Flagship

Dual strikes risk Mideast escalation

Separate air strikes threatened to expand the Israel-Hamas war and worsen the plight of civilians in Gaza. Iran pledged retribution after seven people — including a senior Iranian commander — were killed in an attack on its diplomatic buildings in Damascus, an incident blamed on Israel. The security expert Charles Lister characterized the strike as “a major escalation” that risked Iran-backed militias resuming attacks against U.S. military personnel in Iraq and Syria, potentially widening a conflict that has already stretched beyond Gaza to include Red Sea shipping and missiles against Lebanon. Washington nevertheless persisted in pushing regional peace efforts, with the U.S. national security adviser due in Riyadh this week, Axios reported, to promote a deal including normalization of ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel.

The charity World Central Kitchen, meanwhile, blamed Israel for a strike that killed seven of its workers — including a Palestinian, as well as nationals of Australia, Poland, and the U.K. — and said it would suspend operations in the region. WCK had been ferrying hundreds of tons of food supplies to Gaza, where humanitarian officials have warned of widespread hunger. Israel said it was investigating the “tragic incident.”

Growing fears of US debt load

Analysts and officials voiced growing fear over soaring levels of U.S. government borrowing. The U.S. Congressional Budget Office warned recently that federal government debt in relation to the economy would in the coming decade rise past World War II levels, and reach 166% of GDP by 2054. The hedge fund boss Ken Griffin said that “U.S. public debt is a growing concern that cannot be overlooked,” while Bloomberg Economics projected that in 88% of a million simulations, the country’s debt was “on an unsustainable path.” The head of the CBO likened the threat to the 2022 market selloff in the U.K. which resulted in then-Prime Minister Liz Truss being booted from office.

Kyiv hits factory deep in Russia

A Ukrainian-built unmanned aircraft hit a Shahed drone factory almost 1,000 miles inside Russia. Kyiv has been carrying out more and more attacks deep within Russian territory, aiming for infrastructure such as oil refineries. The war scholar Philips P. O’Brien said the attack shows Ukraine’s increasing reach. It “will make things very complex for Russian anti-air defense,” if it has to defend every piece of vital infrastructure within 1,000 miles of the Ukraine border. It also, he said, demonstrated the folly of the U.S. policy to deny Kyiv long-range weapons that could strike into Russia: It was a “pipe dream” to think that move “could keep the Ukrainians from attacking into Russia,” and has simply “reduced U.S. influence — while lengthening the war.”

China’s changing ideology

Western analysts have not paid enough attention to changing Chinese propaganda, and how it reflects the country’s shifting ideology, a prominent Beijing academic argued. Wang Jisi, who founded a major foreign policy think tank at Peking University, pointed to examples such as Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s “extraordinary interest in archeology” as indicating China sees its rivalry with the West less in ideological terms and more “along nationalist, cultural, and civilizational lines.” That affects not simply Western understanding of and relations with China, but China’s study of the world: “Neglecting opening up … risks falling into a situation like the blind men and the elephant,” the head of Tsinghua University’s Institute of International Relations warned.

Three-Body Problem author’s new book

A new book by Liu Cixin, author of The Three-Body Problem, was published. A View from the Stars is a collection of short works, including fiction, interviews, and essays. Liu’s most famous work, a story both about the aftermath of China’s Cultural Revolution and aliens making contact with Earth, was adapted by Netflix (as 3 Body Problem) and racked up 11 million views in its first four days. It is also the subject of a strange true-crime story behind the scenes: Lin Qi, a Chinese billionaire who wanted to adapt Liu’s novel, was fatally poisoned in 2020 by a former employee, angry at being demoted. The employee was sentenced to death last month.

Japan aims to bolster chip industry

Japan approved $3.9 billion in subsidies to help build semiconductors domestically, the latest in a series of financial packages and inducements by countries seeking to win control of the global chipmaking industry. The announcement by Tokyo came after the Netherlands last week said it would spend $2.7 billion on local infrastructure to ensure ASML, the advanced semiconductor equipment manufacturer, does not expand abroad, while Beijing is pushing homegrown companies to break Western companies’ stranglehold on key parts of the chipmaking process, the South China Morning Post reported. The U.S., meanwhile, last month offered nearly $20 billion in grants and loans to help Intel expand domestic semiconductor manufacturing.

DRC’s first woman PM

Judith Suminwa Tuluka was appointed as the Democratic Republic of Congo’s first-ever female prime minister, a historic milestone the country’s president had pledged during his recent election campaign. However Tuluka, a former planning minister, faces one of the world’s toughest in-trays: Before she can tackle a spiraling conflict that has displaced millions and raised the risk of famine, she must first form a new government out of dozens of political factions — her party secured a majority position after beating 44 other parties late last year. “I know that the task is great and the challenges immense, but with the support of the president and that of everyone, we will get there,” Tuluka said.

Lael Brainard, Director of the White House National Economic Council; Christian Lindner, German Minister of Finance; Richard Lesser, Global Chair, Boston Consulting Group; Valdis Dombrovskis, European Commission EVP and Commissioner for Trade; Suzanne Clark, CEO, U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Steve Rattner, Chairman & CEO, Willett Advisors LLC will join the Global Growth Session at the 2024 World Economy Summit to discuss shifts from global to regional trade, impacts on capital allocation and market efficiencies, as well as strategies for navigating the ever-changing economic landscape.

April 17 | 9 a.m.-12 p.m. ET | Washington, D.C.

Crime is Brazilians’ biggest worry

Almost 60% of Brazilians now rank crime as the biggest issue facing the country. Even as the number of murders has fallen significantly in the past six years, a rapid rise in other forms of crime such as petty theft has brought President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s approval ratings to their lowest since the start of his term. A recent survey in Sao Paulo, the country’s biggest city, showed nearly a third of its residents have had their cell phone stolen. Lula’s supporters are increasingly worried that such grim statistics may open the door for the return to power of hard-right parties: “Right or wrong, these messages resonate,” the head of a Brazilian think tank told Bloomberg.

First mammal-to-human bird flu case

A case of bird flu spreading from a mammal to a human was confirmed for the first time. A person in Texas caught the virus from infected cows, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Monday. There have been possible incidents of mammal-to-mammal transmission before — recent outbreaks in elephant seals and farmed mink may have been spread between mammals, New Scientist reported — and humans have caught it off birds, but this is the first time the disease has spread from mammals to humans. The CDC said that the risk of contracting bird flu remains low for most individuals, although people should avoid consuming or handling unpasteurized milk products.

The Gruffalo turns 25

Julia Donaldson’s The Gruffalo turned 25. The children’s story about “the creature with terrible claws, and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws” has sold 11 million copies and been translated into 107 languages — a feat only bettered, according to The Times of London, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince. Her 183 other books, many with German illustrator Axel Scheffler, are ubiquitous in homes and school libraries. Parents of small children will understand the reason for Donaldson’s success: Her rhymes actually scan, unlike most children’s books, probably because she was a musician and songwriter before she became an author. Flagship’s Tom can still recite most of The Gruffalo from memory five years after he last read it.

• A South African court is expected to rule on corruption allegations against the Parliament speaker.
• Abdel Fattah el-Sissi is set to be sworn in as Egypt’s president for a third term.
• The Cemetery of Untold Stories, a novel by Julia Alvarez set in the Dominican Republic, is published.

The share of home burglaries in England that end in prosecution. According to a long exposé in The New Yorker, austerity has been at the heart of the Conservative Party’s 14-year rule, which many experts forecast will come to an end when elections are called later this year. Over that time, public spending as a percentage of GDP has dropped at one of the fastest rates for any country since WW2, with resources for police forces nationwide among those badly hit. “There was a rebalancing that went on,” a former treasury minister said. “Did it go too far? Maybe it did.”

A new digital project collating Nigerian album covers from 1950 onwards shares the history of the country’s graphic design and music. “Every album cover is a story, and this is an archive of thousands of stories waiting to be told,” Opemipo Aikomo, the Lagos-based digital designer behind Album Cover Bank, told The Guardian. From Funto Coker’s artwork for Roots to Fela Kuti’s 1989 Beasts of No Nation, a cover designed by the painter Lemi Ghariokwu, there are more than 5,300 designs to explore.

• How stopping squatters became a hot conservative crusade.
• Japan walks tightrope away from China.
• Apple muscles in on subscription podcasts.