Flagship

Harris to accept Democrat nomination

Kamala Harris will accept the Democratic presidential nomination Thursday, marking the second time in American history a woman has led a major party’s White House campaign. Harris has seen a surge in popularity since replacing President Joe Biden atop the ticket last month — her favorability rating has increased 13 percentage points since June — but her previous convention speeches haven’t made much of an impact, Politico wrote: She delivered a “listless” 2012 speech and in 2020 spoke to a nearly empty room during the Democrats’ virtual convention at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. But one Harris delegate said she has spent four years “getting better at speaking.”

Markets await Powell speech

Stock markets had mixed reactions ahead of remarks by US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who is expected on Friday to offer hints as to whether policymakers will cut rates in September. Despite cooling inflation and low unemployment, Powell will be fending off critics who argued the Fed has kept rates too high for too long. In the US, the Dow and NASDAQ fell after rising all week, which Barron’s attributed to weak manufacturing numbers and pre-Jackson Hole jitters. Asian indexes, meanwhile, rallied as investors anticipated fresh liquidity. But a rate cut won’t solve all problems: The Fed will need to enact several cuts over several months to address the housing affordability crisis, one Moody’s economist said.

Taiwan, Dalai Lama meetings in US

US visits this week by Taiwan’s top government officials and Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader are likely to irritate China and further inflame tensions between Beijing and Washington. The secret meeting between Taipei and Washington — which neither the White House nor Taiwan’s de facto US embassy confirmed took place — is “one of the most sensitive and important mechanisms in global politics today,” a former White House Asia adviser told the Financial Times, as the US grows increasingly worried about Beijing’s cross-strait aggression. Meanwhile, China said it was “gravely concerned” about Wednesday’s meeting between US government officials and the Dalai Lama, whom Beijing considers a dangerous separatist.

Baidu revenue falls amid AI push

Beijing-based tech giant Baidu’s push into artificial intelligence failed to boost its biggest source of revenue amid an AI price war in China. The company’s quarterly revenue decline was driven by a $2.69 billion loss in online marketing revenue, Nikkei reported. CEO Robin Li acknowledged in a conference call Thursday that domestic AI competition will continue to be fierce, as rivals slash prices of large language models. He also said that China’s low consumer spending meant advertisers were more cautious about spending on the platform. Still, Li touted the company’s edge over competitors in China, claiming that Baidu’s LLM, Ernie, handled the highest number of daily requests to its system compared to others.

Indonesia scraps election law overhaul

Indonesian lawmakers scrapped plans to revise the country’s election laws after widespread protests Thursday. Critics said the plan was outgoing President Joko Widodo’s attempt at consolidating power by blocking a vocal critic from running for the post of Jakarta’s governor and making it easier for Widodo’s youngest son to run for local office. Foreign investors have approved of Widodo’s handling of the Southeast Asian country’s economy for a decade, but voters have grown increasingly frustrated with his attempts at retaining power, including tapping his eldest son to be vice president in the next administration. “The people are angry at the ongoing manipulation of our democratic system,” one political scientist told Al Jazeera.

Venezuela Supreme Court backs Maduro

Venezuela’s Supreme Court on Thursday certified President Nicolás Maduro as the winner of July’s disputed election. The decision from Maduro’s hand-picked justices was widely expected, and their ruling cannot be appealed, a top lawmaker said. Despite the United Nations warning that the court was not impartial, the ruling may shift international support in favor of Maduro, The Wall Street Journal wrote: Friendly neighbors like Brazil and Mexico previously said they would wait for the courts to decide on the election. And “the appetite for a renewed pressure campaign involving sanctions… is slim,” Latin American analyst Oliver Stuenkel argued, as previous US-imposed sanctions failed to topple Maduro and worsened the country’s economic and migrant crisis.

Nights of Net Zero — Powering the Future: Can the Grid Keep Up?

September 23, 2024 | New York City | Request Invitation

Join Semafor for an evening reception with conversations featuring David Hardy, Group EVP and CEO Americas, Ørsted and Kathleen Barrón, EVP and Chief Strategy Officer, Constellation. With growing demand for clean energy to power AI and its transformative benefits, the biggest companies are seeking new sources of power. What are the most efficient ways the energy sector can meet the moment and maintain clean, reliable energy for all consumers?

Nights of Net Zero — Climate Advancements & Innovations

September 25, 2024 | New York City | Request Invitation

Join Kara Mangone, Head of the Sustainable Finance Group at Goldman Sachs, and Mary de Wysocki, SVP and Chief Sustainability Officer at Cisco, for an evening of forward-looking discussions on climate finance and AI’s role in advancing low-carbon technologies. As AI enhances climate projects by forecasting risks and boosting energy efficiency, questions remain about whether its energy demands could outweigh the benefits. The conversation will address these concerns while exploring how to ensure investments reach the regions most impacted by climate change.

Climate change role in yacht tragedy

UK tech tycoon Mike Lynch and Morgan Stanley executive Jonathan Bloomer were confirmed dead after a superyacht wrecked off the coast of Sicily. Lynch, once described as “Britain’s Bill Gates,” was on board with 21 others Monday when the vessel appeared to be hit by a waterspout — a tornado that forms over water rather than land. It’s unclear exactly why the yacht sank, but climate change likely played a role: Waterspouts typically form over tropical water, but they are becoming more common elsewhere as the oceans heat up. This disaster “may be warning of what’s to come” as such extreme warming continues, scientists told CNN.

What climate policies work

A study of 1,500 climate interventions found only 63 meaningfully cut carbon emissions. The research, published in the journal Science, spanned 1998-2022 and found that single-issue policies, like banning coal plants, didn’t work as well as a mixed approach in reducing emissions. But “more policies do not necessarily lead to better outcomes… Instead, the right mix of measures is crucial,” lead author Nicolas Koch noted. Among the mixes that worked the best to cut carbon emissions were those combining tax credits and pricing incentives. “This work illustrates the kinds of policy efforts that are needed to close the emissions gaps in various economic sectors,” one of the editors at Science noted.

Gel learns to play video game

Scientists “taught” a synthetic gel to play Pong, a feat that suggests such materials can utilize a kind of memory. They replicated previous research showing neurons in a dish could learn to play the classic video game when stimulated with electricity, this time using a kind of ionized hydrogel. When hit with electricity, the ions moved through the gel, changing its shape. Researchers then hooked the gel up to the game and tried to get it to move in corresponding directions to the ball. The gel got markedly better at “hitting” the ball the longer it played. “The system demonstrates memory in a similar way that a river bed records a memory of a river,” one scientist told Nature.

TikTok causes cucumber shortage

A worldwide TikTok craze for cucumber salads has led to a shortage of the vegetable in Iceland. After recipes posted by influencer Logan Moffitt — known as “cucumber guy” to his fans — went viral, Icelandic shoppers emptied stores, with one grocery chain forced to fly in an emergency shipment from the Netherlands, The New York Times reported. It’s not the first time social media has disrupted food supply chains, with previous crazes sparking runs on feta cheese and Kewpie mayonnaise. Reykjavik resident Daniel Sigthorsson visited three shops looking for cucumbers but came away empty-handed. “I was like, ‘That’s weird,’” he told The Times. “That’s one of the things we never run out of in Iceland. And then I saw the news.”

• Independent US presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is expected to announce that he is ending his campaign.
• London’s mayor unveils the design of the city’s first monument to victims of transatlantic slavery.
• French President Emmanuel Macron meets party leaders to discuss appointing a new prime minister.

WeChat is the center of the Chinese internet — powering everything from messaging to payments — and the main portal where China’s news outlets and bloggers publish their work.

I do and don’t

China this month made it easier to marry and harder to divorce. Couples will no longer require a húkǒu — the household registration certificate that determines what government benefits you receive — to get hitched, while those who want to break up will now have a 30-day “cool-off” period where either party can withdraw divorce papers. Beijing is afraid that people are “too calm when it comes to marriage, and too impulsive when it comes to divorce,” argued the Yànshū Lóu social commentary blog.

But the changes, Yànshū Lóu wrote, might actually further dissuade couples from marrying because they show that Beijing believes in “freedom of marriage but not freedom of divorce.” China needs the “right medicine to treat the right diagnosis,” and Beijing has failed to diagnose that Chinese youth — particularly women — don’t want children because they cannot afford it and are too restricted by society.

Meat sweats

The Wei Qingchun barbecue chain is one of the hottest food options in China, but it’s not because of the cooking: Customers pick from a selection of meat skewers at the front of the restaurant before grilling them themselves over an open flame at their table. It’s part of the “no service, all self-service” dining trend taking off in China, according to the Hóng Cān food blog.

But even with minimal staff costs, many smaller, mom-and-pop restaurants are starting to struggle, Hóng Cān wrote. Shortages of ingredients — and their rising prices — have been exacerbated this summer by extreme weather like flooding and scorching heat. And because customers are the ones doing the cooking, they linger longer, taking up valuable table real estate that could be attracting new diners.

Actively changing

Outdoor activities are booming in China, and transforming its fashion scene. Views for videos on activities like hiking, biking, and camping on Xiaohongshu — an app similar to Instagram — increased by 300% between 2022 and 2023, according to the Late Post business blog, and the growing interest is driving how people dress. “Fast fashion has withdrawn from popular shopping malls” and has been replaced with brands like Canada’s Arc’teryx and The North Face, it wrote.

Chinese brands are struggling to compete. The company Jiaoxia — which primarily makes hats and sunglasses — tried to cater to the new trend with jacket options that better protect against sunlight. But Jiaoxia is not “strongly associated with specific sports like brands such as Nike, Arc’teryx, or Lululemon are,” Late Post wrote, and it has had to slash prices to drive sales. There are smaller Chinese brands also hoping to catch on to the outdoor craze, but “there is no room for 500 brands to survive.”

A Claude Monet painting is expected to fetch up to $35 million when it goes under the hammer at Christie’s new Asia headquarters in Hong Kong next month. Completed in 1899, Nymphéas was among the first in the Impressionist artist’s famous Water Lilies series, and is one of the most valuable Western artworks ever offered for sale in Asia. While global auction houses have steadily built their Asia presence over the past decade — Sotheby’s and Bonhams are also inaugurating headquarters in Hong Kong this year — live auctions of paintings with such a high price tag are rare. “The decision to offer the Monet can be read as a vote of confidence in the region,” Artnet wrote.

• Harris’ ‘Goldilocks’ economic agenda.
• Russian mercenaries in Africa are increasingly active.
• Kyiv, Moscow adapt to Ukrainian presence on Russian soil as ‘new normal.’