Flagship

Trump barred from Colorado ballot

Colorado’s Supreme Court barred Donald Trump from appearing on the state’s primary ballot over his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riots. The former president’s lawyers pledged to “swiftly appeal,” with the matter due to be settled by the U.S. Supreme Court, potentially making a decision for the country as a whole ahead of a Jan. 5 deadline to certify the state’s primary ballot. The legal battle is one of several criminal and civil cases facing Trump, who nevertheless remains the overall frontrunner for the 2024 presidency. “We are in for a wild and wooly constitutional ride over the next 16 days and perhaps beyond,” the Los Angeles Times’ senior legal affairs columnist wrote.

Google limits political AI queries

Google will restrict the queries its artificial-intelligence chatbot Bard will answer during the runup to the 2024 U.S. presidential election. In an “abundance of caution,” the tech giant is also planning to attach labels to any AI-generated content on its platforms, such as YouTube, and to any political ads that use digitally altered material. It’s part of a wider crackdown by tech firms and regulators on misinformation: Facebook’s owner Meta recently said it would bar political campaigns and advertisers from using its generative AI products in adverts, while new European Union rules will require Big Tech companies to clearly label political advertising on their platforms.

Israel and Hamas open to new talks

Israel and Hamas appeared open to a new round of hostage negotiations as global pressure mounted for a truce in their war. Hamas’ chief arrived in Cairo for fresh ceasefire talks, while Israel’s president said his country was ready for another humanitarian pause. The moves came as the U.N. Security Council once again delayed a vote on calls for a “suspension of hostilities” — watered down from earlier demands for an “urgent and sustainable cessation” in order to avoid a U.S. veto. Israeli officials are nearing agreement with the White House, meanwhile, on reaching an end to the conflict, The Washington Post’s David Ignatius wrote: “Think of what’s ahead as the day before ‘the day after’.”

EU migration deal agreed

The European Union agreed a major deal on immigration reform. The Pact on Migration and Asylum aims to give governments more control over their borders, by limiting entry and making deportations easier. It also spreads the burden of new arrivals — currently borne mainly by southern European countries such as Greece and Italy — across the continent more widely. Migration has been an increasingly salient topic in Europe lately, and anti-immigration parties have done well at national elections: The European Commission president said the new deal gave control to “Europeans … not the smugglers.” France also passed a controversial immigration law, toughening rules on family access and benefits, but also banning the detention of minors in migrant centers.

Record Darien Gap crossings

Upwards of 500,000 migrants have crossed Panama’s Darien Gap this year, more than double 2022’s record. Although nearly two-thirds of those making the treacherous crossing in the hopes of eventually reaching the U.S. are Venezuelan, the route has become popular with migrants from as far as Africa and Southeast Asia. Some are paying more to bypass the dense jungles of the Darien, and attempt an even more treacherous journey by sea. The surge in migration could have a seismic impact across the Americas: In response to a record 2.5 million migrant encounters at its southern border this year, the U.S. closed two crossings with Mexico, its biggest trading partner.

Nigeria reforms win over investors

Nigeria’s naira currency plummeted to a record low against the dollar, counterintuitively taken by investors as a positive sign of the government’s commitment to stabilizing the economy. Nigeria abandoned a currency peg following the election of President Bola Tinubu in May, a move aimed at encouraging foreign investment. Despite the fall in the currency’s value, there are signs the new economic policies are making progress: Moody’s raised Nigeria’s credit outlook to positive last week, and the French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies pledged to invest $6 billion into the country, part of a series of efforts by Tinubu’s government to court international energy majors.

India opposition suspended

Most of India’s opposition lawmakers were suspended from Parliament. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party accused the opposition of deliberately disrupting parliamentary proceedings, while critics have accused the government of undermining democracy. The suspensions come ahead of general elections next year. Separately, Modi told the Financial Times he would “look into” allegations an Indian official orchestrated an assassination plot on U.S. soil, and insisted the incident would not derail ties with Washington. Analysts largely agree on the latter point, but the India expert Sushant Singh warned that the episode offers “a glimpse into the kind of great power that India would be under Modi: one that targets the weak and kowtows to the strong and seeks to stifle dissent, even overseas.”

China’s social-credit failings

China’s social credit system — often cited as proof of Beijing’s global surveillance ambitions — is “more dysfunctional than dystopian,” a new article argued. Involving intrusive monitoring, as well as the blacklisting of individuals and companies for criminal or civil non-compliance, the system looks Big Brother-esque to outside observers. Yet it “appears to be at a standstill, if not fizzling out entirely,” The Wire China said. Local governments responsible for implementing the grand vision have struggled to overcome data silos, varying standards, and bureaucratic obstacles, while many — already laden with debt — lack the finances to push projects forward. The idea itself “has had a lot of the energy taken out of it,” one researcher noted.

The slow death of regional accents

The last bastion of the rolled R in English accents is dying out. England — and Britain generally — has a wide variety of local accents: Towns 10 miles apart can sound distinct. Speakers in Blackburn, a town near Manchester, traditionally roll the R on the end of words, so “Stella” and “stellar” sound different. But younger people there are losing it. The death of an English regional accent may not seem a big deal, but it points to how the growth of international media has flattened accents worldwide: See the global spread of “uptalk,” the questioning tone once common to Australian and Califonian accents, and the tendency for many U.S. regional accents, such as Texan, to drift towards a generic American newsreader accent.

Humpback chat is alien contact proxy

Scientists had a “conversation” with a humpback whale using its own “language,” giving possible insight into how humans may one day communicate with aliens. Researchers, including some from the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute, used an underwater speaker to play a humpback “contact” or “whup” call. A whale responded, matching the call, and then circled the boat while engaging in repeated responses — in what SETI called a “conversational style” — for 20 minutes. The team is studying intelligent non-human communication as a proxy for future contact with extraterrestrial life: The whale’s interest in communication supports the assumption that aliens would be similarly keen, a SETI scientist said.

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• Voters head to the polls in the Democratic Republic of Congo for presidential and parliamentary elections.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting to mark the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the country’s Federal Assembly, the lower and upper houses of Parliament.
• Maestro, Bradley Cooper’s biopic of U.S. composer Leonard Bernstein, hits Netflix.

The price paid for an “extremely rare” African mask that had previously changed hands for less than $200. The mask, made by the Fang people of Gabon, is believed to have been originally acquired “in unknown circumstances” by a French colonial governor around 1917. The governor’s family held it in their possession before selling it for $165 to a second-hand dealer during a clear-out of their attic. After the multimillion-dollar auction sale, the family sued the dealer, claiming they had been misled. However a judge this week sided with the dealer — who had offered $330,000 as a gesture of goodwill — claiming the family failed to appreciate the mask’s true value. “When you’ve got such an item at home, you should be a bit more curious before giving it up,” the dealer’s lawyer said.

A new exhibition celebrating art and culture across the Texas-Mexico border opened. Border Biennial explores themes including family relationships, identity, and gender through more than 100 works by 50 artists. It’s part of an ongoing collaboration between two art museums in Juárez, Mexico and El Paso, Texas, that are less than a 20-minute drive apart — if you don’t count border control. “Since its start, the Border Biennial has been a way to bridge the gap, or the literal bridge, dividing the two cities,” one of the show’s curators told The Art Newspaper.

• Democrats and Republicans band together to prevent a major third-party candidate from emerging.
• Emirati passports have become the hot new thing for global power players.
• A little-known organization is playing a key role in hostage negotiations with Hamas.