EsadeGeo Daily Digest, 24/07/2024

Financial Times - Paola Tamma, Laura Dubois and Henry Foy  / EU moves to ease US fears over $50bn Ukraine loan

• The EU is considering indefinitely extending its sanctions on Moscow’s state assets, in a move that would soothe US concerns over plans to use the proceeds of Russian central bank funds to fund a $50bn loan to Ukraine. 

• Ambassadors from the 27 member states will meet today to discuss a European Commission proposal for the “open-ended immobilisation of the Central Bank of Russia assets”, according to a document seen by the Financial Times. 

• G7 leaders agreed in June to issue Ukraine with a loan of up to $50bn that would be repaid from the future stream of profits arising from Russian central bank assets frozen under sanctions. Those held in Euroclear are expected to generate around €3bn in profits per year.  

• Should EU countries fail to back the sanctions extension, the European Commission could initially issue a larger share of the loan of “up to €40bn”, according to two EU officials. 
   

South China Morning Post - Amy Chew / Ukraine urges China to play ‘constructive’ role in security following Putin-Kim pact.

•  Ukraine hopes China will play a constructive role in regional and global security following the recent signing of a treaty by Russia and North Korea that includes mutual help in the event of an attack on either country. 

• China has said it is neutral in the war between Ukraine and Russia. However, Beijing has faced disapproval from some countries – particularly from the United States and its allies – for not condemning the invasion of Ukraine and providing economic support to Russia amid international sanctions against Moscow.

• In response to the treaty signing, the US warned Pyongyang last month against joining Russian troops in Ukraine, with Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder saying North Korean troops would become “cannon fodder” on the battlefield.

• “Although in general the quality of North Korean weapons is quite low with a high failure rate, they still give Russian troops some artillery advantage on the battlefield. That is indeed a matter of concern to us,” Kuleba said.
   

Politico - Wojciech Kosc / Poland’s Tusk hits a wall on legalizing abortion

• Donald Tusk is facing his most severe political setback since becoming Polish prime minister as he hits a brick wall on one of his biggest campaign promises: Increasing access to abortion.  

• On July 12, however, Tusk suffered what looks like an ominous defeat when a parliamentary vote to stop prosecuting people who assist with abortions failed — by a wafer-thin 218-to-215 margin — because of conservatives within his ruling coalition.  

• The right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, which led the country for eight years until October’s election, tightened Poland’s abortion rules to a near-total ban in 2020. Abortion is only allowed in cases of rape or incest, or if the life of the woman is endangered.  

• The coalition’s conservatives from the agrarian Polish People’s Party (PSL) joined forces with the opposition from PiS and the far-right Konfederacja to strike down the proposal.

The Guardian - Robert Tait / Who might Kamala Harris pick for VP? Three favorites emerge

• Two Democratic state governors, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Roy Cooper of North Carolina, and the Arizona senator Mark Kelly have emerged as early favourites to be Kamala Harris’s running mate after being asked to submit personal information in a vice-presidential vetting process.

• The trio are understood to be among 10 Democrats – nearly all of them elected officials – identified by a vetting team led by the former attorney general Eric Holder. Holder’s law firm Covington & Burling LLP has been charged with the responsibility of scrutinising the personal finances, public statements and family histories of likely candidates. 

• The vetting process, which normally takes months, will be accelerated to conclude before the start of the Democratic national convention, which opens in Chicago on 19 August. 

•  While Shapiro, Cooper and Kelly were the first three to be publicly identified, it emerged on Tuesday that Andy Beshear, the governor of Kentucky, had also been asked to submit vetting information. He had earlier told CBS that he had not been asked to go through the vetting process.
   

Our opinion reads for today: 

• Foreign Affairs – Eric Min / Why America Has Failed to Forge an Israel-Hamas Cease-Fire 
• Al-Jazeera - Shahidul Alam / In Bangladesh, protests are no longer about the quota system