Flagship

UN nears Gaza aid vote

The U.N. Security Council finally appeared likely to vote on a heavily watered-down resolution over humanitarian aid to Gaza. Diplomats wrangled all week over the proposal, moving from pushing for a ceasefire to only calling for creating the conditions for a truce. The vote comes with Israel’s war against Hamas intensifying and the humanitarian situation worsening: Hundreds have been killed in the past 48 hours, Gazan health officials said, in what the Associated Press described as “among the deadliest and most destructive” military campaigns in history. A quarter of Gaza’s population is starving, a proportion that has eclipsed crises in Afghanistan and Yemen, the U.N. said. “I have never seen something at the scale that is happening in Gaza,” the World Food Programme’s chief economist said.

New research showed Israelis have largely given up hope in the two-state solution, and fewer Israelis than ever believe a lasting peace will be achieved with Palestinians. The Gallup poll mirrored a transformation in views among Palestinians, only a quarter of whom now support a two-state solution. The Israeli government, meanwhile, signaled its willingness to allow the Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza after the war, a significant shift from its prior position.

US weighs seizing Russian assets

The White House is increasingly considering using $300 billion in Russian central-bank assets held in the West towards Ukraine’s war effort. Senior U.S. and European officials said the Biden administration’s shift — it had previously argued such a move was illegal — comes amid waning backing in Western capitals for Kyiv, The New York Times reported. Critics of such a move argue it would undermine the standing of Western central banks. “Whatever reputational damage this transfer of assets might cause for the West, it is vanishingly small in comparison with the reputational damage that the West will suffer if Russia succeeds in conquering Ukraine,” the veteran Russia journalist Anne Applebaum wrote in The Atlantic. “What are we waiting for?”

The US’s soft landing

The U.S. appears to have warded off the threat of recession while curbing inflation, recent data suggested. Inflation in the third quarter was 2%, the Federal Reserve’s target, even with job growth and economic expansion persisting at remarkable rates, according to revised figures from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. It’s a sharp contrast with projections a year ago that roundly expected the country to fall into a recession. Economists grappling with why those forecasts were wrong largely suggest three theories, the economics writer Noah Smith said: That the high inflation of recent years was caused by temporary supply bottlenecks which eventually eased, that monetary policy ultimately had little impact on the business cycle, or a combination of the two.

US record Christmas heat on way

Much of the U.S. faces a warm Christmas. Los Angeles and Phoenix have already seen record temperatures for the time of year. The unusual warmth is driven by long-term warming trends and the El Niño climate event, which has boosted temperatures for much of 2023. Parts of the country that are used to white Christmases will be disappointed: The Upper Midwest and western Great Lakes can expect temperatures around 30 degrees Fahrenheit above average for the time of year. International Falls in Minnesota, which usually has a 93% chance of snow at Christmas, is likely to see bare ground, The Washington Post reported.

Shooter kills 13 in Prague

At least 13 people were killed and 25 wounded in a shooting at a university in Prague. It’s the Czech Republic’s worst-ever mass shooting, and Europe’s fourth-worst of the 21st century, according to the BBC. The shooter, who police say was a student at Charles University, killed himself. The Czech Republic is the only European country with a legal right to gun ownership, although that right is contingent on passing a gun-safety test and stringent background checks. Mass shootings are rare in Europe, and are often followed by changes to national gun laws: A 2009 shooting in Germany led to increased restrictions on handguns, and following the 1996 Dunblane massacre, the U.K. introduced some of the toughest gun laws in the world.

US-China military talks resume

The U.S. and China resumed military communications for the first time since mid-2022, a thawing of relations agreed at a recent meeting of two countries’ leaders. The breakthrough comes amid rising tensions between China and the Philippines, a key U.S. ally, over claims to maritime territory in the South China Sea, as well as what Washington said were nearly 200 incidents of Chinese harassment of U.S. aircraft in the past two years. Significant disputes remain, however, with the Biden administration reportedly considering raising tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles and investigating Chinese semiconductor production, the latter of which could also result in increased trade barriers.

Mexico, US in migration talks

Senior U.S. officials including Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Mexico to discuss a recent surge in migration that has led to the closure of several border crossings. The decision was announced shortly after a call between President Joe Biden and his Mexican counterpart in which they agreed that additional enforcement was “urgently needed.” The officials are also expected to discuss the flow of fentanyl from Mexico which has fuelled a drug overdose epidemic in the United States. Although Mexico has repeatedly vowed to crack down on the drug’s production, Reuters found that upwards of 95% of the fentanyl labs that the Mexican Army said it had captured were already inactive by the time troops arrived. Mexico is “fighting an imaginary war on drugs,” a U.S. senator said.

Call for do-over in DRC’s delayed vote

Voting in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s election was extended after many polling stations did not open on election day. President Felix Tshisekedi is running for a second term, but the vote was hit by massive delays after the electoral commission failed to bring materials to much of the country. Opposition parties called for the vote to be rerun: One of Tshisekedi’s leading challengers called the situation “total chaos,” and alleged other irregularities as well as the delay. The DRC has seen economic growth during Tshisekedi’s four-year term, but remains one of the poorest countries in the world despite huge mineral wealth.

Super League block ruled unlawful

A European Union court ruled that soccer’s governing bodies acted unlawfully by blocking plans for a European Super League. Some of Europe’s top teams said in 2021 they would form a breakaway competition, but were strongly criticized: In European soccer, teams which do poorly drop out of competitions and are replaced, but the ESL plan would have kept the same teams in perpetuity, removing jeopardy for them. The governing bodies blocked the plan, but now Europe’s top court says they did so illegally. Four of the English teams who planned to join but reversed their position reiterated their commitment to the existing competitions, and England’s Premier League said: “Football thrives on the competitiveness created by promotion and relegation.”

Cities boost public transport, hit cars

Montpellier in France became the latest European city to offer free public transport. Since Thursday evening, residents can, with a pass, take trams and buses without payment, although visitors still pay. Tallinn in Estonia and all of Luxembourg have the same policy. It’s part of a wider global effort to promote public transport and reduce private car use. In New York, infrastructure is being installed for Manhattan’s congestion charge program, which begins in May and will require drivers to pay up to $36. Similar systems are in place elsewhere, notably London, and are highly effective at reducing congestion, pollution, and carbon emissions, a transport analyst told Politico: “All the other policies including transitioning to electric fleet and building more transit pale in comparison.”

January 14-19, 2024 | Switzerland

Semafor will be on the ground at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, covering what’s happening on the main stages and lifting the curtain on what’s happening behind them.

Sign up to receive our pop-up newsletter: Semafor Davos (and if you’re flying to Zurich let us know so we can invite you to one of Semafor’s private convenings).

• Argentine workers are expected to protest major economic reforms proposed by recently elected President Javier Milei.
• The U.S. is due to propose new rules on how energy companies can access billions of dollars in tax credits for producing low-carbon hydrogen.
• Spain holds its annual Christmas lottery draw, with €2.59 billion ($2.85 billion) up for grabs.

The number of gold and silver coins that a 300-year old shipwreck off the coast of Colombia is believed to hold. The country’s government announced this week that it will try to raise objects from the San José, a Spanish galleon sunk in 1708 after a battle with a British squadron. The “holy grail of shipwrecks,” which also holds emeralds and other precious cargo, is estimated to be worth billions of dollars, prompting a scramble over its spoils. Although the U.S. and Spain have also laid claim to the bounty, Colombia’s government has made raising it from the seabed a national priority.

A Nigerian crime thriller topped a most-watched list on Netflix. Blood Vessel, a story of six stowaways escaping their oil-polluted town in the Niger Delta on board a mysterious ship, has notched up more than 4.4 million views. It caps what has been an exceptional year for Nigerian films, Premium Times Nigeria noted, following hits such as Shanty Town, Gangs of Lagos, and The Trade. “Blood Vessel is a roller coaster of emotions,” Onu Stephen wrote, calling it a movie “that keeps viewers on the edge of their seats.”

• The high-profile Senate sex scandal that rocked D.C. this month was, in fact, the second time in less than two years that sexually explicit videos filmed in the U.S. Capitol prompted an investigation.
• Semafor asked experts for their forecasts in real estate, dealmaking, antitrust enforcement, and more.
• Nikki Haley is surging in New Hampshire, but her home state might be Donald Trump’s firewall. South Carolina made her; can it unmake her?