Flagship

US warns of post-Nov. 5 foreign interference

Efforts by Russia, China, and Iran to interfere in the US presidential election could get worse right after Nov. 5, top government officials warned. The period following the close of polls and before the vote is certified is when US adversaries will try to sow doubt about the outcome of a close race, the head of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency told Foreign Policy: “The election is not over the night of Nov. 5.” Authorities anticipate that influence campaigns could include fake websites made to look like legitimate news media. “Foreign operators are merely pushing on an open door” unlocked by Donald Trump’s campaign, FP wrote: The former president has already claimed he has a “lead,” setting the stage to challenge an unfavorable result.

US struggles to stop China tech dominance

China is still on track to become a technological superpower despite US tariffs and export controls, Bloomberg reported. Of 13 key emerging technologies identified in a 2015 government report, China is a global leader in five of them — including electric vehicles and solar panels — and is catching up in seven others, Bloomberg’s researchers found. Outside the US, the world is increasingly using Chinese technology: “China’s technological rise will not be stymied, and might not even be slowed, by US restrictions,” the head of a US-based economics research group said. While the two countries will keep competing for technological superiority irrespective of who wins the US presidential election, Washington is now most focused on stopping China from accessing the chips that power artificial intelligence.

Europe challenged by lack of US interest

US interest in Europe will keep waning regardless of who wins the presidential election next week. The continent is simply not as important to Washington as it once was, with Europe now seen as “aging and shrinking, allergic to power politics, fractious and risk-averse,” Politico Europe’s editor-at-large wrote. Some European officials are aware that American priorities lie elsewhere, no matter who’s in the White House, the Associated Press wrote, as Washington focuses on competition with Asia and conflict in the Middle East. But if given a choice, European leaders would prefer Kamala Harris, who is seen as more predictable and pro-Ukraine than Donald Trump, who has proposed tariff hikes on European goods.

Cosmetic surgery financing on the rise

Wall Street is benefiting from a rise in borrowing to fund expensive cosmetic surgery procedures. Americans are increasingly willing to borrow to pay for liposuction, buccal fat removal, and Botox injections, all of which are on the rise in the US. Lenders, meanwhile, are drawn to the typically good credit scores of the patients and the high prices of the surgeries. “These are responsible people with their money, but they’re using this as an option to ideally get packages and higher-service treatments,” the founder of a California medical spa told Bloomberg. Many of the procedures, like Botox, also require repeat visits, which keeps people borrowing.

Tuberculosis deaths overtake COVID’s

Tuberculosis is once again the world’s leading cause of death from infectious disease, overtaking COVID-19 after three years. Around 1.25 million people died from TB in 2023, according to the World Health Organization. Death rates had declined for years until 2021 but have begun creeping back up again, and efforts to control its spread are well behind the WHO’s targets. The bacterial disease, which can cause chest pains and lung bleeding, is most prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. It is treatable with antibiotics, although antibiotic-resistant strains are on the increase, and people with HIV — of whom there are many millions in Africa — are at especially high risk.

European hedgehogs are disappearing

Hedgehogs, one of Europe’s most distinctive mammals, are dying out. Vehicle collisions, habitat loss, and pesticides have diminished their populations, and they are now listed as “near threatened” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A conservationist told The Guardian that the news “will likely come as no surprise” to many, who remember seeing hedgehogs regularly in their childhood but rarely do any more. She called for homeowners to make their gardens more hedgehog-friendly, leaving gaps in fences, creating shelters with log piles, and avoiding pesticide use. The updated IUCN list also saw several bird and tree species move to more at-risk categories as climate change, deforestation, and sea-level rise impact their ecosystems.

Colombia tries to save jaguars

Colombia is stepping up efforts to protect jaguars whose numbers are declining because of habitat loss and hunting. Colombia’s forests have shrunk 40% over the last century and farmers kill the predators to protect their livestock. The country is currently hosting the COP16 biodiversity conference, and wants to make jaguar conservation a key cause, Le Monde reported. One way it will do so is to create “jaguar corridors,” paths between increasingly fragmented forest areas. There are an estimated 16,000 jaguars across 16 countries in South America, and like all top predators they are crucial to the ecosystem, keeping herbivore numbers in check and protecting forests.

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How many continents does Earth have?

Geologists disagree on how many continents Earth has, with answers ranging from two to nine. Europe and Asia are visibly connected, as are the Americas, making their dividing lines cultural rather than scientific. Asia and North America are attached via the Bering Strait, and the Gulf of Aden links Africa and Asia — meanwhile, the continental crust beneath Iceland shows “no clear point where North America ends and Europe begins,” The New York Times wrote. Even the criteria used to define a continent is fraught, with some geologists arguing for the existence of “Zealandia” and others positing “Icelandia.” “There are basically only two major continents,” one researcher said, “Antarctica and everything else.” But another disagreed, saying that according to his colleague’s logic, “there are actually three.”

Gladiators didn’t read the newspaper

Weeks before its release, Gladiator II is raising eyebrows among Roman history buffs who have identified glaring factual inaccuracies. For example, there’s no evidence that gladiators rode rhinoceroses in the arena, as they do in the movie. And while it’s true that the Colosseum was flooded for naval battles, there were likely no sharks in them, as the trailer depicts. “Total Hollywood bullshit,” a classics professor told The Hollywood Reporter. “I don’t think Romans knew what a shark was.” In one scene, a Roman noble sits at a cafe — which didn’t exist yet — while reading a newspaper, a medium that also didn’t exist. Director Ridley Scott, who faced similar scrutiny over Napoleon, isn’t bothered by the fuss: “By the time you get to 2024, it’s all speculation.”

Hello Kitty turns 50

Hello Kitty turns 50 on Friday. The embodiment of Japan’s famous “kawaii” or cuteness aesthetic, the character generates millions in brand revenue, AFP reported: Warner Bros. is working on a Hello Kitty movie, and a Hello Kitty theme park is opening in China next year. The company behind the soft power icon boasts a $6.8 billion market capitalization; its share price has jumped seven-fold since 2020, even as the extended Hello Kitty universe remains small compared to Japanese cultural exports like Pokémon or Dragon Ball. “We’d be foolishly cynical to say that we don’t need these soft, fluffy, pink things,” said the author of a book about Hello Kitty. “Given the fraught nature of our contemporary lives, perhaps we need it now more than ever.”

Nov. 1:

• New York City Mayor Eric Adams appears in court for oral arguments over his motion to dismiss a bribery charge.
• US oil giant Exxon Mobil posts third-quarter results.
• The Cure release their first album in 16 years, Songs From a Lost World.

After five years, New Zealand’s capital will say goodbye to a divisive sculpture that some compared to a “nightmarish fever dream” — but others grew to love. Ronnie van Hout’s Quasi, a giant hand with a disapproving face that some say bears an uncanny resemblance to a former US president, has been scowling above Wellington’s civic square since 2019, provoking debate over whether it was an artistic monstrosity or a misunderstood masterpiece. Mayor Tory Whanau told The Guardian that the sculpture, which now heads to Australia, “showcased to us why it’s important to have diverse art and creative projects in our city. That said, I’m looking forward to seeing Quasi head somewhere else for a change.”

WeChat is the center of the Chinese internet — powering everything from messaging to payments — and the main portal where China’s news outlets and bloggers publish their work.

Happy Hallowmeme

Despite Shanghai’s crackdown on Halloween celebrations this year over concerns of politically insensitive costumes, many amusement parks and clubs still hosted parties, according to a WeChat blog catering to international students living in China. Beijing is averse to Halloween because it views the festival as encouraging the worship of “foreign things,” but young Chinese still “go crazy” for the holiday, the blog wrote.

However, the government’s concerns might be overblown: The Western festival is not overtaking traditional Chinese holidays like Lunar New Year, the blog argued, and for young Chinese people, Halloween is “clearly a festival of memes.” For instance, one of the blog’s favorite costumes this year was a group of friends dressed up as Huawei’s new tri-folding phone.

Short-lived app

TikTok Music — parent company ByteDance’s music streaming platform — will shut down worldwide on Nov. 28, less than two years after its launch. While licensing disputes with production giants like Universal Music Group hurt its business, the Music Pioneer WeChat blog pinned the app’s failure on its expansion in countries including Mexico, Brazil, and Indonesia, where users are more likely to use free or ad-supported streaming services instead TikTok Music’s subscription model.

But TikTok’s short-form video app still has a sizable grip on the music industry, as producers realize that social media is important for artists to “directly reach listeners and establish direct connections with fans.” Coldplay, for instance, now has a partnership with TikTok in which fans can complete tasks on their phone for a chance to win the band’s merchandise.

Don’t party like it’s 2016

Singles’ Day — a Valentine’s Day alternative held on Nov. 11 that was first turned into an e-commerce megaevent by Alibaba, then adopted by multiple retail platforms in China — has long been one of the country’s biggest annual shopping events. In 2016, for instance, the Singles’ Day official gala kicked off the 24-hour shopping festival with events hosted by celebrities like Scarlett Johansson, Victoria Beckham, and the late Kobe Bryant. But “this is a party that can no longer be replicated today,” the Late Post business blog argued, given China’s economic slowdown.

While most people in China now shop online — prompting platforms to constantly lower prices to entice customers all year round — bleak job prospects for young Chinese people means they are less willing to spend on non-essential goods. One poll found that only 23% of people in 2023 were willing to buy something on Singles’ Day, compared with 51% in 2021. It no longer makes sense for companies to invest so heavily into a gala when there aren’t the same levels of enthusiasm, the blog argued.

A Senegalese investor raised one of Africa’s largest women-led funds for startups, even as African businesses face a funding crunch. But as Janngo Capital’s founder Fatoumata Ba told Semafor’s Alexander Onukwue, “Fundraising in Africa as an emerging female fund manager — Francophone, in her thirties — it’s not for the faint of heart.”