From a possible Freshippo IPO in Hong Kong to the cutest photobomb ever – Here are today's Headlines

To start off, we're looking into:

The reported IPO plans of Alibaba's Freshippo

The backstory: Alibaba's supermarket chain Freshippo is taking grocery shopping to a whole new level with its supermarket plus restaurant and delivery experience. So, essentially, you can either shop and dine in or have groceries delivered in just 30 minutes.

And guess what? This isn't just a pipe dream. Freshippo's grocery brand, Hema Xiansheng, was already turning a profit in 2022, according to a company website.

The company also has some cool tech in-store, like automated order-picking systems with conveyors attached to the store's roof and robots that serve food to customers in the restaurant.

The development: According to insiders speaking to Bloomberg, Alibaba's Freshippo is considering an IPO in Hong Kong. Its market value is around US$242 billion, and it has teamed up with major investment banks like China International Capital and Morgan Stanley to make it happen. But the details of the IPO, like how much it plans to raise or the company's valuation, are still up in the air. It's still early days, and it may not even end up going through. No comments have come out yet from Alibaba, CICC or Morgan Stanley about this matter, either.

Greenpeace takes on chip titans

The backstory:  As you may know, semiconductors are essential in almost everything digital, from smartphones to AI-powered machines to electric cars. But making these little chips isn't exactly eco-friendly because it requires a boatload of energy and resources. In fact, some of these chip giants, like TSMC, consume more energy than entire countries. And electricity consumption is the biggest source of the industry's emissions.

More recently: With this, some semiconductor bigwigs are ramping up their sustainability efforts. For example, TSMC plans to have 40% of its energy from renewable sources by 2030. Samsung wants to meet 100% renewable energy for its facilities outside South Korea by 2027 and inside South Korea by 2050. Both companies have committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.

The development: But now, according to Greenpeace's new report, East Asia's top semiconductor, display manufacturers and assembly companies haven't committed to reducing their carbon footprint enough to align with the UN's goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C.

Greenpeace dug into the electricity consumption of some big players like TSMC, Samsung and SK Hynix. It predicts the semiconductor industry will consume a massive 286 terawatt hours of electricity globally by 2030, which is more than double what it did in 2021 and more than all of Australia in the same year.

Google’s staff hates Bard

The backstory: Last November, the AI chatbot race really kicked off when Open AI launched Chat GPT, which was a real eye-opener for many into how far AI has come. Then, Bing launched its own AI chatbot to enhance its tools as a search engine a few months later. And Microsoft later announced it would integrate full AI capabilities into its work tools for its Office suite.

The development: Google is responsible for much of the research that has gone into making these steps in AI possible, but it's lagging behind in launching its own user-ready AI tools. It's been under a lot of pressure to release its own competing chatbot, Bard, to get on the same level as other tech giants. But, insiders in the company are blowing the whistle, saying Google is ignoring ethics to launch the bot ASAP.

Bloomberg spoke with 18 former and current employees that described Bard as "a pathological liar" that's just not ready for the public. Read more in the full article about what they had to say about the bot's shortcomings and Google's push to launch.

To end, we'll look into:

Thousands more undersea volcanoes discovered

There have been problems with submarines crashing into underwater volcanoes, aka seamounts.

In 2005, the USS San Francisco hit one when it was going at top speed, resulting in one death and a whole bunch of injuries. The same thing happened again in 2021 with the USS Connecticut hitting a seamount in the South China Sea, damaging its sonar capabilities.

The issue here is that only a quarter of the whole sea floor has actually been mapped out via sonar, which is essentially how we humans can see what’s going on down there. So we just haven’t been able to figure out where a lot of these seamounts are or how many there are.

But now, *drumroll please,* scientists have developed a way to find these seamounts, and finding out the truth about these geological features is a bit mind-bending.

But before we go into that – question – why should we care about the mountains at the bottom of the ocean? Well, we’re glad you asked. Aside from these seamounts being dangerous to submarines and ships, this new research can help us understand a ton of things, from ocean currents to climate change. When it comes to climate change, these seamounts help control the ocean flows that isolate a lot of the world’s heat and carbon dioxide. On top of all this, they also hold a lot of rare-earth minerals.

This month, a new catalog was published, showing the discovery of more than 19,000 seamounts. They were discovered using high-res radar, which could see seawater mounding above hidden seamounts, moving this way because of the seamount’s gravity. David Sandwell, a marine geophysicist who helped direct the project, called this discovery "mind-boggling."

Before this, we only knew of around 24,000 of these seamounts existing. We still don’t know how many there actually are, but using radar instead of sonar could help us map them out better moving forward.

John Lowell, chief hydrographer of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), says, “The better we understand the shape of the sea floor, the better we can prepare [for climate change].”

This is also big news for understanding and protecting the ocean’s biodiversity. These seamounts are total magnets for all kinds of ocean life. “We can’t protect the things if we don’t know they’re there,” explains Chris Yesson, a marine biologist at the Zoological Society of London’s Institute of Zoology. He adds: “We won’t waste our time as much.”

In other news ...

📉Stocks: MSCI’s global gauge of stocks is down 0.38% at 2822.54 at the time of writing.

• Dow Jones dipped 0.33%, to 33,786.62.
• Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.8% to 12,059.56.
• S&P 500 dropped 0.6% to 4,129.79.
• Hang Seng Index gained 0.14% to 20,396.97.

🧠Some quick factors to bear in mind:

• Wall Street's three major indexes all closed lower on Thursday as investors reacted to a mix of disappointing earnings reports and economic data that hinted at a slowing economy.
• Tesla took a big hit yesterday, sinking over 9.8% after disappointing earnings. Other tech giants like Nvidia, Microsoft, Meta Platforms and Apple also saw a stock dip. Seagate Technology had it bad, losing over 9% after missing estimates.
• On the performance front, FactSet data showed that 76% of companies in the S&P 500 have managed to beat earnings per share (EPS) expectations, even if only 16% have reported results so far.
• On the economic side, recurring weekly jobless claims rose to the highest level since November 2021, potentially signaling a softening labor market.
• Over in Hong Kong, traders kept an eye on US interest rates and inflation concerns. The Hang Seng Index had a bumpy ride but eventually ended in the green. .
• China's commercial lenders have decided to hold their lending rates steady, keeping the one-year loan prime rate will stay at 3.65% and the five-year rate at 4.3%.

👄Some comments and chatter:

• “Though, so far, it seems that equities have rallied, sentiment has been okay, and you’re seeing equity volatility continue to grind lower, the story from corporates is that margins are under pressure, and we continue to see that decline,” said Anna Han, equity strategist at Wells Fargo Securities.
• “If the Fed stays the course, broad financial conditions should continue to tighten, the economy should decelerate into recession, and stocks should trade down sharply. On the flip side, the biggest upside risk to our bearish call remains the Fed backing off way too soon! Although, if the Fed fails to sustainably bring down inflation, the ultimate pain will likely be much worse 12-24 months down the road,” wrote Chris Senyek of Wolfe Research.

🛢Oil: On Thursday, oil prices dropped around US$2 per barrel, hitting their lowest since late March, as traders were uneasy about a possible recession lowering fuel demand. On top of that, the US saw an increase in gas inventories. With that, US crude fell 2.4% to US$77.29, and Brent lost 2.4% to US$81.10 per barrel.

👛Bitcoin: At the time of writing, Bitcoin is down 1.9% at US$28,261.90.

💔Deadly crush in Yemen: A crowd gathered at an event for financial aid in Yemen’s capital of Sanaa late Wednesday night. They started panicking after gunfire and an electrical explosion, causing a crush. Armed Houthis began firing into the air to control the crowd, which caused the explosion and set off the crush. At least 78 people were killed, and at least 77 others were injured, according to witnesses and Houthi rebel officials.

🚁US military preps for possible Sudan embassy evac: The fighting in Sudan continues, especially in the country’s capital of Khartoum. Now, US troops are preparing at a naval base in the small country of Djibouti for the possible evacuation of US embassy personnel in Sudan, as the situation is uncertain.

📸World Press Photo winner: The World Press Photo of the Year award winner was announced on Thursday. AP photographer Evgeniy Maloletka won for his photo of emergency workers carrying a pregnant woman through the ruins of a maternity hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol after a Russian attack in March.

🤝NATO chief makes surprise Kyiv visit: Even though NATO has been supporting Ukraine during the war, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg hasn’t been there since the fighting started last February. On Thursday, he made a surprise trip to Kyiv, paying respects to Ukrainian soldiers who died and looking at Russian military equipment displayed there. In a press conference with President Zelenskiy, Stoltenberg addressed the idea of Ukraine entering NATO, saying it’s definitely on the agenda for the next NATO summit.

🙀Feral cat hunting contest scrapped: The North Canterbury Hunting Competition in New Zealand is typically open to both kids and adults and is all about managing the populations of invasive species and raising money for local causes. This year, the competition organizers announced a new competition category offering prize money to whoever could kill the most feral cats. Now, the organizers have canceled that competition, with people upset that this could lead to stray and lost cats being killed.

🎤RIP Moon Bin: Moon Bin, a 25-year-old singer from the K-pop boyband Astro, was found dead at his home in Seoul, his management agency said Thursday. His death is still being investigated, but so far there aren’t any signs of foul play. He’ll have a quiet funeral limited to family, close friends and colleagues.

🤑Biden pledges US$500 million to stop Brazil deforestation: As Brazil is upping its protections of the Amazon with left-wing Lula as its current president, US President Biden wants to pledge US$500 million to fight deforestation in the country over five years. The pledge needs to be approved by Congress, but if it is, it will make the US one of the largest donors to the global Amazon Fund.

👩‍⚖️Baldwin charges dropped: Actor Alec Baldwin was in trouble after accidentally shooting and killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of “Rust” in October 2021. He was using a prop gun that turned out to be loaded with live ammo. Later, the actor was charged with involuntary manslaughter, but with just weeks left until the trial, those charges were dropped on Thursday. The filming for “Rust” has also resumed on the same day.

🚀Starship explodes: Earlier this week, SpaceX’s historic launch of the biggest rocket ever built, Starship, was postponed due to some frozen components on the ship’s booster. The launch was rescheduled for Thursday morning EST. Unfortunately, the rocket exploded in the air just minutes after launching. But, CEO Elon Musk reassured people that the test flight, which was uncrewed, was essential for data collection to make improvements to the company’s R&D. “Success is not what should be expected,” he said. “That would be insane.”

📰Bye-bye Buzzfeed: Iconic media brand Buzzfeed is shutting down its news arm, according to founder and CEO Jonah Peretti in a company memo. The company is cutting back its workforce by about 15% across its “Business, Content, Tech and Admin teams,” and Buzzfeed News is in the process of being closed down. Don’t worry; you’ve still got us.  

☑No more legacy Twitter checks: It’s official – Elon wants famous figures and stars like Beyoncé to pay US$11 a month for Twitter Blue to get their blue checks back. All the checks previously left on legacy-verified Twitter accounts have been removed, so now everyone has to subscribe. Yes, even you, Oprah and Pope Francis.

🦥Sloth steals spotlight: The South American rocket launch for the European Space Agency’s JUICE mission to Jupiter is historical, taking off last Friday. But the launch video briefly shows footage of a sloth in a field, and that sloth is going viral, stealing the show from this space mission.

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Written and put together by Joey Fung, Vanessa Wolosz, Krystal Lai and Christine Dulion