Flagship

Biden readies response to strike

An Iran-backed militant group in Iraq said Tuesday it would halt attacks on U.S. troops as the White House readied its response to a deadly weekend drone attack in the region. President Joe Biden said Tuesday that he had decided how the U.S. will respond — but did not offer details, and pointedly said he didn’t want “a wider war in the Middle East.” The remarks showed the tightrope Biden is walking in trying to send a strong message to Iran and its proxies without triggering a direct conflict with Tehran. “The very task of seeking to slow a deepening crisis may end up exacerbating it,” CNN’s Stephen Collinson wrote.

Global recession unlikely, IMF says

Inflation is easing faster than expected in the world’s largest economies, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday. A global recession is now unlikely, though geopolitical tensions in the Middle East could threaten that positive outlook, according to the Washington-based lender. The eurozone economy narrowly avoided an anticipated recession in the fourth quarter of 2023, while U.S. consumers will get some relief at the grocery store: Chicken prices are expected to drop this year, thanks to the “unlikely ally” that is the renewable fuel industry, Bloomberg reported. Making plant-based fuel creates byproducts that can be used as animal feed, allowing meat farmers to spend less to feed their livestock.

India sets big economic goals

India wants to become the world’s third largest economy by 2030, surpassing Germany and Japan, its finance ministry said this week. Officials projected the country’s economy would expand at least 7% in each of the next two fiscal years. Its growing population, burgeoning middle class, increasing infrastructure spending, and strong banking system have all boosted India’s growth prospects. More U.S. firms are looking to it as a long-term alternative to an increasingly “risky” China, a recent survey found, though India’s supply chain still comes with potential pitfalls. “I don’t think China will ever be taken out of the equation,” a leading India business consultant told CNBC.

China-US drug talks resume

China and the U.S. held talks Tuesday on stemming the global flow of fentanyl and other narcotics, the first sign of cooperation on the issue in nearly two years. Experts said the countries likely aren’t close to any immediate deal. The topic has been a sore subject for the two superpowers, with mounting evidence suggesting Chinese chemical companies supply drug cartels with products for fentanyl production. But the resumption of talks — which accompany a broader thaw in Washington-Beijing relations — show China is trying to “dispense of some of the skepticism” that it’s not willing to work with the U.S., an international relations professor at China’s Jinan University said.

Africa to bear brunt of climate impacts

Europe saw its hottest temperature ever recorded when Sicily reached nearly 48.8 degrees Celsius, or 120 degrees Fahrenheit, in August 2021, the U.N. confirmed Tuesday. The announcement pointed to the growing evidence of extreme weather as a result of climate change, which the World Economic Forum projected recently will cost 14.5 million deaths and $12.5 trillion in health-related economic damage by 2050. Africa is expected to bear the brunt of it, losing 1.29 billion disability-adjusted life-years to floods alone. Annual global GDP is around $100 trillion, so the economic cost is roughly one-eighth of one year’s production, representing a real and damaging slowdown of human progress.

Japan faces ‘overtourism’

While countries like China, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka are trying to attract more tourists, others like Japan would rather be left alone. “Overtourism” is plaguing some of Japan’s smaller cities, forcing the government to step in and implement measures like sending additional taxi drivers to popular destinations. Japan “quietly and politely” hates the tourism boom, Asia Times wrote last month, while an influx of visitors to Mt. Fuji raised environmental concerns. Meanwhile, the director of the Florence museum that houses Michelangelo’s David faced criticism from Italian politicians this week after saying excessive tourism had turned the city into a “prostitute.”

Pyramid renovations draw controversy

Egypt is renovating one of its ancient pyramids, to widespread controversy. The Menkaure pyramid is the smallest of the three at the famous Giza site, also home to the Sphinx. Originally it was covered in a layer of granite blocks, but over the last 4,500 years that layer has been damaged, especially in the 12th century when a ruler attempted, unsuccessfully, to have it pulled down. The renovation will reconstruct the granite layer, in what the head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities calls “the project of the century.” But Egyptologists are not all convinced: One called it an “absurdity,” while AFP quoted a commentator likening it to a project “to straighten the Tower of Pisa.”

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States change how they teach reading

Several U.S. states are overhauling the way they teach reading, after millions of children fell behind during the pandemic. Literacy teaching in the U.S. is often based on “balanced literacy,” which relies on inspiring children to love reading, Axios reported, but researchers think it only works for self-motivated children. Phonics-based teaching, which breaks up words and letters, apparently — though not entirely uncontroversially — seems to show better results for all children. Nearly 40% of U.S. fourth-graders fall below expected standards, a situation both exacerbated and brought to light by pandemic-era homeschooling, and 37 states plus Washington, D.C., have put in place policies or laws to change the way reading is taught to help them catch up.

Musk’s Neuralink implants first human

Elon Musk’s brain-computer company Neuralink implanted a device in a human patient for the first time, while China said this week it plans to develop similar technology as soon as 2025. Several companies have already pulled off successful human brain implants to assist paralyzed people, and the recent announcements could make neurotech “the greatest international technology battle of the next decade,” Gizmodo wrote. Neuralink’s device is seen as more expansive than competitors’ and could allow for greater precision. Musk’s involvement is “anxiety inducing,” a Bloomberg technology columnist wrote, “but the life-changing potential is obvious.”

AR glasses war heating up

Augmented-reality glasses and headsets could be the next frontier of consumer tech competition between the U.S. and China. Xreal, a Chinese startup making AR glasses that look like ordinary sunglasses, has raised $300 million and is valued at $1 billion, its CEO said this week. Xreal wants to compete with Apple and believes it is three to five years ahead of the tech giant on AR development. Another Chinese firm struck a deal this month with a city in eastern China to use its AR glasses in factories. Chinese state media last week promoted the country’s prominent role in headset development after Apple’s muted rollout of its first mixed-reality headset. Meta and Google are also working on consumer AR glasses.

Semafor’s 2024 World Economy Summit, on April 17-18, will feature conversations with global policymakers and power brokers in Washington, against the backdrop of the IMF and World Bank meetings.

Chaired by former U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein, and in partnership with BCG, the summit will feature 150 speakers across two days and three different stages, including the Gallup Great Hall. Join Semafor for conversations with the people shaping the global economy.

Jan. 31

• The U.N. Security Council meets to discuss the International Court of Justice’s provisional ruling over Israel’s war in Gaza.
• Taiwan chipmaker UMC reports fourth-quarter earnings.
• The CEOs of TikTok, Snap, Meta, and X testify at a U.S. Congressional hearing on online child sexual exploitation.

Artists are increasingly using gardens to explore the relationship between nature, technology, and a changing world. Several large exhibitions, from Toronto to Madrid to London, center around gardens, “elevating the idea of gardening to an expansive, awe-inspiring effect,” Artnet wrote. They feature organic or digital plants and often incorporate music and poetry. At one of the exhibitions, where plants grow on giant screens and museum-goers can use virtual reality to explore, the artist said he wanted to show the kinship between technology and nature, rather than pit them against each other. “Gardens can suggest our interface with nature, which can be for good or ill,” he said.

• South Africa’s ANC suspends former President Jacob Zuma.
• The new U.S. border deal gives the president big new powers. Conservatives say it doesn’t go far enough.
• Ukraine’s war prospects questioned as anniversary approaches.