richest person in the world appears to have second thoughts, the “bulletproof” modern deal agreement faces one of its biggest tests. Read our Explainer. The Russian network helping Ukrainians flee A network of Russian volunteers, among them antiwar activists, is operating largely through word of mouth and the Telegram messaging app to help thousands of Ukrainian refugees get out of Russian displacement camps.Corporate Japan wary of the sliding yen A weak currency was long a blessing for corporate Japan, especially large exporters. But as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is sparking a surge in commodity prices, the yen’s spectacular fall is suddenly turning into a threat.There is a moral case against crypto Mining digital currencies is not “just all a bit of harmless fun”, writes Jemima Kelly. The latest crypto crash should be an opportunity to reflect on the environmental, financial and psychological harm caused by mining coins, from growing e-waste to suicide attempts. GamingBeing a real-life city planner sounds both complex and stressful. So why is it so much fun in game form? Balancing resources and attending to citizens’ diverse needs can be a satisfying puzzle. And, in recent years, city-builders have become more complex and environmentally minded.

‘Cities: Skylines’ is a modern successor to the original city-building game, ‘SimCity’ More

“Are these stronger balance sheets leading people to spend more, or be more confident, to just change their behavior, their spending patterns, and is that more sustainable – in which case maybe the Fed has to be even more aggressive,” Kashkari told the Urban Institute.That could mean difficult tradeoffs for the Federal Reserve, which is already raising rates faster than it has in decades to cool inflation running at a 40-year high. Fed policymakers expect to get the target range for short-term interest rates, now at 0.75%-1%, a full percentage point higher by July, with more though potentially smaller rate hikes to follow. The “plausible” hope, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said this week, is that heavier borrowing costs will drag down demand for labor enough to slow wage gains that might otherwise fuel inflation, but not so much that businesses resort to mass layoffs that could trigger a recession. Kashkari said that because so much is beyond the Fed’s control – supply chains, for instance, which in their currently tangled state are pushing upward in prices in ways that are only getting worse with China’s COVID-19 lockdowns and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “We know we have to get inflation down; we are doing everything we can to achieve a ‘soft landing,’ but I’ll be honest with you: I don’t know the odds of us pulling that off,” Kashkari said. A rout in equities including an 18% drop in the S&P 500 Index since its Jan. 3 record close may help the Fed out, by reducing spending and therefore demand. “The wealth effect is a real thing…those who have stocks have higher 401Ks, they feel more confident, they go out and spend more, when those things come down, it may change their behavior,” Kashkari said. Though the Fed does not target stock prices, “we do pay attention to that feedback.” More

Canada said it will move to ban Huawei and ZTE from providing 5G services in the country, in the latest move by a US ally to target the Chinese equipment telecoms manufacturers.François-Philippe Champagne, Canada’s minister of innovation, science and industry, on Thursday said the country intends “to prohibit the inclusion of Huawei and ZTE’s products and services in Canada’s telecommunications system”.“Providers who already have this equipment installed will be required to cease its use and remove it,” he said. The federal government will not compensate companies for the removal of Huawei and ZTE gear, he added. Equipment used for 4G networks will also need to be removed.The US and many of its allies have expressed strong concern in recent years about Huawei’s global expansion amid worries that the company has ties to China’s military and facilitates Beijing’s cyber espionage around the world.“We’ve been expecting this for three years,” Alykhan Velshi, Huawei’s vice-president of corporate affairs for the Americas, told CBC, Canada’s public broadcaster, in an interview. “We’re disappointed by the outcome, but what the government announced is the intent to introduce legislation, but right now there is no prohibition on the book for selling Huawei equipment.”Velshi said the federal government has not told Huawei what national security threat the company’s equipment poses to Canada.“It’s for the government to provide evidence that Huawei is a national security threat as they claim, they have not done so.”The US had long urged Canada to join the other members of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network — which includes the UK, Australia and New Zealand — to ban Huawei from their domestic telecom networks. The UK and Australia have imposed restrictions that prohibit the Chinese company from operating in their markets.Huawei’s network equipment is used by a number of large Canadian telecommunications companies. In December, the Chinese group said Canadian telecoms had spent more than C$700mn (US$546mn) on its technology. The Trump administration took several actions to ban Huawei from participating in 5G networks in the US as part of an effort to hobble the Shenzhen-based company. It also put the group on a commerce department blacklist, known as the “entity list”, which prohibited US companies from supplying technology to Huawei and imposed additional restrictions that required any business that wanted to supply Huawei with products containing US technology to apply for an export control licence.The ban on Huawei comes eight months after Ottawa allowed Meng Wanzhou, the company’s chief financial officer and daughter of the founder Ren Zhengfei, to return to China following three years of detention in Vancouver. Meng had been detained on criminal fraud charges and was being held pending a Canadian court ruling on whether she could be extradited to the US. She was released after reaching a deal with US prosecutors.

Hours after Meng’s release, prime minister Justin Trudeau announced that two Canadian citizens who had been detained in China for more than three years — Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, known as the “two Michaels” — had been released. Some experts speculated Canada had previously been reluctant to ban Huawei despite the US pressure because it wanted to make sure that it could secure the release of the two men.Days after the release of Meng and the “two Michaels”, Trudeau said a decision on whether to ban 5G equipment made by Huawei was weeks away. But months passed before the announcement was made on Thursday. “We took the time needed to do that review, consult with allies,” Champagne said. “When you deal with national security, you have to take the time to do things properly.”The pressure on Huawei has grown in recent years as the US cracks down on Chinese companies that it believes are enabling Beijing’s espionage or undertaking activities that could threaten US national security. The Financial Times reported recently that the Biden administration plans to impose tough sanctions on Hikvision, a Chinese surveillance camera company that has been accused of facilitating human rights abuses in Xinjiang. More