Five hundred tons of medical supplies due to be delivered to Afghanistan this week have been held up (WaPo) by the Kabul airport’s closure to commercial flights, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. The WHO appealed for empty evacuation planes to bring supplies to Kabul, saying Afghanistan’s current emergency stocks are only expected to last a week and a half. 

Twenty people have been killed in the chaos at the Kabul airport, an official from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) said. These include seven Afghans who died in a stampede at the airport’s gate on Saturday and one Afghan guard killed in a firefight (WaPo) with unidentified gunmen today. U.S. President Joe Biden said the United States could push back (WaPo) its August 31 deadline to complete evacuations and withdraw all U.S. troops. A Taliban spokesperson said an extension of the deadline would “provoke a reaction.” Washington has enlisted U.S. commercial airlines to help with evacuations from locations outside Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Taliban fighters retook three districts (Reuters) captured by opposition forces in the northern Baghlan Province.

The United States and Singapore announced new partnerships (SCMP) on climate financing, cybersecurity, and public health during a visit to Singapore by U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, who emphasized the United States’ commitment to the Indo-Pacific region.
 
This Backgrounder examines Singapore’s role in the Indo-Pacific.
 
Taiwan: Taiwan began administering (Straits Times) the locally produced Medigen COVID-19 vaccine today. The shot has yet to complete phase-three trials, but phase-two trials indicated that it could have an efficacy rate of around 90 percent.

India’s drug regulator approved a three-dose, DNA-based COVID-19 vaccine (BBC) made by Zydus Cadila for emergency use. The first such vaccine approved in the world, an interim study showed it prevented symptomatic disease in 66 percent of those vaccinated, the drugmaker said.

Amid droughts across Iraq and Syria, more than twelve million people are losing access (Al Jazeera) to water, food, and electricity, aid groups warned in a new report. Humanitarian organizations called for regional authorities and donor governments to act quickly, both to provide emergency aid and to invest in long-term solutions to the water crisis.
 
This Backgrounder looks at water stress, a global problem that is getting worse.
 
Palestinian territories: The Israeli military said its aircraft struck Hamas sites in Gaza (Reuters) over the weekend, following demonstrations in which Palestinian protesters near the Gaza-Israel border fence threw explosives at Israeli troops. Forty-one Palestinians and one Israeli soldier were wounded.
 
This Backgrounder discusses Hamas, the Palestinian armed group that rules Gaza.

Chad will recall six hundred troops (AFP) who are deployed in the Sahel region as part of a multinational force against insurgents, a military spokesperson said. The announcement comes after France recently said it is cutting its troop presence in the region from 5,000 to as few as 2,500.
 
Malawi: The country’s Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty is constitutional (VOA), reversing a decision from four months ago.

In a visit to Kyiv, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that Germany could impose sanctions (Reuters) on Moscow if Russia uses gas access as a weapon against Ukraine. Ukraine opposes the nearly complete Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany.
 
Greece: The country installed a twenty-five-mile fence (BBC) and surveillance system on its border with Turkey amid concerns about a rise in migration from Afghanistan. While Turkey has called on European countries to accept Afghan migrants, a top Greek official said Greece’s borders “will remain inviolable.”

At least eight people died (BBC) after Hurricane Grace caused torrential rain and flooding in eastern Mexico. The hurricane made landfall in the state of Veracruz on Saturday.
 
Peru: President Pedro Castillo chose career diplomat Oscar Maurtua (Reuters) as the country’s new foreign minister after Maurtua’s predecessor resigned for making controversial comments about the CIA’s involvement with Peruvian rebel groups.

Tropical Storm Henri, which made landfall in Rhode Island yesterday, unleashed heavy rains (AP) in areas of Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, causing more than 140,000 homes to lose power.