Flagship

Xi, Modi hold first talks in years

Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held their first formal talks since 2019, a sign of thawing relations after years of acrimony. Both said they should address their differences peacefully, following a confab Wednesday on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Russia. India and China’s recent deal over their disputed border could pave the way for discussing other issues like trade, experts said, though their longstanding geopolitical rivalry will likely persist. The rare show of harmony is a win for BRICS host Vladimir Putin in proving that the West has failed to isolate Russia, Reuters wrote, even though India will “never” join the “informal anti-Western alliance” of China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran, an Asia historian argued.

China bots target Republicans

Chinese government-linked influence operations targeted US Republican politicians who are up for reelection, Microsoft said Wednesday. Threat analysts for the tech giant said social media bots singled out officials who “advocate for anti-Chinese policies,” including the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who called being targeted a “badge of honor.” US intelligence officials have voiced concern that foreign adversaries, including Russia and Iran, are spreading disinformation that risks inciting political violence around the election. Just this week, officials said Moscow spread false allegations targeting Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz. China’s influence efforts, meanwhile, are more centered around down-ballot contests, rather than the presidential, because those receive “far less scrutiny,” CNBC wrote.

McDonald’s thrust into US election

McDonald’s stock fell Wednesday after an E. coli outbreak linked to its Quarter Pounder burgers hospitalized 10 people across the US and killed at least one. The incident comes during a challenging year for the fast food chain, which saw a drop in global sales in the second quarter and has since been thrust into the US presidential news cycle. Donald Trump visited a Pennsylvania McDonald’s and served supporters in the drive-thru, and Vice President Kamala Harris said she worked at one in college. While the company said it remains neutral, it has become a global political symbol: Politicians in the UK, US, and Belgium “play up their McDonald’s connections” to show they relate to everyday, middle-class voters, Politico wrote.

Nate Silver says don’t trust his gut

Nearly everyone has a gut feeling about the outcome of the US election that takes place in two weeks. But you shouldn’t “put any value whatsoever on anyone’s gut — including mine,” polling guru Nate Silver wrote in The New York Times Wednesday. For what it’s worth, Silver’s gut says Donald Trump will win. Going with your intuition is sometimes helpful, but in this election, “50-50 is the only responsible forecast,” he argued. The polls, most of which show a deadlocked race, will ultimately be wrong in one direction or the other, and Silver wrote there’s a case for either Kamala Harris or Trump outperforming their polls. That could result in a blowout win for one candidate, if multiple swing states swing in one direction.

NK sent troops to Russia, US says

North Korea has sent troops to Russia, though their exact purpose is unclear, the US said Wednesday. The confirmation came after South Korea said 3,000 North Korean troops were being trained in Russia with the aim of sending 10,000 by December. Officials fear that in exchange, Moscow could give Pyongyang advanced weapons technology to boost its missile and nuclear programs. “We are in a whole different era if North Korean soldiers are dying for Putin,” an expert told The New York Times. “It will raise the ask when Kim makes demands, and Putin will give him what he wants.” But the move also reflects the Kremlin’s desperation over its weakening strategic power, a British defense expert told The Economist.

Tesla’s Cybertruck makes a profit

Tesla reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings Wednesday, saying its Cybertruck has reached profitability for the first time. The strong report reflected a rebound in demand for the company’s electric vehicles. The often-mocked Cybertruck, which had a rocky debut, has turned out to be a success for far: It notched the third-highest sales of any EV in the US in the last quarter, and accounts for nearly half the national market share for electric pickup trucks. Tesla also said new, more affordable car models “remain on track” for production starting next year, which could reassure investors who have been concerned that Tesla risks losing out to other brands that offer cheaper models and churn them out faster.

Cigarette sales rise in China

Cigarette sales in China are increasing, bucking a near-universal trend. There were 10% fewer cigarettes sold worldwide in 2021 than in 2007, despite the growth in the global population. But apart from a small dip between 2014 and 2016 when major Chinese cities introduced indoor smoking bans, sales in China have grown — the country represents about half of all cigarette sales. The demand for “slim cigarettes” is partly behind the trend, Chinese news site Sixth Tone reported: They are often perceived as stylish and less harmful. The smaller, more quickly smoked cigarettes may explain why sales are up despite the adult smoking rate falling slightly.

Sergio Ermotti, Group CEO, UBS; Vincent Van Peteghem, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Belgium; Ali Zaidi, White House Climate Advisor; Lael Brainard, Director, White House National Economic Council; and Amos Hochstein, Senior Advisor to the President for Energy and Investments, White House, will join the Fall Edition of Semafor’s World Economy Summit. Hosted in the Gallup Great Hall and spanning four sessions over two days – Oct. 24 and 25 – Semafor will feature on-the-record interviews on the state of global finance, the future of technology, digital payment infrastructure, and sustainability. Tune in live tomorrow for real-time coverage.

A case against leap seconds

A “leap second” may have to be subtracted from our clocks for the first time because the Earth’s rotation has sped up slightly since 1990. Gravitational interaction with the Sun and Moon slows our planet’s spin: The dinosaurs experienced a 23.5-hour day. This slowing has required atomic clocks to add a second to the day 27 times since 1972, but because of melting ice caps, the deceleration itself has slowed, meaning seconds are added more rarely, and one may even have to be taken off. A Scientific American columnist argued that it is time to stop bothering with leap seconds, which can cause problems: A leap second was blamed for a major Reddit outage and airline delays in 2012 when computer systems glitched.

Right whale population ticks up

The North Atlantic right whale, one of the world’s most endangered cetacean species, made a small but promising recovery. Right whales were hunted nearly out of existence by the 1890s — their name refers to them being the “right” whale to hunt because they swim slowly near the shore, their blubber yields gallons of oil, and their corpses float, making them easier to spot. Even after hunting was largely banned, the whales remained vulnerable to ship strikes and entanglement in nets: Their population fell 25% in the 2010s to fewer than 360. A new survey found that number had increased to 372. Conservationists said this was “heartening news” but there was still “a great deal of work to do” to protect the species.

SKorea airport to open gate for celebs

South Korea’s largest airport plans to designate a gate just for celebrities, to minimize crowds of K-pop and sports fans. It’s customary for Korean stars to pose for the paparazzi at Incheon International Airport, often in casual-but-carefully-curated looks. But it’s caused security issues: Over the summer, an actor’s bodyguards blocked some gates and conducted passport checks on passengers without the airport’s authorization, leading prosecutors to file obstruction charges this week. Such celeb sightings aren’t exclusive to Korea: Bollywood stars in India keep their name in the news by coordinating paparazzi shoots at the airport.

Oct. 24:

• France hosts the International Conference in Support of Lebanon’s People and Sovereignty.
• Hyundai announces third-quarter earnings.
• Territory, a new series about a fierce succession war in the Australian outback, premieres on Netflix.

A comment made by a guide at Rome’s Palazzo Massimo inspired the title of Joan Smith’s new book: Unfortunately, She Was a Nymphomaniac, an alternative imperial history about the women of ancient Rome. Smith sets out to reexamine the lives of 23 Roman noblewomen — the wives, mothers, and daughters of emperors — to dispel their enduring depiction as “shrews, scheming bitches or lust-crazed she-wolves,” The Guardian wrote. While classicists often question the 2,000-year-old narratives surrounding male figures such as Nero, this revisionism is rarely extended to women, and Smith’s work “speaks volumes not just about ancient misogyny, but the origin and persistence of attitudes that continue to blight women’s lives today,” Booktopia said.

A loophole that allows multilateral development banks to finance so-called captive coal plants in developing Asian countries could doom global net zero goals, Nithin Coca and Tim McDonnell wrote. The main culprit is China, where “the financing and operations of [captive coal] plants lack transparency, partly due to their designation as national strategic projects,” Coca wrote.