Hamas Open To Deliver Aid To Hostages, Witkoff To Visit Russia, Viking Festival

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🗞️ FRONT PAGE​​

French sports daily L’Équipe celebrates its “GIANT” champion, after Pauline Ferrand-Prévot won the women’s Tour de France. The 33-year-old athlete triumphed in her first-ever attempt at the iconic race, following her gold medal win in women’s cross-country mountain biking at last year’s Paris Olympic Games. She became the first Frenchwoman to conquer the Tour since Jeannie Longo’s historic win in 1989.

🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW

• Hamas agrees to aid delivery to hostages if Israel permanently opens humanitarian corridors. Hamas said Sunday it is open to coordinating with the Red Cross to provide humanitarian assistance to hostages if Israel permanently opens aid corridors and halts airstrikes during distribution. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked the Red Cross to deliver aid after Hamas released a video of a visibly emaciated Evyatar David, one of the 20 hostages believed to still be alive in Gaza. The footage was condemned by Western leaders and Israel’s foreign ministry said the UN Security will hold a session on the status of the hostages Tuesday. For more, read this Daraj story, translated from Arabic by Worldcrunch: From Rabin To Rogue: How Israel Lost The Idea Of Peace

• U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff to visit Russia amid nuclear rhetoric tensions. U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed that special envoy Steve Witkoff will visit Russia in the coming days, ahead of a U.S. deadline for imposing new sanctions on Moscow. The news came after Trump told reporters two U.S. nuclear submarines he deployed in response to threats from former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev are now “in the region.” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov responded to the announcement, saying he refused to engage in a “polemic” but warned that “nuclear rhetoric” should be used “very, very cautiously.” Read more in this Livy Bereg piece translated from Ukrainian by Worldcrunch: Will Washington Send The Patriot Missiles Ukraine Needs In Time?

• Hong Kong cancels passports, bans financial support for overseas activists. Hong Kong authorities announced new measures targeting 16 overseas-based activists, canceling 12 of their passports and prohibiting financial support, property leases, or joint business ventures with them. Officials accuse the activists of endangering national security, expanding the reach of a 2020 law that has sharply curtailed dissent since mass anti-government protests erupted in the city.

• Dozens of migrants die as boat capsizes off Yemen’s coast. At least 76 have died and dozens are missing after a boat transporting mostly Ethiopian migrants capsized off the Abyan province in southern Yemen Sunday. Yemeni security officials reported that 76 bodies have been recovered and 32 people have been rescued of the 157 people the International Organization for Migration said were on board.

• Boeing defense workers go on strike. More than 3,000 workers who assemble Boeing’s fighter jets went on strike Monday after union members in Missouri and Illinois voted against the firm’s recent offer based on pay, work schedules and pensions. The walkout, the first at Boeing’s defense business since 1996, comes as the company is trying to recover from a series of safety problems and a near eight week walkout by passenger plane workers in 2024. 

• South Korea removes anti-North Korean loudspeakers to ease tensions. Seoul’s defense ministry said it had begun removing loudspeakers for anti-North Korea broadcasts from its border Monday. The move is part of President Lee Jae Myung’s new government’s efforts to improve relations with Pyongyang. However, North Korea recently stated it has no interest in talking to South Korea.

• News Quiz! Estonian independent theatre Kinoteater staged an experimental remake of Shakespeare’s classic “Romeo and Juliet.” What was used instead of human actors to perform the play?

A. Heavy machinery
B. Robots
C. Holograms
D. Sloths
[Answer below]

#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS

6,297

Russia launched 6,297 drones on Ukraine in July — i.e. more than 14 times as many as it did in July 2024 — hitting a record high since it launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, according to data published by Ukraine’s air force. Russia’s bombardments have intensified dramatically in the past couple of months, with mass attacks becoming more frequent and more deadly, including a missile-and-drone attack on Kyiv on July 31 that killed at least 31 people, the deadliest single attack on the capital city in a year.

📰 IN OTHER NEWS

🇮🇱 Thirty years ago, the Israel-Jordan peace treaty brought a moment of hope to the region. But Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination killed the Israeli left, and with it the idea and spark of hope.
— DARAJ

🎓 Maoism seduced universities worldwide in the 1960s and 70s, harming tolerance and academic excellence in the process. Today, that fascination has morphed in countries like Colombia into awe of China, the superpower, which is equally unnerving.
— EL ESPECTADOR

🧑‍⚕️ A growing number of physicians are taking to TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and X, creating their own content to fight the flood of false health information online.
— LE FIGARO

📣 VERBATIM

“We won’t accept a half-truth or half-justice.”

— Tracy Naggear, the mother of Alexandra Naggear, who was killed at age three during the Beirut Port explosion on Aug. 4, 2020, says she is still waiting for full justice to happen, exactly five years after the accident that left 218 dead across the city. A decision from the lead prosecutor into the accident is expected soon, activists and legal sources tell Al Jazeera. The blast, caused by the explosion of 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in modern history. Nine victims are suing the U.S.-based company TGS in a Texas court for $250m, claiming it was involved in chartering the Rhosus, a Moldovan-flagged ship that initially carried the ammonium nitrate into Beirut’s port back in 2013.