Flagship

Malaria vaccine gets Ghana go-ahead

Ghana became the first country to approve a new malaria vaccine. The Oxford University-developed vaccine, called R21, showed 80% protection in early trials: Ghana’s regulators have seen data from a bigger study which apparently shows similar results, the BBC reported. Malaria kills 600,000 people a year, the vast majority of them African children. African countries fell behind on COVID-19 vaccination as rich countries monopolized supply, but R21 should be cheap — a couple of dollars a dose — and widely available: The Serum Institute of India is building a factory in Ghana’s capital Accra which will make 100 to 200 million doses a year.

US leaker reportedly identified

The person who leaked a huge trove of classified U.S. military documents, including secret American assessments of Russia’s war in Ukraine, is a “young, charismatic gun enthusiast” who worked on a military base, The Washington Post reported. The leaker went by the nickname “OG” and began posting the documents on the messaging app Discord in a private room set up as a “pandemic refuge” where “members swapped memes, offensive jokes and idle chitchat … But OG also lectured them about world affairs and secretive government operations.” The leaked documents reportedly suggest Western special forces are operating in Ukraine, that Egypt secretly planned to supply weapons to Russia, and, most recently, that Washington spied on the U.N. Secretary-General.

Fed eyes rate hikes

The U.S. Federal Reserve could raise interest rates once more despite slowing inflation, minutes from the central bank’s latest meeting showed. The report came as data showed that even as overall price rises slowed to their lowest level in nearly two years, they remained far above the Fed’s target, and the core inflation rate — seen as a better long-term indicator — was higher than expected. Western central banks have rapidly ramped up rates in the past year, helping contribute to stresses in the banking sector and fueling fears of a coming recession, but policymakers have remained resolute in their targeting of stubbornly high inflation.

US abortion pill ruling

A U.S. court ruled that an abortion pill could remain available but imposed key restrictions on its distribution. The late-night ruling by a federal appeals court means mifepristone — used in more than half of all abortions in the U.S. — is still available, but the authorities’ efforts to expand access to it were rolled back. The drug is one of several emerging battlegrounds surrounding abortion following the U.S. Supreme Court’s overruling of the Roe v. Wade case which guaranteed access to abortions nationwide, and its ultimate availability is likely to be decided by the Supreme Court, too.

Germany’s nuclear plants close

Germany’s last nuclear power stations close this week. The 2011 tsunami in Japan, which caused a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant, convinced then-Chancellor Angela Merkel to phase out Germany’s nuclear industry. The final three plants’ shutdown was delayed as Berlin sought alternatives to gas after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. German public opinion has shifted — 67% now want the plants’ lives extended, the Financial Times reported — but the Green Party, part of the coalition government, insisted that the closures go ahead. Meanwhile, a new study said nuclear power is the least environmentally damaging form of energy, when taking into account both carbon emissions and land use.

Russia’s workforce loses its youth

The number of young workers in Russia fell by 1.3 million in 2022, the Russian news site RBC reported. Workers under 35 made up 29.8% of the workforce, the lowest share since records began in 2006. That’s partly because of an increase in older workers, after controversial pension reforms increased the retirement age. But the absolute number of younger workers fell as well. Demographics are one driver — Russia, like many other countries, has an aging population — but also emigration: About 500,000 Russians, disproportionately younger graduates, left the country in 2022, often fleeing conscription.

Yuan’s share on the rise

China’s yuan is increasingly being used as an alternative to the U.S. dollar, thanks in part to Western sanctions imposed on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine. The yuan replaced the dollar as the most-traded foreign currency in Russia in February and March, Bloomberg reported. And its share of global trade finance more than doubled in the year after the invasion, according to the Financial Times — though the yuan’s share remains a small fraction of the dollar’s. Analysts say the shift is part of a strategic push by China to increase use of the yuan, in part to help protect Beijing against the power of the U.S. financial system.

Cuba’s fuel shortage halts transport

A severe fuel shortage has ground transportation to a halt in Cuba. Drivers have been forced to sleep in their cars for days on end as they queue for a fuel tanker delivery that nobody is sure will ever arrive. “We are worse off than ever before,” a motorist waiting in his 40-year-old Russian-made Lada told El País. Extended power outages have further undermined the beleaguered economy, forcing record numbers of people to migrate. On Wednesday, U.S. and Cuban officials met in Washington to discuss migration flows as the Biden administration readies for the end of COVID-19-era restrictions.

Flamenco protected in law

The Spanish region of Andalusia approved a law legally defining flamenco, for “its protection, conservation and the promotion of knowledge.” The dance-and-music art form apparently grew out of Andalusian Roma traditions in the 19th century, although its origins are much disputed. It is now mainly a tourist attraction, hence the move — thriving art forms rarely require legal protection. Europe often likes preserving a theme-park image of its own history which can be sold to tourists as authenticity. The law is controversial: One flamenco expert told The Times: “To legislate flamenco could be the most anti-flamenco thing in the world.”

Good night, sweet prints

The Print Screen button on Windows keyboards is changing. The button is a relic of the Windows 95 era — pressing it has, for 28 years, taken a screengrab of the whole screen and saved it to your clipboard. But in the Windows 11 beta, it now opens the Snipping Tool, allowing users to screengrab screen areas or windows, or to record a video. Younger users may not even remember the old PC keyboard shortcuts, like pressing control-alt-delete to reboot, or F1 to bring up the help screen, but for 1990s veterans this is a huge change. Assuming the feature makes it into the final release, users will be able to, if they prefer, turn it off and return to the old Print Screen mode.

Here are some highlights from Semafor’s first annual World Economy Summit in Washington, D.C.:

• Former Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker warned against any severing of U.S. economic ties with Beijing, saying “decoupling” would be “very scary.”
• Looking ahead to the 2024 U.S. presidential polls, Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Jake Auchincloss said that Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin were “salivating” for a Donald Trump victory.
• Nandan Nilekani, co-founder of the Indian tech giant Infosys, said most Indians are “not missing” TikTok after New Delhi imposed a nationwide ban on the app in 2020, as other platforms soon filled the short video void.

Catch up on Semafor’s World Economy Summit here.

• A 12th day of nationwide strikes and protests across France against the government’s pension reforms.
• A Delaware court picks a jury to decide whether Fox News should pay Dominion Voting Systems $1.6 billion for spreading poll-rigging falsehoods during the 2020 presidential election in a closely watched U.S. defamation case.
• The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, the final installment of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, returns to U.S. movie theaters to mark the film’s 20th anniversary.

The demand for paper money is at a 20-year low, according to British currency maker De La Rue, the world’s largest commercial printer of banknotes. The drop in orders comes as more consumers switch to online, card, or contactless transactions instead of paying with cash. The 200-year-old firm, which designs a third of banknotes worldwide, slashed its full-year forecasts on Wednesday, prompting its shares to fall by nearly 30%.

A new podcast analyzes the power of standout songs played in films or TV shows. *IN SYNC explores one song per episode to break down what makes the needle drop — a pre-existing song that wasn’t written for the soundtrack — an integral part of the viewing experience. It was inspired by the renewed success of Kate Bush’s 1980s anthem, Running Up That Hill, after it was used in Stranger Things last year. In the first episode, though, the hosts take listeners back to 2005 — the finale of Six Feet Under and Australian singer Sia’s Breathe Me. In an era of atomized viewing habits, the series “celebrates those moments when we were all watching and listening together,” writes Jim Ruland in the Los Angeles Times.

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— Tom, Prashant Rao, Preeti Jha, and Jeronimo Gonzalez.

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