The price of crude oil surges to $97.56 a barrel, its highest price in more than a year. / CNBC Foreign direct investment in China was just $4.9 billion in the second quarter of 2023, down by 94% from the same period in 2021. / The Economist Switzerland's
In just a decade, China has amassed the world's largest coast guard fleet, and its patrol vessels often resemble warships. / The New York Times [+] With elections looming, "China wants Taiwanese voters to think America is their greatest threat." / The Economist With elections scheduled in Poland and
As the Northern Hemisphere emerges from the hottest summer on record, South America exits winter with temperatures pushing 110 degrees in parts of Brazil. / Grist Since the beginning of summer, Ukraine has "massively" stepped up strikes on the Crimean peninsula. / The Economist For United States foreign policy, the
NASA has brought back its first asteroid samples—the 4.5 billion-year-old specimens are the largest sample return since the Apollo moon landings. / AP Biden's push to remove medical debt from credit scores is a good start, advocates say, but should extend to banning medical credit
The US and Vietnam may be approaching the largest-ever arms transfer ever between the countries—edging out Russia, which has been Vietnam's main supplier since 2016. / Reuters For only the second time in history, surgeons have transplanted a heart from a genetically engineered pig into a human.
"Wearing radiation monitors, safety goggles, and seven layers of gloves, they practice shaping new warhead plutonium cores—by hand." How America maintains its aging nuclear weapons. / AP America's relationship with air conditioning went from fascination to addiction in the 20th century—from here on out, life
Russia launches a large aerial assault on several Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv. / The South China Morning Post In 2022 South Korea sold $17 billion in weapons, more than twice the amount of the previous year. / The Economist Syrian President al-Assad goes to China for a bilateral summit with President
A study finds that 98% of Europeans live in areas with highly damaging fine particulate pollution. / The Guardian A climate research firm says 39 million homes in the United States are at risk of losing their insurance. / Axios More than a year ahead of its deadline, California installs 10,000
Congressional Republicans are divided on a short-term bill to fund the government through Halloween. / The Hill One theory about our government shutdowns: maybe blame it on Congress's embrace of air conditioning. / Politico A windowless telecommunications hub in New York City "embodies an architecture of surveillance and
In a deal that also releases $6 billion in Iranian funds frozen by sanctions, the US and Iran swap five detainees each. / Reuters Vocational schools in China are providing student labor to annotate data in order to feed the country's AI industry. / Rest of World The "healthy
