Tuesday Briefing: Russia pounds Ukraine with missiles

Plus, questions over the next U.S. presidential debate.

View in browser|nytimes.com August 27, 2024 By Natasha Frost Good morning. We're covering a barrage of Russian missiles on Ukraine and a scuffle over the next debate in the U.S. presidential election. Plus: Swapping sex for badminton. The attacks hit across a wide swath of Ukraine. Reuters Russia pounds Ukraine with hundreds of missiles Moscow launched more than 200 missiles and drones across a wide swath of Ukraine yesterday, in what Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, described as "one of the largest strikes" of the 30-month-old war. Officials said four people had been killed and more than 30 others had been injured. The strikes damaged energy facilities and sent residents into basements and subways to seek shelter. The attacks occurred against the backdrop of Ukraine's cross-border incursion into southern Russia — the first invasion on Russian soil since World War II. That offensive has slowed in recent days, but Zelensky said on Sunday that Ukrainian forces had advanced slightly and taken control of two more settlements. It was not possible to verify the claim independently. Russian troops have simultaneously been attacking relentlessly along the front line inside Ukraine. Quotable: "Like most previous Russian strikes, this one is just as vile, targeting critical civilian infrastructure," Zelensky said on social media. "There is a lot of damage in the energy sector," he said, adding that crews were repairing the damage. 🇺🇸 U.S. ELECTION 2024 The presidential election is 70 days away. This is what we're watching. Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are scheduled to debate on Sept. 10. Todd Heisler/The New York Times, Roger Kisby for The New York Times Trump and Harris tussled over the ABC debate The Trump and Harris campaigns are again at odds over the presidential debate scheduled for Sept. 10 on ABC, with Donald Trump questioning on social media why he would participate. Harris's campaign has asked for the microphones to be live throughout the full broadcast, a change from the rules in the June debate between President Biden and Trump. Here's the latest from the race. A spokesman for the Harris campaign told Politico: "Our understanding is that Trump's handlers prefer the muted microphone because they don't think their candidate can act presidential for 90 minutes on his own." Trump later told reporters that it didn't matter to him whether the microphones were muted. He also said that ABC should be "shut out" of hosting the debate, while adding he was still "thinking about" whether he should participate. Context: One of Harris's standout moments in her 2020 vice-presidential debate came when Mike Pence spoke over her on a live microphone, prompting her memorable line, "I'm speaking." In other news: Both candidates can point to records of pushing poverty rates down, but their plans represent the sharpest clash in antipoverty policy in at least a generation. Senator JD Vance, Trump's running mate, denied that tariffs had caused higher costs for Americans, as economists have documented. He also said that he believed Trump would veto a federal abortion ban. More than 200 people who previously worked for George W. Bush and Senators Mitt Romney and John McCain have signed a letter endorsing Harris. Do you have questions about the election? Send them to us and we'll find the answers. Stay up-to-date: Live coverage | Poll tracker | "The Run-Up" podcast | On Politics newsletter After an Israeli strike in Gaza City. Ayman Al Hassi/Reuters Regional conflicts in the Middle East grind on After weeks of foreboding, an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah has been averted, as both sides returned to more contained confrontations along the border between Israel and Lebanon. Anxiety remains, and hundreds of thousands of people in Israel and Lebanon have been displaced by the fighting. Though the immediate threat has been diffused, Israel's grinding conflicts with Hezbollah and with Hamas in Gaza have no end in sight. The trajectories of both wars depend on the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, who both fear for their political survival should they agree to a cease-fire in Gaza on terms that they deem unfavorable. Negotiations: A U.S. official said that cease-fire talks would continue in Cairo in the coming days. In Gaza: More than 1.2 million doses of the polio vaccine arrived in the territory, local and international officials said. Distributing them to more than 640,000 Palestinian children is another challenge. MORE TOP NEWS Banaras Khan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Pakistan: At least 38 people have been killed in several assaults across Baluchistan Province in what appears to be part of a campaign by the Baluch Liberation Army. Sudan: A dam that collapsed near the Red Sea on Sunday flooded surrounding communities and caused an unknown number of deaths and injuries, local and international officials said. Japan: A Chinese surveillance plane breached Japanese airspace. Japan's defense ministry said it was as the first known aerial breach by China's military. Climate: Meta and Google are looking at a novel solution to find power for their data centers: harnessing clean heat far below Earth's surface. Venezuela: A top election official said he had no proof that Nicolás Maduro, the country's president, had won last month's vote. Canada: The government will impose 100 percent tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, joining the U.S. and the E.U. in protecting domestic car production. Fine art: A Pennsylvania museum is relinquishing a valuable 16th-century portrait after reaching a settlement with descendants of a German Jewish couple who fled the Nazis in 1938. Stories From Europe Italy: The authorities have opened a formal investigation into the actions of the captain of the superyacht that sank off the coast of Sicily, killing seven of the 22 people on board. U.K.: English fox hunters are fighting a nearly 20-year-old ban on their sport by trying to get it protected under a discrimination law. France: Telegram's founder was arrested as part of an investigation into child pornography, drug sales, fraud and other criminal activities on the app, prosecutors said. SPORTS NEWS U.S. Open: Coco Gauff defeated Varvara Gracheva in straight sets in the first round. And for the third consecutive Grand Slam event, Novak Djokovic can avoid his top two competitors until the final. Follow our coverage. Formula 1: The key takeaways from the Dutch Grand Prix. MORNING READ Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group, via Getty Images Hong Kong's education bureau last week warned young people about the risks of having sex. Their solution? Play badminton instead. Amid critique from lawmakers and sex educators, teenagers are having some fun with the idea on social media — referring to "friends with badminton" instead of "friends with benefits." Lives lived: Sven-Goran Eriksson, the former Manchester City manager who became the first foreign coach to manage the England men's national soccer team, died at the age of 76. CONVERSATION STARTERS Adored and condemned: Meet the reigning translators of Russian literature. To boldly go: The billionaire Jared Isaacman's second voyage to the stars will include a daring spacewalk. Talk about chemistry: Chatty podcasts make compelling conversation look effortless. In reality, it's anything but. ARTS AND IDEAS Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times Ukraine's battle-hardened poets "Every time you want to be wrong / About the brightness of those eyes / The eyes of those who decided one day / To die in battle / Are always brighter than others." Yaryna Chornohuz, a Ukrainian medic, wrote a book of battlefield verse — like the stanza above — in moments away from combat zones by typing the lines into her phone. This year, her book won a Shevchenko National Prize, the country's highest arts and culture award. Two years into the war with Russia, poets have risen in popularity in Ukraine, capturing the raw emotions of the conflict and resonating with a weary population. Sales of poetry books have soared. Some major Ukrainian publishing houses are publishing poetry for the first time, and hardly a week passes in Kyiv without a public reading. Read more about Ukraine's war poetry. We hope you've enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times. RECOMMENDATIONS Bryan Gardner for The New York Times Cook: A simple yet luscious peanut sauce brings together smashed cucumbers and dumplings. Style: Our chief fashion critic weighs in on whether it's better to be over- or underdressed. Plan: What's the best way to explore Kenya? Join a local hiking club. Read: Danzy Senna's new novel "Colored Television" is funny, foxy and fleet. Play the Spelling Bee. And here are today's Mini Crossword and Wordle. You can find all our puzzles here. That's it for today's briefing. See you tomorrow. — Natasha Reach Natasha and the team at briefing@nytimes.com. Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. 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