World Briefing: August 29, 2024

Vice President Kamala Harris will do her first sit down interview, this time with CNN, since becoming the Democratic nominee, Minnesota Governor Walz. However it’ll happen with her running mate by her side, which has promoted some criticism. The interview will be broadcast at 9pm ET Thursday on CNN.

Five more Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in a second day of raids in the occupied West Bank, with the UN calling for de-escalation. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they were "five terrorists who had hidden inside a mosque" in Tulkarm, near the boundary with Israel. Israel began what it said was a major counter-terrorism operation in the West Bank on Wednesday. There have been conflicting death tolls as the operation unfolded across multiple cities. The IDF said yesterday that nine militants had been killed, five in Jenin and Tulkarm, and four in al-Faraa refugee camp. The Palestinian health ministry said on Thursday that 12 had been killed in IDF attacks so far. - BBC

The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games opening ceremony began in glorious conditions as about 4,400 athletes made their way along the Champs-Elysees to Place de la Concorde. As with the Olympic Games, the Paralympic Games opening ceremony is taking place outside of a stadium for the first time in the French capital. The main ceremony is being held at Place de la Concorde, on a perfect summer evening in the heart of the city, following a parade along the Champs-Elysees from the Arc de Triomphe. Organisers estimate 65,000 people will be present, with spectators able to watch the parade for free before the ticketed open-air event at Place de la Concorde.- BBC

Senior officials from the U.S. and China agreed to plan for a call between President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping in the coming weeks, part of efforts to stabilize the fragile relationship between Washington and Beijing. The agreement for a leader-level call came during a meeting Wednesday in Beijing between national security adviser Jake Sullivan and China’s top foreign affairs official Wang Yi. Sullivan is participating in meetings over the course of three days in China. The call would follow agreements between Biden and Xi reached at a summit in Woodside, Calif., in November 2023 to increase communication between the two sides at the top level.  - The Hill

Conspiracy theorists speculate that the billionaire owner of the Telegram messenger app, Pavel Durov, was delivered into the hands of western intelligence agencies by Julia Vavilova - believed to be a Mossad agent that was on a honey-trap mission. Disembarking from his private jet at Paris’s Le Bourget airport on Saturday evening after flying in from Azerbaijan, Durov was arrested by police enforcing a warrant that accused him of failing to moderate illegal content and cooperate with law enforcement agencies over investigations into drug trafficking, child pornography and fraud. It also became the subject of feverish speculation after it emerged that nothing had been heard from Vavilova, a social media influencer believed to be Durov’s girlfriend, since he was taken into custody. Like Durov, the 24-year-old Russian blonde is based in Dubai, and she had been accompanying him on a whirlwind tour of former Soviet republics, including Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, as well as Azerbaijan. Indeed, some observers reckon it was her posts on sites such as Instagram – complete with geolocation data – that alerted the French authorities to his movements and enabled them to be waiting when he touched down. - Daily Telegraph

After three weeks of fighting, Russia is still struggling to dislodge Ukrainian forces from the Kursk region, a surprisingly slow and low-key response to the first occupation of its territory since World War II. It all comes down to Russian manpower and Russian priorities. With the bulk of its military pressing offensives inside Ukraine, the Kremlin appears to lack enough reserves for now to drive out Kyiv’s forces. President Vladimir Putin doesn’t seem to view the attack — or at least, give the impression that he views it — as a grave enough threat to warrant pulling troops from eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region, his priority target. “Putin’s focus is on the collapse of the Ukrainian state, which he believes will automatically render any territorial control irrelevant,” wrote Tatiana Stanovaya, senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center. - AP

Malaysia's civil aviation regulator has cut the duration of Malaysia Airlines' air operator certificate to one year from three years, following a probe into technical issues faced by the state carrier, the transport minister said on Wednesday. The airline's parent, Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG), announced that it plans to temporarily reduce flights and routes across its carriers until December this year after service disruptions earlier this month. In June, Malaysia's Civil Aviation Authority carried out an investigation into Malaysia Airlines that found several significant safety and maintenance issues including a shortage of skilled workers and mechanical components. In response, Malaysia Airlines has prepared a mitigation plan that will include an aggressive labour recruitment programme and a reduction to its third party maintenance, repair and operations services to focus more on its own aircraft, he said.

With sales and profits surging, Lego plans to replace the fossil fuels used in making its signature bricks with more expensive renewable and recycled plastic. The toymaker tested hundreds of different materials with limited success before settling on this solution. And don’t worry, the company will absorb the additional cost for now. - Axios

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