World in Brief - The Economist Roundup

 

World in Brief

The Economist Roundup

One small step for Japan

SLIM, an unmanned spacecraft built by JAXA, Japan’s space agency, is due to attempt a “soft landing” on the Moon on Friday. If the mission succeeds, Japan will become the fifth country to make a lunar landing without crippling its equipment, following India’s Chandrayaan-3 in August.

SLIM’s main goal is to test a new landing technology that could transform space exploration. Whereas conventional landers touch down on the Moon within a range of tens of kilometres, SLIM boasts an accuracy of 100 metres. Such precision is helpful as countries seek to study the Moon’s resources, including ice around the south pole.

If all goes according to plan, two small robots, one designed by a toy company, will hop out of JAXA’s spacecraft. They will examine Shioli, a crater on the Moon’s near side, because rocks in that area are believed to contain minerals from the lunar mantle. Studying those rocks could unlock the secrets to the Moon’s origins.

Growing violence in Brazil

Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (known as Lula), is to appoint a new justice and public-security minister on Friday. The choice of Ricardo Lewandowski, a former justice of the Supreme Court, shows that Lula is cosying up to the judiciary. It has decided the fate of several politicians in recent times—and ruled on topics being discussed in Congress.

Mr Lewandowski’s biggest job is to deal with a wave of violence sweeping the country. In September 68 people died because of gang conflicts in Bahia, a state governed by Lula’s Workers’ Party. In October a militia set 35 buses on fire in Rio de Janeiro after the police killed one of their leaders. The followers of Lula’s far-right predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, also pose a threat; thousands invaded government buildings last January. A recent poll found that 47% of Brazilians disapprove of the government’s domestic-security policy. Mr Lewandowski says he will prioritise “the big challenge” of maintaining order.

Arab and Israel musicians reckon with war

On Friday Daniel Barenboim, an Israeli-Argentine conductor and pianist, is due to lead a performance of students from the Barenboim-Said Academy, a conservatoire he opened in Berlin in 2016. Such occasions have political poignancy. The academy’s students largely come from the Middle East, and include Israelis and Palestinians. Its mission is to foster not only musical ability, but also understanding across the region’s cultural and political divides.

The idea stemmed from the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, a now world-famous ensemble that Mr Barenboim founded in 1999 with Edward Said, an American-Palestinian academic. It also encourages dialogue and co-operation between Arab and Israeli musicians. War in Gaza has affected both projects deeply. Yet the determination to play on is telling. Classical music cannot play a meaningful role in diplomacy. Still, the initiatives provide alternative models of engagement. If you change how people meet, they may treat each other differently.

Boom and gloom for Amerca’s economy

Judging from an array of hard data, there is reason to think that Americans ought to be quite satisfied with the state of their economy. Inflation has slowed sharply, jobs are plentiful and the stockmarket is strong. But polls suggest that most Americans think the economy is in bad shape, a tide of pessimism which may hurt President Joe Biden’s re-election bid.

The January instalment of a consumer sentiment survey by the University of Michigan, a closely-watched barometer of views about the economy, is due on Friday. It will be studied for clues about whether the gloom is starting to dissipate. The sentiment index jumped in December, though it remained low by historical standards. Some analysts believe there is a long lag between changes in the inflation rate and those in public opinion. If so, this is about the time that Americans may start to feel more cheerful.

 

 

The Houthis will offer Russian and Chinese ships safe passage through the Red Sea, said an official from the Iran-backed militant group. The Yemeni rebels will continue to attack ships “in any way connected with Israel”. Houthi attacks have heavily disrupted commercial shipping. On Friday the group claimed another assault on an American ship. America carried out new strikes against Houthi anti-ship missiles on Thursday.

 

Binyamin Netanyahu told America that he opposes a Palestinian state after the Gaza war. “Israel needs security control over all territory west of the Jordan,” he said at a press conference. Later a spokesperson for America’s State Department said there would be “no way” to solve Israel’s long-term security problems “without the establishment of a Palestinian state”.

 

Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, Pakistan’s caretaker prime minister, will hold an emergency meeting with military chiefs after an exchange of fire with Iran. On Thursday Pakistan said it had conducted “precision military strikes” inside Iran, two days after Iran launched similar attacks against militants operating in Pakistan. America called for de-escalation; China offered to mediate between the two countries.

 

Stocks in semiconductor companies such as AMD and Nvidia hit all-time highs following the release of TSMC’s earnings on Thursday. The Taiwanese company said there was strong demand for AI chips, which it manufactures for AMD and Nvidia. The chip-maker’s outlook also lifted hopes for a bounce-back in smartphone and computing demand, after sluggish sales in recent years.

 

Retail sales in Britain fell by 3.2% in December, the largest monthly decrease since January 2021, increasing the likelihood that the country entered a recession last year. The Office for National Statistics said that the fall was partially driven by people doing their Christmas shopping early. But economists also blamed high prices and borrowing costs for dampening consumer confidence.

 

Japan’s headline inflation rate cooled to 2.6% in December, down from 2.8% in November and its lowest level since June 2022. But it is still above the Bank of Japan’s 2% target, where it has remained for 20 straight months. Asian markets rose after the news. Officials from the BoJ meet on January 22nd, when they will decide whether to continue their ultra-loose monetary policy.

 

Italy’s top court ruled that the fascist salute only constitutes a crime if it threatens public order or could lead to the revival of the Fascist Party, which was banned after the second world war. The ruling granted a second appeal to eight neo-fascists, who did the salute in 2016. The spokesperson for CasaPound, a neo-fascist party that uses the salute, called it a “historic victory”.