Flagship

Japan lifts rates above zero

The Bank of Japan raised interest rates above zero for the first time in eight years, a major overhaul of monetary policy that both symbolically and practically marks a shift in the country’s economic prospects. The move comes with Japan’s main stock index near record highs, and wage increases at their fastest in more than 30 years, suggesting a decades-long malaise may finally be over for the world’s fourth-largest economy. Japan is far from booming — it narrowly avoided a recession last quarter — and rates are only barely above zero, still the lowest among G20 nations. Still, as one Bloomberg columnist put it, “In the sweep of history, this is a big deal.”

Global costs of China’s deflation

China’s struggle with falling prices may offer short-term help for Western economies grappling with persistent inflation, but the long-term consequences could be costly, analysts said. Estimates vary on the global impact of falling prices in China: Goldman Sachs economists say Chinese deflation lowered U.S. core inflation last year by 0.1 percentage points, while JP Morgan says it reduced global core inflation by 0.7 percentage points. China is responding to falling prices domestically by exporting huge quantities of low-cost goods, in response to which many economies are putting up trade barriers — developments that risk “becoming a danger for China,” Handelsblatt noted, while the economics editor of The Times of London warned: “The net impact … could well end up being inflationary.”

Milei’s mixed first 100 days

Argentinian President Javier Milei reached 100 days in office. He has seen both successes and setbacks in that time — inflation, which was 25% month-on-month in December, is down to 13.2%, and the Buenos Aires stock market has risen. But he has been unable to push through some of his more ambitious reforms thanks to opposition in Congress, where he holds only a minority of seats, and the country remains in recession and faces growing poverty. Milei wants to reduce Argentina’s high levels of debt by imposing strict austerity measures, deregulating and privatizing many industries, and shutting several state industries. Polls suggest that support for his program remains relatively stable, DW reported, although around half the country was and remains skeptical.

Nvidia’s ‘most powerful’ AI chip

Nvidia unveiled what it called the “world’s most powerful chip” for artificial intelligence. The Blackwell general processing unit is, Nvidia said, much more efficient than state-of-the-art processors: Training a 1.8-trillion parameter AI model takes 8,000 processors and 15 megawatts on existing tech, but 2,000 Blackwells would use just four megawatts for the same result, meaning reduced energy demand and environmental impact. The Verge reported that the key improvement is the chips’ ability to communicate with each other smoothly: Clusters of GPUs previously spent 60% of their time talking to each other rather than computing. Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have already signed up to build Blackwell-powered cloud systems.

US election turns on Jan. 6

The U.S. presidential election is increasingly centering around the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at Washington’s Capitol, with Donald Trump tying his fortunes to those convicted of carrying out the assault and Joe Biden using those links to convince voters Trump is a threat to democracy. Trump’s strategy represents a marked shift: The day after the violence, he condemned the “heinous attack,” but now refers to those sentenced to prison as “hostages.” The about-face fits a pattern, Semafor’s Shelby Talcott noted. The ex-president “appears more determined than ever to reward and empower loyalists,” she wrote. Biden’s reelection campaign, meanwhile, has been stunned by how — and how much — Trump discusses Jan. 6, and hopes to use that to turn voters against him.

Israel kills Hamas leader

The U.S. said Israel killed a senior Hamas leader and that Washington was “helping to ensure” that the militant group’s other commanders would face “justice.” The remarks by the White House’s national security adviser pointed to continued U.S.-Israel cooperation, even as the two countries spar over Israel’s plans for an invasion of the Gazan town of Rafah, and over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due in the Middle East again this week, part of efforts to broker a hostage deal and temporary truce in the Gaza war, though The Times of Israel noted Israeli negotiators were downbeat on the prospects for an agreement.

Gambia mulls reversing FGM ban

Gambian lawmakers advanced a proposal to overturn a ban on female genital mutilation. The country in 2016 criminalized the practice, but it remains prevalent: Around three-quarters of Gambian women aged 15 to 49 say they have undergone FGM. Religious groups want to scrap the ban, a move which international rights groups worry would undo limited progress and herald similar reversals over forced marriage laws. Legislators voted overwhelmingly to send the proposed law to committee stage for review. “The good thing that came out of today is that FGM is still illegal in the Gambia,” one anti-FGM campaigner told The Guardian. “But that means that in 2024 we are still debating cutting off the genitals of girls in my home country.”

Asbestos banned in US

U.S. regulators banned asbestos in all products, after decades of partial restrictions. The flame-resistant, fibrous compound was widely used in insulation, but was found to cause cancers: Its deployment was restricted in 1976, but one form, chrysotile asbestos, remained in some industrial chemical processes and products such as car brake pads. Over 50 countries worldwide have banned asbestos’ use entirely. Asbestos was once a miracle product — thousands of lives were lost each year in urban fires, and it played a key role in reducing those deaths. But as fire control methods improved, its health costs gained in salience: “Asbestos is in its final days,” a chemical engineer wrote recently in Works in Progress, “and soon the material will almost disappear entirely.”

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.

Robot cats for UK dementia patients

Elderly people in the U.K. will be given robot pets to treat loneliness, in a government-backed trial. Around 20% of British people are over 65 and about 900,000 people are living with dementia. Both figures are expected to grow rapidly, but the country lacks social care workers, and it is hoped that the animatronic cats and dogs could provide a low-cost complement to human staff. A small earlier study suggested that the pets reduced symptoms such as delusions and depression in dementia patients. Japan, another aging society, has tried similar things in the past, including Paro, a robotic seal, although MIT Technology Review reported last year that the country’s $300 million investment in automated elderly care has not paid off.

K-pop to make Glasto debut

Glastonbury, the U.K.’s most famous music festival, will have a K-pop headliner for the first time. SEVENTEEN will play the main Pyramid stage. The Korean group has had a big year: It was the most popular band on the planet by record sales, and was behind only the ubiquitous Taylor Swift among all artists. K-pop is increasingly dominant in Europe, with Blackpink becoming the first Korean group to headline any British festival last year at BST Hyde Park in London last year. Glastonbury’s 200,000 tickets sold out, as always, in less than an hour, even before the lineup was announced: The other scheduled acts include Coldplay, Dua Lipa, and Shania Twain.

• NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg visits Yerevan for talks with the Armenian premier.
• California holds a special primary election to fill the seat vacated by former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
• Dinner Party Diaries with José Andrés is released on Amazon Prime Video.

The number of Starbucks stores worldwide. The Seattle-founded coffee giant is now the second-largest restaurant chain in the world by outlets, behind only McDonald’s: It added 3,000 new stores in 2023, taking it past Subway’s 36,516 locations. By sales, Starbucks is even further ahead — each Starbucks sells much more than each Subway, so Starbucks generated $28.1 billion in 2022 compared to $15.6 billion for Subway. Both, however, are miles behind McDonald’s’ $120 billion.

New museums showcasing everything from wine in China, canoes in Canada, and Nintendos in Japan are set to open in 2024. Visitor numbers are largely back to their pre-pandemic levels: 176 million people attended the top 100 global museums last year, a survey by The Art Newspaper found, after plummeting to 54 million in 2020. Among Time Out’s 10 best new or renovated openings this year are a museum about homelessness in London and the much-anticipated launch of the Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo, which is set to be the world’s biggest archeological museum, offering a viewing gallery overlooking the Pyramids.

• The legendary American political brawler Rahm Emanuel on China, Japan, and sitting out a historic U.S. election.
• ‘Very few have balls’: How American news lost its nerve.
• The West slams Putin’s rigged election win as China and India send congratulations.