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Ukraine backs 30-day ceasefire plan

Ukraine would accept a US proposal for an immediate 30-day ceasefire if Russia agrees, Kyiv and Washington said Tuesday. After nine hours of negotiations, senior US officials ended the pause on military assistance and intelligence sharing, which Kyiv had warned was costing Ukrainian lives. “The ball is now in Russia’s court,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said; the US is expected to present the plan to the Kremlin shortly. “This is much better than I expected,” a former Ukrainian official said, hailing it as a step toward restoring US-Ukraine relations. Moscow’s position remains unclear, although one Russian lawmaker said the plan was “unacceptable,” while a former adviser to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said it was “a proposal to rearm the Ukrainian army.”

Trump downplays market fallout

US President Donald Trump sought to downplay a steep market selloff Tuesday in an address to a group of top American CEOs. Trump’s remarks at quarterly Business Roundtable meeting in Washington — in which he said tariffs are having a “tremendously positive impact″ — came after stocks fell further on another “head-spinning” day for traders trying to navigate the uncertainty that has defined the month so far, CNBC wrote. Trump’s “America First” stance has, “paradoxically, spurred a shift away from US assets,” as analysts fear American exceptionalism has stalled, Bloomberg wrote. Investors are increasingly looking for safer havens abroad, including Chinese stocks and the eurozone, as recession jitters rattle Wall Street.

Trump whipsaws over Canada tariffs

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced, then walked back, plans to double tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum to 50%. Trump threatened the extra levies after Ontario raised the cost of some electricity exports to the US. But officials said the tariffs, effective Wednesday, will remain at 25% following the Canadian province suspending the surcharge. The volley marked the latest back-and-forth in a brewing trade war that presents an early economic test for Trump. Despite his pro-tariff stance, using duties to address one problem “could hamper the country’s ability to solve another,” two experts argued in Foreign Affairs. For example, tariffs can discourage imports and strengthen the dollar, but that hurts US businesses’ ability to sell abroad, undermining efforts to reduce the trade deficit.

Rift on the right over US policy changes

US President Donald Trump’s protectionist policies and the broader retreat from allies and institutions risk “handing over the world to China,” an influential Silicon Valley investor and bitcoin advocate argued. Balaji Srinivasan, a former executive at Coinbase and venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, said the US should try to change its global leadership role rather than desert it, and that deregulation, not tariffs, would boost American competitiveness. Srinivasan’s criticism reflected a growing gulf between Trump’s populist MAGA base and the pro-tech right: Their coalition was crucial to reelecting Trump, but other rifts have already emerged on immigration and energy. Whether their alliance holds or merely represents a short-term marriage of convenience depends on “how ‘America First’ gets defined,” the center-right R Street Institute think tank wrote.

Starlink eyes pathway into India

Elon Musk’s satellite internet company Starlink has partnered with an Indian telecoms giant to operate in the South Asian country. Starlink’s tie-up with Airtel pits the duo against Indian tycoon Mukesh Ambani, whose own telecom firm was positioned to dominate the world’s second-largest internet market. Other Musk businesses, like Tesla, have struggled to break into India because of trade and bureaucratic hurdles — Starlink’s entry is still subject to regulatory approval. But Musk’s increased clout in Washington could help, analysts said: The tech billionaire met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month, and New Delhi may see an opportunity for “Starlink diplomacy,” The Guardian wrote, giving Musk the go-ahead in order to “gratify the Trump administration.”

Vast disparities in global air quality

Only seven countries in the world met the World Health Organization’s safety guidelines for air quality last year, a new report found. Australia, New Zealand, and Estonia were among the nations whose air satisfied the standards for tiny toxic particles, according to the IQAir study. The most polluted countries, meanwhile, were mostly in Africa and Asia — the latter continent is home to 19 of the 20 most polluted cities. “Virtually everyone globally is breathing bad air,” one epidemiologist said. “What brings it home is that there are such large disparities in the levels of exposure.” Beyond the health risks, air pollution also has vast economic consequences, hurting tourism, productivity, and the workforce, especially in Asia’s fastest-growing markets.

Drone arms race in Latin America

Latin American organized crime groups are increasingly using drones as a tool for their operations. Cartels and gangs use them to transport contraband, for surveillance, and as weapons. Criminal organizations in Brazil use drones to monitor and control favelas, while FARC guerrillas in Colombia use them against the national army. Drones have also been used to smuggle contraband of all kinds in and out of jails. The drone arms race “has reached new heights in Mexico,” according to Insight Crime: There, one drug cartel operates a military-style drone controller unit with its own insignia, which drops home-made bombs on rivals and state forces, and has deployed chemical weapons in terror attacks on civilians.

In a polarized world, where do people find their happiness? Semafor, in partnership with Gallup and in coordination with the World Happiness Report editorial team, will present the latest data and insights at The State of Happiness in 2025: A World Happiness Report Launch Event, exploring key themes around kindness, generosity, and policies that enhance well-being.

Join Costa Rican Ambassador to the US Dr. Catalina Crespo-Sancho, Finnish Ambassador to the US Leena-Kaisa Mikkola, Icelandic Ambassador to the US Svanhildur Hólm Valsdóttir, special guest Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, and more to explore the report’s key themes around kindness, generosity, and happiness and policies that enhance well-being.

March 20, 2025 | Washington, DC | RSVP

Interjections are, uh, useful

Researchers increasingly believe mid-conversation utterances — umm, huh, yeah — aren’t irrelevant noise, but instead important linguistic tools. For decades, linguists disregarded such interjections, and public speaking coaches have long discouraged and decried them as a sign of self-doubt. But recent research suggests they may be “crucial traffic signals to regulate the flow of conversation,” placing them at the heart of vocal communication, Knowable Magazine wrote. Humans tend to interject about once every 12 seconds on average — “apparently, we need them,” one expert said — and help guide whether to continue the conversation, or clarify a point. That kind of signposting is evident across human languages, and is among the linguistic quirks that artificial intelligence bots have a hard time replicating.

Singapore mall goes local

A Singapore mall is aiming to attract wealthy shoppers by offering only local brands. The New Bahru shopping complex, converted from a former school, bucks the norm for such high-end centers by foregoing international offerings, which some young Singaporeans have soured on. It helps that the city-state’s GDP per capita is the highest in Asia, and shopping in Singapore is “often called a national hobby,” Nikkei wrote. The island’s economy grew last year, but not the retail and dining sectors; government officials attributed the slump to people cutting back on local spending to save money for trips abroad. New Bahru’s owners hope to reverse that trend by offering a mall “Singaporeans can take pride in.”

Modernist African art gains acclaim

Modernist African art is gaining belated international recognition in galleries and the market. A current exhibition in the Netherlands showcases 20th-century African artists; the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Tate Gallery in London will do likewise later this month, and several modern African artists featured at this year’s Venice Biennale. Modern African art is also doing well at auctions, with Black South African collectors in particular interested in 20th-century art, bucking a trend for contemporary works. “Interest is particularly strong in artists such as Gerard Sokoto,” the Financial Times noted, whose work will be on display at the Pompidou. Africa’s modernists have gained followings before, but the continent’s “wars and upheavals [and] lack of support for arts… have scrubbed their achievements from the record.”

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March 12:

• US President Donald Trump meets Irish leader Micheál Martin in the White House.
• The AI-Semiconductor Conference begins in Hanoi.
• Everybody’s Live With John Mulaney premieres on Netflix.

An exhibition in Virginia brings a collection of rare sketches by the Italian Renaissance master Michelangelo to the US for the first time. The seven drawings are part of Michelangelo: The Genesis of the Sistine, a showcase featuring more than 30 objects that together help illuminate the artist’s process as he conceived and tackled one of his most celebrated works: the monumental fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican City. The seven featured sketches that are new to the US are of Michelangelo’s initial but abandoned idea for the ceiling, Hyperallergic wrote. The exhibit’s curator said the showcase demonstrated the artist’s “remarkable ability to translate ideas from something very small to something monumental.”

The US Democratic Party’s reckoning over age and “gerontocracy” appears to be on hold — key figures in the anti-Trump resistance, right now, were born in the 1940s, Semafor’s David Weigel reported.

“We have to meet incivility with incivility,” said Rep. Al Green in a radio interview, explaining why he shook his cane at the president. Green, along with Vermont’s Sen. Bernie Sanders, have, despite their age, stoked enthusiasm among the Democratic grassroots as few other legislators have done so far.