Flagship

NATO falls short of Ukraine’s hopes

NATO said Ukraine would be invited into the military alliance eventually, but didn’t offer a specific timeline. The announcement during the bloc’s annual summit fell short of Kyiv’s call for a clear pathway, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — who was in attendance — voicing his disappointment in a series of tweets. It came after wrangling within NATO over Ukraine’s future: The bloc’s members agree on continued support to Kyiv to combat Russia’s invasion, and that Ukraine cannot be allowed into NATO while the war is ongoing, but while the U.S. and Germany argue for a cautious approach to Ukraine’s NATO roadmap, Eastern European nations are pushing for stronger gestures.

Western security analysts were largely disappointed in the end result: The strategic-studies scholar Phillips O’Brien labeled it “too clever by half,” while the Atlantic Council’s Christopher Skaluba described it as “a head-scratching and disappointing formulation.” Still, G-7 nations are today expected to agree a new long-term defense pact with Kyiv, offering equipment, training, and intelligence support. Ukraine, meanwhile, shot down more than a dozen Russian drones for a second night — highlighting how the war grinds on.

China mulling stronger AI rules

China will tighten its rules on artificial intelligence systems, as Beijing tries to maintain its control over content on the internet. The Chinese internet regulator wants to force companies to gain a license before releasing new “generative” AI systems, such as large language models like ChatGPT. The government is torn, reported the Financial Times, between its ambition to encourage new tech companies and its wish to censor material it doesn’t like. Meanwhile, Google DeepMind released a white paper proposing a global governance system for AI. It called for intergovernmental bodies to monitor and regulate new systems, and bring together engineers from around the world to minimize the risks from those systems.

Microsoft wins Activision legal battle

A U.S. judge dismissed antitrust regulators’ calls to block Microsoft’s gaming mega-merger with Activision Blizzard. The companies must still address a U.K. ruling stopping the $69 billion deal, and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is reportedly leaning towards appealing, but the latest decision marks a significant victory for Microsoft. It also has major consequences for mergers more broadly: The ruling could force the FTC “to rethink its recent interventionist stance,” the Financial Times reported, while The Information argued that FTC Chair Lina Khan “should let this one go — and maybe think more carefully about what fights she takes on in the future.”

Scientists seek to define Anthropocene

A group of scientists want to declare that the Earth is in a new, human-influenced geological epoch. The time since the last Ice Age is known as the Holocene. Some scientists say that since the mid-20th century, humans’ impact has been so extreme that it will show up in geological records, so we should call our current epoch the Anthropocene. The scientists used sediment layers in a lake in Canada to make the case. The idea has been around for decades, but some are against it, arguing that humans’ existence on Earth marks a tiny sliver of time: The comet that killed the dinosaurs 64 million years ago marked the transition from the Cretaceous to the Paleogene Period, but we don’t call the few centuries of devastation it caused the “Cometocene.”

Carbon-captured jet fuel

A carbon-capture plant that turns carbon dioxide into jet fuel will open next year. Air travel produces about 2% of global carbon emissions, and planes are hard to electrify: Batteries are still too big and heavy to be practical for long flights. A Washington state-based startup will capture carbon dioxide from factory exhausts, and use green electricity and a chemical catalyst to break it down and turn it into usable fuel. The U.S. Air Force has tested the fuel and found it can be used with existing engines, Forbes reported. The factory is expected to produce 40,000 gallons of fuel a year — a fraction of the 100 billion gallons used annually — but other companies are expected to follow suit soon.

Old diamond town turns to seaweed

A former diamond-mining town in Namibia is growing giant kelp forests to combat climate change. Kelp forests are vital ecosystems and the huge seaweed fronds lock up large amounts of carbon. The diamond giant De Beers is backing a Dutch startup in Luderitz, which is growing seaweed spores in a hatchery before releasing the algae off the coast. So far it has grown two forests. Luderitz, which has seen economic decline since the diamond industry left in the early 20th century, has become an “unlikely beacon for green jobs,” Reuters reported. The project hopes to harvest 150 tons of kelp a year to make cosmetics, biodegradable packaging, and fertilizers.

DHL ups Latam investment

DHL will invest $550 million in Latin America to capitalize on companies diversifying their supply chains from China and growing demand in Mexico. Businesses shifting away from China — wary of tensions between Washington and Beijing, and chastened by the country’s years-long strict anti-COVID lockdowns — are driving investment to new markets, a senior DHL official said. As a result, the logistics company found that new storage facilities in countries such as Mexico, but also Malaysia and Vietnam, rose to capacity quickly. “Every time we think that we are taking a bigger risk,” he told the Financial Times, “we fill it up right away.”

France pushes waste and pollution curbs

French authorities proposed unusual new measures to reduce waste and pollution. From October, customers will be able to claim €7 ($7.70) for repairing a shoe and €10-€25 for mending clothes, an effort to reduce the 770,000 tons of annual clothing waste in the country. And from January 1, Paris will charge owners of SUVs and other large cars higher parking fees, aiming to encourage ownership of smaller and electric vehicles. “There are no dirt paths, no mountain roads,” one of the city’s deputy mayors said, “SUVs are absolutely useless in Paris. Worse, they are dangerous, cumbersome and use too many resources to manufacture.”

Harvard pulls dishonesty papers

Harvard requested that three papers by one of its star professors — an expert in dishonesty — be withdrawn over allegations of data manipulation. Francesca Gino has been on administrative leave for weeks after scientific sleuths spotted suspicious irregularities in some of her research. Her work had been under scrutiny after an earlier, very high-profile study she co-authored into how to promote honest behavior turned out to be based on fraudulent data. The psychologist Dan Ariely, whose book Predictably Irrational is being made into an NBC drama, sourced the data, but denied fabricating it. Other scientists who have worked with Gino are reviewing their own research for evidence of malpractice, the Financial Times reported.

Milan Kundera dies

Milan Kundera, author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, died aged 94. The Czech author was born in Brno in 1929, and broke through with his 1969 novel The Joke. But his masterpiece, 1984’s Unbearable Lightness…, about a love triangle during the 1968 anti-Soviet uprisings known as the Prague Spring, brought him to global attention. Once an enthusiastic communist, Kundera was ejected from the party in 1950. He moved to France in 1975, angered by the Czechoslovakian government’s repression of the Spring. His Czech citizenship was revoked and his books banned. He never returned: “I took my Prague with me; the smell, the taste, the language, the landscape, the culture.”

• Myanmar’s deposed and jailed leader Aung San Suu Kyi appeals against her conviction on five corruption charges at the Supreme Court.
• Film and TV studios face a midnight deadline to reach a deal with Hollywood unions and avoid a second labor strike this summer.
• Nominations for the 75th Emmy Awards are announced.

The number of Indians raised out of poverty in the last 15 years, according to the United Nations. The U.N. praised the “remarkable” progress, saying that the country along with 25 others successfully halved its poverty rate, as measured on the “Multidimensional Poverty Index,” between 2006 and 2021. Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, China, Vietnam, and Indonesia were among the others.

K-pop supergroup BTS’s first official book release topped Amazon’s bestseller list. Beyond the Story: 10-Year Record of BTS shot to No. 1 hours after its publication on Sunday. The 544-page book celebrates the 10th anniversary of the group’s debut in June 2013. It features interviews with all seven band members as well as a behind-the-scenes look at their albums and music videos. The book also includes “more than 300 scannable QR codes,” The Hollywood Reporter noted, that will let readers access trailers and other online features about the group.

• Iran is on a hacking spree. The reason why may be ominous.
• The head of the Amazon Labor Union weighed in on the company’s much-touted Prime Day: Shoppers should “have a guilty conscience.”
• Chef Tolu Eros is determined to put the West African food jollof rice on the global map. Yinka Adegoke interviewed him about his approach.