In today’s world news, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has reported earnings per share for the first quarter of 2023, beating Refinitiv analysts’ expectations. The company reported an EPS of $2.20 and revenue of $28.65 billion, which exceeded analysts’ expectations of $2.03 and $27.65 billion, respectively.
Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta has released its latest GDPNow forecast model, which shows that the US economy grew by 1.1% in the first quarter of 2023, below the previous forecast of 2.5%. In 2022, the US economy contracted in the first two quarters, pushing the country into a technical recession, before expanding in the third and fourth quarters by 3.2% and 2.9%, respectively.
Chen Gao, a researcher at the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said that there are no reports indicating that the Omicron virus strain XBB.1.16 has increased hospital admissions or death rates, although the strain has been reported to spread and have better immunity than other strains.
In other news, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby announced that the United States is delighted with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s telephone conversation with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, and China will send a special envoy to Ukraine to hold talks with all sides to resolve the crisis.