Flagship

Gantz’s US trip hints at Israel splits

Benny Gantz, a top Israeli cabinet minister and rival to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, arrived in Washington for talks with U.S. officials, in a sign of growing divisions within Israel’s leadership. The discussions, which Netanyahu allies described as a “Trojan horse” against Israeli interests, come as relations between Washington and Israel reach a low point, Politico reported. Officials in Washington say that President Joe Biden is increasingly frustrated with Netanyahu’s commitment to fight on in Gaza “until total victory,” as global calls for a ceasefire intensify. According to a recent poll by the Associated Press, more than half of U.S. adults said Israel had “gone too far” in its invasion of Gaza, up from 40% in November.

Political violence surges in Mexico

At least 33 political candidates in Mexico have been killed in the first two months of the year ahead of national elections in June. Some cities now don’t have any candidates running for mayor over fears of assassination, amid rising concerns that the national election will become the country’s deadliest ever. Analysts say that cartels are tightening their grip on the country’s politics, raising the risk of Mexico becoming a “narco-state” as gang money is funneled into campaigns. Some political hopefuls remain defiant: “We absolutely cannot surrender, we can’t give up,” a candidate who survived abduction told the Associated Press. “Those of us who believe things can get better have to continue working.”

Ukraine recruitment slows war effort

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s inability to forge a consensus on recruiting more troops to fight advancing Russian forces is proving divisive. The “hodgepodge” recruiting efforts have “sown panic among fighting-age men,” with some going into hiding over fears of being sent to “certain death,” The Washington Post reported. Military commanders have also warned that too many of their soldiers are exhausted and wounded as the war enters its third year. However, proposals to widen the military draft have proved controversial, with the government “struggling to find a balance between coercion and persuasion,” the Associated Press reported. “We have no people, nowhere to get them from,” one Ukrainian army commander said.

Voters concerned over Biden’s age

A poll showed 73% of voters, including a majority of his 2020 supporters, say U.S. President Joe Biden is too old to lead. Biden and his likely opponent Donald Trump will be the oldest ever candidates for the presidency. Both made high-profile gaffes over the weekend: Trump, four years the younger at 77, confused Biden with his predecessor Barack Obama for the third time, while Biden announced the U.S. would airdrop supplies into Ukraine, meaning Gaza. But voters seem less worried about Trump’s age, with 42% saying he was too old to be effective. Nikki Haley, Trump’s only remaining rival for the Republican nomination, won the District of Columbia primary, the last ahead of Super Tuesday, when 15 states will vote for their preferred candidate.

Chinese premier’s press meet canceled

Chinese Premier Li Qiang will not hold the traditional news conference at the end of this week’s National People’s Congress. Two other ministers were recently removed from the state council without explanation, part of what appears to be a purge. The NPC has little power over the leadership, but it gives insights into Beijing’s direction, and the annual news conference has been a rare opportunity for foreign journalists to quiz senior ministers. The cancelation could be seen as a further consolidation of leader Xi Jinping’s power, but despite his growing dominance over the Chinese government, Xi is yet to convince the people that his reforms are working: Analysts told Bloomberg that protests in China are rising as economic struggles bite and wages fall.

China’s smartphones dominate Africa

Chinese phone brands are dominating the African market, pushing out global giants Samsung and Apple. Tecno, Infinix, and itel — all made by the Shenzhen-based Transsion — started out exclusively selling phones in Africa before expanding into other developing regions. Tecno’s shipments grew 77% last year, the South China Morning Post reported, bringing it 20% of Middle East and African smartphone sales — the three Chinese brands together make up 48% — while Samsung’s market share dropped to 18%. Analysts said Tecno’s growth was driven by cheaper $150-range models. Its success has attracted further Chinese firms into the region as Africa’s economic situation improves, with stabilizing currencies and falling energy prices and inflation.

Turkey’s inflation problem continues

Turkey’s inflation hit an annualized rate of 67% in February, putting pressure on the country’s central bank to tighten its monetary policy. The bank has raised interest rates by 3.65 percentage points since June to 45%, and the Turkish finance minister said that he expected those changes to start bringing inflation down within the next 12 months. But restaurants, hotels, food, education, and non-alcoholic drinks all leapt significantly in price over the last month, and the lira has slumped in value to a record low against the dollar. Analysts told CNBC that despite the already historically high interest rate, the bank might soon have to push it higher to bring inflation down faster.

Nvidia chief: General AI five years away

Depending on how you define it, artificial general intelligence could be here within five years, Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang said. Humans have “general” intelligence: We can do many different tasks. AlphaGo, the Go-playing AI, is a “narrow” AI, capable of just one task. Huang said AIs would do well on “every single test that you can possibly imagine,” such as legal or medical exams, within five years. That wouldn’t mean it was conscious or thought like a human, but it would be capable of most of the intellectual tasks a human can do. Huang also said that AI algorithms and processing are progressing “tremendously,” meaning that the number of chips required will grow more slowly as each one can do more work.

Older electric cars lose app support

Nissan was accused of “dumping its pioneers” after announcing that its smartphone app would no longer support older electric cars in the U.K. Pre-2016 Nissan Leaf and e-NV200 models used 2G connectivity to remotely control functions such as heating. But the U.K. is switching off its 2G networks on April 1, meaning the apps will stop working. It’s a sign of the double-edged nature of increasingly smart cars: Consumers expect laptops and phones to become obsolete within a few years, but cars used to work for decades. Things may change even more in future: California announced that Waymo could expand its robotaxi operation to highways in Los Angeles and the Bay Area, perhaps paving the way for a future in which car ownership itself becomes outdated.

LeBron reaches 40,000 career points

LeBron James became the first player in NBA history to score 40,000 points, a milestone that highlights his longevity as much as his shooting skills. James — who last year became the all-time scoring leader after passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s mark of 38,387 — has played with 35% of all players in NBA history over his 22 year career. The Los Angeles Lakers star also has the second-most regular season points in league history. “It’s a testament to Bron, just the time and resources he spends on himself, making sure not only he is healthy but he’s healthy at a high level,” Darvin Ham, the Lakers head coach, told the Associated Press.

• NATO troops will conduct drills in Finland, Norway, and Sweden, after the alliance expanded into Nordic territory.
• The Polish prime minister meets his Lithuanian counterpart in Vilnius to discuss support for Ukraine as well as sanctions on Russia and Belarus.
• All six seasons of The Resident, a U.S. medical drama series, are released on Netflix.

Driven to madness

Last month, a mob in San Francisco set upon a Waymo robotaxi, smashing it to pieces before setting it on fire. The vandalism was largely met with indifference or a kind of glee, writes Eric Newcomer in The Free Press: “For some, this was an act of righteous anger, rage against the machine, a cry for help from people fed up with our slide into automation.” But self-driving cars are not anti-human: On the contrary, they’re going to save lives, and they’re just getting good.

It is “a little terrifying” the first time you sit in a car and it starts driving on its own. But self-driving cars are solving a huge problem: Dangerous human drivers. About 40,000 people die in car crashes in the U.S. each year. Soon, self-driving cars will be meaningfully safer. We shouldn’t wait for perfection, or hold robotaxis to airline-like safety standards: “We should build the best world we can, and that includes minimizing traffic deaths by reducing the number of human drivers on the roads.”

Love, love me do

Women, on average, are less interested in casual sex than men are, and are more likely to regret casual hookups. That “should come as no surprise to anyone who has touched grass in any meaningful way in their adult life,” writes the geneticist Ruxandra Teslo, but it’s a weirdly taboo topic. The refusal to address it is a problem: It leaves young women confused about their feelings, and creates animosity between the sexes.

What’s more, it has left room for a backlash. “Reactionary feminists” argue that the sexual revolution has harmed women: That marriage rates are down, and that women were happier when more of them were in stable marriages. But Teslo says that’s nonsense. Women were essentially the property of their husbands until not long ago, and the fact that women don’t just want marriage is shown by the fact that most divorces are initiated by the woman. (Some) women’s regret of casual sex is an expression of “a yearning for love, actual love,” not just being in a relationship they are unable to get out of.

Meat market

Organ transplants are cheap. In Canada, a kidney transplant costs $26,000, plus $6,000 a year for lifelong medication. Dialysis is $60,000 a year. On average, a transplant saves the health system $380,000. In the U.S., those figures are even higher. They are growing ever safer and more effective, and they demonstrably save lives. And yet there are simply not enough organs to go around.

There is a lesson to be learned from blood plasma, say Jason Hausenloy and Duncan McClements in Works in Progress. In the U.S., Hungary, Germany, Austria, and Czechia, plasma donors are paid: Those five countries contribute 90% of the world’s supply. It’s counterintuitively cheaper than relying on altruistic donors, because donors are easier to find and retain. A similar system could work for organs. In Iran, which allows paid organ transplants, there is no kidney waiting list. Some sort of payment-in-advance system would be needed for organs which can only be donated after death, and it might be a hard sell to the public, but, Hausenloy and McClements say, a market for organs could save lives and money.

A new exhibition about the power and politics of textiles is on display in London. Unravel looks at how artists have used fabrics spanning from hand-stitched pieces to giant sculptural installations to question governments, explore marginalization, or evoke hope. Works include T. Vinoja’s aerial landscapes, inspired by testimonies from the Sri Lankan Civil War, and the embroidered blankets the Paraguayan visual artist Feliciano Centurión used to process his HIV diagnosis in 1993. “The woven histories of nature, tradition, and human experience, make for powerful viewing,” Curiously Conscious wrote, adding that the show could have been even stronger if it had also captured the challenges faced by garment workers in fast fashion.

• Biden keeps plugging away at TikTok. Don’t expect Trump to follow.
• Iran sending attack drones to Sudan’s military.
• Capitol Hill’s tax battle gets rough.