Flagship

US House passes anti-TikTok bill

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a bill that would ban TikTok unless its Chinese parent company sold it. The bill’s fate is up in the air in the Senate, but even if it passes, it would likely face legal challenges, and its owner views a forced sale as a last resort, Bloomberg reported. The app is hugely popular, but its growth has plateaued, and “TikTok’s best days in the U.S. may be behind it,” an internet culture writer argued in The Atlantic. A ban could lead American users to simply move on to other apps, the way Indians reacted when TikTok was blocked there in 2020.

UK bars foreign ownership of papers

Britain said on Wednesday it would ban foreign governments from owning its newspapers and magazines, a decision fueled by a takeover battle for The Telegraph. The bill would not apply to broadcast media, but would bar Redbird IMI, an Emirati-backed firm, from proceeding with its bid for the right-wing British newspaper, among the country’s most powerful. Journalists at The Telegraph and The Spectator — which was also set to be taken over as part of the deal — have voiced fierce opposition in their own editorial pages, with the latter’s editor writing of worry that “the real motive for this bid is not operational but to acquire influence via a significant stake in the national press.”

Child mortality hits record low

Fewer children died before the age of 5 in 2022 than in any other year on record. The 4.9 million deaths is still a staggering number, but is less than half the death toll in 1990, when 12.8 million young children died, according to a UNICEF report. Rates have been dropping as well as absolute figures: Most countries saw at least a 50% drop in child mortality between 1990 and 2022. Progress has been made almost everywhere, but great inequality remains. In Finland, about two in every 1,000 children die before their fifth birthday, while in Niger, that figure is 117. Sub-Saharan Africa generally bears the greatest burden, with more than half of all the under-five deaths in the world.

Russian bots swarm Latvian web

A suspected army of pro-Kremlin bots swarmed the Latvian internet last month, signaling a potential “test run” before European Parliament elections this year. The campaign, reportedly the first in a Baltic language, used rudimentary Latvian to defend Latvian hockey players who participated in a tournament in Russia, despite a ban on them playing in games with Russian and Belarusian competitors, investigative nonprofit Re:Baltica reported. European officials have repeatedly warned of Russian interference in this year’s parliamentary elections, especially Moscow’s promotion of parties in Germany, Hungary, and Slovakia that are more likely to support its stances. “The Kremlin directly cannot influence … European people. They need domestic proxies,” a European Commission vice president said.

Google restricts AI election answers

Google won’t let its Gemini artificial intelligence chatbot answer questions about global elections. Half the world’s population will vote this year, notably in the U.S., but also in India, the U.K., and elsewhere. A Google spokesperson said that answers would be restricted out of “an abundance of caution.” Gemini’s answers are under scrutiny after its image-generation feature started producing bizarrely inaccurate historical images, which Google’s CEO called “unacceptable.” Gemini is not the only AI restricting its answers: Anthropic said its Claude chatbot will “proactively guide users away” when they ask questions on elections, where “hallucinations would be unacceptable.”

Riyadh readies mining expansion

Saudi Arabia outlined broad-ranging ambitions to become a mining heavyweight in an interview with Semafor. As part of its “Vision 2030” effort to diversify its economy away from fossil fuels, the kingdom plans to mine the more than $2.5 trillion in minerals it estimates lie below its soil, invest in extraction and processing worldwide, and capture as much of the critical minerals value chain as possible, the country’s vice minister for mining said. “Saudi Arabia is being transformed,” the minister told Semafor’s Prashant Rao. Its ambition points to the scale of the task: The clean energy transition requires huge quantities of minerals to build electric-vehicle batteries, wind turbines, solar panels, and the other technologies necessary to eliminate carbon emissions.

Malaysia a ‘winner’ in chips war

The semiconductor battle between the U.S. and China has at least one winner so far: Malaysia. Prominent chip firms, hungry for alternatives to Chinese investment because of geopolitical concerns and trade restrictions, have opened factories in the Southeast Asian country, which is already the world’s sixth-largest semiconductor manufacturer and a major player in chip packaging and assembling, the Financial Times wrote. In one small sector of northern Malaysia, more than 300 companies have set up shop, according to The New York Times. “There’s a TV, there are lights, there’s a projector, there are phones,” a development executive at a lighting company said. “You can pretty much guarantee there is a Malaysia component somewhere.”

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Chinese slowdown hurts lawyers

The slowing Chinese economy and fewer corporate deals drove large global law firms to cut staff in the country. The legal layoffs were concentrated in firms focused on capital markets, corporate clients, and real estate, and were largely in Hong Kong, The Wall Street Journal reported. As recently as four years ago, work on initial public offerings could fill up 15 law firms, a legal headhunter said. “Now I think it only keeps four or five law firms busy. There isn’t enough food to feed everybody now.” In a sign of the times, though, there’s plenty of work for lawyers working in litigation, insolvency, and restructuring, recruiters said.

Japan private rocket launch fails

Japan’s first private-sector satellite into space burst into flames seconds after launch on Wednesday. The Japan Times described the explosion as a “major setback” for the country’s attempts to play catch-up in the global space race, but a government official nevertheless billed it as “a big step forward” because the rocket aborted the flight on its own, as programmed. Though Japan recently approved a 10-year, $6.7 billion space fund, “the weakness of Japan’s international competitiveness has become evident,” a space policy expert told SpaceNews. Private firms are becoming more integral to countries’ galactic goals: The Japanese company behind the rocket that exploded wants to offer a “space parcel delivery” service, launching smaller satellites more frequently.

Surgeons use Apple headset

Apple Vision Pro virtual reality headsets were used in surgeries for the first time. Last month, a U.S. neurosurgeon wore the device during a spinal operation, superimposing computer-generated images and providing real-time patient data during the surgery. And a surgical nurse used one during a U.K. operation a few days later, in what the nurse called a “gamechanger” — it overlaid images of how the surgery setup ought to look, streamlining the process of providing tools and supporting the surgeon. The Vision Pro is also being used in trials for patient monitoring, medical teaching, radiology, and other medical applications.

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March 14:

• German airport security staff in several cities go on an all-day strike.
• The world marks Pi Day, celebrating the mathematical concept of π, which begins 3.14 and never ends, being what is charmingly called a “transcendental number.”
• Frida, a new documentary about Frida Kahlo, comes out on Amazon Prime.

An action movie about an underground fight club set in a fictional Indian city and directed by Dev Patel received rave reviews at its SXSW premiere this week. Using the framework of Hanuman, a monkey figure in Hindu mythology that symbolizes strength and discipline, the British actor-turned-director portrays an underdog fighter who is on a quest to track down a police chief who killed his mother. Audiences praised Monkey Man‘s portrayal of topics such as sectarian violence, income disparities, corruption, and the inclusion of third gender hijra actors. Patel’s “blend of folklore and socio-political critique into an engaging action-packed experience showcases a side of Indian cinema (outside of the Hollywood machine) that often goes underappreciated internationally,” Deadline wrote.

Sen. Michael Bennet; Sen. Ron Wyden; Kevin Scott, CTO, Microsoft; John Waldron, President & COO, Goldman Sachs; Tom Lue, General Counsel, Google DeepMind; Nicolas Kazadi, Finance Minister, DR Congo and Jeetu Patel, EVP and General Manager, Security & Collaboration, Cisco have joined the world class line-up of global economic leaders for the 2024 World Economy Summit, taking place in Washington, D.C. on April 17-18. See all speakers and sessions, and RSVP here.

• As inflation soars, Nigerians are raiding food warehouses.
• How Adobe’s Firefly repeats the same blunders as Google’s Gemini.
• Why Don Lemon’s deal with X just collapsed.