Flagship

Brazil in new Amazon push

Brazil today hosts regional leaders to enlist them in the fight to stop deforestation of the Amazon. A joint strategy is expected to be announced at this year’s COP28, but despite progress in combating deforestation — clearing of the Amazon fell by 66% in the first seven months of the year — activists remain concerned that not enough is being done. Over the weekend, protesters objected to a plan for the state-run oil company to drill for oil at the mouth of the Amazon river. Meanwhile environmentalists warn that the rainforest may be in for a destructive burning season as El Niño, a warm-weather pattern, could turn swathes of the Amazon “into a tinderbox,” Reuters reported.

Saudi hosts Ukraine peace talks

Russian and Ukrainian forces launched major aerial attacks on each other as diplomats from dozens of nations met in Saudi Arabia for talks aimed at resolving the war. The latest strikes included one on a Ukrainian blood transfusion center that Volodymyr Zelenskyy labeled a “war crime.” Officials meanwhile voiced hope over signs that China — Russia’s main backer in its full-scale invasion of Ukraine — appeared to play a “constructive” role at the Jeddah talks, which Moscow did not attend. The Russia-China expert Alexander Gabuev expressed skepticism that Beijing was changing its stance, though, urging observers to “calibrate expectations on how much real pressure” such meetings would result in.

Niger forces shut airspace

Nigerien forces closed off the country’s airspace, warning against a regional bloc’s threats of intervention to reverse last month’s coup. The closure came after a deadline from the West African bloc Ecowas expired for Niger’s military to restore the country’s democratically elected president, who had ensured Niamey was a partner in Western anti-jihadist campaigns. Ecowas claimed to have finalized plans for an armed intervention, though no action had been taken by the time Flagship went to press, and the warnings appeared to some extent to galvanize Nigeriens in support of the military: Thousands packed Niamey’s largest stadium to back the coup’s leaders, Le Monde reported.

US backs carbon removal

The U.S. government will reportedly launch a first-of-its-kind program to pay to remove atmospheric carbon pollution. The Department of Energy will spend tens of millions of dollars on the effort, according to Heatmap. Carbon removals offer a more credible alternative to carbon offsets, giving purchasers credit for emissions permanently removed from the atmosphere rather than new emissions that are avoided. The budget for the program is relatively small given removals can be several hundred times more expensive than the cheapest offsets, sometimes costing more than $1,000 per ton. But its greater value is likely symbolic, putting the U.S.’s weight as a customer behind an otherwise nascent technology to bolster what is currently a tiny market.

Pill for postpartum depression approved

U.S. regulators approved a pill for postpartum depression, the first such oral treatment. One in eight women suffer depressive episodes after childbirth, thought to be caused by hormones rapidly returning to pre-pregnancy levels. Absent treatment, postpartum depression can last years. Prior efforts to combat depression have included a 60-hour IV drip, but were harder to access. The newly approved drug, ​zuranolone, is a natural byproduct of a key pregnancy hormone, and helps regulate mood. A recent study found 57% saw postpartum depression symptoms improve taking zuranolone, compared to 38% on a placebo. “This will be a game changer,” a reproductive health scientist told WIRED.

Russia-China naval patrol nears Alaska

The U.S. dispatched four warships and a reconnaissance plane after China and Russia carried out a joint naval patrol near Alaska. The Chinese-Russian flotilla involving 11 vessels never entered U.S. waters and has since left, but marked what one expert described as “a historical first.” The patrol came during joint drills conducted by the two countries in the Bering Sea in which a mock target was detected and destroyed, The Wall Street Journal reported. It marked the latest sign of growing cooperation between Moscow and Beijing as Washington rallies its own allies in the Pacific, building up cooperation with Japan and South Korea while boosting regional alliances such as the Quad and AUKUS.

China cracks down on economy fears

China is increasingly pushing to control perceptions of risks to its economy. Beijing has pressured domestic economists, officials, and academics to avoid discussing problems it is facing, such as growing fears of deflation, and to “interpret bad news from a positive light,” the Financial Times reported. Chinese regulators have also asked law firms to tone down language describing China-related business and legal risks in offshore listing prospectuses, according to Reuters. The reports come amid wider restrictions on foreigners’ access to financial information in China, a crackdown on international research firms and consultancies’ work, and disappointing economic growth following the dropping of harsh pandemic restrictions.

Pakistan political crisis deepens

Pakistani opposition politicians voiced worry the authorities would delay elections due this year after officials approved a plan to redraw the country’s electoral boundaries. The new rules — announced on the same day that former Prime Minister Imran Khan was jailed for corruption charges dismissed by his supporters as politically motivated — mean elections likely won’t be held until 2024. Khan has decried the moves as a crackdown on Pakistan’s democracy, claiming the military, which backs the current government, is “petrified” of an election. “The fact is that the country is on the brink of a major disaster,” Khan told the BBC before his arrest. “We are heading [into] what I feel like are the dark ages.”

Barbie rakes in more than $1B

Barbie topped $1 billion at the box office, making Greta Gerwig the first solo female director to pass that threshold. The film’s distributors said that Gerwig “literally turning the entire world pink” was evidence that the cinema industry is back after a three-year pandemic lull. Barbie, which has been praised in some quarters for its feminist manifesto, has resonated with audiences where authorities take a dim view of feminism. In China, despite a limited release and souring approval of Hollywood more broadly, the film has set off a mini-mania. “I think this is the only way to make women realize what kind of environment they’re in, and to make men realize how much privilege they’ve had,” a Chinese moviegoer said.

Biles dominates in return

Simone Biles — the most successful gymnast in U.S. history — won her first competitive event since 2021, when she pulled out of events at the Tokyo Olympics and stopped competing. Biles said at the time that she was suffering from the “twisties,” where gymnasts lose track of where they are in the air, potentially putting them at huge physical risk. In the time since her Olympics withdrawal, she has become a well-known advocate for mental health. At the event in Illinois over the weekend, she placed first in four categories. “It felt really good, especially after everything that’s happened over the past year,” she said after the competition.

• Taro Aso, former Japanese prime minister and current vice-president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, visits Taiwan.
• U.S. President Joe Biden welcomes the Houston Astros baseball team to the White House to celebrate their 2022 World Series victory.
• Videoverse, a new video game that sends players back in time to a fictional video game era, is released.

Science as spectator sport

Last month, as reported in Flagship, some scientists claimed to have found a room-temperature, ambient-pressure superconductor: Something physicists have been trying to create for over a century. Other scientists were skeptical. But the claimed methods were bizarrely simple — you could make the superconductor with materials and equipment found in high-school chemistry labs — so lots of people decided to try it.

At the time of writing, nothing has been confirmed either way. But the tech blogger Eiri Sanada notes that it has become a “live online race” to be the first to replicate it. Sanada is keeping a record of all the attempts: Science as an ongoing spectator sport.

Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war

The number of people killed by dogs in the U.K. has increased. For the first two decades of this century, it never went above six. Last year it was 10. This year, there have already been five. And most of them — including all of this year’s — are caused by a single breed: The American Bully XL.

Sentimentality about animals is the most powerful force in British politics, says the writer Ed West, so British charities are keen to say that it’s the owners, not the breed who are at fault: They campaign against breed-specific dog bans. But Bully XLs are 130-pound stacks of muscle bred for killing. They may not always be aggressive, but when they are, they can’t easily be stopped. “Sometimes it’s not the owners,” writes West, “it’s the breed.”

Book it

What sells at bookstores? Not Amazon or other giant online retailers, but actual, physical bookstores? Tom Rowley, who runs an independent bookstore (and is a former journalist) compiled a list of the list of books that he has sold more than 100 copies of since opening Backstory in October.

The patterns? “Novelty sells. But only to a point: All bar three are paperbacks, suggesting most people are willing to wait a year for a cheaper (and more portable) format.” Novels also do well, award-winners are popular, and books the store’s own staff recommend make a mark. “Most of all, it is an illustration of that indefinable thing called buzz that most books don’t have and a lucky few do.”

A new true-crime podcast charts the life and times of Greece’s most-wanted bank robber and fugitive, known to many as the “Greek Robin Hood.” Outlaws: The Good Thief, follows the trail of Vassilis Palaiokostas, a criminal who twice escaped a maximum security prison in Athens by helicopter, and has been on the run for 14 years. The eight-part investigative series — a collaboration between The Greek Podcast Project and the U.S.-based Kaleidoscope and iHeartPodcasts — has met with success in Greek and U.S. podcast charts: Greek newspaper Kathimerini called it “one of the first podcasts of its kind to reach international listeners.”

• A new lobbying group is pitching Ukraine aid to American conservatives by running ads with trucks, flags, and gritty guitar riffs.
• As Donald Trump waited to be arraigned, journalists in the courthouse covered his every move — literally.
• The company formerly known as Twitter is seeking a new financial data partner to power a social trading app — and wants them to pay for it.