World Briefing: August 20, 2024

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Ukraine this week and meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky, the two countries announced Monday, weeks after he met President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Modi will visit Ukraine on Zelensky’s invitation on Friday, Tanmaya Lal, a senior official at the Ministry of External Affairs, said at a briefing in New Delhi. He said the visit will provide an opportunity for the two leaders to discuss co-operation in defence, economic and business ties, science and technology and other sectors. Ukraine’s Presidential Office also announced Modi’s trip, saying it’s his first visit during which two leaders will sign multiple co-operation documents and discuss “matters of bilateral and multilateral co-operation.” Modi’s trip to Ukraine comes a month after Zelensky criticized his two-day visit to Moscow in July, when he met with Putin on the day Russian missiles struck across Ukraine, killing scores of people. - Globe and Mail

The Democratic National Convention ‘s first night showcased speeches from the last Democrat to lose to Donald Trump and the last one to beat him. Hillary Clinton spoke hopefully of finally breaking the “glass ceiling” to elect a female president. Joe Biden laced into Trump and directly acknowledged the concerns of protesters against the war in Gazawho demonstrated a few blocks from the convention hall. President Joe Biden wrapped up the convention’s opening night by beginning his long political farewell with an address that both framed his own legacy and signaled he was ready to start ceding control of the party to Vice President Kamala Harris. Biden ticked through many of his administration’s achievements, including a major public works package and climate program, and shared the credit with Harris. He said picking Harris as his running mate was the best decision he ever made and promised to be the “best volunteer” that Harris and running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz have ever seen. - AP

Kamala Harris told reporters that she still believes she’s the “underdog” against Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential race. During a pit stop on her bus tour in Moon Township, Pennsylvania, Harris stopped to answer questions from reporters—one of whom asked how she feels about her prospects following the release of a new poll from ABC News, The Washington Post, and Ipsos which shows the vice president ahead of Trump by three points on a national level, with third-party candidates are included. “I very much consider us the underdog,” Harris said. “We have a lot of work to do to earn the vote of the American people. That’s why we’re on this bus tour today.” When questioned about a potential ceasefire deal with Israel, she said, “these conversations are ongoing and we are not giving up, and we are going to continue to work very hard on this. We gotta get a ceasefire and we gotta get those hostages out,” she added. - Daily Beast

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Tel Aviv late Monday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had accepted an American “bridging proposal” on a Gaza cease-fire deal, and that it was now up to Hamas to agree. Meanwhile, a polio vaccination campaign in Gaza is expected to move forward as planned in late August and September, regardless of the outcome of the latest cease-fire negotiations. “It’s now incumbent on Hamas to do the same,” and then with the help of mediators Egypt, Qatar and the United States, to “come together and complete the process,” Blinken told reporters, without saying whether concerns cited by the Hamas militant group had been addressed. Blinken's ninth visit to the Middle East since the Gaza war broke out in October 2023 came as the U.S., Egypt and Qatar sought to finalize a cease-fire and hostage-release deal between Israel and Hamas. - VOA

Four Britons, two Americans and a Canadian person are missing after a superyacht with 22 people onboard sank off the coast of Sicily during bad weather, reported The Guardian. Fifteen people were rescued from the 56-metre sailing boat Bayesian by coastguard patrol boats and firefighters, including a one-year-old child. One body was found near the wreck, but six others were unaccounted for, said Luca Cari, a spokesperson for the Italian fire rescue service. Mike Lynch, former Autonomy chief executive and one of the UK’s best-known tech entrepreneurs, is among those missing. The Italian coastguard said in a statement: “This morning at about 5.00am, following a violent storm, a 56-metre yacht called Bayesian flying the British flag sank near Porticello.” The boat had a crew of 10 people and 12 passengers, it added.

The resilience of the Ukrainian people is forecast to be put to the test this winter in a way not seen on the European continent since the Second World War, according to Kadri Simson, the EU’s commissioner for energy. Following its full-scale invasion in February 2022, Russia has targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with massive air strikes, captured energy installations, such as the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia, and destroyed electricity transmission lines. Over the past months, attacks on civilian energy infrastructure have escalated in nature and intensity, destroying power generation plants, heating districts, back-up generators and storage sites. Says Simson: “Come winter, some places in Ukraine may simply become unliveable. Elderly people, children and vulnerable parts of the population would suffer the most. Where the electricity load is already at breaking point, some areas may collapse under the weight of extra demand from displaced people. With a slump in economic activity, fiscal revenues will go down, widening Ukraine’s budget deficit and diminishing its ability to sustain the national fight for freedom. The risk of a humanitarian catastrophe is high.”

There have been record-breaking sea temperatures in the Mediterranean. According to scientists at Spain’s leading institute of marine sciences, the Institut de Ciencies del Mar, the maximum sea surface temperature record for the Mediterranean Sea was broken last week. The median temperature was the highest in over 40 years of satellite records. Higher sea temperatures can act as extra fuel to the storm clouds, helping to make them more severe. - BBC

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