A new report written by 234 scientists for the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) details five possible trajectories (AP) for global warming over the coming years. All five predict that in the 2030s, the world’s average temperature will surpass the most ambitious goal set in the 2015 Paris Agreement: limiting warming to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the findings as a “code red for humanity.”
 
The report concludes that human actions are “unequivocally” responsible (Guardian) for rapid climate change and details extreme weather events that are likely to occur with each increase in temperature. The kind of heat wave that occurred every fifty years in the past, for example, will likely happen twice every seven years if temperature rises 1°C above its current level. The report also includes individual regional predictions (IPCC). In two of its five macro-scenarios, the world would be able to avoid the higher Paris Agreement threshold of a 2°C temperature increase, but only with emissions cuts that are more intense than the current global trajectory.

Approval for Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s government sank from 31 percent before the start of the Tokyo Olympics to an all-time low of 28 percent after the games, a poll by the Asahi Shimbun found.
 
CFR’s Sheila A. Smith discusses why Tokyo hosted the Olympics despite COVID-19.
 
China: Alibaba Group, the world’s largest e-commerce company, fired a manager accused of rape (SCMP) after an employee posted the allegations on social media, saying the company’s human resources director failed to take action when the employee reported the incident. Her account went viral on Chinese microblogging site Weibo.

The Taliban has captured (Al Jazeera) six of Afghanistan’s provincial capitals, including much of the city of Kunduz (TOLOnews), in less than a week.
 
India: The country’s Supreme Court ruled that antitrust probes of tech giants Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart must proceed (Reuters). The firms had urged judges to bar the investigations, which India’s federal competition commission ordered last year.
 
In Foreign Affairs, Barry C. Lynn looks at the global fight against corporate concentration.

The top negotiator for Yemen’s Houthi rebels said it would be useless to hold fresh talks (Reuters) with Hans Grundberg, the newly appointed UN envoy for the country, unless there is movement on the Houthis’ demand for an end to the blockade of rebel-held areas.
 
Saudi Arabia: A Saudi court issued jail sentences (Middle East Eye) for sixty-nine Palestinians and Jordanians on charges of supporting Hamas, the armed group that rules the Gaza Strip, a Jordanian rights group said. The detainees, who have been held in Saudi Arabia since 2019, include businesspeople, students, and academics.

Sudan announced it is recalling its ambassador to Ethiopia (National) after the country refused Sudan’s offer to mediate a cease-fire in the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. The recall comes amid tensions between the countries over Ethiopia’s dam on the Blue Nile river.
 
Mozambique: Mozambican and Rwandan forces said they took back control (AFP) of the northern Mozambican town of Mocimboa da Praia from jihadi extremists. Last year, the town became a stronghold for al-Shabab.

The head of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, said the government will dissolve a disciplinary system (Reuters) for judges that the European Union’s top court ruled violates the bloc’s laws.
 
In this May 2020 Foreign Affairs article, Marta Figlerowicz called the judicial panel one of several signs that democracy is on pause in Poland.
 
Cyprus: Ersin Tatar, the leader of Turkish-controlled Northern Cyprus, which only Turkey recognizes as an independent state, told the Financial Times that he will push at the UN General Assembly in September to restart formal talks on resolving the island’s conflict. Tatar said he would seek a two-state solution. The last UN-brokered talks broke down in 2017.

Peru’s new prime minister, Guido Bellido, told Reuters that the government plans to participate in industries such as natural gas and hydroelectricity and that it will aim to form new public companies.
 
Nicaragua: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Nicaragua’s upcoming November elections have “lost all credibility” (Al Jazeera) after a series of arrests of President Daniel Ortega’s political opponents.

Millions of dollars that the U.S. federal government diverted for the construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall in 2019 was taken without congressional oversight from funds meant to improve military operations and the quality of life for troops and their families, Politico reports.