Flagship

Xi returning to Europe

Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s visit to the European Union next month, his first in five years, will spotlight tensions between Beijing and the bloc over Ukraine and trade policy. Xi’s trip to France, Hungary, and Serbia, announced Monday, comes in the wake of several EU probes into Chinese imports as Europe cracks down on what it sees as unfair Chinese trade practices. Xi has an ally in Hungary, whose Prime Minister Viktor Orbán can slow down or block EU policy, Bloomberg reported, with the visit seeking to drive a wedge between the US and EU on China. Xi is visiting countries “where selling the dislike for the US-led global security architecture is easier,” a Latvia-based China expert said.

Musk gets China backing

Elon Musk’s surprise 24-hour visit to China paid off: Beijing tentatively blessed his plan to launch Tesla’s advanced semi-autonomous driving technology in the country, leading the EV company’s shares to surge early Monday. The approval came after Chinese tech giant Baidu signed a deal with Musk to provide mapping and navigation functions to Tesla; China requires foreign smart car firms to use government-approved local suppliers, the Financial Times reported. Musk is aggressively pushing for a global adoption of Tesla’s controversial “full self-driving” system, The Wall Street Journal reported, and a rollout in the world’s biggest car market would help the company compete with Chinese EV makers, many of which already offer advanced driver-assistance systems. Analysts called Musk’s Beijing visit a “watershed moment.”

India’s spy service approved murder plot

Senior members of India’s spy agency signed off on the alleged plot to kill a prominent Sikh activist in the US last year, a Washington Post investigation found. US officials also tentatively believe that members of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s inner circle, including his national security adviser, were aware of the foiled plan to assassinate Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who advocated for a separate state for Indian Sikhs. India previously denied it was involved, blaming rogue operatives, but the new evidence reveals the intelligence service’s escalating overseas “campaign of aggression” against those seen as Modi critics, the breadth of which has “stunned” Western officials, the Post reported. One Western official said India would risk overseeing an assassination on US soil “because they knew they could get away with it.”

Strong US dollar rattles Asia

The strength of the US dollar risks rattling Asia’s economies. Every major global currency has fallen against the dollar since the beginning of the year, The New York Times reported, in part because of a strong American economy and diminished expectations that the US Federal Reserve will cut high interest rates soon. That has ripple effects abroad, intensifying inflation, since countries have to pay more in their home currency for imports priced in dollars. Japan’s yen fell to its lowest level against the dollar since 1990 early Monday, but the entire region has “1997-like vibes,” longtime Asia columnist William Pesek wrote, recalling the late-1990s financial crisis. Asian countries are “still too reliant on exports for comfort” Pesek argued. “A runaway dollar is wrestling capital away from emerging economies everywhere.”

G7 nations reach coal deal

G7 energy ministers reached a tentative agreement to shut down all of their coal-powered plants by 2035. The deal made in Turin during climate talks on Monday marks a significant step for wealthier nations to transition away from fossil fuels: Among the coalition, Italy leads the fossil fuel phaseout, producing about 5% of its electricity from coal, while Japan and Germany use around 25%. The G7 coal target comes on the heels of new US EPA regulations that would force coal plants to cut or capture 90% of carbon emissions or risk being shut down. However, the G7’s potential “trickle down effect” for other G20 nations could be met with resistance, as developing nations like India argue that carbon emission caps stifle critical infrastructure growth.

Russia copies, censors Wikipedia

The Russian government cloned the original, now-banned Russian-language Wikipedia and replaced it with a censored version. According to 404 Media, the new “state-sponsored encyclopedia,” called Ruviki, removed references to the Kremlin’s scandals or reports of torture in Russian prisons. An analysis identified 158,000 changes in articles about human rights and 71,000 edits on pages related to censorship. Earlier this year, more than 100 Ukraine-war related Wiki articles were missing, and several were edited: The article “Russian Invasion of Ukraine,” became“Military Actions in Ukraine (in 2022),” while Ruviki’s entry for George Orwell’s 1984 omits mentions of the Ministry of Truth, the book’s main propaganda outlet.

Face-Off: U.S. vs. China is a podcast about how two nations, once friends, are now foes. Host Jane Perlez talks with diplomats, spies, and cultural superstars like Yo-Yo Ma about why the dangers are high, and why relations went awry. Click here to start listening.

Push for moon wave observatory

Physicists want to build a gravitational wave observatory on the moon. Einstein’s relativity theory predicted that gravity travels in waves, slightly distorting space as it passes through. The waves were detected for the first time in 2015. But just as Earth-bound telescopes are distorted by Earth’s atmosphere, gravitational wave detectors are distorted by Earth’s seismic activity. The moon is geologically inactive, meaning a detector there would suffer less interference. The “Lunar Gravitational Wave Antenna” was first proposed in 2020, and a preliminary plan has been put forward to NASA to scout for a suitable location. A new paper argues that the LGWA would allow scientists to detect gravitational waves in frequencies no Earth-based detector could manage, giving new insights into the universe.

Digital cameras make a comeback

Sales of digital cameras in 2023 grew for the first time in 13 years. The market has shrunk every year since 2010, Nikkei Japan reported, as smartphones with increasingly powerful cameras replaced single-purpose devices for everyday snaps. But in 2022, higher-end cameras with interchangeable lenses saw an increase in sales, and that growth continued last year, with compact cameras also seeing an uptick. It could be partly because the market reached rock bottom — sales last year were 1.2 million, compared to 10.4 million in 2010. But there is also a growing interest in photography as a hobby, illustrated by the faster growth among more expensive cameras. Perhaps digital cameras will not follow Minidiscs into the “briefly popular, long forgotten” technology space.

Uni unveils world’s largest 3D printer

The world’s largest 3D printer was unveiled at the University of Maine in the US. The university’s 2019 model, which was the largest before this, printed an entire family home. The new one is four times the size and could print entire neighborhoods, the Associated Press reported. It can print objects up to 96 feet long by 32 feet wide, and one of its first projects includes houses for the state’s homeless population. The designers hope the printers can create homes at a fraction of the environmental and labor costs of existing methods: The construction sector accounts for 37% of emissions thanks to the use of cement and steel, but the 3D-printed version could be made from cheaply available wood fiber and bio-resin which can be easily recycled.

Japanese town to block Mt. Fuji view

A Japanese town is blocking a popular view of Mount Fuji to drive poorly behaved tourists away. Officials in Fujikawaguchiko in central Japan will construct a 65-foot-long black mesh barrier at a popular site where the volcano can be seen with a Lawson’s convenience store in the foreground. The shops are popular in Japan, so the spot is seen as “very Japanese,” one local official told The Japan Times. Complaints of “overtourism” have spiked across Japan in line with increased visits after the pandemic. Authorities recently imposed a $13 fee for people climbing the most popular route up Mount Fuji, mirroring a new fee imposed on tourists making day trips to Venice.

April 30:

• Indonesia opens the 2024 Periklindo Electric Vehicle show in Jakarta.
• Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella meets Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin to discuss the company’s artificial intelligence plans.
• Amazon, PayPal, and semiconductor producer Advanced Micro Devices report first-quarter earnings.

A legal pad with the words “Buy Bitcoin” scribbled on it sold at auction for $1 million. A 22-year-old intern at a libertarian think tank famously held up the pad behind Janet Yellen, then the US Federal Reserve Chair, during a 2017 congressional hearing. It quickly spawned memes and was embraced by bitcoin fans, becoming “one of few widely-recognized physical Bitcoin artifacts, given Bitcoin’s virtual nature,” according to Scarce City, an online bitcoin marketplace that held the auction. The winning bid for the drawing — which had been ripped out of the legal pad, but was reattached — came from the pseudonymous buyer Squirrekkywrath; the pad sold for 16 bitcoin, equivalent to $1 million.

• The New Yorker’s succession race is kicking off.
• How Washington is responding to the campus Israel protests.
• Championing African art on the global stage.