Flagship

The Koreas enter dangerous waters

North and South Korea exchanged missile fire off each other’s coasts. One of Pyongyang’s missiles landed south of the border between the two countries, in international waters about 40 miles off shore. South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol called the attack an “effective territorial invasion,” and retaliated with three missiles which landed in waters east of North Korea’s coast. It’s the first time the two nations have fired across the “Northern Limit Line,” which extends from their border. North Korea’s aggression is well known and has been on the rise, but there are political calculations in Seoul too. Yoon’s polling numbers are low: Gallup showed his support at just 30% even before the Halloween tragedy that killed more than 150 people at the weekend.

Israel’s ‘frightening moment’

Benjamin Netanyahu looks likely to be Israel’s leader, again, but that depends on maintaining a coalition with Itamar Ben-Gvir, a lawyer-turned-politician who has been convicted of — among other things — incitement to racism and supporting a “terror” organization. “That over 10 percent of Israelis voted for an openly anti-Arab party with proudly homophobic representatives is a frightening moment for Israel’s limited and fragile democracy,” Anshel Pfeffer writes in Haaretz. Ben-Gvir only entered Israel’s parliament last year, but his party has quickly grown its base. By contrast, left-wing and Arab parties have fractured.

Moscow’s costly brain drain

Two Russian-born businessmen renounced their Russian citizenship over the war in Ukraine. Oleg Tinkov, founder of Tinkoff Bank, condemned Vladimir Putin’s “fascism regime” in an Instagram post, while Nikolay Storonsky, who is behind the online banking company Revolut, said through a spokesperson that he found the war “totally abhorrent.” Putin’s invasion has triggered a brain drain. Hundreds of thousands of Russians fled the country after conscription was introduced in September, many to neighboring Kazakhstan and Georgia. They were just the latest to depart. At the start of the war, fears that engineering, science, and computing specialists would be prevented from leaving spurred thousands of tech workers to flee.

Careful what you wish for

Chinese leader Xi Jinping congratulated Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on his win in Brazil’s election. Brazil-China relations were frosty under the incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, but Lula has always leant towards Beijing. During his first spell in office, he worked hard to align the two countries, and helped set up the BRICS economic group — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Last year he praised China’s “strong party and a strong government” for its COVID-19 response. He is also favorable towards Russia’s stance over its invasion of Ukraine: in May, he told Time magazine that Volodymyr Zelensky was “as responsible as Putin” for the war. Bolsonaro still hasn’t conceded to Lula, but on Tuesday his administration said the transition of power to Lula would take place. Though some Western leaders will be breathing a sigh of relief at Bolsonaro’s defeat, it doesn’t mean that relations with Brazil will suddenly be straightforward.

Static management

China’s zero-COVID policy is struggling to deal with new variants. The area surrounding a major Foxconn factory was put into “static management” — the Chinese term for a lockdown — today. Outbreaks have been reported across the country, including Inner Mongolia in the north, Yunnan in the south, and Xinjiang in the west, as well as several major cities such as Guangzhou. In Tibet, discontent is growing after officials sent thousands to COVID-19 isolation camps. Cases remain incredibly low, but even small numbers of positive tests can trigger wide-reaching lockdowns. China has shown little sign of relenting on its stringent restrictions, even though such a shift would undoubtedly help its slowing economy. Just the rumor that Beijing might be considering plans to reopen sent Chinese markets surging.

The war in heaven

The final section of China’s Tiangong space station has docked. State media said the third segment, Mengtian or “heavenly dream,” reached Tiangong or “heavenly palace” on Tuesday, completing China’s effort to create a permanent human presence in space. Hours later, SpaceX launched the world’s largest rocket, carrying a classified U.S. Space Force military satellite. It was the second time a SpaceX rocket has been employed by the American military, and is unlikely to be the last: the Space Force and SpaceX signed a contract in January. A new space race is on between the U.S. and China, and the global cooperation symbolized by the creation of the International Space Station three decades ago is over.

A new route to justice

A UN-backed court in the Central African Republic found three men guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity over a 2019 village massacre. One received a life sentence, while the other two will serve 20 years in jail. It’s the first trial in the “hybrid” court, which is based in the country’s capital, Bangui, and is staffed by both domestic and international prosecutors and judges. The court’s work has been viewed positively. It allowed victims to be civil parties to proceedings, meaning they can claim reparations, and is addressing atrocities in a more timely manner than prior tribunals of its kind. The country’s domestic courts are in greater flux: Last week, the CAR’s president sacked its top judge.

Fears over foreign tech ownership

A U.S. regulator called for TikTok to be banned. The app, which is owned by a Chinese company, has been downloaded more than 200 million times in the U.S. and is in negotiations with Washington over data protection rules. But Brendan Carr, a commissioner for the Federal Communications Commission, told Axios it was impossible to ensure that users’ personal data would not be handed to Chinese authorities, and “anything other than a ban” would not work. At the same time, a Democratic senator is calling for the government to investigate Saudi Arabia’s role in helping Elon Musk buy Twitter. Social media companies, with their hundreds of millions of users and vast data-gathering capabilities, are increasingly seen in America as security-critical information infrastructure.

Getting the dope on the weed industry

Legal cannabis is the U.S.’s sixth most valuable crop by wholesale value. More than 2,800 tons of the plant were grown in 2022 on 13,297 farms, worth more than $5 billion, according to a report by the industry website Leafly. Only corn, soybeans, wheat, alfalfa (hay), and cotton bring in more money. Recreational cannabis use is legal in 15 states, and a quarter of the weed consumed in the U.S. comes from legal American farmers. Federal laws mean that cannabis products cannot be sold across state lines, so some states have a glut while others cannot meet demand, and black-market smuggling still goes on. But cannabis growing has left the shadows of hydroponic hobbyists and hidden fields, and is becoming — by the standards of farming, at least — big business.

Record-breaking records

Taylor Swift became the first artist in history to have all 10 of the top slots on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. The tracks are from her new album, Midnights. With it Swift breaks a record previously held by Canadian rapper Drake, who scored nine out of 10 in September 2021. Her achievement was in some ways inevitable. The first artist to have two songs debut in the top 10 was English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran, just five years ago. The rise of streaming has rendered singles releases less important. Now every play of every track on every album is recorded, and goes towards chart positions alongside sales and radio plays — so even filler tracks on major releases like Swift’s get millions of listens and end up at the top of the charts.

• Opposition protesters are to hold an anti-government rally in Colombo over the worsening cost of living in Sri Lanka, where an economic crisis this year forced the president to resign.
• The U.S. Federal Reserve concludes its two-day meeting on interest rates, where it is expected to raise its benchmark rate by 0.75%.
• Netflix debuts “Killer Sally,” a documentary series about an amateur female bodybuilder who killed her abusive husband on Valentine’s Day, 1995.

Boycott boycotts

Greg Wilchris runs @PopulismUpdates on Twitter.

For the past year, Tunisia’s President Kais Saied has been consolidating power. A year ago, he dismissed the government and froze the country’s parliament, carrying out what is known as a self-coup, then cemented power through legal changes.

Tunisia has long been held up as a rare democratic success story from the 2011 Middle East uprisings, but Saied’s moves have driven the country’s major parties, who refuse to accept December’s vote as legitimate, to boycott the election altogether.

Boycotts are a common opposition tactic, aimed at de-legitimizing autocratic regimes. But do they work? Steven Levitsky, an expert on democratization and autocracy, argues that the strategy is flawed. Contesting even rigged elections can both amplify and highlight the government’s authoritarian conduct, which may then elicit more international attention and pressure. By forcing authoritarians to feign competition, Levitsky says, the opposition might create opportunities to catch them off guard. And sometimes, oppositions can even win.

For Tunisia, a boycott could merely accelerate the country’s transition into a virtual one-party state. In an era of democratic backsliding, the lessons learned here may hold global implications.

Glacial treasure

A cache of cameras abandoned by two explorers during a 1937 expedition was recovered from a Canadian glacier. Brad Washburn, a renowned American aerial photographer, and his mountaineering partner Robert Bates were forced to ditch the heavy gear so they could hike to safety when struck by extreme weather. Eighty-five years later, another team of explorers set out to find the lost equipment, describing as “priceless” the moment they retrieved a portion of Washburn’s first aerial camera alongside two motion picture cameras — both still loaded with film. Experts are now checking if any of the images can be salvaged.

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