Flagship

Israeli air strikes hit Lebanon

Israel said its air force hit 100 Hezbollah rocket launchers in southern Lebanon Thursday night as fears of a wider regional war grew stronger. The airstrikes were some of the most intense so far of the conflict on Israel’s northern border, the BBC reported. They followed a series of deadly explosions in Lebanon as booby-trapped pagers and walkie-talkies killed dozens, attacks widely blamed on Israel although it has not acknowledged them. Hezbollah’s leader said the attacks were “a declaration of war,” promising retaliation. Israel is turning its focus towards Hezbollah as its Gaza campaign winds down: This week its defense minister said the war’s “center of gravity is moving northward,” to the Lebanese border, calling it “the start of a new phase” in the conflict.

Tunisia jails opposition candidate

Tunisia’s government jailed a leading opposition figure ahead of next month’s election. Ayachi Zammel, one of just two candidates approved to run against the authoritarian President Kais Saied, was sentenced to 20 months over alleged forgery: His campaign said the move was politically motivated. Saied has cracked down on the opposition and “extinguished hopes of a fair vote,” the Financial Times reported, arresting rivals and dismantling institutions since his 2019 election. Nonetheless, European countries have been working with Tunisia to reduce cross-Mediterranean migration: The European Union pledged it $120 million in funding to combat smuggling, and The Guardian reported that Brussels is “turning a blind eye” to a series of human rights abuses against migrants by its national guard.

Haiti plans long-delayed elections

Haiti began moves towards holding its first elections since 2016 — although they may not take place until 2026. The Caribbean nation’s last president was murdered in 2021 and its prime minister resigned in April, prevented from returning to the country after an overseas trip as armed gangs seized the airport. Those gangs now control much of the capital: A multinational security force sent to wrest it back is underfunded and understaffed, and has had little success. The US Secretary of State urged the country to move forward with electoral plans in a recent visit, and the government on Wednesday set up a provisional electoral council with the task of organizing elections by February 2026.

Why are Silicon Valley’s CEOs more likely to be found gabbing on a podcast about their fashion choices than quoted in The New York Times? When did the media and tech break up, who is to blame, and who wins and loses when hard questions are optional? To answer these questions, Ben and Nayeema speak with Jason Calacanis, host of This Week in Startups and co-host of All-In, who has thrived in this new media landscape. On All-In, Jason has interviewed tech titans and political figures like Marc Benioff, Elon Musk, JD Vance, and Donald Trump. Together, they explore whether “CEO safe spaces” come at the cost of tough, hardball interviews.

Catch up with the latest episode of Mixed Signals.

BoJ keeps interest rates steady

The Bank of Japan held interest rates steady, signaling confidence in an economic recovery. While the rest of the developed world struggles with high inflation, Japan has for a long time worried about the opposite problem: Deflation, which can hurt an economy as consumers put off purchases waiting for prices to fall. The BoJ had negative interest rates for eight years to incentivize spending as part of a decades-long stimulus program, only pushing them positive in March this year. The bank said that consumer spending was still increasing, and that if trends continued it would increase rates further.

Myanmar war threatens China trade route

Myanmar’s bloody civil war is obstructing Beijing’s plans for a major trade route. China invested heavily in rail links through its southwestern neighbor to a sea port it is building on Myanmar’s coast, giving its industries access to global markets via the Indian Ocean. But a 2021 coup kicked out Myanmar’s elected leader, triggering a mass opposition movement to the now ruling junta: The military regime has lost control of much of the country, including along the economic corridor, putting the multibillion-dollar project at risk. The junta suspects Beijing of backing both sides, noting that rebel groups are using Chinese-made weapons, and an international relations analyst told the BBC that China thinks the regime is “incompetent” and is pushing for elections.

Schizophrenia drug hopes

The first truly novel treatment for schizophrenia in 70 years may soon be approved in the US. Existing drugs for the condition, which can cause delusions and hallucinations, inhibit the uptake of dopamine, a brain chemical involved in reward and enjoyment. But that has profound side effects. Patients are often left with dulled emotions, and many come off the drugs. The new drug, KarXT, targets the production of dopamine only in certain brain regions, and has fewer side effects. One researcher told the Financial Times that a patient of his had returned to work for the first time in 10 years after going on the drug. The Food and Drug Administration is expected to decide this month whether to allow doctors to prescribe KarXT.

Weight-loss pioneers win research prize

Three scientists who pioneered the development of new anti-obesity drugs won a top research prize. The Lasker Awards honor medical research advances, and are often seen as a bellwether for the Nobels. The three researchers helped analyze the GLP-1 hormone that influences hunger, and which drugs like semaglutide (Wegovy) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro) act upon. GLP-1 agonists also treat diabetes and are increasingly shown to reduce the risk of heart disease, kidney disease, and other conditions. Nature reported that the “shake-up these drugs are causing in health care” has already led to speculation about possible Nobel recognition. Since 1945, 95 Lasker laureates have gone on to win science’s most prestigious honor.

Success in battle against invasive rats

Scientists have successfully eradicated invasive rats from hundreds of islands around the world. The arrival of a single pregnant female can lead to a population of thousands within a year, often driving unprepared species extinct. But they were eradicated from one New Zealand island in 1959, inspiring efforts to do so elsewhere: 820 attempts have been made on 666 islands, Science reported, with 88% successful. As a result, populations of seabirds and other animals have recovered. Still, invasive species are here to stay, The Conversation noted: Species’ habitats are changing as the world warms. Joro spiders have now reached as far north as Pennsylvania in the eastern USA, while Canada’s lakes are seeing their ecosystems “reshaped” by invasive snails, mussels, and fish.

Rolls-Royce hopes for nuclear deal

Rolls-Royce is on course to win a contract with the Czech government to build the first European fleet of small modular nuclear reactors. Nuclear power is low-carbon and, unlike wind and solar, reliable, but major nuclear plants have suffered significant budget overruns and delays. Governments hope SMRs, which are largely constructed off-site and take up far less room, will avoid those problems. UK-based Rolls-Royce, an aerospace and defense contractor that developed its expertise in nuclear power through building reactors for Royal Navy submarines, is also competing to build SMRs in the UK, as countries across Europe hope nuclear power will provide energy security following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Scientists disappointed to be right

Physicists received bittersweet news when ultra-precise measurement of the mass of a subatomic particle revealed exactly what they expected. Relativity and quantum mechanics, physics’ two central theories, are incredibly successful but cannot be integrated into a single “theory of everything.” Scientists are always hunting for anomalies that could suggest a flaw and lead to new physics. A 2022 anomaly suggested the mass of the W boson was much larger than quantum mechanics predicted, but new high-precision work at the Large Hadron Collider showed it to be perfectly in line with expectations. Physicists were excited by the unprecedented accuracy of the result and the standard model’s continued success, Nature reported, but confirming the anomaly would have been more exciting still.

• US President Joe Biden will host the leaders of Australia, India, and Japan in Delaware this weekend.
• French international soccer star Kylian Mbappe is on a visit to Cameroon, his father’s homeland.
• Music festival Rock in Rio showcases its closing acts.

The number of albums sold by Iron Maiden, the legendary British metal band. The group announced a European tour celebrating its 50th anniversary next year, playing material from the first nine albums up to 1992’s Fear of the Dark. Whether they will play their 13-minute reworking of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner or their musings on the campaigns of Alexander the Great remains to be seen, but the frontman Bruce Dickinson — who also flew the group’s Boeing 747 tour plane for many years — said it would likely be the last chance for fans to hear many of the classic songs.

Quarterlife by Devika Rege, a novel following young people in 2014 Mumbai as elections bring Narendra Modi’s BJP to power. The novel is “r​​eplete with Indian contemporary issues … of evolving filial relations, politics, power, caste inequalities and violence,” Neera Kashyap writes in Cafe Dissensus. Buy Quarterlife from the publisher.

• AI startup aimed at demystifying the world of public policy secures new funding.
• The late GOP push to deny Kamala Harris a Nebraska electoral vote.
• CERN to expel hundreds of Russian scientists.