Aurelia Butler

An unprecedented leak of a draft opinion earlier this month suggests that the U.S. Supreme Court is set to vote to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which legalized abortion nationwide.Following is a list of companies who have offered their U.S. employees reproductive healthcare benefits including abortion coverage or travel benefits for out-of-state abortions.Company Benefit(s) Offered Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) The bank has started covering travel expenses for employees who go out of state for abortions because of newly enacted restrictions in Texas and other places, becoming the first major U.S. bank to make that commitment. Yelp (NYSE:YELP) Inc The crowd-sourced review platform will extend its abortion coverage to cover expenses for its employees and their dependents who need to travel to another state for abortion services. Amazon.com The second-largest U.S. private employer told employees it will pay up to $4,000 in travel expenses yearly for non-life threatening medical treatments, among them elective abortions. Levi Strauss (NYSE:LEVI) & CO The apparel company will reimburse travel expenses for its full- and part-time employees who need to travel to another state for healthcare services, including abortions. United Talent Agency The private Hollywood talent agency said it would reimburse travel expenses related to women’s reproductive health services that are not accessible in an employee’s state of residence. Tesla Inc Tesla’s Safety Net program and health insurance includes travel and lodging support for its employees who may need to seek healthcare services that are unavailable in their home state, according to the company’s 2021 impact report. [https://www.tesla.com/ns_videos/2021-tesla-impact-report.pdf ] Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) Microsoft Corp said that it would extend its abortion and gender affirming care services for employees in the United States to include travel expense assistance. Starbucks Corp (NASDAQ:SBUX) Starbucks Corp said it will reimburse U.S. employees and their dependents if they must travel more than 100 miles from their homes to obtain an abortion. Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA) Mastercard Inc said it will fund travel and lodging for employees seeking abortions outside their home states from June, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters. More

BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s Economy Ministry will hold its economic growth outlook at 1.5% in 2022 and 2.5% in 2023, two officials told Reuters on Wednesday, forecasting activity ahead of market projections due to labor market strength and growing private investments.The ministry will update its forecasts for economic indicators on Thursday and inflation figures are expected to be lifted from the previous outlook, in March, when the IPCA consumer price index was seen at 6.55% this year.Data will be used in the bi-monthly income and expenditure report calculations, scheduled for Friday.Economists have been increasing their forecasts for this year’s GDP, bringing the numbers closer to those forecast by the government. Analysts say demand in the country has been helped by greater fiscal stimulus, following an increase in a cash transfer program to poorer people. In addition, the job market has shown signs of strength and the Omicron coronavirus wave has not knocked social mobility as feared.However, they say expectations for 2023 have deteriorated, with aggressive central bank monetary tightening to tame inflation set to affect activity from the second half of the year onwards.The central bank has raised interest rates to 12.75% from a record-low 2% in March 2021, and has already signaled another likely hike in June.Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) and Credit Suisse now see Brazil’s GDP rising 1.25% and 1.4% this year, respectively, against previous 0.6% and 0.2% projections. For 2023, Goldman Sachs lowered its forecast to 0.9% from 1.2%, while Credit Suisse cut its outlook to 0.9% from 2.1%.Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) projected on Tuesday that Brazil will grow 1.5% in 2022 from 0.5% earlier. However, expansion is now seen at 0.9% in 2023, from 1.8% previously. More

(Reuters) -Two U.S. central bankers say they expect the Federal Reserve to downshift to a more measured pace of policy tightening after July as it seeks to quell inflation without lifting borrowing costs so high that they send the economy into recession.It’s not clear if that view – mapped out on Tuesday by Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans and on Wednesday by Philadelphia Fed chief Patrick Harker – marks a consensus at the Fed for how to bring down the highest inflation in 40 years. But it does suggest that while policymakers broadly back using half-point rate hikes to get short-term borrowing costs to a range of 1.75%-2% over the next two months, support for sticking to that pace beyond July may be limited.Evans on Tuesday told an audience in New York City that he expects to transition to “measured” rate hikes after an initial burst of policy tightening. In the Fed lexicon, “measured” means quarter-point rate hikes. On Wednesday Harker gave a similar assessment, telling the Mid-Size Bank Coalition of America that after July, “I anticipate a sequence of increases in the funds rate at a measured pace until we are confident that inflation is moving toward the Committee’s inflation target.” As he spoke, the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were tumbling and ended with the sharpest one-day loss in nearly two years.”I still am in the camp that we can have, if not a soft landing, a safe landing,” Harker said, noting the strength of the labor market, with nearly two jobs open for every American jobseeker, and an unemployment rate of 3.6%. The U.S. economy will likely grow between 2% and 3% this year, he said, adding, “this economy can withstand a measured, methodical approach to tightening financial conditions.” Fed policymakers say the current bout of high inflation — running at more than three times the Fed’s 2% target — is the product of outsized demand bumping up against constrained supply. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has not been specific about his expectations for the policy path beyond July. On Tuesday he said the Fed will keep pushing on rate hikes until it sees clear and convincing evidence that inflation is cooling. More

Yesterday, US stocks suffered their sharpest fall since the early months of the coronavirus pandemic as weak results from consumer bellwethers stoked concerns about the impact of inflation and choked-up supply chains on corporate earnings.The benchmark S&P 500 share index fell 4 per cent, its biggest loss since June 2020, with 98 per cent of stocks in the index declining yesterday. Target, the US retailer, led the declines, plunging 25 per cent after it said higher freight, wage and fuel costs and disrupted logistics would hit its profit margins. The warning came a day after Walmart, the world’s largest bricks-and-mortar retailer, cut its earnings guidance and said it had also been wrongfooted by broad inflationary trends.The lacklustre quarterly reports sparked selling across US exchanges as investors, fearing an economic slowdown, cut positions across their portfolios. Tech giants including Apple, Nvidia and Amazon all dropped more than 5 per cent, with the tech-dominated Nasdaq Composite down 4.7 per cent.“There’s a beginning of a deterioration in the [economic] growth story,” said Michael Metcalfe, head of macro strategy at State Street Global Markets. “And it’s started to get picked up in [corporate] earnings.”Thanks for reading FirstFT Asia. Feedback on today’s newsletter? Email me at [email protected]. — SarahFive more stories in the news1. Erdoğan blocks Nato accession talks with Sweden and Finland Turkey’s president has held up Nato’s plans to bring the two Nordic countries into the military alliance but insisted it was not ruling out the membership bids. Ankara wants to “reach an agreement” which includes the extradition of 30 people accused of terrorism in the country.2. International investors sell Chinese debt at record pace Foreign fund managers have sold $35bn worth of renminbi-denominated bonds in 2022, with nearly half of it in April. Covid-19 lockdowns have hit the country’s currency — which has fallen 5% against the dollar this year — while rising US yields have reduced appetite for Chinese debt.More on China’s economy: Local governments have been forced to divert anti-poverty funds to finance mass coronavirus testing, as Xi Jinping’s zero-Covid policy causes growing financial strains.3. Nike’s diversity chief to leave company after 2 years Felicia Mayo, who has served as chief talent, diversity and culture officer at the world’s largest sportswear maker since July 2020, will leave the company at the end of July. She is the second executive to leave that role in as many years. For more news on the business of sport sign up to our Scoreboard email.4. Saudi Arabia’s PIF acquires 5% stake in Nintendo Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund has purchased 6.5mn shares in the Kyoto-based creator of Mario and Donkey Kong as it continues to expand in the games and e-sports industry.5. Casino mogul accused by US of lobbying on behalf of China Steve Wynn, who helped transform Las Vegas and Macau into booming gambling centres, has been accused by the US justice department of lobbying the Trump administration on behalf of the Chinese government to deport a prominent critic from the US to China. Lawyers acting for Wynn denied the allegations.The day aheadPhilippines monetary policy committee meeting Analysts at DBS Bank, HSBC, and Standard Chartered expect policymakers to announce a 25-basis point rise in the country’s interest rate. (The Manila Times) Nato Defence chiefs will meet in Brussels on Thursday, while US president Joe Biden hosts the leaders of Finland and Sweden at the White House to discuss their Nato applications.European Central Bank minutes Policymakers will release the minutes from their last meeting, at a time when central banks around the world are seeking an interest rate sweet spot in the inflation fight. Getting the balance between growth and inflation just right is fraught with difficulty.What else we’re readingIndia’s export shock exacerbates a global food crisis In an abrupt U-turn, India has announced an export ban on wheat after sudden heatwaves pushed down forecast domestic production and drove up prices. India’s volte-face highlights the need for some more efficient large-scale food producers who reliably prioritise exports, writes Alan Beattie.How Covid affects the human brain The cognitive impairment caused by severe Covid-19 is comparable with losing 10 IQ points, researchers have suggested. The FT’s global health editor Sarah Neville rounds up the latest research on the neurological effects of the disease.Moderna chair defends its hiring process after CFO fiasco Last week, the top finance director stepped down one day after joining the vaccine maker, following an investigation at his former employer. But Noubar Afeyan says it would be wrong to conflate the sudden departure with a wider cultural problem at Moderna.Top economies battle to lead supercomputer race The US has made a new breakthrough in processing power that will have a big effect on climate change research and nuclear weapons testing. But the success is likely to be muted, as China passed this milestone first and has led the world in supercomputing for years.How do today’s musicians make money? Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube Music, together have more than 560mn estimated subscribers and many more non-paying users. Unable to fight streaming giants, some artists are scrambling to develop their own business model.TravelHave you ever wondered what it is like to see the world through the eyes of a pilot? For Mark Vanhoenacker, great cities hold a special significance — and their post-pandemic reawakening is a joy to witness.

Cairo at 4am, as seen from a flight between Bahrain and London © Mark Vanhoenacker More