Flagship

Israel forms unity government

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that “every Hamas member is a dead man” as he formed a national unity government. Even before a widely expected Israeli ground operation in response to last weekend’s Hamas attack, the BBC’s security correspondent said much of Gaza had been “reduced to rubble,” while the Palestinian death toll is already over 1,000. Gaza’s only power plant shut down for lack of fuel. Egypt, which borders Gaza, is refusing access to any of the 338,000 displaced people from the conflict. Meanwhile, bodies of Israelis killed in the attacks continue to be found: More than 1,200 are now accounted for. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken landed in Israel today, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reportedly wants to visit.

Hamas is estimated to hold at least 150 hostages, including some foreigners. The failure of Israel’s intelligence service — a U.S. congressman appeared to confirm Egypt’s claim that Israel was warned of something big days before the assault — led to Hamas itself being shocked by the attack’s success. It had hoped, a source told Al-Monitor, to “embarrass [Israel] and return to Gaza with two or three kidnapped Israelis.” If that had happened, it could have negotiated with Israel for rights to build infrastructure and free some prisoners. Instead, Hamas “will face the entire Israeli army inside Gaza.”

Extent of violence emerges

The horrors of the Hamas attacks and the subsequent Israeli response in Gaza are starting to emerge. In one small farming community near the Gaza Strip, 110 bodies, including those of women and children, were found by Israeli soldiers: Attackers set fire to buildings to force those inside into the open. Meanwhile, Gaza is being persistently bombed, and the lack of electricity risks turning hospitals into morgues, the Red Cross warned. The situation will likely get worse: Israeli forces are preparing to launch a ground assault, and Gaza will be “a nightmare — except it’s real,” one Israeli soldier told the Financial Times.

Iran’s role in violence questioned

Intelligence officials are debating the extent of Iran’s role in last weekend’s Hamas attack. The U.S. and Israel publicly said they do not have evidence of Tehran’s involvement in the assault, and American officials have collected information showing that Iranian leaders were surprised by the operation, The New York Times reported. The story appeared to contradict an earlier Wall Street Journal article in which Hamas and Hezbollah members claimed Iran helped plan the violence. U.S. President Joe Biden yesterday warned Tehran to “be careful” following the attack, while Iran’s president and Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler held their first telephone conversation since resuming full diplomatic ties in March.

Gene therapy targets deafness

Trials of using gene therapy to cure a form of deafness are under way in the U.K., U.S., and Spain. The treatment will deliver a working copy of a faulty gene that causes auditory neuropathy, a condition affecting the nerves between the ear and the brain, to the patients’ cells. Up to 18 children will be monitored for five years to see if their hearing improves. Post-birth gene therapy is already driving new treatments in many other conditions, including cystic fibrosis, hemophilia, and some immune conditions. “It’s the dawn of a new era,” the ear surgeon leading the new trial told the Financial Times.

EU and US discuss new China curbs

European Union and U.S. officials are reportedly planning to restrict countries such as China from selling them state-subsidized steel and aluminum. The proposals, reported by Politico, would impose duties on imports from “non-market economies,” though such tariffs would likely breach World Trade Organization rules. The draft restrictions are the latest example of actions and rhetoric differing between the West and Beijing: Politico’s report came as EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell began a trip to China. The U.S. and China are also looking to reduce tensions ahead of a potential Xi Jinping-Joe Biden meeting next month, but new American curbs on China’s semiconductor sector are set to be announced soon, Reuters reported.

US demands taxes from Microsoft

U.S. authorities said Microsoft owed $29 billion in back taxes. An Internal Revenue Service audit said the software giant underpaid between 2004 and 2013. Microsoft said it “vigorously disagreed” with the decision and will appeal in court, a process which could take years. Even by Microsoft’s standards, $29 billion is a decent sum — close to half its 2022 profits — although Forbes reported that it has sufficient reserves to pay the bill, which includes backdated interest and penalties, should it come to it. The claim is part of a wider regulatory crackdown on Big Tech, including antitrust investigations and online safety regulations.

Drought risks Brazil food exports

A drought in the Amazon could threaten Brazil’s food exports as key river thoroughfares dry up. A Brazilian meteorologist said the drought — which has already been linked to mass fish and river dolphin deaths, and constricted water access for nearby communities — could be the worst on record. The country’s agriculture ministry has warned that lower water levels along key rivers could limit how much Brazil, set to overtake the U.S. this year as the world’s biggest corn exporter, can sell. Residents of Manaus, the biggest city nearby, are worried: “We use the water to drink, to bathe, to cook,” one fisherman told the Associated Press. “Without water, there is no life.”

King Charles to visit Kenya

King Charles III will acknowledge “painful” aspects in Britain’s relationship with Kenya during a state visit this month. The trip is timed to coincide with the 60th anniversary of Kenya’s independence, which was gained following a rebellion against British colonialism. The British rulers responded bloodily, imprisoning many in detention camps, and a human rights commission says 90,000 Kenyans were executed, tortured, and maimed. After a legal battle, London paid compensation to thousands of Kenyans in 2013. The King will use the visit to “deepen his understanding of the wrongs suffered in this period by the people of Kenya,” Buckingham Palace said.

1918 flu may not have targeted young

The widely held belief that the 1918 influenza epidemic disproportionately killed young and healthy people may not be true. Doctors at the time said the misnomered “Spanish flu” was “as fatal to strong adults as to young children and to the old and debilitated”: The contrast was often noted during the COVID-19 pandemic, which tended to kill the elderly. But new analysis of skeletons of 1918 victims found that the younger dead tended to have preexisting medical conditions, rather than being systematically the fittest. Not all scientists are convinced, reported Science, but the authors of the study think the received wisdom could be a product of a sort of recall bias: “When a 25-year-old dies you remember it more.”

Psyche mission launches to asteroid

A NASA mission to a metal-rich asteroid launches today. The Psyche spacecraft will fly 2.2 billion miles to the asteroid 16 Psyche, which is believed to be the surviving metallic core of an ancient, shattered planet. The mission should tell scientists about the origins of the solar system and the formation of Earth. Psyche, the spacecraft, will use a propulsion system straight out of science fiction: An ion drive, in which electrons are stripped from xenon-gas atoms, which then shoot out of the back of the craft at nine miles a second. Meanwhile, a sample from a recent asteroid mission, OSIRIS-REx, was tested, and found to be rich in “the building blocks of life,” including carbon and water, NASA said.

• Russian President Vladimir Putin visits his Kyrgyz counterpart Sadyr Japarov in Bishkek, Putin’s first trip abroad since becoming the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant.
• Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa meets her Thai counterpart in Bangkok.
• New York Comic Con 2023 begins.

The peak number of requests per second generated during the largest-known “distributed denial of service” attack on record, according to Google. The mammoth internet assault which took place in August was ultimately thwarted, but for context, “this two minute attack generated more requests than the total number of article views reported by Wikipedia during the entire month of September 2023,” Google said, and was several times larger than the previous record DDoS attack. Internet services company Cloudfare said it was also affected, while Amazon’s web services division said it was hit by “a new type of distributed denial of service event.” It was unclear who was behind the attack, which the companies attributed to a weakness in new versions of internet protocols.

A new Netflix documentary will explore how the first Black Barbie was created in 1980, 31 years after the inaugural Barbie was released. It will focus on three Black women who worked at Mattel and advocated for the doll before Black Barbie debuted. Following its premiere at this year’s SXSW festival (before Greta Gerwig’s Barbie), a Variety review called the documentary ”often witty, often weighty," and personal for director Lagueria Davis, the niece of one of the women featured. The film will be co-executive produced by Shonda Rhimes, the creator of hit series including Bridgerton and Grey’s Anatomy.

• In the era of the “buff business leader,” some tech workers have turned to a broad class of oral and injectable drugs, treatments, and supplements to improve their health and appearance.
• African leaders are trying to walk the line between strongly-held principles, diplomatic expediency, and empathy in the wake of Hamas’s attack on Israel.
• Help Israel, blame Biden: Republicans hit similar notes in response to terrorist attacks on Israel, which seemed unlikely to upend the primary.