Good morning everyone from Friday, April 15th! Partly cloudy and rainy weather, which is a weekend classic, returns from tomorrow to spend the next week with us.

A playlist as sweet as the air that brings joy to spring: Spring Jazz

MARKETS AND ECONOMY

• The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey kept the policy rate unchanged at 14% at the Monetary Policy Committee meeting held on Thursday.

Important detail: While it is reiterated that the review process regarding monetary policy continues in the text of the decision, unlike the text published last month, “the decision to strengthen the macro prudential policy set” was also included.
• New York Fed President John Williams stated that interest rates are currently very low and a 50 basis point rate hike would be a reasonable option in an environment of high inflation.

John Williams

• In its April meeting, the European Central Bank did not change the policy rate in line with expectations and reiterated its commitment that asset purchases will end in the third quarter.

On the other hand: The Bank also emphasized that interest rate hikes will be started gradually with the end of asset purchases.
• Argentina’s Central Bank increased the policy rate by 2.5 points to 47% after inflation reached its highest level in 20 years. Inflation in the country reached its highest level since 2002 with 6.7% monthly in March.

• Fatih Birol, President of the International Energy Agency, said that the current energy crisis is much different and more severe than it was in the 1970s, and that the natural gas, coal and uranium markets, as well as oil, could be seriously affected by Russia. Ukrainian war.

• President of the Turkish Contractors Association, Erdal Eren, stated that they do not know how to transfer money with Russia yet and that the ongoing contracts are worth 20 billion dollars.

BUSINESS WORLD & AUTOMOTIVE

• Elon Musk made a $41.39 billion offer to buy the entire company, arguing that Twitter should turn into a private company. Stating that his offer is final, Musk said, “If it is not accepted, I will reconsider my position as a shareholder.”

What happened? Having bought 9.2% of Twitter last week, Musk became the largest shareholder; however, the company has decided not to join the board of directors due to the limited number of shares it can hold.
One step back: We talked about Elon Musk’s ability to make this move on Tuesday.

• Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced that the company is not considering adding any cryptocurrency to its payment options anytime soon. Jassy stated that NFT sales can take place on the platform; but for this they said they expect NFTs to “grow significantly”.

Andy Jassy

 Amazon

• Stellantis announced that it has signed an agreement to use Qualcomm’s next-generation connected vehicle technology in its vehicles. The company announced that it will start using 5G technology by 2024.

• Mercedes-Benz announced that its electric car Vision EQXX has completed a long-range test of more than 1,000 kilometers on a single charge. This is one of the longest distances an electric vehicle can travel on a single charge.

Perspective: It is known that Mercedes plans to invest 60 billion euros in electric vehicles by 2026 to prevent Tesla and BMW’s electric vehicles, which took the title of “best selling brand” last year.

POLICY

• Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk announced that they agreed with Russia to open 9 humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians.

Leaders of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia met with Volodymyr Zelenski

Press Office of the President of Ukraine | AP

Visit of the leaders: The leaders of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia visited Ukraine and met with President Volodymyr Zelenski. The leaders demanded accountability for war crimes committed by Russian military forces. Zelenski thanked the leaders by stating that the four countries stand by Ukraine under all circumstances.
Senior official: The US is allegedly considering sending a senior official to Kiev in the coming days as a sign of its support for Ukraine against the Russian invasion.
Balance Sheet: The United Nations (UN) reported that at least 1,932 civilians lost their lives in Ukraine, 2 thousand 589 civilians were injured in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and 4 million 656 thousand 509 people lived in the Donbass region.

announced that it has moved to these countries.
• Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, regarding Turkey’s stance against the sanctions imposed on Russia, said, “We said that we did not find Russia’s attack on Ukraine correct. We also participated in many decisions. On the other hand, we complied with the Montreux Convention by stating that it was a war when no one said it was a war. If the sanctions are a UN sanction, we will comply. But on the other hand, countries decide to impose sanctions, they can change it tomorrow.” he said.

What happened? US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said, “Those who do not condemn Russia’s war in Ukraine will face the consequences if they harm the sanctions.”
• Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev warned NATO that if Sweden and Finland join the union, Russia will deploy nuclear weapons and hypersonic missiles on the European border.

What happened? NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told the foreign ministers of the member states that “if Sweden and Finland want to join the alliance, action can be taken quickly”, and Finland and Sweden are considering joining the alliance.
• The Supreme Election Board (YSK) has decided to re-determine the chairman and members of provincial and district election boards and the presidents of overseas district election boards until 6 July.

• With the motion submitted by AK Party Group Deputy Chairman Mehmet Tevfik Göksu and MHP Group Deputy Chairman Volkan Yılmaz in today’s parliamentary session of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, the 40% increase in transportation was withdrawn for students.

• Genco Erkal was acquitted on the grounds that the elements of the alleged crime were not formed in the trial in which he was charged with “insulting the president”.

One step back: Genco Erkal was facing up to 4 years in prison for allegedly “insulting the President” in his social media posts.
• The decision to transfer the Jamal Khashoggi murder case to Saudi Arabia was objected to by the lawyer of Khashoggi’s fiancee, Hatice Cengiz. Cengiz’s lawyer, Gökmen Başpınar, demanded in his petition to the court that the decision to stop and transfer the case be lifted.

One step behind: Last week, it was requested that the Khashoggi case be stopped and transferred to Saudi Arabia, and the request was accepted after the Ministry of Justice gave a positive opinion.

TECHNOLOGY & STARTUP

• Sina Estavi, a Malaysian entrepreneur who bought the NFT of Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s first tweet for $ 2.9 million last year, announced last week that he wanted to sell his assets for $ 50 million and donate half of it to a charity. NFT, which Estavi put up for sale on the OpenSea marketplace, has so far been able to reach a bid of up to 10 thousand dollars.

• TikTok announced that it is working on the dislike button for comments “to make users feel more in control” about the content they encounter. According to screenshots shared by some users on Twitter, the number of likes the comments received will still be visible, while the dislikes they received will not be displayed.

TikTok comment dislike button

• With the approach of summer, Tinder announced that it has launched the “Festival Mode”, where users can catch matches before the events they attend. Thus, users will be able to meet with other participants and plan together before concerts and music festivals.

Behind the scenes: The popular dating app said it developed this new feature based on two out of three users stating that they enjoy meeting new people at live music events. The Festival mode is also the third new feature introduced after the company’s last quarter 2021 report, which did not meet expectations.
• CD Projekt Red announced that it has indefinitely postponed the development of the version of The Witcher 3 adapted for the next generation consoles. The release date, originally predicted as the last quarter of 2021, was postponed to the second quarter of 2022. Stating that they need to reevaluate the scope of the project, the Poland-based game studio refrained from giving a new release date.

SPORT

⚽️ After the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League, Europa League and Conference League, the semi-final pairings have been announced.

Champions League: Villarreal – Liverpool | Real Madrid – Manchester City
Europa League: Leipzig – Glasgow Rangers | Eintracht Frankfurt – West Ham United
Conference League: Rome – Leicester City | Marseille – Feyenord
🏀 After Fenerbahçe Beko lost 85-76 to Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv in the last game of the regular season in Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, Anadolu Efes’ opponent in the playoffs was AX Armani Exchange Milan. Olimpia Milano, who had the home advantage, defeated Efes in two games during the regular season.

What will happen now? In EuroLeague, all playoff matches have been announced: Barcelona – Bayern Munich, Real Madrid – Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv, AX Armani Exchange – Anadolu Efes, Olympiakos – Monaco. Competitions will begin on Tuesday, April 19th.

🎾 Quarter-finals pairings have been announced at Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters. In the tournament where Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz said goodbye earlier than expected, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev, who are in the top 10 in men’s singles world rankings, continue on their way: Fokina – Fritz, Dimitrov – Hurkacz, Schwartzman – Tsitsipas, Sinner – Zverev.

🚴‍♂️ The winner in the fifth stage of the 57th Presidential Cycling Tour was Sam Welsford from the Dutch team Team DSM. Eduardo Sepulveda maintains his leadership in the individual general classification after the 192 km run on the Manisa-Ayvalık route, while DSM is the leader in the team general classification. Today, the sixth stage will be run for 205 km between Edremit and Eceabat.