Flagship

Israel, Saudi hint at normalized relations

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told U.S. President Joe Biden that a “historic peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia” could be achieved. The two countries have no formal diplomatic relationship, but they are both key U.S. allies, and the Biden administration has pushed for them to establish ties. There may be obstacles, however: Israeli troops killed at least six Palestinians this week in raids, and Saudi’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in a rare U.S. TV interview, said “the Palestinian issue is very important” in negotiations. He also said Riyadh would seek a nuclear weapon if Iran secures one, though the U.S. is reportedly considering a mutual defense pact with Saudi instead.

Poland pulls Kyiv support over grain row

Poland stopped supplying weapons to Ukraine amid a row over grain shipments. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine diverted Kyiv’s food exports from maritime routes to overland via Europe, sparking worries the huge additional supply would undercut local farmers. The European Union lifted restrictions on Ukrainian grain sales this week, but Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia imposed unilateral bans. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in thinly veiled criticism of Poland, said countries were “helping set the stage to a Moscow actor.” Zelenskyy was in an undiplomatic mood generally: He told the U.N. General Assembly that the Security Council would remain “ineffective” as long as Russia retained a permanent seat, in which “sit liars whose job it is to justify the aggression and genocide” that Moscow commits.

Russia, China look to expand influence

Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed he would travel to Beijing to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping at next month’s Belt and Road Forum in Beijing. The infrastructure project “fully meets and coincides” with the Kremlin’s interests, Putin said. The two countries are increasingly building a power center away from the U.S.-led consensus: The Russian defense minister said Moscow had established a “new level” in relations with Iran, a pariah state as far as the West is concerned. Meanwhile Syrian President Bashar al-Assad arrived in China for a summit with Xi, the first such meeting since the Syrian civil war began in 2011, as Beijing tries to expand its influence in the Middle East.

Bee-killing parasite takes Australia

Australia gave up its fight to eradicate the bee-killing varroa mite. The parasite has spread worldwide since leaping from Asian to European honeybees in the mid-20th century: Now, around 40% of U.S. hives are infested with it. Australia believed that it, alone of all nations, had remained free of the mite, but the pest was detected last year. Since then, more than 14,000 hives have been destroyed in an attempt to eradicate it, but the government said the infestation has been around longer and spread further than realized. Varroa is a major contributor to the decline in bee colony-health around the world: Its arrival in Australia will push up the cost of crops which rely on European honeybees for pollination.

US offers work rights to some Venezuelans

The U.S. will grant temporary work permits and deportation relief to the roughly 500,000 Venezuelans living in the country as it seeks to ease pressure on the overburdened asylum system. Local governments across the U.S., including in Democratic-led states, had been clamoring for the White House to open routes for migrants to work in order to support themselves. Meanwhile, a U.N.-backed panel warned that the Venezuelan government has intensified efforts to curb democratic freedoms ahead of a presidential election next year, raising fears of further forced migration. More than 7 million Venezuelans, roughly a quarter of the country’s population, have fled since the humanitarian crisis began a decade ago.

Naira sinks as Nigerians seek dollars

Nigeria’s naira crashed to a record low as Nigerians flocked to the dollar for their savings. Since the country’s central bank allowed the naira to trade freely this year, its value has plummeted by almost 50% compared to the dollar, underscoring the country’s economic woes. “Importers are everywhere looking for dollars to bring in goods for Christmas sales,” a Nigerian currency trader said. “They’re not getting it at banks.” The removal of a popular but costly fuel subsidy in July has brought commerce to a standstill, while higher transportation costs have pushed the inflation rate in Africa’s most populous country to an 18-year high.

Azerbaijan ceasefire sparks protests

Fighting subsided in Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh, a breakaway region controlled by ethnic-Armenian separatists, following the declaration of a ceasefire Wednesday. The Russia-brokered deal will see the separatists disband. But among Armenians, fears of ethnic cleansing by Azerbaijan are growing: Russia claims that it has evacuated 2,000 Karabakh Armenians, but has not provided details on where they have gone, Politico reported. Meanwhile, Baku has yet to present a full plan on how it might integrate ethnic Armenians from the region. Frustrations with the ceasefire amongst Armenians spilled into protests Wednesday night, with civilians and opposition politicians calling for the resignation of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

A lack of climate ambition at the UN

National leaders offered little in the way of new ideas at a U.N. climate summit in New York. Brazil reinstated a stricter emissions target, and a few European countries offered relatively meager new contributions to a green climate fund, but the Climate Ambition Summit — which major emitters including the U.S., China, India, and Russia did not attend — was notable for its lack of ambition, Semafor’s Tim McDonnell notes in today’s climate newsletter. The atmosphere represented a marked contrast with the excitement, itself arguably overblown, among executives and entrepreneurs at side events during New York Climate Week. “The small steps countries offered are welcome, but they’re like trying to put out an inferno with a leaking hose,” one expert said.

— To read Tim’s story, out shortly, subscribe to Semafor’s special climate week newsletter. Sign up here.

Ski resorts look to the climate future

Europe’s ski resorts are diversifying to prepare for a post-snow world. Many ski resorts will face snow shortages even in more moderate climate scenarios, and already rely on artificial snow for much of the year. The skiing “tourism monoculture” means they are dangerously dependent on the snow, one activist told WIRED. So the resorts are changing. Some are expanding their cross-country skiing, to reduce reliance on a few downhill pistes, and upping their summer mountain-trekking. Paganella in the Italian Alps has focused on downhill mountain-biking: It now attracts more bikers in summer than skiers in winter.

WhatsApp may soon come to iPad

WhatsApp should finally get an iPad app. Despite being the world’s most popular messaging platform, with 2.7 billion users, WhatsApp has so far refused to make itself available on tablet, much to the annoyance and bafflement of users. Partly, it’s a tech issue: The service’s end-to-end encryption makes it harder to sync chats between devices. But it also seems to be partly a choice. WhatsApp’s parent company Meta has also failed to make an iPad version of Instagram. An update to the “link a device” feature in the latest beta version includes an iPad option, suggesting it will at last reach the public, although exactly when isn’t clear.

• The U.N. Special Rapporteur on Russia, Mariana Katzarova, will brief the human rights council on the situation in the country.
• Greek transport workers, doctors, and school teachers will join a 24-hour strike to protest against labor reforms.
• Vows & Ruins, an epic romantic fantasy by Helen Scheuerer, is published.

The number of electric cars on U.S. roads went up 20-fold in 10 years. In 2012, there were fewer than 100,000 registered EVs in the U.S., compared to more than 2.1 million in 2021, the last year for which there is data, according to the Energy Information Administration. The EV fleet is also much younger: The average EV is 3.6 years old, whereas the average gas-powered car is 11.1, so the latter will tend to drop out of the fleet sooner. The rise has been driven by an ever-growing number of EV models, consumer preferences for low-carbon tech, and supportive government policies such as purchase incentives and fuel-economy standards.

The writer of the popular ParentData newsletter launched a new podcast today. Every other week the economist-writer Emily Oster will release a new episode dissecting key parenting issues with her hallmark focus on the latest scientific research and data. She’ll be exploring subjects including school pressures, divorce, social media, and grief through conversations with other experts. Her mission: “to create the most data-literate and informed generation of parents yet.”

• An NSFW chatbot app has surged in popularity, but its sexual content spurred OpenAI to crack down. Now, it’s pitching investors on building its own large language model.
• Wall Street is gearing up for the next battle over U.S. investments in China, worried that Congress will out-hawk the White House.
• Some of the House Republicans blocking a budget deal may have their eye on higher office — and that’s causing gripes among their colleagues.