Flagship

Israel agrees daily pauses

Israel agreed to implement daily four-hour humanitarian pauses in its war in Gaza. The White House announcement came amid concern for civilians: A U.S. official said the war’s death toll was likely higher than the 10,000 reported by Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, while prolonged deprivation has triggered disease outbreaks, fistfights in bread lines, and brutal choices for families over who gets to eat. “I cannot recognize my own son,” one mother told the Associated Press, adding her three-year-old had lost 11 lbs in two weeks. An Israeli commander responsible for civil affairs in Gaza insisted “there is no humanitarian crisis.”

There were few signs, however, of any relenting in the violence beyond the pauses. Militants still hold around 240 hostages — Israel described a video yesterday showing two, a 13-year-old and a wheelchair-bound septuagenarian, as “psychological terror.” While diplomats are negotiating a ceasefire-for-hostages deal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu previously rejected such an agreement, The Guardian reported. Analysts fear Israel may be pursuing the “Dahiya Doctrine.” The strategy from its 2006 war with Hezbollah aims to “wield disproportionate power” to establish a future deterrent, as one Israeli commander described it, according to The Washington Post.

Australia offers Tuvalu climate visas

People displaced by climate change in Tuvalu will be offered residency in Australia. A new treaty also said Australia will protect the tiny South Pacific island nation from aggression and natural disasters. Tuvalu has long warned that it could be submerged as sea levels rise. The cost to Australia is limited — it will take 280 residents a year, and the entire Tuvalu population is just 11,200. It also has geopolitical upsides: China is courting South Pacific nations, agreeing a security pact with the Solomon Islands last year, which worries Canberra. Climate diplomacy is becoming more urgent. It’s a “near certainty” that 2023 will be the hottest year on record, scientists said this week.

Key US senator on climate retires

Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat senator, said he would not seek reelection, likely shifting the balance of power in the U.S. legislature. Because of the Democrats’ narrow Senate majority, Manchin held significant sway over President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda, playing a particularly key role in the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, the huge clean-energy spending program. Describing him as “America’s de facto climate king,” the climate-focused outlet Heatmap noted: “If you thought about climate policy over the past decade, you wound up thinking quite a lot about the likes, dislikes, and peculiarities of Joe Manchin … He was, in short, potentially the most influential force in shaping American climate policy during the 2010s.”

US small nuclear project canceled

The first small modular nuclear reactor project in the U.S. was canceled. Nuclear power plants notoriously tend to run over time and over budget. SMRs are hoped to be the future of nuclear power, small enough to be prefabricated and shipped. The U.S. government approved one design, by the nuclear company NuScale Power, and a plan was made to build several to supply the Idaho National Laboratory. But as renewable costs have dropped, the economics of the project worsened, and backers began to pull out, Ars Technica reported. On Wednesday, NuScale announced that the project no longer had enough support to continue.

APEC to focus on trade, security

A long-awaited meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping will headline a week-long summit of Asia-Pacific countries that opens in San Francisco tomorrow. Officials are expected to focus discussions on security, as countries in the region worry over Chinese maritime expansionism, and trade, with the U.S. promoting its Indo-Pacific Economic Framework — an effort to better promote business ties with Asia, which has been criticized for not actually lowering trade barriers. Xi will headline a $2,000-a-seat dinner ($40,000 reportedly buys a seat at Xi’s table), and top U.S. officials will hold talks with their Chinese counterparts.

Chip ‘glut’ as US hits China supply

U.S. efforts to restrict Beijing’s access to semiconductor technology are forcing Chinese and American companies alike to adapt for China’s market. Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, China’s largest chipmaker, announced it would boost production to meet domestic demand, but warned “geopolitical factors” were causing “duplication of construction and supply chains” and excess production, leading to a semiconductor glut. Meanwhile the U.S. chipmaker Nvidia is designing artificial-intelligence chips specifically for the Chinese market, aiming to sidestep U.S. restrictions on high-end semiconductors: China is relying on outdated chips to power its AI ambitions, the Financial Times reported, and Nvidia wants to maintain its foothold in the enormous Chinese market.

SAfrica cracks down on illegal mining

South Africa deployed thousands of troops to combat illegal mining in a bid to shore up one of the country’s main industries. Although mining output fell last year compared to 2021, it still made up 7.5% of the nation’s GDP and 60% of its exports. However, soaring unemployment rates — above 30% in the last quarter — have pushed many into desperate measures: The zama-zamas, as the miners are known, who manage to survive sometimes months on end in disused mines must also contend with criminal groups that extort their meager takings. In the shafts, where car-sized boulders hang dangerously over miners, temperatures can often exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit. “I think they all go through hell,” a doctor who has treated zama-zamas told The New Yorker.

First whole-eye transplant successful

The first-ever whole-eye transplant appeared to have been a success. The operation may not restore sight, but the eye, transplanted last May, is healthy. The recipient lost his left eye and much of his face in a power-line accident: He received a face transplant, just the 19th ever, and at the same time a new eye, to make the face look more natural. Corneal transplants are common, but whole-eye transplants, requiring the blood supply and optic nerve to be attached, are far more complex. The new eye has maintained good blood flow, and doctors saw hints of activity in the optic nerve, a tantalizing suggestion that some vision could return. It’s “one step closer” to restoring sight with transplants, the surgeon behind the operation said.

Díaz’s kidnapped father freed

The father of Luis Díaz, the Colombia soccer star who plays for Liverpool, was released two weeks after being kidnapped. Both of Díaz’s parents were abducted by armed men on motorcycles, later determined to be guerrillas from the National Liberation Army (ELN). His mother was rescued within hours but Díaz Sr. remained missing. The kidnapping interrupted ongoing peace talks between the ELN and the Colombian government to end fighting that has gone on since 1964. More than 38,000 people have been kidnapped in Colombia over the decades, mainly by armed groups: The government says the ELN, the largest remaining guerilla outfit, still holds around 30 hostages.

Zelda movie announced

A live-action movie of the long-running Nintendo video-game franchise The Legend of Zelda is in development. Shigeru Miyamoto, Zelda’s creator, said that he had been working on it “for many years now” with Avi Arad, producer of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The Zelda series, named after the princess whom the pointy-eared hero called Link is regularly called upon to save, first launched in 1986, and its two most recent installments, 2017’s Breath of the Wild and this year’s Tears of the Kingdom, are hailed as among the best video games ever. Zelda fans have expected a film for a long time, The Guardian reported, and the success of last year’s Mario Bros. movie, which made more than $1 billion at the box office, bumped it up Nintendo’s agenda.

• Germany’s foreign minister travels to the Middle East in a trip that will include visits to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Israel.
• The first Greece-Cyprus Intergovernmental Summit concludes in Athens.
• At the Moment, a Taiwanese romance series set during the pandemic, drops on Netflix.

Just over two years after the Taliban takeover, Afghan women’s satisfaction with the freedom they have over their own lives has fallen to an unprecedented low, new data by Gallup revealed. According to the survey, nearly every woman in the country is suffering and a vast majority feel they are not treated with respect. A Taliban ruling that prevents women from receiving formal education beyond the sixth grade has particularly diminished the prospects of women in the country. Dissatisfaction has also soared among men, with more than 90% saying they are suffering, the highest rates for any country since 2005, according to Gallup.

The U.S. space agency NASA launched an on-demand streaming service. Space fans can use NASA Plus to livestream key events, watch behind-the-scenes videos, and get updates on current missions, as well as to access new documentaries. There are 25 series currently available to stream on the platform, including Other Worlds, about the discoveries made by the James Webb Space Telescope, the world’s most powerful observatory. “In a refreshing change from the recent streaming price hikes, NASA Plus will be free,” wrote TechRadar.

• Low on cash, African tech braces for an extended wave of startup closures.
• The fuzzy geopolitics of the giant pandas’ return to China.
• GitHub’s AI coding assistant has gone from an experiment to a moneymaker, the company’s CEO Thomas Dohmke said in an exclusive interview.