Flagship

US, Israel prepare for Iran retaliation

The US bolstered its forces in the Middle East while Israel put its military on high alert Monday to prepare for Iran’s impending attack. US intelligence believes Iran or its Lebanon-based proxy Hezbollah could strike Israel before Thursday’s Gaza ceasefire talks, possibly jeopardizing negotiations between Israel and Hamas. US President Joe Biden and his counterparts in the UK, France, Germany, and Italy discussed ways to defend Israel and prevent Iran’s retribution for the killings of militant leaders, as Washington strives to avoid a Middle East escalation before November’s presidential election, Bloomberg reported.

Musk to interview Trump

Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk will interview former US President Donald Trump on the social media platform Monday evening. The interview signals their “growing bond,” Reuters reported, as Musk’s political views have recently swung to the right despite Tesla benefiting from Democrat-championed electric vehicle subsidies that both he and Trump have criticized. “Elon tends to say he’s hostile to subsidies while Tesla is gobbling them up like a hungry Godzilla,” said one Republican strategist. The tech billionaire is handling his recent foray into US politics in “his signature hands-on, chaos-be-damned style,” The Wall Street Journal wrote. His super PAC aims to mobilize 800,000 people in battleground states to vote for Trump, who marked his return to X in dramatic fashion on Monday, Semafor reported.

Foreign investors pull out of China

China lost a record $15 billion of foreign investment last quarter, state data showed. If the decline continues through 2024, it would be the first annual net outflow of cash since at least 1990, Bloomberg reported, reflecting investors’ “deep pessimism” about China’s slowing economy as foreign firms scramble to reduce their exposure in light of Beijing’s growing hostility with the West. The US Ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns, blamed the country’s espionage laws for intimidating the business community, telling CBS News in June that the government has competing priorities: Growing the economy and maintaining national security.

Putin comments on Kyiv incursion

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that Ukraine’s counteroffensive is aimed at gaining leverage in ceasefire negotiations. Kyiv has seized 28 villages and controls nearly 400 square miles of Russia’s Kursk province in its largest incursion since the 2022 invasion, Ukrainian officials said. Putin said Ukraine’s “Western masters” were trying to improve its position before possible peace talks, which he suggested would not take place. But Kyiv’s gains are “embarrassing” for Moscow’s military, Reuters reported, and more attacks inside Russia that require unpopular mobilizations might make Putin “more amenable to stopping the war,” The National Interest argued. Meanwhile, an increasing number of Ukrainians support the idea of peace talks, Al Jazeera reported.

Wildfires devastate Athens

Thousands in Athens and surrounding areas were evacuated Monday as Greek authorities struggled to contain a devastating three-day wildfire driven by gale-force winds. Half the country remains on red alert for extreme fire risk while battling successive heatwaves. “The Mediterranean is a hot spot of the climate crisis,” one climate researcher told Euronews. Greece is particularly vulnerable because of its archipelago geography, poor forest management, and lack of infrastructure for effective evacuation and relief efforts. The government has only introduced “piecemeal interventions” that don’t address the root causes of Greece’s increased fire risk, said one Greenpeace campaigner.

Asia sets sights on the 2036 Games

As athletes dazzled at the Paris Olympics, a different competition was discreetly underway: to host the Games in 2036. The IOC reportedly held informal talks with a double-digit number of cities or countries, some of which opened hospitality houses in Paris as they sought to woo officials behind the scenes, in a process that critics say is opaque. With Asia a logical choice after Los Angeles 2028 and Brisbane 2032, Indonesia touted its infrastructure, while Nita Ambani, an IOC member and the wife of Asia’s richest man, said that hosting the Olympics was “a dream that belongs to 1.4 billion Indians.” Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey are also keen, although the mayor of Istanbul dismissed the competition, telling the Associated Press: “Personally, I’m not really interested to know what city is the competitor.”

Chernobyl’s long-term toll

The global decline of nuclear power in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster led to the loss of more than 300 million years of life, economists estimated. Until 1986, the number of nuclear power plants was rapidly increasing, but has since plateaued. A new National Bureau of Economic Research paper noted that nuclear was often replaced with coal, leading to higher levels of dangerous air pollution. Using existing estimates of the pollution’s impact on life expectancy, the paper suggested that 141 million years of life were lost in the US and 318 million worldwide.

US rejects MDMA use for PTSD

US regulators declined to approve the use of MDMA as a therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder. Research into the use of psychedelics, including MDMA, LSD, and psilocybin, in psychiatric treatment has gathered pace in recent years, with some researchers claiming dramatic effects. But there have been questions over the quality of the evidence, and some therapists using MDMA were accused of sexual misconduct with patients during a trial. The US Food and Drug Administration voted overwhelmingly against approving MDMA, citing poor trial methodology and questionable data, and saying that neither safety nor efficacy had been demonstrated. Research continues, though, and the decision is “more of a delay than a death blow to psychedelic therapy,” Vox reported.

Dairy companies target Chinese adults

Dairy companies in China are targeting grown-ups instead of babies as the country struggles with a demographic crisis. A New Zealand milk company last month announced new powdered products for Chinese adults and senior citizens, the Financial Times reported, echoing similar moves by other firms like Danone and Nestlé. Infant formula will likely have a negative volume growth rate as Chinese families have fewer children, an analytics firm predicted last year. China hit a record low of 6.4 births per 1,000 people in 2023, while the population over 60 doubled between 2000 and 2023. The imbalance is pushing Beijing to raise the retirement age in a divisive effort to save pension funds.

Rare bird thrives in Guyana

A near-extinct bird species is unexpectedly thriving in Guyana. The red siskin was once common across tropical South America, but in the last 100 years its population has declined dramatically, after being hunted for its red-and-black plumage and for domestic breeding. It was believed to only exist in Venezuela, Colombia, and Trinidad and Tobago, until in 2000 a specimen was seen in southern Guyana. Scientists working with indigenous communities established a society to protect the bird, creating a protected zone: The exact number of red siskins there remains unknown, “but we have been maintaining a stable population,” the society president told Mongabay, “and that’s already a success.” The project’s effectiveness has inspired two similar initiatives in other parts of Guyana.

August 13:

• Russian President Vladimir Putin hosts Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Moscow.
• Previously stolen jewelry worth more than $100 million goes back on display at Germany’s Green Vault museum.
• The UN Security Council holds a public meeting on the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

A new book uses a mere 50,000 words to delve into 2,000 years of Japan’s rich civilization. The strength of Lesley Downer’s The Shortest History of Japan, Nikkei wrote, lies in exploring how the country’s resilience and age-old dilemmas can inform today’s world. She manages to weave a comprehensive and colorful narrative of Japan’s complicated geopolitics, food, religion, and gender roles. The book could not be more perfectly timed, Nikkei noted, given Japan’s definitive bounce back into the global consciousness.

• Dangote refinery piles pressure on Nigerian oil regulators.
• Will Kamala Harris’ short run kill the ‘permanent campaign’?
• Democratic attacks on JD Vance are working.