Flagship

US and allies strike Houthis

The U.S. and U.K. carried out dozens of air strikes on Houthi military targets in Yemen overnight, a response to the Iran-backed militant group’s attacks on ships in the Red Sea that raised fears of a widening war in the Middle East. The Houthis have for months been firing drones and missiles at commercial vessels, ostensibly in support of Hamas following the Palestinian group’s brutal Oct. 7 attack on Israel that triggered a massive assault in Gaza, a conflict that has claimed around 25,000 lives. As a result of the Houthi actions, major shipping companies have avoided the Red Sea, a critical access point for the Suez Canal, through which huge amounts of global trade pass.

Yet while the latest strikes drove up oil prices, the U.S.-led attack could be undermined by a lack of regional support, Semafor’s Security Editor Jay Solomon reported. There was also little sign the strikes would deter the Houthis, who remain a potent organization despite fighting a separate years-long war. “The U.S. and its partners had little choice,” the military expert Mick Ryan noted, before adding: “It is probably unlikely that these strikes will cause the Houthis to back down.” Indeed, the Houthis were defiant, with the group’s leader declaring: “We are comfortable with a direct confrontation with the Americans.”

Trump fraud case closes in chaos

Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s fraud trial came to a chaotic end in New York, with Trump himself unexpectedly delivering a closing statement haranguing the court. Trump said the case — in which he is accused of inflating the value of his properties for financial gain — was a “fraud” and a “political witch hunt.” Despite facing multiple legal trials, Trump remains the frontrunner for the Republican nomination in this year’s election, a fact which worries officials overseas. The European Central Bank president said a second Trump presidency is “clearly a threat” to international cooperation, citing concerns over “trade tariffs, the commitment to NATO, the fight against climate change,” and support for Ukraine.

Taiwan vote tilts on ex-leader’s remarks

A former Taiwanese leader’s claim that China could be trusted over cross-strait relations on the eve of the island’s presidential election could tilt the vote, analysts said. Ma Ying-jeou, Taiwan’s president from 2008-2016, also voiced openness to unifying Taiwan with mainland China, a view supported by only a tiny proportion of Taiwan’s population. The island, seen by Beijing as a breakaway province, instead maintains de facto independence. Ma’s own China-friendly Kuomintang party, which narrowly trails in opinion polls, distanced itself from him, while the frontrunner seized on Ma’s remarks. “Now that Ma has stirred controversy so close to election day, the only impression some of them may have of the [party] is that it would sacrifice Taiwan’s interests,” a Taiwanese elections expert told The Straits Times.

Western trade with China down

New data suggested the West’s trade relationship with China may be distancing. Beijing’s exports rose slightly more than expected in December year-on-year, but those to both the U.S. and Europe fell while sales to Russia surged. Economists have debated the extent to which the West and China are actually “decoupling” — or to use the increasingly favored term, “derisking.” And while Western politicians, particularly U.S. ones, have argued aggressively in favor of reducing dependence on China, a trade expert recently noted that G-7 reliance on Chinese manufacturing is higher than vice versa, indicating “that the repercussions of industrial disruptions would likely be more severe for the G-7 manufacturing sectors than for China’s.”

Microsoft overtakes Apple

Microsoft briefly overtook Apple to become the world’s most valuable public company. Apple shares fell amid demand concerns, while Microsoft’s growing dominance in artificial intelligence drew investors, Reuters reported: At one point on Thursday, Microsoft was worth $2.903 trillion, pipping Apple’s closing value of a mere $2.886 trillion. The entire market capitalization of the London Stock Exchange, by comparison, was about $3.29 trillion in December. The two companies have traded places for decades, although in prior years they were competing for the title of biggest tech company: Now they’re the biggest of any kind. In a sign of Microsoft’s new strengths, one of its AIs helped find a new material that could replace lithium in batteries, searching through 32 million candidates for a suitable compound.

Vaccine hesitancy drives measles

Eight children in Philadelphia were infected in a measles outbreak, as experts warned that U.S. vaccination rates risked dropping below a vital “tipping point.” Each measles patient on average infects 20 other people in an unvaccinated society, meaning if 95% of people are vaccinated, the disease naturally dies away. But in 10 U.S. states, more than 5% of children are now unvaccinated, meaning measles, which can cause severe disability and even death, can spread. Vaccine hesitancy “has been responsible for several measles outbreaks,” two experts wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Vaccination rates against other diseases is low: Just 35% of U.S. over-65s have had the updated COVID-19 vaccine, half the rate in the U.K.

Argentina inflation soars again

Argentina’s annual inflation rate reached 211% in December, the highest level since the early 1990s. However the International Monetary Fund — buoyed by newly elected President Javier Milei’s austerity reforms — this week agreed to disburse a $4.7 billion loan to help stabilize the country’s beleaguered economy. Although soaring inflation has stunted growth, certain sectors have been boosted by it: Rather than see the value of their savings evaporate, Argentines are flocking to restaurants and bars like never before. “I think the generation before us thinks more about saving, but not us,” a diner in Buenos Aires told The New York Times.

January 14-19, 2024 | Switzerland

Semafor will be on the ground at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, covering what’s happening on the main stages and lifting the curtain on what’s happening behind them.

Sign up to receive our pop-up newsletter: Semafor Davos (and if you’re flying to Zurich let us know so we can invite you to one of Semafor’s private convenings).

TV drama brings postal-worker justice

Britain announced that hundreds of Post Office workers wrongly convicted of fraud and theft in one of the country’s biggest miscarriages of justice would be exonerated. Problems in Post Office accounting software led to postmasters being wrongly accused of stealing money: Over 20 years, hundreds were bankrupted or jailed, and some took their own lives. The scandal gathered only moderate attention until a recent TV drama, Mr Bates vs The Post Office, brought it to the nation’s mind. Despite popular support for the government’s plans — the Post Office was accused of “mafia-like” behavior — lawyers voiced concern over the mass exoneration, saying it could interfere with judicial independence.

African soccer cup kicks off

The Africa Cup of Nations soccer tournament kicks off in Ivory Coast on Saturday, with the hosts taking on Guinea-Bissau, while Qatar faces Lebanon in the opener of the Asian Cup today. Europe is the powerhouse of global soccer, so the Asian and African international tournaments are typically overlooked: Coverage of them often focuses on games African and Asian stars will miss for their clubs. But for African and Asian fans, they are a calendar highlight. The New York Times’ chief soccer correspondent noted that the sport’s “innate Eurocentrism” is shifting: AFCON will attract millions of viewers, and African players, such as Liverpool and Egypt’s Mohamed Salah, are increasingly vital in the world’s biggest teams.

Wine drinkers reject green packaging

Bottle manufacturing accounts for two-thirds of the wine industry’s carbon emissions, but consumers are unwilling to buy wine in more eco-friendly containers. A survey of Australian drinkers found that wine in plastic bottles, cans, or bags-in-boxes — which can reduce emissions by 51% — are seen as “the cheaper, low-quality option,” whereas glass bottles “come with a sense of heritage and luxury.” The wine industry is a relatively small contributor to total carbon emissions, but it highlights a wider problem: Cutting emissions often requires asking the public to forgo things they want, such as meat and air travel, an increasingly difficult task as the world gets richer and more people are able to afford them.

Join Flagship on WhatsApp — our new channel will deliver regular (but not too regular) updates from around the world, bringing you charts, statistics, and conversations from our global team of journalists. Join by clicking this link on your phone.

• Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo meets Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang in Beijing.
• Israeli women stage a march calling for the release of all female hostages still held captive by Hamas in Gaza.
• Australia’s annual Parkes Elvis Festival, a celebration of the late U.S. singer’s life and songs, is under way.

Each Friday, we’ll tell you what a great independent bookstore suggests you read.

Berkelouw Books in Sydney, Australia, recommends Prophet, by Helen MacDonald and Sin Blanché. It’s a “a supernatural crime thriller about love, longing, and the dangerous appeal of nostalgia,” that is “fast-paced and compelling.” a Berkelouw bookseller said. Buy it from Berkelouw or from your local bookstore.

An Indian journalist put offbeat street foods that have gone viral on social media to the test by cooking them in her own kitchen. “Maybe there is a method to the madness,” wrote Priyadarshini Chatterjee after recreating a chocolate omelet (“give it a miss”); Fanta Maggi, noodles cooked in the orange-flavored soft drink (sweet, sour, and spicy in a way that seems to work); and Oreo pakora, where the well-known cookies are deep-fried in a savory chickpea batter (the “wrong choice” but try it). “Maybe what these vendors are doing is simply responding to the exigencies of the times,” the food writer reported in Scroll.in. “A samosa filled with okra, then, is not just an experiment in food by a vendor but a response to the consumption culture that thrives on novelty and abundance of options.”

• How to fix Africa’s brain-drain challenge.
• Details emerge on Congress’s big new tax deal.
• Google lays off hundreds working on its voice-activated assistant.