April 14 update

The FBI arrested Jack Teixeira, the alleged leader of a gun-loving online group that hosted leaked American intelligence files. America’s top prosecutor, Merrick Garland, said that Mr Teixeira, a 21-year-old man working for the intelligence wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, was accused of illegally sharing “classified national defence information” and that he will be arraigned on Friday. The classified materials include military assessments on the war in Ukraine and CIA reports on a range of global issues.

Lawmakers in Florida approved a ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. Florida now looks set to join a group of at least 12 American states that have enacted similar bans. Meanwhile the Department of Justice is seeking an intervention from the Supreme Court after a federal appeals court approved women’s access to mifepristone, a pill used for abortions, but reintroduced onerous restrictions.

A prisoner swap began in Yemen between pro-Saudi forces and Iran-backed Houthi rebels; more than 700 Houthis will be released in exchange for about 180 Saudi coalition troops. A Chinese-brokered rapprochement between Iran and Saudi Arabia has bolstered efforts by the kingdom to end its involvement in the nearly decade-long civil war. On Thursday Saudi and Houthi diplomats failed to agree a truce, but committed to further negotiations.

The International Energy Agency said Russian oil exports rose to 8.1m barrels per day in March, the highest level for nearly three years, despite Western sanctions on crude. However, while the country’s oil revenues recovered by $1bn last month to $12.7bn, they remain 43% lower compared to a year earlier. India overtook China as the largest importer of Russian oil in Asia.

North Korea claimed to have successfully tested a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time on Thursday. If true, this represents a significant advance—solid-fuel ICBMs take less time to prepare for launch and so are harder to detect than liquid-fueled missiles. Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s dictator, oversaw the test, saying it would “make the enemies suffer from extreme anxiety and horror”.

China said it was willing to co-operate with the G20 to negotiate a deal with poor countries struggling to repay their debts. Yi Gang, China’s central bank governor, suggested his country would drop its demand that multilateral lenders share losses with other creditors when restructuring debts. Western countries have blamed China’s position for holding up debt discussions and providing relief to countries like Zambia.

Boeing paused deliveries of some 737 MAX aeroplanes because of problems with fittings installed by a supplier. The Federal Aviation Administration, America’s regulator, said there was no immediate safety concern. Boeing has struggled with its supply chain as it tries to meet growing demand for planes amid a resurgence in global travel.

Fact of the day: $104bn, the total reconstruction cost from Turkey’s earthquake according to a report by the country’s strategy-and-budget office. Read the full story.

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PHOTO: REUTERS

Macron’s next headache

After stirring controversy abroad with his remarks about Taiwan, on Friday Emmanuel Macron faces a crucial decision at home. The French Constitutional Council will rule on whether the president’s pension reform passes muster. His legislation raises the country’s minimum retirement age from 62 to 64 years, and has provoked ongoing protests and strikes. Mr Macron pushed the measure through parliament in March without a direct vote, narrowly winning a subsequent vote of no-confidence in his government.

It is rare, but not unprecedented, for the council to overturn legislation that has passed through parliament. An outright rejection of the reform would provoke a political crisis. But if the council validates it, this too will be met with an outcry. The council will also rule on an opposition initiative to launch a petition for a referendum on limiting the pension age to 62. Mr Macron’s political troubles are not over yet.

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

A reckoning for America’s banking system

America’s big banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo, report first-quarter earnings on Friday. After the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and subsequent shocks, these results should reveal something of the lay of the land. There was widespread deposit flight from smaller banks to larger ones—just how much will now become apparent. Lower deposits should lead to rising funding costs for some smaller banks, which will squeeze their net interest margins (the difference between what they pay for funding and what they receive on loans). Whether that has imperilled any other banks will soon be clearer. And the extent to which certain banks have drawn on emergency lending facilities created by the Fed could also show up.

Some of those details, however, might only be revealed by the regional banks, which report next week. The smaller ones that have struggled, like First Republic, don’t report until the week after that. The worst of the storm appears to have passed. Now it is time for the fog to clear.

 

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

Two ill-timed Republican get-togethers

Republican presidential hopefuls are fine-tuning their Second Amendment talking points. Confirmed candidates such as Donald Trump and Nikki Haley—and unconfirmed ones, like Ron DeSantis and Mike Pence—are speaking on Friday at the National Rifle Association’s 152nd annual convention. As was the case in 2022, the meeting comes on the heels of two mass shootings; the cities in mourning this year are Louisville, Kentucky, and Nashville, Tennessee.

Nashville will also host a Republican meeting on Friday, as donors gather there for a long-planned retreat. They are sure to face uncomfortable questions about both the recent school shooting, in which a former student killed three children, as well as the subsequent vote by the state’s Republican-controlled legislature to expel two black Democratic lawmakers who agitated for gun control.

Some conservatives have expressed concern about the party’s image. Even before the latest tragedies, a majority of Americans said they favoured stricter gun laws. In the wake of these events Nancy Mace, a Republican congresswoman from South Carolina, said that members of her party “aren’t showing compassion”.

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

British doctors on strike

On Saturday morning nearly 50,000 junior doctors in England and Wales conclude a 96-hour strike for better pay. As many as 300,000 operations and procedures will have been cancelled as a result of the walk-out; disastrous given that hospital waiting lists already top 7m. Despite this, polling suggests that over half of Britons still support the strikers.

Doctors, many of whom are not actually so junior, are tired of working on understaffed wards. Adding insult to injury are the years of real-terms pay cuts: a union talking point is that one in ten of their number are paid little more than baristas at a popular chain of coffee shops. But the government will never agree to their demands for a 35% pay rise—which would make salaries equivalent to their level 15 years ago—and thus genuine negotiations have never begun. Meanwhile, a third of junior doctors, according to the British Medical Association, plan to leave to work abroad in the next 12 months.

PHOTO: UNIVERSAL PICTURES

The vampire strikes back

“Dracula” films are rising from the grave. Since “Dracula Untold” came out in 2014, the archetypal vampire from Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel has been seen only in the “Hotel Transylvania” cartoons. But now he is back in the flesh in “Renfield”, a gory action comedy. Nicolas Cage plays the Transylvanian blood-sucker; Nicholas Hoult plays the minion who realises that he has the boss from hell (in more ways than one).

In August a more serious chiller, “The Last Voyage of the Demeter”, will depict Dracula’s sea voyage from Carpathia to England. And Mr Hoult will appear again in Robert Eggers’ forthcoming remake of “Nosferatu”, the classic German adaptation of Stoker’s book.

Hollywood is counting on the Count because monster movies and slasher movies are currently making a killing, as this year’s “M3gan” and “Scream VI” demonstrated. Besides, now that studios are running out of comic-book superheroes to put in their blockbusters, they need new blood.