Flagship

Israel targets Hezbollah leader

Israel said its “targeted” attack in a Beirut suburb on Tuesday killed a senior Hezbollah leader. Officials said the air strike in a stronghold of the Iran-backed militant group, which Lebanon said caused dozens of civilian casualties, was in retaliation for a deadly rocket attack in Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. Israel considered the Beirut strike as concluding its response, but one official cautioned that “whether this expands into a wider war is pretty much up to Hezbollah on how they react.” Hezbollah previously warned of a response to its senior leaders being targeted, and US and Arab diplomats now fear the situation could spiral, The Wall Street Journal reported. However, one analyst argued the incident shows “how exposed Hezbollah is to Israeli intelligence,” likely constraining any future retaliation.

US boosts Philippines’ defense

The US pledged $500 million in military aid to boost the Philippines’ defense in the face of Beijing’s aggression in the South China Sea. The “unprecedented” investment was Washington’s “clear message of support” to the Philippines, the US defense secretary said during meetings in Manila, and comes at an especially fraught time, The New York Times wrote: China has ramped up its hostile maritime actions, while the US’ uncertain political landscape is making Asian leaders nervous. The Biden administration’s embrace of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was described by a Manila analyst as “unprecedented love-bombing,” illustrating Washington’s anxiety to counter China in the region, Reuters reported last year. China recently said that it did not take kindly to “third parties” meddling in regional maritime tensions.

TSMC expands to Europe

The world’s biggest chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), will begin constructing its first European plant in Germany next month, Nikkei reported. The self-governing island’s most valuable company is partnering with European chipmakers including Infineon and Robert Bosch to build the $10.8 billion plant, as the EU hopes to localize chip production. TSMC’s foreign expansion — including two facilities in Japan and Arizona — comes as the company has tried to allay fears that it could abandon its home base amid China’s increasing military aggression toward Taiwan. It could also ramp up competition with US chipmakers in Germany: Both Intel and Wolfspeed’s plans to build plants in the country have been pushed back.

Temu suppliers fight back

Hundreds of Temu suppliers protested outside its offices in Guangzhou, China on Monday over what they say are unfair penalties. Tensions have been building for months between merchants and the popular digital marketplace after its parent company, PDD Holdings, began sharply increasing fines for missing delivery deadlines or mismatched product listings, Bloomberg reported, and in many cases without clear explanation. Temu’s rapid global expansion has turned PDD into one of China’s most valuable e-commerce companies, rivaling global giants like Alibaba and Amazon. But its subsidized price model is questionable: Temu loses about $30 for every US order and continually pressures merchants to keep costs to a minimum, WIRED reported last year. “Temu may not be able to offer its current low prices indefinitely,” one Morgan Stanley analyst predicted.

Japan to discuss interest rate hike

All eyes are on Tokyo as the Bank of Japan is set to decide whether to raise interest rates Wednesday. Unlike other major economies that began hiking borrowing costs in 2021 or 2022 to cool economies overheated by post-pandemic exuberance, Japan only did so in March. The country has fought slow growth and falling prices for much of this century, and so kept its interest rates low or even negative to spur growth. In the past few years, it has shouldered painful inflation that has hurt Japanese consumers and sent the yen to a 38-year low against the dollar. Now, Japan is setting the stage “for an era of steady interest rate hikes by claiming victory in its long battle with deflation,” Reuters wrote.

Wind, solar outpace EU fossil fuels

Wind and solar generated more electricity than fossil fuels in the European Union in the first half of this year. Despite increasing demand and prices returning to pre-Ukraine war levels, fossil fuels generated 17% less electricity than the year before, making up 27% of the EU’s electricity, an all-time low. Wind and solar accounted for 30%, and outpaced fossil fuels in more than half of member states. The rapid growth marks a “permanent structural change,” the analyst group Ember said in a report, as huge amounts of new renewable capacity come online. The next challenge will be to make it easier to link the new resources to the grid and “ensure that economic, security and climate benefits are delivered across Europe.”

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61-year-old wins at the Olympics

At 61, Ni Xia Lian became the oldest table tennis player to win a match at the Olympics after defeating her 31-year-old Turkish rival. On Wednesday she faces the top-ranked women’s single player, who at 23 wasn’t born when Ni made her Olympic debut for Luxembourg at the 2000 Games, The Washington Post wrote. Ni, who left her native China because of “too much competition” in the sport, hasn’t advanced past the third round of the Olympics women’s singles event since 2008. She’s an inspiration to former national teammate, Chinese-Chilean Zeng Zhiying, who made her Olympic debut for Chile this year at the age of 58 after taking up table tennis again during the pandemic.

Teen survives deadly brain-eating amoeba

An Indian teenager became one of the very few people in the world to survive a rare brain-eating amoeba, thanks to his father’s social media skills. Afnan Jasim, 14, was likely infected with the amoeba after swimming in a pond in the southern state of Kerala, and soon developed seizures and severe headaches. His father, who had seen a local hospital’s online awareness campaign about the disease, spotted his symptoms and doctors were able to diagnose Jasim with Primary Amoebic Meningoencephalitis (PAM) within 24 hours. Timely diagnosis is key to surviving PAM, which has a 97% mortality rate, the BBC reported: Only eight people survived the disease across Australia, the US, Mexico, and Pakistan between 1971 and 2023, and all cases were diagnosed within five days.

Self-storage booms worldwide

The self-storage industry is booming globally as real estate markets change. Housing cost increases in major cities have pushed space to a premium, leading more people to keep their belongings outside the home: In the UK, the self-storage industry reached £1 billion ($1.3 billion) in revenue for the first time last year, 16 new facilities opened in Canada, and demand rose in much of Asia. Meanwhile, the growth of hybrid working means demand for commercial real estate is often falling in the same cities, freeing up offices to serve as storage units. “Urbanisation is just a fact of life,” one company owner told the BBC. “I don’t know how practical it is to expect everyone to actually store their items at home.”

Graduates struggle with English

Australian universities are giving degrees to overseas students who struggle to speak or write English, more than a dozen academics and students told The Guardian. One tutor said that foreign students write essays using artificial intelligence, and as many as half “walk away with a master’s degree… without being able to understand a sentence.” Universities’ reliance on the higher fees paid by international students has “hollowed out academic integrity,” the newspaper wrote. UK universities tell a similar story: One academic told Flagship that he was “embarrassed” for two Chinese students at his institution who “couldn’t put a sentence together,” while a university recruiter told The Times of London that “profit motive is overriding the drive for quality.”

July 31:

• US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets Singapore’s Ambassador-at-Large Chan Heng Chee.
• French researcher Laurent Vinatier appears in a Moscow court after pleading guilty to illegally collecting sensitive Russian military information.
• A documentary about a record-breaking Nepali mountaineer, Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa, premieres on Netflix.

The iconic bikini worn by Star Wars’ Princess Leia in Return of the Jedi sold for $175,000 at a Hollywood auction. Worn by Leia after she is forced into slavery by Jabba the Hutt, the costume — a glitzy, seven-piece ensemble including hip rings, an armlet and a bracelet — became a cult favorite for Star Wars fans, but also attracted significant criticism for over-sexualizing the character. The late Carrie Fisher, who played Leia in the franchise, told NPR in 2016 that she was uncomfortable being “nearly naked” while filming. “It wasn’t my choice. When (director George Lucas) showed me the outfit, I thought he was kidding and it made me very nervous,” Fisher said.

• African governments on edge as youth plan Kenya-style protests.
• US labor market reaches unusual balance between hires, fires, and quits.
• Kamala Harris’ confusing record on immigration is under the microscope.