Flagship

Harris chooses Walz as running mate

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate Tuesday, a selection that analysts said could broaden her appeal in must-win swing states. Democrats heralded Walz, a military veteran and former teacher, as a pragmatic choice given his progressive track record and history of winning in rural, conservative areas. Donald Trump’s campaign, meanwhile, hopes to portray him as a “cornucopia of liberal psychosis,” Semafor reported. Walz’s foreign policy stances are relatively muted, but he does have some global experience: He taught English in China for a year and coordinated student trips to the country, but has since been outspoken about oppression there. The ChinaTalk newsletter called him “a Sinophile deeply concerned with human rights.”

Taiwan announces record defense budget

Taiwan’s defense budget will reach an all-time high of nearly $20 billion next year, President Lai Ching-te said Tuesday. Taipei is seeking to bolster its defense capabilities as China, which claims the self-governing island, ramps up military pressure and rhetoric. But Taiwan’s preparations for a Chinese invasion face several obstacles: Many young Taiwanese are resisting government efforts to extend mandatory military service and revamp training for reservists, The Washington Post reported. Meanwhile, the US — Taiwan’s critical defense partner — would likely be stretched to defend the island, given the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. And a second Donald Trump presidency could “determine whether Taiwan can continue to exist as a relatively independent political entity,” DW wrote.

Hamas names Sinwar as new chief

Hamas named its new leader as Yahya Sinwar — the architect of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel — following last week’s assassination of its political chief. Sinwar is the militant group’s only major figure who has remained out of Israel’s reach after the recent killings of several high-profile leaders. The 61-year-old is believed to be hiding in Gaza and reportedly evades Israeli detection by using notes and oral messages to communicate with Hamas members. Sinwar has always been more reluctant to agree to a ceasefire in Gaza than other leaders, experts said, and has a reputation for being calculated and cunning. One Palestinian activist told The New Yorker’s David Remnick: “Sinwar is in every home in Palestine. He is the most important Palestinian in the world.”

Bangladesh’s new interim leader

Bangladesh tapped Nobel Prize-winning economist Muhammad Yunus to head its interim government on Tuesday, fulfilling the demand of protesters who forced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign and flee the country. Yunus lauded the student-led movement for helping Bangladesh “[earn] its independence” from autocracy in an Economist op-ed published before his appointment. He called for a “new generation of young leaders” to help him lead the country through its “second liberation.” But the interim government’s democratic ambitions will be tested by whether it can actually reform state institutions to ensure true public participation, a columnist for The Daily Star newspaper argued. Its failure to do so “will push us from the frying pan into the fire.”

UK could summon Musk over riots

Elon Musk could be summoned before the UK parliament over X’s alleged role in fueling the country’s far-right riots, Politico reported. Violent anti-Muslim attacks have gripped the UK after three children were killed in a knife assault last week. British lawmakers accused Musk’s social media platform of spreading misinformation about the attacker’s identity: He was wrongly identified as a Muslim asylum seeker, leading rioters to attack a mosque. Musk himself has stoked divisiveness on X, writing that “civil war is inevitable” in the UK. Experts warn that X has failed to stop right-wing misinformation, and studies suggest the tech billionaire has made the site more right-leaning by courting conservative leaders: Donald Trump on Tuesday announced that Musk will interview him next week.

Russia disrupts Olympics with AI

Despite an Olympics participation ban, Russia is making its presence felt through an extensive social media disinformation campaign, The Associated Press reported. At least 30,000 social media bots linked to a Russian group are spreading false content, including an AI-enhanced video featuring a lookalike of French President Emmanuel Macron complaining about Paris’ cleanliness. Russian networks also amplified the culture war debate over Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, whose Olympic win triggered unsubstantiated claims about her gender identity. Russia has a long history of undermining the Olympics, a Microsoft security report said: “If they cannot participate in or win the Games, then they seek to undercut, defame, and degrade the international competition.”

Hiroshima survivors’ warning

UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned of a “real and present” danger of nuclear war on the 79th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing on Tuesday. The few remaining survivors of Hiroshima — known as hibakusha in Japanese — wonder “whether the world has learned anything from their trauma,” The New York Times wrote, or if global powers “are on a collision course to repeat it.” The US, China, and Russia are spending trillions of dollars modernizing their stockpiles, and diplomatic efforts to quell nuclear tensions have stalled. “Until we die, we want to tell our story, because it’s difficult to imagine,” said one survivor. The Hiroshima Peace Memorial ceremony wasn’t without controversy: Anti-war activists gathered in the Japanese city Tuesday to denounce Israel’s invitation to the event.

Japanese app to translate ‘light novels’

A Japanese publisher will launch an app bringing artificial intelligence-translated versions of light novels to English language readers. Light novels are manga-like illustrated works of fiction for younger readers. Around 1,500 are published, usually in paperback, every year in Japan. The new app will feature a library of about 400 titles within two years. Shogakukan, a major light-novel publisher, has only translated a handful into English before now because the cost is prohibitive — it hopes that AI-assisted translation will bring those costs down and allow it to expand overseas, where its major rival has already taken the lead, Nikkei reported. The growth of anime and manga is fuelling demand for the novels in the West.

Money buys happiness, study says

Money does buy happiness, and continues to do so indefinitely, new research suggests. A 2010 study found that self-reported happiness plateaus with an income of around $60,000 to $90,000 a year, but a reanalysis by researchers at the Wharton School last year suggested that the ceiling was more like $500,000. Now, those same scientists found that people whose net worth is in the millions and billions reported a significantly higher average level of happiness than those earning hundreds of thousands. “The magnitude of the difference between the low and high end of incomes is gigantic,” the author told Bloomberg.

Ex-restaurant critic can now be a regular

A former restaurant critic revealed the thing she had missed most before quitting her much-envied gig: Being a regular. After 20 years of sitting “on a backless stool somewhere with the lighting of a sex dungeon,” Marina O’Loughlin wrote in the Financial Times, she now returns frequently to a particular Italian restaurant in central London, ordering the same veal Milanese each time. It’s a relief not to have to scramble to get on restaurant waiting lists, O’Loughlin wrote, and “incredibly comforting to go somewhere you know won’t disappoint.” It’s also good for the venues: “True regulars are treasures,” she wrote, a more reliable source of income than “the camera-phone evangelists” turning up for an Instagram shot.

August 7:

• Walt Disney, Sony, and Lyft release their earnings reports.
• Celine Dion’s and Lady Gaga’s outfits at the Olympics opening ceremony are displayed at Paris’ Dior gallery.
• Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance campaigns in Michigan and Wisconsin.

A shaman, a singer with 27 million social media followers, and an entirely silent character are among the contestants locked in a battle for attention in a new Korean reality show landing on Netflix this week. The latest in South Korea’s wildly popular “survival show” format, The Influencer pits TikTokers against YouTube stars in a popularity contest; their follower counts are displayed on electronic collars as they dole out likes and dislikes to their fellow contestants. There are “fascinating hierarchies at play,” The Guardian observed: The YouTubers look down on their TikTok peers, while actual celebrities are disdainfully regarded as out of touch. “It offers a bleak assessment of the future of the human psyche and it is horribly compelling,” the reviewer wrote.

• Harris’s VP pick broke through on the US’ biggest climate challenge.
• Where Democratic VP pick Tim Walz stands on China, Israel, and Ukraine.
• What’s behind stock selloff? “Very little panic” but plenty of fear.