Tuesday Briefing: Putin lashes out over incursion

August 13, 2024

	By Justin Porter

Good morning. We’re covering Vladimir Putin’s response to Ukraine’s incursion into Russia and climate tipping points.

Plus, A.I. is helping piece together an ancient epic.

A military vehicle drives down a muddy road with a line of trees on either side. A streak of glare from the sun crosses the image.

Ukrainian soldiers near the border with Russia on Sunday. Viacheslav Ratynskyi/Reuters

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.

A short video shows a black globe in a hand-drawn style spinning on a black background. Different areas of the globe are filled in with simple designs in different colors.

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.

Other climate news:

Hundreds of firefighters near Athens were battling a major wildfire that broke out on Sunday. Greece has had a busy fire season, in part because of a dry winter and an exceptionally hot summer.
In Europe, extreme heat contributed to the deaths of 47,000 people in 2023, but the number could have been much higher, a new study found.

To supply water, Spain and other dry nations are increasingly relying on desalination plants that convert seawater into fresh water.

🇺🇸 U.S. ELECTION 2024

The presidential election is less than 90 days away. This is what we’re watching.

Elon Musk, wearing a dark suit and a white shirt, holding his hands together in front of himself.

Elon Musk, the owner of X, urged Donald Trump for months to use the site again. Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters

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:

Trump falsely suggested that the Harris campaign had used A.I. to inflate the size of the crowds at her rallies.
State-level election officials are battling a flood of new conspiracy theories, political pressure and threats.
The foreign hacking of the campaigns has begun in earnest. But this time, the Iranians, not the Russians, are making the first significant move.

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

MORE TOP NEWS

The image of Ismail Haniyeh, bearded, is displayed on a poster above cars and pedestrians.

Iran has vowed to retaliate against Israel for the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, a leader of Hamas, in Tehran. Atta Kenare/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Iran: U.S. intelligence suggests it is “increasingly likely” that Iran or its proxies will attack Israel in the coming days, the White House national security spokesman said.
China: U.S. officials are traveling to China this week for meetings intended to keep the economic relationship between the U.S. and China on stable footing.
Israel: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed his defense minister for questioning the goal of “total victory” in Gaza.
U.K.: The riots that swept Britain over the past two weeks have posed the first direct challenge to the new prime minister, Keir Starmer.
U.S.: Immigrants are becoming citizens at the fastest clip in a decade, as the country moves through a backlog that built up during the Trump administration.
Social media: Posts assailing immigrants have fomented a climate of fear and hatred in Britain, Portugal and other countries. The vitriolic language is now spilling onto the streets.
Eurovision: Swedish prosecutors dropped a case against Joost Klein, the Netherlands entry to this year’s song contest, because they could not prove that he had behaved threateningly.

Sports

Brazil’s Gabriel Medina. Jerome Brouillet/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Best of: Our staff chose their favorite moments from the Paris Games.
Basketball: With a punctuating 3-pointer in Saturday’s gold-medal victory over France, the whole world got the witness the joy of Steph Curry.
Soccer: N.B.A. star Kevin Durant has become a minority shareholder of French soccer giants Paris Saint-Germain.

MORNING READ

Puddles on the ground reflect the dozen or so soldiers, standing in two columns, and the clouds above.

Philippine soldiers awaiting the arrival of guests on Thitu. Jes Aznar for The New York Times

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

Avoiding hot topics: Marketing firms are using artificial intelligence to help brands analyze influencers and predict whether they will start discussing politics.
A “Kafkaesque nightmare”: After a man spent 30 years in jail, his murder conviction was overturned. So why is he still in prison?
Suspicious treasures: She helped salvage an ancient shipwreck. Then investigators came to her home looking for looted artifacts.
France’s wild south: For rustic landscapes, pink marshes and birds of all kinds, Camargue is the place to be.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times .

ARTS AND IDEAS

An ancient bas-relief of a man holding and choking a lion (which looks diminutive in his arms).

Thierry Ollivier/Musée du Louvre

How 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.

RECOMMENDATIONS

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Johnny Miller for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Vivian Lui.

Cook: This recipe for one-pot chicken meatballs with greens has a clever trick for busy cooks.

Read: Here’s are the best works by Shel Silverstein, the groovy pied piper who made poetry fun.

Clean: No bra will last forever. But proper care will extend its life span.

Shop: A boxy handbag can give an outfit some needed structure. Here are a few of our favorites.

Play: Spelling Bee, the Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Find all our games here.

That’s it for today. See you tomorrow. — Justin

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