Your Thursday Briefing: U.S. Senate passes semiconductor bill

July 28, 2022

By Matthew Cullen

Good morning. We're covering the U.S. Senate's passage of a major industrial policy bill and Japan's difficulties handling its monkey population.

A Beijing semiconductor facility during a government-organized tour.Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press

U.S. Senate passes $280 billion bill to counter China

In rare bipartisan fashion, the U.S. Senate passed an expansive $280 billion bill aimed at building up America's manufacturing and technological edge to counter China.

The legislation would provide billions of dollars in subsidies for domestic manufacturers of semiconductors and fund scientific research into artificial intelligence, robotics and quantum computing — areas in which the U.S. fears it is falling behind China. It passed the chamber in a 64 to 33 vote and is expected to pass in the House with some Republican support.

The bill's margin of approval illustrated how commercial and military competition with Beijing — and the promise of thousands of new American jobs — has drastically shifted party orthodoxies, generating agreement among Republicans who had eschewed market interventions and Democrats who had resisted showering big companies with federal largess.

Context: The share of modern manufacturing capacity in the U.S. has plummeted to 12 percent, making the nation reliant on foreign countries amid a chip shortage that has sent shock waves through the global supply chain.

Books by Xi Jinping at Hong Kong's annual book fair this month. Top local officials made highly publicized visits to buy copies.Kin Cheung/Associated Press

Xi looms large for Hong Kong's leaders

Hong Kong's top officials are rushing to embrace Xi Jinping, China's leader, a performance of devotion that is a jarring shift for Hong Kong's once rambunctious political culture.

On his first full day in office, Hong Kong's new leader, John Lee, shared a picture of himself alongside a printout of what he described as an important speech by Xi. The city's lawmakers held a six-hour session this month lauding Xi's recent visit to Hong Kong. And hundreds of top officials have attended group study sessions, including one titled "Spirit of the President's Important Speech."

Such displays of devotion — common in mainland China — represent a major change in the former British colony that was granted a high degree of autonomy when it was returned to Chinese control 25 years ago. Hong Kong has long had to abide by Beijing's decisions over major issues, but the bureaucracy's embrace of Xi has crystallized its new identity as a territory firmly in Beijing's grip.

Context: The embrace of Xi is also a sign of the weakness of the local government. Lee, who spent nearly his entire career with the police and the security service, lacks the sort of broad network his predecessors brought to the job through lengthy experience in the civil service or in business.

The Japanese macaque population has been growing since the end of World War II.Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images

Japan's marauding monkeys

Officials in the western Japanese city of Yamaguchi killed a monkey this week that they believe was responsible for a spate of attacks against humans.

Approximately 25,000 monkeys are killed each year in Japan, mostly by municipalities. Clashes between humans and macaques — also known as snow monkeys — are becoming more frequent. In Yamaguchi alone, 56 victims were attacked by a monkey this month, including a baby girl injured in her home and a 4-year-old girl pounced on at a kindergarten.

Japan's macaque population is thriving, in large part because conservation efforts have been a tad too successful. The population recovery has "provoked and intensified" human-macaque conflicts to the point where people living near the animals now face serious risks of having their own habitats invaded, Hiroto Enari, a primate expert, wrote in a recent study.

The most serious concern, Enari said, is that the animals could spread hepatitis B or other diseases to humans.

Elsewhere in Asia: Human-monkey conflicts are not new to the region. In Thailand, the city of Lopburi has been under siege for years from aggressive crab-eating macaques. In Singapore, officials recently had to guard an apartment complex from invading monkeys.

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THE LATEST NEWS

Asia Pacific

Damage in Abra Province in the northern Philippines, near the epicenter of the earthquake, yesterday morning.National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council

A 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit the northern Philippines, killing at least four people, causing dozens of landslides and severely damaging buildings.
Bangladesh is seeking financial assistance from the I.M.F. a week after it introduced scheduled power outages in response to the soaring cost of fuel.
The Philippines said it had canceled a deal to buy Russian helicopters for more than $200 million because of potential U.S. sanctions, The Associated Press reported.
In 1948, a man was found dead lying against a sea wall on Somerton Beach in Australia, dressed in a jacket and tie that had their tags cut off. Two researchers, using forensic genealogy, put a name to the man this week.

War in Ukraine

Ukrainian missiles struck a key bridge in the port city of Kherson, as Russia stepped up its attacks across the southern regions of Odesa and Mykolaiv.
The Ukrainian Parliament approved President Volodymyr Zelensky's pick to become the country's new prosecutor general, a job that includes overseeing war crimes prosecutions.
In June, the U.S. offered to trade an imprisoned Russian arms dealer, Viktor Bout, for the release of W.N.B.A. star Brittney Griner and the former Marine Paul Whelan, a person briefed on the negotiations said.
Griner told a courtroom that she had been tossed into a bewildering legal system with little explanation of what was happening.

Around the World

People celebrated the exit polls indicating a vote in favor of the new Constitution in Tunis on Monday.Riadh Dridi/Associated Press

Tunisians narrowly approved a new Constitution that cements the one-man rule instituted by President Kais Saied, dealing a blow to a democracy built after Tunisians overthrew their dictator more than a decade ago.
A high-profile European Parliament deputy from Greece and leader of a major opposition party there was targeted with malicious spyware.
At least 15 people, including three U.N. peacekeepers, were killed and 60 others injured in the Democratic Republic of Congo in an escalation of dayslong anti-U.N. protests.
The U.S. Federal Reserve made its second consecutive unusually large interest-rate increase, raising rates by three-quarters of a percentage point in an effort to tame inflation.
Lufthansa Airlines canceled virtually all its flights in and out of Frankfurt and Munich after around 3,000 employees walked off the job.
A women's Tour de France was revived this week after a 33-year absence. Contestants say it's just the first step toward equality in a sport sorely in need of it.

A Morning Read

Bridgetown, capital of Barbados.Erika Larsen/Redux, for The New York Times

Economic devastation looms across the Caribbean, which is facing a future of climate crisis and spiraling debt. In Barbados, Mia Mottley, the first woman to lead the country, has been working to restructure the country's billions of dollars in debt in a way that would free up money to invest in its economy and protect against climate catastrophe.

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ARTS AND IDEAS

The year of Barbie

The color of the season is pink. The inspiration: Barbie.

It started with the high-fashion world. During Paris Fashion Week, Valentino debuted a pink collection, and in Rome this month, Anne Hathaway attended his show in a hot-pink sequined dress. Lizzo, Lil Nas X, Kim Kardashian and other celebrities have also been spotted in pink.

The trend, dubbed "Barbiecore," is also popular among Millennials and Gen Z. As the website Who What Wear put it: "Yes, the dolls you played with as a child are leading the sartorial charge right now. Talk about a true nostalgic revival."

Then there's the live-action Barbie movie that comes out next year, directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken. Photos of the actors rollerblading in extremely bright outfits have been hard to miss online: "the social media dopamine hit of summer," as Vanessa Friedman, the fashion director and chief fashion critic for The Times, put it.