FINANCIAL TIMES
-Sotheby's has reported an 88% drop in core earnings and a 25% decline in auction sales due to a cooling in the art market. The first-half figures reveal the financial pressure the group faced before signing an investment deal with Abu Dhabi earlier this month. Weaker luxury spending in China is affecting demand for fine art and affecting both Sotheby's and rival Christie's. Sotheby's marquee auctions fell short of expectations in May, with the winning bid for a Francis Bacon portrait missing the low end of its estimate. Abu Dhabi-based sovereign wealth fund ADQ agreed to take a minority stake in the auction house through a $1B capital raise.
-Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has fired Lieutenant General Mykola Oleschuk, the commander of the Ukrainian air force, five days after a US-made F-16 jet crash that killed one of Kyiv's top fighter pilots. Zelensky stated that it was necessary to strengthen and protect people, personnel, and soldiers at the command level. Lt Gen Anatoliy Kryvonozhko was appointed acting commander in his place. This marks the third shuffle of a top military post in less than a year. The Ukrainian F-16 fighter crashed during a mission to shoot down Russian missiles and drones in one of the largest aerial attacks mounted by Moscow since its full-scale invasion.
-Brazil's Supreme Court has ordered the suspension of Elon Musk's X, escalating a feud between the billionaire and the top court. Justice Alexandre de Moraes gave regulators 24 hours to shut down access to the platform, which is used by over 20 million Brazilians. The move is expected to inflame public opinion, and any individual or company using virtual private networks to navigate around the block would face daily fines of around $8,000. Musk, a self-declared free speech absolutist, has criticized de Moraes for censorship requests and argued that the moves are part of a fight to protect democracy from misinformation and hateful content.
-Russian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has faced criticism for the rapid advances made by the Russian army in eastern Ukraine since Kyiv's invasion of Kursk. Critics argue that the redeployment of thousands of battle-hardened Ukrainian troops to the Kursk operation has weakened Ukraine's positions. Russian forces are closing in on Pokrovsk, taking several towns and forcing undermanned Ukrainian units to retreat. This loss would threaten the entire region's logistics for Ukraine's military, according to Ukrainian analytical group Frontelligence Insight.
-US Vice-President Kamala Harris has proposed a tax plan to tax the unrealized gains of wealthy Americans, sparking anger from Silicon Valley's wealthiest investors. The plan, part of President Joe Biden's 2025 federal budget, would require people with over $100M in wealth to pay at least 25% on a combination of their income and unrealized capital gains. This would change the way America's richest individuals are taxed, sweeping in investment gains before assets are sold or a person dies. Billionaires like Elon Musk, Warren Buffett, and Jeff Bezos, as well as founders and backers of successful start-up companies, would likely face large tax bills.
-Goldman Sachs is set to cut a few hundred employees as part of an annual review process targeting underperformers. The cuts, expected to begin in the coming weeks, are expected to take a few months to complete. Goldman had 44,400 employees worldwide at the end of June. The bank paused its annual strategic resource assessment during the coronavirus pandemic and resumed it in 2022. Goldman expects the performance-related job cuts to be on the low end of its target range of 1% to 5% of its overall staff.
-Japan is aiming to boost military recruitment by improving living conditions on military bases. The country's defense ministry has requested a record $59B allocation for the fiscal year from next April, as part of a plan to raise the defence-related budget to 2% of GDP by 2027. The plan includes better satellite technology, automation and AI investments, and a strategy to make military careers more attractive. The budget will also allocate money for improved showers, toilets, and privacy in sleeping quarters. The funds will be used to build individual "capsule"-style sleeping rooms on naval vessels.
-Germany has deported 28 Afghans for the first time since the Taliban's return to power in 2021, as the country intensifies its immigration policy following a terror attack in Solingen. Chancellor Olaf Scholz defended the move, stating that "whoever commits crimes cannot expect us not to deport [them]," but refugee advocacy groups criticized it as normalizing an Afghan regime guilty of human rights abuses, particularly against women and girls. Germany's security interests outweigh the interest of protecting criminals and potential terrorists, and it had previously refrained from deporting criminals to Afghanistan and Syria.
THE NEW YORK TIMES
-Vice President Kamala Harris has decided to use President Biden on the campaign trail, as she has risen from No. 2 on the Democratic ticket to No. 1. She must decide whether to distancing herself from the 81-year-old president, who has been pushed out by Democrats due to concerns about his age, mental fitness, and ability to defeat Trump, or to continue embracing Biden and his popular policies. Harris must also decide where Biden should campaign for her, how often, and what he should say. The decision comes as Harris moves from No. 1 on the 2024 election.
-Pennsylvania's Commonwealth Court has ruled that mail-in ballots that are undated or have the wrong date on the outer envelope cannot be thrown out due to violating the state Constitution. The ruling, which is supported by voter advocacy groups, states that tossing ballots because they do not comply with a 2019 law requiring voters to date and sign the outer envelope would violate a State Constitution clause guaranteeing "free and equal elections" and pose a "substantial threat of disenfranchisement." The ruling could play a critical role in November in the battleground state, which polls show is a tossup between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald J. Trump. The ruling applies only to Philadelphia and Allegheny Counties, and whether it extends across the state will depend on county officials and guidance from the secretary of the commonwealth.
-Former President Donald Trump has announced his decision to vote against Florida's abortion rights measure, Amendment 4, following a conservative backlash. Trump had previously suggested he might support the measure, which would expand abortion access in the state. However, he clarified his stance and stated that he would be voting no, despite disagreeing with Florida's current ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. The measure, known as Amendment 4, would allow patients to seek an abortion up to about 24 weeks of pregnancy.
-Former Wyoming congresswoman Liz Cheney, a prominent Republican critic of Donald J. Trump, did not speak at the Democrats' convention, aiming to have more impact later in the race. Despite her commitment to defeating Trump, Cheney never took the stage in Chicago and has yet to endorse Kamala Harris despite repeated outreach from the vice president's campaign. On the eve of the convention, she posted a selfie with her daughter from a Taylor Swift concert in London. Trump responded by saying that "Liz has gone full democrat." Cheney has repeatedly pledged to do whatever it takes to stop Trump from holding office again, but has never taken the stage in Chicago and has yet to endorse Harris.
-The On Politics newsletter, a guide to the 2024 elections, has asked readers to share their favorite books about politics. Nearly 1,000 respondents responded, offering new reasons to read classics and drew out the politics in romance and fantasy books. The recent political moment has felt like a political thriller, with an epic co-written by Shakespeare and Clancy and a wash of the cacophonous political jostling captured by Richard Ben Cramer. The newsletter encourages readers to think broadly about fiction and nonfiction, with nearly 1,000 responding before submissions closed. The Times subscribers can read as many articles as they like.
-Gaza faces a new threat: polio, which has been stalking the population for nearly 11 months due to relentless bombardment. Under international pressure to prevent an outbreak of the crippling disease, Israel has agreed to temporary and localized pauses in fighting to allow United Nations aid workers to deliver vaccines to 640,000 children. Hamas, in a conflict where the warring sides have agreed on precious little, will also abide by the staggered pauses in fighting, which are scheduled to begin on Sunday. The Israeli military and Hamas are moving with relative haste to prevent an outbreak of the crippling disease. The first person to contract polio in Gaza in 25 years is Abdul Rahman Abu Al-Jidyan, who was the first person to contract the disease in Gaza in 25 years.
-A new bronze statue of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore, has raised questions about how the wealthy city-state perceives its history. Singapore's prosperity has long set it apart from many other former British colonies, but it also clung to honoring its former colonial ruler. Raffles, who is considered to have founded modern Singapore in the early 1800s, has been the central character in a larger official narrative that says imperial Britain had set up Singapore for success as an independent nation. Dedications to Raffles dot the landscape of Singapore, with a business district, schools, and dozens of other buildings bearing his name. Two eight-foot likenesses of the man loom large in downtown Singapore.
-Two Colombian soldiers who fought for Ukraine are now under arrest in Moscow after stopping over in Venezuela, which apparently extradited them. The arrest follows their arrival and disappearance last month in Venezuela, a neighbor of Colombia and a Russia ally. The extradition of Colombian fighters could damage relations between Venezuela and Colombia, which share close economic and historical ties. The war in Ukraine is creating geopolitical ripples far from the battlefield, as the Kremlin's campaign to punish its enemies abroad escalates. The arrest of Colombian fighters in Moscow follows their arrival and disappearance in Venezuela, a neighbor of Colombia and a Russia ally.
-Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed the head of the Air Force, Lt. Gen. Mykola Oleschuk, days after an F-16 warplane crash in what may have been a friendly fire incident. A Western official said that friendly fire from a Patriot missile battery might have brought down the jet, though mechanical failure and pilot error have not been ruled out. The dismissal of Oleschuk is the second high-profile departure this year, following Ukraine's top military leader, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, replacing him with Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky in February. Zelensky gave no specific reason for the decision, but said it was necessary to strengthen military leadership and take care of people, personnel, and soldiers.
-Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to visit Mongolia next week, despite the Central Asian country's membership in the International Criminal Court (ICJ), which issued a warrant for his arrest in 2023. The visit is scheduled to commemorate the 85th anniversary of a joint military victory, and will be Putin's first trip to an I.C.C. member nation since March 2023, when the court accused him of war crimes in Ukraine and issued a warrant for his arrest. As part of their membership in the I.C.C., countries are bound by international law to arrest people for whom the court has issued arrest warrants, though that requirement is not always observed.
-The FBI has released a redacted version of a 2019 report that suggested Havana Syndrome was not caused by hostile action but by "social contagion." Some officials argue that the report raised doubts within the C.I.A. and parts of the Trump administration about the root causes of the syndrome and whether it was a functional illness spurred by stress. People with symptoms of Havana Syndrome and their legal representatives have long disparaged the F.B.I. findings, noting that investigators reviewed records but did not interview victims. The report was one of the first to argue that the syndrome was not a result of hostile action.
THE NEW YORK POST
-American and Iraqi forces have killed 15 ISIS terrorists in a joint raid in western Iraq, leaving seven US troops injured. The operation targeted ISIS leaders, who were armed with weapons, grenades, and explosive suicide belts. The US Central Command (CENTCOM) stated that 15 ISIS operatives were killed, and no civilians were injured or killed. The Iraqi military said that airstrikes targeted hideouts and an airborne operation followed. The US has 2,500 troops stationed in Iraq and 900 in Syria to combat ISIS. A coalition of over 80 countries, led by the US, was formed to fight the terrorist group, which lost its hold on territory in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019.
-Amazon is reportedly partnering with AI startup Anthropic to power its revamped Alexa, which is set to be released in October. The Seattle-based company plans to charge $5 to $10 a month for its new "Remarkable" version of Alexa, which uses powerful generative AI to answer complex queries. The "Classic" voice assistant will still be available for free. However, initial versions of the new Alexa using in-house software struggled for words, sometimes taking six or seven seconds to acknowledge a prompt and reply. Amazon's premium Alexa subscription will rely largely on Anthropic's artificial intelligence, not Amazon's. Anthropic, a major force in the AI industry, has raised nearly $8B-7B just this past year. Amazon has funneled resources into its smart devices for years despite the division's less-than-lucrative sales. Staff hoped customers would buy the devices and speak to Alexa to make purchases from Amazon. However, most customers have simply used the smart devices to answer questions, play music, and set timers.