Good morning. We’re covering an important bill passing the U.S. Senate, how Taiwan could react to China’s belligerence and a rocket attack near a nuclear power plant in Ukraine. |
 | | Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, following the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act at the Capitol.Kenny Holston for The New York Times |
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U.S. Senate passes a landmark bill |
All 50 Democratic senators voted in the package’s favor to move it to the House, where it is expected to be approved on Friday. |
The climate provisions, which at nearly $400 billion are the most significant federal investment in history to counter climate change, could have global impact. The bill also includes plans to lower the costs of prescription drugs and make the tax code more equitable. |
Other U.S. political news: |
 | | China’s aggressiveness increases the risk of conflict, experts say.Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times |
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China’s military spectacle could alienate Taiwan |
China’s 72-hour spectacle of warships, missiles and fighter jets swarming Taiwan’s borders was meant to smack down international defiance of China’s claim to the democratically governed island nation. |
But even if China’s display of military might discourages Western politicians such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from visiting Taiwan, it also narrows the hope of winning over the island through negotiations and increases the risk of conflict. |
“The attractiveness of the carrots in China’s Taiwan policy — economic inducements — has now fallen to its lowest point since the end of the Cold War,” said Wu Jieh-min, a political scientist at Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan. |
In an increasingly democratic Taiwan, few see themselves as future Chinese citizens. Polls show that a vast majority of the country wants some version of the ambiguous status quo, not unification on China’s terms. |
History: Taiwan has never been ruled by the Communist Party, but Beijing maintains that it is historically and legally part of Chinese territory. Since the late 1970s, Chinese leaders have tried to coax Taiwan into unification under a “one country, two systems” framework. |
Context: Xi Jinping, China’s leader, is consumed with worry about perceived threats to his rule and the Communist Party’s control. According to a new textbook that explains Xi’s vision, opponents of China’s claims over Taiwan are “the biggest obstacle to unification of the motherland.” |
 | | Russia has held the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant since March.Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters |
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Rockets strike near a Ukrainian nuclear plant |
One person was wounded by shrapnel and three radiation detection monitors were damaged, but a catastrophe was “miraculously avoided,” Ukraine’s nuclear energy company said on Telegram. |
Russia, which controls the plant, blamed Ukraine for the attack. Ukraine blamed Russia, with President Volodymyr Zelensky saying that the invading nation had become the first in the world “to use a nuclear plant for terror.” |
More news from the war in Ukraine: |
 | | Antony Blinken told Ferdinand Marcos Jr. that the U.S. commitment to defending the Philippines was “ironclad.”Ezra Acayan/Getty Images |
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- President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of the Philippines and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that their nations were committed to strengthening their military alliance and dealing with tensions in Asia.
- Caroline Kennedy, the U.S. ambassador to Australia, and Wendy Sherman, the U.S. deputy secretary of state, visited the island of Guadalcanal on the 80th anniversary of the World War II battle there and spoke about the current fraught diplomatic moment.
- Mechai Viravaidya — “Captain Condom” — educated people in Thailand about family planning when nobody else in the country would and developed an approach the World Bank called “one of the most effective” in the world.
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 | | Roshankouh, Iran, where Baha’i have lived for more than a century, was raided.Via Baha’i International Community |
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 | | Esteban Sinisterra Paz, a 23-year-old university student, sewed the Colombian vice president’s outfits in his apartment.Nathalia Angarita for The New York Times |
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 | | Martha Karua would become Kenya’s deputy president if elected.Tony Karumba/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
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A woman to watch in Kenya |
Kenya holds national elections on Tuesday, but the campaign may already have changed the country’s politics. Voters will decide whether to pick Martha Karua as their first female deputy president, and her candidacy has shifted the focus to women. |
Analysts say Karua could convince the undecided that the presidential candidate on her ticket — Raila Odinga, a familiar face in Kenyan politics — could offer something new. Karua is also part of the Kenyan political establishment, but her strong anticorruption track record counts in her favor. |
Like other women politicians, she is not immune to gender-based scrutiny. But Karua, a savvy politician, has leaned into it, embracing her role as a grandmother and sewing her own dress on the campaign trail. |
“These polls have seen much greater awareness and mainstreaming of women’s participation, in higher numbers and at many more levels,” said Njoki Ngumi, a social commentator who’s part of the Nest Collective, an art collective based in Nairobi. |
With a third of Kenyan households headed by women, Ngumi says she hopes the conversation around the election will begin to create an “honest or caring awareness of women’s lived experiences” among Kenyans. —Lynsey Chutel, Briefings writer based in Johannesburg. |
 | | Bryan Gardner for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne. |
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Adam Levin’s “Mount Chicago” is one of those sweeping, polyphonic, epic novels they used to make, our critic writes. |
Amber Midthunder is a rare Native American actress playing an action lead in “Prey,” the latest installment in the “Predator” franchise. |
That’s it for today’s briefing. See you next time. — Dan |
The latest episode of “The Daily” is on vacationing in the time of Covid. |
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