Flagship

Israel-Hamas to pause fighting

Israel and Hamas agreed on a four-day ceasefire in exchange for the release of 50 hostages held by the militant group. The deal had long been in the works, and raised the possibility of alleviating — albeit minimally — a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which has been subject to an Israeli military offensive in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. Hamas said 150 Palestinian women and teenagers would be released from Israeli jails under the Qatar-brokered deal. The conflict still appeared at risk of metastasizing as the U.S. said it was considering designating Yemen’s Houthis, who have carried out missile and drone attacks on Israel in recent weeks, a terrorist group, and warned that Iran and Russia were increasing their military cooperation against Israel.

Altman to return to OpenAI

Sam Altman will return as OpenAI CEO days after he was sacked. Altman was ousted by the artificial-intelligence company’s nonprofit board, which has a duty to ensure OpenAI creates AI that “benefits all of humanity.” But almost all of OpenAI’s 775 staff threatened to quit, leading to panicked negotiations. The agreement to bring Altman back involves the appointment of a new board including former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers. Microsoft — OpenAI’s most important partner and, for a period, where Altman was set to join during his interregnum — did not appear to have won any board seats for itself, though CEO Satya Nadella said he was “encouraged by the changes.”

The initial row may have been over the risks posed by AI: The New York Times reported that Altman had argued with one board member over her criticism of OpenAI’s approach to AI safety. For those people who worry about AI destroying the world, “the last few days have been confusing and alarming,” Flagship’s own Tom Chivers wrote. What they saw as OpenAI’s guardrails against a dash to make superintelligent and potentially dangerous AI seem to have been overwhelmed easily.

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Binance settles with US

The CEO of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, will step down as part of a $4 billion dollar settlement with U.S. regulators. Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said: “I made mistakes, and I must take responsibility” after agreeing the deal, following years of investigations. Zhao pleaded guilty to breaches of money-laundering and sanctions rules and will personally pay $50 million in fines, while Binance settled charges with various government agencies out of court. Though U.S. officials trumpeted securing “one of the largest corporate penalties in U.S. history,” prosecutors had reportedly been seeking a larger punishment, meaning “Binance might just come through this alive,” one analyst wrote.

NKorea claims spy satellite

North Korea claimed to have successfully launched a spy satellite for the first time. The U.S., South Korea, and Japan said they could not independently verify Pyongyang’s announcement, but North Korea boasted that it had already received photographs of American military bases. Though arms-control analysts said the launch was unlikely to have benefitted from growing cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang, their deepening friendship — coupled with North Korea’s advancing nuclear capabilities — nevertheless poses a risk for the West. The U.S. should avoid taking aggressive military action, two experts wrote in Foreign Affairs: “The United States and its allies will coexist with a nuclear-armed North Korea for years — likely decades — to come. Given that reality, the foremost objective must be keeping nuclear risk as low as possible.”

Mexico City’s questionable stats

Disappearances in Mexico City surged to record levels, according to recently released data, calling into question the local government’s much-publicized security strategy. Authorities say the city’s murder rate — the most frequently reported figure — had fallen by half, to a level comparable to Los Angeles or Phoenix, starting in 2019. The apparent safety encouraged thousands of digital nomads to move to the city in recent years, boosting the local economy. However new data suggests murders may have been reclassified as disappearances. “I think it’s quite probable that lots of the people who disappeared have in reality been murdered,” an academic told The Guardian. “And these homicides are not being counted.”

BRICS summit spotlights discord

A summit of the BRICS bloc of developing powers about the Israel-Hamas war spotlighted divisions between the group’s members. The virtual meeting’s final statement “obscured subtle differences among” the five nations, The New York Times reported, with South Africa criticizing Israel, India remaining largely silent, and Brazil, China, and Russia tempering their critiques. The talks illustrated the difficulty of uniting countries with little in common. Brazil’s president recently warned his country’s diplomats of “strong interventions from China” in Africa, while a top Indian foreign-policy scholar, writing in The Indian Express, urged New Delhi to eschew engagement with Beijing over the two countries’ many disputes. A proposed expansion of BRICS is also now in doubt: Argentina’s radical libertarian president-elect looks unlikely to accept an invitation to join.

Sodium batteries on the way

Sodium-ion batteries are coming closer to commercial deployment. Sodium is widely available, while lithium — presently the basis for most battery technology — can only be mined in a few places. But sodium batteries have lagged behind on energy storage. The Swedish industrial startup Northvolt announced it had made a sodium battery that stored almost as much energy as a lithium one, aiming to reduce supply-chain dependence on China. Meanwhile, China’s own BYD has had similar ideas: It announced plans to build a multibillion-dollar sodium-battery factory, the world’s first, hoping to sidestep the volatility in global lithium prices. It is not known how effective BYD’s planned batteries will be.

Cash shortage threatens Chad food

The United Nations World Food Programme warned that food aid to 1.4 million people in Chad is at risk because of a shortage of funds. Chad has come under strain in the last year as more than 500,000 refugees fleeing the war in Sudan’s Darfur region have arrived in the country, already one of the world’s poorest. It comes as soaring prices have threatened food supplies across Africa, with the El Niño effect devastating crops around the world. Many in Nigeria, the continent’s most populous country, are struggling to buy food as the price of sugar has surged by 55% in the last two months. “It is a very serious situation,” a Nigerian baker told the Associated Press.

Top Gear goes off air after crash

The BBC’s Top Gear motoring show was taken off air after 46 years, following a health and safety investigation into a 2022 crash in which a presenter was severely hurt. Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff, the former England cricket captain, suffered life-changing facial injuries last year in a 124 mph crash on a motorized tricycle, leading to an $11 million payout by the BBC. Flintoff is the second presenter of the popular show — it is on air in 150 countries — wounded in the line of duty: Richard “the Hamster” Hammond was driving a jet-propelled dragster at 288 mph, attempting to break the British land speed record, when it spun out of control in 2006. He received a “significant brain injury” and was in a coma for two weeks.

GRRM no closer to finishing Thrones

George R. R. Martin’s manuscript for the next A Song of Ice and Fire novel has grown no longer in the last year. “I have like 1,100 pages written,” he said in an interview, with hundreds to go. He gave the same figure to Stephen Colbert in late 2022. Fans have been waiting for The Winds of Winter, the sixth novel in the series, since 2011, just after season 1 of the TV show Game of Thrones came out. The show has since concluded its remaining seven seasons but there is still no sign of the book. It’s understandable if Martin is less than enthused by the work, since everyone already knows the likely ending and he is presumably no longer worried about paying the mortgage.

• The Netherlands goes to the polls to elect a new Parliament.
• Presidents of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia meet in Prague.
• Mexican mariachi bands honor Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of musicians, with songs and a Mass.

The number of shootings in Sweden last year after the Scandinavian nation went from having one of the lowest rates of gun murders in Europe to one of the highest. In September and October, there were shootings or bombings almost every day, with Uppsala and Stockholm worst affected. “Criminal gangs, largely run by second-generation immigrants” are behind much of the violence, according to the Financial Times. The political left and right offer different explanations: The right blames large-scale recent immigration, the left, changes to the welfare system. Both agree, however, that Sweden has failed to adequately integrate its large immigrant population, which has increased its population by around 25% since 1990. The prime minister blamed “irresponsible immigration policy and failed integration” for the crisis.

Disney opened its first themed attraction dedicated to the Frozen franchise. The World of Frozen brings the fictional kingdom of Arendelle to life on Lantau Island, home to Hong Kong Disneyland. The company’s acclaimed “Imagineers” spent more than three years working on the concept and design, CNN reported. Highlights include a boat ride featuring Anna and Elsa, as well as a high-speed roller coaster with views of Arendelle castle. The world also immerses visitors in other key movie settings such as Elsa’s ice palace and the North Mountain. Disney’s theme parks are doing “exceptionally well” in Asia, the company’s CEO said this year.

• Eight weeks out from the first presidential primary contest, Donald Trump is doing only what he has to, while three far-behind rivals are trying everything.
• Why a Hollywood mogul invested in a Gulf gas company.
• One of the most prominent backers of the “effective altruism” movement at the heart of the ongoing turmoil at OpenAI told Semafor he is now questioning the merits of running companies based on the philosophy.