April 30 update

Columbia University began suspending pro-Palestinian student protesters who had ignored an order from administrators to clear out their encampment, which contains around 80 tents. Earlier Minouche Shafik, the university’s embattled president, said Columbia would not divest from Israeli equities, one of the protesters’ key demands. She promised to invest in Gaza’s health care and education instead. On April 18th, at Columbia’s request, police arrested over 100 students for trespassing, prompting similar encampments at universities across the country.

Antony Blinken, America’s secretary of state, urged Hamas to accept a ceasefire proposal put forward by Israel, calling it “extraordinarily generous”. David Cameron, Britain’s foreign secretary, said that a 40-day truce was on the table. According to Reuters, the deal would involve the release of up to 40 Israeli hostages, in exchange for freeing Palestinians jailed in Israel.

A consortium that includes Skydance, a production company, stepped up its pursuit of Paramount Global by offering a $3bn investment in the Hollywood film studio. Skydance’s frustrated attempts to buy the firm have vexed investors and prompted the resignation of Bob Bakish, Paramount’s boss, on Monday. Paramount’s market value has fallen by half in the past two years, to under $9bn.

The semiconductor division at Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest memory-chip maker, returned to profitability for the first time since 2022. Memory-chip sales almost doubled to 17.5trn won ($12.7bn) in the first quarter of 2024 compared with a year earlier. The rise was driven by the boom in artificial intelligence. The firm’s share price rose by as much as 2.4% on Tuesday morning.

Activity in China’s factories grew for a second consecutive month in April, raising hopes of a sustained recovery. The official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index came in at 50.4 for the month (anything over 50 represents expansion), although this was lower than the 50.8 registered in March. The recovery is being driven in part by increased Western demand for Chinese exports.

Energy ministers representing countries in the G7, a club of rich democracies, reportedly reached a deal to phase out all coal-fired power plants by 2035. Ministers are meeting in Italy to discuss climate goals; they have been greeted by protests. Coal production must fall by more than two-thirds over the course of this decade to stay in line with global targets.

Paris’s public prosecutor said that Gérard Depardieu, a French actor, would be tried later this year for alleged sexual assaults of two women. Prosecutors say the incidents took place during the filming of “Les Volets Verts”, in September 2021. In addition to the charged offences, Mr Depardieu is under investigation for alleged rape, committed against the actress Charlotte Arnould. Mr Depardieu has previously denied wrongdoing.

Figure of the day: 650,000, the number of Ukrainian men of fighting age who have left the country. Read the full story.

In the run-up to America’s presidential election, we’ve launched The US in brief—a daily update to help you keep on top of the political stories that matter. Sign up here to receive it as a newsletter, each weekday, in your inbox.

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photo: reuters

Former boss of Binance faces prison

Changpeng Zhao, the co-founder and former chief executive of Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange, will be sentenced in federal court in Seattle on Tuesday. He has pleaded guilty to violating America’s Bank Secrecy Act by failing to follow its anti-money-laundering strictures. Binance was ordered to pay fines worth $4.3bn for the admission in November, after which Richard Teng, a senior executive with a background in regulation, took over as the firm’s boss.

American prosecutors want Mr Zhao to be sentenced to three years in prison, twice the amount recommended under official guidelines. They hope that will deter potential lawbreakers. In a letter to the presiding judge, Mr Zhao apologised for not establishing the necessary compliance controls.

Binance’s troubles are just one segment in a series of challenges and scandals for crypto exchanges. Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and chief executive of the now-defunct FTX exchange, was sentenced to 25 years in prison last month on several fraud-related charges.

photo: alamy

Another Gaza case at the ICJ

The International Court of Justice in the Hague usually attracts little attention, issuing judgments on such questions as who has ownership of rocks visible only at low tide. But many people will be watching its provisional ruling on Tuesday on a Gaza genocide case. Nicaragua brought the case against Germany over its arms sales to Israel. The ruling could have repercussions for other countries’ support for Israel.

On the face of it, Nicaragua’s argument looks weak: it wants the ICJ to find immediately that Germany is facilitating genocide by Israel, even though the court will not rule for several years on whether genocide is taking place. (That is the question in a separate case brought by South Africa.) Yet several of the ICJ’s judges have become increasingly outspoken about South Africa’s case, arguing that the court should order Israel to halt its military campaign. Those judges may look favourably on Nicaragua’s argument.

photo: getty images

All eyes on Amazon

Amazon reports its quarterly earnings on Tuesday. The firm has had a strong start to the year. Its share price has increased by 18%—compared with an average rise of 7% for firms in the S&P 500—partly because it published robust results in February.

Two factors will determine whether Amazon can continue its strong performance. One is Amazon Web Services, the e-commerce giant’s cloud-computing arm. It is the world’s biggest cloud service, accounting for over 30% of global spending. The cloud market is still growing swiftly. Yet both Microsoft and Alphabet (Google’s parent company) have big cloud services that are gaining market share. They reported strong results last week, buoyed by the surge in customers’ interest in artificial intelligence.

Meanwhile, Amazon’s retail arm is facing competition from Temu and Shein, two Chinese e-commerce upstarts, which have been splurging on advertising in an attempt to crack the American market. Investors will want to see how Amazon is handling its rivals.

photo: getty images

Spain’s banking derby

Forget the competition between Real Madrid and Barcelona, Spain’s most successful football teams. The country’s fiercest rivalry is really between Santander and BBVA, its two biggest banks.

Four years ago Santander had a market capitalisation of €56bn ($62bn), €28bn more than BBVA. But by the end of last year the gap between the two narrowed to just €12bn. During the first quarter of 2024 BBVA’s profits rose by 19%. Santander’s earnings, released on Tuesday, will probably be less impressive. That may encourage a further narrowing of the gap between the valuations of the two companies.

Differing fortunes in Latin America are one reason why the valuations are converging. Santander’s biggest market is Brazil, where a weak real and an increase in loan defaults have dragged down profits. BBVA, meanwhile, has concentrated on Mexico. Profits soared after it launched new digital services; BBVA Mexico is now the country’s biggest bank. To stay ahead in Spain’s banking derby, Santander will have to make better decisions abroad.

photo: toho co., ltd.

“Spirited Away” on stage

A stage adaptation of “Spirited Away”, Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar-winning animated film, will open at the London Coliseum theatre on Tuesday. The folkloric, coming-of-age cartoon has been reimagined by John Caird, a director, who is best known for his production of “Les Misérables”, and by Toby Olié, a puppeteer. They bring to life Mr Miyazaki’s fantastical world with lavish costumes and impressive sets: his dragons, gremlins and talking frogs are no less technicolour.

The show, which sold out a tour of Japan, will be performed in Japanese with English subtitles. It follows an adaptation of another of Mr Miyazaki’s films, “My Neighbour Totoro”, which premiered at the Barbican in London in 2022. Each has splendid scores and elaborate puppets, which deftly mimic the movement of cartoon characters. In both music and motion, however, “Spirited Away” is more ambitious. The cartoon—one of Japan’s highest-grossing films—changed animation forever. It may yet change stagecraft, too.