Flagship

Israel genocide case opens at ICJ

South Africa accused Israel of committing genocide at the opening of an International Court of Justice case it brought over the Gaza war. Pretoria argues Israel is seeking to “destroy Palestinians in Gaza,” a charge Israel vehemently denies, calling it a “blood libel.” Both sides have deployed high-profile attorneys, and each have a representative on an expanded, 17-member panel of judges. Though the case could take years, the ICJ may issue provisional measures demanding Israel stop its assault in Gaza, which has left more than 23,000 people dead according to the enclave’s Hamas-run authorities. The court battle has underlined growing global divisions over the war: Whereas the U.S. denounced South Africa’s petition, the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation backed Pretoria.

The case also carries huge symbolic weight. On one side, Israel’s founding came in the wake of the killing of six million Jews in the Holocaust. On the other, South Africa — which sees parallels between apartheid and Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, and whose apartheid rulers had a close military alliance with Israel — was the subject of an ultimately unsuccessful 1960s ICJ case seeking to end the system of segregation. “Like the [1960s] case,” a legal expert wrote in South Africa’s Mail & Guardian, “this is about more than just the present legal dispute.”

US-China tensions rise over Taiwan

U.S.-China tensions rose in the run-up to Taiwan’s presidential election. Beijing labeled the frontrunner for the post, seen as more anti-China than his opponents, a “severe danger” and warned Washington against “brazen chattering” about the polls. The U.S., meanwhile, plans to send what it described as an unofficial delegation of former officials to the island, which Beijing regards as a renegade province. Disputes over Taiwan are just one of a long list of disagreements, with relations unlikely to improve whatever the result of the vote: “The U.S. and China find themselves at odds not because of their fundamental disagreement over the status and future of Taiwan, but their incompatible visions of the international order,” the China expert Minxin Pei noted.

Swift drives Europe tourism

Taylor Swift’s upcoming tour of Europe is already affecting the continent’s economy and politics. The megastar will perform in 18 cities across Europe, where hotel prices are already skyrocketing. One French teenager who missed out on tickets in Paris is instead traveling to Madrid with her mother, tacking on a three-day holiday to a city she has yet to visit: “That’s the Taylor Swift effect on European tourism,” Le Monde wrote. A senior European Union official, meanwhile, urged Swift to help mobilize young people to vote in June’s continent-wide elections, telling reporters, “I very much hope that someone from her media team follows this press conference and relays our request to her.”

Christie dismisses rivals as he pulls out

A debate between U.S. Republican presidential candidates was overshadowed by Chris Christie’s hot-mic comments about his rivals. The former New Jersey governor was heard saying ahead of his withdrawal from the race that Nikki Haley — seen as perhaps the best challenger to current GOP frontrunner Donald Trump — was going to get “smoked” and that Ron DeSantis was “petrified.” Christie is a critic of Trump’s, but his dismissal of his rivals may ultimately help the former president, who said it was a “very truthful statement.” Haley and DeSantis traded insults at the debate itself, with DeSantis calling Haley a “mealy-mouthed politician” and Haley accusing DeSantis of “lies.”

Ecuador ‘at war’ with drug gangs

Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa said his country was “at war” with drug gangs after they set off a wave of violence across the country. This week Noboa announced a state of emergency and deployed the military following the escape from prison of the country’s most-wanted drug kingpin. Murder rates in Ecuador, which neighbors Colombia — the world’s biggest cocaine producer — have soared in recent years as gangs fight for control of the country’s ports and shipping infrastructure. Indeed, a Latin America expert wrote, the crisis in Ecuador is really about “the world’s absolutely insatiable appetite for cocaine.”

China growth puts green target in reach

The goal of tripling global renewables capacity by 2030 is within reach, the International Energy Agency said, after growth of 50% in 2023. The surge was driven by China, which more than doubled its solar capacity and increased its wind output by 66% last year. IEA chief Fatih Birol said the “spectacular” growth showed that the world was already on course to increase renewable energy 2.5 times by 2030 and that the COP28 goal was “not a million miles away.” The IEA warned, though, that such an expansion would not be enough to keep warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, and urged greater financial support for clean-energy projects, particularly in poorer countries.

Magma drilling raises energy hopes

Scientists plan to drill into a magma chamber, hoping both to reveal facts about the subterranean world and — potentially — find a path to unlimited clean energy. Most molten rock is hundreds of miles below the surface, but occasional chambers can be found just a few miles down. There’s no reliable way of finding them, but scientists stumbled across one in Iceland in 2009. We know very little about magma, and understanding its behavior within the Earth will tell scientists about how the interior of the planet changes, New Scientist reported. The research could also lead to breakthroughs in geothermal energy: Magma chambers are far hotter than the hot fluids usually used in geothermal plants, and could be correspondingly more efficient energy sources.

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SEC approves Bitcoin ETFs

U.S. regulators approved Bitcoin exchange-traded funds. ETFs allow investors to bet on the price of assets, such as gold or stocks, without actually purchasing them. Allowing Bitcoin ETFs makes the cryptocurrency more accessible to mainstream investors, meaning they don’t have to use a crypto exchange. The price of Bitcoin rose on the news, and cryptocurrency fans shared memes about how rich they expected to become, but the head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission warned that investors should not mistake the approval for an endorsement of crypto, calling it a “speculative, volatile asset” used in “ransomware, money laundering, sanction evasion, and terrorist financing.”

AI for coffee, AI for babies, AI for…

An artificial-intelligence-powered electronic nose can sniff varieties of coffee almost perfectly. E-noses are increasingly useful tools: They are used in healthcare, for instance to detect glucose levels, in quality assurance, and agriculture. A Taiwanese electrical engineer and coffee fanatic designed one that can distinguish between 16 bean varieties with 98% accuracy — IEEE Spectrum called it “Shazam but for java.” It’s not just coffee that’s being AI-ized: AI “is everywhere” at the Consumer Electronics Show 2024, according to CNET, with, among other things, an AI-powered baby translator and several AI vacuum cleaners. No doubt some will be extremely useful, although Flagship never understood the fad for connecting vacuums to the internet for some reason.

Anatomy of a decline

Anatomy of a Fall became the highest-grossing foreign-language release in the U.S. and U.K. since the pandemic. The movie, which won two Golden Globes, was hailed by one academic in The Conversation as a rare “triumph” for French arthouse cinema, “which has been in decline in recent years.” But the numbers involved are still small: Anatomy grossed less than $4 million in the U.S. and $1.25 million in the U.K. and Ireland. French art films — “low-budget dramas marked by realism, ambiguity and a distinct directorial style,” The Conversation said — are in a bad way. Between 2005 and 2016, 13 arthouse films drew more than 1 million cinemagoers in the rest of Europe, but since then none have.

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.

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• Indonesian President Joko Widodo travels to Vietnam for a three-day state visit.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visits his counterpart in Estonia.
• The Dubai Invitational golf tournament begins.

The state-imposed price for a liter of gasoline in Cuba beginning next month, up fivefold from current prices. The ruling Communist Party, which has long subsidized fuel, is loosening state support in a bid to redress a yawning budget deficit. Despite an attempt to jolt its economy back to life, which included a limited tolerance of private enterprise, the island nation is in the midst of its worst recession since the fall of the Soviet Union. The downturn has forced a record number of Cubans to flee, with almost 2% of the total population attempting to enter the U.S. in 2022 alone. “Small tweaks to a rotten system will not be enough to stem Cuba’s decline,” The Economist said.

A new exhibition in Singapore will showcase the connections between Asian and African art. Translations: Afro-Asian Poetics, open to the public from next week, will feature work by 100 artists from across both continents and their diasporas. The show aims to celebrate their cultures “by emphasizing shared experiences, trials and tribulations, spiritual practices, and more,” said the curators.

• Six African countries will be among the world’s highest growth economies in 2024.
• Do not try to boot Johnson, Moderate Republicans warn hardliners.
• Nikki Haley is converting conservative climate hawks. Here’s how.