Flagship

Russia vows payback against the West

Russia pledged Tuesday to retaliate against Western efforts to support Ukraine. The US Senate is poised to pass a $60 billion aid package for Ukraine, along with funding for Israel and Taiwan; the Biden administration is already putting together a package of weapons valued at $1 billion to immediately send to Kyiv. In response, Russia’s defense minister said Moscow would step up attacks on Ukraine’s logistic centers and facilities storing Western military aid, to dispel “the myth of the superiority” of US weapons. A senior Russian lawmaker also warned of a “very tough response” if Europe seizes frozen Russian assets, a proposal officials are debating. Europe, she said, “will lose more than we do.”

US perception up in Asia

China is losing ground in its soft-power battle with the US in parts of Asia, according to a new report on how the world perceives the rivals’ leadership. People in India, South Korea, Vietnam, and the Philippines have shifted their allegiances toward the US and away from China over the last 10 years, the Gallup report found. Across Asia, where Washington and Beijing are locked in a battle for influence, an equal share of residents now approve and disapprove of the US, but the specific shifts in those four countries show how the US has made gains relative to China. “The US is there as a counterbalance to China,” a senior Gallup researcher told Semafor, as more nations “are moving increasingly in the US orbit.”

Tesla and Apple’s poor China showing

American tech giants Tesla and Apple are suffering as they face intense competition from Chinese competitors. Elon Musk’s EV company reported a 55% drop in profit and 9% drop in first-quarter revenue Tuesday, its biggest year-on-year fall since 2012. Analysts began forecasting trouble for Musk’s EV empire after Tesla announced price cuts in China. Apple, meanwhile, saw a 19% dip in smartphone shipments to China this quarter, its worst performance since 2020, as it lost ground to local competitors like Huawei. Chinese smartphones are cheaper than iPhones, and have gained traction with more premium design and software features.

Indians complain about Modi’s speech

Thousands of Indians urged the country’s Election Commission to take action against Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his recent speech calling Muslims “infiltrators.” More than 17,000 Indians signed two letters saying his remarks are “a direct attack” on Indian Muslims and undermine the country’s reputation as the “Mother of Democracy.” Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist party is expected to win its third straight term in the country’s high-stakes election as critics bemoan the lackluster opposition: Its face is Rahul Gandhi, the son of India’s flailing dynastic family that leads the Congress party. A New York Times Magazine profile called Gandhi “one of the country’s most recognizable men” who is running on a “nebulous campaign” of morality, love, and plurality, but “risks seeing his idea of India extinguished altogether.”

Countries grapple with Gaza protests

Google fired more employees who protested the tech giant’s cloud computing deal with Israel, as global protests over the Israel-Hamas war escalated. Republican lawmakers called for federal officers to shut down a weeklong pro-Palestine protest encampment at Columbia University, a day after police arrested more than 100 people on New York University’s campus. Authorities in the US and abroad are grappling with responses to pro-Palestine protests: In Berlin, for example, police officers reportedly stopped demonstrators from singing in Irish, because without a translator they couldn’t confirm if they were breaking laws forbidding speech inciting violence. Only German and English, and sometimes Arabic, are allowed in speeches.

Taiwan to remove ex-ruler’s statues

Taiwan will tear down all remaining statues — more than 760 — of former president Chiang Kai-shek. Chiang, the head of the Nationalist government of China during World War II, was defeated in a civil war by Mao Zedong’s Chinese Communist Party, and fled with his troops to Taiwan, where he ruled for nearly 30 years. Chiang’s reputation has been somewhat rehabilitated on the mainland, but in Taiwan he has become more controversial, with critics seeing him as a dictator, and a link to Beijing. An international relations scholar told the South China Morning Post that the Taiwanese government’s decision to remove the statues “will be seen as an unfriendly gesture towards mainland China.”

‘Rewild the internet,’ technologists say

The internet should be remodeled in the way ecologists revive a dying ecosystem, two technologists argued. The experts likened the web to a barren, increasingly monocultural city dominated by top-down powers. Just like ecologists “rewild” an environment by improving biodiversity, the internet should have more services and platforms for global discourse: “There won’t be just one or two numbers to call if leaders of a political coup decide to shut the internet down in the middle of the night. … No one entity will permanently be on top,” the authors wrote in Noema Magazine. The popularity of RSS feeds, blogs, and newsletters already show a collective desire to avoid “a single point of failure and control.”

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Hackers steal US health data

A ransomware attack on a US health insurance firm led to “a substantial proportion of people in America” having their health data stolen. Change Healthcare handles insurance and billing for hundreds of thousands of medical practices across the US. A gang called RansomHub started publishing patients’ files on the dark web and demanding money. Change Healthcare had previously paid $22 million to a Russia-based criminal gang called ALPHV, but it reportedly disappeared without paying RansomHub, which had originally stolen the data and now claims that it still has it and wants its own payout. The February cyber attack also caused service outages at pharmacies and hospitals across the US.

NASA fixes Voyager gibberish

Voyager 1 is talking to mission control again. In mid-November its transmissions became garbled, and NASA’s engineers have spent the last several months troubleshooting it. Voyager’s mission was meant to last just four years, but it has now been in space for 46. It and its companion Voyager 2 are by far the most distant man-made objects, and signals take almost a day to reach them. Voyager 1 discovered volcanic activity on Jupiter’s moon Io and an ocean on Saturn’s moon Titan, and recorded the transition into interstellar space as it left the solar system in 2012. Six of its 10 instruments have been shut down due to degradation and power loss, but it remains functional — perhaps, thanks to the latest fix, for a few more years.

Amazon ends Calif. drone deliveries

Amazon is ending its drone delivery service in California. The tech giant announced without explanation that it was ceasing its operations in the town of Lockeford that began in 2022, its second site after College Station, Texas. It plans to open a new service in Arizona this year: TechCrunch said the slow expansion of the service is “in part due to regulatory matters.” Other operators are having more luck: Zipline announced its one millionth delivery via its drone service on Friday — two bags of IV fluid to a health facility in Ghana. Zipline has focused on emergency medical supplies in Africa but is increasingly moving to consumer products in the West: It plans to begin delivering Panera Bread in Seattle and Jet’s Pizza in Detroit.

April 24:

• The US Supreme Court hears arguments about emergency abortions in states with near-total bans.
• North Macedonia votes in the first round of presidential elections after seven candidates campaigned on issues of EU membership.
• Asia’s largest car exhibition, the Beijing Auto Show, returns for the first time post-pandemic where China’s BYD is expected to debut its new all-electric performance hatchback Ocean-M.

“Japandi” — an interior design aesthetic combining Japanese and Scandinavian styles — is getting popular in Australia. The designs couple Japanese minimalism with the Scandinavian concept of “hygge,” representing a cozy and comfortable space, Nikkei reported. The furniture often uses natural wood with soft curves, and isn’t overly gaudy. Spacious Australian homes usually have more space for collecting pieces, but a more entrenched remote work culture has forced people to embrace simpler furniture and less crowded spaces. Japandi took off after an Australian couple specializing in the style won an interior design-focused reality TV show.

• A bipartisan pair aims to solve America’s happiness problem.
• US prepares to sanction China over its support for Russian war effort.
• Africa’s most valuable startup is getting ready for an IPO.