WORLD BRIEFING: August 9, 2024

Russia's military has said it is "continuing to repel" a Ukrainian cross-border incursion into the western Kursk region - a surprise attack now in its fourth day. The Russian defence ministry said Ukraine lost more than 280 military personnel in the past 24 hours - a claim that has not been independently verified. Reports suggest that Ukrainian troops are operating more than 10km (six miles) inside Russia - the deepest cross-border advance by Kyiv since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022. Ukraine has not openly admitted the incursion, but President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that Moscow must "feel" the consequences for its invasion. Separately, Ukraine's military said it hit overnight a military airfield deep inside Russia, destroying warehouses with guided bombs. In a statement, the Ukrainian military reported a huge blaze and multiple detonations at the Lipetsk airfield, more than 350km (217 miles) from Ukraine's border, after the overnight strike. Lipetsk’s regional authorities said a state of emergency was now in place in the area, confirming the detonations at an "energy infrastructure facility". Residents of four nearby villages were being evacuated. - BBC

Some Russian bloggers criticised the state of border defences in the Kursk region, saying it had been far too easy for Ukrainian forces to slice through them. “The enemy passed through our line of defence quite easily," said Yuri Podolyaka, a popular Ukrainian-born, pro-Russian military blogger, adding that no complete defensive work had been prepared in the Kursk region despite the ongoing conflict. - Reuters

One of the strongest brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the 80th Airborne Assault Brigade, is participating in the offensive in the Kursk region of Russia, Forbes reported. In total, at least three Ukrainian brigades, each numbering up to 2,000 people, are involved in the operation.

Bohdan Nahaylo, chief editor of the Kyiv Post, summed up developments this way: “This is an unannounced diversionary counteroffensive by the Ukrainians that has humiliated Putin and his cronies and spread panic and doubts among the Russian public. And it has also shown Western supporters that passivity will not bring peace any closer.”

The Economist’s Ukraine correspondent, Oliver Carroll, had this to say of the incursion into Russia: it appears to be “an attempt by Ukraine to show the emperor has no clothes. The operation is highly risky and most officials are tightlipped. But an intel source tells me he is happy with way things are going. ‘We have options.’”

Separately, the European Commission on Thursday said Ukraine has the right to defend itself by attacking targets in Russia following an incursion in the border oblast of Kursk. “We think that Ukraine is fighting a legitimate defensive war against an illegal aggression," Peter Stano, a spokesperson for the Commission, told reporters. "And in the framework of this legitimate right to defend itself, Ukraine is entitled to hit the enemy wherever it finds necessary: on its territory, but also on the territory of the enemy," he added. - Euronews

Both suspects in a foiled plot to attack Taylor Swift shows in Vienna appeared to be inspired by the Islamic State group and al-Qaida, Austrian authorities said Thursday, and investigators found bomb-making materials at one of their homes. Officials said one of the two confessed to planning to “kill as many people as possible outside the concert venue.” Three sold-out concerts were canceled a day earlier because of the plot, devastating Swifties from across the globe. Many of them had dropped thousands of euros (dollars) on travel and lodging in Austria’s expensive capital city to attend the Eras Tour shows at the Ernst Happel Stadium, which sat empty Thursday morning as media filmed outside. Concert organizers said they stood behind their decision, saying they expected up to 65,000 fans inside the stadium at each concert and as many as 30,000 onlookers outside, where authorities said the suspects planned to strike. - AP

Italy has doubled a flat tax on the foreign income of new residents, in a blow to rich expats seeking to flee the prospect of higher levies elsewhere in Europe.  Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s cabinet on Wednesday approved a rise in the annual levy on overseas income for new tax residents in Italy to €200,000. The current €100,000 tax incentive, while popular with wealthy individuals, has been controversial among Italians, especially in the business capital Milan, where the recent influx of the super-rich has been blamed for a sharp increase in real estate prices and other rises in living costs. Finance minister Giancarlo Giorgetti, who on Wednesday referred to the levy as the “so-called flat tax for the billionaires”, said at a press conference that the increased levy was still set at a level that would remain “interesting” to wealthy foreigners. He later clarified to the Financial Times that the higher levy would only apply to people taking up tax residency in Italy from now on, and not those that had already moved there. - FT

Hong Kong authorities have approved plans for a youth hostel, with monthly rent starting at HK$3,400 (about US$435) under a scheme to provide affordable accommodation for young Hongkongers in one of the world’s most expensive cities for housing. Sky One, at 8 Tin Sau Road, Tin Shui Wai, is the latest project approved by the government under a programme for converting hotels and guesthouses into affordable accommodation for young working Hong Kong residents. The hostel, which will provide up to 672 hostel places with a total of 336 rooms - HKFP.

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