Flagship

Lula’s climate promise

Brazil president-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva declared — via Twitter — that he will “fight for zero deforestation” in the Amazon while in office. During Lula’s first presidency, from 2003 to 2011, rates of deforestation dropped by more than 80%. But they shot back up after current president Jair Bolsonaro revoked environmental protection laws. Two days after Lula’s victory, Bolsonaro still had not conceded. He is expected to deliver a speech today, and while his advisers are reportedly advising him to congratulate Lula, it is not clear what he will say.

Restoring Ukraine

Water and power was mostly restored in Kyiv after a Russian missile barrage struck several Ukrainian regions. On Monday the capital’s residents were forced to queue for water, hospitals had to use dirty tools, and diesel locomotives were brought back into service. The assault was the latest in a string of morning strikes by Russian forces against Ukraine, partly in response to an apparent Ukrainian attack on Moscow’s naval vessels. “We’ll tough it out, but their disgrace will cost dearly to generations of Russians,” an official in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office told Meduza.

Rise no more

The Federal Reserve begins a two-day meeting in which it is expected to raise rates by 0.75%, but that might be the beginning of the end for the recent round of sharp interest rate increases around the world. Fears of recession may be eclipsing fears of inflation. Last week, the Bank of Canada raised rates by less than expected, and Bloomberg reported that three members of the European Central Bank’s rate-setting committee were against raising rates by the 0.75% the ECB ultimately opted for. The Bank of England, too, may soon curtail its monetary tightening, with one economist telling the Financial Times he expects the bank to “signal smaller hikes at future meetings.”

Xi’s booked up

Xi Jinping’s diplomatic calendar is filling up, a marked change from his hermit-like status since the pandemic began. The Chinese leader met the head of Vietnam’s Communist Party yesterday. This week, he will see Pakistan’s prime minister, Tanzania’s president, and Germany’s chancellor, all in Beijing. Xi is also due to travel to Indonesia and Thailand for separate summits, and to Saudi Arabia for a bilateral visit. Before visiting Central Asia over the summer, Xi had not left China for more than two years. China analysts say that was partly because he was busy trying to secure his third term as the country’s leader, and partly due to stringent zero-COVID restrictions. Efforts for the former were successful, the latter remain in place.

Trapped in the Magic Kingdom

Shanghai locked the gates to the city’s Disney Resort over COVID-19, trapping guests inside. People could only leave if they tested negative. Social media videos showed visitors rushing to the exits to find them already locked. China’s zero-COVID policies have led to other unplanned imprisonments — a crowd forced an escape after being corralled in a Shanghai branch of IKEA in August, and this weekend, workers jumped the fence to escape an iPhone assembly plant in Zhengzhou. The draconian approach to COVID-19 appears increasingly unpopular, leading to rare protests. “We haven’t had any income for three months — but expenses have not been reduced even by a penny,” the BBC quotes one social media post as saying. In a thin silver lining for Disney’s “guests,” some of the Shanghai resort’s rides will continue to operate during their extended stay.

Recriminations over a bridge disaster

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit the site of a bridge collapse that has left at least 140 people dead. A search operation was still ongoing for victims of the disaster. The suspension bridge, a local tourist attraction, had only just reopened after months of renovation. Officials said the tragedy was triggered by overcrowding, but opposition parties have blamed corruption, and have criticized local authorities for only sprucing up the hospital where many casualties were being treated ahead of Modi’s visit. So far nine people have been arrested, all of them linked to the private company responsible for the bridge’s maintenance. But calls are growing for politicians and officials to face action too. “The state and its ministers and officers had a duty and obligation” to prevent the disaster, a Supreme Court lawyer wrote in the Indian Express. “They must take responsibility for their failures.”

The coming copper shortage

Progress on climate change could be slowed by a shortage of copper. Renewable energy plants and electric vehicles require far more copper than their fossil fuel-based counterparts. As both these markets grow exponentially, exponentially more copper is needed. The world currently produces about 25 million tons of copper per year, but will need at least six million more by the end of the decade, one mining-group chief told the Financial Times. “There is going to be a very significant shortage,” another told the paper. The new green economy will still rely heavily on extractive industries: the FT also reports that Tesla is discussing buying a major stake in the mining company Glencore, to gain more control over its own supply chains.

In defense of art

A museum in Perth is checking visitors’ bags after a string of global attacks on famous artworks. Though it hasn’t been targeted, the Art Gallery of Western Australia told Flagship that liquids will no longer be allowed inside its galleries as a preventative measure. Last month Just Stop Oil protesters in London threw soup at Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” while other climate activists in the German town of Potsdam hurled mashed potato on Monet’s “Les Meules.” At the Hague, two protesters glued themselves to Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring.” Curators have warned that the art world’s trust in the public will be damaged: “All museums have to think about extended security measures — measures that were previously very unusual,” one told AFP.

Publish and be damned

A planned merger of two major book publishers was blocked by a U.S. judge. Penguin Random House, the world’s biggest, was hoping to merge with Simon & Schuster in a $2.2 billion deal, with the resulting company controlling 49% of all U.S. book sales. The judge ruled that the merger would have “substantially” harmed competition as the two publishers usually bid against each other for the rights to new books. Stephen King, the horror author, told the court: “You might as well say you’re going to have a husband and wife bidding against each other for the same house.” There is already significant agglomeration in the publishing industry — the “big five” publishers account for 90% of the U.S. market — and readers may not always realize the ultimate publisher of the book they’re reading. My own books, for instance, are published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, an imprint of Hachette, which is itself an imprint of Orion, unless it’s the other way around.

The play’s the thing

Microsoft has vowed to keep making the phenomenally popular Call of Duty game for rival platforms if its takeover of the game’s publisher is approved. The $68 billion deal for Activision Blizzard is being scrutinized by the U.K.’s monopolies watchdog because Microsoft also builds the Xbox console, a rival to Sony’s Playstation. The Xbox charges users a monthly fee for access to products, and regulators worry Microsoft could make the game an Xbox exclusive to drive new subscriptions. Like music and movies, games are increasingly something you rent, and even when you “buy” a game, many require manufacturer support or a subscription to play online. Ownership isn’t what it used to be.

• Denmark and Israel both hold elections today. For the former, the hit Danish TV show Borgen — which returned for a fourth season this summer — offers a primer.
• The sentencing hearing begins for the shooter behind the February 2018 mass shooting at a Parkland, Florida, high school.
• My favorite football club, Liverpool, hosts Napoli in a Champions League group stage match. (Other matches are also taking place.)

China’s stained-glass window

Manoj Kewalramani is a China studies fellow at the Takshashila Institution in Bangalore. He writes the Tracking People’s Daily and Eye on China newsletters.

It has never been harder to get into China, report on China, talk freely within China. Thanks to the pandemic and tougher entry rules these last few years I’ve had to do my job studying China from India. Yet it has also never been more important to understand China.

I spend my mornings reading the front page of People’s Daily. The Communist Party has long sought to control the narrative about China, constraining dissent while pumping out propaganda. While Chinese leader Xi Jinping has centralized power, communicating to the Party’s 95 million members requires a certain degree of transparency. That’s what I mine — a web of open-source materials including official data, legislation, and media commentary.

Consuming these jargon-filled texts, an acquaintance recently told me, can be like munching on sawdust. Everything in them, of course, is meant to provide a favorable view of the CCP.

Still, they offer a window into the dynamics of power, and the functioning of the system, and by following People’s Daily closely, I see small changes — in language, the prioritization of issues, the growing or diminishing prominence of competing officials — that often herald bigger shifts. China isn’t a black box, it’s a stained-glass window: The Party’s efforts to paint a particular picture requires it to allow some light through.

Nice to meet you, Tanaka-san

A group of 178 people all called Hirokazu Tanaka have set a new world record for the largest gathering of people with the same first and last name, outnumbering the 164 Martha Stewarts who met in New York in 2005. The new record-holders — including a three-year-old, an 80-year-old, and a Hirokazu Tanaka who flew in from Vietnam — met up in Tokyo on Saturday. It was third time lucky for the namesakes. Two earlier attempts failed: At the last one in 2017, only 87 Hirokazu Tanakas showed up.