First Thing: Putin warns Nato over Ukraine missiles

First Thing: Putin’s warning follows suggestions US may lift restrictions on Ukraine using long-range weapons. Plus, Bernardine Evaristo on the books of her life

Good morning.

Vladimir Putin has said that a western move to let Kyiv use long-range weapons against targets inside Russia would mean Nato would be “at war” with Moscow.

Putin told a state television reporter: “This would in a significant way change the very nature of the conflict. It would mean that Nato countries, the US, European countries, are at war with Russia.”

Putin’s made the statement a day after the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, gave his strongest hint yet that the White House is about to lift its restrictions on Ukraine using long-range weapons supplied by the west on key military targets inside Russia.

How do the US and UK see things? Blinken and the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, say Russia is escalating the war by accepting weapons from Iran. “The escalator here is Putin. Putin has escalated with the shipment of missiles from Iran. We see a new axis of Russia, Iran and North Korea,” Lammy said.

What’s the latest in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? Russian troops have recaptured a swathe of villages in the Kursk region, dealing a significant blow to Ukraine’s military incursion into Russia.

Aid not reaching Gaza, say relief groups, as ‘more than a million go without food’

Relief groups have said more than 1 million people in Gaza will not have enough food this month, while trucks loaded with fresh vegetables or meat spoil waiting to cross Israeli checkpoints, and thousands of aid packages of food, medical supplies and even toothbrushes and shampoo remain stuck in a backlog of lorries unable to enter from Egypt.

“We estimate that over a million Gazans will go without food in September,” said Sam Rose, a senior deputy director of the UN’s relief agency for Palestinians (Unrwa), in Gaza. “Over half the medicines in our health centers are running low, as is chlorine for water purification and other basic supplies.”

What do the UN’s aid figures say? In July, an average of 100 trucks entered each day, largely through the southern Kerem Shalom crossing. This number halved in August, while just 147 trucks have entered so far in September, although the UN added that there may be gaps in the reporting because of the dangers of staff monitoring aid entry at crossing points.

How many aid workers have been killed in Israel’s offensive? An estimated 280 humanitarian workers, most employed by Unrwa, have been killed in Gaza, according to the UN’s office of humanitarian affairs.

Harvey Weinstein indicted on additional sex crimes in New York

The disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein has been indicted on additional sex crimes charges ahead of his retrial in New York, Manhattan prosecutors said at a hearing on Thursday.

The indictment, handed down by a New York grand jury, is under seal until Weinstein’s arraignment, which is scheduled for 18 September. In total, more than 80 women have accused the former movie mogul of various acts of sexual assault and harassment.

Weinstein, 72, is recovering from emergency heart surgery on Monday at a Manhattan hospital and was not at Thursday’s hearing. Weinstein has been held at Rikers Island jail in New York since April.

Why is Weinstein being retried in New York? He was convicted in New York in 2020 on charges of rape and committing a criminal sex act. But in April this year, a New York appeals court overturned the conviction, ruling that the judge overseeing that case prejudiced Weinstein, for instance allowing other women whose accusations were not part of the case to testify.

But but but … Weinstein’s conviction in Los Angeles in 2022 – for three counts of rape and sexual assault, for which he was sentenced to 16 years in prison – still stands.

In other news …

Donald Trump had two counts tossed from his criminal case in Georgia, over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Meanwhile, Trump said he would not debate Kamala Harris again before November’s election.

UK counter-terrorism police are providing support to the investigation into the death of a Daily Telegraph journalist in Gibraltar, after David Knowles died while on holiday in what was believed to be a cardiac arrest.

The US issued new sanctions on 16 allies of President Nicolás Maduro, accusing them of obstructing Venezuela’s 28 July election, widely seen as stolen.

Stat of the day: Entire Earth vibrated for nine days after climate-triggered mega-tsunami

A scientific investigation found the entire Earth vibrated for nine days in September 2023, after a landslide and mega-tsunami in Greenland triggered by the climate crisis. The scientists said it showed how global heating was already having planetary-scale impacts and that big landslides were possible in places previously believed to be stable.

Don’t miss this: The books of Bernardine Evaristo’s life

The Booker-winning author Bernardine Evaristo talks about the books of her life. She explains her childhood favourites (Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood), late discoveries (Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God) and comfort reads (Shining Lights: Black Women Photographers in 1980s-90s Britain, edited by Joy Gregory).

Climate check: Francine weakens to tropical storm after slamming into Louisiana coast

Francine’s center moved inland on Thursday, making landfall as a category 2 hurricane, then weakening to a tropical storm and then tropical depression. Maximum sustained winds decreased to near 35mph, the National Weather Service said. But Francine still left a trail of flooding and wind damage in its wake, and its rapid intensification is a sign of a hotter world.

Last Thing: ‘I’m 70 years old – and climb a mountain every day’

“My home is near the famous Gele mountain. It has about 2,500 solid steps and the peak is about 678 metres,” which Zou Heping climbs daily, he tells Chi-hui Lin. “When they see my physique, my abs and my mental state, no one can believe I am 70. My greatest wish is to be able to maintain my physical strength when I am 80.”

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