Land Grab.

The worst idea of the decade (so far).

---

1. Former President Donald Trump took another step forward on his seemingly unstoppable march to the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, defeating former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley in yesterday’s New Hampshire primary by a substantial margin. With 91% of the precincts reporting (at this writing), Mr. Trump had received 159,663 votes (55%) to Ms. Haley’s 125,797 votes (43%). The AP-Fox News-NORC election day voter poll found that Mr. Trump rode to victory on the strength of his support from the GOP base. (Source: nytimes.com, apnews.com)

---

2. Ms. Haley last night defied calls to drop out of the race for the Republican nomination, vowing to fight on after a second straight defeat at the hands of Mr. Trump. In rousing remarks, Haley painted a picture of a country and a world in disarray, casting herself as the choice for voters dissatisfied with both President Biden and Trump. She set up an epic showdown with Trump in South Carolina, where she is lagging far behind him in polls despite a home-state advantage. (Source: nytimes.com)

---

---

3. President Biden, absent from both the campaign trail and the election ballot in New Hampshire, nonetheless dominated the state’s Democratic primary Tuesday, fueled by a write-in campaign aimed at showing his strength despite the misgivings of many in his party. With about 89 percent of the Democratic ballots counted, write-in candidates had taken roughly 67 percent of the vote — and the overwhelming majority of those were expected to be for Biden. The Associated Press projected Biden as the winner shortly after polls closed. (Sources: washingtonpost.com, nytimes.com)

---

4. The Economist:

Although private equity has plenty of critics, the model of raising and investing funds—whether to buy firms or lend to them—seldom worries regulators. If things go wrong, losses are shouldered by a fund’s institutional investors and humiliated fund managers struggle to raise money again. There is little threat to financial stability.

The latest development in the industry is upending this dynamic. Private-markets giants are buying and partnering with insurers on an unprecedented scale. This is transforming their business models, as they expand their lending operations and sometimes their balance-sheets. America’s $1.1 trillion market for fixed annuities, a type of retirement-savings product offered by life insurers, has been the focus so far. But Morgan Stanley, a bank, reckons that asset managers could eventually pursue insurance assets worth $30 trillion worldwide. Regulators are nervous that this is making the insurance industry riskier. Is the expansion by private-markets giants a land-grab by fast-and-loose investors in a systemically important corner of finance? Or is it the intended consequence of a more tightly policed banking system?

News Items managing editor Mary Williams Walsh wrote a great piece (‘Risky Business’) about this back in May. It’s worth reading again. (Sources: economist.com, substack.news-items.com)

---

5. Chinese authorities are tightening limits on capital outflows by restricting access to funds that invest in offshore securities as the country battles a brutal market rout. About a third of Chinese funds that invest in foreign securities under a scheme that bypasses strict capital controls have announced in stock exchange notices they have suspended or capped sales to retail investors “to maintain stable operations and protect investors’ interests”. The Beijing-based manager of one fund that focuses on US stocks said they had received informal instructions from the Shanghai Stock Exchange to reduce sales of such products targeting overseas markets after demand went “through the roof”. (Source: ft.com)

---

6. Two months of missile, drone and hijacking attacks against civilian ships in the Red Sea have caused the biggest diversion of international trade in decades, pushing up costs for shippers as far away as Asia and North America. The disruption is spreading, fueling fears of broader economic fallout. More than 500 container ships that would have sailed through the Red Sea to and from the Suez Canal, carrying everything from clothing and toys to auto parts, are now adding two weeks to their routes to travel around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa, according to Flexport. That’s about a quarter of all the container-shipping capacity in the world, according to the digital logistics platform. The cost of shipping containers from China to the Mediterranean Sea has more than quadrupled since late November, according to Freightos, a cargo-booking company. (Source: bloomberg.com)

---

7. Iran is sending increasingly sophisticated weapons to its Houthi allies in Yemen, Western officials and advisers say, enhancing their ability to attack merchant vessels and disrupt international commerce despite weeks of U.S-led airstrikes. The Houthis, once derided as a ragtag militia operating in Yemen’s arid backcountry, have emerged as one of Iran’s most capable proxies, these officials and analysts say, due to the flow of weapons from Tehran—and their own homegrown ingenuity. (Source: wsj.com)

---

8. As the Biden administration approaches its third week of airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen, the Pentagon is trying to thread an impossibly tiny needle: making a dent in the Houthis’ ability to hit commercial and Navy vessels without dragging the United States into a prolonged war. It is a difficult task, made more so because the Houthis have perfected the tactics of irregular warfare, American military officials say. The group does not have many big weapons depots for American fighter jets to bomb — Houthi fighters are constantly on the move with missiles they launch from pickup trucks on remote beaches before hustling away. The first barrage of American-led airstrikes nearly two weeks ago hit nearly 30 locations in Yemen, destroying around 90 percent of the targets struck, Pentagon officials said. But even with that high success rate, the Houthis retained around 75 percent of their ability to fire missiles and drones at ships transiting the Red Sea. (Source: nytimes.com)

---

9. Officials of Palestinian militant group Hamas have told international mediators that they are open to discussing a deal to release some of the kidnapped Israelis they are holding hostage in exchange for a significant pause in fighting, Egyptian officials said Tuesday. The overture marks a significant shift by Hamas, which for weeks has insisted it would only negotiate on hostages as part of a comprehensive agreement that would lead to a permanent end to the war that has engulfed Gaza since Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7. (Source: wsj.com)

---

10. A far-reaching plan to channel Europe-Asia trade through the Middle East is at risk of stalling before it even gets started. The Israel-Hamas war has halted progress on what’s known as the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor — a project touted last year by Washington and key allies that envisages building new rail links across the Arabian peninsula. As Houthi attacks disrupt Red Sea shipping and turmoil spreads across the region, IMEC is effectively on ice. That’s a setback for US strategy, because the plan served multiple purposes – to counter China’s Belt and Road infrastructure program, build influence in the so-called “Global South,” and speed up the hoped-for rapprochement between Israel and Saudi Arabia. (Source: bloomberg.com)

---

11. Top U.S. diplomats, worried about Islamist insurgencies spreading through western Africa, are urging stable countries on the region’s coast to insulate themselves by improving government services and addressing divisive grievances before it is too late. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Ivory Coast this week, touting a $300 million American program to help shore up governments along Africa’s Atlantic Coast, including those in Benin, Ghana, Guinea and Togo. In Ivory Coast, the world’s largest cocoa producer and one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies, Blinken announced $45 million in funding that, among other initiatives, will help equip police in the country and its neighbors to serve as an early-warning system of militant infiltration and recruitment. Analysts fear the U.S. efforts may prove insufficient to stem the tide of angry insurgencies and a loss of Western influence in the region. Al Qaeda and Islamic State affiliates are responsible for about 41,000 deaths since 2017 in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, countries in the heart of the Sahel, the semidesert band just south of the Sahara. Now militants are probing traditionally more prosperous states along the Gulf of Guinea, including Benin, Togo and Ivory Coast. (Source: wsj.com)

---

12. In a year full of European, national, and regional elections, the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) expects migration to be a pivotal topic. ICMPD’s 2024 Migration Outlook report forecasts record displacement levels resulting from war and conflict, leading to a further securitization of migration and offshoring of asylum procedures, as well as a rise in secondary movements. Last year, global migration trends saw an alarming surge in displacement, reaching a record number of 114 million due to escalating armed conflicts and heightened geopolitical tension. Preliminary data saw a 21.2% increase in EU asylum applications, indicating one million claims at the end of the year – the highest number since 2016 – foreshadowing an equally challenging situation in 2024. (Source: icmpd.org)

---

---

13. Eurointelligence:

Despite their individual differences, western democracies are following on similar paths. The far-right is everywhere, because politics is mismanaging migration, the green transition, and the industrial consequences of globalization. Germany resisted a right-wing party for longer than others. Now it has a party that is far more extreme than similar ones in Italy or France. The AfD is unique in the German political landscape because it breaks through many taboos: it rejects migration; it rejects EU's net zero targets. And it wants to exit the EU. 

If you were to find a way to ban the AfD, the party would find a way to reinvent itself under a different name, and eventually coast to victory. Which is, of course, exactly where Trump is headed.

---

14. Eurointelligence:

One of the most fundamental aspects of Italy’s political economy is its high regional inequality. In many respects, the country’s north and south are like two different countries. This is a situation that usually leads to demands for more autonomy from the richer parts of the country in question. Italy is no different here. More powers for the rich north has long been a key tenet of Lega’s political program….

Regional inequality is one of the big political issues of our times. Whether it was post-industrial northern England voting for Brexit, or left-behind eastern Germany opting for the AfD, it is a serious problem that fuels political extremes. In some other countries, like Belgium, these more extreme parties come from the richer regions themselves. Granting more powers to the already better-off parts of the country will do little to solve this. Instead, it will embolden those who want to cut the poorer parts loose, whilst fueling grievances amongst the left-behind. (Source: eurointelligence.com)

---

15. Hundreds of thousands of workers in Argentina will hold a strike this week against libertarian President Javier Milei’s economic reforms, a union leader has said, accusing the government of “breaking the social contract” and reneging on deals with unions. “We did not choose this path, but unfortunately they gave us no alternative,” Gerardo Martínez, leader of Argentina’s Construction Workers Union and a prominent figure in the country’s powerful General Federation of Labour (CGT), said in an interview ahead of the planned protest on Wednesday. “There will be at least 200,000 marching [in Buenos Aires] and I believe the strike will be total.” (Source: ft.com)

---

16. Once tranquil Costa Rica is now wrestling with a surge in violence so striking that its government is borrowing a page from nearby El Salvador, which took draconian steps to tackle its own crime problems. In an effort to cut a homicide rate that has soared 40% in the last year alone, Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves has introduced tough new legislation to combat crime, dubbing El Salvador a "reference" point. Chaves' ideas include increasing jail sentences for minors to the adult maximum of 50 years, allowing extraditions, and extending use of preventive detention, making it easier to hold suspects with limited evidence. Costa Rica is one of a growing number of Latin American countries seeking to tackle the expansion of drug cartel activity by emulating Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele's sweeping crackdown. (Source: reuters.com)

---

17. Rocket Man: North Korea has demolished a major monument in its capital that symbolized the goal of reconciliation with South Korea on the orders of leader Kim Jong Un, who last week called South Korea a "primary foe" and said unification was no longer possible. Satellite imagery of Pyongyang on Tuesday showed that the monument, an arch symbolizing hopes for Korean reunification which was completed after a landmark inter-Korea summit in 2000, was no longer there, according to a report by NK News, an online outlet that monitors North Korea. (Source: reuters.com)

---

18. Artificial intelligence can halve the time it takes to develop new battery materials, helping accelerate innovation to combat climate change, battery industry executives believe. Mathias Miedreich, chief executive of Belgium’s Umicore, which is working with Microsoft, said that AI would have an “immense impact” on discovering and commercializing new battery materials. In an interview with the Financial Times, he said: “The ambition is, when you have a certain product that you want to develop, to cut the time to market by half . . . we are doing now the first concrete projects to see if this is feasible.” (Source: ft.com)

---

19. Researchers at Stanford have demonstrated that a new material may make phase-change memory – which relies on switching between high and low resistance states to create the ones and zeroes of computer data – an improved option for future AI and data-centric systems. Their scalable technology, as detailed recently in Nature Communications, is fast, low-power, stable, long-lasting, and can be fabricated at temperatures compatible with commercial manufacturing. “We are not just improving on a single metric, such as endurance or speed; we are improving several metrics simultaneously,” said Eric Pop, the Pease-Ye Professor of Electrical Engineering and professor, by courtesy, of materials science and engineering at Stanford. “This is the most realistic, industry-friendly thing we’ve built in this sphere. I’d like to think of it as a step towards a universal memory.” (Source: news.stanford.edu)

---

20. Toxic strands of RNA known to cause cells to self-destruct have been found in both Alzheimer's and aging brains, suggesting a new approach to treating neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia. In a study based on mice and human brains led by Northwestern University in the US, researchers identified short lengths of RNA (ribonucleic acid) associated with DNA damage and cell death in relation to the disease and associated factors. They also found protective short RNA strands in the brain diminish with age, which could allow Alzheimer's to progress, and that people over 80 years old with superior memory – known as 'superagers' – have higher levels of protective short RNAs. (Source: sciencealert.com)

---

21. After decades of frustration and failed attempts, scientists might finally be on the cusp of developing therapies to restore immune ‘tolerance’ in conditions such as diabetes, lupus and multiple sclerosis. Read the rest. (Source: nature.com)

---

---

Quick Links: Nose wheel falls off Boeing 757 airliner waiting for takeoff. News Items subsidiary, the Doomsday Clock, has been set at 90 seconds to midnight. The White House pharmacy could use better management. The Los Angeles Times is on its way to extinction. Video: Pet dog helps rescue owner who fell into frozen Michigan lake. The great Charles Osgood, an instantly recognizable voice on the radio and an old-school television anchorman, has died. He was 91 years old.

Political Links: It looks like Beijing might need a bigger bazooka. Turkish parliament votes in favor of Sweden’s accession to NATO. Anti-EU populists poised to dominate in European elections. Germany’s top court paves way for financing ban on extremist political parties. Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany party lost (not much) ground in two new opinion polls. French farmers up pressure on government as protests spread. 'Dior bag scandal' lands South Korea's ruling party (and its president) in disarray ahead of election. Some of the Edison Research “exit poll” data from yesterday’s New Hampshire primary is here, and worth reviewing. The dreaded “takeaways” from the New Hampshire primary results. Must read: Mary Williams Walsh on the woeful state of the New Hampshire Retirement System. George W. Bush mulls gallery opening. News Items founder mulls home improvement.

Science/Technology Links: A great story: Gene therapy allows an 11-year-old boy to hear for the first time. For some Alzheimer’s patients, vision problems may be an early warning. 'Strong and consistent evidence' links multivitamins to memory and cognitive benefits. How does chronic stress harm the gut? Your brain is hard-wired to avoid exercise. Scientists have a devised a new video system that reveals how animals see color, and us. Why AI being good at math matters. Electricity demand from data centers set to double by 2026. What’s next for robotaxis in 2024. New model predicts how shoe properties affect a runner’s performance. Scientists have unravelled the genetic secrets of coffee. Audio deepfakes emerge as weapon of choice in election disinformation. The worst idea of the decade (so far).

War: Chinese naval scientists claim to have created a smart shell for kinetic energy weapons that could reshape the military landscape. Earlier this month, Jordanian jets struck Iran-linked drug dealers inside Syria. David Ignatius: Israel and Hamas probe for a pause that both sides need. Israel’s treatment of Gaza detainees raises alarm.