Flagship

EU offers Kyiv early access

The European Union will propose easing Ukraine into the bloc to allow it to reap some early membership benefits. The plan is part of broader changes to the EU’s structure and governance to be put forth today, Politico reported, and aims to offer Kyiv support in the face of Russian battlefield advances. Still, the backing is not absolute: EU countries renewed a tariff exemption on Ukrainian agricultural imports into the 27-nation grouping, but tightened the rules surrounding it under pressure from farmers who had complained of being undercut by Ukrainian produce. The stakes are high: “Any threat to unified EU support for Ukraine benefits Russia’s military and political goals,” two food-policy experts said in a recent note.

Planned Rafah attack dominates talks

The two biggest coming developments in the Israel-Hamas war — a potential hostage deal, and the planned invasion of the Gazan town of Rafah — appeared in limbo. Though Qatar said it was “cautiously optimistic” for ceasefire talks, The Wall Street Journal noted negotiations were hampered by “goals that seem impossible to reconcile,” with Israel wanting Hamas’ eradication, and the militant group pushing to retain influence. U.S. officials, meanwhile, are seeking to avert a planned Rafah operation, which they and others fear would worsen an ongoing humanitarian crisis, by drawing up alternatives for Israel to consider. Some Israeli analysts are skeptical that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu actually wants to invade Rafah, suggesting he ultimately aims to blame Washington for holding him back.

Finland is world’s happiest country

Finland kept its spot as the world’s happiest country for the seventh straight year, according to Gallup’s World Happiness Report. The ranking is based on surveys in over 140 countries that ask respondents to rate their lives, with 10 being the best possible life and zero being the worst. European — specifically Scandinavian — countries dominate the top of the list, buoyed by high happiness evaluations among older residents. Life evaluations in Israel, meanwhile, unsurprisingly fell sharply after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, but since the rankings use a three-year average, the impact to the country’s overall score was muted.

S. Africa speaker in graft probe

South African police raided the home of the country’s Speaker of Parliament as part of a corruption investigation. Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula is accused of demanding bribes in return for awarding contracts while she was defense minister, a position she held for nearly a decade, South Africa’s Mail & Guardian newspaper reported. She has denied the allegations, and Parliament said in a statement that she was cooperating with investigators. The raid comes barely two months ahead of South Africa’s general election, in which the African National Congress — the party that has led the country since the end of apartheid in 1994, and of which Mapisa-Nqakula is a senior leader — is expected to get below 50% of the vote for the first time.

Panama Canal recycles water

The Panama Canal is recycling its water, ameliorating a shipping crisis caused by drought, but potentially endangering marine life and Panama’s drinking water supplies. Drought forced the canal to reduce traffic by nearly 40% last year, a major problem for the global economy as 3% of the world’s maritime trade passes through it. Pumping the water back into the canal rather than releasing it into the ocean boosted water levels, allowing an increase in shipping, but the reused water is saltier and some of it flows into Lake Gatùn, a reservoir that is Panama’s largest source of potable water, Bloomberg reported. The recycling also brings marine fish into the lake, potentially allowing species to travel between the Atlantic and the Pacific and disturbing ecosystems.

Microsoft hires Suleyman

Mustafa Suleyman, the co-founder of DeepMind, joined Microsoft’s new consumer artificial intelligence unit. Suleyman formed his own AI company, Inflection, in 2022, but is best known for DeepMind, which he helped set up in 2010 and which was bought by Google four years later. Microsoft will also hire most of Inflection’s staff. With its multibillion-dollar investment in OpenAI, Microsoft is ahead of its rivals in getting usable AI products to market, and Suleyman will oversee projects such as integrating AI into Windows and the Bing search engine. It must be “infuriating for Google to watch,” the BBC’s technology editor noted, as its former employee joins its greatest rival even as it is “increasingly sidelined” in the AI race.

US awards Intel $20B for chipmaking

The U.S. awarded nearly $20 billion in incentives to the chip giant Intel to manufacture cutting-edge semiconductors in the country. The announcement, which is likely to be the largest amount given to a single company as part of the U.S.′ CHIPS and Science Act, is part of a broad-ranging Biden administration push to secure domestic chipmaking capabilities while restricting China’s access to advanced semiconductor technology. U.S. officials are separately also considering blacklisting Chinese chip firms tied to tech giant Huawei’s efforts to develop its own semiconductors, Bloomberg reported, and are pressing allies to tighten their own restrictions on dealing with Beijing. “Failure is not an option,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters.

Sen. Michael Bennet; Sen. Ron Wyden; Kevin Scott, CTO, Microsoft; 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.

China steps up drone capabilities

China is developing military drones that can split mid-flight into multiple subunits to overwhelm air defenses. The six-rotor main unit divides into two, three, or six smaller, single-rotor parts, able to fulfill specific roles, communicate with each other, and collaborate on mission goals, according to the South China Morning Post. The idea is that air defense systems which allocate weapon resources based on a given number of incoming drones would struggle if that number suddenly multiplies by six. A recent Center for Strategic & International Studies report also said that the Chinese air force was retrofitting older-generation fighter aircraft as uncrewed drones, demonstrating a “commitment to experimentation” and allowing it to absorb much greater losses in a potential invasion of Taiwan.

Gucci sales down on China slump

Luxury fashion brand Gucci’s sales are expected to fall 20% year-on-year, hit by falling demand in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly China. The country accounts for more than a third of Gucci’s sales, and the brand has targeted young consumers who are more vulnerable to economic pressures: Other high-end brands such as Louis Vuitton posted better-than-expected 2023 results. Gucci’s parent company Kering reported a 17% fall in profits and its shares are down more than a fifth: Gucci is by far Kering’s biggest brand, accounting for half of revenues, and while it saw a boom in the mid-2010s under its former creative director, sales have stagnated in recent years and it is under pressure to shake up its image and strategy, The Business of Fashion reported.

Dre given Hollywood star

Dr. Dre was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The rapper and music producer broke through with the Los Angeles gangsta rap group N.W.A., worked with other stars such as 2Pac and Snoop Dogg, and discovered Eminem and 50 Cent. In his youth, Dre and N.W.A. — with their songs about police brutality, drugs, crime, and violence — were at the center of a national moral panic. But the path from rebel to establishment figure is well-trodden: Dre’s bandmate Ice Cube now appears in children’s movies, and Snoop Dogg is friends with Martha Stewart. Dre told reporters that “I’ve been fortunate enough to make a living doing exactly what I love to do.”

• Airline executives gather in Brussels for a conference on the future of European aviation.
• U.S. national security officials will conduct a closed briefing for senators on the threats posed by Chinese-owned TikTok.
• SEMICON, a semiconductor industry event, begins in Shanghai.

The estimated spend on weddings in India between November 23 and December 15, 2023. Indian weddings have always been extravagant, but as the country’s wealth has grown, the spending has rocketed. Anant Ambani, son of billionaire Mukesh Ambani, had a three-day party attended by Mark Zuckerberg, Rihanna, and Bill Gates just for the warmup: The actual wedding is in July. But less rich Indians also engage in conspicuous wedding consumption, with helicopters, luxury hotels, and elaborate pre-wedding photoshoots, often totalling hundreds of thousands of dollars. The weddings “aren’t just celebrations,” reported the travel news site Skift. “They are massive economic engines, driving billions in spending.”

More than half of this year’s 52 new Michelin Star-winning restaurants in France are run by chefs under the age of 40. Le Monde called the latest list “a welcome breath of fresh air.” Among the newly crowned eateries are La Table du Castellet on the French Riviera, run by 35-year-old Fabien Ferré, who won the highest distinction of three stars for his take on Provence food. Another newcomer was Le Gabriel in Paris, which also got top marks for an eclectic menu offering Breton, Japanese, and Turkish cuisine: The “unexpected and refined combination of cosmopolitan flavors … take gourmets to unexpected horizons,” the newspaper reported.

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