Gaza Ceasefire 'Still Possible', Biden Says

US President Joe Biden (Reuters)
US President Joe Biden (Reuters)
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Gaza Ceasefire 'Still Possible', Biden Says

US President Joe Biden (Reuters)
US President Joe Biden (Reuters)

US President Joe Biden said on Sunday that a ceasefire deal in the Gaza Strip would be “possible” before the end of his presidency.
“Yes. It’s still possible. The plan I put together, endorsed by the G7, endorsed by the UN Security Council, etc., is still viable,” the President said in an interview with CBS.
“And I’m working literally every single day — and my whole team — to see to it that it doesn’t escalate into a regional war. But it easily can,” Biden added.
When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Washington last month, Biden had urged him to accept a ceasefire agreement with Hamas.
In the TV interview, which is the first since dropping out of the White House race, Biden warned that Republican candidate Donald Trump was “a genuine danger to American security.”
“Mark my words, if he wins... this election, watch what happens,” he said.
“He's a genuine danger to American security. Look, we're at an inflection point in world history... and democracy is the key.”
Biden’s pre-taped interview broadcasted on Sunday is also the first after his failing debate performance against Trump on 27 June, which underlined fears about his age and mental abilities.
“Look, I had a really, really bad day in that debate because I was sick. But I have no serious problem.”
On Saturday, a new poll by the New York Times and Siena College showed US Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris taking the lead in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan – three key battleground states, which indicates that the former president has lost the lead he had built in these states over the past year.
Harris is ahead of Trump by four percentage points in those three states, 50% to 46% among likely voters in each state, according to the surveys conducted from August 5-9.

 



Russia Evacuates another Border Region amid Growing Threat From Ukrainian Units

Locals save belonging from a residential house, heavily damaged following a Russian missile strike on August 11, 2024, in a village in the Brovary district, Kyiv region, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Genya SAVILOV / AFP)
Locals save belonging from a residential house, heavily damaged following a Russian missile strike on August 11, 2024, in a village in the Brovary district, Kyiv region, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Genya SAVILOV / AFP)
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Russia Evacuates another Border Region amid Growing Threat From Ukrainian Units

Locals save belonging from a residential house, heavily damaged following a Russian missile strike on August 11, 2024, in a village in the Brovary district, Kyiv region, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Genya SAVILOV / AFP)
Locals save belonging from a residential house, heavily damaged following a Russian missile strike on August 11, 2024, in a village in the Brovary district, Kyiv region, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Genya SAVILOV / AFP)

Russia on Monday evacuated parts of another region next to Ukraine after Kyiv sharply increased military activity near the border just days after its biggest incursion into sovereign Russian territory since the start of the 2022 war.
Ukrainian forces rammed through the Russian border early on Tuesday and swept across some Western parts of Russia's Kursk region, a surprise attack that may be aimed at gaining leverage in possible ceasefire talks after the US election.
Apparently caught by surprise, Russia by Sunday has stabilized the front in the Kursk region, though Ukraine had carved out a sliver of Russian territory where battles were continuing on Monday, according to Russian war bloggers.
In the neighboring Belgorod region to the south, the regional governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said that evacuations had begun from the Krasnaya Yaruga District due to "enemy activity on the border" that was a "threat".
"I am sure that our servicemen will do everything to cope with the threat that has arisen," Gladkov said. "We are starting to move people who live in the Krasnaya Yaruga district to safer places."
Russia has imposed a sweeping security regime in the Kursk, Bryansk and Belgorod regions while Russian ally Belarus said it was bolstering its troop numbers at its border after Minsk said Ukraine had violated its airspace with drones.
The audacious Ukrainian attacks on Russian sovereign territory are aimed at showing its Western supporters that Kyiv can still muster major military operations while trying to gain a bargaining chip ahead of possible ceasefire talks.
Russian forces, which have a vast numerical supremacy and control 18% of Ukrainian territory, have been advancing this year along the 1,000-km (620-mile) front after the failure of Ukraine's 2023 counteroffensive to make any major gains.
Ukraine broke its silence on the attacks on Saturday when President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that Ukraine had launched an incursion into Russian territory to "restore justice" and pressure Moscow's forces.