Flagship

US sending new aid to Ukraine

The U.S. is sending weapons and ammunition worth $300 million to Ukraine, the White House announced Tuesday, the first delivery of new aid this year. The Pentagon had said in December that funding for Ukraine had run out, but this package was put together with savings from defense contracts that came in under bid, and follows reports that Democrats were trying to force a vote on a Ukraine aid package in Congress after talks stalled. A holdup of aid from Western allies has hampered Kyiv’s ability to repel Russian attacks, but Ukraine has been successful in striking deep inside Russia using drones: A wave of attacks struck nine Russian cities Tuesday and caused major damage to a critical oil refinery.

Thailand moves to dissolve party

Thai authorities are moving to dissolve the political party that won last year’s election thanks in part to its platform of watering down the country’s harsh law against criticizing the monarchy. Thailand’s election commission said it would ask a court to disband the Move Forward party, arguing its policies sought to undermine the country’s political system. Thailand’s royals are held in “revered worship” in the country’s constitution, and a lèse-majesté law ostensibly designed to prevent defamation against the king has, rights groups say, been weaponized by Thailand’s establishment and its powerful military to crack down on liberal and reform-minded parties: More than 200 people have been charged under the law since 2020 when it was revived after a brief suspension.

TikTok scrambles to oppose US bill

TikTok is scrambling to rally opposition to a bill that would force its Chinese parent company to either sell off the app or face a U.S. ban. CEO Shou Zi Chew is expected to hit Capitol Hill ahead of a vote due Wednesday in the House of Representatives. It is projected to pass there, but the bill could face a rockier path in the Senate. The vote comes as the app’s owner ByteDance invested in a memory chip company backed by the Chinese government, The Information reported, which “may undercut TikTok’s efforts … to persuade Washington that the company isn’t an arm of the Chinese government.” Nationalist bloggers within China, meanwhile, argued a TikTok sell-off would be infeasible, sympathizing with former President Donald Trump’s fresh opposition to the bill.

Moscow ‘winning’ information war

Western efforts to combat Moscow’s “information war” have been weak and ineffective, a scholar of Russian propaganda argued. Writing in Foreign Policy, Ian Garner said that after the 2016 U.S. presidential election, when Russian-sponsored Facebook posts alone reached 126 million Americans, social media platforms and the government said they would act. But policymakers “seem oblivious to the full breadth and scope” of the information campaign. Governments have banned propaganda outlets, but those are “small, ineffective steps,” and Moscow’s army of bots, trolls, and fake accounts is larger than in 2016. High-profile figures such as Tucker Carlson and ordinary Westerners sharing Kremlin-backed propaganda, Garner said, have become weapons in the information war — a war which “Moscow is showing every sign of winning.”

US inflation higher than expected

U.S. inflation was slightly higher than expected last month, new data showed Tuesday, reinforcing expectations the U.S. Federal Reserve won’t cut interest rates next week. The 3.2% inflation rate — still above the Fed’s 2% target — was largely driven by higher car insurance and other transportation costs, combined with stubbornly high housing costs. Voters’ perceptions of inflation and the economy will be a major factor in U.S. President Joe Biden’s reelection bid against Donald Trump. And while inflation is easing more slowly than it did last year, the price of some goods are falling as supply chains unclog, Politico reported: “There are more new cars on dealer lots and electronics on store shelves.”

Air fryers used for UK inflation

The price of air fryers and vinyl records will be factored into British inflation. Statisticians track inflation rates by comparing the cost of goods, such as food, from year to year. But consumers buy different things over time: People buy far more video games now than they did in 1830, for instance. The “basket” of goods used to compare is therefore updated regularly. Britain’s Office for National Statistics decided that sales of sofa beds and rotisserie chicken had fallen sufficiently to be dropped, while air fryers had risen, and the recent surge in vinyl’s popularity — driven, like most things in modern society, by Taylor Swift — has brought them back in for the first time since 1992.

Taiwan VP-elect quietly visits DC

Taiwan’s vice president-elect will hold low-key meetings with U.S. officials in Washington this week, reflecting the particularly contentious period in relations between the mainland and the self-governing island. The Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. officials hope to keep Hsiao Bi-khim’s visit low-profile to avoid raising tensions with China, which views Taiwan as a renegade province that it hopes to eventually control. Beijing pushed back Tuesday on the Biden administration’s budget proposal seeking $100 million to bolster Taiwan’s defenses; meanwhile, China is “testing and squeezing Taiwan” by more frequently patrolling the Taiwan Strait and harassing Taiwanese vessels at a time of political transition in both Taipei and Washington, the Financial Times’ foreign editor wrote.

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French bill supports assisted dying

French President Emmanuel Macron will introduce a bill that would allow doctors to help terminally ill people end their own lives at home. Most French people support assisted dying, but the practice is illegal at present, although withholding life support is permitted. Terminally ill French patients who wish to die must travel abroad, perhaps to neighboring Switzerland and Belgium. Catholic groups oppose the practice. Macron said would-be recipients of prescribed life-ending drugs would have to reconfirm their decision after 48 hours and a medical team could approve or reject it, and that patients suffering from psychiatric or neurodegenerative conditions, as well as minors, would not be eligible.

Japan’s Oscars views

Oscar victories for Oppenheimer and a new Godzilla film spotlighted opposing views over perceptions of Japan. The former, which won seven Academy Awards, was absent from Japanese theaters last year due to possible sensitivities over its portrayal of the U.S.’s nuclear attacks on Japan during World War II, and will only be released in the country this month. Following its Oscars success, residents of Hiroshima questioned the film’s “American-centric” focus, noting that even though the eponymous physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer “did not intend to kill many people, he cannot be seen as completely unaccountable,” AFP reported. Japanese American audiences, meanwhile, celebrated Godzilla Minus One’s win as a “positive change” for views towards Japanese cinema.

Precious violin gets detailed X-ray

An iconic violin first played in the 1700s received a detailed X-ray scan to help experts determine how it produces such an explosive sound. “Il Cannone,” which means “the cannon,” was owned by Italian virtuoso Niccolo Paganini, and is occasionally taken out for the world’s best violin players. The X-ray scan will allow researchers to zoom in down to a millionth of a meter, and researchers hope to analyze what causes the violin’s exceptional sound quality. The procedure will primarily be used to identify flaws for conservation purposes, AFP reported. A precious-instruments curator in Genoa urged “extreme caution” in any restoration, so that “just like the picture of Dorian Gray, it stays fresh as a rose.”

Sen. Michael Bennet; Sen. Ron Wyden; John Waldron, President & COO, Goldman Sachs; Tom Lue, General Counsel, Google DeepMind; Nicolas Kazadi, Finance Minister, DR Congo; and Jeetu Patel, EVP and General Manager, Security & Collaboration, Cisco have joined the world class line-up of global economic leaders for the 2024 World Economy Summit, taking place in Washington, D.C. on April 17-18. See all speakers and sessions, and RSVP here.

March 13:

• Toyota Motors is expected to finalize annual wage hikes after multiple rounds of talks with unions.
• The European Parliament votes on sweeping artificial intelligence regulations.
• Starbucks holds its annual shareholders’ meeting, where investors will review proposals related to discrimination, human rights policies at the company, and plant-based milk pricing.

A crime thriller inspired by a real-life Hollywood fraud scheme run out of Asia is set to premiere next month, with plans to show the film in theaters across the continent. Filmed in Indonesia, Thailand, Ireland, and the U.S., Kiss Of The Con Queen is based on the story of Hargobind Tahilramani, who allegedly impersonated studio executives to scam over 300 hopeful actors out of thousands of dollars. A real-life victim plays an actor who is duped into traveling to Jakarta thinking he’s auditioning for a superhero project and is forced to pay for flights and permits on the false promise that he will be reimbursed. Tahilramani was arrested in the U.K. in 2020 and remains behind bars.

• A former CNN chief has found himself in an escalating personal battle with a bombastic Tory grandee over control of a British newspaper.
• Ramadan in Gaza is characterized by mounting starvation.
• How Africans have become the solution to the UK’s elderly care crisis.