Our daily lap around the world

🇧🇯🎶 Singer-songwriter Angélique Kidjo, who hails from Benin, became the third African artist to win the annual Polar Music Prize. The award is often called the “Nobel Prize of music,” with past winners including Paul McCartney, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Björk, and Sting. Alongside Kidjo, the 2023 Polar Music Prize was also awarded to Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records in the UK, and Arvo Pärt of Estonia, the world’s most-performed living composer.

🇸🇾 Relatives of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad were sanctioned by the US and UK in relation to their alleged vast drug empire. Two of al-Assad’s cousins and four other individuals were blocked from owning any assets in the US or UK, with officials from both countries accusing them of helping manufacture and export a highly-addictive amphetamine called captagon. UK authorities estimate the captagon drug trade is worth up to $57 billion to the Syrian regime, a figure that’s about four times the entire country’s GDP, and three times as much as “the combined trade of the Mexican cartels.”

🇨🇳 The Chinese government allegedly used the names of three anti-China activists to call in fake bomb threats around the world. Per Axios, the personal information of a Germany-based journalist, a Chinese dissident, and a Texas pastor – all of whom had publicly criticized Beijing – were used to call in at least 14 fake bomb threats at luxury hotels across Europe, the US, and the Middle East in recent months. The threats, placed by anonymous perpetrators that had checked into the hotels under one of the three names, resulted in several police investigations and the brief arrest of one of the activists.