Flagship

NATO leaders slam Trump remarks

NATO leaders and the White House slammed former U.S. President Donald Trump’s remarks suggesting Russia should attack alliance members he accused of shirking their financial obligations. Some Republicans downplayed the comments, pointing to a Senate measure advancing a $95 billion military support package for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan that comfortably passed despite Trump’s opposition. European capitals have reportedly begun steeling themselves for a Trump return to power, however, which could leave them more responsible for their own security amid growing fears of a Russian attack on a NATO country in the coming years. “The recent statements by Donald Trump have yet again raised profound questions about the future of transatlantic security,” the Ukraine-focused analyst Olga Lautman wrote.

Trump vs. Biden in Beijing’s eyes

Another Donald Trump presidency may increase political and military tensions between Beijing and Washington, but would likely weaken the U.S.’ long-term containment of China, Chinese analysts said. A second Joe Biden term, by contrast, would offer stability but result in a strengthened U.S. alliance system that would be negative for Beijing, a prominent America-watcher at China’s Fudan University wrote, according to a translation in the Sinification newsletter. Ultimately, the consensus was that neither is clearly better for Beijing. Or, as one Chinese expert told the Associated Press: “For China, no matter who won … they would be two ‘bowls of poison’.”

Israel frees two hostages

Israeli forces rescued two hostages from Rafah, in an overnight raid mounted as artillery pounded the Gazan border town ahead of a coming ground assault. The operation was only the second successful rescue since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war: There is mounting anger from hostages’ families over what they say is the Israeli government’s apparent prioritization of battling Hamas over reaching a truce to free their loved ones. Hostage negotiators, including the head of the U.S.’ CIA, were due to resume talks in Cairo this week as the costs — human and economic — of the war grow: Israeli air strikes on Rafah have killed more than 50 people, while Moody’s downgraded Israel’s credit rating.

Mammoth Permian deal due

Two giant Permian Basin rivals are reportedly on the verge of a deal creating a fossil-fuel behemoth as U.S. oil and gas companies race to consolidate amid an impending decline in demand. The merger of Diamondback Energy and Endeavor Energy Resources, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, would likely create the biggest driller in the Permian, an oil-rich region which has become a recent focus of oil and gas deals: ExxonMobil and Chevron each struck their own deals to pick up companies with acreage there. The mammoth acquisitions may ultimately be good for the climate, Semafor’s Tim McDonnell wrote recently, because larger companies are more willing and able to cut their operational emissions.

Milei meets Pope Francis

Argentina’s President Javier Milei met Pope Francis at the Vatican in a bid to bolster support for his domestic agenda. Milei’s meeting with the pope, a fellow Argentine whom Milei called a “filthy leftist” during his election campaign, was aimed at garnering backing among the country’s poor, where the pontiff retains a considerable following. Milei’s “shock therapy” austerity agenda has been derailed by opposition in Congress, where his party holds a small number of seats, and now appears in some doubt: Milei called on two senior government officials to step down over the weekend, saying passing his agenda would require “public officials committed to the modernization, simplification, and de-bureaucratization of the state.”

Europe’s migration paradox

Europe is increasingly employing a two-pronged approach to immigration, easing access for high-skilled workers while cracking down on illegal border crossings. “Europe’s aging population is short of manpower,” Le Monde reported, with three-quarters of businesses struggling to recruit. Legal immigration levels are too low to fill that demographic shortfall, and even immigration-hostile governments such as Hungary’s and Italy’s are modifying rules to increase them. But at the same time, countries are seeing record illegal border crossings, and several are imposing stricter laws to appease voter disquiet: France recently reduced welfare access for foreigners and introduced migration quotas, while the U.K. is trying to deport undocumented migrants to Rwanda despite being told that it is illegal to do so.

Amazon removes AI-written books

Amazon removed at least seven books from sale that were apparently written by artificial intelligence about King Charles III’s cancer. Buckingham Palace called the books “intrusive, insensitive and filled with inaccuracies,” and said its legal team was monitoring the situation. Quickly writing shoddy books to cash in on recent events is hardly a new idea — note the rash of Trump books published after his election in 2016 — but AI cuts the time from idea to publication by several orders of magnitude: The Mail on Sunday, which uncovered the fake books, noted that its own reporter was able to get ChatGPT to write a book, “with an introduction, six chapters, a conclusion and epilogue,” in under a minute, and have it available on Kindle 17 minutes later.

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.

Marathon record-holder dies

Kelvin Kiptum, the Kenyan runner who set the marathon world record last year, died in a road accident. The 24-year-old, who only ran his first marathon in 2022, left “an extraordinary mark in the globe,” Kenya’s president said as tributes poured in from across the world’s sporting community. Road accidents such as the one involving Kiptum remain depressingly common in Africa: Whereas global road deaths fell by 5% over the last decade, they rose by 17% in Africa, an increase attributed at least partly to a continent-wide influx of cheap vehicles which has not been coupled with adequate road building programs. “Africa has seen a big increase in motorisation,” an official at the World Health Organization said, “but the infrastructure to facilitate it is not there.”

W. African food wins acclaim

A British-Nigerian chef became the first Black female chef in the U.K. to win a Michelin star. Adejoké Bakare moved to England to study microbiology but ended up launching Chishuru, which started as a pop-up restaurant in London’s Afro-Caribbean-dominated district of Brixton before moving to upmarket Fitzrovia. Akoko, another Fitzrovian West African restaurant, was also awarded a Michelin star last week. West African cuisines have “received little recognition outside their communities,” a food writer argued in The Guardian, but that is changing: A “Nigerian tapas” restaurant and a Senegalese cafe are gaining attention in the British capital, while a British Ghanaian pop-up is touring the world.

Global soccer smashes records

The hosts won soccer’s Africa Cup of Nations and AFC Asian Cup over the weekend, with both competitions smashing previous viewing records. Semafor’s Martin K.N Siele reported that AFCON claimed 2 billion viewers over the past month — even before the fairytale of Ivory Coast triumphing despite almost being knocked out early — while hundreds of millions watched the Asian Cup, won by Qatar with three penalties. Africa’s tournament now showcases some of soccer’s biggest stars, and Foreign Policy noted many of them are from the African diaspora, such as Ademola Lookman, born in the U.K. but a finalist with Nigeria. Reports are reaching us that a large sporting event calling itself “football” happened in the U.S. as well: More on that when we have it.

February 29 | Washington D.C.
Mapping the Future of Digital Privacy
RSVP

A convening of the most forward-thinking leaders in policy, engineering, and technology as we survey the state of privacy in the U.S. and abroad.

• The UAE hosts the World Government Summit where the leaders of Qatar, Turkey, and India are among the guests of honor.
• U.S. President Joe Biden hosts Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the White House.
• Little Witness, an Irish police procedural by S.A. Dunphy, is published.

Milei’s road from serfdom

Western media struggles to categorize Argentina’s new President Javier Milei. Some call him far right; others anarcho-capitalist, right-wing populist, ultraconservative. None seem correct: He’s not a Trump-esque demagogue, nor is he an authoritarian. The pseudonymous neoliberal writer Basile Toumái traces Milei’s ideological lineage: He is a descendent of the school of Austro-Libertarianism, and in particular of Murray Rothbard. Rothbard, like Friedrich Hayek, placed individual sovereignty above all, and rejected state intervention, believing that freedom decreases as taxation increases.

Being a Rothbardian is “a bit like being a Marxist, but inverted,” says Toumái, espousing “both a theory of economics and of social philosophy.” Like Marxists, Rothbardians are prone to factionalism and in-fighting; and like Marxism, Rothbardism involves having “the strongest possible opinion on the value of capitalism,” although while Marx was staunchly anti-capitalist, Rothbard was staunchly pro: He had “a moralised notion of ‘the free market’ that can do no wrong.”

Risks and benefits

How will we know when to worry about artificial intelligence? The debate has already broken down somewhat, with distinct camps all broadly accusing the others of vague badness: “AI risk” worriers think AI could kill everyone, “AI ethics” people think it’s already exacerbating societal inequalities, and “techno-optimists” think all technological progress is good. But it may not be that long until real, powerful, artificial general intelligence arrives, and these debates stop being academic.

On his personal Substack, AI Policy Perspectives, Google DeepMind’s Séb Krier has begun a seven-part series on what we ought to focus on. Part one discusses what it means for a capability to be concerning. Lots of AI abilities, he notes, can be put to both good and bad uses: For instance, an AI that is superhuman at “persuading” might sound worrying, but an AI therapist that couldn’t persuade you to change your thought patterns would be of little help. “A dangerous/not dangerous binary alone is not a particularly helpful frame,” Krier says.

I hope this email finds you well

Caroline Crampton, the editor-in-chief of The Browser, used to be one of those people who thought they were good at email. That is, she cleared her inbox daily; she filed different emails into neat little subfolders; she replied to each incoming email within 24 hours. When others complained about “the never-ending time-suck that was their own inbox, I felt baffled, or slightly smug”: Why not just, you know, answer it?

There was a simple explanation: “It turns out that I just wasn’t receiving very much email.” That has now changed, and Inbox Zero is a thing of the past. (Flagship’s Tom is reminded of another observation, by a former colleague of Crampton’s, that Ozempic made her realize that thin people really can “eat whatever they want” because they actually don’t want to eat very much.) There is something strange about email etiquette, she says, quoting another writer: “Someone at any time, any place, any mental state can send you a message, and now you’re the asshole if you don’t respond to it.”

American whiskey is declining in prominence thanks to changing global dynamics and shifting local tastes. A decade ago, it was “the unrivaled star” of high-end bars, a reviewer wrote in Punch. But that is fast changing. Prices for whiskey have increased, thanks in part to scarcity but also because of a premiumization of brands. Customer interest has also shifted to natural wines and various new or exciting drinks. “In 2010, I could not imagine anything cooler than drinking hip, rare bourbon in a neo-speakeasy,” the critic wrote. “Today, the modern top-tier bar looks very different.”

• Did Trump really fix the U.S.-Mexico border? It’s complicated.
• Immigration ‘will boost US economy by $7 trillion’ over next decade.
• Why Europe’s green plan balked on farming.