Flagship

Rebel Republicans oust speaker

The U.S. House of Representatives for the first time voted to oust a speaker. Although Kevin McCarthy’s Republicans narrowly control the chamber, Florida representative Matt Gaetz proposed the motion to remove him over what hardliners saw as a failure to secure more spending cuts in the recent fight over a possible government shutdown. McCarthy shocked his colleagues by saying he would not run for the position again, and there is no clear successor in sight. Whoever does take the chair faces a problem: House Republicans “have become ungovernable,” Carl Hulse wrote in The New York Times.

West warns of threats to Ukraine aid

Ukraine’s Western allies warned that aid to Kyiv was in doubt. NATO officials said members were running out of ammunition to give to Ukraine, fueling concerns over whether Western promises can outlast Russia’s commitment to its invasion. “The bottom of the barrel is now visible,” one said. The White House meanwhile said the U.S. had “a couple of months or so” of supplies to offer, but further support was in question after Congress blocked additional funding. Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Moscow, argued that backing Ukraine was both a moral and realpolitik imperative. “Real realists understand that U.S. military assistance to Ukraine directly serves our own national security interests,” he wrote.

— Watch Semafor’s video on the race to produce more ammo for Ukraine.

US pushes new anti-drug measures

Washington announced new efforts to combat fentanyl trafficking involving China and Mexico. The White House unveiled charges and financial sanctions against Chinese companies and executives to battle an overdose crisis that has killed tens of thousands annually since 2020. U.S. officials say China is the source of nearly all precursor chemicals needed to make fentanyl, whereas Mexico is home to the cartels that traffic the drug into the United States. Biden administration officials arrive in Mexico City today for talks to deal with the crisis. The scale of the challenge is immense: Just one kilogram of fentanyl can kill 500,000 people, one expert estimated, meaning it is both lucrative for cartels and easy to smuggle.

Abu Dhabi to open huge solar farm

The world’s fourth-largest solar farm will shortly go online in Abu Dhabi. The 2-gigawatt Al Dhafra plant will be capable of powering about 1.5 million homes. The Middle East is ideally suited to solar power: Not only is there lots of sun, but its greatest electricity demand is air conditioning, meaning demand and supply go up and down together. Meanwhile, Sultan al-Jaber, head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and president of this year’s COP28 climate summit, said the oil and gas industry must prepare for a “phase down” — rather than a phaseout as demanded by climate campaigners — of fossil fuels, although ADNOC is also aiming to boost production from 4 million to 5 million barrels a day by 2027.

Seychelles opposition accused of witchcraft

The main opposition leader in the Seychelles was charged with witchcraft. According to prosecutors, Patrick Herminie’s name appeared in WhatsApp conversations of a person who was arrested last month after attempting to enter the country with “demonic and satanic” documents. Herminie said his prosecution is a “political show” to taint his image and prevent him from running in 2025 elections. Seychelles remains one of Africa’s democratic success stories. According to Freedom House, it’s the continent’s second-freest country, ranking higher overall than Israel, while its GDP per capita is almost seven times higher than Africa’s average.

Women given vote at Catholic synod

Pope Francis plans to give women voting rights at the upcoming synod. Traditionally only bishops can vote at the synod, an advisory body for the pope, and since women cannot be Catholic priests they could not vote. But this year, 54 nuns and lay women will be among the 365 members. The synod will also discuss permitting female deacons, who can preside at weddings and funerals though they cannot celebrate Mass. This week Francis suggested priests could bless individuals at same-sex marriages, though not the union itself. The pope is trying to thread a needle of updating a Church which views its doctrines as unchanging and eternal.

Phones to broadcast emergency test

Every cellphone in the United States will broadcast a test emergency alert today at 2:20 p.m. Eastern Time. It’s a sign of how much smartphones are now part of national infrastructure: The alert, in English and Spanish, will also be sent via TV and radio, the way that a previous generation’s warnings of nuclear attack or natural disaster might have been. But smartphones are usually switched on and carried, meaning more people will receive it. Unlike previous emergency tests, this one can’t be opted out of, although, The Verge points out, now that you know the rough time it’ll happen, you can just switch your phone off for a bit if you like.

Nobel awarded for quantum dots

The Nobel Prize in chemistry went to three scientists for the discovery and synthesis of “quantum dots,” tiny crystals just a few thousand atoms across that are so small their properties are determined by quantum physics. Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus, and Alexei Ekimov, three U.S.-based scientists, developed ways of manipulating the crystals very precisely, which allowed breakthroughs in computing, lasers, and microscopy. The head of the Nobel committee called it “a fundamental discovery in nanotechnology.”

FCC issues first fine for space junk

U.S. regulators fined a company for creating space junk in orbit, the first time such a penalty has been issued. Dish Network’s EchoStar-7 satellite had been orbiting 22,000 miles up, a common height because it allows satellites to stay stationary in relation to the ground. When it reached the end of its useful life in 2022, it was supposed to climb 186 miles to get away from that busy orbit, but ran out of fuel at 76 miles. The Federal Communications Commission said this meant it posed a threat to other satellites, and fined Dish Network $150,000 — although since Dish Network’s revenue is $16 billion, the company can probably afford it.

Sumo body relaxes rules

The Japanese Sumo Association is relaxing its rules on the height and weight of wrestlers as the sport grapples, so to speak, with falling numbers of recruits. JSA rules say wrestlers must be at least 5′6″ and 147 lb, leading to would-be rikishi, wrestlers, drinking large amounts of water to gain weight or, in one case, getting a scalp implant to become taller. But a shrinking population, a series of scandals, and falling interest in the austere lifestyle has hit recruiting. In 1992, there were 160 applicants to be rikishi: This spring, there were just 34. One thing that will not change will be the ban on female rikishi, The Times of London reported. The sport is rooted in a Shinto tradition that sees women as unclean: Female politicians are even banned from presenting trophies.

• Pope Francis issues a new document on the protection of nature, a follow-up to his influential 2015 encyclical on the climate crisis.
• French President Emmanuel Macron meets new Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo in Paris.
• Beckham, a documentary series about the British soccer star, is released on Netflix.

Yields for the U.S. 10-year Treasury bond, the bedrock of the global financial system, hit their highest level since the global financial crisis. On the back of the sell-off, currencies dropped against the dollar, and global stock markets fell: The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1.3%, giving up its gains for the year. Although a number of factors — including investors’ expectations for interest rates remaining high in the long-term — are to blame, the likeliest causes “appear to be a combination of expectations of better U.S. growth and concern for huge federal deficits,” The Wall Street Journal reported.

2035, a mockumentary about Korean reunification, is eyeing a theatrical release next year. The feature-length film, set a decade after a fictional merging of South and North Korea, follows a film crew commemorating the anniversary. Director Park Jai-in told Nikkei that he wanted to make audiences “both shudder and giggle” in line with a tradition of genre-bending seen in Bong Joon-ho’s Oscar-winning film Parasite. “If you look at life up close, it seems like a tragedy, but if you look at it from afar, it is a comedy,” Park, 42, said.

• Celebrities are warning of AI deepfake ads using their likenesses — and it won’t be easy for platforms to crack down on the fraudulent endorsements.
• How a rural New York district attorney is preparing to try Salman Rushdie’s alleged attacker.
• An alliance with an ex-warlord is boosting an opposition candidate’s election campaign in Liberia.