Good morning. We’re covering a tense exchange between the top American and Chinese diplomats. |
 | | Chinese-U.S. relations have fallen to perhaps their lowest point in half a century.Petr David Josek/Associated Press |
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U.S. and China trade barbs |
Hours before the meeting, Wang called the U.S. decision to shoot the balloon down “absurd and hysterical.” He doubled down on China’s claim that the balloon had been a “civilian” research craft that was blown off course. In the meeting, the U.S. said, Blinken said that the flight of a Chinese surveillance balloon across the U.S. “must never happen again.” After, he said that there had been “no apology” from Wang. |
Analysis: Blinken’s comments underscored concerns that Russia was increasingly turning to China, Iran and North Korea for military supplies. |
What’s next: After the balloon flight, Blinken canceled a visit to China, which would have been the first in years by a secretary of state. Neither country said anything about a new date for the trip. |
The competition for “near space”: The U.S. and China are testing new high-altitude defense systems that sit below orbiting satellites. American officials worry that China is farther along. |
 | | Vladimir Putin’s new ideology of war is on display at the Victory Museum, in Moscow, which is dedicated to the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany.Nanna Heitmann for The New York Times |
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Friday will mark the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In the past year, the military has suffered setback after setback. But President Vladimir Putin has used the war to become even more dominant at home. |
From the beginning, Putin cast the invasion as an almost holy war for Russia’s identity. He has continually compared it to the fight against the Nazis — one exhibit at a museum in Moscow is titled “NATOzism” — and has repeatedly said Russia is fighting the West’s efforts to force it to accept homosexuality. |
The mind-set has seeped into daily life. Schoolchildren learn that Russia has always liberated humanity from “aggressors who seek world domination,” and collect cans to make candles for soldiers. Museums and theaters, once islands of artistic freedom, have lost that status. “Liberalism in Russia is dead forever, thank God,” said Konstantin Malofeyev, an ultraconservative business tycoon whom the Kremlin once kept at arm’s length. |
But life has otherwise carried on for most Russians. The economy has suffered much less under sanctions than analysts predicted. “One of the scariest observations, I think, is that for the most part, nothing has changed for people,” an educator said. “This tragedy gets pushed to the periphery.” |
One fighter: A teacher left her classroom to defend Ukraine. Follow her year in photographs. |
 | | Across Asia, governments are struggling to support retirees.Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times |
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Motoko Rich, our Tokyo bureau chief, spoke with The Morning about the demographic crisis looming in South Korea, China and especially Japan, where almost a third of the population is over 65. (For comparison, in the U.S. that number is about 17 percent.) |
She spoke about the underlying reasons, the possible solutions and the isolation that older people face when their children move away to cities. Here’s an excerpt from their conversation: |
I understand why an aging population poses challenges within a country. What does it mean for people living elsewhere? |
You can compare the issue to how people used to view climate change: It was happening for many years, but we weren’t paying attention. Societies need to plan for aging, and they’re not well set up to do so. It’s not an in-your-face crisis — it’s a slow-rolling crisis. |
 | | The launch was North Korea’s first test of a long-range missile in three months.Jeon Heon-Kyun/EPA, via Shutterstock |
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- North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile after warning of strong countermeasures against joint military drills by the U.S. and South Korea.
- The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for a deadly assault on the police headquarters in Karachi on Friday. It is the latest sign that the group is regaining strength.
- In the past two years, drownings have spiked in Australia. Experts blame canceled swimming lessons during the pandemic and an increase in people swimming in locations without lifeguards.
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- Turkey’s economy was already struggling. Now, the staggering cost of reconstruction and slowed growth add to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s challenges before an election in May.
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- Tents, gymnasiums and a cruise ship are part of the struggle to shelter about one million now-homeless people in Turkey.
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 | | “Before I knew it, they were picking up the Jeff Koons pieces in a dustpan with a broom,” a witness said.Bel-Air Fine Art - Contemporary Art Galleries |
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 | | The pyramid is being repurposed as a space for classrooms, cafes and tech company offices.Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times |
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Many countries on Europe’s formerly communist eastern fringe have wrestled with what to do with massive structures left over from a past most people would like to forget. |
In Albania’s capital, a “scary” concrete and glass pyramid was built in the 1980s as a shrine to Enver Hoxha, a dead tyrant, and then fell into disrepair. Now, it’s being turned into “a celebration of capitalism, jobs and the future,” the city’s mayor said. |
 | | A megadrought, made worse by climate change, cut into Texas’s cotton harvest.Jordan Vonderhaar for The New York Times |
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Heat and drought forced cotton farmers in Texas to abandon 74 percent of their planted crops last year. The loss, one of the biggest on record, has pushed up the price of everyday items, from tampons (13 percent) to cloth diapers (21 percent). To compare: The overall U.S. inflation rate was 6.5 percent. |
The crop failures are examples of how global warming is a “secret driver of inflation,” one market researcher said: Climate change exacerbates extreme weather, which can impact production. Shortages can reshape daily costs in ways that consumers may not realize. |
Cotton is a good “bellwether crop,” an expert in supply chain logistics said, because it responds immediately to weather. And disruptions will only get worse. By 2040, half of the regions where cotton is grown will face a “high or very high climate risk” from extreme weather, a nonprofit group said. |
 | | Kelly Marshall for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Roscoe Betsill. Prop Stylist: Maeve Sheridan. |
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Mardi Gras is tomorrow. Here are 12 recipes to celebrate. |
In “Return to Seoul,” a Parisian adoptee visits her biological family. The filmmaker and the star, who were not adopted, got help from friends. |
That’s it for today’s briefing. See you next time. — Amelia |
“The Daily” is on Microsoft’s chatbot. To go deeper on A.I., you can listen to “Hard Fork.” |
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