Flagship

Jakarta protects its resources

Indonesia — home to huge deposits of the minerals required to fuel the green energy transition — is banning or restricting the export of its valuable commodities. Its president is already considering the establishment of an OPEC-like cartel for nickel, has hinted at export bans for tin and gold, and said his government will ban copper and bauxite exports, Nikkei reported. Jakarta wants to develop the downstream industries that could help it capture more of the economic value of the minerals. Iran, meanwhile, claimed to have discovered a major deposit of lithium, a necessary commodity for batteries and electric vehicles. The new geography dictated by the shift away from fossil fuels is taking shape.

Bacteria recycle rare-earth elements

Rare-earth elements — vital to manufacturing modern technology — can be harvested using exotic bacteria. Metals such as neodymium and lanthanum, collectively known as the rare earths, are in huge demand. But they are rare and highly expensive, and most of the world’s resources are in China, making supply chains fragile. A new study found that certain cyanobacteria naturally absorb the elements, meaning that rare earths can be rapidly and efficiently collected from industrial wastewater or recycled electronic waste. The researchers say the procedure should be “economically feasible in the near future,” and would permit a true circular economy for the sought-after metals.

Xi accuses US of suppression

Chinese leader Xi Jinping issued rare direct criticism of the United States, accusing it of leading “all-around containment and suppression of China.” Xi’s remarks during the country’s “two sessions” meetings were the latest sign of worsening ties between the two powers, marked by tightening American restrictions on China’s technology sector, as well as Washington’s shooting down of a purported Chinese surveillance balloon and its allegations Beijing is considering arming Moscow in its war in Ukraine. In a sign of the growing tensions, Taiwan’s president convinced the new speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives to hold a long-rumored meeting on American soil rather than in Taipei to avoid provoking Beijing, the Financial Times reported.

US to unveil TikTok legislation

U.S. lawmakers will today unveil legislation giving the White House greater powers to restrict companies — such as TikTok — that allegedly abuse Americans’ data or expose them to foreign influence campaigns. The bipartisan Senate legislation comes days after similar proposals were pushed by a House of Representatives committee that more narrowly focuses on Chinese businesses. The White House had been negotiating with TikTok’s parent company to allow it to continue operating in the U.S., albeit with restrictions, but those talks have largely failed, and a growing number of politicians and officials have suggested banning the app outright, as India did in 2020.

A heroin epidemic in the Indian Ocean

One in 10 Seychellois is dependent on heroin. The Indian Ocean island nation lies on the drug route to Europe from Afghanistan and Iran, and the Seychelles’ president says the problem became worse when a group of Iranian drug traffickers were imprisoned there and developed a network. The drug comes in by boat — the Seychelles archipelago is made up of 115 islands and its coasts are impossible to police — and is sold out of people’s homes. Even those locked up in the country’s main prison have ready access to heroin. “Per capita, as far as consumption of heroin is concerned,” the country’s president told the BBC, “Seychelles is number one in the world.”

A new challenger to Erdogan

Turkey’s various opposition parties united behind a single candidate in a bid to unseat the country’s longtime ruler. Kemal Kilicdaroglu — dubbed “Turkey’s Gandhi” by his most ardent supporters, largely because of an apparent physical resemblance — is a retired civil servant and economist. But he is decried by critics as lacking the charisma needed to beat President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has tightened his grip on power since first becoming prime minister in 2003. Ahead of general elections in May, Erdogan has faced growing domestic pressure over his government’s allegedly slow-footed response to massive earthquakes a month ago that killed at least 52,000 people across Turkey and Syria.

Japanese town solves baby puzzle

Families in one southern Japanese town have nearly three children each on average. It’s become a tourist attraction in the country, which struggles — like much of the rich world — with a low birth rate. Parents in Nagi credit the local baby boom to cheap childcare and support for flexible working, The Wall Street Journal reported. The town is very much an outlier: Japan had almost twice as many deaths as births last year, and 29% of citizens are 65 or over. An aide to Japan’s prime minister said that “the country will disappear” if it doesn’t have more babies, with social security, the economy, and the armed forces all at risk of collapse.

Malnutrition in pregnancy on rise

The number of pregnant women suffering from malnutrition in some of the world’s poorest countries went up 25% over the last two years. The COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine war pushed up food prices, with countries such as Somalia, Ethiopia, and Afghanistan hit hardest, a UNICEF report said. It estimated that a billion women and adolescent girls are underweight, and said malnutrition during pregnancy and childhood can lead to stunting, weakened immunity, and cognitive deficits. The last several decades have seen greatly increased food supply — as the world has got richer, the number of malnourished people has declined. But the economic shocks since 2020 have reversed some of that progress.

US citizens seized in Mexico

A search is under way for four U.S. citizens kidnapped in northeastern Mexico. The tourists are believed to have been mistaken for a rival criminal group by a Mexican cartel. “These sorts of attacks are unacceptable,” the White House said. Calls for the U.S. to step up its fight against the cartels that smuggle people and drugs — notably fentanyl — into the country have grown louder. Former U.S. Attorney General William Barr, writing in The Wall Street Journal, called for U.S. law enforcement and military personnel to be deployed to Mexico. Separately, a Republican congressman proposed a bill earlier this year for the U.S. to declare war on the cartels.

Lego builds itself up

Lego increased its revenues and profits again last year, despite economic headwinds, continuing its COVID-era success. The Danish firm deepened investment in the Lego extended universe, as a collaboration with Fortnite maker Epic Games is in the works. All patents on Lego’s original designs expired years ago: Anyone can make the plastic bricks themselves. But a series of rights deals combining Lego’s products with successful movie franchises — Star Wars, Marvel, Harry Potter — plus a rise in demand during the pandemic, have made it the largest toy company in the world: It’s grown by two-thirds since 2020, leaving rivals such as Hasbro far behind.

Three years ago, the global economy was on the cusp of shutting down as the coronavirus spread. Semafor Business and Finance editor Liz Hoffman tracked the story for The Wall Street Journal. Liz’s breathtaking new book, Crash Landing, tells the story of how CEOs battled an economic catastrophe for which there was no playbook. It comes out on March 7 and you can pre-order here.

Sign up to Liz’s twice-weekly business newsletter, too!

• Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca meets his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida in Tokyo.
• Sri Lankan university students expected to protest in Colombo, demanding fresh elections and constitutional amendments.
• A new Pablo Picasso exhibition opens at the Picasso Museum in Paris ahead of the 50th anniversary of the Spanish painter’s death.

A large study in Denmark found that a simple reminder email to patients made them more likely to get a flu vaccination. The increase was slight, but the intervention was cheap, costing only $4.45 per extra jab issued. Our World in Data’s Saloni Dattani noted that since it takes about 56 vaccinations to prevent one major cardiovascular event, such as a heart attack or stroke, these emails could stop heart attacks for about $250 each — a phenomenal return on investment for a medical intervention.

A new interview show presented by Colombian actor Santiago Alarcón topped the country’s podcasts list on Spotify. In the first episode of Meterse al Rancho (Get into the Ranch), which premiered last week, Alarcón interviewed fellow actor Andrés Parra, who opened up about the challenges of playing the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez on the small screen a few years ago. Alarcón will explore subjects that “have historically been punished by Colombian society,” El Espectador reported, including separation, beauty standards, and disability.

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