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Biden’s balancing act at DNC

Joe Biden will make one of his last major speeches as US president Monday at the Democratic National Convention. He is expected “to get a hero’s welcome in Chicago” as Democrats hail him for putting party before personal ambitions by suspending his reelection campaign, The Hill wrote. But the convention is essentially Biden’s torch-passing ceremony to Vice President Kamala Harris, and he faces a “difficult balancing act” of showcasing his presidency’s highlight reel without overshadowing his heir apparent, The Washington Post wrote. Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and progressive lawmaker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are also slated to speak at the convention Monday night.

Israel accepts ceasefire proposal

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday accepted a US-backed “bridging proposal” seeking to secure a Gaza ceasefire deal. The agreement came after a nearly three-hour meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who had warned earlier that this was “maybe the last” opportunity to end the war, as he strives to prevent a broader regional conflict. Blinken called on Hamas to accept the proposal after the militant group previously said it was too closely aligned with Israel’s demands. “Hostilities between the two sides have not ebbed,” The New York Times wrote, with Hamas’ military wing on Monday claiming responsibility for an overnight suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.

Vietnam to boost China ties

Vietnam’s new leader To Lam is hoping to bolster relations with China during his first overseas state visit this week. The three-day trip comes months after the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam’s anti-corruption purge roiled the country. Vietnam seemed like it would “follow China in a political inward turn” after hardliners triumphed in the power struggle, argued one Chatham House analyst. But the country is unlikely to “give the US the cold shoulder,” an academic wrote in Chinese state tabloid The Global Times. Hanoi has enhanced security cooperation with Washington and expanded its island-building efforts to counter Beijing’s aggression in the South China Sea.

Malaysia PM visits India

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim began his first state visit to India Monday with ambitions to reposition the country as an emerging power in the Global South. Anwar is expected to seek Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s support for Malaysia’s membership to BRICS as he aims to gain influence within the group of large growing economies in the midst of global power struggles. Malaysia would benefit from stronger ties with India, which is becoming a bigger player in international affairs, an analyst told Nikkei. And BRICS’ expansion to include Southeast Asian countries is good for the global order, Foreign Policy argued, as it means “a dilution of Russian and Chinese influence in the club.”

India’s Modi to visit Ukraine

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Ukraine on Aug. 23, a month after hugging Russia’s Vladimir Putin during a Moscow trip that Kyiv condemned as a “huge disappointment.” Delhi has been walking a tightrope since Russia’s invasion, former Indian diplomat Shashi Tharoor wrote in The Kyiv Independent. India has called for a peaceful solution to the war, while continuing to be one of the primary buyers of Russian oil. But Modi’s Ukraine visit will likely irk Moscow, just as his friendliness with Putin has frustrated the US. If India manages to “calibrate its private messaging” to soothe both countries’ concerns, it would be “geopolitical triumph,” Tharoor argued. But if Modi fails, “it could cause incalculable damage to India’s global standing.” 

George Santos pleads guilty

Former US lawmaker George Santos pleaded guilty to wire fraud and identity theft Monday. He agreed to pay nearly $375,000 in restitution and will likely face prison time, though the deal allows him to avoid a trial on money laundering and other charges. The embattled Republican gained national notoriety last year after he was found to have lied extensively about his resume. He was expelled from the House in December and was facing up to 22 years in prison had he gone to trial. Some members of Santos’ district opposed the plea deal, telling CBS News that a trial would have revealed “how a travesty of this magnitude could have happened at the highest level of government.”

Samuel Levine, Director, FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection will join Semafor’s editors to explore how online platforms can play a constructive role in communicating age restrictions for certain goods and services and the responsibilities and strategies of policymakers in effectively regulating social media use among young people.

RSVP for in-person or livestream.

UK tech boss missing after yacht sinks

One of the UK’s best-known tech tycoons is missing after a luxury yacht sank off the coast of Sicily during extreme weather. Mike Lynch, who cofounded software company Autonomy, was among the 22 people on board. Authorities said one person died and 15 were rescued, while six others, including Lynch’s daughter, are unaccounted for. Lynch — sometimes dubbed “Britain’s Bill Gates” — was acquitted of US criminal charges in June after a lengthy fight over his company’s $11 billion sale to Hewlett-Packard in 2011. The 59-year-old suggested last month he wouldn’t have survived prison due to his health: “If this had gone the wrong way, it would have been the end of life as I have known it in any sense,” he told The Sunday Times.

Biggest US firms worry about AI

More than half of Fortune 500 companies see artificial intelligence as a potential risk to their business, according to a review of their annual reports. A new study found that 56% of the firms cited AI as a risk factor, a massive jump from 9% in 2022. The US’ biggest boardrooms aired their grievances about AI-driven competition, reputation harm, and ethical debates, with some industries — like entertainment — more worried than others, the Financial Times reported. But as large companies fret about AI, smaller startups are embracing it, The New York Times reported. One professor of entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon University told students: “Think of generative A.I. as your co-founder.”

US and China fight over a diary

A personal diary offering a rare glimpse into China’s tumultuous history is at the center of a fierce legal battle between Stanford University and Beijing. A trial began in California Monday to decide the fate of the diary kept by Chairman Mao’s one-time secretary Li Rui from 1938 to 2018, when he had a front-row seat to the Tiananmen Square massacre and other historic events — knowledge of which Beijing has sought to suppress or distort, The Guardian reported. While Li’s widow brought the multimillion-dollar lawsuit, Stanford says the Chinese government is behind the effort to retrieve the papers, which are especially valuable as President Xi Jinping has shuttered numerous archives. “It’s hard to overstate their significance,” one research fellow said.

Rare blue supermoon tonight

Skygazers across the globe can catch a glimpse of a rare blue supermoon tonight. The term “supermoon” is used to describe the appearance of the full moon when it is within 90% of its closest approach to Earth, known as the perigee, making it appear bigger and brighter in the night sky. The term was coined by an astrologer in the 1970s, astronomy blog EarthSky noted, and some scientists have rejected it, favoring the term “perigean full moon.” But “supermoon is catchier,” EarthSky conceded. Meanwhile, “blue moon” is used by NASA to describe the third full moon in a season with four full moons — most only feature three.

August 20:

• German Chancellor Olaf Scholz holds talks with Moldovan President Maia Sandu on security issues.
• South Korea conducts anti-terror attack drills for large public facilities.
• Turkish novelist Elif Shafak releases her new book, There Are Rivers in the Sky.

A young sculptor’s otherworldly artworks will go on display at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. In Tau Lewis: Spirit Level, the 30-year-old’s first solo US exhibition, 12-feet-tall figures evoke the feeling of “walking into a seance or some sort of spiritual ritual,” the gallery’s curator said, and stand alongside quilts and masks made from found objects including animal bones, lost soft toys, and rusted metal. After the death of her mother, Lewis was initially too devastated to return to sculpture and instead began ordering her extensive collection of salvaged materials. The resulting exhibition is “all grief work,” she told The New York Times. “After a monumental death, everything shifts.”

• Democrats, finally, move past the Iraq War.
• US SEC fines Carl Icahn, triggering a multimillion-dollar stock wipeout.
• Kenya is turning teachers into its next big export.