China

• China is meddling into Palestinian peacemaking: representatives of Hamas and Fatah - as well as 12 other Palestinian groups - signed an agreement "ending division and strengthening Palestinian unity" in Beijing earlier today.
• The Beijing agreement designates Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as "the sole legitimate representative of all Palestinian people" and commits to forming an "interim national reconciliation government" for post-war Gaza.
• There are many problems with that. One is that Hamas resents the idea of anyone else running post-war Gaza - so much so that when its discovered a Palestinian Authority (PA) contingent was accompanying some aid deliveries back in March as a test run for post-war security administration, it tortured and executed the PA personnel.
• Meanwhile, the U.S., Israel, and UAE reportedly held their own meeting on a post-war plan for Gaza in Abu Dhabi last Thursday - without Palestinians present. The AP called it "an indication that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may be budging from his refusal to seriously consider the issue until the offensive against Hamas ends."
• Separately, Israel began bombarding Khan Younis again after warning civilians to evacuate "specific areas" of the city where Israel says Hamas militants have regrouped to fire rockets towards Israel.

• Another South African National Defence Force (SANDF) soldier was shot and killed in DRC, where the SANDF is fighting M23 rebels alongside Congolese forces.
• The M23 is supposed to be adhering to a humanitarian truce that was just extended until August 3, but clearly that peace is being inconsistently observed. It's largely holding, though.
• Meanwhile, Uganda is reportedly hosting peace talks between DRC and the M23 rebels. It's unclear who's representing the rebels - certainly not Rwanda, which officially denies supporting the M23...while unofficially providing an estimated half of its force strength.

• On the same day that a Russian court sentenced WSJ journalist Evan Gershkovich to 16 years in prison, another Russian court sentenced Russian-American RFE/RL editor Alsu Kurmasheva to six years. RFE/RL condemned the "mockery of justice."

• The UK's new Labour Party Interior Minister revealed his Tory predecessor's budget for the aborted plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, and it's massive: £10 billion ($13 billion) over six years.
• Of that, £700 million ($900 million) was already wasted on the failed program, including £290 million ($375 million) in direct payments to Rwanda that Rwanda has said it plans to keep, thank you very much (Kigali wished the UK "good luck" though).
• A grand total of four asylum seekers left the UK this year, but they weren't deported under the abandoned plan: they left voluntarily in exchange for an incentive of just £3,000 each - a paltry sum compared to the cost of the failed deportation plan.

• Heavy rains caused yet another very deadly landslide - this time in southern Ethiopia's Gofa region. At least 157 dead bodies have been retrieved, and hundreds more remain missing.
• Bangladesh backed down from a plan to implement a controversial job allocation system after the plan sparked widespread protests. Now - having achieved their goal of getting the plan repealed - the protesters seem to have backed down too, and the streets are calm again (a strict curfew with shoot-on-sight orders is surely helping to enforce the calm).