August 9, 2024

*) Mediators invite Israel, Hamas to resume Gaza truce talks Israel’s war on Gaza has entered its 11th month and mediators are calling on Tel Aviv and the Palestinian resistance group Hamas to resume urgent talks on August 15, either in Doha or Cairo. Qatar, Egypt and the US are leading actors in the mediation to put an end to Israel’s war that has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians and left the tiny coastal enclave of Gaza in ruins. The mediators say they now have a framework agreement on the table with only the details of the implementation left to conclude. *) Haniyeh’s assassination shows Israel doesn’t want ceasefire: Erdogan Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has once again called upon the international community to stop Israel’s dangerous escalation of its military aggression. Commenting on Israel’s assassination of Hamas’s politburo leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, the Turkish president said Tel Aviv has once again demonstrated its lack of intention to engage in a ceasefire. Erdogan warned that the Israeli war on Gaza could engulf the region into a wider and an even destructive conflict. *) Zelenskyy sends tough message to Putin as Ukraine enters Russia’s Kursk Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has lauded his troops for storming Russia’s southwestern Kursk region — an incursion called a “major provocation” by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The incursion appears to be the most significant Ukrainian attack in over two years of the conflict. Putin called Kiev’s actions an “indiscriminate attack against civilian facilities, residential buildings and ambulance vehicles”. *) Trump recommits to September 10 debate and lashes out at Harris After recently backing out, Republican candidate Donald Trump has recommitted to debating Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump held a lengthy news conference in which he taunted his rival, boasted of his crowd on January 6, 2021, and questioned whether there would be “honest elections” in November. The debate is likely to take place on September 10 on ABC, setting up the first face-to-face match-up between the two rivals in what polls show is an extremely tight race. *) Earth’s record-breaking heat streak ends but climate threat remains July 2024 narrowly misses being the hottest month on record, ending a 13-month streak as El Nino subsides, but experts warn that the climate crisis’ impact is far from over. The European climate agency Copernicus said the overall context hasn’t changed, adding that the Earth’s climate continues to warm. The El Nino effect has ended, the climate agency said, and hence July’s slight easing of temperatures.