Gaza

• Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said its wartime death toll passed 40,000 yesterday. That grim tally includes both civilians and militants - Hamas doesn't distinguish between them.
• Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmoud Abbas told Turkey's parliament that he's "decided to go to Gaza with all my brothers in Palestine...even if the price is my life."
• Abbas's PA has been largely irrelevant since the Gaza war started (though there have been some suggestions - always quickly rejected - that it could help run Gaza post-war, and the PA remains unpopular even in the West Bank it administers. Thus this Gaza visit may be Abbas's way to try to regain relevance.

• Pres. Zelensky said his troops captured full control of the Russian town of Sudzha, marking the first Ukrainian capture of a large Russian town. Ukraine now claims to control 74 Russian settlements - though Russia only acknowledges having lost control of about half that number.
• In the course of seizing Sudzha, Ukraine also took 102 Russian prisoners who surrendered easily. Zelensky called their capture "replenishing the exchange fund."
• Zelensky pledged that the Russian prisoners would receive "humane treatment" until they're traded, and one of his aides said fresh swap talks have already begun. This would be at least their fifth exchange of captured prisoners of war this summer.

• Russia also added to its "exchange fund" of prisoners to swap - but it added a civilian. A court in Yekaterinburg sentenced a Russian-American dual citizen, amateur ballerina Ksenia Karelina, to 12 years in prison on treason charges.
• Karelina was arrested in February during a trip to visit her grandmother, after authorities discovered that she donated $51.80 to a charity supporting Ukraine on the first day of Russia's invasion. Her lawyer said she thought the donation would help victims on both sides; prosecutors said it funded Ukrainian weapons purchases.
• Karelina's lawyer said his client hoped she would be freed in a prisoner swap - like WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested in March 2023, sentenced by the same Yekaterinburg judge last month, and finally freed in an exchange two weeks ago.

• Two entrepid Chinese tour companies simultaneously announced they would reopen tours to the northeastern North Korean city of Samjiyon later this year.
• The border at Samjiyon has been closed for over four years - ever since its drawbridge was raised to stop the spread of COVID in early 2020.
• One of the Chinese companies suggested other parts of the Hermit Kingdom may soon reopen for tourism as well: "So far just Samjiyon has been officially confirmed but we think that Pyongyang and other places will open too!!!"
• Analysts expect only Russian and Chinese tourists to visit Samjiyon in large numbers (since North Korea's only current transit links are with China and Russia) but the reopening will also facilitate imports of food and critical supplies.

• Neither Venezuela's government nor its opposition seem happy with the idea of holding fresh elections, which Brazilian president Lula and Colombian president Petro are now vocally advocating.
• The opposition claims (and independent estimates confirm) it won the election by a vast 2-to-1 margin, and says repeating the vote would show "a lack of respect" for the popular will.
• Maduro (who also claims to have won the election, but refuses to share vote tallies) didn't explicitly address the idea of new elections, but rebuffed outside intervention in general, saying: "Venezuela deserves a future of stability, prosperity and peace, but in order to have that, the will of the people must be respected."
• Pres. Biden initially said he would support new elections in Venezuela, but a spokesman later qualified Biden's statement, saying he was only "speaking to the absurdity of Maduro and his representatives not coming clean about the July 28 elections."

• Sudan's junta announced it would reopen its main border crossing with Chad for much-needed UN aid shipments after a six-month closure designed to prevent smuggled weapons from reaching the Rapid Support Forces, which the military has been battling since April 2023.
• The junta didn't tell the UN it was reopening the border at Adré, so aid shipments will take some time to organize. Nonetheless, the UN cheered the decision to reopen, saying it will make a "significant difference" to famine conditions in eastern Sudan.