Flagship

Israel hasn’t backed up UNRWA claims

Israel hasn’t provided any evidence for its claims that employees of the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees have ties to militant groups, according to an independent review released Monday. The report follows months of turmoil at UNRWA, after Israel accused a dozen of its Gaza employees of participating in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. The allegations prompted more than 15 donor countries to suspend $450 million in funding; most have restored their contributions, except the U.K., Germany, and the U.S. — the agency’s largest donor. The findings come as Israel’s attention reportedly turns back to Gaza after more than a week of tit-for-tat strikes with Iran; Israel is inching closer to an invasion of the town of Rafah, The Wall Street Journal reported.

US campus tensions grow over protests

Protests in and around U.S. college campuses over the Israel-Gaza war grew increasingly tumultuous. Columbia University in New York canceled in-person classes Monday after police arrested pro-Palestinian students who set up an encampment last week. Students at other top colleges have protested in solidarity; several dozen people were arrested at Yale. Some Jewish students, meanwhile, said they are facing increased antisemitism on and off campus, and videos of some demonstrators — who didn’t appear to be directly affiliated with the student protests — promoting violence circulated widely on U.S. social media. The uproar had echoes of the 1968 Vietnam War-related protests that rocked Columbia’s campus. Authorities’ violent arrests “hurt the university’s reputation,” The New York Times wrote. “Today the university touts its tradition of protest as part of its brand.”

Trump trial kicks off in NY

Prosecutors are rebranding the New York trial of former U.S. President Donald Trump — in which he is charged with falsifying business records to cover up a sexual encounter — as an election interference case, a Lawfare editor wrote. During opening arguments Monday, a prosecutor said Trump’s hush-money payments to an adult film star constituted “election fraud, pure and simple.” Trump’s lawyer retorted: “There’s nothing wrong with trying to influence an election. It’s called democracy.” Of all the Trump cases, using this one to relitigate the 2016 election is odd, Quinta Jurecic argued in The Atlantic, given that the alleged interference here is “so dramatically less consequential in nature than what happened on and before January 6.”

Russian revenue up, oil production down

Russia’s economy is growing despite Western sanctions and Ukraine’s persistent attacks on oil refineries. The country’s budget revenues are up more than 50% this year compared to the same time period in 2023 — largely driven by higher oil and gas prices — even as Ukraine’s drone campaign targeting Russia’s energy infrastructure caused its weekly oil production to drop to its lowest level since December. Moscow’s treasury may now be “awash with cash,” independent Russian outlet The Bell wrote, leading to “an irresistible urge to spend more.” The Kremlin is eyeing increased social spending in line with President Vladimir Putin’s reelection promise to boost the birth rate, as well as more military funding.

India to pass Japan’s GDP next year

India is on track to surpass Japan as the world’s fourth-largest economy in 2025, a year earlier than the International Monetary Fund previously projected. Driven by an expanding population, middle class, and auto market, India’s economy has rapidly grown in recent years, while the depreciation of the Japanese yen is set to hurt Tokyo’s economy in dollar terms, according to the IMF. Investors and businesses are increasingly looking to India as an alternative to China, but New Delhi must take broader steps including expanding the tax base and increasing research and development funding to sustain its next wave of growth, The Economist wrote. A Mumbai-based corporate economist, meanwhile, argued that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party isn’t talking enough about the economy in its reelection pitch.

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Germany, UK arrest alleged China spies

A Chinese spying scandal rocked Europe on Monday, complicating the EU’s efforts to stabilize economic ties with China. Germany arrested three people suspected of spying for China, while the U.K. charged two, including a former high-profile researcher for the Conservative Party, for providing “prejudicial information” to China. “The double whammy” comes as Europe frets over the threat of Chinese espionage, including in academia, the South China Morning Post wrote. Two of the suspected spies’ alleged efforts to arrange a cooperation agreement between a German university and a Chinese contractor to study marine engines’ parts “highlights… the need for Germany to invest a lot more in research security … especially in cooperation with China,” the director of the Berlin-based Global Public Policy Institute wrote.

Influencers promote new capital

Indonesia is enlisting dozens of social media influencers to gush about the country’s planned new capital of Nusantara. President Joko Widodo’s decision four years ago to move the capital from Jakarta — which has been plagued by rising sea levels, congestion, and pollution — to Borneo has been met with opposition: A recent survey found that just over half of the population approves of the under-construction “sustainable forest city,” and environmentalists oppose the large-scale deforestation and displacement of Indigenous communities. The government is relying on influencers to convince skeptical Gen Zers that Nusantara will have adequate entertainment options, but one politics professor told Rest of World that their posts “don’t feel like an impression that emerges out of pure admiration towards the new capital. It feels scripted.”

Cameron backs controversial studio

Avatar director and environmentalist James Cameron has backed a new controversial U.K. film studio. Cameron wants to set up his film company’s technological training center at the Marlow Film Studios in Buckinghamshire, and in a letter to the local council argued that nearly a quarter of global box office revenue comes from U.K.-made films, as the country offers tax breaks and cheaper skilled workers compared to Hollywood. But the studio has been held up by British planning restrictions: Environmentalists oppose the project, which is in a site designated as a protected “green belt” despite being a former gravel quarry now used as a landfill. “Greenbelt policy doesn’t discriminate between pristine pastoral land and reclaimed land,” a proponent of the studio said.

Batteries are getting better

Researchers in Korea developed a sodium-ion battery which can be charged in seconds. Sodium is roughly 1,000 times as abundant on Earth as lithium, which is used in most modern batteries, and is therefore attractive as a raw material. It’s among a number of battery technology improvements on the horizon: BMW’s new electric vehicle batteries will see a 20% increase in energy density, while an Israeli startup expects to achieve EV charging as fast as filling a gas tank. “The next five to 10 years should see a steady drumbeat of new battery technologies,” The Wall Street Journal reported, leading to cheaper, long-range, rapid-charging EVs.

Italy-Minneapolis row over statue

Italy banned art loans to a Minneapolis museum in a dispute over the alleged looting of an ancient Roman statue 50 years ago. Italy claims the statue of Doryphoros, a first- or second-century copy of a Greek work buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79, was looted from an archaeological site in the 1970s, and smuggled out, eventually reaching the Minneapolis Institute of Art in 1986. The MIA argued that the statue wasn’t looted, but found in international waters off Italy’s coast. Italy has pressed for an agreement with the museum to return the statue, and over the years, Italian museums have loaned high-profile works to MIA, including Botticellis and a Caravaggio, in an apparent diplomatic effort to facilitate its return.

April 23:

• German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is set to visit a shelter for earthquake victims during his three-day Turkey visit, culminating in a meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
• Namibia hosts the two-day International Energy Conference, focused on the country’s energy needs.
• American rom-com author Emily Henry releases her new book, Funny Story, where the main character might be falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex.

A Spanish film based on the harrowing true story of a Uruguayan rugby team whose flight crashed in the Andes mountains swept the Platino Awards, which honors the best in Ibero-American cinema and television. Spanish productions dominated at the awards — featuring films from most Latin American countries, plus Spain and Portugal — with Society of the Snow winning for best director, actor, and film. The awards ceremony gave creatives an opportunity to rail against Argentina’s President Javier Milei’s efforts to slash cultural funding. Society of the Snow director Juan Antonio Bayona said that being against cinema is equivalent to “being against your own country.”

• Axel Springer’s Trump years.
• Ukraine can ‘prevail’ with U.S. support, NATO deputy says.
• Why Togo’s politicians disagree over a constitutional change.