Flagship

Israel blamed for exploding pagers

Israel’s Mossad spy agency planted explosives in the thousands of pagers that blew up across Lebanon on Tuesday, killing at least nine people, according to multiple reports. A Lebanese security source told Reuters that the pagers were imported by the militant group Hezbollah months earlier, and their detonation was triggered with a code. Hezbollah ordered its members to use pagers due to security concerns around phones, but Israel has a long history of using communications devices in assassinations, the Financial Times noted, including killing a Palestinian leader using explosives in his phone’s marble stand in 1972. The operation demonstrated Israel’s ability to infiltrate even its most ardent adversaries, analysts said, but risks an escalating regional conflict.

Fed to cut rates

The US Federal Reserve is expected to cut interest rates today for the first time since the pandemic, but analysts were divided over how far it would go. The unusual disagreement over the extent of today’s reduction points to the myriad questions facing the US economy, with multiple indicators suggesting growth is softening: The hedge fund giant Ray Dalio expects a quarter-percentage point cut, while a major bond investor says it will be twice that. The announcement nevertheless marks a turning point, because the Fed had lagged its peers in cutting rates. Its move will provide much-needed respite to borrowers, including renewable-energy developers reliant on loans to finance expansion and poorer nations with dollar bonds.

US complains of China overcapacity

US officials will today raise complaints over Beijing’s alleged economic overcapacity in talks with their Chinese counterparts. Washington and other Western capitals argue Chinese companies are manufacturing too much, leading to a flood of underpriced goods that undercut their own domestic companies. Those worries are amplified by China’s slowing economy, which makes it harder for the country to absorb its own production: Each year, it manufactures as much steel as the rest of the world combined, and exports are suddenly surging. Beijing dismisses such concerns, arguing that Washington simply wants to constrain its growth. The latest talks build on warnings expressed by the US Treasury Secretary during an April trip to China, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Cheap solar undercuts Pakistan’s state grid

Pakistani businesses are turning to cheap rooftop Chinese-made solar panels as electricity prices go up. The state-run electricity company has borrowed billions of dollars to finance coal plants, and payments on the debt have gone up. As the government now scales back electricity subsidies, “moneyed Pakistanis have capitalized on the country’s punishingly harsh sunlight,” the Financial Times reported, importing $1.4 billion in solar panels in the first half of 2024. “Every bit of space I have,” one factory owner said, “I want it covered in solar panels.” Pakistan’s growth in solar is mirrored in other developing countries across Asia and Africa, the climate writer Bill McKibben noted: “This won’t just transform the climate, it will transform lives.”

Cautious optimism for Harris campaign

Polls showed good news for US Vice President Kamala Harris in her race to be the next president, but her path to victory remained fraught. One survey after last week’s debate showed her six percentage points ahead of Donald Trump nationwide, while another had her three points up in Pennsylvania, a key swing state. But she is still less popular than Joe Biden was at the same point in 2020, Semafor’s Kadia Goba and David Weigel noted, particularly in the seven swing states. Harris needs to recover non-white voters, who have turned somewhat toward Trump since the last election, and reengage young voters: If the same people voted as in 2020, then she would be ahead by a greater margin.

Moscow’s dulled deterrence

Moscow’s persistent nuclear saber-rattling and Ukraine’s successful offensive into Russian territory have served to significantly weaken fears of the Kremlin’s arsenal, a prominent European columnist argued. Writing in the Swiss newspaper NZZ, Ulrich Speck wrote that “the deterrent effect of Russia’s nuclear weapons is today weaker than ever,” and that Russian President Vladimir Putin had “threatened to use nuclear arms too many times without acting.” His piece comes days after Putin warned the White House that support for Kyiv’s use of long-range missiles against Russian territory would put the West “at war” with Moscow, a threat dismissed by US President Joe Biden shortly thereafter.

Sinaloa fighting leaves 30 dead

Clashes between factions of the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel highlighted the Mexican government’s inability to control violence in the country. At least 30 people have been killed in the fighting between loyalists of ex-cartel leader Joaquín Guzmán, better known as El Chapo, and followers of Sinaloa elder statesman Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada. Remarkably, the military general responsible for the restive region said peace there “does not depend” on the security forces, in essence washing his hands of the bloodshed, El País reported. The violence comes just two weeks before incoming Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum takes office, having promised to maintain her predecessor’s security policies.

Sep. 24, 2024 | New York City | Request Invitation

President Lazarus Chakwera, Malawi, and Dr Monique Nsanzabaganwa, Deputy Chairperson, African Union Commission, will join the stage at The Next 3 Billion summit — the premier US convening dedicated to unlocking one of the biggest social and economic opportunities of our time: Connecting the unconnected.

African cities face food insecurity

Hunger is on the rise in South Africa as the cost of living soars. A report showed that 11% of Cape Town residents, 770,000 people, went hungry in 2021 as household budgets struggled to cover the costs of electricity, transport, and food. Nationwide, food insecurity — a lack of access to healthy food — affected around 2 million people. The Mail & Guardian reported that a month’s supply of basic food in Cape Town costs about $290, but that a worker on minimum wage would take home barely $260. The report found similar stories in 15 African cities across the continent, and said the problem stemmed from “deep systemic issues, not merely a lack of food.”

Drone blood deliveries in London

Blood will soon be ferried between two London hospitals by drone. Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospitals are little more than a mile apart, but in busy traffic it can take half an hour for a courier to get from one to the other. A six-month trial will see blood samples sent for testing, to see if surgery patients are at risk of bleeding disorders, sent by drones manufactured by UK startup Apian and monitored by the state aviation regulator: Deliveries should take less than two minutes, TechCrunch reported. Apian has trialed medical deliveries elsewhere in the UK and in Ireland. The move is another step towards normalizing commercial drone aviation.

India’s lucrative wedding industry

Global luxury brands are targeting India’s fast-growing high-end wedding market. India’s wedding industry is worth an estimated $130 billion — smaller than China’s but double that of the US — and its upper tier is exemplified by this summer’s mammoth wedding of Anant Ambani, the son of Asia’s richest man. Local players dominate, but international designers are looking to elbow into the upper tiers, Business of Fashion reported: Bulgari is developing a mangalsutra, a necklace tied around a bride’s neck in certain Indian communities; Christian Louboutin, which opened a wedding suite in Mumbai a decade ago, last year released an Indian wedding-focused collection. “In an otherwise value-conscious society,” the investment bank Jefferies said, “Indians love to spend on weddings.”

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• US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Cairo to discuss ceasefire efforts in Gaza.
• Indian-administered Kashmir began voting in its first local elections since the controversial cancellation of its special semi-autonomous status five years ago.
• Lopez vs Lopez, a sitcom inspired by the real lives of the starring father and daughter, returns for a second season on Netflix.

The number of years Michael Jordan’s Chicago home was on the market before finally finding a buyer. The 56,000-square-foot mansion in eight-acre grounds in posh Highland Park was originally listed in 2012 at $29 million, but the asking price slowly dropped as no takers came forward. It’s now under contract, for an undisclosed price to an undisclosed buyer. A realtor told Sportico that the owner’s fame meant it got a lot of viewings, but “a lot of people just wanted to tour it — it is not that they wanted to buy it.”

Alvaro Barrington: Grace at London’s Tate Britain museum. The exhibition, an homage by the Caracas-born artist to the women who shaped his life, “evokes his origins and his journey to be here now,” The Guardian said in its four-star review. “It is full of life.” The exhibition continues through January 2025.

• Trump and Harris have the same oil problem.
• New York Times’ tech staff threatens strike during Election Day crunch.
• Kamala Harris and Hakeem Jeffries: The duo who could run Washington.