Update at 22:21 GMT, Jan 27, 2023

Germany’s defence minister, Boris Pistorius, said that the 14 Leopard tanks it has promised to Ukraine will arrive in “late March, early April”. America is also sending 31 Abrams tanks. President Joe Biden announced a $400m package that includes eight M88 recovery vehicles, which can tow the Abrams. Germany’s move—taken after much dithering—allows Poland and other countries to export their German-made Leopards. Ukraine is now hoping the West gives it fighter jets, but Olaf Scholz, Germany’s chancellor, insisted that there is no chance of that happening. Meanwhile, Russia launched a mass air raid on Ukraine during the morning rush hour.

America’s economy slowed slightly to an annual growth rate of 2.9% in the fourth quarter of 2022, down from 3.2% in the third quarter, according to early figures from the US Commerce Department. The world’s biggest economy beat market expectations despite rising interest rates eroding business activity—but a recession in the second half of the year still looks likely.

Sayfullo Saipov, an Islamist extremist who killed eight people driving a truck on a Manhattan bike path in 2017, was convicted of 28 federal charges. He could face the death penalty, a rare consideration in New York. America’s attorney-general issued a moratorium on federal executions, but allowed prosecutors to seek the death penalty in this case.

Russia outlawed one of the largest independent Russian-language news websites, Meduza, as part of the government’s media crackdown. Prosecutors said the site, which has been critical of the war in Ukraine, was “undesirable” and a threat to the country’s security. Meduza was established in Latvia in 2014; it was blocked by Russia in March but continued to post on Telegram, where it has more than 1.2m subscribers.

 

Israeli troops killed nine Palestinians and wounded multiple others during a military raid on Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian health officials. Israeli forces said they were targeting Islamic militants plotting “major” attacks. It is the deadliest such single incident in years. Over 170 Palestinians were killed in raids in 2022, as part of what Israel calls an anti-terrorism offensive.

France recalled its ambassador to Burkina Faso a day after agreeing to withdraw troops from the country. 400 French troops were fighting an ongoing Islamist insurgency, but Burkina Faso’s government says it wants to defend itself. France has also fallen out with other African allies—after more than nine years in 2022 its soldiers left neighbouring Mali without having completed their mission.

 

Opium production in Myanmar jumped to a nine-year high, reversing a downward trend, according to the UN. Production has roughly doubled from the previous year, when the military junta seized power, to nearly 795 tonnes in 2022. Opium poppy cultivation increased by a third, while the potential yield rose by 88%. Myanmar’s civil war and covid pandemic have put its frail economy in a tailspin.

Fact of the day: 775,014, the number of cars that emerged from British factories in 2022, the worst year since 1956. Read the full story.

---

Disney marks its centenary

PHOTO: AP

The happiest place on earth will be even jollier on Friday, as celebrations begin at Disneyland for the company’s 100th birthday. Disney’s first century has been a triumph: today the studio rules the worldwide box office, it has more streaming subscriptions than any of its competitors, and its theme parks are once again bustling now lockdowns have been lifted.

But its boardroom is less cheery. Fewer people watch films in the cinema and cable-TV, Disney’s main source of profit, is being replaced by streaming. Plus, despite all those subscribers to its streaming service, Disney is losing more than $1bn a quarter. In November the company fired its chief executive. His replacement, Bob Iger, now faces a challenge from Nelson Peltz, an activist investor who wants a board seat. Mr Iger, who previously ran Disney from 2005 to 2020, has been given two years to steady the ship and find a successor. Disney’s second century is starting with a bumpy ride.

A Modi documentary reverberates in India

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

In recent days India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and its leader Narendra Modi have provided a textbook example of the Streisand effect. That occurs when attempts to suppress something—in this case a controversial documentary—draw more attention to it. When “The Modi Question”, a BBC production, aired last week, the BJP immediately dismissed it as a “propaganda piece” for its account of the riots that killed more than 1,000 people, mainly Muslims, in Gujarat when Mr Modi was the state’s chief minister in 2002. The Hindu nationalist party then invoked an emergency law to ban the video on the internet.

Twitter and YouTube have complied by taking down videos, but clips continue to proliferate on social-media channels. Activists and students have planned more screenings, even though some have been arrested. Media watchdogs have condemned the BJP’s heavy-handed response, which raises more questions about the commitment to democracy of the party and its leader.

 

 

The race for the Republican Party executive

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

Some old-fashioned politicking is under way at the lavish waterfront Waldorf Astoria hotel in Dana Point, California. On Friday the Republican National Committee will choose its chair, who is responsible for fundraising and party messaging. For the first time since 2013, the race is contested. The incumbent of three two-year terms, Ronna McDaniel, is facing a stiff challenge from Harmeet Dhillon, a conservative lawyer.

Ms McDaniel will probably win. But the contest has emboldened her detractors. Mike Lindell, a conspiracy theory-oriented businessman who is also running, has counted the “failures” of her leadership: the 2018 midterm elections, when Republicans lost the House of Representatives; the 2020 presidential election; the 2022 midterms; and two run-off Senate races. Ms McDaniel’s ties to Donald Trump have alienated Never-Trumpers, while more insurgent types are calling for an organisational overhaul. But at a moment when the word “Republican” frequently precedes “division”, her message—of “unity and certainty”—may prove sufficient to get her over the line.

Fighting femicides in Spain

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

On Friday Spanish government officials will meet domestic-violence experts to discuss a worrying increase in femicides—murders of women because of their sex. There have been six in January, as well as the killing of an eight-year-old girl, following 11 in December. (Since records began in 2003, the annual average has been 59.) The government is reportedly considering allowing authorities to inform abused women if their partners have previous convictions for violent crimes.

The country has made strides to protect women since 2016, when a court ruled that a woman’s lack of physical resistance to the five men who raped her meant that the crime was not violent and therefore merely “sexual abuse” (the Supreme Court later found the men guilty of rape). In 2020 the country recorded proportionately fewer cases of femicide than several of its neighbours, including France and Germany. And unlike other countries, Spain counts any murder of a woman by a man, where gender is deemed to have played a role, as femicide.

 

The 1619 Project sparks more debate

PHOTO: HULU

The culture wars are coming to Hulu. In 2019, the New York Times magazine released a controversial set of essays that put slavery and the black American experience at the centre of the country’s founding and development. The 1619 Project divided opinion: it won a Pulitzer prize for commentary in 2020 while being denounced by some historians for factual inaccuracies. Several school districts, such as Chicago, embraced it as a curriculum for pupils; elsewhere whole states, such as Florida, have banned it, favouring more traditional views of American history.

Now the controversy will be streamed in a six-part series produced by Oprah Winfrey and Nikole Hannah-Jones, the project’s creator, among others. Each episode adapts an essay from the collection to show how slavery impacts the present day. So far reviews have been mixed. Some praise it as innovative; others say it falls short of some more original documentaries about the black experience.