‘Twiggy, Twiggy.’ In the early 1990s, trip-hop and downtempo were dominant Western sounds, but a very different sound came from the Far East—specifically Japan. Pizzicato Five was one of the formative groups making what came to be known as the Shibuya-kei style of pop music. Rich with signifiers of the Swinging ‘60s, and a giddy sampling touch.

What’s Shibuya-kei?

—Brendan Hasenstab

‘Kinetic diplomacy.’ During last fall’s election campaign, U.S. President Donald Trump called himself the “candidate of peace”—saying “proudest legacy” would be his role as a “peacemaker.” With the slogan “peace through strength,” Trump promised to extricate the United States from as many foreign entanglements as possible, the better to make America itself great again. He would put U.S. foreign policy on a new footing.

Now, however: He’s bombed Yemen. He says he will take Greenland—without military force, if possible; with it, if necessary. He is trying to negotiate a deal with Iran over its nuclear program, but if they don’t cooperate, there “will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.” Meanwhile, Trump has spoken publicly of occupying the Gaza Strip by force, even as he’s threatened via social media to level what remains of it: “People of Gaza: A beautiful Future awaits, but not if you hold Hostages. If you do, you are DEAD!”

Those supporting the president here might say this is simply a “peace through strength” tactic: Negotiate on my terms or else. But in leaked chat messages, Vice President J.D. Vance worried that Trump hadn’t been fully informed of how bombing Yemen would contradict the administration’s stated commitment to retreat from Europe: “I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now.”

What’s going on?

—Gustav Jönsson

‘Maggie na bhFlaitheas.’ Here’s the lead single from “Ithaca,” the new album by Lullahush, an experimental project from the Irish artist Daniel McIntyre—here feeding a traditional Irish reel into a sequencer and discovering something close to the spirit that animated the sampler maniacs The Avalanches back in 2000.

—Brendan Hasenstab

Seoul divisions. Political chaos broke out in South Korea on the night of December 3, when the country’s former president, Yoon Suk Yeol, declared martial law and disbanded the legislature—a stunning attempt to seize total control over the country’s government. Later that night, the National Assembly convened—despite soldiers trying to prevent lawmakers from entering the building—and overturned the declaration. Even some members of Yoon’s conservative People Power Party (PPP) voted against his move. The assembly later impeached him, but he refused to step down for weeks, and that led to a standoff between the military and security services loyal to him.

Finally, though, Yoon left the presidential palace. On April 4, the Constitutional Court upheld his impeachment, ending his time in office. The court also reinstated the former prime minister, Han Duck-soo, as acting president, after the National Assembly had impeached him, too. They found out that Han hadn’t known about Yoon’s plan to declare martial law—and had even tried to talk him out of it. Now, new presidential elections are scheduled for June 3.

Is everything back to “normal”?

—Michael Bluhm

‘First Buds.’ The South Korean composer and hammered-dulcimer player Park Jiha has a new record out, All Living Things. This track is a good example of her modern, minimalist style—leisurely and contemplative—and a lovely way to greet the day.

—Brendan Hasenstab

‘Tassi.’ Despite announcing he’d put out his final album in 2018, Salif Keita—the “Golden Voice of Africa”—has just released a new one, So Kono. Recorded in a hotel room in Kyoto, Japan, its title translates as “In the room.” An acoustic album, so it may not be as high-energy as Keita’s music in the 1980s and ‘90s. But you can hear in it why he’s one of the musical greats of modern Mali—itself one of the richest and most prolific music scenes in Africa.

What’s so special about Mali?

—Brendan Hasenstab

‘A new dawn.’ On taking office in January, U.S. President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14151, ending federal diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. Around the same time, a series of major U.S. companies, including McDonalds and Meta, binned their own DEI initiatives. As one top banker, who wished to remain nameless, put it to the Financial Times, “We can say ‘retard’ and ‘pussy’ without the fear of getting cancelled … it’s a new dawn.”

Some, such as JP Morgan Chase, reaffirmed their commitment to DEI. But even so, executives have virtually stopped mentioning it during investment calls. Following the U.S. protests after the killing of George Floyd in 2020, corporate DEI initiatives peaked through 2021, but then companies halved the number of minority and women’s internship programs between 2022 and 2023.

Why were American corporate leaders so quick to embrace DEI—and then scrap it?

A look at Walter Benn Michaels’s and Adolph Reed Jr.’s No Politics but Class Politics.

—Gustav Jönsson

‘Kokiri.’ A sample-driven beam of sunshine from the Danish team of Lust for Youth and Croatian Amor, from a collaborative album entitled All Worlds. This is close to the sound of U.K. bass music though has its own, relentless, positive energy.

—Brendan Hasenstab

Minecraft. Earlier this month, a top U.S. official said the country had agreed on a “path forward” with the Democratic Republic of the Congo to close a deal giving Washington greater control over the development of the DRC’s vast mineral resources in exchange for new U.S. support for the government in Kinshasa.

The arrangement would allow the United States to manage the mining of some of the country’s massive deposits of lithium—and its similarly large reserves of copper and cobalt—all of which are known as critical minerals. These minerals are critical because it’s impossible to make most advanced technologies without them: They’re required in cutting-edge military hardware, renewable energy, robotics, and AI; and they’re in every semiconductor chip. They’re in the device you’re reading this on.

The DRC deal is just the latest instance of U.S. President Donald Trump’s pursuit of access to critical minerals. His desire to make Greenland part of the U.S. seems far-fetched—but his desire for its critical minerals, repeatedly stated, is very real. When Trump began negotiating with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, one of Trump’s first requests was an agreement for American access to Ukrainian critical-mineral deposits.

But this pursuit may also look a little odd. The U.S. has reserves of many critical minerals around the country. The world’s largest reserves of the key critical mineral lithium are in Australia and Chile, two longtime U.S. allies. And the previous administration of Joe Biden also worked on a raft of deals to secure the rights to critical minerals in the world.

What’s going on?

—Michael Bluhm