The world in brief

Japan is in shock from a dreadful start to the year. On January 1st a magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck the Noto peninsula on the north of Honshu, the country’s main island. It killed at least 62 people. On the following day a coastguard aircraft carrying supplies to the disaster zone collided with a passenger jet at Haneda airport in Tokyo. All 379 people aboard the civil aircraft survived, but five of the six crew members on the coastguard flight were killed.

The earthquake did not trigger a large tsunami, as initially feared, but caused severe damage. The recovery will be protracted. The tremor revived memories of the big earthquake in 2011 that caused a vast tsunami and meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant. No nuclear plants were harmed in the latest quake, but the government’s efforts to restart stations closed after 2011 will now probably encounter more resistance. Officials will also face many questions about the causes of the plane crash.

America produced a remarkable economic performance in 2023: inflation slowed sharply while growth remained robust. Some of the earliest data published in 2024, however, may suggest that it will be tough to replicate this feat. Figures due out on Wednesday are forecast to show that the manufacturing sector ended the year with a limp. Meanwhile the labour market is expected to remain tight, keeping upward pressure on inflation.

Separately, the Federal Reserve will also publish minutes on Wednesday from its mid-December meeting, when the Fed sparked a market rally by signalling that it expected to cut rates three times this year. Left unsaid at the time was how soon the cuts might come. If the minutes reveal that the pivot may in fact wait until the second half of 2024, that would augur for tighter policy and slower growth in the coming months. The new year is unlikely to be as cheerful as the last one.

A surprise announcement from Ethiopia and Somaliland, the latter an internationally unrecognised state, has made the volatile geopolitics of the Horn of Africa even more so. On Monday Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia’s prime minister, revealed that he had agreed a deal for his landlocked country to lease a port and a 20km stretch of Red Sea coastline from the breakaway Somali province. In exchange the Ethiopian government may recognise Somaliland—that would be the first time a country has done so since the would-be state declared its independence from Somalia in 1991.

Leaders in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, are furious. On Tuesday they recalled the Somali ambassador from Ethiopia. They are now asking the African Union, which is hesitant to redraw the continental map, to intervene. But the AU, much like Somalia itself, may find it is powerless to do much about it.

Turkey’s central bank has increased interest rates by 34 percentage points since June. Yet inflation—the result of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s earlier policies—is proving to be exceptionally hard to bring down. Consumer prices were 62% higher in November than in the same month last year. Data released on Wednesday are expected to show that they rose further last month.

What is more, the central bank expects that a wage hike announced by Mr Erdogan’s government last week will contribute to pushing up inflation further. Turkey has set the minimum wage at just over 17,000 lira ($572), double what it was last January. Mr Erdogan hopes that the central bank will tame inflation by late March, when Turks vote for mayors and city councils. But the bank is doubtful. In November it said it expects consumer-price inflation to peak at up to 75% in May, then to dip sharply.

For the uninitiated, the World Darts Championship, held in London every year, looks utterly bizarre. The 3,000-strong crowd, many of whom are in fancy dress, whoop and holler at every dart. The competitors, who throw from behind a line called an oche, adopt personas as wacky as those of professional wrestlers. The sport itself, which requires concentration and precision, seems an ill fit for the atmosphere. Yet the combination works. Tickets are highly sought-after, television ratings are rising and the prize pot is £2.5m.

The man who steered darts from smoky pubs to the big stage is Barry Hearn, an English impresario who performed the same feat with snooker in the 1980s. This year’s excitement has been bolstered by Luke Littler, a 16-year-old player who has reached the semi-finals in his debut tournament. On Tuesday he beat former world champion Rob Cross to take his place at the final, a feat commentators are already calling among the “top ten performances in darts history”.

Daily quiz

We will serve you a new question each day this week. On Friday your challenge is to give us all five answers and, as important, tell us the connecting theme. Email your responses (and include mention of your home city and country) by 1700 GMT on Friday to [email protected]. We’ll pick randomly from those with the right answers and crown three winners on Saturday.

Wednesday: In Greek mythology, which person stole fire from the gods to give to mankind?

Tuesday: Which American silent film actress is generally credited with popularising the “bob” haircut?