Flagship

Fox News settles defamation suit

Fox News agreed to pay $787 million and admitted it had made false claims in order to settle its defamation case with Dominion Voting Systems out of court. The U.S. news channel aired false stories about Dominion, claiming its voting machines could be hacked and had changed some votes from Donald Trump to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. By settling, Fox avoided a long trial in which its most senior figures, including Tucker Carlson and Rupert Murdoch, could have been called to the stand: Dominion had already revealed Fox’s internal communications, detailing its scramble to keep its Trump-voting audience onside by endorsing false claims about electoral fraud.

EU strikes chips deal

The European Union agreed its own semiconductor-subsidy package to grow its domestic chipmaking industry and compete with U.S. and Asian giants. The EU Chips Act highlights the increasing importance of semiconductors globally, and the priority governments have placed on securing domestic supply chains to ensure access to cutting-edge chips. But Europe may still struggle to match the heft of the U.S.’s program, or comparable ones rolled out by chip hubs such as Taiwan and South Korea. Individual companies are also trying to prioritize chip-building, with The Information reporting that Microsoft was developing its own in-house artificial-intelligence chip to power increasingly complex large language models.

Apple opens first Indian store

Apple opened its first store in India. About 300 people queued, some overnight, for the launch in Mumbai, where fans took selfies with CEO Tim Cook. Some “had their hair cut in the shape of an Apple logo,” according to Reuters. India’s huge market — around 600 million Indians own smartphones — is underexploited by Apple, whose expensive goods only have a 3% market share, limited to the upper middle class and rich. Regulatory hurdles have also delayed its Indian progress. But the company is now hoping to move much of its manufacturing into India to reduce dependence on China, and a second store opens in New Delhi on Thursday.

Sudan ceasefire fails

A ceasefire between Sudan’s clashing armed groups appeared to have crumbled shortly after it came into force. The pause in the fighting was meant to last 24 hours to allow humanitarian groups to evacuate civilians, but gunfire was heard across the capital Khartoum within hours. The unrest has exacerbated a long-running economic crisis. At least 185 people have been killed in the fighting, triggered in large part by a power struggle between Sudan’s two most powerful generals — one the head of the army and government, the other his deputy and the leader of a paramilitary group that was to be incorporated into the military.

Putin, Zelenskyy visit front lines

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin both visited areas near the front lines in Ukraine. Zelenskyy met troops defending besieged Avdiivka in the east. Putin visited occupied Kherson on Monday, according to the Kremlin, although in a released video he referred to Easter, celebrated last Sunday in Russia, as “coming up.” He met senior commanders there: The Institute for the Study of War suggested he was doing so in order to create scapegoats in case an anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive is successful. Meanwhile, Kyiv pleaded with Western allies to step up provision of anti-aircraft missiles, to prevent Russia using its large, but so far underemployed, air force.

Lula condemns Russia

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, days after his claims that Kyiv’s allies were responsible for the ongoing conflict kicked up a row with the West. Lula had repeatedly failed to denounce Russia, arguing Ukraine was also responsible for the war. A White House spokesperson accused Lula of “parroting Russian and Chinese propaganda,” while an EU document obtained by Politico indicated the bloc was “concerned about Brazil’s position” on the conflict. Lula has triggered frustration among Western allies over his embrace of Moscow and Beijing: His recently rescheduled trip to China forced the European Commission president to cancel a trip to Brazil.

China dominates EV market

Chinese electric-vehicle makers are routing foreign rivals, growing faster than overseas brands across most major price segments, as global automakers gather for the Shanghai Auto Show. Chinese brands — many of which receive generous subsidies — accounted last year for 80% of domestic EV sales, which themselves outpaced the overall Chinese car sales market. They are also increasingly venturing overseas: Market leader BYD is now selling its models in Germany, while German and Japanese companies, long the dominant forces in carmaking, are falling behind in China, the world’s biggest automotive market. Even Western EV behemoths are struggling to keep up. Tesla, which has lost market share in China after triggering a price war, isn’t showing up to this year’s show.

Iran’s unrelenting hijab crackdown

Rising temperatures in Iran have hardliners worried that women will further defy the country’s conservative dress code. Iran has been rocked by protests since September, triggered by the death in police custody of a young woman detained for wearing a headscarf improperly. Now, “authorities largely turn a blind eye to bare heads,” the Financial Times reported. But religious conservatives are calling for action, with some taking matters into their own hands: This month, a viral video depicted a man throwing yogurt at two women for not wearing headscarves. The authorities have cracked down, with executions reportedly rising by 75% last year to “spread fear” among protesters. Yet, as RFE/RL put it: “Any measure to enforce the hijab law is likely to face resistance from women.”

Start building laser weapons, Navy told

The U.S. Air Force and Navy should plan to acquire laser weapons, a government watchdog recommended. The Department of Defense spends $1 billion a year researching “directed energy” weapons — lasers and high-powered microwaves. Energy weapons, which hit instantly and are cheap to fire, have advantages over projectiles, especially against drone swarms or missiles. But the Government Accountability Office said new weapons tech struggles to move from development to acquisition, and while the Army has presented a detailed plan for how to bring them into operational use, the other services have not, and should find partners to produce prototypes.

Netflix ends DVD deliveries

Netflix will end DVD deliveries after 25 years. It is now a global streaming giant, but Netflix started out by sending individual DVDs through the mail: Customers listed films they wanted to see, which would arrive in distinctive red-and-white envelopes. For most, the model became largely obsolete when streaming made video instantly available. But for a non-trivial minority, especially in rural areas, slow broadband meant snail mail was more practical. Plus, Netflix apparently had 100,000 titles available by delivery, compared to an estimated 6,000 streamable options. As a result, 2.7 million U.S. customers still used the delivery service in 2019.

• Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is expected to formally announce that he will challenge U.S. President Joe Biden for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination.
• Cuban lawmakers elected in March will vote for a new president, with incumbent Miguel Diaz-Canel widely expected to be re-elected.
• Chimp Empire, a nature documentary from the Oscar-winning co-director of My Octopus Teacher, is released on Netflix.

Forty-eight million people in West and Central Africa face acute food insecurity this summer, a 10-year high driven by climate shocks, high food prices, and insecurity, a U.N. humanitarian report said. Among them are 16.5 million children under five. West and Central Africa have been particularly vulnerable to higher temperatures and erratic rainfall. A record 45,000 people in the Sahel — the region that straddles the Sahara to the north and the Savanna to the south — are expected to face catastrophic hunger, a level just short of famine, Reuters reported.

A Bulgarian-language novel was shortlisted for the International Booker prize for the first time. Time Shelter, written by Georgi Gospodinov and translated by Angela Rodel, joins five other novels on the shortlist that were originally written in Spanish, French, Korean, and Catalan. Judges said Gospodinov’s book, which warns of the dangers of nostalgia, is also “a subversive masterclass in the absurdities of national identity.” The author, described by la Repubblica as a “Proust from the East,” tackles themes of aging and trauma with an “unexpectedly cheeky tone.”

If you enjoyed Flagship, please share it with your family, friends, and colleagues — it makes a big difference to our mission to cover the world with intelligence and insight.

To make sure Flagship hits your inbox every day, add flagship@semafor.com to your contacts. In Gmail, drag our newsletter to your “Primary” tab.

You can always reach us on that address, or by replying to this email. We’d love to hear from you!

Thanks for reading, and see you tomorrow.

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

Want more Semafor? Explore all our newsletters at semafor.com/newsletters