First Thing: Blinken arrives in Israel for 11th-hour talks on Gaza ceasefire deal

Israel and Hamas signal that a breakthrough may not be as close as mediators have suggested. Plus, how a global tax on the super-rich could work

Good morning.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has arrived in Israel for last-minute negotiations to broker a ceasefire in Gaza amid fears that the war could spread rapidly if Iran and Hezbollah embark on retaliatory action against Israel.

Israeli and Hamas officials suggested that a breakthrough in the talks may not be as close as international mediators – the US, Qatar and Egypt – had signaled last week when they announced that a “bridging proposal” had been agreed. Talks are expected to continue in Cairo on Wednesday or Thursday, with the US keen to be able to say that a deal has been reached as Washington looks towards the November election.

But both sides blamed the other for delaying a deal. Hamas has repeatedly demanded that all Israeli troops withdraw from Gaza to end the war, while Israel remains unwilling to agree on more than a temporary pause in fighting.

How would this differ from previous truces? Unlike the week-long ceasefire in November, this one would be indefinitely extendable while the details of the next stage are negotiated.

Biden to give possible swan song at Democratic convention amid Gaza protests

Joe Biden will address the Democratic national convention in Chicago on Monday night in what may be his last time in the limelight as the US president faces protests over the war in Gaza.

Tens of thousands of protesters are expected to come together in Chicago to demand the US ends military support to Israel over its war in Gaza, where the health ministry says the death toll exceeded 40,000 last week. Protests on Sunday also focused on LGBTQ+ and abortion rights.

In his speech, Biden is expected to return to well-trodden ground: the importance of defending democracy against Donald Trump while presenting Kamala Harris as the ideal presidential candidate. The event will celebrate his half-century career in politics as senator, vice-president and president.

What do the polls show? Better news for the Democrats than when Biden was the candidate, with Harris now leading or tied with Trump nationally and the crucial swing states roughly split.

Kursk incursion aimed at creating buffer zone to protect Ukraine, Zelenskiy says

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said the point of his army’s military incursion into Russia’s Kursk region is to form a buffer zone to hinder attacks by Moscow across the border.

Marking the first time Kyiv has explicitly outlined the aim of the military operation, Zelenskiy said in his nightly address on Sunday: “It is now our primary task in defensive operations overall to destroy as much Russian war potential as possible and conduct maximum counteroffensive actions. This includes creating a buffer zone on the aggressor’s territory – our operation in the Kursk region.”

Ukrainian forces have taken more than 150 Russian prisoners of war on some days of the Kursk incursion, which was launched on 6 August, according to Oleksii Drozdenko, the head of the military administration in the Ukrainian city of Sumy.

What had been said about the operation before Sunday? Zelenskiy had signaled it aimed to shield those in the bordering Sumy region from constant shelling.

In other news …

Chinese and Philippine vessels crashed on Monday during a confrontation near a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, the two countries said, with both blaming each other.

An epidemic of violence in the Caribbean is being fuelled by criminal gangs, weapons trafficking and a deterioration of social structures, according to a joint statement by leaders in the region.

Seven people, including US and other foreign nationals, are missing after a yacht sank off the coast of Italy with 22 people onboard.

Black children are four times more likely to be strip-searched by police in England and Wales compared with white children, according to the latest official figures.

Stat of the day: Wealth tax on super-rich could raise $2tn globally, campaigners say

Governments around the world could raise more than $2tn by copying Spain’s wealth tax on the super-rich, according to the Tax Justice Network campaign group. The group argues that a global tax on the top 0.5% of wealthiest households at a rate of between 1.7% and 3.5% should be levied to help pay for climate transition.

Don’t miss this: Can we learn to travel without absolutely infuriating the locals?

Overtourism – with its pressures on housing markets, warping of destinations’ local character and environmental implications – has been in the limelight lately, with protests in several European locations. What can travelers who want to see the world do to make their vacation more ethical? It starts by visiting fewer places and spending more time there, argues Paige McClanahan, the author of The New Tourist.

Climate check: Drought pushes Sicily’s farming heritage to the brink

A staggering 70% of Sicily is at risk of desertification because of the climate crisis, according to the Italian National Research Council. While tourists continue to flock to Sicily, driving up revenue but also demand for water, drought is pushing young Sicilian farmers off the Mediterranean’s largest island, which recorded a record 120F (48.8C) in 2021 – the highest temperature ever reported in Europe.

Last Thing: Chatbot interrupts Google executive during Australian Senate hearing on AI

Google executive Lucinda Longcroft was delivering her opening statement about adopting artificial intelligence to an Australian Senate committee hearing when she was rudely interrupted … by an AI chatbot. The intervention prompted a senator to ask Longcroft whether AI was helping the executive answer questions, which she denied. Watch, and cringe, here.

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