Flagship

Trump charged in documents inquiry

U.S. prosecutors indicted Donald Trump over his handling of classified documents, the first time a former president has faced federal charges. It creates an extraordinary situation for the country as President Joe Biden’s administration seeks the conviction of his likeliest rival for the White House next year. The charges — which are not yet public — reportedly include unlawfully retaining national defense secrets, making false statements, and obstructing justice. Trump protested his innocence and said he would surrender to the authorities on Tuesday. The inquiry is one of a number of legal hurdles faced by Trump.

Republicans largely reacted to the news in two distinct ways, Semafor’s Shelby Talcott reported. Some rushed to defend Trump, while others — including his main challenger for the Republican nomination, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis — were more cautious. Former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, an outsider for the nomination, was a rare Republican voice calling for Trump to “end his campaign.” A senior Congressional Republican, Elise Stefanik, issued a defense of Trump in a fundraising email in which the vast majority of donations were directed to Stefanik.

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Kyiv’s counterattack begins in earnest

The Ukrainian counteroffensive appears to be well under way. Kyiv’s forces attacked Russian lines at several points in the southeastern Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions, apparently using recently acquired Western equipment, such as German Leopard tanks and U.S.-made Bradley Fighting Vehicles. The Russian government and milbloggers said attacks had been repelled and many casualties inflicted, but those claims could not be confirmed. A defense researcher told The New York Times that “Ukrainian forces have made some tactical gains and sustained losses.” British intelligence said the picture was “highly complex” but that “in most areas Ukraine holds the initiative.”

World enters El Niño phase

The world is entering an “El Niño” warming phase, in which warm water rises to the surface of the Pacific Ocean and raises global air temperatures. Over a multi-year period, currents push warm water up and down, heating and cooling the atmosphere. The 1997-98 El Niño period created the hottest years then on record and built a myth of a “warming pause” because it took until 2014 to reach that peak again. Next year is expected to set another record. This natural variation overlies a warming trend caused by climate change: Scientists said recently that the world had used half its remaining “carbon budget,” the amount of CO2 we can release without breaching the 1.5 C Paris target, in the last three years.

GM EVs to use Tesla chargers

Owners of General Motors-built electric vehicles will soon be able to access Tesla’s network of superfast EV chargers. Ford recently announced a similar plan. GM said the move could bring about “a single North American charging standard,” making it simpler for drivers to find a charger. BloombergNEF’s latest market analysis showed that EV sales are up everywhere: a 60% increase in sales worldwide, including a 200% jump in much of Asia. That’s while car sales in general remained flat. On current trends, the analysis suggested, three-quarters of all cars driven around the world will be electric by 2050, and the energy powering them will be 80% zero-carbon.

US rejects China-Cuba deal reports

The White House disputed reports that China and Cuba agreed to build a spy station on the Caribbean island. The Wall Street Journal reported that Beijing would pay Havana several billion dollars for the facility, a listening post targeting the southeastern U.S., where many American military bases are located. CNN said Washington learned of the deal weeks ago. But the White House said the reports were “not accurate,” while Cuba’s deputy foreign minister dismissed them as “mendacious and unfounded.” Beijing declined to comment. The reports come with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken apparently planning to visit China this month, after a previous trip was derailed by a different Chinese spying controversy.

China cracks down on AirDrop

China is cracking down on mobile file-sharing services used by protesters in recent years. Apple’s AirDrop in particular was widely used during anti-lockdown demonstrations in parts of China last year, as well as earlier pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. Apple reduced the amount of time Chinese iPhones could be visible for file-sharing after the mainland protests erupted. Now, draft regulations released by China’s online watchdog require such services to undergo a state security assessment before they are released. “Chances seem slim that Chinese thinking of organizing other protests will be able to escape the observation of authorities unless they can more seriously challenge the CCP’s technical dominance,” a December assessment of Beijing’s surveillance capabilities noted.

Turkey pivots to mainstream economics

Reelected Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appointed respected technocrats to top posts. Hafize Gaye Erkan, a former Goldman Sachs executive, will take the reins of the central bank, while the new finance minister has pledged a “credible program” for the country’s flailing economy. The announcements suggest Ankara is pivoting to more conventional economic policy after years where Erdogan promoted lower interest rates to curb inflation, a plan experts dismissed as illogical. Time is running out to avert disaster: The country is “on the precipice of a financial crisis, with no real choice but to turn toward orthodoxy and hope for the best,” a Council on Foreign Relations trade expert warned.

US suspends food aid to Ethiopia

The United States suspended food aid deliveries to Ethiopia, citing a “widespread and coordinated campaign” diverting the assistance from those who needed it. Though the U.S. — by far the largest aid donor to the country — did not say who was behind the diversions, Reuters reported that foreign donors believed food was being sent to military units instead of the vulnerable. Ethiopia’s armed forces did not comment. The U.N. World Food Programme is also investigating “systemic” food diversions across Ethiopia. The country is still recovering after two years of conflict between the government and rebels in the northern Tigray region left tens of thousands dead and millions on the brink of famine.

Fears of moral decline unfounded

People around the world think morality is on the decline, but they are probably wrong, a new study argues. The research published in Nature said citizens in 60 countries believe people have become less kind and honest over recent decades. But it also looked at decades’ worth of surveys asking people about their experiences, and found that, depending on the measure, moral behavior had either remained stable or increased since 1949. People only perceive decline in wider society, not among their immediate circle, implying that the perception could come from the media disproportionately focusing on negative news. People also tend to remember positive things from the past and forget the negative.

Bryan Cranston to retire

Bryan Cranston, the Breaking Bad star, will retire from acting in 2026 to spend more time with his wife. Cranston met Robin Dearden on the set of Airwolf, the fondly remembered 1980s Knight Rider-in-a-helicopter show, before he became famous with Malcolm in the Middle and Breaking Bad. “For the last 24 years, Robin has led her life holding onto my tail,” he said, living the life of a “plus one … the wife of a celebrity.” The couple, who have a grown-up daughter, will probably move to France, “have the fire in the fireplace and drink wine with new friends.”

• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman visits South Korea as part of a global tour to discuss artificial intelligence.
• Senegal’s opposition parties begin a two-day protest to support jailed opposition leader Ousmane Sonko and demand the release of alleged political prisoners.
• The Shanghai International Film Festival begins.

The Air Quality Index in New York City, as tracked by the Swiss company IQAir. The haze that blanketed the city and much of northeast North America in recent days — driven by ongoing wildfires in Canada — is slowly lifting, but the AQI reached 405 out of a possible 500 on Wednesday, by far the worst of any major city in the world at the time.

A German-language World War II movie is Netflix’s most popular non-English film this week. More “pulpy” and “revisionist western” than a typical war-era film, Blood & Gold is “enjoyably twisty,” according to a review in the Los Angeles Times. Director Peter Thorwarth’s film is about a German deserter who is rescued from a lynch mob by a woman in the final days of the conflict, and follows their battle with a group of Nazis hunting for hidden Jewish gold. “Thorwarth’s direction is dynamic without going too far over the top,” Noel Murray writes.

• The DeSantis campaign shared realistic AI-generated images of Trump with no disclaimer. It may be a landmark moment in digitally altered misinformation, Benjy Sarlin and Shelby Talcott explained.
• Conservative groups pushed Uganda to toughen its anti-gay laws, Julius Karugaba reported. Now, they worry new legislation is too harsh and could backfire on their cause.
• Wall Street’s hottest firm has erupted into civil war, Liz Hoffman scooped.