Happy Pi Day! In honor of my favorite holiday, here are some superb pie charts:

Now for the news. China

• The U.S. House overwhelmingly (352-65) passed a bill that would ban TikTok in the U.S. unless the video-sharing app's Chinese parent company, ByteDance, divests it to a non-Chinese owner within six months.
• Lawmakers are concerned - with good reason - that Beijing could force a Chinese company like ByteDance to share its user data into China's vast surveillance system.
• Late night host Jimmy Kimmel explained what happens next: "Now the bill goes to the Senate, which means the fate of every tweenaged TikToker is in the hands of a bunch of old white people with Hotmail accounts."
• TikTok is fighting the ban: its CEO visited Washington this week to lobby (unsuccessfully) against the bill's passage in the House, saying it would "take billions of dollars out of the pockets of creators."

Haiti

• The NYT - citing a UN expert - explained why Haiti's gangs chose to unite just as outgoing PM Henry secured a deal to bring Kenyan-led peacekeepers in to break the gangs' grip on the country: "Many gang members in Haiti are teenagers...who are looking to be paid but who probably have little interest in going to war with a well-armed police force." So the gangs banded together to force Henry out before the peacekeepers could deploy.
• CARICOM leaders have proposed a plan for a nine-member transition council to govern Haiti, composed of six voting members representing political factions, one voting member from the private sector, and two non-voting members from civil society and the church.
• Notably absent from the proposed council is Guy Philippe, a former police commander and coup leader who has allied with Haiti's newly-united gangs and is representing their demands for amnesty ahead of the arrival of peacekeepers.
• It's not clear if the gangs would stand down if they were assured amnesty; some of their leaders - in particular, Barbecue - seem to have loftier political ambitions and could prevent the installation of a transition council if it doesn't meet his needs.
• Though PM Henry promised to step down once a transition council was in place, he's now also stymieing efforts to install a council by declaring that "according to the Haitian constitution, only the prime minister with the cabinet can appoint the presenting council." (Henry is cherry-picking which parts of the constitution to hold dear: the charter also calls for Haiti's PM to be elected, and Henry never was.)

Somalia

• Long War Journal reported that Al Shabaab has recaptured several key parts of Galguduud, Hiraan, and Mudug in central Somalia over the past few days. That's a symbolic blow for the Federal Government of Somalia, which led a painstaking effort to recapture the same areas in 2022 and touted its success as a sign that the Somali National Army was winning.

Sahel

• Nigeria reopened its land and air borders with Niger, ending a brief attempt at isolating Niamey after the July 2023 coup that ousted Pres. Bazoum (who remains in the junta's custody).
• Nigeria and the regional bloc ECOWAS had hoped that isolation and sanctions would push the junta to transfer power back to Bazoum's civilian government - and had the same hope for sanctions on the juntas in Burkina Faso, Guinea, and Mali - but hav recently given up on that idea: ECOWAS recently lifted ineffective sanctions on all four juntas.

Gaza

• Israel said it would begin evacuating Gazans out of Rafah ahead of a planned ground offensive that the U.S. is still urging against unless Israel can assure the safe evacuation of the 1.3 million Gazans sheltering there.
• Meanwhile, Hamas's health ministry said an Israeli airstrike hit a UNRWA food distribution center in Rafah, killing five. Israel said it was targeting a Hamas commander named Mohammed Abu Hasna - and apparently successfully, as that was one of the names on Hamas's list of fatalities from the strike.
• Israel also allowed a small convoy of food aid trucks through an Israeli border crossing for the first time since Oct. 7.

Ukraine and Russia

• Ukraine launched cross-border drone attacks on four oil facilities inside of Russia as part of "a well-planned strategy to decrease Russian economic potential" ahead of Pres. Putin's assured reelection this weekend.
• Separately, pro-Ukrainian groups of Russian fighters staged ground incursions into Russia's Kursk region and claimed to have captured the village of Tyotkino...though Russia will surely recapture it quickly.
• The EU agreed to send another €5 billion ($5.5 billion) in military aid to Ukraine using a mechanism that Reuters described as "a giant cashback scheme:" the funding will be used to buy weapons for Ukraine from European defense companies.