Flagship

Israel studies Hamas truce plan

Israel said it was studying a Hamas truce proposal that would ultimately lead to the end of the Gaza war. The draft plan, obtained by Reuters, would involve the phased release of hostages in Gaza and the freeing of Palestinian prisoners, as well as Israel’s full withdrawal from, and the immediate reconstruction of, the enclave. U.S. and European officials separately hope to soon announce progress in talks between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah, Axios reported. The apparent advances could easily be derailed, however: Saudi Arabia disputed Washington’s characterization of Riyadh’s willingness to normalize ties with Israel, and according to Ynet, Israeli officials said they would not accept a key tenet of the Hamas plan — ending the war.

Milei makes Israel embassy pledge

Argentinian President Javier Milei said he would relocate his country’s embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv during a trip to Israel. The announcement was a rare controversial foreign policy move from Milei, who has largely adopted a more pragmatic approach overseas, the Financial Times reported. Although he vowed not to do business with “communists” — criticizing Brazil and China, Argentina’s biggest export markets — his foreign minister has sought to strengthen ties with both, and Buenos Aires will this year welcome a U.S. Navy vessel for the first time since 2010, indicating Argentina is also courting Washington. “They aren’t the outsiders we were expecting,” a foreign diplomat in Argentina said of Milei’s team. “They’re open, focused, serious.”

GOP impeachment push fails

U.S. Republicans failed to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The unsuccessful effort — ostensibly over a surge in illegal immigration — offers a further sign of Washington’s, and especially congressional Republicans’, dysfunction: A bipartisan bill tying border security to funds for Ukraine was earlier rejected by the House Speaker, a Republican, despite Democrats offering wide-ranging concessions to the GOP on immigration policy. Republicans “thought they had set a clever trap” for their opponents, The New York Times reported, but then “fell into it” themselves. President Joe Biden said that Republicans, and specifically his likely opponent in November’s election Donald Trump, would “rather weaponize this issue” than solve it.

EU unveils climate tech push

The European Union unveiled its answer to the U.S.’s Inflation Reduction Act, a huge green-tech investment law, but analysts said it fell short of Washington’s effort. The EU’s Net-Zero Industry Act will streamline permitting rules and strengthen protections for European renewables firms in an effort to cut carbon emissions by 90% by 2040. Still, in a sign of the challenges surrounding efforts to battle climate change, the bloc watered down plans to halve pesticide use, in the face of continent-wide farmer protests ahead of European Parliament elections in June. Though those specific agriculture proposals are not directly linked to greenhouse gases, farmers have in recent weeks railed against several EU rules, including those aimed at reducing emissions.

Boeing in ‘last-chance saloon’

Boeing is “in the last chance saloon” over manufacturing standards — with a new investigation finding mis-drilled holes in undelivered jets — the head of the airline Emirates warned. High-profile failures of Boeing aircraft, notably the blowout of a section of a 737’s fuselage during a flight last month, have piled scrutiny on the manufacturer. Emirates is one of Boeing’s biggest customers, with a $52-billion, 95-plane order placed in November. The airline’s CEO said that the plane maker “needs a root and branch look at how it goes about producing aeroplanes” and “put the house in order,” rather than focus on financial targets, echoing recent comments by the CEO of AerCap, the world’s largest aircraft-leasing company.

McDonald’s outlines China expansion

Fast-food chain McDonald’s said it would open around 1,000 new outlets in China this year. The announcement represents a stark contrast to many Western companies’ efforts to limit ties to the country, which is facing a sharp economic slowdown. McDonald’s, which last year upped its stake in its China business, said it will concentrate its new restaurants in so-called “lower tier” cities outside major metropolises such as Beijing and Shanghai. Yet as Bloomberg noted, the company will face tough competition: Global rivals such as Yum China — which owns the Pizza Hut and KFC brands in the country — are also focusing on smaller cities, and China’s economic struggles have meant consumers are becoming increasingly price-conscious.

Butter chicken dispute reaches court

Butter chicken, the fragrant South Asian curry, is the subject of a bitter legal fight. The dish was apparently first created in Moti Mahal, a famous New Delhi restaurant established in 1947. The grandson of one of its founders runs a franchise called Moti Mahal Delux. But the grandson of another founder runs his own chain, Daryaganj, and said on TV that his grandfather was the dish’s true inventor. The first grandson is suing the second, accusing Daryaganj of being “big cheats” and asking for $240,000 in damages. But a food historian told The Wall Street Journal that butter chicken almost certainly predates Moti Mahal: The arguments are just “a back story to create market hype.”

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AMLO dominates Latam streaming

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador was Latin America’s top Spanish-language streamer of 2023, according to Latinometrics, with his YouTube channel racking up almost 50 million hours watched. AMLO’s hours-long daily press conferences — which are streamed live on YouTube — have reshaped politics and media in Mexico: Over more than 1,200 broadcasts, AMLO has relied on the platform to promote his agenda and rail against the “conservatives” and the “corrupt media” that he claims are antagonists to his movement. Although initially promoted as an unprecedented exercise in public accountability, the conferences have “turned into a predictable spectacle without any value,” as AMLO often only fields softball questions from sympathetic reporters, a Mexican journalist told The Guardian.

US media giants unite on sports

Three U.S. media giants said they would form a joint venture uniting their sports programming, a major effort to combat declining TV revenues. The announcement comes amid a shift in parts of the West away from cable television to standalone streaming services, hurting the companies’ profits. The bundling of sports rights — which Variety described as “the last TV format that generates steady crowds and sustained ratings” — is not guaranteed: The firms have only reached an agreement in principle, and though they will hold equal shares in the new venture, they will reportedly not receive equal profits. “If this does make it off the ground, get ready for plenty of action — both on the screen and in the boardroom,” The Information said.

I. Coast amateurs turn to lêkê sandals

Plastic sandals have become the footwear of choice for pickup soccer games in Ivory Coast, which is hosting the Africa Cup of Nations. While international soccer stars playing in the tournament appear in Nike- and Adidas-branded cleats, locally manufactured $1.50 lêkê sandals, available on every street corner, have become “a badge of honor” for street games. Previously seen as a symbol of poverty, they’re now chic: “You can wear them everywhere, even at a party,” one amateur player told The New York Times. If players turn up in proper soccer boots, “We’ll make fun of him,” another player said. “‘You think you’re a professional player?’” The AFCON semifinals are tonight, with South Africa facing Nigeria and Ivory Coast — presumably not wearing lêkê — hoping to defeat the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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• Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet visits his counterparts in Thailand.
• Italian farmers protest against rising fuel and inflation costs.
• A new comic book about Travis Kelce, the American football player who is dating U.S. megastar Taylor Swift, is released.

The time in years it will take for the John Cage Organ Foundation in Halberstadt, Germany, to play the avant-garde composer’s piece ORGAN2/ASLSP (As Slow as Possible). The group of music scholars took Cage at his word about the “slow” thing: They began their performance in 2001, but the piece begins with a short rest, so the first note was not played until 2003. The 16th chord progression in the piece began on Monday, NPR reported. One member suggested that “the organist must play until he dies from the seat,” but the group eventually settled on using sandbags to hold down the organ keys instead.

A collaborative novel co-written by Margaret Atwood and 35 other writers was published. Fourteen Days is set in a run-down apartment block in New York, a week into the COVID-19 lockdown. Each character has been written by a different author — John Grisham, Celeste Ng, and Dave Eggers are among those who join Atwood, who is also the book’s co-editor — but it is unknown who wrote what unless you consult a list at the end of the book. “I recommend adding the extra fillip of uncertainty and saving the surprise,” wrote a reviewer in The Guardian, “even if it does lead to the occasional misidentification (I was certain a tale about a trip to Afghanistan in the 1970s was Atwood’s, because I knew she’d visited the country then; I was wrong).”

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.