U.S. hunts Chinese malware that could disrupt American military operations
The Biden administration is hunting for malicious computer code it believes China has hidden deep inside the networks controlling power grids, communications systems and water supplies that feed military bases in the United States and around the world, according to U.S. military, intelligence and national security officials. The discovery of the malware has raised fears that Chinese hackers have inserted code designed to disrupt U.S. military operations in the event of a conflict. But its impact could be far broader, because that same infrastructure often supplies the houses and businesses of ordinary Americans, according to U.S. officials.
Rep. Dean Phillips says he is considering a run against Biden
Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., who has for months been saying in public what many in his party only whisper in private — that 80-year-old President Joe Biden should not seek reelection because of his age — said he was considering challenging Biden in next year’s primary. Although Phillips, 54, has been known in Congress for embracing the moderate suburban politics at the core of the general-election coalition that propelled Biden’s 2020 victory, Phillips would be an extreme long shot if he were to challenge Biden. Polls show that Democrats, who were once wary about Biden seeking reelection, have coalesced behind him.
Trump and DeSantis collide for first t ime in Iowa, as fortunes diverge
When former President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida shared the same stage at an Iowa Republican Party dinner Friday, their appearances seemed to capture the dynamics of the 2024 presidential primary: Trump played headliner; DeSantis was reduced to an opening act. Even as Trump faces criminal indictments, he has only consolidated support. Meanwhile, DeSantis is trying to reset his campaign. “Six months ago, you would have said there were two tiers: Trump and DeSantis, and then everyone else,” said Craig Robinson, an Iowa Republican strategist; now “you have Donald Trump in a tier by himself, and you have everyone else trying to be the alternative to Trump.”
In sweltering border towns, water cutoffs add to misery
Even in Texas, where people are accustomed to sweltering weather, recent triple-digit temperatures have taken a toll, especially in colonias, mostly unincorporated neighborhoods that often lack basic services such as running water, sewer systems, paved roads and streetlights. Texas has recorded at least 36 heat-related deaths so far this year. But even as doctors urge people to limit their time exposed to the heat and stay hydrated, residents of low-income Latino neighborhoods do not always have those options. Problem-plagued delivery systems have meant that entire neighborhoods along the Texas border have gone without water for hours or even days, and people cannot afford to turn on air conditioners.
Teenagers’ accidents expose e-bike risks
The e-bike industry is booming, but the summer of 2023 has brought sharp questions about how safe e-bikes are, especially for teenagers. A pair of recent accidents involving two local teenagers prompted the town of Encinitas, California, to declare a state of emergency for e-bike safety. Many e-bikes can exceed the 20 mph speed limit that is legal for teenagers in most states; some can go 70 mph. To some policymakers and law enforcement officials, the technology has outpaced existing laws, regulations and safety guidelines. Two federal agencies, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, are evaluating how to best oversee e-bike safety.
A summer spectacle where fireflies are the guiding light
Over the past few decades, anecdotal reports suggest firefly populations have been declining. Although the data are sparse, experts say multiple species are at risk of extinction from threats such as habitat loss, pesticides and light pollution, which interrupts their mating signals. Some people have created public spaces for the insects, but few have created firefly oases on their own properties. Fewer still open up their homes to host firefly viewing parties, but Bill and Mary-Ellen McDonald of New Canaan, Connecticut, have done just that every summer for the past 30 years. Dozens of people gather there over several evenings during peak season — from June to mid-July.
It has been a hellish summer for the Mediterranean.
Even as the Mediterranean’s high fever finally broke this past week thanks to the influx of North Atlantic air, the realization that it was not even August — when new bouts of extreme heat are anticipated — dampened any sense of relief. Tour operators, officials and tourists across the region are wondering what happens when a preferred destination for summer getaways becomes a place you absolutely must get away from in the summer. Countries such as Italy and Greece, which increasingly depend on tourism, are staring at a bleak and smoke-filled future, while the damp and chilly places normally shunned by travelers see a future in the sun.
From coast to coast, a corridor of coups creates chaos in Africa
Africa’s coup belt spans the continent: a line of six countries crossing 3,500 miles that has become Earth’s longest corridor of military rule. This past week’s military takeover in the West African nation of Niger toppled the final domino in a band across the girth of Africa, from Guinea in the west to Sudan in the east, now controlled by juntas that came to power in a coup. The last leader to fall was Niger’s Mohamed Bazoum, a democratically elected U.S. ally who disappeared Wednesday when his guards detained him at the presidential palace in the capital, Niamey. His security chief now claims to be running the country.
A sense of mission at risk as Israeli reservists resign to protest new law
More than 10,000 reserve pilots, intelligence officers, commandos, military instructors, army medics and infantrymen had threatened to resign from volunteer duty if the government pressed ahead with a judicial overhaul bill approved by parliament Monday. It is unclear how many will make good on their promises, because reservists are called up on a rolling basis. To many, the military is a melting pot that unifies citizens from most social, ethnic and political backgrounds around a shared national project: the defense of the Jewish state. The turmoil surrounding the reservists’ resignations casts doubt on that sense of common mission.
‘I feel pain, and I want revenge’: In Odesa, attacks stoke hatred of Russia
Standing on a bridge overlooking the road to Odesa’s main port, Nina Sulzhenko surveyed the damage wrought by a recent Russian missile strike: The House of Scientists, one of the Ukrainian city’s best-loved buildings, was in shambles. “I feel pain, and I want revenge,” said Sulzhenko, 74. “I don’t have the words to say what we should do to them.” Hers was a common sentiment in Odesa this past week after a series of missile strikes damaged the city’s port and 29 historic buildings in its belle epoque city center.
Russia strikes another grain terminal, extending a campaign against Ukraine’s ports
Russian forces struck a grain terminal in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, Ukrainian officials said Saturday, extending a bombardment of the country’s infrastructure that has raised alarm about Kyiv’s ability to ship grain to the world. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has vowed to enhance air defenses around the port and the southern coast, but Kyiv’s resources are stretched thin and it faces difficult choices about where to deploy the limited number of air defense systems that can shoot down Russia’s most sophisticated missiles. Ukraine continues to ask its Western allies to speed up the delivery of more air defense systems.
Biden presses ahead with effort to broker Israeli-Saudi rapprochement
President Joe Biden’s envoys are pushing ahead with their effort to realign Middle East politics by brokering the establishment of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel despite significant concessions demanded by the Saudi monarchy. Biden sent National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan back to Saudi Arabia in recent days, his second trip there in less than three months, as U.S. officials test the ground for an agreement bringing together two historic adversaries and fundamentally reshaping the region. No breakthrough was announced, but the fact that Sullivan returned to the kingdom so soon after his last trip suggests that the Biden administration sees serious prospects for an accord.
By wire sources