Flagship

Israel minister denounced by West

Western leaders denounced the visit by a far-right Israeli minister to Jerusalem’s most contested site. Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir led hundreds of Jewish Israelis into the al-Aqsa mosque compound, known to Jews as Temple Mount, flouting a ban on Jewish prayer there. His visit spotlighted growing fractures in Israel’s coalition government, forcing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to publicly rebuke a senior minister for the second time this week. The move makes the prospect of progress in talks to pause the Gaza war — which has thus far left nearly 40,000 dead after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks that killed 1,100 — even more remote, with negotiations ostensibly set to resume on Thursday.

Moscow diverts troops over Kyiv push

Russia diverted troops from Ukraine to defend itself against Kyiv’s incursion into its territory. Ukraine has not publicly outlined its goals for the surprise incursion — which Kyiv says has resulted in it taking control of about 400 square miles (1,000 square kilometers) of Russian land — but analysts have variously suggested it wants to boost domestic morale, draw Moscow’s forces away from frontlines in eastern Ukraine, and win a bargaining chip in any future negotiations to end the war. Kyiv’s battlefield successes came with European nations ramping up their own military capacity: Poland signed a $10 billion deal to buy nearly 100 Apache helicopters, underscoring how the continent, once divided over debt and migration, is now focused on security.

US weighing Google breakup

US antitrust authorities are reportedly mulling whether to push for the breakup of Google to undo its dominance of the online search market. Officials are also considering forcing the company to share data with rivals and discussing measures to prevent it from using its size to gain an unfair advantage in artificial intelligence, Bloomberg reported. News of the deliberations came after a landmark ruling last week declared Google to be an illegal monopoly. Any effort to break up Google — potentially including cleaving off its Chrome browser or Android mobile operating system, according to The New York Times — would be the first of its kind since Washington unsuccessfully sought to do the same to Microsoft in the 2000s.

Thai court dismisses PM

Thailand’s highest court dismissed the country’s prime minister, plunging the government into renewed turmoil. Judges pointed to his decision to appoint a cabinet minister who had served jail time as an ethics violation, forcing a reset of his governing alliance and casting doubt on an apparent truce between the party of the prime minister, an ally of billionaire and political heavyweight Thaksin Shinawatra, and Thailand’s powerful royal family and military. It comes just days after judges dissolved another popular political party, which had campaigned on reforming the establishment, and marks the latest chapter in a two-decade saga that has seen coups and court rulings oust governments and upend Thai politics.

Japan PM to resign

Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio announced he will resign next month. Kishida has battled low approval ratings and a funding scandal since the start of his term in 2021. The shakeup comes at a critical moment for Japan, which, under Kishida, has taken a more forceful security role in the Pacific and deepened its defense cooperation pact with the US in the face of rising threats from China. Kishida’s resignation “opens the door to a chaotic era,” with at least half a dozen former ministers vying for his party’s top job, a Bloomberg columnist who covers Japan argued.

Harris redraws US electoral map

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris leads Republican Donald Trump in all but one battleground state, a major improvement on her predecessor President Joe Biden’s performance. Harris joining the race has “re-expanded the map” for Democrats in November’s election, The New York Times’ Ezra Klein said in an interview with pollster Nate Silver, the latter of whom forecasted that typically solidly-Republican states such as North Carolina and Georgia may now be in play. Her surge has also cratered support for third-party candidates, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is now polling in the mid-single digits down from a peak of 22%, Semafor’s David Weigel noted.

UN experts slam Venezuela vote

A panel of United Nations experts said Venezuela’s disputed election lacked “basic transparency and integrity.” President Nicolás Maduro claimed victory but the Venezuelan opposition says he lost the vote by a two-to-one margin. Despite vocal condemnation, Western powers and regional leaders have taken little serious action against Caracas, while Maduro — backed by the country’s military — has ramped up a crackdown on the opposition, with the number of political detainees growing eightfold since the vote. “Nobody knows how long it will take, but without a doubt there are painful days that await us,” the leader of the opposition said.

Our sun’s activity is peaking, sending billions of particles crashing into Earth’s atmosphere. In the coming weeks, expect beautiful auroras and strong solar flares that might disrupt satellites and radio signals. Stay updated with this story and more with Today in Science, a free daily newsletter from Scientific American. Subscribe for free.

Mpox health emergency

Mpox was declared a public health emergency in Africa. Since the start of the year, almost 14,000 cases and 450 deaths have been recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo — where the highly contagious disease has long been endemic — and health authorities are alarmed at the speed at which it has spread to other countries. Meanwhile, World Health Organization officials are meeting to determine whether it constitutes a “public health emergency of international concern,” its highest alert level. The biggest obstacle to preventing mpox’s spread is the lack of vaccines: One African public health body said it has just 200,000 of the more than 10 million it needs.

How China combats sand with sun

Chinese authorities are building a huge wall of solar panels in a bid to combat desertification. The 250-mile (400-kilometer) stretch in the Kubuqi Desert in Inner Mongolia, west of Beijing, will generate an estimated 100 gigawatts of electricity and combines two of the country’s priorities: expanding its solar-power industry and halting the encroachment of the desert into urban areas and fertile land. The effort faces huge challenges, like building out the transmission capacity to get the electricity from the desert to China’s economic hubs, which lie along or near its coast. But the payoff could also be enormous, and offers a case study for countries globally combating desertification.

New Banksys across London

At least nine new Banksy artworks have appeared in London. The mysterious artist’s stenciled graffiti is hugely popular: One of his pieces, partially shredded in a stunt to make a point about the ephemerality of art or something, sold for $25 million at auction. The new works include a mountain goat near Kew, two elephants in Chelsea, and a police box painted to look like a fish tank full of piranhas. Not everyone enjoys them — his works are frequently defaced or removed, and at least two of the most recent are already gone — but no doubt we will see several weeks of speculation about what Banksy intended to convey with this urban menagerie.

• Sudan peace talks are expected to begin in Geneva.
• Kiribati holds the first round of its general election.
• Pakistan marks its 77th Independence Day.

The share of widely cited academic papers on battery technology that come from researchers in China, compared to just 12% from the US. Chinese companies — working on discoveries made in the US and elsewhere in the West — have come to dominate battery production, notably for EVs. China’s progress in battery technology is largely supported by state backing for STEM subjects: Whereas a majority of Chinese students are STEM majors, just a fifth of US undergraduates are.

A Philosophy of Walking, by Frédéric Gros. The 2008 book, recently translated into English, explores the “profound effect” walking can have “on meditation, thinking, inspiring creativity, and even soothing troubled souls,” a European Council on Foreign Relations senior policy fellow said in the think tank’s roundup of staff favorites. The book is short, “well-written, clear, and precise.” Buy it from your local bookshop.

• Kamala Harris’ campaign races to stay one step ahead of online backlash.
• Android phones get an AI upgrade.
• Conservative indie publishing boom turns to bust.