Flagship

US hosts Japan, Philippines

The U.S. will host a trilateral summit with the leaders of Japan and the Philippines, part of the White House’s efforts to gather allies against China and to Trump-proof U.S. foreign policy. The meeting will focus on Beijing’s alleged expansionism in the South China Sea, and will result in greater cooperation between the three countries’ coast guards, Semafor’s Morgan Chalfant reports in Principals today. Looming over the diplomatic overtures, however, are upcoming elections in the U.S., with the prospect of Donald Trump — who favors more isolationist policies — returning to the White House: The goal is to “create a situation where no one can unbind their ties,” one Japan-based expert told The New York Times.

US-Latam ties clouded by China

The U.S. must refocus its attention on Latin America because Beijing has outcompeted Washington across the region, the Financial Times’ editorial board argued. Chinese firms now control key infrastructure projects and minerals essential for the green transition, and after years of losing influence in Latin America, “the U.S. has awoken to … an alarming incursion by its strategic rival into home turf,” the FT said. Although some regional leaders favor Beijing and its “fondness for authoritarianism,” Washington could sway them with the passage of the Americas Act, a set of initiatives currently stalled in Congress that could eventually lead to Latin American nations joining the U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement. “If the U.S. misses the opportunity in Latin America, China certainly will not,” the FT argued.

China-Australia ties improve

China’s premier will visit Australia in June, according to the South China Morning Post. Li Qiang’s trip marks the latest sign of warming ties between countries that had been at each other’s throats as recently as two years ago, and comes weeks after the pair eased steel and wine tariffs. Though disputes remain — Canberra is part of the U.S.-led AUKUS alliance that is largely aimed at Beijing — the two countries’ relations offer a case study on dealing with China at a time when much of the West is at loggerheads with the country: Australia’s experience demonstrates to allies such as the U.S. and Europe that “conflicts are best fought with unity on the home front,” a Financial Times columnist argued.

EU agrees migration deal

A hugely controversial bill negotiated over several years which aims to radically shift European migration policy cleared its final hurdle. The European Union’s Migration and Asylum Pact — approved by the European Parliament over the shouts of pro-migration activists in the chamber’s open gallery — gives the EU greater control over the 27-nation bloc’s migration, restricts entry to the region, and makes it easier to deport asylum seekers. Political leaders mostly celebrated its passing, though nationalist parties which are expected to perform well at bloc-wide parliamentary elections in June condemned it as too lenient, while pro-migration activists argued it was draconian. Le Monde summed up the mood in the European Parliament’s chamber thus: “Some invoked history, others hoped to finally move on.”

ECB readies rate cut

The European Central Bank is expected to signal it will begin cutting rates from record highs in June, cementing an earlier and more aggressive downward path than its U.S. counterpart. Buoyant economic growth and higher-than-expected inflation have spurred investors to delay projections of when the Federal Reserve will lower rates — Goldman Sachs pushed back its own projection to July, from June. That gulf with the ECB is increasingly impacting markets: Because rich countries’ currencies tend to strengthen on higher domestic interest rates, one analyst said the dollar could reach parity with the euro for the first time in nearly two years, while Japan’s yen fell to its lowest level against the dollar since 1990.

Hamas leader’s family killed

Three sons and four grandchildren of Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh were killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza. The strike hit a car reportedly en route to a family Eid celebration. Haniyeh lives in Qatar, but another of his sons and his brother had already been killed in Gaza. After the strike he thanked god for the “honor” of his relatives’ “martyrdom.” The news will likely be an obstacle to a ceasefire deal — as will Hamas’ claim that it does not have as many hostages to release as Israel believes, along with disagreements over the potential return of displaced Gazans and questions over the permanence of the truce.

Africa no longer carbon sink

Africa now emits as much carbon as it stores, reflecting both a rapid decline in tree cover and a surge in emissions, a recent study showed. Although the continent makes up around 20% of the world’s carbon sink, a rapid rise in agriculture and fossil fuel burning have outpaced its capacity to store emissions. Africa is no longer “providing a climate service to the globe,” the study’s authors wrote. Although energy production from renewable sources has increased modestly as the continent has urbanized, its grid is still heavily reliant on gas and coal, data by Ember showed.

Friends of Flagship: Meet The Daily Upside, a free business newsletter that offers sharp analysis on the latest finance, economics, and investing news. Navigate the complexities of inflation, rate hikes, and more without clickbait headlines. Join 1+ million subscribers when you sign up for free.

How climate affects food prices

Climate change could increase global food prices, a European Central Bank study warned. The research looked at price indices from 121 countries and found that increasing temperatures pushed costs up. Many crop varieties struggle in hotter temperatures, although improving agricultural technology has lowered food prices on the whole so far, one environmental scientist pointed out last year, and likely will for the near future. The food industry is good at adapting: Notably, the global camel milk market is growing. Camels — which can cope with extremes of temperature, can go for days with little water or food, and produce less methane than other ruminants — are resilient to climate change, two academics wrote in The Conversation. As a result, industrial camel megafarms are becoming more common.

The rise of the tea sommelier

French restaurants are increasingly pairing tea with meals. Sommeliers who provide the perfect wine to go with a dish are old news, obviously, but Nhome, a Michelin-starred Parisian restaurant, now brings a glass bottle of different kinds of tea — chilled tea — with each dish. It’s one of around 20 French restaurants to do so. Le Monde’s food correspondent was served Japanese hojicha green tea to accompany a smoked eel dish and a Malawian black tea with a rack of veal and sweetbreads: The different tea “cuvées” fetched up to $30 for a 25-ounce bottle. Across the West, the younger generation drinks less alcohol than its forebears: Two-thirds of British young adults have not drunk alcohol in the last week, more than double the figure 20 years ago.

Award for Israeli randomness pioneer

The Israeli mathematician Avi Wigderson won the 2023 Turing Award, the most prestigious prize in computer science. Computers think in deterministic ways, and the randomness and unpredictability of the real world can be hard to model: Wigderson showed in the 1980s that incorporating artificial randomness into algorithms made some problems easier to solve. The Turing committee tricked him into thinking they wanted to talk to him about collaborating, but when he joined a videoconference with them, “the whole committee was there and they told me.” His friend and protégé, the quantum computer scientist Scott Aaronson, described Wigderson, who is in remission from lymphoma, as the “central unifying figure of theoretical computer science for decades.”

Stéphane Bancel, CEO, Moderna; David Zapolsky, Senior Vice President, Global Public Policy & General Counsel, Amazon; Arati Prabhakar, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; Accenture Chair & CEO Julie Sweet, Co-Founder & Chairman of Infosys, Nandan Nilekani and Aravind Srinivas, Co-Founder, Perplexity AI will join the Global AI & Policy Session at the 2024 World Economy Summit to discuss the implications of AI in our everyday lives — from the way we learn, to how we work at the office or on the factory floor. Explore the latest in the AI revolution and the ways which companies are racing to take advantage of the technology, and what we can learn from past attempts to regulate tech.

April 18 | 2:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m. ET | Washington, D.C.

• A Chinese Communist Party politburo member leads a delegation to North Korea.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will address a summit of Central European leaders in Vilnius.
• The Cannes Film Festival lineup is unveiled.

The number of years between when the 5¼-inch floppy disk was introduced and when it is planned to be retired from its duties on the San Francisco light rail system. Three of the venerable data-storage devices are used every morning to boot up the Muni Metro’s Automatic Train Control System (ATCS), and have been since 1998, Ars Technica reported. Plans to move to a slightly less medieval system were delayed by COVID-19 and they are now expected to be used until 2030. It is not impossible that the developers of the world’s first artificial general intelligence will make their way to the office on a train operated with a system first sold in 1976.

New York City is set to see a huge number of theater openings in the coming days, as Broadway shows race to meet a cutoff to be eligible for the Tony Awards. An incredible 14 new shows will debut in 11 days ahead of the April 25 deadline. Just opening won’t be enough, though: “Producers are also anxious about making sure their shows stand out to ticket-buyers,” according to The Hollywood Reporter, so that they can make it past the Tony nominations and actually take home an award when winners are announced in June. The glut of new shows mark a revival for Broadway which, like theater districts the world over, was battered by shutdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Join Flagship on WhatsApp — our channel delivers regular (but not too regular) updates from around the world, bringing you charts, statistics, and conversations. Join by clicking this link on your phone.

• Climate tech has an IPO problem.
• An mRNA vaccine shows promise in Moderna’s trials, offering hope for cancer patients.
• Could two red states keep Biden off the ballot?