Wednesday Briefing: Russian strike kills 50 in Ukraine

September 4, 2024

	By Gaya Gupta

Good morning. We’re covering a deadly Russian missile attack in Ukraine and U.S. campaign funding.

Plus, whale-watching in Colombia.

Two workers on the upper floor of a damaged building.

Destruction at a military educational institution in Poltava, Ukraine. David Guttenfelder for The New York Times

Russian missiles strike a military academy

Two high-speed Russian missiles struck Poltava, a city in eastern Ukraine, killing more than 50 people and wounding scores more. It was one of the deadliest attacks in the war and followed a string of Russian assaults across Ukraine that started last week.

“It comes amid a moment when the war is more dynamic on the front — with Ukraine pushing into Russia and Russia pressing deeper into eastern Ukraine — and as the pace of Russian bombardments on towns and cities intensifies,” my colleague Marc Santora, who has been reporting from Ukraine since the start of the war, told me today.

Witnesses said the strikes, which hit the Poltava Institute of Military Communications, exploded shortly after warning sirens sounded, and the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said many were killed on their way to shelter.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, took to social media to issue a fresh plea for aid. Zelensky has said that he needs at least seven Patriot missile-defense batteries. Germany has sent three; the U.S. announced the deployment of one in July, and Romania has pledged one.

Mongolia: The country, which is highly dependent on Russia for its energy needs, gave President Vladimir Putin a red-carpet welcome yesterday. It was his first visit to a member nation of the International Criminal Court since it issued a warrant for his arrest last year.

🇺🇸 U.S. ELECTION 2024

The presidential election is less than 70 days away. This is what we’re watching.

Kamala Harris speaking from behind a lectern with the U.S. seal.

Vice President Kamala Harris at a campaign event in Detroit over the weekend. Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times

Harris sends funds to House and Senate campaigns

Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign said it would direct $24.5 million to state-level races. Most of the money will go to Democratic House and Senate campaigns. The Harris campaign is effectively planning for her time in office, because just how much the next president will be able to get done will depend on which party controls Congress.

The Harris campaign said it would send $10 million each to the House and Senate Democratic campaign arms, $2.5 million to the body that helps elect state legislative Democrats and $1 million each to the Democratic Governors Association and the Democratic attorneys general campaign arm.

Background: During Barack Obama’s presidency, Democrats were wiped out in local elections, and Republicans drew legislative districts to their own advantage. Since then, Democrats have sought to direct more money toward key elections at every level of local and state government.

Here’s what else to know:

In 2017, JD Vance, Donald Trump’s running mate, championed a report that proposed restricting sexual and reproductive freedoms and remaking American families.
America’s right wing is usually the heavyweight champion of sharing false narratives and misinformation, but this summer the left took a shot at the title.

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

A doctor administers an oral polio vaccine to a child.

A health worker administered a polio vaccine to a child in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, on Sunday. Abdel Kareem Hana/Associated Press

Vaccine effort is off to a good start in Gaza

The campaign to vaccinate 650,000 children under 10 for polio in Gaza has been more successful than anticipated, according to the World Health Organization. Health workers have delivered a two-drop oral vaccine to 161,030 children since a roughly 10-day operation began this weekend, surpassing the organization’s goal of 150,000 for the first phase of the campaign in central Gaza.

Health teams will next begin vaccinations in southern Gaza, where the W.H.O. estimates that it needs to reach 340,000 children, and then will go to northern Gaza to inoculate some 150,000 more.

Analysis: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s steady refusal to change course on the war highlights a growing rift within Israel about what its priorities should be in Gaza, our Jerusalem bureau chief, Patrick Kingsley, writes.

MORE TOP NEWS

Police officers stand and sit amid charred rubble as a crowd looks on.

Police officers outside the Makala prison in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, yesterday. Associated Press

Congo: At least 129 people were killed in an attempted jailbreak from the dangerously overcrowded Makala Central Prison.
Iraq: U.S. and Iraqi commandos raided Islamic State hide-outs last week, killing at least 14 fighters in one of the most sweeping counterterror missions in the country in recent years.
South Korea: The police detained seven male suspects — six of them teenagers — as the country deals with a surge of sexually explicit deepfakes.
Kenya: Rebecca Cheptegei, a long-distance runner who competed in the Paris Olympics, is in critical condition after a man poured gas on her and set her on fire, the police said.
Turkey: Two U.S. Marines were attacked by members of a nationalist youth group.
Albania: Jared and Ivanka Trump are facing accusations that land they hope to develop in the country was improperly set aside for them.
New York: A former aide to the state’s two most recent governors was charged with acting as an illegal agent of China.
France: A boat carrying migrants across the English Channel to Britain capsized, killing at least 12.
Venezuela: With the nation’s democracy in shambles, President Nicolás Maduro declared that Christmas begins in October this year.
Germany: Almost nine years after Volkswagen admitted that it had rigged emissions testing on millions of cars, its former chief executive went on trial.

China

Climate: John Podesta, President Biden’s top climate diplomat, is expected to press leaders on greenhouse gas emissions on a three-day visit to Beijing.
Real estate: China has been trying to wean its economy off its dependence on the sector. It’s not working.
National security: Snapping turtles, tissue boxes and lighters could all be hiding threats, China’s main intelligence agency said in a social media push.

Sports

A man stuffs a hot dog into his mouth during an eating competition.

Joey Chestnut during his duel with Takeru Kobayashi in Las Vegas on Monday. David Becker/Getty Images for Netflix

Joey Chestnut: The legendary hot dog eating champion beat Takeru Kobayashi and broke his own record, eating 83 hot dogs in 10 minutes.
U.S. Open: The quarterfinals are set. Here’s what to watch.
Soccer: The Premier League transfer window is over, and $2.6 billion was spent. Who won it?

MORNING READ

A giant statue of a whale leaping out of the water stands in a concrete plaza. People are sitting in the shade around the plaza, and a man carrying a toddler is walking in front of the statue.

Buenaventura, a seaport on Colombia’s Pacific Coast. Jaír Coll for The New York Times

Along the remote Málaga Bay on the Pacific Coast of Colombia, scores of people gather every year for a special homecoming: the return of thousands of humpback whales to their breeding grounds. The whales are greeted with stories, dancing and music in a festival that celebrates the whales, preserves oral traditions and fosters a sense of community.

Lives lived: Virginia Ogilvy, the only American-born lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth II, died at 91.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Fungus among us: Chefs are finding new ways to experiment with Japanese koji, the mold that transforms soy beans and wheat into soy sauce and rice into sake.
Symphony monthly: Classical music should adopt the membership models of streaming services and gyms, our critic writes.
Pop’s secret weapon: The songwriter behind some of Sabrina Carpenter’s recent smashes is helping drive a strange new moment in Top 40 hits.

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

Health

An illustration of a person’s head, in different shades of purple, surrounded by objects such as athletic shoes, a dumbbell, a blood-pressure monitor, an apple, cigarettes, an avocado, a doughnut and clouds. The objects are in vibrant colors like purple, pink, red and blue, and the background is light blue and pink.

Ana Galvañ

Do you have healthy brain habits?

What can you do to take good care of your brain and lower your risk for a neurological disease? A neurologist and his colleagues developed a short questionnaire with input from their patients. It’s called the Brain Care Score, and the doctors say it can help predict people’s risk for dementia, stroke and depression later in life.

The Times has adapted the questionnaire for people at home, and no matter what your score is, it’s possible to make lifestyle changes and improve it.

Take the quiz here.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Blocks of fried tofu garnished with green peppers, corn and onions.

Armando Rafael for The New York Times

Cook: This sheet-pan tofu with corn and chiles is all about lively textures and tangy, spicy flavors.

Adorn: Advice on tattoo aftercare is inconsistent. Tattoo artists and dermatologists weigh in.

Read: As seasons change, check out these 24 works of poetry and fiction.

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

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

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