Flagship

Israel, Hezbollah tiptoe to edge of war

World governments urged their citizens to leave Lebanon immediately amid the rising risk of war between Hezbollah and Israel. Several airlines have already canceled flights through Beirut, complicating any exit strategies, and some flights to Israel are also being canceled as the world holds its breath to see if Iran follows through on its vow to retaliate against Israel after a top Hamas leader was killed in a bombing in Tehran on Wednesday. Western officials believe Iran would use Hezbollah, its Lebanon-based military proxy, in a counterattack. Neither Israel nor Hezbollah wants a war, according to UK-based Chatham House think tank, but tensions are so high that one could break out if “a measured response gets out of control.”

Dozens killed in Bangladesh protests

Protesters in Bangladesh are planning a “Long March to Dhaka” Monday as demonstrators clashed with police over the weekend. Dozens of people were reported dead and many more arrested in the unrest, which has evolved from a student-led protest over job quotas to a broad anti-government movement. Protesters are calling for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to step down and demanded police accountability for the crackdown on protesters. The government should have been aware of students’ “long pent up anger and frustration” amid rising inequality, one Dhaka University academic told Bangladeshi outlet Promoth Alo. As the protests continue, Hasina faces an existential crisis as a growing coalition seeks “to retrieve their lost political identity, their self-identity,” in opposition, he added.

China aims to boost domestic demand

China is rolling out a massive $42 billion stimulus package to combat its weak post-pandemic consumer spending and economic growth. In a document released Saturday, the government lays out a plan to overhaul tourism, boost childcare and education, and create “smart cities” to help juice spending. It also announced it will help finance trade-ins on appliances and other consumer goods as part of its plans. It’s a shift from what some saw as a “bizarre unwillingness” to use more government money to boost consumer demand to meet high production. But despite the apparent willingness to change tack, rebalancing China’s economy away from reliance on investment and trade for GDP growth will be hard and slow going, analysts at Carnegie China wrote. 

Philippines, Germany agree security pact

The Philippines and Germany agreed to strengthen defense ties as Manila shores up diplomatic support to counter Beijing’s vast maritime claims in the South China Sea. China and the Philippines had tried to defuse tensions with a “tentative agreement” last month to end hostilities over a disputed shoal, but the countries’ postures toward each other don’t seem to have changed. Germany, meanwhile, has been willing to cooperate economically with China, but its stance is changing: Last year, Berlin released its first national security strategy that identified China as a threat and made clear it would prioritize foreign policy “primarily based on values,” The Diplomat wrote at the time. That could make “the goal of economic cooperation [with China] more difficult.”

Harris narrows VP field

Kamala Harris interviewed three VP contenders Sunday after she became the official Democratic presidential nominee on Friday. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly met with Harris in DC, and she is expected to announce her choice imminently. Each man brings distinct advantages: Kelly could elevate gun violence as a campaign issue, and bring swing voters in Arizona along. Walz is a galvanizing voice who minted the “weird” attack on Donald Trump and his running mate, The New York Times’ Ezra Klein wrote. The highly-popular Shapiro, meanwhile, could help secure Pennsylvania, a state Democrats almost certainly have to win.

Nvidia delay could drag on tech giants

Nvidia’s hotly anticipated new artificial intelligence chips are apparently delayed due to design flaws. The problems could push shipments of its next-gen Blackwell chips back by months from Oct. 2024 to sometime in 2025, The Information reported. Nvidia’s semiconductor chips are the workhorse of the nascent AI tech boom, giving the company an estimated 80% market share — a dominance that means its success or failure significantly impacts the health of the tech industry as a whole. The apparent delay comes as tech stocks took a beating last week, while a top hedge fund reportedly told investors Nvidia is in a “bubble land” and its tech “overhyped.”

Massive iceberg spinning in ocean

The world’s largest iceberg, A23a, is trapped in the Antarctic Ocean on top of a huge rotating block of water, a phenomenon called a Taylor Column. A23a broke off from Antarctica in 1986 — taking a Soviet research station with it — but didn’t really start to drift until 2020, eventually being picked up by the powerful Antarctic Circumpolar Current. Now the iceberg, once estimated to be about the size of the Hawaiian island Oahu, is stuck in place turning 15 degrees anticlockwise every day. As long as it’s on the Taylor Column, it won’t drift to warmer waters further north, delaying its melting. As one polar scientist told the BBC: “A23a is the iceberg that just refuses to die.”

Ukraine wins gold at Olympics

Ukraine won its first gold medal at the Paris Olympics after fencer Olga Kharlan defeated her South Korean opponent on Saturday. The victory underscores the geopolitics at this year’s Games: Kharlan’s Olympic qualification was put into jeopardy in April after she refused to shake hands with a Russian competitor at the World Fencing Championships, prompting the International Olympic Committee to step in to give her a spot in Paris. Kharlan has also called out the IOC for allowing Russians to compete as neutrals or on other teams; Kyiv argued none should be allowed. Fifteen Russians are competing as “neutral” athletes, while about 60 others have switched national allegiances to join other countries’ teams to compete in the Games.

Alphabet cashes in on interest

Google’s parent company makes more from interest on its investments than most S&P 500 companies make in total. Alphabet earned $1 billion in net interest for the three months to June, more than the profits of 397 out of the 500 companies on the stock market index, including Starbucks, Target, and the hotel chain Marriott. The company’s interest earnings have more than doubled in three years, driven by increases in interest rates boosting returns on investment and encouraging the firm to put large sums in things like US Treasuries or corporate bonds. It’s a reminder that rate changes “can have distributional consequences… far more momentous than any ‘headline’ impacts that show up in things like GDP growth,” Sherwood’s markets editor wrote.

Lunar biodiversity freezer proposal

Scientists proposed building a repository of terrestrial life on the moon in case key species die out. Conservationists at the Smithsonian suggested that a lunar storeroom could safeguard biodiversity and protect species that might one day prove useful for space exploration or terraforming. The moon is increasingly attractive as a site for such biorepositories, as those on Earth, like the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, are increasingly threatened by climate change. While such a vault would be difficult to access in an emergency, the -196°C (-320.8°F) temperature at the lunar south pole — cold enough to halt all biological processes and perfectly preserve samples without the need for extra power — is a selling point.

August 5:

• The Olympics mixed triathlon relay race takes place in Paris.
• Northrop Grumman’s resupply mission arrives at the International Space Station.
• Palantir Technologies reports its second quarter earnings for 2024.

A new exhibit at Boston’s MassArt Museum examines the human consequences of climate change. Titled “Displacement,” the exhibit spotlights the “insidious and unseen” impacts of climate change, with many of the artworks reflecting the “cumulative, incremental effects” of humanity’s own role in the crisis. Among the works are a tapestry by Canadian artist Sandra M. Sawatzky that depicts “humans’ relationship to oil over the course of millennia.” Other works are more personal: Another tapestry by Akea Brionne documents her family’s migration from Belize to Honduras, and then to New Orleans, driven by “shifting waterways that induced both flooding and drought.”

• Trump’s Social Security tax cut plan would jeopardize entitlements.
• Nigeria’s north spirals into major anti-inflation protests.
• China controls another vital ingredient for the energy transition.