Flagship

Israel’s Iran response to leave oil facilities

Oil prices fell after Israel’s prime minister said that any attacks on Iran would target its military, not energy infrastructure. Iran launched a missile barrage at Israel two weeks ago, its second direct attack this year. The region has been braced for Israel’s response, pushing crude prices up as traders expect a widening conflict to hit production. But Benjamin Netanyahu told US President Joe Biden that Israel would only hit military targets, according to The Washington Post, and leave Iran’s oil facilities — and nuclear research program — untouched. Israel will strike before November’s US election, the Post’s source said, as inaction would be viewed as weakness, adding that Netanyahu must balance the public’s demand for retaliation against Washington’s calls for restraint.

Global government debt to reach $100T

Global public debt will exceed $100 trillion this year for the first time, and could accelerate. An International Monetary Fund report showed that government borrowing will reach 93% of global GDP by the end of the year and will be near 100% by 2030 — exceeding its pandemic-era peak of 99%, and 10 percentage points up from 2019. The report comes shortly before a US election in which both candidates have promised tax breaks that could add trillions to Washington’s already enormous debt burden, with the annual deficit running at around 6.5% of GDP. Other countries are also seeing a growing debt pile, and the IMF said steps should be taken soon: “Postponing adjustment will only mean that a larger correction is needed eventually.”

Harris woos moderates

US Vice President Kamala Harris is angling to win over moderate Republicans as polls narrow for next month’s presidential election. The race is tighter than any on record, with Harris’ rival Donald Trump clawing back a point or so in the last few days. She will try to pull ahead again, agreeing to an interview on Republican-leaning Fox News and, according to Reuters, The Joe Rogan Experience podcast. Her campaign also stepped up its rhetoric against Trump, echoing President Joe Biden’s lines about him being a “threat to democracy.” In a Pennsylvania rally on Monday Harris highlighted Trump’s recent suggestion that the US military could be used against “the enemy from within,” describing the Republican candidate as “increasingly unstable and unhinged.”

Hong Kong property collapses

Developers in Hong Kong are offering steep discounts on apartments in a bid to offload them, the latest sign of the Chinese property market’s collapse. Once one of the most valuable housing markets, property prices in Hong Kong have plummeted, with many foreign residents leaving as economic conditions worsen and Beijing cracks down on foreign businesses. China is becoming increasingly isolated from the West: Only 1.4 million international tourists traveled to the country last year, down from almost 5 million before the COVID-19 pandemic, and the number of Chinese students abroad has also contracted rapidly. “China has become more inward-looking, as the West has become more wary,” The Economist reported.

Google’s AI inputs and outputs

Google signed a deal to power its artificial intelligence data centers using small nuclear reactors. Kairos Power will provide the first reactor before 2030, according to the two companies. AI is increasingly demanding of energy, and tech giants are keen to both gain reliable power sources and demonstrate their low-carbon credentials. The energy-intensive technology is already providing returns. A spinoff company launched by Google DeepMind’s boss — and newly minted Nobel laureate — Demis Hassabis, Isomorphic Labs, is stepping up spending: The firm runs the AlphaFold protein-predicting AI that has revolutionized much of the pharmaceutical field. Hassabis told the Financial Times that he wants the company to “help solve some diseases.”

Bukele furious over wealth probe

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said journalists who revealed he and his family have amassed dozens of new properties were “imbeciles.” Bukele, who has described himself as the “World’s Coolest Dictator,” claimed that the US-Hungarian billionaire George Soros paid reporters to investigate him, an accusation often used to fuel antisemitic conspiracy theories about the Jewish financier. Although feted across much of Latin America for his crackdown on crime in El Salvador — which once recorded the world’s highest murder rate — civil rights groups say Bukele’s regime has ramped up its repression of dissent. Thousands remain in prison without a trial, while many independent journalists have fled the country.

Africa’s cheap space access

The fast-falling cost of rocket launches has opened up the market for African companies, with several smaller nations in the continent rushing to develop their space programs. So far 17 African countries have put more than 60 satellites into orbit, with several others expecting their operations to begin in the coming months, the BBC reported. According to a report by business consultancy McKinsey, the price of heavy launches to low-Earth orbit has fallen around 95% to just $1,500 per kilogram, with some estimates suggesting it could fall to as little as $100. However some experts are concerned that an oversupply could worsen the problem of space debris.

India races to make own jet engines

India must decide who its friends are in order to build its own military jet engines. Only the US, UK, France, Russia, and China have the knowhow to build fighter engines. Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants India to be self-sufficient, and is keen to join that club. But it would mean partnering with a Western — likely French, British, or American — aerospace company. Defense procurement is often a signal of geopolitical loyalties: Buying US-made fighters will make your forces reliant on American upgrades, for instance. India wants to boost its relationship with the US, the Financial Times reported, but Washington is wary of New Delhi’s still-close relationship with Moscow — it has traditionally bought Russian MiGs — and may not want to hand over sensitive intellectual property.

EU water grows scarce and polluted

Almost two-thirds of the European Union’s bodies of water are in bad condition and water shortages are increasingly hitting the bloc’s industries, agriculture, and population. Europe is warming rapidly and experiencing ever more common extreme weather — notably deadly floods and droughts. The European Environment Agency said high levels of water pollution, particularly from coal power and agricultural pesticides, were affecting most surface water, especially in Sweden, Germany, and Poland. Agriculture accounts for 59% of the region’s water use, and the EEA said that there was “a serious need to change agricultural practices” to reduce both the sector’s pollution and its water demand.

The industrialization of olive oil

Climate change and industrialization are changing olive oil farming. The $14 billion industry has traditionally been dominated by smallholders. But in recent years, a few mega-farms have sprung up in southern Europe, partly as landowners have moved toward more drought-resistant crops — olives can survive dry conditions better than citrus or cereals. Drought still hits olive crops, but the mega-farms are better able to cope with it than smaller outfits, because economies of scale mean they can have irrigation, “something that most smallholders can only dream of,” the Financial Times reported. Machine harvesting also means lower costs, higher productivity, and greater profits. In the last two decades intensive olive farms have gone from nowhere to producing 11% of Spain’s oil harvest.

What’s in store for the advanced manufacturing workforce in the US? Join Colorado Governor Jared Polis, Neera Tanden, Domestic Policy Advisor to President Biden, and other industry leaders in Washington, DC, on Oct. 21 to discuss how the United States looks to maintain a competitive edge.

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The share of respondents in the US who say they trust the media a great deal or a fair amount, the lowest level since Gallup began gathering data more than 50 years ago. The poll also captured stark disparities based on party affiliation, with 54% of Democrats saying they trust the media, while just 12% of Republicans do.

A Different Man, directed by Aaron Schimberg. Sebastian Stan plays Edward, an actor with disfiguring facial tumors who is offered a miracle cure. But the star is Adam Pearson, who has the same condition, but “oozes confidence and none of the self-pity” that cripples Stan’s character. Pearson delivers “a riveting, star-making turn,” says Empire, and “the great tragedy to come out of this is that we’re only now learning that his potential was left unfulfilled for so long.”

• Inside Condé Nast’s Gaza war.
• Climate disasters bring new dimension to US presidential race.
• Matthew Segal on how ATTN will be the ‘HBO of short-form’.