LA Curfew, Colombia Violence, Labubu Record

💡 SPOTLIGHT

If a plant is smarter than AI? Deciphering all the intelligence of our planet

Chimpanzees in the Congo region have developed a precise technique for hunting termites. First, they use a sturdy stick to dig a deep tunnel in the hard soil and reach the insect colony. Then, they take the stem of a specific plant and break it down with their teeth to form a kind of brush they will use, like a fishing rod, to catch the termites in the hole they just dug. 

But their intelligence goes a little further: This know-how does not arise spontaneously in all chimpanzee populations but has spread over time with exchanges among groups. According to a study by the University of Zurich published late last year, these apes transmit their culture and advances among each other in a way that is not dissimilar to how we humans do it. 

It is difficult to doubt the intelligence of chimpanzees. It’s also hard to doubt that of orangutans — with their medical knowledge — and of dolphins, with their ability to solve complex problems. Anyone who has spent a good deal of time with a dog likewise has few doubts about canine intellectual capabilities. But is an octopus intelligent? What about a bumblebee, or even a plant? 

“When we look for intelligence in other living beings, we usually study those that are most similar to us, Homo sapiens,” says Paco Calvo, head of the University of Murcia’s Minimal Intelligence Laboratory — MintLab. “We observe apes and other mammals. But our strategy — here — is the opposite: We study those least similar to us,” he says, adding, “because when we find someone who, without resembling us at all, is capable of solving problems, we may then find a master key that will help us understand intelligence in any branch of the tree of life.” 

Calvo’s laboratory is a unique institution, part scientific and part philosophical in its vocation, which seeks to determine what exactly we mean by intelligence and to define which living beings can show signs of it. The title of Calvo’s 2023 book Planta sapiens, already tells us where this is going.

Is a climbing plant intelligent? The first answer that comes to mind is: no, obviously. But perhaps we are not intelligent enough to understand the other forms of intelligence with which we share the planet. […]

— Read the full article by Juan F. Samaniego for La Marea, translated from Spanish and adapted by Worldcrunch.

🗞️ FRONT PAGE​​

“Why?” asks Vienna-based daily Die Presse on Wednesday, a day after a 21-year-old former student opened fire at a secondary school in Graz, killing 11 — eight students, a teacher, a woman and himself. Armed with legally acquired weapons, the attacker moved through classrooms before taking his own life. Authorities have yet to confirm a motive, though reports suggest a history of bullying. Austria enters three days of national mourning, shaken by the worst school shooting in its modern history.

🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW

• Mass arrests in LA as police enforce curfew. For those defying a partial overnight curfew, Los Angeles police registered nearly 200 arrests amid the recent anti-immigration protests. Effective at 8:00 p.m. local time in a one-square mile area of downtown LA was on lockdown, a decision aimed to address looting and violence. This comes as U.S. President Donald Trump expanded extraordinary federal military deployment to quell protests, which prompted a lawsuit by California Governor Gavin Newsom. Protests have begun to spread beyond LA to at least nine other major U.S. cities, including New York and Chicago. 

• Dozens more Palestinians killed in ongoing Gaza aid site shootings. Israeli forces opened fire again near aid sites in Gaza on Tuesday, killing 36 people and injuring more than 200, and bringing cumulative death tolls from U.S.-backed aid distribution to at least 163, with a total 1,495 civilians wounded. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu faces the most serious challenge to his far-right government since the war began as ultra-Orthodox allies threaten to quit over a controversial military draft exemption, potentially triggering new elections amid the ongoing conflict. 

• Major Russian drone attack kills 3, hitting residential areas. Russian forces launched a major overnight drone attack across Ukraine overnight, killing three people and injuring at least 60. The northeastern city of Kharkiv was among the hardest hit, with 17 drones targeting residential areas and destroying civilian infrastructure. Despite recent ceasefire talks in Istanbul, Russia continues its intensified assaults, with Ukraine reporting nearly 800 drones launched from Moscow this week. 

• U.S. and China agree to maintain tariff truce. U.S. and China officials rounded out trade talks in London with a temporary agreement to revive their trade truce by easing Chinese export restrictions on critical earth minerals, though major disagreements over tariffs remain unresolved. While the deal helps prevent a complete collapse of previous pacts, it was seen as expected and lacking detail, and offers no lasting solution to broader trade tensions. The two sides have until August 10 to reach a more comprehensive consensus before tariff hikes resume.

• Organized bombings and gun attacks put Colombia in panic. A wave of 24 coordinated bomb and gun attacks across southwest Colombia killed at least seven people and injured 28 on Tuesday, just days after an assassination attempt of presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe in Bogotá. Police suspect a dissident group known as the Central General Staff (EMC), believing them to be retaliating against an ongoing military operation that reportedly harmed their leader. Read Colombian daily El Espectador’s piece on how these assaults are sparking fears of a return to the violence that overtook Colombia in the 1990s here.

• Argentina’s top court puts an end to ex-president Kirchner’s political career. Argentina’s Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld former president Cristina Kirchner’s six-year prison sentence and lifetime ban from public office for fraudulent administration during her 2007-2015 term, putting an official end to her political career. The divisive leftist leader and her supporters claim the case is politically motivated, while President Javier Milei celebrated the decision as justice, and protests erupted in several cities in response.

• News Quiz! A Labubu monster-like toy sold for a record-breaking $150,000 at a Beijing auction house on Tuesday. What made this particular one so special?

A. It belongs to the very first batch produced in 2019
B. It is covered in Swarovski crystals
C. It is human-sized
D. It went to the International Space Station

[Answer below]

#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS

3.5 million

Japan’s Nintendo sold a record breaking 3.5 million Nintendo Switch 2 units within four days after its launch. With this, the Switch 2 is the company’s fastest-selling gaming device to date. The Kyoto-based company predicted selling 15 million consoles in the current financial year, which ends in March. Sales started on June 5, and improvements on the first Nintendo Switch include a bigger screen and better graphics. One of the games that comes with the new model is “Mario Kart World” — which includes a nostalgic game character that makes it an even easier sell. 

📰 IN OTHER NEWS

⚖️ One month after the imprisonment of Ekrem İmamoğlu, the mayor of Istanbul and a key rival to President Erdoğan, the Silivri penitentiary has come to symbolize a country where justice bows to the shifting winds of politics.
— LE FIGARO

🇨🇴 The brutal assassination attempt on Colombian presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe Turbay has reopened decades-old wounds in the country.
— EL ESPECTADOR

🧘 Once sites of shock and provocation, museums are reinventing themselves as places of calm and care. From meditation cushions to medical studies, art is now being prescribed for everything. But what happens when comfort replaces critique?
— DIE ZEIT

📸 PHOTO DU JOUR

Mounted LAPD are on patrol, trying to keep protests from further escalating against U.S. President Trump’s massive ICE raids in Los Angeles, where illegal immigrants are arrested from their homes and get deported. As of Tuesday, Mayor Karen Bass imposed a curfew for Angelinos, starting from 8 p.m. LAPD estimates almost 200 people have been arrested, and more arrests are likely to come. — Photo: Justin L. Stewart/ZUMA

📣 VERBATIM

“There has never been talk of a coup.”

— Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro has denied involvement in an alleged plot to overthrow its current president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Bolsonaro — who ruled the country between 2019 and 2022 — stood in court Tuesday with seven purported co-conspirators over the events which led up to the storming of government buildings by his supporters on January 8, 2023, a week after Lula’s inauguration. Following Lula’s 2022 victory, Bolsonaro made false claims that there had been faults with electronic voting machines in the run-up to the election. This led to his ban of running for public office until 2030. The former president could face decades in prison if he is convicted.