From the Spring Meetings of the World Bank and IMF to what's on at this year's Cannes Film Festival – Here are today's Headlines

To start off, we're looking into:

Big shots talk big debts

The backstory: Creditor nations have been talking about how to handle the massive debts owed by developing countries, with China being one of the largest bilateral creditors due to its "Belt and Road" initiative. Some are worried about how much debt these countries can handle, and there's international pressure on China to do more to help.

More recently: In 2020, G20 finance ministers came up with a plan to help over 70 low-income countries with a massive collective debt burden of US$326 billion. They wanted countries like the US, China and India to cooperate to help in a "timely and orderly" way.

During a G-20 meeting in India this year, discussions on debt relief hit a roadblock as the US and China couldn't agree on the next steps. This puts countries like Zambia and Sri Lanka in a tough spot.

The development: Some heavyweights got together on Wednesday at the Spring Meetings of the World Bank and IMF. Their goal was to brainstorm solutions for developing countries struggling with mounting debt due to rising inflation and a robust dollar. Among the attendees were reps from China, India, Zambia, the IMF, the World Bank and US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

Some insiders said China is softening its stance after hearing developing nations' concerns about loan losses. The group even discussed the possibility of the World Bank providing fresh low-interest loans and grants to defaulting countries if China dropped one of its big demands. – that multilateral development banks share losses with other creditors when restructuring these debts.

Max by Warner Bros.

The backstory: It's no secret that traditional cable TV has lost its mojo, and the streaming revolution is in full swing. Streaming services from companies like Warner Bros. Discovery have been taking over the market – it has over 96 million subscribers worldwide with platforms like HBO Max, HBO and Discovery+. Out of those, 55 million come from the US and Canada.

The development: Warner Bros. Discovery just announced the launch of its new streaming service, Max, which will roll out on May 23. It will be jam-packed with content from its portfolios like HBO Max, the DC universe, Warner Bros. films, HGTV, Food Network, Cartoon Network and TLC, to name a few. And yes, that includes a new "Harry Potter" TV series that excited Potter fans last week.

Warner Bros. Discovery is setting some big goals for Max, hoping to attract 130 million subscribers by 2025. With CNN and Turner Sports under its umbrella, news and sports programming could be added in the future. Plus, the company is using machine learning to provide even more personalized content recommendations.

First human bird flu death

The backstory: Bird flu is very rare in humans and doesn’t spread super easily from person to person. Specifically, we’re talking about H3N8. This strain has been known since 2002, first appearing in North American waterfowl. Apart from birds, it’s infected horses, dogs and even seals. The WHO keeps a close watch on all avian influenza viruses because these diseases can evolve and cause a pandemic.

More recently: Last year, two cases of H3N8 bird flu in humans were reported in China, the only known cases in humans at that point. Both of those people recovered. Then, in March, a third case was reported. The patient involved was a 56-year-old Chinese woman from Guangdong province who became sick in late February. She was hospitalized in March.

The development: The WHO just reported that this woman is the first person to die from getting the H3N8 bird flu strain. She’s the third person ever known to have contracted the bird flu. The WHO also said that the woman had underlying health conditions, so she wasn’t in the best health when she got this disease. She was also exposed to live poultry a lot, and she went to wet markets. Based on samples the WHO collected from a wet market visited by this woman, she might’ve gotten this flu there. No one close to the woman contracted the disease.

To end, we'll look into:

Let’s talk Cannes

Festival de Cannes is Cannes, France’s international film festival, and it’s a pretty big deal. Described as “the world’s most prestigious film gathering,” the official fest dates back to around 1946.

In the 30s, the first ever international film festival took place in Italy, the Venice Mostra. Upset by the sway that rising Axis powers of Europe had over the outcome of the festival’s awards, French diplomat and jury member Philippe Erlanger decided to create his own film festival in France. The festival itself got put on hold because of World War II, but when Cannes finally kicked off, it quickly became a major occasion.

This year is the 76th edition of the festival. On Thursday, the lineup was released, and there are some pretty exciting movies being shown in and out of competition. Legendary auteur filmmakers the likes of Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, Catherine Breillat, Wim Wenders, Kore-eda Hirokazu and Todd Haynes are debuting pieces at the festival, which will start on May 16. The event will feature over 50 films.

The Palm d’Or is Cannes’ biggest award. Last year, it was won by “Triangle of Sadness,” directed by Ruben Östlund. In competition for the award are movies with tons of anticipation, like Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City,” Ken Loach’s “The Old Oak,” Kore-eda Hirokazu’s “Monster,” Todd Haynes’ “May December,” Catherine Breillat’s “L’été Dernier” and more. With five of 19 movies competing being directed by women, this year’s festival has a record number of female filmmakers featured. Another exciting movie being shown out of competition is Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon.”

For the past couple of years, Cannes has been smaller than in years past to keep things pandemic-friendly, but now the festival is back to its old grand scale.

“The films are back in theaters and the public is back in theaters,” said Cannes president Iris Knobloch. “The moviemakers, the artists, the professionals are all in agreement. Nothing can replace the cultural event represented by a release in a theater for a movie.”

In other news ...

📈Stocks: MSCI’s global gauge of stocks is up 1.21% at 2829.20 at the time of writing.

• Dow Jones advanced 1.14%, to 34,029.69.
• Nasdaq Composite added 1.99% to 12,166.27.
• S&P 500 jumped 1.33% to 4,146.22.
• Hang Seng Index climbed 0.17% to 20,344.48.

🧠Some quick factors to bear in mind:

• US stocks rallied on Thursday after producer prices dropped and more people filed jobless claims, making investors think the Fed might soon pause interest rate hikes.
• Big tech stocks like Amazon climbed 4.7%, and Alphabet and Meta rose about 3%.
• The PPI for final demand fell by 0.5% in March. This followed a slight cool-down in consumer prices the day before.
• While March payrolls went up and unemployment stayed low, initial jobless claims rose to 239,000, which was more than expected and more than the 228,000 from the previous week.
• Friday marks the beginning of Wall Street's earnings season, with big banks like Citigroup, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase due to report.
• Over in Hong Kong, stocks finished slightly higher on Thursday, even though tech giants like Alibaba saw a sharp drop as investors moved to sell off stakes amid stricter regulations.
• In China, stocks fell as ChatGPT-related companies slumped, despite some surprising data showing exports beat expectations, with 14.8% growth in March.
• Alibaba's shares in Hong Kong slid 2% after backer Softbank moved to sell most of its stakes.

👄Some comments and chatter:

• “The market was a little poised to potentially go up on any positive news, and in this case, the PPI number was quite a bit better than expected. And I think that gives people some comfort that in fact the Fed probably doesn’t have to raise rates in the next meeting,” said Spouting Rock Asset Management’s Rhys Williams.
• “For a Fed already inclined to pause, this report tips the scale just a bit more in favor, especially after yesterday’s CPI failed to reveal any new inflationary problems. The link between the PPI and CPI is not as clear as it once was, but persistently small increases – or, as in March, an outright decline – will eventually come through to consumers,” said Christopher Low of FHN Financial.

🛢Oil: Oil prices dropped by a whole dollar as an OPEC report stirred up some worries about the demand for oil this summer. So, some traders decided to cash in on recent profits. US crude dropped 1.3% to US$82.16, and Brent lost 1.4% to US$86.09 per barrel.

👛Bitcoin: At the time of writing, Bitcoin is up 1.43% at US$30,339.30.

📢French protesters storm LVMH: While President Emmanuel Macron is still trying to push through pension reforms in France, protests are ongoing. On Thursday, hundreds of thousands of people protested all over France. In Paris, protesters invaded the headquarters of luxury brand giant LVMH, and one union leader said, "If Macron wants to find money to finance the pension system, he should come here to find it."

💣N. Korea's new ballistic missile: Tensions between North and South Korea are high, with South Korea doing military exercises with the US and North Korea firing missile tests off of South Korea's coast. South Korea says that on Thursday, North Korea fired a new type of long-range ballistic missile, which caused northern Japanese residents to take cover. There was no actual danger, but South Korea's military sees this event as a "grave provocation."

🗻Three sherpa climbers missing on Everest: On Wednesday, an avalanche at Mount Everest hit a climbing route to the summit. Now, three Nepalese sherpa climbers are missing after they were buried in a crevasse in the mountain, according to the Tourism Department.

📼A beheading in Ukraine?: Russia has been accused of and charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity in its war on Ukraine. On Tuesday, footage began spreading around social media showing what seems to be a Ukrainian soldier being beheaded while still alive. The video has outraged Ukraine's officials, including President Zelenskiy. The Kremlin said the video was "awful," but it needed to be verified to see if it's authentic, and Russia's General Prosecutor's office said it's investigating.

👮‍♂️Arrest in intel leak: Recently, a bunch of sensitive, classified US documents were leaked online, exposing several troubling things like Ukraine's war strategy and intel on US allies. A Massachusetts Air National Guard member has been arrested on suspicion of being the leak. Officials believe that 21-year-old Jack Teixeira was the leader of the chat group that initially posted the docs.

🟢Poland gets the green light: Germany has approved Poland's request to send five old fighter jets to Ukraine to aid in the war effort. This concerns five MiG-29 jets from old stocks that Germany gave to Poland in 2002.

🏦Hungary pulls out from sanctioned bank: The International Investment Bank (IIB) is a Russian bank that moved its headquarters to Budapest in 2019, which drew some Western criticism over fears Russia could use it to cover intel ops in Europe. So, the US sanctioned the bank on Wednesday amid all the war turmoil going on with Russia and Ukraine. Hungary withdrew from the bank on Thursday, citing the sanctions as a cause.

🚓Prisoner fakes his death to escape: High-profile rapist and murderer, Thabo Bester, had been in prison in South Africa when that prison caught fire, and he supposedly died last May. But he really had faked his own death and fled to Tanzania. On Thursday, he was deported back to South Africa, and now authorities have taken over the management of the prison, which had been run by a private British security firm.

👗RIP Mary Quant: We have British designer Mary Quant to thank for the fun, bohemian styles of the 60s. Known as the "mother of the miniskirt," Quant passed away on Thursday at her home in Surrey, England. She was 93 years old.

👮‍♀️Arrest made in Bob Lee's murder: Last week, tech executive and former CTO of Square and co-founder of CashApp Bob Lee was stabbed to death. San Francisco police just announced that they arrested the murder suspect, fellow tech entrepreneur Nima Momeni. His LinkedIn describes him as a tech consultant and entrepreneur, and the police chief said the two men knew each other.

💸SoftBank is retreating: Japanese giant SoftBank was one of the early backers of Chinese tech startup Alibaba. But, with China's regulation of these companies ramping up, many investors are pulling back a bit on their stakes. SoftBank already unloaded around US$7.3 million of its shares in Alibaba this year. Now, it's moving to offload even more of its stake, bringing its ownership of the company to less than 4%.

📱Apple India kicking off: Apple has been exploring ways to distance itself from China, and it's been making moves to start producing more of its products in India. So, India's seen a big boost, as it now accounts for about 7% of Apple's iPhone production. That's quite a jump from the 1% it produced for Apple in 2021.

✈Boeing production pause: Airplane giant Boeing is temporarily suspending deliveries of some 737 Max models after it discovered a manufacturing issue. The company said the issues don't affect the safety of planes currently flying.

📄Insider to start using AI to write articles: Can AI write a decent article? Insider magazine just announced it would be experimenting with using AI in its journalism pieces. AI will just be a tool journalists use, though; it won't be taking over any jobs. The idea is to see how it can be used as a tool and develop best practices for its application in journalism.

💻ChatGPT task force in Europe:  European Data Protection Board (EDPB) works to bring Europe's privacy watchdogs together, and one major challenge to privacy is posed by the new AI breakthroughs we've been seeing. On Thursday, it announced it's set up a task force to look into ChatGPT, which could lead to a common European policy on setting privacy rules regarding artificial intelligence.

💪Schwarzenegger to the rescue: In the US, potholes are usually a nuisance that stays around for years without the city doing much to help. Well, in Arnold Schwarzenegger's Los Angeles neighborhood, one pothole has been causing some major annoyance. So, on Tuesday, he went out to the street with a shovel and filled in the hole himself, tweeting a video of the process later.

♥Michelle Yeoh goes home: Actress Michelle Yeoh made history as the first Asian woman to win an Oscar for best actress. To share in her moment, she headed home to Malaysia, posting a pic of her mother holding the award. She visited her father's grave in Malaysia to pay respects, bringing along the golden statue. She was following through with a promise she made during her acceptance speech: "I have to dedicate this to my mom, all the moms in the world, because they are really the superheroes. And without them, none of us will be here tonight. She's 84 and I'm taking this home to her."

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Written and put together by Joey Fung, Vanessa Wolosz, Shebby Farooq and Christine Dulion