The New York Times: H νέα πρωθυπουργός της Ιαπωνίας συνάντησε τον Τραμπ – Ο γηραιότερος πρόεδρος στον κόσμο – Οι φιλοδοξίες της Σαουδικής Αραβίας για την τεχνητή νοημοσύνη – Η Ινδία θέλει να εξάγει εργάτες. Απλώς μην τους αποκαλείτε μετανάστες – Μπορεί η νέα πρωθυπουργός της Ιαπωνίας να κερδίσει τον Τραμπ; – Γνωρίστε τον γηραιότερο πρόεδρο στον κόσμο – Πώς κάνουν παραλία στην… Αίγυπτο

India wants to export workers. Just don’t call them immigrants.

How do you bring in foreign workers without running into the treacherous politics of immigration? The answer, some policymakers think, starts with a rebranding. Don’t call it immigration — call it “labor mobility.”

Countries around the world have a common problem, or, rather, a matched pair of problems. Developed economies have shrinking populations and too few workers. Countries like India, where I’m based, have stable or growing populations, but too few jobs.

Migration once looked like the obvious solution. But across the developed world, the backlash to immigration has grown too big for any politician to ignore.

Indian policymakers think they have a way to square this circle. Over the past few years, the government has quietly signed at least 20 labor-mobility agreements with countries in Europe, East Asia and the Gulf. Then, this month, it introduced an overseas mobility bill that tried to ensure Indian workers eventually return home.

If these programs take off at scale — and almost anything India does is at scale — they might finally create the market between the labor-exporting and labor-importing countries that one expert told me he thinks the world needs.

Yet, even that language hints at some of the potential problems ahead. The idea of a steady rotation of migrants moving in and out of a global labor pool imagines people as widgets. It was invented by economists. But young migrant workers, once on the ground, tend to introduce fickle human elements.

Once bitten, still shy?

The idea of labor mobility isn’t exactly new. India is learning, in part, from Germany: In the postwar boom years of reconstruction, West Germany welcomed a generation of Gastarbeiter, or guest workers, mainly from Turkey, to its factories, mines and farms.

But the German model is remembered more for its shortcomings than for its innovations. Employers found regularly rotating workers in and out to be inefficient. Guest workers often wanted to put down roots, especially once they were allowed to bring their families over. Germany, viewing these workers as temporary labor, not immigrants, made few efforts to integrate them. Many barely learned German. The effects are still felt today.

Germany did eventually accept its temporary workers as full-fledged immigrants. Today, it’s home to third- and fourth-generation descendants of those guest workers; about four million are German citizens. For those who warned the guest-worker program was creating an unethical two-tiered society, that’s a good outcome. But by the standards of a labor-mobility program, it’s not a success.

Lant Pritchett, an American economist who has been developing and promoting the idea of labor mobility since the 1990s, said the German experiment had gone awry by failing to think through the end of the guest-worker contracts and what would come next. The problem, he said, was that “there was no contractual obligation to return, but neither was there a path to citizenship.”

In the context of Germany, that wasn’t sustainable. In other states with less emphasis on rights, like the Gulf countries, it might be: It’s clear, for instance, that in places like Qatar, even workers who stay indefinitely will never become citizens.

Pritchett is working to establish a third way, where migrating workers enjoy legal protections wherever they roam, but nonetheless have to eventually go home. But how to make sure that happens is a problem labor-mobility programs have yet to solve.

Falling in love might be too easy to do

This month, I visited a mix of classrooms across Delhi to meet young Indians who were dreaming of moving to Europe or East Asia. It was startling to see Japanese spoken readily by children from rural Rajasthan who knew little to no English. It was also striking that many of them seemed not to have gotten the memo that labor mobility means coming back to India.

The process of studying their future — temporary? — homes seems to have had the effect of making many of these young people fall in love with the places they’re learning about. Or maybe it’s just an infatuation — the lure of India and extended family could eventually lead them back home. The real test will come in the next few years, when India’s first crop of exported workers completes its rotation and we find out whether these ambitious young people, out in the world for the first time, can function like widgets, as the economists intended.

Can Japan’s new prime minister win over Trump?

President Trump and Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi of Japan met for the first time earlier today outside Akasaka Palace in Tokyo.

“You will be one of the great prime ministers,” Trump told Takaichi, who was elected to lead Japan last week. “I congratulate you on being the first woman prime minister.”

The tone of the meeting was cordial and, after exchanging praises, the leaders signed two proclamations. One declared a “new golden age of the U.S.-Japan alliance,” while the other promised strengthened cooperation on expanding the supply chain for rare earth metals.

Trump’s visit to Japan is part of his six-day tour of Asia that began in Malaysia and will also include a stop in South Korea. My colleague Erica Green, who is traveling with the president, explains in the video above why the trip is a major diplomatic test.

Meet the world’s oldest president

Paul Biya was declared the winner of Cameroon’s presidential election yesterday. Official results gave the leader, who is 92, an eighth term. That means he could be president until he is 99.

On a continent where the median age is 19, Cameroon is a stark example of a country governed by a leader from a bygone era. But it’s not the only one: Seventeen of Africa’s leaders are over 70. Among them is President Alassane Ouattara, 83, who just won re-election in Ivory Coast.

Football: Lionel Messi had his legacy in mind when he decided to re-sign with Inter Miami.

Cricket: Australia’s Pat Cummins did not recover from a back injury in time for the first Ashes Test.

— Photographers in New Zealand captured a rare, high-definition image of red sprites, a form of lightning that flashes above thunderstorms, against the Milky Way.

Saudi Arabia has been exporting oil for decades. Now, it wants to export one of the digital era’s most coveted resources: computing power.

Some factors are in its favor: Tech firms need cheap energy, deep pockets and open land to operate the data centers that power A.I. The kingdom has plenty of those resources, and is building three major data center complexes aimed at foreign companies. But many are skeptical that Saudi Arabia can deliver. It has a shallow pool of A.I. expertise and is trailing behind the United Arab Emirates, which announced a multibillion-dollar project this year with OpenAI. Read more.

How they’re beaching in … Egypt

Would you take a vacation on the Good Coast or the Evil Coast?

That’s what Egyptians call two popular Mediterranean beaches, which both have turquoise waters and beautiful white sand. But that’s where the similarities end — and fundamental social divides begin.

The Good Coast, Sahel el Tayeb, offers unpretentious hotels, simple beachside cafes and seafood joints. Most women wear burkinis and hijabs. On the Evil Coast, Sahel el Shireer, you’ll find bikinis, million-dollar beachfront villas and J. Lo concerts. Read more.

Read: Susan Orlean’s “Joyride” started as a writing guide, but it turned into a memoir of her high-flying life.

Listen: Here are six podcasts about making and appreciating art.

Watch: “Bugonia,” from the director Yorgos Lanthimos, is kind of about aliens but features the director’s most human dialogue.

Cope: Experts offered advice for engaging with someone who just won’t stop talking.

A bright, tangy soup with green mango, Zanzibar mix (also known as urojo) is a staple of the Tanzanian archipelago’s street food stands. This version is topped with onions, tomatoes, spiced toasted panko, cilantro and hot pepper sauce, but you can finish it with whatever vegetables or crunchy bits you’d like.