| Bolivian voters sent two pro-business candidates to a presidential-election runoff in October, ending two decades of almost-uninterrupted socialist rule and likely transforming the Latin American nation’s economic model and its relations with Washington. The vote took place amid fuel and food shortages and the steepest inflation in more than three decades, which caused months of unrest. As Mexico City’s police chief in 2020, Omar García Harfuch narrowly survived an assassination attempt by hooded assassins. Now, as President Claudia Sheinbaum’s security minister, he’s charged with overseeing efforts to satisfy relentless US pressure to vanquish drug cartels and end fentanyl trafficking — or face punishing tariffs on Mexican goods.  García Harfuch delivers a security briefing with Sheinbaum in Mexico City last week. Photographer: Fred Ramos/Bloomberg Hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets yesterday to protest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to expand military operations in the Gaza Strip, rather than attempt to negotiate an end to the nearly two-year war under which Hamas would free its remaining hostages. Qatar’s prime minister is meanwhile traveling to Egypt to discuss a possible Israel-Hamas ceasefire, Al Jazeera reported. India expects consumption-tax cuts unveiled last week by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will boost the economy without widening the fiscal deficit, helping to offset the fallout from US tariffs on its exports that Trump has threatened to double to 50% by Aug. 27 to penalize the nation for buying Russian oil. In a column in the Financial Times today, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro called India’s purchases of Russian crude “opportunistic and deeply corrosive” of a global effort to isolate the Kremlin. Hong Kong prosecutors began final arguments for convicting former media mogul Jimmy Lai on national-security charges in a case closely monitored by Western governments. They assert the septuagenarian — who has been detained since December 2020 — orchestrated a conspiracy to incite international sanctions against local and Chinese authorities. Meanwhile, Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Ted Hui said Australia granted him asylum more than four years after he left the city to evade similar charges. The imminent end of a recovery in UK living standards is a potential moment of peril for Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has hailed the recent strength of wage growth as a sign he is delivering on his pledge to make “working people” better off. Pakistan is expected to face increased rainfall this month, officials warned, raising the risk of further flooding and landslides after recent flash floods claimed hundreds of lives across the South Asian nation and neighboring India.  Heavy rainfall in Lahore this month. Photographer: Arif Ali/AFP/Getty Images Spanish Premier Pedro Sánchez called for a nationwide pact to combat what he called an accelerating climate emergency, with wildfires raging in several regions of the country. Beijing defended the actions of a Chinese company over its handling of a disaster at a mine in Zambia, while also appearing to lash out at the US after it raised its concerns about the incident. Thousands of Ivorians rallied against incumbent leader Alassane Ouattara’s bid for a fourth term over the weekend, the second such demonstration in a week led by former President Laurent Gbagbo. | 
