Flagship

Israel, Lebanon wary of full-blown war

Lebanon-based Hezbollah will likely strike Israel ahead of Iran’s expected retaliation for the killings of high-profile militant leaders, reports said. Israel’s security council met Thursday night to prepare for Iran’s response, heightening fears of a wider war in the region. The anticipation of a full-blown conflict is also weighing heavily on both Israelis and Lebanese, who have been stockpiling food and supplies in preparation. One mall-goer in Beirut, weary of the waiting and watching, told the Financial Times: “I kind of just want the war to start so we can get it over and done with.”

Europe’s growing ISIS threat

The thwarted attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna reflects growing terrorist threats in Europe fueled by turmoil in the Middle East. One of the teenage suspects had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, Austrian authorities said. The terror group has been regaining influence after its ISIS-K faction regrouped in Afghanistan following the US’ 2021 withdrawal. Germany warned that ISIS-K members have infiltrated Western Europe “under the cover of the refugee exodus from Ukraine,” and several have been arrested across the continent. Security officials worry that the Israel-Hamas conflict could radicalize many, with global terror groups using the war to “recruit and mobilize.”

Trump commits to Sept. debates

Donald Trump on Thursday said he will participate in three debates against his rival Kamala Harris in September, despite originally pushing back against one of them. The Republican presidential nominee’s multi-debate commitment comes as Harris has virtually wiped out his lead in key swing states, and reports suggest he is increasingly rattled by her surging momentum. His allies worry that Trump has not “accepted his new political reality” that he is no longer competing against President Joe Biden, The New York Times reported, and is instead picking fights with Republicans and attacking Harris’ identity rather than her policies. After preparing to fight Biden for four years, “it’s naturally tough to regain your footing,” said one GOP strategist.

Eli Lilly earnings surpass forecasts

US pharma company Eli Lilly raised its revenue forecast for 2024 by $3 billion due to growing sales of its weight-loss drugs. The strong performance of tirzepatide, sold under the brand names Mounjaro and Zepbound, exceeded $4 billion in Q1 2024, smashing analysts’ forecasts and pushing overall sales expectations to around $45 billion. Tirzepatide and rival pharma company Novo Nordisk’s own semaglutide, Ozempic, lead to an average of 15% body weight loss for patients, and there is growing excitement that they can help in other ways: “They seem to boost heart health, protect the kidneys, improve sleep apnea, and lower the risk of certain obesity-related cancers,” WIRED reported, and some studies hint that they might help treat addiction.

India’s real-life succession

Asia’s second-richest man refuted details of a report laying out his $213 billion succession plan. Earlier this week, Bloomberg reported that Indian billionaire Gautam Adani was set to retire in the early 2030s, handing off his business empire to his two sons and two nephews. But the Adani Group on Thursday said the 62-year-old had been “misquoted” and hadn’t specified a retirement time frame, adding, “He said that succession is not just one event, but a journey.” When it does happen, the handover of power at the highly scrutinized conglomerate, which is facing a US Department of Justice bribery investigation, will be “one of the world’s largest and most challenging transfers of wealth,” Bloomberg wrote, with potentially huge implications for the Indian and global economy.

Egg freezing loss for Chinese woman

An unmarried Chinese woman lost her legal battle to freeze her eggs. A Beijing court this week upheld a longstanding rule that only married women can freeze their eggs. “This result wasn’t all that unexpected,” said plaintiff Teresa Xu, who first sued a Beijing hospital in 2019 for denying her fertility treatment. Although her desires appear to match Beijing’s resolve to fix its population crisis, the country’s reproductive treatment restrictions have forced many single women to freeze their eggs in Thailand and Malaysia, The New York Times reported. But the government’s attitudes could be changing: One legislator told The Economic Observer that liberalizing egg freezing is “absolutely necessary” to solve China’s demographic crisis.

New Apple Mac mini set for release

Apple will release its smallest desktop computer ever later this year. The new Mac mini comes with the company’s M4 chip, which is specially made to run artificial intelligence-powered programs. This marks the first big overhaul of the mini since it last got a revamp under Steve Jobs in 2010, Bloomberg’s tech correspondent Mark Gurman reported, adding its “essentially an iPad Pro in a small box.” It’s part of Apple’s broader AI-focused strategy, Gurman wrote. The company unveiled its “Apple Intelligence” initiative earlier this year, including a more powerful Siri assistant.

Bacteria ecosystem in microwaves

Home microwave ovens harbor an ecosystem of bacteria that have evolved to survive in high-radiation environments. Extremophiles, organisms which thrive in harsh environments, are found in hydrothermal vents, Antarctic ice, deep below the Earth, and now, in the common kitchen appliance. Microwave radiation was thought to destroy bacteria like E. coli that cause food poisoning. But scientists examining 30 microwave ovens found a total of 101 bacterial strains, including some associated with food-borne disease, which descended from those that have survived many rounds of irradiation. “You don’t need to go to very exotic — geographically speaking — places to find diversity of microorganisms,” one researcher told Nature. It’s not a big issue, he added, but it might be worth cleaning your microwave once in a while.

Dawkins announces final book tour

Richard Dawkins, the great evolutionary biologist and science popularizer, said that his upcoming US book tour would be his last. The British author became famous for his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, which described how altruistic, cooperative behavior could emerge from self-interested parts. He also coined the term meme, meaning a replicating unit of information, and became a strident figurehead for the atheist movement, but most of all is a passionate advocate for the beauty and elegance of evolutionary theory. “I am 83 years old, and travel is more irksome than it was,” he said ahead of his 10-city tour this fall. “This will probably be your last opportunity to tell me how profoundly you disagree with everything I’ve written.”

Athletes take defeat harder

Athletes are getting worse at losing with grace, The Atlantic argued. The Paris Olympics has seen competitors refuse to shake hands, berate umpires, and skip post-match interviews, the magazine noted, while a fencer refused to leave the piste after a loss and a judo match turned violent. Psychologists attribute the decline in good sportsmanship — half the US referees in a recent survey said they’d feared for their safety — to increased pressure brought by athletes’ grueling training schedules, the stress of being broadcast on social media, and the lure of bigger prizes. It could also simply be that we’re all getting more selfish, one expert said.

August 9:

• US presidential candidate Kamala Harris campaigns in Nevada.
• Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro appears in court.
• K-pop group BLACKPINK reunites for the premiere of their Born Pink world tour film.

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.

Outdated celebrations

Millions of Chinese teenagers every year host a “graduation banquet:” A coming-of-age ceremony where friends and families celebrate their admission to a university. Around the mid-20th century, “the whole village would feel proud,” with neighbors hanging up congratulatory signs and setting off fireworks to commemorate the moment, according to the Shíyí culture WeChat blog. But recent social media videos of these banquets show a different story: Guests sitting at tables appear absorbed in their phones even during the graduate’s speech. “It’s actually quite sad,” the blog wrote.

These dull ceremonies are a new phenomenon because “college students are no longer a scarce resource,” according to Shíyí. Attending university is now the default for Chinese teens, so “no one cares” about which college they attend or what they plan to study. Many social media users also believe that the banquets are just a way for families to receive cash gifts. “It’s so outrageous that it’s almost like [they have] ‘I want money’ written on their faces,” the blog wrote.

Middle-aged rebellion

After four Alibaba employees quit or were let go this year, they decided not to worry about looking for other advanced-degree careers and instead opened a bāozi (steamed bun) shop in Hangzhou. Their shop embodies the team’s “middle-aged rebellion” against years of corporate lifestyle and expectations, Rénwù magazine wrote: They don’t open before 10 am (unheard of for bun shops in China), and the employees take an hour to eat and drink cocktails together at lunch. “They do whatever they want,” the magazine wrote.

But the employees are also learning the challenging responsibilities of running a business. The shop isn’t profitable yet, and they are using their own savings to keep it afloat. Still, the owners told Rénwù that they don’t regret leaving their corporate careers. Photos from their time at Alibaba makes it seem like they are different people now with new hairstyles and eccentric clothes.

Big Brother is watching

Last month, Beijing introduced a proposal for internet IDs that would require anyone in China to register for a personal access code to use the internet. The proposed policy immediately stirred nationwide debate on internet security and privacy.

In a now-deleted WeChat article, the Southern Metropolis Daily newspaper laid out the arguments for and against the resolution. On one hand, having a centralized internet ID system would eliminate the need for people to enter their personal information for things like online shopping or subscribing to newsletters, thereby stopping companies from selling their data to third parties. But there is no guarantee that the government itself won’t engage in that practice, Southern Metropolis argued. “The chilling effect it would cause — the damage to free speech — is also worrying” if authorities could more easily monitor what sites users are accessing and what they are posting.

People in Japan are seeking out “haunted houses” to beat the heat. Summer in Japan has long been associated with the dead, as ancestral souls are thought to return to their homes during the mid-August festival of Obon. Indoor theme parks evoke spirit-infested towns, including one in Tokyo where “kimono-clad ghosts with bloody eyes convulse in agony and lurch toward visitors,” The Japan Times wrote. The spooky, cooled houses are a way to escape scorching summers: this July was the hottest since records began. “We believe visitors can experience the feeling of being scared, surprised or ‘chilled to the liver,’” one operator said.

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