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UN suspends Rafah food delivery

The United Nations suspended the delivery of food in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, citing instability and a lack of supplies in the enclave. Several thousand Palestinians remain in Rafah, where Israel launched a military operation this month, saying it is the last bastion of Hamas. But fighting has slowed much-needed aid delivery to a trickle. Since May 10, only three dozen aid trucks have entered Gaza through a crossing from Israel, while food and medicine pile up on the other side of the border in Egypt. Officials also said more than 500 metric tons of aid delivered through a new US-built pier has not yet been distributed to Gazans, warning the project may fail without Israel ensuring the safety of aid workers.

China localizing chip supply chain

Chinese chipmakers are trying to radically localize their supply chains to counter US export restrictions. The effort goes beyond sourcing domestic chipmaking production tools, and extends to hundreds of chemicals and gasses that are just as important to chip development, Nikkei reported, “potentially pushing foreign suppliers out of the market” and making “national champions” of little-known material and chemical makers. It comes as US President Joe Biden hiked tariffs on Chinese chips, a largely symbolic move, as the US buys almost no chips from China, The Wall Street Journal’s Greg Ip wrote. The move nevertheless signals that “the decoupling of the Chinese and US economies is becoming irreversible.”

Eli Lilly gets Chinese approval

US pharma company Eli Lilly got approval to sell its diabetes drug tirzepatide in China, scoring a regulatory win in the world’s second-largest market. The company, which markets the drug as Mounjaro in the US, could end up being prescribed off-label for weight loss too, Bloomberg reported. The move heightens Eli Lilly’s competition with Danish giant Novo Nordisk, the maker of Ozempic, which got China’s approval in 2021. Sales of Ozempic in the greater Chinese market, which includes Hong Kong and Taiwan, doubled from 2022 to 2023, totalling $698 million last year.

Extreme turbulence on Singapore flight

A 73-year-old man died of a suspected heart attack and around 30 others were injured after extreme turbulence on a Singapore Airlines flight Tuesday. Turbulence costs US airlines up to $500 million a year in damages, delays, and injuries, CNN reported. More than 5,000 flights experience severe turbulence every year, and thanks to climate change, that number could increase significantly by 2050 to 2080, according to researchers. These cases involve “clear air turbulence” that doesn’t come with visual warnings like storms or clouds and is therefore harder for pilots to avoid. But that doesn’t mean planes will start falling from the sky, an atmospheric science professor said: “They can withstand the worst turbulence they can ever expect to encounter, even in the future.”

WEF founder stepping down

World Economic Forum founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab plans to step down from his role running the annual gathering of the world’s biggest power brokers in Davos, Semafor first reported Tuesday. Schwab — whose transition to serve as non-executive chairman is pending approval by the Swiss government — has become synonymous with the organization that he founded in 1971. Early iterations of the event drew far fewer attendees, but more than 50 heads of state, along with dozens of CEOs, descended on the Swiss mountain town for this year’s gathering. Succession at the WEF has been the subject of fevered speculation; Schwab, 86, has not named his successor, but mentioned WEF President Børge Brende, a former Norwegian conservative politician, in an email to staff.

Is the AI safety movement dead?

Lackluster turnout at a global summit on artificial intelligence safety in Seoul reflects waning interest in the subject, analysts said. The scaled-down gathering resulted in 16 tech companies making fresh safety commitments, but several countries and officials who took part in a similar summit in the UK last year were absent. The “AI safety movement,” which peaked when experts and researchers called for a six-month pause in AI development, is “dead,” a Bloomberg columnist argued, but the work of “actually making artificial intelligence safer” has just begun. The summit comes as governments pursue a patchwork of AI regulations: European ministers on Tuesday approved a landmark AI law, while US Senate leaders proposed a regulation roadmap last week.

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Decoding how AIs think

The artificial intelligence company Anthropic partially deciphered how its AI models think. Modern AIs are astonishingly complicated, and what’s going on inside is impossible to determine simply by looking at the numbers in its software. That makes it “hard to trust that these models are safe,” Anthropic wrote in a blog post. Its latest research found particular patterns of artificial neurons in its generative AI Claude represented consistent concepts, and by strengthening or weakening those patterns, it could change the AI’s behavior in predictable ways. The research found that Claude had patterns which seemed to represent potential avenues for misuse, such as power-seeking, secrecy, and certain biases, in theory allowing Anthropic to weaken those patterns and reduce the chance of bad behavior.

Cyberattacks disrupt US water supply

Cyberattacks against US water infrastructure are increasing, federal officials said. About 70% of utilities inspected over the past year had inadequate safeguards: Some still had default passwords or allowed access to former employees. Attacks from Iranian-, Russian-, and Chinese-linked groups have targeted and in some cases disrupted the water supply in Texas, Pennsylvania, and other states, and the attacks are growing both more severe and more frequent. A government agency warned that apart from interruptions to supply, the attacks could lead to dangerous alteration of chemical levels in drinking water, and ordered suppliers to take immediate action to protect themselves.

Chinese show stirs nationalism row

A popular singing reality show in China has angered nationalists after foreign contestants took the top two spots in an episode. Singer 2024’s entrants included a “legendary Chinese pop star,” but performances by an American and a Moroccan-Canadian pushed her down to third place, in what a state tabloid called a “wakeup call for China’s music industry,” China Digital Times reported. But posts on WeChat argued that it belied China’s “deep-seated inferiority complex.” Some drew a connection to a recent incident in which a woman berated customers at an Apple store in Shanghai, calling them “traitors who worship all things foreign.”

How cockroaches dominated the world

Scientists believe they have found the origin story of a cockroach species that has achieved global domination. The German cockroach, one of some 4,600 species of the insect and the kind that is found everywhere humans are, didn’t originate in Germany, but in South Asia, before it spread east thanks in part to the rise of European colonialism and the international trading companies, according to a new study. The pest’s success in going global stems from its extraordinary ability to adapt to humans, the researchers said. “We’re well aware of how humans affect the natural world, but we’re less aware of how organisms in nature might be adapting to us,” one evolutionary biologist said.

May 22:

• Kenya’s President William Ruto arrives in Washington as part of a four-day visit to the US.
• Amazon holds its annual shareholder meeting and Nvidia releases first-quarter earnings.
• Buying London, a reality show about high-end London real estate, drops on Netflix.

A garden inspired by the hit Netflix series Bridgerton is moving to the grounds of a Cambridge hospital, for staff, patients, and visitors to enjoy. The ornate garden, which features a moon gate, water elements, and a sunken seating area, is currently on display at London’s Chelsea Flower Show in London. A garden highlighting the joys of forest bathing and inspired by the ancient Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku took the top prize at the exhibition.

• A prison consultant helps an ex-Trump adviser navigate life behind bars.
• Kenya’s EV sector gets a threat from new taxes.
• Latin America’s steel tariffs won’t push China away.