Flagship

Pandas leave US zoo after 50 years

The Smithsonian National Zoo’s three pandas flew back to China. The Washington, D.C., zoo has held pandas continuously since 1973, the first in the U.S. to do so as part of Beijing’s famous “panda diplomacy” program: Mao Zedong’s government offered them to symbolize a thawing in the nations’ diplomatic ties. But that relationship is cooling again, and the pandas — which are loans, not gifts — have diminished in number. At one point there were 15 pandas in the U.S.: Now, there are just four, all in Zoo Atlanta, and their loan expires next year. Those looking to divine which countries are in China’s good books now may be interested to learn that Russia received a pair of pandas in 2019, and Qatar its first last year.

Gulf money changes world sport

Middle Eastern money is reshaping global sports, with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates all investing heavily in athletes, teams, and leagues. The oil-rich Gulf nations have investments in basketball, soccer, boxing, golf, tennis, and more: Qatar hosted last year’s men’s soccer World Cup, Saudi Arabia will likely host the 2034 tournament. It’s making some people uncomfortable, with the nations’ repressive regimes and connections to political violence, but the money has been hard to resist. And it’s just the start: Analysts expect Middle Eastern money to continue to flow into sports. “To use a sports analogy, we’re not even midway through the first quarter,” one consultant told The Washington Post: The “megatrend… will crescendo probably in two decades or so.”

World’s oldest pyramid in Java?

Gunung Padang, on the Indonesian island of Java, may be the oldest pyramid in the world, according to a paper published in Archeological Prospection. Although Gunung Padang was for centuries thought to be a naturally occurring hill, the paper’s authors argued that instead it is part of a megalithic stone complex which was begun about 25,000 years ago, almost 20,000 years before the Giza pyramids were erected. Although some archeologists remain skeptical, the scientists hope their techniques may spur further exploration. “Our quest for knowledge should lead to enlightenment and unity, not division.” one of them told Atlas Obscura.

India’s love affair with miso

Indian chefs have fallen in love with the umami-flavored Japanese paste miso. The condiment is turning up in ever more Indian kitchens: Chefs are “reimagining dishes, drinks and even desserts” with it, the South China Morning Post reported. Miso is made by growing a fungus in soybeans, before killing the fungus but leaving the enzymes it created behind: It has a rich, meaty taste which adds depth to food. The chef at New Delhi’s Claridges hotel makes “miso-infused chocolates and miso crème brûlée,” while one home cook told the SCMP: “My family loves my miso-infused baingan bharta (aubergine curry), which I make every weekend.” Miso, introduced to Japan from China 1,300 years ago, is popular in East Asia, but until recently was rarely part of the South Asian diet.

Streisand’s long career and even longer book

Barbra Streisand’s new memoir My Name is Barbra is candid, broad-ranging, full of interesting and important people, and far, far too long, according to Joanne Kaufman in The Wall Street Journal. The account of the singer and actress’s six-decade career reveals “a woman of many talents,” but brevity “isn’t one of them.” The book weighs in at 1,000 pages, more than Britney Spears’, Prince Harry’s, and Henry Winkler’s combined. She spends 30 pages getting annoyed at bad camera angles and cut dialogue in 1973’s The Way We Were: “Readers may be forgiven for wondering if somehow Ms. Streisand was confusing this mediocre romantic drama with Citizen Kane.” “There may be gold there,” sniffed Kaufman, “but readers will have to pan diligently.”

Each week, we’ll tell you what a great independent bookstore suggests you read.

Auckland’s Lamplight Books recommends Mother Tongue: Flavours of a Second Generation. Packed with “over 100 mouth-watering recipes, including a Stilton and Tamarind Toastie, Aloo Chaat Wedge Salad and a Miso-Masala Fried Chicken Sando,” Lamplight describes Gurdeep Loyal’s effort as “one of our cookbooks of the year.” Buy it from Lamplight or your local bookstore.

The cost of the Peninsula Hotel in London’s swanky Belgravia, equivalent to $1.34 billion. “E​​very detail, every aspect of the design shouts of luxury and wealth,” says London’s Evening Standard. Guests are ferried from the hotel to high-end shops in green-liveried Rolls Royces and Bentleys. The silver-plated coffee spoons cost $80 each, and every room is “an Aladdin’s Cave of gadgets and accessories.” A spinoff of the luxury Hong Kong hotel of the same name, the Peninsula London has been 30 years in the making: At $1,600 a night for an entry-level room, it’s one for the global elite, but “it is easy to see how that £1.1 billion got spent.”

Singles Day, a Chinese sales extravaganza that’s the world’s biggest shopping spree, could set a new sales record by the time it concludes tomorrow. Originally a counter to Valentine’s — singletons, rather than couples, were meant to treat themselves on the occasion — Singles Day sales soared to almost $160 billion last year, around four times as much as U.S. shoppers spent on Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined. Growth, however, has slowed, reflecting the general downturn of the Chinese economy. With the economy forecast to grow at 5% this year, the slowest rate since 1990 except for COVID-19 pandemic years, shoppers face a tall task outspending last year’s total.

Our weekend roundup of the best Semafor stories you might have missed.

Politics

A poll exclusively obtained by Semafor suggests Biden should take credit for accomplishments like expanding oil production.

Net Zero

This month’s COP28 summit will struggle to deliver major breakthroughs on the biggest climate policy challenges.

Tech

TikTok tells advertisers #Israel is trending, but not #Palestine.

Business

A proposed campaign funded by a group of billionaires would “define Hamas to the American people as a terrorist organization.”

Africa

A Turkish company whose floating power ships recently switched off the electricity to two of Africa’s poorest cities it is in talks with six more countries.