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Israel defense chief aims to repair US rift

Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant will hold talks with US officials in Washington this week, as tensions between Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah threaten to cascade into war. Gallant has another, more subtle mission: He needs to repair the rift between the US and Israel, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doubled down Sunday on his claim that Washington held up weapons shipments to Israel. The US wants to de-escalate tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, while also reportedly assuring Israeli officials that if there was a full-blown war, the country’s most important ally would be behind it. It’s “maybe a slightly muddled message,” The Economist’s Middle East correspondent noted.

China, EU agree to EV tariff talks

China and the European Union agreed to hold talks over the bloc’s decision to hike trade tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles. The announcement came as German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck visited China, partly to diffuse tensions: The tariffs — which are as high as 48% — threatened to ignite a retaliatory trade war with Beijing. China is a crucial market for Germany’s own automotive industry, and Berlin had opposed the EU’s tariffs over fear of blowback. While presenting a united front for the EU’s trade concerns, Habeck also emphasized to Chinese officials that negotiations could avoid a larger economic dispute. He called the talks “a first step that was not possible before.”

Fewer Chinese grads get job offers

Less than half of recent Chinese college graduates received job offers in the first few months of 2024. Three-quarters of grads received job offers before the pandemic, but the number dipped to 48% as of mid-April of this year, Nikkei reported. Fewer private-sector companies are hiring, and many are reducing their workforce in China. Youth unemployment has amplified China’s economic woes, and graduates complain that their qualifications are going to waste due to lack of opportunity. Chinese leader Xi Jinping recently ordered that creating quality jobs be a priority, a distinct change in tone from past comments suggesting that young people should “eat bitterness,” or endure hardship, the Financial Times noted.

China, France to study space explosions

China launched a satellite to study some of the most bizarre explosions in the universe on Saturday. The mission, the Space Variable Objects Monitor, is a joint venture with France to look for the telltale signs of fast gamma-ray bursts, which are essentially jets of electromagnetic radiation that are extremely bright, extremely energetic, and last just seconds. The bursts could unlock the secrets of how black holes form. More terrestrially, the mission shows how far China’s space program has come, and that it is competitive with the US. It is also a marker of how China values international collaboration in space science; the country has become the biggest donor to the United Nations’ Office for Outer Space Affairs in recent years.

Putin powerful a year after Wagner mutiny

Sunday marked a year since the Wagner mercenary group’s attempted mutiny, and Russian President Vladimir Putin is “more powerful than ever,” analysts said. Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin died in a plane crash months after his failed challenge to Putin’s authority, while Putin, fresh from securing another term as president, is emboldened to challenge Western interests via a new security pact with North Korea. The Wagner group is “effectively dismantled,” the BBC reported, but versions of it still exist: A group formed by Russian officials as a successor to Wagner is now many African countries’ security partner of choice, The Associated Press noted, while some mercenaries operate under Kremlin control in Ukraine.

Japan sees rise in hotel living

Some people in Japan are opting to live in hotels for extended periods of time instead of buying or renting property, Nikkei reported. While hotel living might sound like a luxury, housing subscription services in Japan have made extended stays more accessible, while high prices of household necessities are pushing companies and consumers to get creative. Because hotel prices typically include utilities and amenities such as WiFi in their room rate, some people find they save money and have more choice overall. Hotels offer flexibility — in location, decor, and more — which aspirational Japanese in their 20s and 30s tend to value highly.

In the latest episode of Mixed Signals from Semafor Media, presented by Think With Google, Ben, Nayeema, and Max report from Cannes, decoding the year ahead for the ad business amidst the panels and parties. While enjoying the Côte d’Azur, they discuss Washington’s move to ban TikTok and the company’s denial of what’s unfolding. Then, they weigh in on whether Will Lewis, CEO of The Washington Post, will survive the controversy over his alleged unethical methods.

Listen to this episode of Mixed Signals wherever you get your podcasts.

India plans to make a mega-river

India wants to make a mega-river to address some of its biggest infrastructure problems. The project, originally conceived in the 19th century, aims to connect several of the country’s rivers into a single grid that will run from the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea. The move could help irrigate farmland, boost hydroelectricity, and prevent disastrous floods, proponents said. But other experts “have doubts about the scheme’s scientific footing,” including whether it could affect India’s monsoon, Hakai Magazine reported. The base assumption, one engineer said, “is that river basins are independent systems and output from one … can be used to feed the other.” But the reality is that “changes in one can lead to changes in another.”

Ex-OpenAI staffer predicts future of AI

A former OpenAI safety researcher published a 165-page manifesto forecasting the near-future of artificial intelligence. In the text, Leopold Aschenbrenner offers several takeaways and predictions, including that a human-like AI will exist by 2027, and that the US government will eventually see superintelligence (when an AI surpasses human intelligence) as its “most important national defense project.” The document highlights China’s potential as a major adversary and the security risks of an AI that is built to do evil or goes rogue without sufficient safety limits. But as Axios reported, Aschenbrenner is an AI investor and effective altruist — a movement that sees AI safety as both paramount and under threat — so his predictions may reflect those biases.

Extreme heat shatters records

More than 1,000 temperature records were shattered around the world this week by extreme heat. Some 100 million people were under a heat advisory in the US, and more than 1,300 people died making the Hajj pilgrimage to Islam’s holiest site, Mecca. The heat waves bear “the fingerprint of climate change,” experts said, and are a glimpse of what’s to come as human-induced climate change amplifies extreme weather. “It should be obvious that dangerous climate change is already upon us,” a climate scientist said. “People will die because of global warming on this very day.”

HIV prevention drug effective in trials

A new drug showed 100% effectiveness in preventing HIV in women, according to new results from an ongoing clinical trial. The pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) drug, lenacapavir, appeared to be so effective that pharma company Gilead has ended the trial early because it was exceeding expectations, and outperforming existing drugs. Lenacapavir is different from existing PrEP treatments because, unlike daily pills, it can be given in biannual doses. Study participants were sorted into two groups: 2,314 women and girls at risk of HIV got lenacapvir, while another 3,204 received daily PrEP drugs. None of the participants who got lenacapavir contracted HIV, while 55 of the people in the other group did. One researcher described it as a “remarkable result.”

June 24:

• The two-year anniversary of the US Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, eliminating the constitutional right to abortion.
• India’s mines minister launches a fourth round of critical minerals auctions to support the country’s clean-energy push.
• Two NASA astronauts perform a spacewalk outside the International Space Station.

Korean dating shows are evolving. The latest slate of the mega-popular television genre features fortune-tellers using supernatural abilities to find their soulmates, and siblings who team up to help each other find partners. Dating shows have been a mainstay of Korean TV for more than a decade, but the new shows suggest that audiences are hungry for more experimental formats and concepts, The Korea Times wrote. On Possessed Love, which premiered last week with positive reviews, the soothsayer cast members use saju, which refers to the four pillars of destiny, to make predictions about their love life — leaving viewers anxious to see whether they’ll come true.

• Will the Jan. 6 movement make it to the Republican National Convention stage?
• AI can vastly increase job candidate pools. It might also improve diversity.
• Putin threatens South Korea as it mulls sending arms to Ukraine.