Flagship

US Court expands presidential powers

The US Supreme Court ruled Donald Trump is shielded from prosecution for official actions taken while president. It’s a major setback for the Justice Department’s case against Trump for his alleged role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, but it also has broad implications for the office of the presidency going forward. The Court’s conservative majority found presidents can still be prosecuted for unofficial acts, but the distinction between official and unofficial is unclear. A lower court will now have to make that determination, deciding, for example, if Trump pressuring former Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the 2020 election results was an official act or not. Ultimately, much presidential conduct is now “beyond the reach of accountability,” a legal expert told Semafor.

India overhauls criminal code

India overhauled its penal code for the first time since the country’s independence from British colonial rule. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the changes would “give justice, not punishment,” but critics warned a flood of possible cases could overwhelm India’s already overburdened court system. The overhaul includes the repeal of a colonial-era sedition law, an expansive new definition of terrorism, and the criminalization of activities deemed to cause “danger, obstruction or injury” in public (these rules have already been used to fine a street vendor for blocking a road). The Indian Express argued the changes should be part of a “work in progress” to transform the judicial system, one “that needs laws to constantly adapt to the changing needs of those it seeks to govern.”

Nvidia faces first antitrust charges

Nvidia could soon face antitrust charges in France, Reuters reported Monday. If it does, it will mark the first time a country has brought such charges against the US chipmaker. While the exact nature of the potential charges are not clear, they will likely relate to its highly sought-after graphics cards — last year, French anticompetition inspectors raided Nvidia’s Paris offices citing concerns over the cards. Regulators in the US, UK and elsewhere in Europe are also believed to be scrutinizing Nvidia’s business practices. The chipmaker, which is worth about $3 trillion, controls an estimated 80% of the global market for AI chips, and its success briefly propelled it to become the world’s most valuable company for a short time in June.

SKorea impeachment petition crashes site

More than 800,000 South Koreans signed a petition calling on parliament to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol, crashing the website where it was posted, a lawmaker said on Monday. The petition accuses Yoon of raising tensions with the North to dangerous new levels as well as claims of corruption, including allegedly whitewashing an investigation into a marine’s death last year. Yoon remains highly unpopular, and his conservative People Power Party underperformed in the country’s most recent parliamentary elections in April. Korean law requires parliament to consider petitions that get more than 50,000 signatures, but it’s unclear if the opposition Democratic Party will actually try to impeach Yoon.

China halts data on wasted energy

China has reportedly stopped publishing data on how much wind and solar power is being wasted, as the country’s grid struggles to accommodate fluctuating energy sources. China has a track record of “quietly ceasing” to publish unflattering reports, Bloomberg wrote, and in its latest monthly release, the National Energy Administration neglected to include how much renewable energy was left unused. Despite being a global leader in solar and wind energy, China’s grid lacks storage capacity, which means some regions have a surplus of unusable green energy during peak daytime hours. The country’s energy regulator is considering ways to reduce the strain on the grid, such as lowering energy prices during periods of high supply but low demand.

‘Panda diplomacy’ comes to Hong Kong

China plans to send a pair of pandas to Hong Kong to mark the 27th anniversary of Chinese rule, in an attempt to boost tourism and gain goodwill after the political fallout of the 2019 pro-democracy protests. While mainland Chinese tourists have mostly returned to Hong Kong following a pandemic-era lull, international visitors, especially from the UK and US, have stayed away. Overnight spending in the city has also plummeted. The pandas arrive as Hong Kong authorities increasingly turn to Beijing-inspired security laws aimed at silencing political dissent, leading to several high-profile arrests.

Japan targets Mount Fuji tourists

Japan introduced new fees and a cap on the number of hikers visiting Mount Fuji, as citizens nationwide become increasingly critical of overtourism. Only 4,000 hikers will be allowed to reach the summit each day, and must pay $12 to make the climb, after locals complained of littered, overcrowded trails. Mt. Fuji “will be very happy” if visitors respect the environment, said one Japanese hiker. A devaluation of the yen has brought in a record number of tourists to Japan, whose numbers topped 3 million in May for the third consecutive month. But locals are increasingly frustrated with tourists who ignore their rules and customs, leading some officials to erect barricades and block popular photo spots around the famous peak.

Chad eradicates sleeping sickness

Chad has eradicated one form of human African trypanosomiasis, a parasitic disease also known as sleeping sickness. The disease is spread by tsetse flies, and can lead to coma and death. Chad is the 51st country to eradicate a neglected tropical disease, meaning the world is over halfway towards the World Health Organization’s 100-country target for 2030. The WHO is also working toward a 90% reduction in the number of people seeking treatment, a massive reduction in mortality, and the global eradication of at least two diseases on the list by 2030. Despite the progress, optimism should be tempered: The WHO missed many of the goals it set out to reach by 2020.

AI’s energy use disputed

Artificial intelligence’s demand on energy is overstated, a tech journalist argued. AI’s perceived “insatiable” need for energy is often cast as “an almost apocalyptic threat,” Ars Technica’s Kyle Orland noted. But AI uses a fraction of all the energy consumed by data centers, most of which powers online gaming and cloud computing. Meanwhile, the amount of energy needed to power AI appears to be leveling off, Orland wrote, and even under the most extreme potential future scenarios, most data centers will still be used for “more mundane” reasons. Even if AI’s energy demands do outpace other sectors, it could get more efficient, and, more importantly, he argued, AI “may seem like electricity well spent” if used to boost productivity or for societal good.

Tourists lose interest in Olympics

Tourists are shunning Paris this summer as the Olympic Games draw near. The Eurostar train from London is cutting fares as British travelers seek to avoid the Games — some ticket prices are down by a third — and air fares are seeing similar reductions. Almost half of Paris hotel rooms remain unsold during the Olympics. Air France-KLM said French tourists are also postponing travel until after the event, and said it anticipates a $160 million hit to its revenue as a result. It’s possible tourists will make a game time decision and belatedly flock to Paris for the Games, but if not, The Independent noted, it might be a good time to enjoy “one of Europe’s most beautiful cities in splendid isolation.”

• US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is expected to speak at a European Central Bank symposium in Portugal.
• German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is set to visit Poland for talks with Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
• London’s High Court will rule on a patent dispute over technology used to develop COVID-19 vaccines.

The world’s largest William Shakespeare collection has reopened after an $80 million renovation. The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, is hoping to revive interest in the English language’s most famous writer at a time when “Shakespeare’s exalted place in the public imagination is increasingly under threat, at least in America,” The Economist wrote, with the political right decrying his work as obscene and some on the left considering it colonialist, racist, and misogynistic. The Folger is making the case that “Shakespeare belongs to everyone,” and a new exhibition aims to tackle race head-on, featuring a portrait of Ira Aldridge, the first Black actor to play Othello.

• Biden camp rallies around him despite growing step-down calls
• Ukrainians in occupied territories face threat of Russian ‘passportization’
• Meta hit with EU charges as bloc tightens control over Big Tech