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Blinken in China to talk Russia

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in China for a visit intended to tamp down tensions but which may ultimately highlight the two countries’ widening gulf. Blinken reportedly intends to warn China against further supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine — Washington accuses Beijing of ferrying commercial goods to Moscow that can be used for military purposes — but will be delivering that message with China’s own security chief in Russia for talks ahead of a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Beijing next month. Beijing certainly looks unlikely to compromise: “It seems like Blinken is here to issue an ultimatum to China,” a Beijing-based expert told the Communist Party mouthpiece Global Times. “We will not give in to him.”

US, China compete in Latin America

Punta Arenas, a port city in southern Chile, has gained interest from both the US and China, highlighting the two nations’ dueling interests in Latin America. The remote port, which sits on the Strait of Magellan between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, has become a hotspot for global shipping as traffic across the Panama Canal has plummeted amid a historic drought there. The fight for influence in Latin America comes as the US has awoken to what some see as a decades-long “incursion by its strategic rival into home turf,” the Financial Times wrote. “We’re in a part of the world that’s increasingly strategic, and it transcends the country,” the mayor of Punta Arenas told Americas Quarterly.

Mass graves found in Gaza

More than 300 bodies were found in mass graves outside two Gaza hospitals. A UN official said some were bound and stripped of clothing, and called for further investigation over potential violations of humanitarian law. Israel denied burying them, saying it had exhumed bodies in a search for hostages and returned them to their graves. But Sky News reported that satellite imagery and social media showed that Israeli forces bulldozed graves after they entered the hospitals. Meanwhile, the German government resumed aid to the UN’s Palestinian aid agency UNRWA, Welt reported: Several other countries have again begun funding UNRWA after suspensions of support over Israeli allegations that the agency’s members supported Hamas, but a recent report found no evidence for the claims.

India correspondent leaves over freedoms

The South Asia correspondent for Australia’s national broadcaster left India, blaming mounting restrictions on the press. Avani Dias’ departure, in the midst of a high-stakes election campaign, underlines growing concern for media freedom under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government. It comes two months after a French journalist who had covered India for more than two decades was told to leave the country, and with the BBC having been forced to carve out its India operation after facing pressure from the authorities over purported tax irregularities. The episodes involving foreign media pale in comparison to pressure on local journalists, who have been harassed, arrested, and even killed over their work, according to Reporters Without Borders.

Dozens of migrants die as boat capsizes

At least 33 Ethiopian migrants died after their boat capsized off the coast of Djibouti, with more than 20 still missing. Meanwhile the Tunisian coast guard recovered the bodies of 19 migrants who were trying to reach the Italian island of Lampedusa. The number of undocumented migrants arriving in the European Union rose 17% last year, driven largely by boat crossings of the Mediterranean. Figures are expected to increase as swaths of Africa become uninhabitable due to rising global temperatures and economic growth across the continent plateaus. Despite the risks of attempting the crossing, the “untenable situation in many of these people’s home countries” leaves many “with no other options,” the Norwegian Refugee Council said.

Ukraine targets Russian oil

Ukraine struck oil storage facilities in western Russia, the latest in a string of attacks that have degraded Moscow’s energy output. The assault, carried out by drones according to the governor of the region hit, came after the US Senate approved more than $60 billion in military support for Ukraine — aid that should soon begin flowing to Kyiv’s forces. The latest attacks confirm a Ukrainian strategy that has resulted in Russian oil exports dropping to their lowest level since December. While Russian budget revenues have surged thanks to higher oil and gas prices, analysts forecast long-term economic difficulties for Moscow as a result of the strikes and Western sanctions.

US to ban noncompetes

US regulators banned “noncompete” agreements in employment contracts that prevent workers from joining rival firms or launching competing businesses when they leave a job. The Federal Trade Commission voted 3-2 to approve the rule Tuesday, and it will come into effect in August. Supporters of the move said it was necessary to curb the increasingly common practice, with even lower-paid industries such as fast food imposing the agreements on staff, and the FTC said banning them could boost worker earnings by up to $488 billion in the next decade. The two Republicans on the committee voted against, saying the FTC did not have power to “nullify tens of millions of existing contracts,” while trade bodies said they would sue.

Culture clash at TSMC’s US plant

Workers at the Taiwanese chip giant TSMC’s new US factory in Arizona are experiencing culture shock. The Phoenix plant is behind schedule, with the start of operations put back from this year to next. Hundreds of Taiwanese workers have relocated, but the factory remains a construction site. US hires, meanwhile, found nearly all communication was in Mandarin and Taiwanese, and relied on Google Translate. They also struggled with TSMC’s work ethic: They were shamed for not completing tasks urgently enough or for not working long hours, and not trusted with important tasks. Taiwanese managers were instructed “not to yell at employees in public, or threaten to fire them,” but, one employee told Rest of World, “I think in the heat of the moment, they forgot.”

Fossils reveal turtle-hunting sharks

Six rare complete fossils of Cretaceous-period sharks shed new light on their lifestyle. Sharks’ skeletons are cartilage rather than bone, meaning they almost never fossilize: Only their teeth tend to survive. Teeth from Ptychodus sharks have long shown they crush hard-shelled prey, but little else was known about them. The fossils were of fast, open-water predators related to great whites, suggesting they hunted free-swimming armored animals such as ammonites and turtles. These fossils were under 10 feet long, but teeth reveal Ptychodus grew up to 32 feet long, twice the size of a great white. Ptychodus were top predators 100 million years ago: The discovery is “almost the last jigsaw piece in putting together Cretaceous ecosystems,” one researcher told New Scientist.

Scroll reveals Plato’s resting place

A burnt papyrus scroll found in Herculaneum, a city buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, is believed to have revealed the whereabouts of Plato’s grave. Artificial intelligence techniques led to a breakthrough allowing some of the thousands of scrolls found in a Roman aristocrat’s library to be read. One said that Plato was buried next to the shrine of the Muses in the garden of his academy in Athens — it had been known only that he was buried somewhere in the large grounds. The text also said that Plato, one of the greatest Greek philosophers, student of Socrates and teacher of Aristotle, was enslaved, likely by the Spartans, around 400 BC.

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• The European Parliament is set to adopt the first-ever European Union-wide law on combating violence against women.
• Qatar’s emir meets with Nepal’s prime minister.
• Deliver Me, a new Swedish crime drama series, drops on Netflix.

The share of the US’ GDP controlled by the 400 richest Americans, up from 2% in 1982. Income inequality has worsened too: The country’s Gini coefficient — an index of income inequality — has risen steadily over the past five decades, reaching levels not seen since the 1940s. The world, by contrast, has become marginally more equal over that time span, with inequality dropping from its peak in 2000. A recent International Monetary Fund report warned that slowing economic growth in developing countries could undo years of progress, though: “We have an obligation to correct what has been most seriously wrong over the last 100 years — the persistence of high economic inequality,” the head of the IMF said.

A painting of Mary Magdalene said to be by the Renaissance master Raphael went on display in the south of France. The work, thought to have been made in the workshop of Leonardo da Vinci in 1505, was authenticated by a UN expert last year. But some critics remain unconvinced by its origins and deem it a “replica,” Artnet reported. Nevertheless, the portrait is already drawing visitors to its new home in the 13th-century Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume basilica, where Mary Magdalene, a disciple of Jesus, is said to be buried.

• 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.