Flagship

Fallout from Griner release

The U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner arrives home today after being released in a prisoner exchange for the convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. The deal had long been in the works but fell short of what Washington had hoped for, leaving behind the business executive Paul Whelan, accused by Moscow of spying, charges he and the U.S. deny. The swap was mostly welcomed in America despite concerns over equating Bout, known as “the merchant of death,” for Griner, who was imprisoned for carrying vapes. The implication? Enemies of the U.S. “see Washington as open for business,” CNN’s Stephen Collinson wrote.

The costs of China’s retreat

China’s speedy move away from zero-COVID is sparking shortfalls of medicine and worries that its health care system is ill-prepared for a coming surge in cases. Authorities mostly dismantled the years-long system of restrictions this week, but with little advance warning and preparation. The South China Morning Post reported that pharmacies in Beijing were short of medicine to treat the flu, while vaccination and booster levels among the country’s elderly remain worryingly low. One research firm modeled that a winter COVID-19 wave could lead to as many as a million deaths.

The warning that moved Beijing

The founder of Foxconn, the world’s largest iPhone maker, urged China’s Communist Party to dismantle its zero-COVID strategy. Terry Gou’s argument that restrictions threatened the country’s central role in global supply chains played a major role in Beijing moving away from the policy, The Wall Street Journal reported. Apple — which relies heavily on Foxconn’s giant Chinese iPhone assembly plant — is already shifting away from China, asking suppliers to manufacture elsewhere. Some have moved to India and Vietnam. The company is accelerating a longer-term shift: A Reuters analysis showed that China accounted for 36% of Apple suppliers’ production sites, down from as much as 47% in previous years.

US House protects same-sex marriage

The U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation guaranteeing same-sex marriage rights, with President Joe Biden due to sign it into law soon. Its passage is the result of long- and short-term shifts in American politics. U.S. voters have over decades become more accepting of the issue, with polls showing an overwhelming majority of Americans now support same-sex marriage. But the legislation was given renewed urgency by a Supreme Court justice’s suggestion — after a June ruling overturned women’s constitutional right to an abortion — that the court “reconsider” cases related to marriage equality.

The US looks to reset Africa ties

The White House will strive to reset U.S.-Africa relations next week when it welcomes 49 African leaders to Washington. The summit will see crucial conversations about how the U.S. can partner with the continent on issues including security, private sector investment, and upgrading trade relations. The last such meeting was held in 2014, and D.C. lobbyists are already pushing for U.S. President Joe Biden to make the summit a fixture. African nations complain that Washington views the relationship purely through the prism of its rivalry with China. With that in mind, U.S. officials will avoid bringing up the issue.

— For more Africa coverage, follow the Semafor Africa Summit in Washington on Monday, and sign up for our Africa newsletter.

Putting a ‘Band-aid’ on violence

Jamaica imposed a state of emergency in large parts of the country, including the capital Kingston, to tackle surging gang violence. Almost 1,200 murders were registered on the island in the first nine months of the year, Jamaica Observer reports, equivalent to the world’s highest murder rate. El Salvador and Honduras have also imposed states of emergency as armed forces crack down on powerful drug cartels. However, these strategies will likely only reduce violence temporarily: “It’s a Band-aid,” María Fernanda Bozmoski, an expert at the Atlantic Council, told Foreign Policy.

Blocking a mega-merger

The U.S. antitrust regulator sued to block Microsoft’s takeover of the gaming giant Activision Blizzard. The legal complaint is the latest hurdle to the mega-deal, which if completed would reshape the video game industry. Officials in the U.K. and EU are also investigating the merger. Competitors complain that Microsoft owning both a major console, the Xbox, and a major game developer would consolidate too much power in one place. Microsoft has been able to grow without attracting too much antitrust scrutiny thanks to “a ‘be nice’ strategy,” as the monopolies researcher Matt Stoller puts it. That may now be over.

Britain’s month of strikes

Britain this month will be hit by strikes on a scale not seen in decades. Postal workers, rail staff, civil servants, bus drivers, firefighters, members of the border force, and — for the first time ever — nurses are picketing. According to The Independent, there are only one day in December where no major demonstrations are scheduled. Economists say the government should settle to avoid hammering already slow economic growth, while MPs in the ruling Conservative party want to speed up strike-busting legislation. “This Christmas should be fine,” one U.K. broadcaster said, “as long as you don’t get sick, want to post anything, or go anywhere at all.”

Chart-topping Indian remittances

Indian migrants will send home a record $100 billion this year. India has seen a faster growth in remittances than neighboring countries and much of the world, according to the World Bank, far outpacing the next-highest country, Mexico. That’s thanks in large part to the changing profile of its global labor force, which is increasingly made up of educated, long-term residents of rich countries.

The words of yesteryear

Oxford Dictionaries announced that “goblin mode” was its word of the year. It refers to behavior that is “unapologetically self-indulgent … in a way that rejects social norms.” Instead of advocating for new words, the author and etymologist Paul Anthony Jones argues in The Guardian for restoring long-lost words. Flagship agrees: You should sit in your sonrock, a cozy fireside chair, and plan bull week, the period leading up to Christmas when you tie up loose ends before leaving work. The task may be huge, but like building a snowman, you have to start with a hogamadog — the first ball of snow.

• A new fighter jet collaboration between the UK, Italy, and Japan is set to be announced, and is expected to enter service in the mid-2030s.
• Japan’s Empress Masako turns 59.
• The 2022 Nobel Prize winners will receive their awards tomorrow at ceremonies in Oslo and Stockholm, on the anniversary of founder Alfred Nobel’s death.

And just like that, it’s over?

Alec Ash returned to Britain last month after spending the last 10 years in China.

The great ship of the Chinese state can take forever to turn an inch, but at times a sea change can happen in an instant. This week, Beijing announced 10 new measures to “further optimize the COVID-19 response,” including less mandatory health-code scanning, an end to mass testing, and fewer lockdowns and quarantines. In short, zero-COVID may be over.

For those hundreds who protested publicly against pandemic policy a fortnight ago — and the hundreds of thousands who sympathized silently — it is a relief. Indeed, this may embolden some who feel the government U-turn was in response to street action, although it was clear the economic cost of zero-COVID meant a change this year was likely.

There are others who are not sure opening is a good idea, though. They are mostly in rural areas — where I lived for the past three years researching a book — and were less affected by urban lockdowns, seeing China’s zero-COVID policy as a point of pride. The elderly are also frightened of getting sick, after years of propaganda telling them to fear the virus.

This divide was apparent even on the “wailing wall,” as the comments section of the Weibo account of Dr. Li Wenliang — China’s original COVID-19 whistleblower — is known. “Today we’re starting to re-open,” posted one netizen. “This may not necessarily be a good thing, but our country tried its best.” Another replied: “This farce is almost over. … The best I can do is vow not to forget, and not to forgive. Rest in peace.”

The polar dinosaurs

Mounting evidence shows some dinosaurs lived in ice and snow, offering new insights into the animals. Traditionally dinosaurs are viewed as tropical creatures, Zaria Gorvett writes in BBC Future, but scientists worldwide have “now unearthed tens of dinosaurs that may have once lived at frigid extremes.” On an expedition in northern Alaska last year, a paleontologist made an exciting discovery: Buried within the cliff strata he found “tiny bones and teeth, mere millimeters across, that belonged to the offspring of giants.”

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— Prashant, Tom Chivers, Preeti Jha, and Jeronimo Gonzalez

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