Financial Times - Andrew England in London and Raya Jalabi / Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh killed in Iran

• The Palestinian militant group said in a statement that Haniyeh, who lived in exile, died after a “treacherous Zionist” attack on his residence in Tehran. Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards confirmed that Haniyeh was killed in an attack in the Iranian capital but did not provide further details. 

• The killing of Haniyeh came hours after Israel said it had killed a senior Hizbollah commander in an air strike on Beirut, the Lebanese capital, heightening fears that the region was sliding towards a full-blown war. 

• Haniyeh, who has been Hamas’s political leader since 2017, is the highest-profile member of Hamas to be killed following the militant group’s October attack and Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza. He was the main interlocutor for mediators trying to negotiate a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages held in the strip. 

• There will also be concerns about how Iran, which considers Hizbollah its most important proxy, will respond, particularly if it is confirmed that Israel conducted the strike in Tehran that killed Haniyeh. 

  Related article: Reuters - Ahmed Rasheed, Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart / US carries out strike in Iraq as regional tensions worsen

   

Bloomberg - Toru Fujioka and Sumio Ito / Japan’s Central Bank Hikes Key Rate Hours Before the Fed

• The Bank of Japan raised its benchmark interest rate and unveiled plans to halve bond purchases, underscoring its determination to normalize monetary policy. 

• The BOJ raised its policy rate to around 0.25% from a range of 0 to 0.1%, according to its statement Wednesday. It also said it would reduce its monthly pace of bond buying to around ¥3 trillion ($19.6 billion) by the first quarter of 2026. The recent pace of purchases has been about double that amount. 

• The BOJ’s decision showcased that Ueda will to proceed with normalization after years in which the bank pursued an ultra-easy policy that included the world’s last negative interest rate until March. Wednesday’s actions will likely fuel speculation that one more hike may be coming this year.  

• In an updated quarterly inflation outlook, the BOJ kept its forecast for a gauge of core inflation roughly unchanged, predicting price growth will stay around 2% for the entire projection period through March 2027.

   

Politico – Megan Messerly / Biden was faltering in Georgia. Harris is putting it back on the map.

• Harris, struggling to speak over the applause of a crowd her campaign pegged at 10,000, made clear she sees Georgia as key to November victory. And she for the first time mapped out some of her policy priorities — on immigration, voting rights and gun control — that Atlantans in interviews this week said they had been eagerly awaiting.

• The vice president’s appeal to voters of color and younger voters, combined with a recent pivot to the center that could persuade suburbanites and a general new-candidate shine, has created an opening in Georgia and other Sun Belt states that seemed unlikely for Biden, whose electoral hopes had narrowed north to Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. 

• She also challenged former President Donald Trump to “meet me on the debate stage” after he said in an interview with Fox News Channel that ran Monday night that he would “probably” debate her — but “can also make a case for not doing it.”.

• Trump has made a significant play for Black voters — and specifically Black men — this cycle, with a recent national poll from The New York Times/Siena College showing that while Harris is doing better with voters of color than Biden has all year, Trump continues to outperform his 2020 numbers with them. Trump is set to attend the National Association of Black Journalists’ convention in Chicago on Wednesday, and Trump and Vance will be in Georgia on Saturday at the same venue Harris hosted her Tuesday rally.

   

Reuters / Russia launches one of war's largest drone attacks on Ukraine, Kyiv's military says

• Russia launched several waves of drones on Kyiv in what was one of the war's largest attacks of its kind targeting Ukraine, the military administration of the city said on Wednesday, keeping the Ukrainian capital under air raid alerts nearly all night. 

• Ukraine's air defence systems destroyed more than 30 drones by 6:30 a.m. (0330 GMT) on Wednesday in what was also Russia's seventh attack on the city in July, Serhiy Popko, the head of Kyiv's military administration, said. 

• Russian state news agencies reported, citing Russian fighters in Ukraine, that the attacks targeted several military airports and military warehouses across Ukraine. 

• The full scale of the attack was not immediately clear. There was no immediate comment from Russia.
   

Our opinion reads for today:

• Project Syndicate - Otaviano Canuto and Eduardo de Carvalho Andrade / The Rich World’s Immigration Conundrum

• The Washington Post / Will democracies fight for Venezuela?