WORLD ROUNDUPHamas Wants Gaza to Starve | Taiwan’s Defense Build-up in Gridlock | The Most Successful CIA Operation You’ve Never Heard of, and more

Nayib Bukele Could Now Rule El Salvador for Life  (Economist)
His supermajority in the legislative assembly has removed the constitutional barriers to unlimited re-election.

Hamas Wants Gaza to Starve  (Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, The Atlantic)
Starvation only helps Hamas end the war in a way that advances its aims.

Could Images of the Famine in Gaza Change Israeli Public Opinion?  (David E. Rosenberg, Foreign Policy)
A newscast showing starving children prompted sympathy—and criticism.

The Most Successful CIA Operation You’ve Never Heard of  (Johannes Lichtman, Foreign Policy)
How the agency’s program to circulate banned books helped take down the Iron Curtain.

Failure of Taiwanese Recall Elections Leaves Defense Build-up in Gridlock  (Thijs Stegeman, The Strategist)
The failure of Taiwan’s ruling party to unseat opposition members of the legislature in recall elections last weekend may prevent President Lai Ching-te from lifting defense spending.
Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) failed in all 24 recall elections held on the weekend, leaving the Taiwan’s opposition with its blocking majority.
In July the legislature postponed a US$14.2 billion bill intended to strengthen national security and mitigate the economic impacts from US tariffs, raising questions about Taiwan’s commitment to its own defense
The recall elections were the culmination of a campaign by the DPP to remove 35 members of the opposition Nationalist Party (KMT). Under Taiwan’s electoral law, a petition by at least 10 percent of voters in a district can trigger a recall election. The DPP needed to unseat at least six KMT legislators to gain a majority. In the event, it unseated none.
Seven more recall elections are scheduled for this month, but the campaign has clearly lost momentum.