Tuesday Briefing: Putin Lashes Out Over Incursion
Putin blamed the West for Ukraine’s incursion
President Vladimir Putin lashed out at the West yesterday over Ukraine’s weeklong incursion into Russian territory. His comments were a sign of how the surprise attack has unsettled the Kremlin.
“The West is fighting us with the hands of the Ukrainians,” Putin said during a televised meeting with his top officials. “The enemy will certainly get the response he deserves, and all our goals, without doubt, will be accomplished.”
Even as Moscow scrambled to respond to the incursion in the Kursk region, Russian forces continued to pummel Ukrainian positions in the east, Kyiv military officials said.
The Kursk region’s acting governor was shown telling Putin by video link that 28 towns and villages were under Ukrainian control. He said Ukrainian troops had pushed nearly 12 kilometers into Russian territory. Separately, the head of Ukraine’s armed forces claimed control of more than twice as much territory, “about 1,000 square kilometers.”
Background: Analysts said that Ukraine’s move had two main goals: to draw Russian forces from the front lines in eastern Ukraine and to seize territory that could serve as a bargaining chip in future peace negotiations. Putin insisted that the attack would not soften his negotiating position.
Irreversible climate change
Scientists have been raising the alarm for two decades that global warming might be pushing great systems in the natural world toward collapse. These systems — like the Amazon rain forest, coral reefs or the colossal polar ice sheets — are so big that they can stay somewhat balanced, as human behavior causes hotter fires and wetter storms.
But only to a point. Once we warm the planet beyond certain levels, this balance might be lost and a switch could flip. We explored how close we’ve come to some of these climate tipping points. Read more.
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🇺🇸 U.S. ELECTION 2024
The presidential election is less than 90 days away. This is what we’re watching.
Trump returned to X ahead of an interview with Elon Musk
Donald Trump is making a return to an old haunt for an interview with Elon Musk. The former president is scheduled to speak with Musk on X at 8 p.m. Eastern time. Ahead of the interview, Trump shared a campaign video, his first post on the platform in nearly a year, and he followed it up with other posts that drew on familiar themes, like a decline in the U.S. and a tattered economy.
The interview is part of Trump’s efforts to regain some of the political momentum he has lost in the last three weeks. Trump’s return to X is also a victory for Musk, who has been begging the former president to use the platform again. It has faced increased competition from new social media platforms, including Trump’s Truth Social.
Here’s what else to know:
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Dozens of Chinese ships surround the island of Thitu, a contested island in the South China Sea that the Philippines settled more than half a century ago.
The government is bolstering its military facilities there and encouraging more Filipino citizens to live on the land, hoping that their presence will strengthen the country’s claim. Here’s what life looks like for the roughly 65 families who call Thitu home.
CONVERSATION STARTERS ARTS AND IDEAS Credit…Thierry Ollivier/Musée du LouvreHow A.I. is helping find missing pieces of an ancient epic
Generations of researchers have tried to piece together a complete version of the Epic of Gilgamesh, which was written more than 3,000 years ago. Fragments of the story have been found on clay tablets in archaeological digs, in museum store rooms and on the black market. But since there are so few experts of the ancient cuneiform script, many of these writings are unread and many more are unpublished.
Now, an artificial intelligence project called Fragmentarium is helping to fill some of these gaps. The team uses machine learning to piece together digitized tablet fragments. So far, it has helped researchers discover new segments of Gilgamesh as well as hundreds of missing words and lines from other works.
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