Flagship

Electric vehicle sales boom

Almost one in five cars sold this year will be electric, according to the International Energy Agency. That’s up from 4% in 2020: The IEA says the figure will reach 35% by 2030, and will reduce oil demand by 5 million barrels a day. The electric car manufacturer Tesla, meanwhile, says that the transition to clean energy — notably, renewables, battery storage, and EVs — can reduce total global energy demand by 50% for the same output. The world uses 165,000 terawatt-hours of energy per year, according to Tesla’s 2022 Impact Report: Transitioning to clean tech could reduce that to 84,000 terawatt-hours, by avoiding the “massive energy waste” involved in fossil fuels.

UN down on Sudan negotiations

Sudan’s warring parties are unwilling to seriously negotiate to end their deadly conflict, a top diplomat said. The remarks by the U.N. special envoy to Sudan came amid a U.S.- and Saudi-brokered ceasefire that was only partially holding. Several countries have evacuated their embassy staff and nationals, and the U.N. is braced for nearly 300,000 people to flee across Sudan’s borders for safety. The World Health Organization, meanwhile, warned of a “huge biological risk” from one of the two armed groups at the center of the power struggle after fighters occupied a public-health laboratory that holds measles and cholera pathogens.

Black Sea grain deal at risk

Russian officials suggested they would not renew a grain deal that has helped contain fast-rising food prices following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the deal — which allows Ukraine and Russia, both major food exporters, access to international markets amid the war — has not delivered any benefits to Moscow. Russia’s defense ministry, meanwhile, said alleged Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian-controlled territory threatened extension of the deal, which expires in mid-May. Separately, Lavrov hinted at a possible prisoner swap involving two U.S. nationals held by Russia, including a Wall Street Journal reporter.

Early promise for Alzheimer’s drug

A small trial of a new drug showed promise in reducing one of the proteins associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s patients’ brains show a buildup of tau protein, as well as plaques of another protein called amyloid. The new drug turns off the gene that makes tau, and a study of 46 early-stage patients found it reduced the amount of the protein and had no major side-effects. But reducing tau is only significant if it reduces dementia symptoms, and the study hasn’t shown that. Other drugs have reduced amyloid levels but not significantly affected disease progression. Still, scientists are cautiously optimistic. Recruitment for a larger trial is under way.

Florida’s top medic alters COVID study

Florida’s surgeon-general altered key findings in a state study of COVID-19 vaccines to overstate the health risks. The study originally said there was “no significant risk,” but Dr. Joseph Ladapo changed the wording to say that cardiac deaths were “substantially higher” following vaccination, especially among young men. Ladapo was appointed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Dr. Anthony Fauci, who led the U.S. pandemic response, blamed politicization for the country’s poor vaccination record — only 68% of Americans are fully vaccinated and excess death rates among registered Republicans were nearly double those of Democrats, likely driven by different rates of vaccination. Fauci told The New York Times that the country’s “fractured” health system and racial disparities also worsened outcomes.

Tobacco giant fined for N. Korea sales

British American Tobacco will pay more than $635 million in fines after selling cigarettes to North Korea, in violation of sanctions. Between 2007 and 2017, a BAT subsidiary sold $428 million in tobacco products to the country. BAT, the second-largest tobacco firm in the world, also conspired to defraud financial institutions to facilitate the deal. Pyongyang faces heavy sanctions over its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs: This is the largest-ever fine for breaching those sanctions. As smoking rates have fallen in the developed world, largely thanks to increased awareness of health risks, tobacco firms have concentrated their efforts on growing their business in poorer countries with weaker regulations.

Beijing courts the world

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has launched a major diplomatic push since he met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. His discussions with the leaders of Brazil, France, the European Commission, Gabon, Malaysia, Singapore, Spain, and the crown prince of Saudi Arabia represent a marked contrast from six months ago, when China still had strict pandemic restrictions in place and Xi appeared reluctant to leave Beijing or meet world leaders. Xi’s foreign minister, meanwhile, has visited 10 other countries and met or spoken to nearly 80 foreign dignitaries or counterparts. “However, there has not been any substantive shift on the most important foreign policy relationship,” the South China Morning Post noted — that between Xi, Putin, and U.S. President Joe Biden.

More US bank trouble

A U.S. regional bank saw its shares fall by nearly 50% after customers withdrew deposits en masse, adding to fears of continuing financial-sector turmoil. First Republic said it was exploring “strategic options” after announcing that it lost some $100 billion in deposits, sending its stock price to an all-time low. The bank hasn’t given up hope of a bailout by the government or its competitors, Semafor’s Liz Hoffman reported, but private conversations between executives and regulators have yet to transform into the formal discussions required to organize such a rescue. The stakes are high: Allowing First Republic to fail would draw Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s insistence that all deposits “are safe” into question.

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Opposition leader lands in US

Juan Guaidó, the Venezuelan opposition leader, arrived in the U.S. after being thrown out of Colombia. On a plane to Miami, Guaidó said he feared for his and his family’s safety. According to Colombian authorities, Guaidó — once recognized by the West as Venezuela’s legitimate president but now only part of a fractious opposition — had arrived in their country unexpectedly ahead of an international summit there. The summit, meant to restart talks on elections in Venezuela and the lifting of international sanctions, included representatives from 20 nations including the U.S. but failed to produce “concrete results,” Reuters reported.

Microsoft unbundles Teams

Microsoft will stop automatically installing Teams along with its Office software suite. The move is intended to avoid an antitrust probe by European Union regulators, after a complaint from rival company Slack that bundling it all together was anticompetitive, the Financial Times reported. Older readers will be fondly reminded of great Microsoft antitrust probes of the past, notably when it was accused of forcing Windows users to use its Internet Explorer web browser in 2001. Rumors that Microsoft would also stop Teams auto-launching every time you open your bloody laptop had not been confirmed at the time of going to press.

• U.S. President Joe Biden hosts South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol for a state visit.
• Former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson to launch his campaign for the Republican nomination for the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
• The annual Grammys on the Hill Awards in Washington D.C., which honor people that have gone above and beyond to support those in the music industry.

Under Brazil’s Amazon lies 94% of the world’s niobium, a metal essential for hardening steel. Besides niobium, the Amazon holds some of the world’s largest deposits of lithium, cobalt, nickel, and other metals and minerals essential for the green energy transition and the tech devices that will underpin it. This lays bare an uncomfortable choice for Brazil’s government: Should it tap into these rich mineral deposits, or stick to promises of halting all Amazon deforestation? “How Brazil handles the energy transition’s burgeoning hunger for resources will help determine whether our policies to save the planet will leave us with a planet left to save,” Robert Muggah and Mac Margolis write in Foreign Policy.

A new documentary chronicles the career of the bestselling U.S. author Judy Blume. It tells the story of a woman who dared to write openly about adolescence, exploring topics such as menstruation, sexuality, and divorce in dozens of teen novels that have sold more than 90 million copies. Fifty-four years after her debut novel was published, Blume continues to captivate young adults and incense social conservatives: Her books are still being banned in parts of America. It took several years for the makers of Judy Blume Forever to persuade the author to come on board, reported The Guardian. “I could be fearless in my writing in a way I couldn’t be in my life,” Blume tells her interviewers.

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