Secret backchannel talks between Israel and Poland, which began several months ago, led to the Polish parliament's decision today to amend a controversial "Holocaust law".
Why it matters: The law, passed in January, carried penalties of up to three years in prison for people who attribute crimes committed during the Holocaust to Poland. The bill was denounced worldwide, most vocally in Israel, Germany and the U.S., and created a deep crisis between Israel and Poland — staunch allies until then. As I reported in April, the Trump administration pressured Poland to amend the bill and pressured Israel to mend relations with the government in Warsaw.
Silicon Valley is still king when it comes to startups, but Chinese cities like Beijing and Shanghai are quickly catching up — with Beijing reaching more than half of Silicon Valley's funding in 2018, according to new data from CB Insights.
Why it matters: China is a huge market, so it's not surprise its local startups are fast growing and raising buckets of capital. But the country's increasing ambitions to become a tech superpower is sure to boost this trend.
President Trump's decision to pull the U.S. out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, on his third day in office, set the stage for many of the country's current trade disputes.
The big picture: Trump's TPP withdrawal enabled spats with allies and created a vacuum that China was positioned to fill.
Iranians protesting government policies have shut down parts of the Tehran Grand Bazaar. Social media posts showed Iranian merchants gathering outside the parliament building yesterday chanting anti-regime slogans. The protests, which began in the capital, have reportedly spread to several other towns, with other bazaarsshuttering on Tuesday.
Why it matters: Protests in any Iranian bazaar, but especially Tehran’s, carry tremendous political weight. In 1978–1979, Tehran bazaar strikes were instrumental in bringing down the U.S.–allied Shah, and could now signal further unrest.
National Security Advisor John Bolton will travel to Moscow later this week to nail down a meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. The scheduling will be easy; the summit agenda itself, much harder.
The big picture: No issue divides Trump and his advisers more than Russia. He wants to “get along” with Putin; they object to one Russian policy after another. But the Singapore summit showed Trump’s inner circle how to solve this problem: Give the boss a showy, feel-good session he can call a breakthrough and leave the important business for a senior official to handle later.
People around the world are traveling more: There were 1.2 billion international tourism arrivals in 2016, according to the UN's World Tourism Organization. That number is climbing steadily and has about doubled since 2003.
The big picture: They’re going to a lot of the same places. Since 1995, China (7th to 4th), Germany (11th to 7th), Turkey (15th to 10th) and Thailand (16th to 9th) have jumped in the global destination rankings, while Poland (8th to 19th) and Canada (10th to 17th) have fallen. Otherwise, things look just about the same.
