Good morning.
Taiwan’s army has said it is “preparing for war without seeking war” after China’s military began an unprecedented four days of live-fire exercises near the island’s shores following Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei.
Ships and aircraft were warned not enter the relevant sea areas and airspace in the six areas where China was carrying out exercises. Some of the zones overlap with Taiwan’s territorial waters, leading Taiwan’s defence ministry to accuse China of in effect launching a blockade.
“The ministry of national defence stresses that it will uphold the principle of preparing for war without seeking war, and with an attitude of not escalating conflict and causing disputes,” Taiwan’s department of defence said. “The national army will continue to strengthen its alert, and troops at all levels will conduct daily training.”
Taiwan’s defence ministry has said its website was subject to cyber-attacks and went offline temporarily on Thursday.
How worried should we be? Experts agree that neither the US nor China want the tension to escalate to war. Amanda Hsiao, a senior analyst for China at the Crisis Group, said while China’s military escalation was concerning, its response was not a surprise.
Has this happened before? The most recent of several crises in the Taiwan Strait was in 1995 – but Chinese missile tests appeared to be closer to the island this time.
Follow the latest developments on our live blog.
Damaging Alex Jones texts mistakenly sent to Sandy Hook family’s lawyers
Attorneys for Alex Jones inadvertently sent his legal opponents “every text message” he had written in the past two years, disproving his claims that he had nothing on his phone about the deadly Sandy Hook school shooting.
The revelation emerged during Jones’s defamation trial, in an exchange between the far-right conspiracy theorist and Mark Bankston, a lawyer representing the parents of a child killed in the 2012 attack. Jones has falsely claimed that the massacre was a “hoax”, that children were not killed and that parents were “crisis actors” aiming to force gun control.
Bankston showed Jones a text message he received comparing coverage of the Covid pandemic to his false theory that the Sandy Hook killings were fake – despite Jones providing sworn testimony at a deposition that he had no messages on his phone about the massacre.
Jones has admitted that he was reckless to dismiss the shooting, which killed 20 children and six adults, as a hoax, saying: “It’s 100% real.”
Who brought the case? The parents of six-year-old Jesse Lewis, who was killed in the massacre, are suing Jones for defamation. They are seeking at least $150m for the harassment and death threats they endured.
What does Jones say? That it was unreasonable to expect him to predict the harassment they would suffer.
US Senate overwhelmingly approves Finland and Sweden joining Nato
The US Senate gave near-unanimous bipartisan approval to Nato membership for Finland and Sweden on Wednesday.
With 95 against 1 voting for the two countries to join the military alliance, the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, described the decision as a “slam-dunk for national security” of the US. Until Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Finland and Sweden had long eschewed security alliances.
Nato membership requires approval from all 30 member countries. The candidacies of Finland and Sweden have been ratified by more than half of the states in the roughly three months since they applied.
Who voted against? The Missouri Republican senator Josh Hawley took to the floor to say China, not Russia, was the biggest threat to security.
Is their membership guaranteed? No – Turkey has raised concerns, accusing them of leniency toward banned Turkish Kurdish exile groups.
In other news …
Kansas voters turned out in record numbers to take part in the state’s primary ballot, which included a question on limiting abortion access. Kansans resoundingly voted against the anti-abortion measure.
An Indiana congresswoman, Jackie Walorski, and two members of her staff were killed in a car crash in the state on Wednesday, her office and police said. Walorski’s communications director, Emma Thomson, 27, and Zachery Potts, 28, a district director for the lawmaker, were also killed, the sheriff’s office said.
The Yemeni government and Houthi rebels have agreed to extend the current ceasefire for a further two months, the UN has announced. Nearly 80% of Yemen’s population, including 13 million children, need humanitarian aid.
Stat of the day: 2.92 million people followed Nancy Pelosi’s flight to Taipei online
About 2.92 million people followed at least a part of the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi’s, flight to Taipei, as interest in flight trackers continues to soar. The volume of traffic made the Flightradar24 website “unstable for some users”. As well as for global news events, people use the site to keep tabs on private jet flights involving celebrities and football transfers.
Don’t miss this: Are we ready for pig-to-human heart transplants?
With more than 100,000 Americans stuck on the transplant waiting list, it is little wonder that scientists are looking at animals for organ transplants. But with the zoonotic Sars-CoV-2 virus having killed more than 6 million people, this may be a dangerous barrier to cross. Simar Bajaj dives into the future of transplant surgery, and how it forces us to ask fundamental questions about what it means to be human.
Climate check: Why summer nights are getting hotter
Photograph: PhotoAlto/Alamy
During a heatwave, the sweaty, sleepless nights often feel the worst. Research confirms that night-time temperatures have been rising more quickly than daytime temperatures across most of the world in a trend driven by greenhouse gases. Here’s why: warmer air contains moisture and the extra clouds reflect heat in the day and trap it at night.
Last Thing: Students complaint that ‘phallic’ statue may damage university reputation
What does the above model look like to you? Students at Imperial College London are opposing the installation of a new sculpture by Antony Gormley over concerns that the work is “phallic”; the artist says it shows a figure “balancing on the balls of the feet while squatting on its haunches”.
