The World in Brief

Figure of the day: 40%, the percentage of countries that enforced conscription during the mid-2010s, down from 80% at the beginning of the 20th century. Read the full story.

The world’s biggest election began in India on Friday. Almost a billion registered voters started casting ballots over seven phases in a six-week parliamentary poll. The prime minister, Narendra Modi, is expected to lead the Bharatiya Janata Party to a third consecutive victory. The main question surrounding the vote is whether his Hindu-nationalist party can expand its total of 296 seats in the 543-member lower house of parliament, to its goal of 370. Results are expected on June 4th.

Opposition leaders have branded Mr Modi a threat to Indian democracy, citing his curbs on the media, judiciary and civil society. They also accuse him of encouraging discrimination against India’s Muslims and using tax and investigative agencies to target opposition politicians, including two party leaders arrested since January. So far, however, none of that appears to have dented Mr Modi’s popularity, especially with the Hindu majority.

This week Mike Johnson, speaker of America’s House of Representatives, released a proposal to send assistance to Israel, Taiwan and Ukraine —ignoring his critics on the right and thus imperilling his own job. On Friday lawmakers will be scrutinising Mr Johnson’s proposals ahead of a vote, which is expected on Saturday.

The plan is to split aid for America’s allies into three bills. A fourth piece of legislation would potentially force a sale of TikTok, a social-media app, enact new sanctions on countries including Iran and seize Russian assets. Some of the aid would come in the form of a loan rather than a grant.

Bob Good, chairman of the hard-right Freedom Caucus, called on “every true conservative” to block the legislative push. At least two Republican members of Congress have threatened to oust Mr Johnson. It is unclear whether they have the votes to remove him from the top job—or whether the aid packages will pass.

New data released on Friday show that Japan’s core consumer-price index rose by 2.6% year on year in March, down from 2.8% in February. But it is still the 24th consecutive month of inflation at or above the Bank of Japan’s target inflation rate of 2%. That trend, along with strong wage growth resulting from this year’s annual negotiations between trade unions and large companies, gave the BoJ the confidence to nudge interest rates up last month for the first time since 2007, from a range of between minus 0.1% to zero to one of between zero and 0.1%.

The future course of inflation will shape the BoJ’s next steps. Officials have made clear that ending its negative-interest-rate policy did not mean the bank was embarking upon a swift tightening cycle. Still, markets expect at least one more rate hike later this year—though probably not at next week’s policy meeting.

On Friday Russia celebrates the incorporation of Crimea (and Kuban and Taman, two southern Russian regions) into the Russian empire in the late-18th century. The holiday was signed into law in 2018, four years after Russia illegally annexed the peninsula from Ukraine in a modern-day land grab.

Over the past decade the Kremlin has sought to legitimise its occupation with mass propaganda, as well as state subsidies and infrastructure investment in Crimea. Repression has been rife, particularly of the dwindling ethnic Ukrainian population, and the Crimean Tatars, a Muslim minority that broadly opposes Russia’s occupation. The full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 intensified the crackdown.

The failure of Ukraine’s counter-offensive last year dampened hopes of recapturing Crimea. But Ukraine still seeks to challenge Vladimir Putin’s claim over the peninsula. Ukrainian officials recently said that they are planning a third strike on the Kerch bridge, which connects Crimea to Russia. Its construction after the annexation was a pet project for Russia’s president.

Caspar David Friedrich is Germany’s best known painter of the Romantic period. To mark the 250th anniversary of his birth, the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin is hosting an exhibition dedicated to his work, which opens on Friday. “Caspar David Friedrich—Infinite Landscapes” is the second of three thematically distinct shows taking place across Hamburg, Berlin and Dresden. The show in the capital includes 60 paintings and 50 drawings. It highlights the importance of an exhibition in 1906 at the Nationalgalerie, which helped to revive interest in the artist’s work after it faded following his death in 1840.

The exhibition includes famous works such as his pair of paintings “Monk by the Sea” and “Abbey in the Oakwood”, which were restored by the museum between 2013-16. But it does not only celebrate Friedrich’s land and seascapes. Visitors can also admire his lesser-known portraits and drawings. That helps the show to burnish the artist’s legacy even further.