Flagship

Rutte appointed NATO boss

Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte was appointed as NATO’s next secretary-general. The move became a formality after his only rival quit the race last week, but Rutte had earlier faced difficulty persuading Eastern European nations, and especially Hungary, whose premier Viktor Orban is the European Union’s most pro-Russian leader. Rutte is a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin and strongly pro-Ukraine, and in 2018 earned the nickname of “the Trump whisperer” after convincing the then US president that Europe was boosting its defense spending. He faces a full in-tray: As well as the war in Ukraine on NATO’s doorstep, there is uncertainty over the US’ future involvement in the alliance should Donald Trump be elected once again.

ICC warrants for Russian war leaders

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for former Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu and the country’s top general Valery Gerasimov. Both are facing charges for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during Russia’s war in Ukraine, including targeting the country’s energy infrastructure. Ukraine has turned to smaller, renewable energy production facilities in response to widespread destruction of its electricity supplies. Despite Ukraine’s clean energy potential, labor and equipment backlogs — as well as “cold feet by many foreign energy companies about operating in a war zone” — are holding back the country’s energy future, Semafor’s Tim McDonnell reported from Kyiv.

Bowman defeat is blow to US left

Jamaal Bowman, a New York congressman, lost to a Democratic Party challenger in the most expensive house primary ever, a defeat that reveals a growing rift in the party over the Israel-Hamas war. After Bowman accused Israel of genocide, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee spent $15 million supporting his rival, the pro-Israel veteran politician George Latimer. His loss is also a major blow for the Democratic left — Bowman is part of “the Squad,” a group of hard-left candidates led by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, which has so far never lost a primary: One canvasser told Semafor’s Dave Weigel that people “were disgusted with him and the Squad. It wasn’t so much that they loved his opponents. They were anti-Bowman.”

Attacks force Nigeria farmers to flee

Farmers in northern Nigeria are fleeing their farms after attacks from armed gangs, further contributing to soaring food inflation in the country. They have faced abductions and death threats for not paying a levy imposed by gangs and in response some have created vigilante groups, which are often overpowered by criminals that operate with near impunity in the increasingly lawless region. Meanwhile, security analysts have warned that Islamist militias have begun making incursions into northern Nigeria as security across much of the Sahel — a semi-arid belt between the Sahara desert and sub-Saharan Africa — collapses after a succession of regional coups.

Niger takes control of uranium mine

The Niger government took a major uranium mine back into public control. The Imouraren mine holds an estimated 220,000 tons of uranium and was operated under license by Orano, a French nuclear fuel company. But Orano said last week it had been excluded from the mine, a claim confirmed Monday by the government. Niger has close ties to France, its former colonial ruler, but relations have deteriorated since the military junta took control of the country last year — one of several recent coups in the Sahel region of West Africa. France closed its embassy in Niamey in December. Niger produces about 25% of the uranium used in European power plants, and France is by far the largest user.

Semafor has appointed PBS News Hour co-anchor, Amna Nawaz, former Wall Street Journal writer, Jon Hilsenrath, former Wall Street Journal and Washington Post editor, Marcus Brauchli, and former New York Magazine journalist and Mixed Signals co-host, Nayeema Raza, as contributors. The contributors will work alongside Semafor’s editorial and events teams in Washington D.C. to produce and moderate compelling news-driven events, and we’ll bring their voices into our newsletters when we can. In addition, Semafor has promoted Meera Pattni, its head of communications, to oversee its global live journalism business, working closely with senior editor Gina Chon. Pattni, a founding member of the Semafor leadership team, will be responsible for expanding and enhancing the company’s global events portfolio. Maggie Soergel, formerly the head of events, has been promoted to general manager of live journalism.

Export ban hits Huawei chipmaking

US sanctions are hitting Huawei’s high-end chip production. The Chinese tech company is having difficulty boosting manufacture of its Ascend artificial intelligence chip, intended as a rival to Nvidia’s AI semiconductors, which are blocked from sale to Chinese customers. US companies are also banned from selling advanced chipmaking equipment to China, and Washington has reportedly asked allies to enforce similar restrictions. As a result Huawei is using machines intended to produce less sophisticated chips, and repurposing them is causing them to break down. The shortage is hitting Chinese companies such as Baidu and Alibaba, which rely on Huawei chips for their AI ambitions, The Information reported.

Brazil decriminalizes marijuana possession

Brazil’s Supreme Court decriminalized possession of marijuana for personal use, a move that could reduce the country’s massive prison population. The decision — which comes years after several Latin American nations decriminalized the drug — was welcomed by progressive lawmakers in Brazil, who say such laws further increased inequalities in the country. The majority of pre-trial detainees are first-time offenders “who carried small amounts of illicit substance with them,” the head of a security think tank in Brazil told the Associated Press. Despite making up just 10% of the total population, Black Brazilians make up almost two-thirds of the country’s overcrowded prison population.

Japanese women’s drinking goes up

Japanese women are now more likely than their male counterparts to drink excessively. A government survey found that women in their 50s are especially likely to consume “unhealthy” levels of alcohol. That generation was the first to gain entry to the workforce in significant numbers: One 60-year-old woman told Nikkei Asia that she used to often go out drinking with male colleagues, sometimes drinking a bottle of wine a night. Japan, unlike many Western nations, has very different guidelines for men and women — 20 grams (0.9 fluid ounces) of pure alcohol a day is considered the limit for women, compared to 40 grams for men. But nonetheless, men’s consumption has been dropping, while the share of heavy drinkers among women has gone up.

GM crop trial destroyed in Italy

Vandals destroyed a crop of genetically modified rice in Italy. The small trial of Arborio rice, designed to be resistant to a common fungus, was the first ever outdoor experiment of GM crops in the country, after laws controlling such research were recently loosened. GM crops divide opinion in Europe — Green groups in particular oppose them, despite recent moves to ease restrictions in the European Parliament. Elsewhere, GM “golden rice,” edited to include vitamin A, was recently banned in the Philippines, which scientists said could lead to thousands of deaths from vitamin deficiency. The World Economic Forum said that GM crops can be more resistant to extreme weather and the spread of new diseases as climate change hits.

Boosts for robot vehicles

Autonomous vehicles made significant strides in the US. The autonomous vehicle company Waymo now offers robotaxi services to anyone who downloads its app: Access previously required signing up to a waitlist of weeks or months. Its service in Phoenix, Arizona — with its simpler grid system — has been open since 2020. Waymo, owned by the Google parent company Alphabet, is keen to take the lead in the robotaxi industry. Meanwhile, Uber announced that it will start using driverless trucks on its freight-hauling business: A three-year pilot using Aurora vehicles was successful, and the two companies plan to deploy 20 fully autonomous trucks on its Dallas-Houston route this year.

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• The Solomon Islands prime minister meets his Australian counterpart in Canberra.
• Brazilian ministers attend the XII Lisbon Forum.
• Season three of The Bear premieres on Hulu in the US and Disney+ in the UK.

The share of online influencers who made less than $15,000 last year. Although some have struck wealth by promoting products online, the vast majority of influencers in the US make less than the average median wage from their online activities, with only 13% making more than $100,000. With the number of creator-earners expected to rise rapidly for several years, many are seeing their revenue per views plummet. Others, meanwhile, say the impending ban or sale of TikTok could further jeopardize their shrinking earnings. “To lose TikTok would be kind of devastating,” an influencer told The Wall Street Journal.

The New York Trilogy, by Paul Auster. Perhaps the best known work by the late American author, the three-novel collection published between 1985 and 1986 explores different layers of the same story, combining the tropes of detective storytelling, reflections on the meaning of human existence, and the at times oppressive presence of the city to become “a profound and unsettling existentialist enquiry in the tradition of Kafka or Borges,” the book’s UK publisher Faber & Faber says. It “must be one of the few books you can buy in airport bookshops about the annihilation of identity in the urban world,” The Guardian wrote.

• Bill Gates on the climate tipping point that really matters.
• UNICEF chief warns four million children face malnutrition in Sudan.
• Top reporters leave Politico.