Antony Blinken, America’s secretary of state, said his country was “very concerned” about China potentially supplying Russia with weapons in Ukraine. Mr Blinken said he had warned Wang Yi, his Chinese counterpart, that any such support would have “serious consequences”. The pair met at the Munich Security Conference, an annual diplomatic event. It was the first in-person meeting between senior officials from both countries since America shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon earlier this month. Earlier Mr Wang had described America’s response to the ballon as “hysterical and absurd”.
Turkey will wind down its rescue operations on Sunday, nearly a fortnight after a devastating earthquake struck the country’s south-eastern provinces and neighbouring Syria. The death toll has passed 46,000, though many people are still missing. Some 26m people need aid according to the World Health Organisation. Around 345,000 apartments have been destroyed in Turkey.
America held joint air drills with South Korea and Japan after North Korea unexpectedly fired a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan. North Korea billed the “surprise drill” as proof of the country’s “nuclear deterrent”. Its officials accused America and South Korea of “destroying the stability of the region”. South Korea said its exercises involving strategic bombers demonstrated America’s “ironclad commitment” to defend the Korean peninsula.
Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin’s puppet leader of the Chechen Republic, said he planned to set up his own private army. Mercenaries of the Wagner Group have boosted Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but have riled officials in Moscow with open criticism of their leaders. Mr Kadyrov praised Wagner’s “impressive results” on the battlefield and said he hoped to one day “seriously” compete with its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin.
At least five people were killed by Israeli rockets in central Damascus, Syria’s capital, according to the country’s officials. The strike is the first since a deadly earthquake in Syria’s north-west two weeks ago. It is common for Israel to fire missiles at targets linked to militants loyal to Iran and Hizbullah (an Iranian-backed political party and militia), but less so in residential areas. Israel did not comment.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico’s president, signed a decree to begin nationalising the country’s lithium reserves. Mr Obrador believes nationalisation will prevent exploitation by foreigners. Mexico has about 1.7m tonnes of the increasingly sought-after mineral that is used to make electric-vehicle batteries. About a dozen foreign companies have concessions to develop lithium deposits, but all such contracts will now be reviewed.
Yet another balloon was destroyed in America. A visitor at an art fair in Miami knocked a sculpture by Jeff Koons off a plinth, shattering it. The 16-inch-high porcelain balloon dog was worth around $42,000. Thankfully for admirers of Mr Koons, America’s most famous living artist has produced thousands of similar sculptures. One balloon fewer is unlikely to inflate prices.
Word of the week: Recusancy, the act of refusing to attend Church of England services after the English Reformation. Read the full story.
This weekend in balmy Key Biscayne, Florida, a fundraising frenzy is under way. The National Republican Congressional Committee, which funnels money to Republican candidates running for America’s House of Representatives, is hosting its winter retreat there. Deep-pocketed donors will enjoy golf, catamaran sailing and access to the Republican Party’s leaders.
Since leaving office Donald Trump has headlined several NRCC fundraisers. Yet his war chest for a 2024 presidential re-election bid, announced in November, remains small—a reflection of his waning popularity. He reported a meagre $9.5m haul in the first six weeks of his campaign. (By contrast, he raised $250m between November 2020, when he lost the election, and the Capitol insurrection on January 6th 2021.) Ron DeSantis, Florida’s governor and Mr Trump’s likely chief competitor, raised a staggering $200m in his gubernatorial race last year. He is the one set to get top billing at big fundraising events in Texas and California in the coming weeks. The money raised will go to county parties—but they will put him in front of major donors who might eventually bankroll him to the White House.
Messenger RNA vaccines, such as those for covid-19, have proved to be powerful tools in responding to new diseases. They are highly effective, quick to develop and adaptable. Because the technology uses just part of the genetic sequence of the pathogen, they do not require growing large quantities of it in the laboratory. But there is a catch: the vaccines are extremely sensitive to heat. Maintaining them at the necessary freezing temperatures is difficult, especially in poor and remote regions.
But efforts to improve their thermostability are well under way. One seemingly successful approach replaces the lipid nanoparticles that protect the mRNA with long chains of lab-made molecules, while another delivers a dry vaccine via patches armed with tiny needles. Both approaches remove the need for freezing, making stockpiling easier. These ideas are still in the early stages of development but could play an important role in preparing for future diseases.
The biggest winner at the 76th British Academy Film Awards on Sunday is likely to be “The Banshees of Inisherin”. Martin McDonagh’s grisly black comedy has ten nominations in nine categories; both Brendan Gleeson and Barry Keoghan are up for best supporting actor. Charlotte Wells’s wistful indie drama, “Aftersun”, is the clear frontrunner for outstanding British debut. Otherwise, there are no safe bets.
“All Quiet on the Western Front”, Netflix’s German anti-war epic, surprised pundits by getting the most nominations, 14 in total, but it probably will not win the most prizes. Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis”, Todd Field’s “Tár”, and a psychedelic, universe-hopping adventure, “Everything Everywhere All At Once”, are all strong contenders in multiple categories.
With so many results hard to predict, BAFTA-watchers will be on the edge of their seats. So will Oscars-watchers: success at Britain’s flagship film-awards ceremony helps a movie’s chances in America’s contest, too.
Daytona Beach, north-east of Orlando, Florida, has been synonymous with speed for more than a century. Automobile manufacturers and drivers decamped there from Europe in the 1920s and subsequently set 15 land-speed records. Since 1959 it has been home to the biggest stock-car race, the Daytona 500. This year’s edition takes place on Sunday.
Those emerging from several days of qualifying must complete 200 laps of the 2.5-mile-long oval course in the fastest possible time. The record has stood for a scarcely believable 43 years, when Buddy Baker clocked an average speed of 177.6mph across two hours and 48 minutes of racing, leading for 143 laps. The 100,000 fans thronging this year’s event will be hoping for a more exciting contest, such as that in 2016, when Danny Hamlin beat Martin Truex Jr by 0.011 seconds, the closest-ever finish. The presence of seven previous winners on the start line augurs another nail-biter.
“What do I offer you: coffee, tea, water?” asks Peter Obi, the minor-party candidate leading the polls to become Nigeria’s president. Such hospitality is de rigueur among African politicians. But usually the Big Man barks out an order; a flunky proffers the drinks. With Mr Obi, things are different. He fetches tea for your correspondent himself and asks, “Do you need honey?”
In the egotistical world of Nigerian politics, Mr Obi’s humility is refreshing. The army of young supporters hoping to see him elected on February 25th, dubbed “Obidients”, delight in the fact that he often flies economy class, carries his own suitcases and claims to own just two pairs of shoes. They view Mr Obi, aged 61, as a sprightly outsider shaking up Nigeria’s venal, sclerotic political class. By contrast, the two big parties’ candidates—Bola Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar—are in their 70s. America’s government has accused both of corruption (and both deny wrongdoing).
In fact, Mr Obi is no political neophyte, having served two terms as governor of his home state, Anambra, in the south-east. He then stood as Mr Abubakar’s vice-presidential candidate in 2019. Before entering politics he worked as a trader and banker, becoming wealthy—unlike lots of Nigerian politicians—before holding office. But he, too, has faced questions about his finances. He appeared in the Pandora Papers, a leak of the records of financial companies, for owning an undeclared offshore company. He insists there was no deliberate wrongdoing.
The pragmatic Mr Obi seems above all to be selling competence. In conversation he refers to the Human Development Index and the money supply. As governor he left a fiscal surplus to his successor—a rarity. His economic instincts appear to be liberal.
Rival campaigns scoff that Obidients are a paper army that is only influential on Twitter. Many pundits concur. At the previous presidential election the candidate from his Labour Party won just 5,074 votes out of nearly 29m cast.
Still, Mr Obi has energised young, urban voters across Nigeria’s main divisions of geography, ethnicity and religion. (The country is divided between a largely Christian south and Muslim north; Mr Obi is Christian.) By making this election about competence, character and perhaps even ideas, he promises to upset the old electoral calculus based on horse-trading. When asked what distinguishes him most from the other two major candidates Mr Obi replies: “Who can people trust?”
Our crossword has two sets of clues, one for seasoned cruciverbalists and the other for less experienced solvers. Both give the same answers, all of which feature in articles in this week’s edition of The Economist:
Email all four answers, along with your home city and country, by 9am GMT on Monday to [email protected] We will pick randomly from those with the right answers and crown three winners in next week’s edition.
Cryptic clues
1 down Fundamental principles of tuition cost ruined by extreme inflation (12)
1 across Mostly restrict little time limit (6)
2 across Some hair is healthy in people said to be lucky (5)
3 across Scot departing Northern Ireland with fizzy drink (6)
Factual clues
1 down Something unwritten in Israel and Britain (12)
1 across What some American cities are using in response to violence (6)
2 across Government ordering the closure of offices with links to Chinese police (5)
3 across Recently resigned leader (6)
Thank you to everyone who took part in this week’s quiz. The winners, chosen at random, were:
Wayne Smith, Goderich, Canada
Emily VM Seddon, Seattle, United States
Ann Maher, Sauvian, France
They all gave the correct answers of New York Jets, Daniel arap Moi, rocket, Columbus Circle and the Saturday night massacre. The theme is Elton John songs.
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