(TUE 8/2/22)

Pelosi in Taiwan? … As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) heads to Taipei Tuesday after visiting Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan, China continues to warn against the diplomatic visit, with video of military airplanes and missiles flying to the sound of menacing music. The White House says it won’t respond to China's “saber rattling” The New York Times reports, but in Taiwan, the speaker has become something of a heroine, with one popular meme reimagining her as a powerful Taoist goddess.

American politicians have traveled for years to the country President Xi Jingping considers China’s own Ukraine. But Speaker Pelosi would mark the highest-level visit by an American official in 25 years, NYT says. 

Timing: While the CHIPS Act passed last week won’t cause local computer chip manufacturing to pop up overnight, it does send a message to China (as well as Taiwan) that the U.S. won’t be so dependent on its industry dominance anymore. This might be why the White House sees this as a good time to send China a message that the West won’t tolerate a Russia-Ukraine-like aggression against Taiwan.

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U.S. attack kills al-Zawahri… A drone strike precise enough to save his family nearby took out one of the world’s most-wanted terrorists, al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri, from the balcony of his Kabul, Afghanistan residence. A-Zawahri, 71, was “deeply involved” as the right-hand man to Osama bin Laden for the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks NPR’s Morning Edition says. President Biden announced the successful attack Monday evening, described as delivering justice and, he hoped, “one more measure of closure” to families of the 9/11 victims (AP). 

Al-Zawahri and his family recently moved to the large, upscale home in the center of Kabul, a neighborhood favored by Afghanistan’s Taliban leaders, Morning Edition says.

Biden approved the drone attack last week and it was carried out Sunday by U.S “intelligence forces,” meaning, likely, CIA, NSA, or some combo of the two. The attack, taking place 11 months after Biden’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan comes as his fortunes are on the rise after passage of the CHIPS Act and the introduction of the Manchin-backed Inflation Reduction Act. 

--Todd Lassa